The Story of Joseph (1)

Joseph had a new coat! It was a beautiful coat made of many different colors. It was given to him by his father. Joseph’s father loved him above his many brothers since he was the son of his old age, and also he was the son of Rachel, whom Jacob loved.

Jacob was blessed with a large family, twelve sons and one daughter. Jacob loved Joseph and Benjamin, both sons of Rachel, more than all the other children. It was not right for Jacob to favor one above the other, but he did. There were many reasons for this, especially though, Joseph was a loving boy, and he feared the Lord like Jacob did. The older brothers were rough, and they had little time for God.

Do you think that Joseph’s brothers liked that Joseph got a coat, and they did not get anything? I am sure you know the answer to that question. Joseph also did something else which made his brothers angry. He would tell Jacob all of the bad things which his brothers did. He really did that out of love. He was worried what would happen to his brothers because of all of their sins. His brothers did not like that, however. In fact, they hated Joseph.

They hated him—what awful words. Sometimes we may have said to someone, “I hate you,” but deep down in our heart we really do not mean that. We are just very angry at them, but do you know what the Bible tells us? “He who hates his brother is a murderer.” We should never show hatred to anyone because God says that is sinful; it is the same as actually killing them. It shows us that if the Lord would not prevent it, we would kill each other.

Joseph’s brothers hated him very much. They hated him so much that they were going to try to kill him. God, however, would save his life and make everything turn out to the good. We will hear more about that later.

Joseph loved his brothers. He liked to tell them about some dreams which he had. These dreams were not like the dreams which we have. These dreams were often messages from God. They often told what was going to happen. It would have been better if Joseph had kept these dreams to himself and not told anyone else about them.

One day when Joseph was visiting his brothers, he said to them, “Listen to the dream I had. One day as we were out in the field and tying together bundles of grain, my bundle stood up straight, and all of your bundles bowed down before mine.”

The brothers laughed at him. “Do you really think we will all bow down to you? We do not believe that.” This only increased their hatred against Joseph.

He again went to his brothers and told them another dream. He said, “I dreamed that the sun, moon, and eleven stars all bowed down to me.”

This time his father, Jacob, scolded him. “Do you really think your father, mother, and brothers will bow down to you?” The Bible tells us that it made his father wonder what would happen one day. It took many years, and you will have to wait as we tell the story of Joseph, but we will find out that his brothers did indeed bow down to him one day.

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