Joseph’s Coat

Have you ever received a gift that made your brother or sister or friend say, “You’re so lucky! I wish I had that gift!” That gift made you feel pretty special. We find a story of a young man named Joseph in the Bible and that’s how he felt.

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Joseph had 11 brothers and he was next to the youngest. Joseph’s father was Jacob and out of all 12 of his sons, Joseph was Jacob’s favorite. In fact, he loved Joseph so much that he bought him special gifts.

One gift Jacob gave to Joseph was a beautiful, colorful coat. Joseph loved his new coat! But it made his brothers jealous because they didn’t receive such a special gift from their father.

Joseph also had 2 dreams that he shared with his family. He said that in the first dream he and his brothers were gathering wheat into piles and tying them up. Joseph said that his brothers bales of wheat bowed down to his bale of wheat. His brothers didn’t like that dream at all.

Joseph had a second dream and in this dream, he said the sun, moon and stars bowed down to him! Not only did his brothers not like this dream, even his father thought it was strange. Jacob said, “Joseph, are you saying that in this dream, even your mother and I will bow down to you?” The dreams made Joseph’s brothers hate him even more.

One day, Jacob told Joseph to take some food to his brothers who were working out in the field. When his brothers saw him coming, they said, “Here comes Joseph in his special coat. We should get rid of him!” The brothers decided to take Joseph’s coat from him, throw him into a deep pit and leave him there!

After Joseph was thrown into the pit, a group of travelers who sold items that they carried on their camels’ backs came their way. The brothers said, “We should sell our brother as a slave to these people when they pass by! Then he’ll be gone forever!” And that’s what they did. They sold Joseph as a slave to the travelers.

When they returned home, they showed Joseph’s coat to their father and told him a terrible lie. They said that they found Joseph’s coat and that he must have been attacked by an animal. Joseph’s father wept bitterly. He couldn’t believe the son he loved so much was gone.

Next week, we’ll see how, even though some bad things happened to Joseph, God was with him every step of the way and ended up using Joseph to save his own family! We will see how God always takes care of the ones He loves!