Advanced Level, Block 3—Outcomes of Jacob and Joseph
Week 27
Joseph Thrown into Prison
Point to Emphasize: We too, like Joseph, must keep ourselves from any sinful matter.
Reference Reading: Genesis 39:1-23; Life-study of Genesis, msg. 98
Memory Verse: The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil… (Proverbs 8:13a)
Note: Dear storyteller, we do not want to go into more details in the story with the children than what is covered below.
Story Sample
In our story today we will see how Joseph kept himself from a sinful matter. But first, let’s talk about the Ten Commandments. Some of these commandments tell us not to do sinful things- things which are against God and against man. Who can remember some of these commandments? [Let the children bring up the ones they remember—don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t use God’s name in vain. They may bring up the 7th which concerns adultery. If not, you should remind them of this one by saying that one commandment is that a man and a woman should be married to only one another and be faithful to each other.] We must not be caught up in any of these sinful matters. Now we can go on to our story about Joseph.
Now Joseph was brought down to Egypt and sold to an official of Pharaoh named Potiphar, a captain of the guard. And Jehovah was with Joseph and caused all that he did to prosper. Potiphar soon made him overseer of his house and put all that he had in his charge. Jehovah blessed this house on account of Joseph. Joseph ran his entire household and all the work that was done in his fields. At this time Joseph was about seventeen years old and already he had such a high position of trust in a large, important household.
But there was trouble coming his way. Potiphar’s wife did not respect or honor her marriage as she should. She did not care about being faithful to Potiphar. Instead, she had a plan to secretly break her commitment to her husband. She tried hard to involve Joseph in her plan BUT Joseph respected and honored God. He also respected and honored marriage and refused to be caught up in any sinful matter. Joseph had to flee and run from the house.
Later, Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of a crime and caused him to be thrown into prison. For Joseph, it was better to be falsely accused and thrown into prison than to be caught up in a sinful matter. He was glad that he had run from that situation.
And what about us? Will we run from a sinful situation? We may say, “YES!” now, but I know it is not always an easy choice. There was a girl who made a new friend in school. This new friend invited her to go places after school when this girl’s mom specifically instructed her to go straight home. This friend would tell her to “come up with excuses” for staying out after school. The new friend encouraged her to lie to her mom, so that they could spend time doing things together. When the girl refused to lie to her mom, the friend would call her “chicken” and threaten to stop being her friend. Finally, the girl came to her senses and did not want to be friends with someone who lies and leads her to lie and disobey her parents. [Storyteller, tell your own story.]
There are so many things children deliberately do today that are sins. They plan to cheat on tests, they tell lies to each other and to adults, and they steal candy from packages at the grocery store. We must never be caught up in these sinful things.
I hope our story today will help us all to guard ourselves now and as we grow older to keep away from these sinful matters. We must be like Joseph and keep ourselves.