LESSON JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 45
LESSON 4 SEPTEMBER 26 2020
Key Verse
“Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life”. Genesis 45:5
INTRODUCTION
We are all accustomed when someone offers us good things that we do not expect to get to say it’s too good to be true. Parents because of this idea warn their children not to accept candy from strangers. When children grow up they are constantly reminded that there is no such thing as a free lunch. We are also warned that when the used car dealer offers us a great used-car bargain we should be suspicious and probably not take that offer.
So we all grow up being skeptical and suspicious when blessings and benefits come to us that we did not expect. Even when God offers us good things we tend to disbelieve Him and of course we suffer for it.
In our Lesson today we are told of the story of Joseph who because his brothers were envious and jealous of his position in the family and his dreams that he would become the leader of his family, they sold him into slavery to get rid of him and he was taken away from the family into Egypt.
Neither Joseph, his brothers, or his father understood what the plan of God was for that family even though they knew that they were a special family that would become a great nation. The Messiah who would save the world would come from that family and nation. But like many of us they were not paying close attention to the Promises of God and were not looking at how God would bring about His plan.
Joseph had a tough time in Egypt and ended up in prison. He was away from his family that he loved so much and he suffered quite a bit.
But then God gave the king of Egypt a dream and Joseph was the only one that could interpret it because he depended on God to tell him what the dreams meant. As a result Joseph got a great job in Egypt and was promoted to be the second-in-command of the country a position just after Pharaoh himself. The dreams Joseph interpreted said that there would be seven years of great crops but then after that they would be seven years of terrible famine which would be so bad that the world had never before seen anything like that.
Joseph was put in charge of collecting the food from the bountiful harvest and store it up for the years of famine so that people would have food and not starve to death. God worked it out in His plan that Joseph’s brothers who had sold him into slavery was forced by circumstances to come down to Egypt to buy food for they had no food where they lived because of the famine.
And to Joseph’s surprise they came down and bowed down to him with their faces on the ground to get him to sell them food. They had been bitterly against Joseph because he told them they would bow down to him one day. But now everything happened as the dream that Joseph had. His dreams were fulfilled.
Joseph had to test them now before revealing that he was their brother to see whether they were still bad behaving brothers or whether they had been changed by God to become better people. So after several tests he told them that they had to bring his young brother named Benjamin down to Egypt so that he could be sure that they were telling the truth about the family. Jacob, Joseph’s father, didn’t like that idea for he remembered that the brothers had told him that his beloved son Joseph had been killed. But the famine became so bad that Jacob had to agree to let Benjamin his other beloved son go down to Egypt. When Benjamin came down to Egypt Joseph was very happy to see him and he set up a test to say that Benjamin had stolen his important cup. The brothers were terrified for they knew that Benjamin would be thrown into prison and they did not want that for when Jacob heard that he would die from shock.
Led by Judah they pleaded with Joseph whom they did not recognize yet as their brother, not to imprison Benjamin. Joseph had been disguised well and the brothers thought that the man who was in charge of everything was only an Egyptian and not their brother that they had sold into slavery.
Because of Judah’s tender and emotional begging not to imprison Benjamin but to imprison him Judah instead Joseph realized that the brothers had been changed and were no longer envious, bad behaved and jealous of each other.
Then Joseph wept and the terrified brothers would not believe what was happening for to them it was too good to be true. But Joseph called his brother Benjamin and the rest of the other brothers and told them
“Come near to me please”,
and when they came near he told them
“I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life”.
The brothers certainly had done a terrible sin, but God had turned it around so that the bad that they did caused Joseph to go into Egypt and become Prime Minister of Egypt saving the people in the land of Egypt and in the surrounding countries from starvation. God sent Joseph who had really suffered when he was away from his family, but finally it got all worked out.
Joseph told his brothers who were still shocked that they should rush back to their home with all kind of food and goods, and tell their father the full truth and what had happened, and bring their father back with them to live in the land of Egypt near to where Joseph was.
Joseph had come to learn that despite the sufferings he had felt God had a plan for his life. God had arranged it so that he would become a great leader who would be able to help many people including his family.
God had made sure that Joseph’s bad minded and bad behaving brothers had repented and had been changed. They now demonstrated brotherly love. They were prepared give up their lives and spend their life in prison to protect their young brother Benjamin. They did not want their young brother Benjamin to spend even one day in prison for he was innocent and well loved. They would never repeat the horrible thing they had done to their other brother Joseph.
All of us have must remember therefore from this lesson that sometimes we will go through difficult situations when people do not treat us well. We must not keep all this hurtful feelings and feelings of revenge in our hearts for we do not know what God intends. We can forgive as Joseph did and keep in mind that God has a wonderful plan for each one of us.
God’s plan for us might not be as grand and dramatic as His plan for Joseph but remember that you are also very important to God and He has a great and important plan for each one of us. If you are faithful to God and trust Him and do what He says, and be patient, He will reveal that plan to you. God wants you to become a blessing to may people and to yourself.