The Young Joseph Coat of Many Colors
Life is not always fair and bad things happen to good people. These are two lessons everyone needs to learn. The next few lessons will be about Joseph and the trials he went through in his life. This lesson is about being thrown in a hole and then sold into slavery.
Genesis 37: 1-36
Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and his family moved to the land of Canaan where they were strangers. Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob because his mother was Rachel. Rachael was the most loved of all the wives of Jacob. Joseph was the eleventh son.
Joseph was seventeen years old and he help to feed the flock with his other brothers. Because Joseph was loved more than the other children he made him a special coat of many colors. Then his brothers saw the coat that their father had made for Joseph they hated Joseph more.
Joseph was a dreamer and would tell his brothers the dreams he had. One dream was they were binding sheaves in the field and Josephs sheaves arose, and stood upright; and their sheaves stood around and they were made to bow down to his sheaf.
The brothers of Joseph ask him if they should be reined by Joseph or have dominion over them? They hated him even more because of his dreams. And they hated Joseph even more because he told them his dreams.
Joseph had another dream to his brothers and father about the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made to bow down to Joseph. This caused Israel to get mad at Joseph. He asked Joseph if his mother and brother and himself should indeed bow down to him.
This caused the brothers to envy Joseph more and so they went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. Israel sent Joseph to Shechem to be with his brothers and feed the flock.
Joseph arrives at Shechem and he finds that his brothers had gone on to Dothan, so he follows his brothers. His brothers notice him from a distance, and before Joseph reaches them they plot to kill him and throw him into some pit. They plotted they could say an evil beast devoured him to their father.
When Reuben heard that his brother’s had planned to kill Joseph he stepped in and told they there would be killing of Joseph. They would throw him into a pit in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him. Reuben tried to save Joseph and secretly planning to rescue Joseph from their hands and restore him to his father.
Once Joseph reached his brothers they stripped him of his coat of many colors. They took Joseph and cast him into a pit that had no water in it. Then they sat down to eat their bread and they saw a company of Ishmaelite’s coming from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm, myrrh and was going down to Egypt.
It was Judah who told his brothers that they could sell Joseph instead of killing him. That way their hands would not be dirty. So they sold Joseph to the Midianites merchantmen for twenty pieces of silver; and they brought Joseph to Egypt.
Reuben returned to the pit and discovered that Joseph was not there and he was really upset. When he returned to his brothers they told Reuben they had sold him. So they took the coat of Joseph, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat into the blood.
The brothers took Joseph’s coat back to their father and told him an evil beast devoured Joseph. Poor Israel was so saddened that he mourned for his beloved son for many days. No one could comfort Israel. The Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard.
What Can this Story Teach Us?
Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob, Israel, and only had one younger brother. He was mistreated by his older brothers. Some of this mistreatment was because of his flaunting his dreams. Yet, the LORD God did choose Joseph for greater things. Joseph had to go through a whole lot of unfair treatment in his life. Things that was really bad, like being thrown in a hole, and then being sold to foreigner as a slave.
It must have been hard for Joseph to be sold into slavery when he was the favorite son. He lost his favorite beautiful coat of many colors. He lost the loving arms of his father holding him and encouraging him. He was taken away from everything he knew and went into a world that was unknown to him.
Joseph still knew he was loved and chosen by the LORD God to do something really great. He had to remember he was still loved by his father and the rest of his family. So Joseph had to hang on and keep the faith and not give up. He was honest with who he was and never changed. These are great things to learn in our lives.
Life is not always fair and bad things happen to good people. The LORD does not guarantee us that everything is going to be fair or easy in our life. We cannot give up and stop trying or begin pouting about the unfairness in our life. We need to just keep on keeping the faith and working hard to do what we know we need to do.
Cite Article Source
MLA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne “The Young Joseph Coat of Many Colors:.” Becker Bible Studies Library Jan 2015.<https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=1856,>.
APA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015, January) “The Young Joseph Coat of Many Colors:.” Becker Bible Studies Library. Retrieved from https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=1856,.
Chicago Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015) “The Young Joseph Coat of Many Colors:.” Becker Bible Studies Library (January), https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=1856, (accessed).
