Why did the moon and stars bow down to Joseph in his dream?

Answer 1

First, Joseph's father gave him a coat of many colours, a tribal symbol of inheritance. Then, Joseph told his brothers a dream of rule and dominion, in which Joseph stood supreme as ruler, symbolised by a sheaf of wheat, and is paid homage by his self-abasing brothers, symbolised by their sheafs of wheat. It is an unbrotherly dream that, even more than the coat of many colours, denies the brothers their equal place in the house of Israel. That the story of this dream originated long afterwards in an entirely different environment is evidenced by the symbolism of the sheafs of wheat, which would not only have been foreign to the pastoralist brothers, but probably even meaningless to them.

Then Joseph dreamed yet another dream and he recounted it to his brothers, "Look, I have dreamed yet another dream, and look, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." There were eleven brothers, so it is clear that the story is about Joseph's father, mother and brothers bowing down to him, which his father clearly saw in his response (Genesis 37:10).

The author is building up justification of such hatred that the brothers would wish to sell Joseph into slavery. And this is what they did, moving the story forward into Egypt.