God told Abraham that he was going to be the father of a great nation and would have so many descendants in his whānau that it would be like counting grains of sand on the beach or the stars in the sky!
Jacob, one of Abraham’s grandsons, had 4 wives and 13 children - 12 boys and 1 girl. The famous Old Testament person we are going to learn about is one of those sons - JOSEPH.
We are going to learn about what some of the people in this story did.
Think about whether these were good choices, or not.
THE FAVOURITE SON
Joseph was Jacob's favourite. Why was that?
Jacob already had 10 sons by the time Joseph was born. But Joseph’s mother, Rachel, was Jacob’s favourite wife. Then Rachel died giving birth to her second son, Benjamin.
Having favourites usually messes things up in families.
In Genesis chapter 37 verse 4 it says, “When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated their brother so much that they would not speak to him in a friendly manner.”
WHAT DID JACOB DO?
He gave Joseph a very special robe.
WHAT DID JOSEPH DO?
He told tales to his dad about the bad stuff his brothers were doing while they took care of the sheep.
He talked about his dreams that had the whole family bowing down to him!
None of this made his brothers feel any better about Joseph.
SO, WHAT DID HIS BROTHERS DO?
Jacob had sent 17 year old Joseph to find out how the brothers were getting on looking after the sheep far from home. They saw him coming and came up with a plan. They grabbed Joseph, took off his special robe, and put him in a deep hole in the ground. Some traders heading for Egypt came along shortly so his brothers sold Joseph for 20 pieces of silver. They put some goat’s blood on his robe, took it back to Jacob and told him they had found it like that. Even when their father cried, no one told him the truth about what had happened to Joseph.
What happened to Joseph? Find out next week!
SOME FUN THINGS YOU CAN DO :
1. If you have brothers or sisters, surprise them by doing something nice for them - play with them; make them morning tea; write a note and leave it under their pillow; offer to help them tidy their room …
You get the idea!
2. Design an item of clothing
3. Learn to sew