Dreams 6 & 7 - Joseph's Dreams

The next 2 dreams in Genesis are Joseph's dreams.

Context:
As the number 11 son of 12, as dad's favorite, Joseph was clueless about the effect being dad's favorite had on the rest of the family. His dad made a coat of many colors for him and gave nothing of the sort to the others. Put yourself in his shoes as a kid. You would feel more important than the rest as he did.

About dreams in the modern world:
Dreams often tell us about ourselves and how we feel about life's events through symbolic images.

Joseph's dreams:
Joseph had two dreams that were very similar. In the one he and his brothers tied bundles of grain when all of their bundles bowed down to his. In the next dream the sun the moon and the 11 stars bowed down to Joseph's star.

About stars:
Stars were somehow tied to people, so when Joseph had a dream he was seeing himself, his brothers and his parents as stars.

Interpreting the dreams:
Because we know the end of the story we know that the dreams were predictive and we also know that Joseph's brothers believed they could put an end to his dreams by kiling him or by selling him into slavery.

However predictive they ended up being, the source of the dreams were entirely bound by what Joseph was feeling at the time. His dreams give us an opening into the very depths of Joseph's feelings about himself and the world around him. Joseph completely bought into the idea that he was above his brothers and in even his parents bowed down to him... not in the future (for after all, his mother died long before he became a ruler) but in the present. In Joseph's mind, his whole family bowed down to him. In his mind, he was the center of his family.

This explains his brothers' behavior in wanting to kill him and eventually selling him into slavery.