Joseph obeys God Genesis 37:1-36 & 39-42:14
Memory Bible Verse
Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. Colossians 3:20
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)
A boy name Nick was looking out his window at the park. Nobody was there, so he grabbed his basketball, ran across the street and started shooting hoops. Nick tried to obey his parents and play by himself, but suddenly there were a bunch of friends from school that joined in. They were jumping, laughing and tossing the ball at the rim.
Normally this would be ok, but not right now. Today, there are some people that are very sick. We are supposed to stay away from our friends and not go out in crowded places so that we can stay healthy.
This is a hard rule to follow, especially when you miss your friends. God wants you to obey the rules that are made, even though they may seem unfair.
Did you know that you can be a hero? This does not mean that you need to put on a costume and pretend you are a Captain Marvel and rescue the world.
Every boy and girl who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior can be an invisible hero. That is what we call spiritual heroes today, in the Church Age. This happens when you obey and respect your parents and teachers. They take care of you and have authority (power to rule) over you. God also gave them a job and that is to keep you safe right now.
In our Bible story last week, we saw that Joseph and his dad, Jacob, loved God very much. Joseph had eleven brothers and one sister. The family had a sheep herding business, they were shepherds. Joseph always tried to obey and do a good job for his father.
His older brothers did not always do their best job taking care of the sheep. When Jacob gave Joseph a special long coat with long sleeves showing that he would be boss over his brothers, they were angry, got jealous and even hated Joseph.
What made them even madder was that Joseph had two dreams from God that also showed that he would be their boss. They wanted to kill Joseph, but Rueben the oldest brother, talked them into throwing Joseph into the deep dark pit. He planned on rescuing Joseph later.
Before Rueben could rescue him, Judah one of Joseph’s other brothers got the idea to sell Joseph for 20 pieces of silver. Next his brothers dipped his special coat in the blood of a goat to make their father Jacob think he was dead.
Joseph was taken to a faraway place called Egypt. It was completely different from his life with his father and brothers taking care of the sheep.
When Joseph got to Egypt; Potiphar bought as a slave. This meant that Joseph was a prisoner and he was not free to go home to see his family or do the fun things he wanted to do. I bet Joseph would understand how you may feel right now about staying home and not seeing your friends.
Even though Joseph was a slave, he knew that God wanted him to do the best job possible and obey Potiphar. Joseph did things God’s way and soon was made the boss over the household.
Everything was going great until Potiphar’s wife told a big lie about Joseph! Potiphar believed the lie and had Joseph thrown into jail. This was unfair, but God saw (omniscience) what happed to Joseph and was right there (omnipresent) with him. God is always fair and He still had big plans for Joseph.
The chief jailer noticed what a good job Joseph did while he was in jail. So, Joseph was placed in charge of the other prisoners. One day the Pharaoh, who was the ruler of Egypt, got upset with his cupbearer and his baker. He put them in the same Jail that Joseph was in. Joseph was in charge of them and took care of them. They were all in jail for quite a long time.
One night the cupbearer and the baker each had a dream. When Joseph saw them the next day, they were both very sad. Joseph asked them what was wrong. They both wanted to why they dreamt and what it meant. Joseph told them that was God’s job. God put the meaning of the dreams into Joseph’s mind and he told them what their dreams meant.
The cup bearer dreamed that there was a vine with ripe grapes on it and he squeezed the grapes into Pharaoh’s cup. Joseph told him that in 3 days he would get his job back as the cupbearer and he did.
The baker dreamed that he had three baskets of bread and bakery foods on top of his head, but birds came and started eating them. Joseph told him that in three days the Pharaoh would have him killed and that is what ended up happening.
Before the cup bearer was let out of jail, Joseph asked him to tell the Pharaoh his story about being placed in jail unfairly. However, once the cupbearer got his job back, he forgot all about Joseph. Joseph waited and waited in jail for two more years. God still had big plans for Joseph. You see, Joseph needed to have patience and wait for God’s timing.
Two years later, the Pharaoh had two dreams. He was upset because nobody could tell him what they meant. The cupbearer finally remembered Joseph telling him the meaning of his dream and mentioned him to the Pharaoh. The pharaoh wanted to talk to Joseph. I wonder what is going to happen next.
Remember, even though it does not seem fair right now, that we aren’t supposed to around your friends. Your parents made this rule to keep you safe!
When we obey (respect) our parents, we are doing things Gods’ way. When we do not obey our parents, we have to rebound and recover using the faith-rest-drill below.
Faith-Rest-Drill
- Remember a Bible verse from God: In today’s lesson, the Bible verse is:
Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. Colossians 3:20
- Think of a reason to trust God with your problem:
Today’s lesson, God wants us to obey our parents even though we my think something is unfair because they know what is best to take care of us and keep us safe.
Joseph was treated unfair by being thrown into a pit and then being sold. He had to go to jail because Potiphar’s wife lied about him. Joseph always tried obeying God and doing the best job possible even though unfair things happened to him. God saw everything (omniscience) that Joseph was going through. He never left him alone (omnipresent.)
- Relax:
God wants you to trust Him and obey your parents so that you will be an invisible hero. Go do something fun that is allowed. Maybe you and your parents can put in a garden in your back yard. Shoot targets with your Nerf guns, or try doing a word search book instead. I bet you will have fun!