Joseph came from a very large family. He had 11 brothers. Joseph’s father loved Joseph the most and it made his brothers very jealous…so jealous that they captured him and sold him as a slave to get rid of him!
Joseph was sad that his brothers had done this, but he trusted God to take care of him. God allowed a man named Potiphar to bring Joseph to work at his house. He gave Joseph a very important job; he was in charge of all of Potiphar’s other workers!
Potiphar’s wife was not a nice lady and while Potiphar was gone, she secretly asked Joseph to be her boyfriend! Joseph said, “I cannot do that! It’s wrong because you have a husband and he trusts me! Also, I do not want to sin against God!”
Potiphar’s wife was angry that he would not be her boyfriend, so she told her husband a lie. She told Potiphar that Joseph was trying to get her to be his girlfriend! Potiphar believed her and was so angry that he threw Joseph into jail! But even in jail, God was taking care of Joseph and while he was in prison, one of the king’s servants found out that Joseph had a special gift. He could explain what dreams meant.
The king had been having some very strange dreams and he needed help understanding them. The servant told the king about Joseph and when the king told Joseph his dreams, Joseph explained what the dreams meant.
Joseph said, “King, the Lord has shown me that your dreams are a warning. God is warning you that for 7 years, the weather will be wonderful and we will grow many crops and have more than enough food. But the following 7 years will be terrible – there will be no rain and no food will grow. This dream is warning us that we must save up food for those bad years so we will not starve to death!”
The king was so impressed with Joseph that he said, “Praise Joseph’s God! From now on the only person more important in the kingdom than Joseph is me! Joseph will be my most important worker and he will be in charge of everything so that all will be saved from what’s to come!” And from that point on, Joseph went from being a prisoner to being the king’s most trusted worker!
Next week, we’ll see just how God uses Joseph in such an important position!
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