The Story of Joseph, Part 1 (Gen.37)

One of my favorite Bible stories is the story of Joseph. He had to go through a lot of hard stuff, but God was with him all the way. What I like about Joseph is that he never let his problems get him down. He always trusted God to help him, and God always did. Our story begins with Joseph being the youngest of the eleven sons of Jacob. His mother’s name was Rachel, and she would later have another son whom they would call Benjamin. Joseph’s first big problem was that none of his brothers liked him; in fact, they actually hated him. Maybe it was because he sometimes told on his brothers when they did bad things; maybe it was because their father loved Joseph and gave him a beautiful coat of many colors; but I think they especially hated him because of his dreams. Back in early Bible days, dreams would often have a meaning and even reveal the future. In one of his dreams Joseph and his brothers were tying sheaves (or bundles) of grain together in a field when all at once Joseph’s sheaf stood upright and his brother’s sheaves bowed down to it. In another dream, the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to Joseph. Could Joseph’s dreams mean that he would one day rule over his brothers? That was too much for them to take, and they hated him because of it. Do you think they will do anything bad to Joseph?