Life of Joseph Series: 12. Joseph the Governor

Joseph the Governor is lesson 12 in the Life of Joseph series and can be found in Genesis 47.

Joseph has been a servant, a prisoner and now he is the governor of Egypt. Pharaoh had two dreams that represented the same thing. There wasn’t anyone that could interpret the dreams when he called all his wise men and magicians together to explain the dreams to him.

Pharaoh’s chief butler finally remembered Joseph. Joseph had interpreted his dreams when they were in prison together. He told Pharaoh about the dreams that he and the chief baker had. He said that everything happened just like Joseph interpreted. Pharaoh called for Joseph to hear his dreams.

Joseph said that God interprets the dreams. Joseph told Pharaoh that his dreams said that there would be seven good and plentiful years. After those years passed, there would be seven very bad years of famine.

Joseph suggested that Pharaoh pick a discerning and wise man to be over Egypt. He should collect and store one-fifth of the crops during the seven good years. Then that reserve can be distributed during the seven years of famine. Pharaoh chose Joseph to be charge and he did an excellent job. He is second in command after Pharaoh and anyone that wants to buy grain has to see Joseph.

Joseph has a wife and two sons. His father and brothers have moved to Egypt to be close to him.  At least two years have passed during the famine. (45:6) The people are having a hard time. The famine is severe like Joseph warned Pharaoh. Or, like God showed in the dreams. The famine was all over the land; not just in Egypt. There wasn’t any bread and the people became weak.

Joseph gathered all the money that people had brought to buy grain. He took it to Pharaoh and it was all the money people had in Egypt and Canaan. All the Egyptians went to Joseph and told him their money was gone. They told him to give them bread. They asked him “Are we going to die right in front of you?”

Joseph replied that he would give them bread for their livestock if their money was gone. The people began to trade in their horses, sheep, cattle and donkeys for food that year.

The next year they told Joseph that their money was gone and now all their livestock was gone also. They didn’t have anything else left except for their lands and their bodies. Why should they bother keeping their land if they were going to die from hunger? They told Joseph to buy their land and their body and they would be servants of Pharaoh. They asked for seed to plant so they could eat.

Every man sold his field in Egypt and Joseph bought the land. The famine was very severe and Joseph turned the land over to Pharaoh. Pharaoh owned from one border to the other and Joseph moved the people to the cities. Joseph didn’t buy the priests land because Pharaoh had given them the land and rations of food.

Joseph told the people that he bought the land for Pharaoh and gave them seed to plant. They were to give one-fifth of their harvest to Pharaoh. The rest would be used as food for their families. They told Joseph that he had saved their lives and they would be Pharaoh’s servants. Joseph wrote a law stating that everyone, except for the priests, would pay Pharaoh one-fifth of the yield of their crops.

This learning pack has the black & white question and answer worksheet with the teacher's answer sheet. The maze and crossword puzzles are black & white and have an answer sheet. There are maps as shown in color and black & white. The discussion starter is looking up scriptures to get an in-depth overview of Joseph, his family and his power. Click here to download.

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Click here to download the 30 updated visuals.

This is a variety pack for Genesis 39-46 since it covers so much!

There is a visual(s) for each event that is in these chapters.

Click here to download the pictures to color.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

 

Click here to print the original visuals.

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

Click here to see the combined lesson with more ideas and printables.