Year A. 1st Term. Lesson 7. Joseph

Scripture: Genesis 37,39,40- 44 for teacher background.

(There is a wonderful video on Joseph, similar to the one on Moses called “The Prince of Egypt”.)

Making Contact:

Ask the children if they have a favourite shirt or dress and let them say why it is a favourite.

Exploration:

Jacob had 12 sons, but he had a favourite son. (Remember his mother and father’s mistake?) He gave Joseph a very special coat. This made the other brothers very angry. The other thing that made them angry was when Joseph told them he had dreams about sheaves of corn bowing down to his sheaf of corn and the moon and sun and stars bowing down to him. So one day, they tried to get rid of him when he came to visit them far from home at Shechem where they were looking after their father’s flocks. They first thought of killing him, then put him in a well, then sold him as a slave. They ripped up his special coat and put goat’s blood on it and told their father, Jacob, that they had found the coat and wild animals must have killed Joseph. Meanwhile, the Joseph was taken to Egypt and sold to Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh’s bodyguard. Joseph did well and was promoted to be in charge of Potiphar’s home. Potiphar’s wife tried to tempt Joseph, but he ran off and she told Potiphar that he had tried to rape her. Potiphor was furious and threw Joseph in jail. There Joseph was so kind, thoughtful and helpful that he was put in charge of other prisoners. One day two new prisoners arrived – the king’s wine steward and baker. They both had dreams and God helped Joseph interpret their dreams. These dreams came true – the wine steward went back to work and the baker was put to death. The wine steward could have told Pharaoh about Joseph, but he forgot.

Later Pharaoh had 2 disturbing dreams and then the wine steward remembered Joseph and Pharaoh asked him about his dreams. Joseph explained that the 2 dreams both meant that Egypt would have 7 wonderful years of plenty, followed by 7 years of drought and that somebody should plan and organize that food was stored away for the famine. Pharaoh decided that person should be Joseph and so he got to work – the 2^nd most important man in Egypt. That’s how things happened.

Joseph had always been faithful to God through everything he had been through and now God was honouring him. He got married and had 2 little boys but he still missed his family greatly. Would he ever see them again?

Well one day, his early dreams came true – there were his brothers bowing before him. They had come to buy food because their country had none. At first Joseph didn’t tell them who he was, because he wanted to see if they were still so mean. So he tested them in a very complicated way, he hid his cup in young Benjamin’s sack and when it was discovered he said Benjamin had to be his slave. Now if they hadn’t changed they would be only too glad to get rid of another younger brother, but they had changed and Judah, the very one who organized that Joseph be sold as a slave offered to be a slave in Benjamin’s place. So Joseph knew they had changed and he told them who he was. Everyone was so overjoyed. The brothers went back home and packed up everything and brought Jacob, their father and they all came to live in Egypt.

Application

We learn from our Bible Buddy Joseph to always honour and obey God and even if bad things happen, we must forgive and trust God to work it all out and honour us for honouring him. We don’t always understand why bad things happen to us, but God never leaves us and we must always choose the right things to do. Joseph was given a beautiful coat – Jesus gives us a something similar – His beauty is like clothes over us. He washes us clean from our sins and clothes us in shining white.

Consolidation

Give the children a worksheet to colour in Joseph’s coat. They can put the correct number in the block to show which picture came first in the story.

Memory Verse:

“We know that in all things God works for good with those who love Him” Romans 8:28