Children

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JOSEPH:
GOD'S FAITHFUL CHILD

If we were to describe in one word what Joseph was like it would be the word Faithful. Being faithful means that you can trust me to do what is right when no one is around to watch. It means that I always try to keep my word. Sometimes that is not easy because it means that I must tell the truth. Sometimes people dont want to hear the truth and they get angry with us.

Josephs life was like that. He went through much suffering because what said sometimes offended others, but God was with him and helped him in times of trouble.

As we think back, Jacob had two wives. The one he loved the most was Rachel. She had two children Joseph and Benjamin. These two children were important to Jacob because Rachel took a long time to have them. She died giving birth to Benjamin, so you can see why these two children were important.

To show his love for Joseph, Jacob made him a coat of many colors. It made Joseph stand out as special. Joseph had ten other brothers who became jealous over Jacobs love for Him.

By studying the life of Joseph, we discover that he had a special place in Gods heart as well. God spoke to him in dreams and he shared them with others. Josephs other brothers were not honest so Jacob sent Joseph to watch them and bring him back a report on how they were doing. Joseph was faithful to the assignment that Jacob gave him.

One day Joseph had a strange dream. It was a message from God. It was a dream about eleven bundles of wheat bowing down to his one. His brothers interpreted his dream as meaning that someday they would bow down to him. They became angry with him and called him the dreamer. Their anger began to grow and they became jealous and planned to murder him. They tried to plan a way to destroy him, but their older brother came up with a different plan. They placed him in a deep pit and left him there. Soon after some travelers with camels came along who were going to Egypt. Their other brother Judah sold him to these travelers and they took him away with them.

They took his coat of many colors and dipped it in animal blood and took it back to Jacob saying A wild best killed Joseph. How it must have destroyed Jacob to think that his favorite son was gone forever. God had other plans and this story has a happy ending.

When Joseph was in Egypt he was sold to a high ranking officer named Potipher. Because Joseph was faithful, Potipher took special notice of him. Joseph became wealthy and was given responsibility over everything Potipher owned. One day, Potipher's wife tried to tempt Joseph to be unfaithful and Joseph refused. She became angry and lied to her husband. He believed her and put Joseph in prison. God was with him while he was in prison and given authority over all the other prisoners.
While in prison a butler and a baker were with him. They were sad and had a strange dream. Joseph after praying was able to interpret that dream. The dream said the baker would die for his crime and the butler restored to his former job.

Time had passed and the king of Egypt also had a disturbing dream. His butler recalled Joseph interpreting his dream and told the king about it. Joseph through the wisdom given him from God was able to predict a great famine that was about to take place in Egypt over a short period of time. The king Promoted Joseph as Governor over Egypt, and through wise planning he was able to prepare the land for what was to come.

The famine spread throughout the whole area surrounding Egypt. It forced Josephs family to come to Egypt to get food and water. As they arrived they saw Joseph but did not know who he was. It never occurred to them the dream about the bundles of wheat was now coming true. Joseph knew them and pretended to act harshly but turned aside after seeing them and wept. He never lost his love for his brothers and he forgave them. He commanded them that when they came back that they should bring their younger brother with them. If they refused then they would have no food.

The story continues and, Jacob and his whole family came together with Joseph and he revealed himself to them. Oh there was a great deal of weeping, joy and gladness that Joseph was alive and used by God to spare the whole empire of death. His brothers apologized for way that they treated him. Josephs word to them was one to remember: As for you, you meant it for evil but God meant it for good to save and keep much people alive. The Egyptians received Jacob and his family with great favor. Joseph was faithful to God and God was with him.

An important lesson we can learn from the life of Joseph. Being faithful to God is not easy and sometimes we are alone. Sometimes it seems that no one cares.
God is always with us, and being faithful ,no matter how things may seem, is the most important thing we can do

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