Joseph the Dreamer

Introduction: The young man Joseph stands for righteousness. 2 When Jacob’s son Joseph was seventeen years of age he was pasturing the flock with his brothers and Joseph

brought back a bad report about his brothers to their father. Now Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons and had made him a richly colored robe. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than any of them, they hated Joseph and could not speak a kind word to him. Then Joseph had a dream and said to his brothers, "Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of

grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us?” Then Joseph had another dream he said, “This time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." His father said, "Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" So Joseph’s brothers were jealous of Joseph but his father kept the matter in his mind. One day Joseph’s brothers saw him coming in the distance and said, "Here comes that dreamer! Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these water holes and say a ferocious animal ate him. So they took Joseph and threw him into a water hole that was dry. As the brothers sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of traders coming from Gilead.

Their camels were loaded and they were on their way to Egypt. One of the brothers said, "Come, let's sell Joseph to the traders and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed. So when the traders came, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the traders, and the traders took him to Egypt. In Egypt the traders sold Joseph to Potiphar, the captain of the guard of the King of Egypt. But God was

with Joseph and he prospered. When Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph and gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his master’s eyes. Then Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his household, and entrusted everything he owned to his care. And then God blessed the household of Potiphar, the Egyptian, because of Joseph. Now Joseph was handsome, and Potiphar's wife said, "Come to bed with me!" But Joseph refused and said,

“How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” But Potiphar’s wife spoke to Joseph day after day. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and Potiphar’s wife caught him by his cloak and said,

"Come to bed with me.” But Joseph ran out of the house leaving his cloak in her hand. She kept his cloak beside her until Potiphar came home. Then she told Potiphar this story: "That Hebrew slave tried to have sex with me. But I screamed for help, so he left his cloak and ran out of the house." When Potiphar heard the story his wife told him he burned with anger. So Potiphar took Joseph and put him in prison. But while Joseph was there in the prison, God was with

him; and showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison. Joseph was in charge of all that was done in the prison because God was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.