Four times in Genesis 37 through 41, the text stops the narrative and inserts the same statement: the LORD was with Joseph.

When Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt, the LORD is with him. When Potiphar’s wife accuses him falsely and he is thrown into prison, the LORD is with him.

When the butler forgets him for two years, the LORD is still with him.

And when Pharaoh finally summons him from the dungeon, Joseph’s first words are a covenant confession: “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (Genesis 41:16).

The phrase “the LORD was with Joseph” is the key that unlocks why a story full of betrayal, false accusation, and forgotten kindness is actually one of the most concentrated demonstrations of the Great King’s covenant of grant in operation that the Old Testament contains.

Genesis 37–41 establishes the covenant architecture of everything that follows: the grant’s signal in the coat and the dreams, the path downward through pit and slavery and prison, the Great King’s active presence at each stage, and the elevation that places Joseph at Pharaoh’s right hand with authority over all Egypt.

The second half, Genesis 42–50, will show the grant’s purpose: the preservation of the covenant family, the reconciliation, and Joseph’s covenant confession that what his brothers meant for evil, the Great King meant for good. The Great King fulfills his eternal purposes no matter what humans chose to do.