Advanced Level, Block 3—Outcomes of Jacob and Joseph
Week 28
Joseph’s Helping Others
Point to Emphasize: No matter what our situation, we should be willing to help others.
Reference Reading: Genesis 39:21-23; 40:1-23, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 112
Memory Verse: But do not forget doing good and sharing with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews 13:16)
Story Sample
After Joseph was sold in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s palace, he was wrongly accused of something and placed in prison. Joseph was not having an easy life! First, he was betrayed by his brothers and then he was betrayed by the ones he served. And he was still only a young person, maybe 17 or 18 years old. At such a young age, he had already suffered so much and now he was in prison.
While Joseph was in prison, God was with him. God’s kindness to Joseph was that he was shown favor in the sight of the chief jailer. So much so that the jailer placed Joseph over all the prisoners. Whatever was to be done in the prison, Joseph did it. Whatever he did, he succeeded at. He made the best of his situation.
After a time, Pharaoh became angry with two of his servants, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. He threw them in prison and Joseph was in charge of them. While these two were in prison, they each had a dream and were very troubled, because they didn’t know what these dreams meant. There was no one to interpret them. But Joseph himself had had two dreams when he lived with his family. So, he knew that only God could interpret dreams, and he asked them to tell him their dreams. He was willing to help them because he had a heart that cared for others.
After they had told him their dreams, he interpreted what each dream meant. The cupbearer would be returned to his position and the baker would be hanged. These were two different results, but they both came true.
Now, do you think that Joseph really needed to help those servants? Here he was in prison. He should have been worried only about himself—how long would he be there? What harm might come to him? What about his dreams that had not yet been fulfilled? But no, he cared to help someone else, even in spite of his bad situation.
Recently we have been in the midst of a pandemic. We have all been so limited by what we can do. Do some of you sometimes feel like it is like being in prison? There are so many places we can’t go and so many things we can’t do. It doesn’t seem fair! My grandson started middle school this year. He had so many big plans! He would make new friends, change from classroom to classroom, try new sports and so many other things. Then the pandemic hit. All his dreams were crushed. He has been doing online schooling for nearly 10 months now and he doesn’t know when it will end. This could be very discouraging to him. So, we talked about how he could help others while being in “lock down.” He decided to connect by email with some of his friends who were also home all alone. We talked about him helping his mom more around the house since she was also in lock down working from home. The pandemic presented many struggles for her as well. He also realized that it was hard for his teachers to teach online, so he wanted to help them by paying attention and not making it harder for them. He is learning that he can still help others, even in the midst of a bad situation. [Storyteller, use your own example.]
So we see that Joseph was one who cared for others. Even though his dreams of having others bow down to him had not yet come true, he gave himself to care for others. Sometimes we find ourselves in a bad situation as well. During these times the easiest thing would be to think only of ourselves. But we can help others even during these times. Let’s think about it this week. What are some of the ways that you can think of to help someone else? [Lead children to discuss what they could do to help others.]