Joseph’s brothers took care of their father’s sheep. Sometimes they had to travel far away from where they lived to find good grazing. Jacob sent Joseph to them to find out how they were doing. The brothers saw Joseph coming when he was still far away. They weren’t happy to see Joseph. His brothers hated him so much that they made plans to kill him.
“Let’s kill the dreamer!” they said. “Then we’ll see if his dreams come true!” They decided to kill him and throw him in an empty well.
But Reuben, Joseph’s oldest brother, didn’t want to kill Joseph. He tried to save his life. He said to his brothers, “Don’t kill him. Just throw him in the well.”
His plan was that he would come back later and save Joseph.
When Joseph reached his
brothers, they took his beautiful robe and threw him into an empty well. Then they sat down to eat. While they were eating, they saw traders travelling to Egypt.
“Let’s sell Joseph to the traders!” Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers, said. So the brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him to the traders. Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in the blood. They took the robe back to their father and told him they found it lying on the ground.
“That is Joseph’s robe!” Jacob said. “A wild animal must have killed him!”
Jacob was very sad. His other children tried to comfort him, but he remained sad. “I will miss Joseph until the day I die,” he said.
Joseph in the palace
Genesis 39 and 41
Joseph went through many difficult times during his years in Egypt. Through it all God watched over Joseph and
he had a plan for him.
Then, one day everything changed. The pharaoh had dreamt strange dreams, and nobody could explain what they meant. The pharaoh was told that Joseph could interpret dreams and he sent for him.
Joseph said to the pharaoh, “I cannot interpret dreams, but God can give you the answer.”
Then the pharaoh told Joseph about his dreams. In his first dream, he had seen seven cows coming out of the Nile River. They were fat and healthy. Then seven ugly, thin cows came out of the river and ate the fat cows. But they stayed as thin as they had been in the beginning.
The pharaoh’s second dream was about heads of grain. First, he saw seven heads of grain on a single stem. The grains were full and good. Then seven other heads of grain appeared. They were weak and thin and dried up by the wind.
The thin heads of grain swallowed the good heads.
“The two dreams have the same meaning,” Joseph said. “God is showing you that there are going to be seven years with plenty of food for everyone. Then there will be seven years of terrible hunger. Nobody will have food. Nothing will be left over from the seven good years.”
Joseph said, “My advice is that you find a wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. He must have officials to help him, and they must collect a fifth of all the grain that’s grown in the good years. Then they must store it so that you can use it during the years of hunger to feed the people.”
The pharaoh thought that this was a very good plan. He put Joseph in charge of the land of Egypt. Joseph became the next in command after the pharaoh, and he followed out the plan to store food. When the bad years came, there was food in Egypt. The Lord was using Joseph.
Joseph forgives his brothers
Genesis 42 to 45
The drought spread from Egypt to Canaan where Joseph’s father Jacob and his family still lived. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent ten of his sons to Egypt to buy grain.
The brothers appeared before Joseph in Egypt, but didn’t recognise him. Joseph pretended to think they were spies. They told him that they were brothers and that their youngest brother was at home. Oh how Joseph longed to see his youngest brother! He said, “Then you must fetch your brother. Meanwhile I’ll keep one of you here in prison.”
Joseph had Simeon put in prison. On the way home, the brothers found the money they had paid in their grain sacks. It made them very afraid, and when they told their father what had happened, he refused to let Benjamin go back with them.
At last, the family had no
more food left, and Judah said to his father, “We must go back to Egypt, and we have to take Benjamin with us. I promise to keep Benjamin safe.”
Jacob agreed to send Benjamin with them. He also sent gifts for Joseph and they took double the amount of money with them.
When Joseph saw Benjamin, he told his manager to prepare a feast. After their meal, Joseph ordered the manager to fill his brothers’ sacks with grain, to put their money back in the sacks, and to hide his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack.
As soon as the brothers were on their way, Joseph sent the manager after his brothers. He ordered them to open their sacks. When he found the silver cup, he arrested Benjamin. The brothers knew they couldn’t go home without Benjamin, so they all turned back to the city.
Judah spoke to Joseph.
“I promised my father I would keep Benjamin safe. I’ll be your slave in Benjamin’s place.”
Jesus is born in Bethlehem
Matthew 1:18–25; Luke 2:1–21
Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married. They lived in Nazareth. One day God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary. The angel said, “The Lord has blessed you in a special way. He is with you. Don’t be scared! God is pleased with you. You are going to have a baby boy, and you must call him Jesus. He is the Son of God, and he will rule forever.”
