Life of Joseph Series: 2. Joseph is Sold

This week's lesson is found in Genesis 37.

We are studying Joseph in the book of Genesis. Joseph has 11 brothers and one sister. His parents were Jacob (AKA Israel) & Rachel. Joseph and his younger brother Benjamin have the same mother.

Joseph’s father loved him more than his brothers and gave him a coat of many colors. This favoritism created jealousy between Joseph and his brothers.

Joseph also had two dreams that implied that the brothers would bow down to Joseph at some time. Between the special coat and the dreams, they hated Joseph.

Joseph’s brothers were feeding the sheep in Shechem. Jacob decided to send Joseph to them. Joseph was supposed to see how his brothers were doing and check on the flocks of sheep. Jacob wanted Joseph to return and tell him if everything was satisfactory.

Joseph left the Valley of Hebron and on the way to Shechem, a man saw him wandering in the field. Joseph told him he was looking for his brothers that were feeding the sheep. The man told Joseph that they left the field and he heard them say they were going to Dothan.

Joseph headed to Dothan and found his brothers there. They saw him coming from far away and began to devise a way to kill him. They said “Look, here comes the dreamer!” They decided to kill him and throw him into a pit. They would say that a wild animal has eaten him. They said “Let’s see what will happen to his dreams now!”

But Reuben heard them. He was the oldest brother and said not to kill him but just throw him into the pit.

When Joseph arrived, his brothers took off his coat of many colors and threw him into the pit. It was a water well that was empty of water.

The brothers sat down to eat and when they looked up, they saw some Ishmaelites. The Midianite traders were traveling from Gilead to Egypt. They had camels carrying spices, balm and myrrh.

Judah asked the others what benefit would they have if they killed Joseph? He suggested that they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites instead of killing him. He was, after all, their brother.

They decided to follow that plan and pulled Joseph back out of the pit. They sold him for 20 shekels of silver. The traders continued to Egypt taking Joseph with them.

Reuben tore his clothes when he returned to the pit and saw that Joseph wasn’t there. He thought Joseph had been killed. They took Joseph’s coat of many colors and killed a goat. They dipped the coat into the goat blood and took the bloody coat to their father.

They told Jacob that they had found the coat and asked him if it was Joseph’s coat. Jacob assumed that a wild animal attacked Joseph and killed him. Jacob mourned his son Joseph and said that he would always miss him.

Joseph arrived in Egypt and the Midianite traders sold him to Potiphar. He was an officer of Pharaoh (king or ruler of Egypt) and was captain of the guard.

Next week we will study Joseph’s life with Potiphar and learn that God was with Joseph. Joseph stayed faithful to God.

This Joseph application pack has the Q&A worksheet with a teacher's answer sheet, Match the Facts with answer sheet, maze, maps, Discussion Starter worksheet and scripture posters for the application or  that can be used for general decorations or bulletin boards. Click here to download.

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These updated visuals are all the visuals for Genesis 37 and include Joseph receiving his coat, his dreams and his brothers selling him. 

All are not shown.

 

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(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

Click here to see the other Joseph lessons in this series.

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