BIBLICAL EXAMPLE – JOSEPH

Have you ever heard the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors? Back in the early days of God’s people, Joseph was one of twelve sons of a man named Jacob. (Joseph: 1910-1800 BC, approx.) Many of Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him, because they thought their father loved Joseph more than he loved them. When his father gave Joseph the many-colored coat, many of Joseph’s older brothers became very angry. Some wanted to kill Joseph. Instead of killing him, however, they sold Joseph into slavery, and he was taken to a land called Egypt, far away from his home. God was with Joseph, and he learned to do things he never had the chance to learn before. Joseph tried to please God in everything he did. Joseph did some very creative things while he was in Egypt, and because he was creative, he became a great ruler.

One day the king of Egypt, called a Pharaoh, had a really strange dream. He saw skinny cows eating fat cows, and skinny stalks of grain eating fat, healthy grain. The king did not know what this dream meant. One of the king’s servants knew that Joseph could tell the meaning of dreams, and so Joseph was brought to the king. Joseph told the Pharaoh that the dream meant that there would be seven good years when cattle would get fat and lots of grain would grow. Then there would be seven years where the cattle would not have enough to eat and grain would not grow well. This was called a famine. The king was so happy that Joseph could tell him what his dream meant that he put Joseph in charge of seeing that the people had food through the seven bad years. Joseph came up with the idea of building storage cities, and created a system of getting food for these cities during the seven good years. Then he decided how the food would be given out during the seven bad years. Because Joseph was creative, the people had enough to eat.

The famine went to the land where Joseph’s brothers lived. They had to go to Egypt to get food. They did not know Joseph was the ruler who would give them the food. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize Joseph. How do you think Joseph treated his brothers?

Take a minute to talk in your group about how you would treat your brothers if you were Joseph and they had been mean to you.

Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin, was not with his brothers the first time they came, and Joseph really wanted to see his brother. When Joseph sent his brothers home to bring Benjamin back to him, he put all their money back in their bag. Then when Benjamin came to Egypt, Joseph did little things that surprised his brothers. He seated them at a table in the exact order of their ages. When they started home, Joseph had his special cup put in Benjamin’s bag. Then Joseph sent his servants after them, accusing them of stealing his cup. He was not mean, but he certainly wanted them to remember how mean they had been to him. Finally, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. They were very glad he was alive. Joseph told them to bring his father so they could all live in Egypt and have plenty of food. Joseph’s father was glad to hear that Joseph was alive. The whole family moved to Egypt and lived there for 430 years, until God brought them back to the Promised Land.

Joseph was very creative in the way he treated his brothers, but he was not unkind to them. Joseph knew that God had used their meanness to send Joseph to Egypt so God could use Joseph’s creativity to make sure that his family and others had plenty of food to eat.

Discussion Questions: Divide into small groups, with a leader for each group.

Practicing the following “I Wills” help build creativity into our lives:

I will use my talents for good.
I will see things from more than one perspective.
I will use principles to solve problems.
I will learn all I can.
I will look for new ways to be a person of character.

• What are some good deeds you can do to make your mom or dad happy?
• What are some good deeds you can do to make your teacher happy?

Personal Application:

• Choose one good deed to do this week to make your mom, dad or teacher happy.
• Plan to tell the class about it next week.