LESSON FOR JUNIORS
Study Scripture: Genesis 41
Lesson 2 September 12, 2020
Key Verse
“Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
Genesis 41: 39-40
INTRODUCTION
Your brothers and sisters sneaked some money from Mom and Dad’s Piggy Bank they saved up for emergencies and sneaked away from the house and went to a party even though Mom and Dad did not want them to do there for they would be exposed to drinking and all kinds of behaviour that Christian children did not do.
But they left you out of the planning and party going because they knew you would not agree with them and you might even snitch on them warning Mom and Dad what they were going to do.
Your brothers and sisters thought that you were a tattle tale and a goody-two-shoes anyway and they did not like that kind of behaviour from you.
But you are determined to do what you knew was right and you would not let anybody turn you away from that even if it made you unpopular. But you weren’t worrying about that because Mom and Dad liked you a lot and gave you extra special things to encourage you to keep on doing what was right.
But you paid a big price for your brothers and sisters told a big lie on you which made Mom and Dad so very upset that you had to go away from the house you loved so much and be with people who are not very kind to you. That happens sometimes to honest and well behaved people.
That was exactly what happened to Joseph. God had given him a dream which said that he was going to be a very special person when he grew up and he would be a great benefit to his parents and his brothers and sisters and quite a few other people to the extent that their lives would be spared because of what he did.
Joseph’s brothers and sister hated him and were very envious of him even though they know that the Bible told them that they should not be envious of others for what they had, or be jealous of others especially of their family members.
What made Joseph’s brothers even more envious, jealous and upset was when Joseph’s father Jacob showed his love for Joseph because of his upright and moral behaviour and Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors. This was a fabulous coat and it was so very pretty and beautiful that there was nothing like it in the country. It was unusual.
One day Jacob made the mistake of sending Joseph to travel about 40 miles away from home to look for his brothers who were supposed to be keeping Jacob’s flocks of sheep in a place called Shechem. But they took off and went to another place with the sheep and when they saw Joseph coming they decided to get rid of him so that he couldn’t tell Jacob details about what they were doing to their father’s sheep. They grabbed Joseph, tore off his beautiful coat, and tossed him half naked into a pit. They planned to kill him but one of the brothers told them not to do that and instead they sold him to some people who took him as a slave and took him to Egypt. Joseph cried and cried and told them not to do that terrible thing to him but they would listen.
But God was with Joseph. When he started working in the home of a powerful man and the people told all kind of dreadful lies about the innocent and well behaved Joseph he was put in prison. But God stayed with him and Joseph was promoted to be the head of all the prisoners. When important prisoners who had been employed by Pharaoh had dreams and did not know what the dreams meant Joseph told them what the dreams meant. They promised to remember Joseph but when they were freed from prison and went away they did not remember anything. They forgot Joseph.
But God knew what He was going to do. God remembered Joseph. God gave Pharaoh a dream that was dreadful. Pharaoh did not understand what the dreams meant and when he asked some other wise people who claimed that they could interpret dreams they were stumped and didn’t know what the dreams meant either.
But the official who had been in prison and whose dream Joseph had interpreted finally remembered what Joseph had done in interpreting his dream perfectly and so he advised Pharaoh to send for Joseph. Joseph put on some nice clothes and went to Pharaoh. Pharaoh told his dream that seven lovely looking cows were suddenly eaten by seven skinny looking, terrible looking cows and after they had eaten up the good fat cows they were still skinny, looking worse than ever. In Pharaoh’s next dream he saw seven beautiful ears of corn and they were also eaten up by seven terrible looking corn plants and they looked just as bad as they were before their terrible action.
Joseph interpreted the dreams perfectly and told Pharaoh the two dreams really meant the same thing. God had planned and determined that there would be 7 years of great harvests in Egypt followed by 7 years of terrible famine. Joseph recommended that Pharaoh find somebody that would look after storing up the grains and then distributing it when the famine started. Since Joseph at interpreted the dreams so well Pharaoh and his official decided that Joseph was the perfect man to be in charge of the storing up of the excess food and then distributing it to the people when the famine started.
Pharaoh and the people in Egypt were happy for they had found a man of God that was wise and who could manage the country efficiently. Joseph was therefore promoted to Prime Minister. Only Pharaoh was more powerful than he was.
Joseph made it very clear that it was God that gave him the interpretation of the dreams. God was in control of everything. It was God that had given Pharaoh the dream to warn him about what was going to happen. God was the one that determined whether the harvests were good or whether they were bad. The gods that the people in Egypt and Pharaoh worshiped did not determine or control anything.
Joseph was now in charge of Egypt and he got married and had two sons. He gave them names which would make him remember his parents and his home back in the land of Canaan.
The story of Joseph tells us that we must always trust in God, serve God and honour God no matter what the circumstances of our life.
God is always faithful to His promises to keep us and look out for us. Sometimes we have to go through difficulties where people who do not like us will make life difficult for us and tell lies against us but remember that God knows everything and He will always guide us and protect us. He will elevate and promote us.
He expects us to be faithful to him just as He is faithful to us. He wants us to love Him and to be obedient to Him. We are to always obey God. Joseph did always obey God and would never do what was not right for he knew God was always watching him. So God rewarded him and promoted him to a great position.
God will do the same for you when you have Obedient Love for Him.
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