Jr. Tree of Life
Unfairness and the Faith-Rest-Drill Part 2
04/19/2020
Joseph sold into slavery
Genesis 37:1-25 & 39:1-20
Promise from God
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
Before you begin this Bible study, If you have never believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior, John 3:16 tells us: “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.’ Simply have faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and you will have eternal life and be saved. If you have believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior; then 1 John 1:9 tells us; “If you confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Simply privately tell God the Father your sins to be filled with God the Holy Spirit and He will teach you Bible truth. (Rebound)
There was a girl named Elizabeth who loved God and enjoyed telling others about how to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior! (spreading the Good News) She was a very smart and brave girl. Some of her favorite things to do were climbing trees, catching toads, and sliding down the tallest swirly slide at the park. Elizabeth cared about people so much that she wanted to be a firefighter when she grew up. There was one problem though. She had a hard time concentrating in school and it was really hard to sit still, especially during reading. One day, her teacher asked her to read out loud and Elizabeth froze up! She just could not say the words right, no matter how hard she tried. When a boy laughed at her, she burst into tears and felt really embarrassed and angry. What this boy did not know was that Elizabeth had a learning disability and it was unfair of him to laugh at her.
Our God is always fair. He saw everything (omniscience) that Elizabeth was going through. What do you think God wanted her to do? He wanted her to Rebound and Recover by using the Faith-Rest-Drill. God loves us sooo much that when we trust Him with our hurt feeling, He takes them far, far away just like a hot air balloon. He wants us to do things His way, so we end up being happy and not filled with sadness. He had big plans for Elizabeth, and He has big plans for you. God will work out all unfair things for the good if we love Him.
And we know that
“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
The last time we talked about Joseph in the Bible we learned that he and his father Jacob loved and trusted in God very much. Joseph had ten older brothers and one younger brother and a sister. The family work by taking care of sheep, they were called shepherds, and protected the flock. Sheep can wander away from the flock and get eaten by lions or bears. Sheep seam to get into other trouble all the time, so herding sheep can be very hard.
This story takes place in the Age of the Gentiles. Tradition was usually the rule that the oldest son would be the boss or the leader in the family during that time period. Jacob gave his son Joseph a special long coat that had long sleeves. The coat meant that Joseph would be the boss over his brothers even though he was younger than most of them. All his ten older brothers were mad at Joseph.
What made them even madder was that Joseph had two dreams, but they were from God. In one dream, Joseph saw tied up clumps of grain that were bowing down to him. In the second dream, Joseph saw eleven stars, plus the sun and the moon bowing down to him. These dreams, from God, showed Joseph would be bossing his brothers around. No way were they going to let that happen! Rueben the oldest brother was supposed to have the job as boss or leader in the family, and not Joseph.
One day Jacob sent Joseph out to check on his brothers, while they were taking care of the sheep. When they saw him coming, they were filled with hatred towards Joseph. Most of the brothers wanted to kill Joseph; However, Rueben, the oldest brother, did not want that to happen. So, Rueben came up with the idea of throwing Joseph into a dry, deep pit. Rueben secretly planned to rescue Joseph later.
When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the special coat he was wearing, and threw him into the pit. The sat around and ate lunch afterwards not caring at all about Joseph. This was so unfair!
God is always fair. He saw everything (omniscience) that Joseph was going through in the pit. God did not forget about Joseph. He cared about him very much. Just like he does with you. He still had big plans for Joseph, also like you.
Things were about to get way worse for Joseph. Before Rueben could rescue him, Judah, one of Joseph’s other brothers got the idea to sell Joseph. They sold him, as a slave, to a caravan of Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. Next, his brothers dipped his coat in the blood of a goat and made up a story to report to Jacob, their father. Telling Jacob that Joseph was dead. Their lies hurt Jacob so much!
God was still watching (Omniscience) over Joseph though. He still had big plans for him. No matter how many unfair things we have happen to us, God wants us to Rebound and Recover using the faith-rest-drill, so that we will not be sad all day or longer about what happens to us.
Joseph had to walk for many days, was taken to a far-away place called Egypt. It was completely different from his life with his father and brothers taking care of the sheep. No matter what happed to Joseph, He kept on trusting in God. Truth is that God is always fair and just. God is our helper when unfairness happens to us.
I bet you cannot guess what happened when Joseph got to Egypt…. Joseph was sold again, to a man named Potiphar. Can you imagine being sold and having to live far away from your family? He was a slave now and did not get paid for working. If he tried to run away and go back to his family, Potiphar could find him and kill him.
Even though His whole life had changed, Joseph still loved God and trusted Him. He did the best job possible, just like his father taught had him. Potiphar, his owner, noticed what a great job Joseph did. He did so much that Potiphar made Joseph in charge of his household. Everything was going great until Potiphar’s wife told a big lie about Joseph! Potiphar had him thrown into jail, even though Joseph did not do anything wrong. Does this sound fair to you?
It is not God’s fault when unfair things happen, we must learn to move forward. He wants us to Rebound and recover after we are treated unfair, so that we will not be sad all day. Below is the faith-rest-drill.
Faith-Rest-Drill
- Remember a promise from God: In today’s lesson, the promise is:
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
- Think of a reason to trust God with your problem: Today’s lesson, God is always fair. God sees (omniscience) everything that we go through. He will work everything out for the good if we love Him.
Joseph was treated unfair by being thrown into the pit, sold, made a slave and then thrown into prison.
Sometimes people in our class at school will make fun of us. This is unfair. From time to time our brothers or sisters will tell lies about us or hit us. This is unfair. We need to remember that God is always fair and sees everything we go through.
- Relax: Relax, Let God take care of it so that you aren’t sad all day long. God wants you to do something fun now, go watch some funny YouTube videos, bake a lemon pie, play with your kitten or shoot some hoops.