Genesis 37-50 (Joseph’s Dream and the Long Journey There)
Joseph had a dream when he was a young man. In his dream, he was very important and everyone in his family honored and respected him.
His brothers didn’t like hearing about his dream and they didn’t like Joseph either. Their dad had given Joseph a brightly colored coat and they were jealous.
The brothers hated Joseph and they secretly made a plan to kill him. But they also felt guilty about the plan to kill him, so instead, they sold him as a slave to some people who were on their way to Egypt.
The brothers took his brightly colored coat and put some bloodfrom an animal on it and brought it home to their dad, saying, “Some wild animal must have killed Joseph. This is all we could find of him.”
Joseph’s father was terribly sad about losing his young son.
But Joseph was alive and was being sold again – this time in Egypt to a guy named Potiphar who was an important military captain.
Things went well for a while. Joseph was even put in charge of running everything in Potiphar’s household. But Potiphar’s wife told some terrible lies—saying Joseph had attacked her when he didn’t—and Joseph was thrown into prison.
While in prison, Joseph ended up getting promoted to being in charge of running the prison! During his time in prison, he met a man who had worked for the king of Egypt.
Much later, that man who had worked for the king of Egypt was released from prison and given back his job. The king had a dream that he couldn’t understand and asked for help understanding what it meant. All the wise and important people who worked for the king couldn’t figure it out.
Then the man who had been in prison with Joseph remembered him… and suggested to the king that they ask Joseph what the
dream meant. Joseph was brought to the king’s palace and the king told him about the dream.
Joseph right away answered and said, “The dream means there will be 7 years of huge harvests of food followed by 7 years of no
food at all.” Then Joseph continued, “I suggest you put someone in charge of storing the extra food from the first 7 years so there will be enough during the next years when nothing will grow—that way everyone will survive.”
The king was so thankful for Joseph’s help and immediately put him in charge of storing food. Joseph finally became the very important man he’d dreamed about when he was young. And one day, his family would come to him for help getting food—and they would honor and respect him.