Mary didn’t understand, but she said, “I serve the Lord. I’m happy to do whatever he wants.”
The angel told Joseph about the baby in a dream. The Holy Spirit had sent the baby, and he would save his people from their sins. Joseph promised to look after Mary and the baby.
The emperor wanted to count all the people in his empire. Everyone had to go to the town where their families had always lived. Joseph and Mary went from Nazareth to Bethlehem, because they belonged to the family of David. Bethlehem was full of people. Joseph and Mary couldn’t find a place to stay, but in the end, someone let them stay in their stable. The baby was born right there. Mary wrapped her little son in large strips of cloth and put him in a manger.
There were shepherds looking after their sheep in the fields nearby. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, “Don’t be afraid. I have good news; news that will bring great joy for all the people.
If you go to Bethlehem, you will
find a baby in a manger. He is your Saviour. He is the Lord.”
The shepherds quickly went to Bethlehem. They found Mary, Joseph and the baby, and began to praise God. They also told everyone about the angels and the baby who was their Saviour. Mary remembered everything that had happened on that wonderful day.
Wise men visit Jesus Matthew 2
Three wise men arrived in Jerusalem from the east. They said. “At home we saw the star of your new king in the sky. Where is he? We want to worship him.”
King Herod heard about these men.
“What is this I hear about a new king?” he asked the chief priests and teachers of the law. “Is he the Messiah? The one who is going to free the Jewish people?”
The chief priests and teachers told him that the Jewish prophet Micah had written about a new king. He was going to be the Messiah, the one chosen by God. He was going to be born in Bethlehem.
King Herod told the wise men, “Go to Bethlehem. The new king is there. Go find him, and then come back and tell me all about him.”
The wise men left Jerusalem. The star went ahead of them and stopped over the place where Jesus and his parents were. They bowed down and worshipped Jesus and gave him the treasures they had brought of gold, frankincense and myrrh; special gifts that were only given to kings.
The wise men knew that God himself had sent this baby to be born in Bethlehem. He had chosen him to become
his people’s Lord and King. That night God spoke to the wise men in a dream. He told them not to go back to Herod, because Herod wanted to harm Jesus. So they returned to their own country a different way.
Jesus in his
Father’s house
Luke 2:41–52
When Jesus was 12 years old, the family went to Jerusalem for the Passover feast as usual. After the feast was over, everyone left the city to go back home. There were many people in the city, and the group in which they travelled was large. Jesus’ parents did not see him, but they thought he was somewhere in the group with his friends.
At the end of the day Jesus’ parents began to look for him. They looked among their relatives and friends, but Jesus was nowhere.
At last they realised he must have stayed behind and they went back to Jerusalem to look for their son.
Jesus was not at the place where they had stayed. His parents could not find him anywhere. Then, after three days, they went to the temple, and there they found Jesus in the courtyard.
He was with the teachers. He was listening to them and asking them questions. The teachers also asked him some questions and were
amazed at his answers. This boy understood the scriptures very well indeed! They were all enjoying the conversation very much.
When Mary saw her son sitting there so happily, she was upset. She said, “Son, why did you do this to us? We were so worried about you! We looked everywhere for you and we could not find you!”
Jesus is baptised
Mark 1:9–13 Luke 3:21–22
John 1:31–34
Jesus and his cousin John were the same age. As an adult, John lived in the desert because he wanted to hear God’s voice.
John told the people to turn away from their sins. When people asked John how they should live, he told them to do what was right. He baptised everyone who felt bad about their sinful lives. The people began calling him John the Baptist.
John told them, “I’m only here to tell you about someone who will come after me. God himself will send him. God is going to give him a lot of power, much more than he gave me. He will
baptise you with the Holy Spirit. He will know who truly obeys God.”
One day, Jesus travelled from his home in Galilee to see his cousin John. John was at the Jordan River baptising people. Jesus asked John to baptise him. But John didn’t want to. He knew that Jesus was the one God had sent. He said, “I need to be baptised by you. So why do you come to me?”
Jesus replied, “Please baptise me. It’s the right thing to do, because it’s part of God’s plan for both of us.”
Then John baptised him. When Jesus came out of the water, heaven opened. They saw the Spirit of God coming down on Jesus. The Spirit was like a dove flying down. Then God said, “You are my Son, and I love you. I am very pleased with you.”
After he was baptised, Jesus went into the desert. He wanted to be alone to talk to God, and prepare himself for what God wanted him to do next.
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