Locations & Times

1. Whose idea was it to be friends with people all around the world? (God)
2. What special gift did Joseph get from his father? (a beautiful, colorful coat)
3. After many ups and downs, God helped Joseph save others. How did Joseph save many people? (When he was put in charge of Egypt, he stored up food and saved everyone!)
4. How did Agent Max Wilder choose to be a friend? Did he give, pray, or go? (He prayed.)
5. What were some things you learned about our friends in Afghanistan? (Points of discussion: riding camels, rebuilding after war, clothing)

Read: Genesis 37-50

Joseph was the youngest of Jacob’s 12 sons, and he was his father’s favorite (Genesis 37:3). Because of Jacob’s favoritism, Joseph’s brothers hated him. It didn’t help that Joseph was a tattle tale who loved to flaunt his colorful coat in front of his brothers. To add insult to injury, he bragged to them about his dreams of being a ruler over them one day.

Fed up, they sold him as a slave in Egypt, and after being wrongly accused of seducing Potiphar’s wife, Joseph ended up in prison. Things were not looking good for Joseph. But the Bible tells us that even there, the Lord was with him and gave him favor (Genesis 39:20).

While still in prison, Joseph successfully explained Pharaoh’s troubling dream, which foreshadowed seven years of plenty of food and seven years of famine for Egypt. In one day, Joseph went from prisoner to prince. As ruler of Egypt, he used his wisdom to create a plan to provide food for an entire nation (and more) once the famine hit. And who traveled to Egypt hungry and looking for food? Joseph’s own family. Joseph was angry at first and even sent one of his brothers to prison, but he finally broke down and said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life,” Genesis 45:5-6. Later Joseph told his brothers that what they meant for evil, God meant for good. (Genesis 50:19-20)

Joseph’s life was far from the fairytale dream he had as a boy, where his whole family was bowing down to him. While that dream did come to life, Joseph had no idea as a prideful teenager the nightmares that would come first. But God was there, working his thread of redemption through every fabric of Joseph’s story. In the favoritism and jealousy, betrayal and pain, God was making a way to save not only Joseph and his family, but an entire nation.

In the pit, in the prison, and ultimately in the palace, God was working to save and redeem and restore his people and their relationships to him and to each other. Ultimately, Joseph’s story points to a God who remains faithful, good, and redemptive. And like the story of Noah, the story of Joseph foreshadows the even greater story of Jesus, who, despite our own pits and prisons, reaches out to save us and restore us. With Jesus, we can confidently say like Joseph did that what was meant for evil, God used for good to save the lives of many, including our own.

Think of some of the pits and palaces of your own life. Can you see where God was working to redeem and restore your life, even if you couldn’t see it then?

Forgiveness comes from a place of knowing we are not God (see Genesis 50:19), trusting that ultimate justice is in his hands and that his purposes are always for good. Who needs forgiveness from you? How does this truth help you give that to them?