Intermediate Level, Block 3—Good Land to Egypt
Week 26
Joseph—Speaking Boldly and by Faith
Point to Emphasize: We can be those who speak boldly and by faith.
Reference Reading: Genesis 39:17—40:23; 41:9-14
Memory Verse: All things are possible to him who believes. (Mark 9:23)
Story Sample
One day, while Joseph was living in Egypt and working for Potiphar, something terrible happened to him. Potiphar’s wife lied and accused Joseph of doing something he hadn’t done—and Potiphar believed her! In fact, Potiphar was so angry with Joseph that he had him thrown into prison. So there was Joseph, in jail for something he hadn’t done!
If we were in that situation, we might have gotten discouraged. We might have thought, “I had incredible dreams in the past, even dreaming that my family would bow down to me, but look at me now. I am in prison. This is nothing like my dream. Those dreams were just nonsense.” But Joseph did not think this way. He was not discouraged, he did not stop believing in the dreams, and he did not doubt God.
While Joseph was in prison, God was with him, and He caused the chief jailer to respect him. The chief jailer was so impressed with Joseph that he put him in charge of the prison and the other prisoners. One night, two of the prisoners had mysterious dreams. The royal baker and the royal cupbearer both dreamed something they could not understand, and both of them were worried. When Joseph saw them in the morning, he could tell something was wrong, so he asked about it. They told him, “We have had a dream, and there is no one to interpret it.”
What Joseph did next is remarkable. He did not tell the baker or the cupbearer that he himself had dreams once, too, yet they had not come true. He did not tell them to go bother someone else with their problems. No, even though Joseph had been in prison a long time and his dreams from God had not yet come true, he had not stopped believing in them. So he spoke to these two prisoners very boldly. He said, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” and he asked them to tell him their dreams. Joseph was able to say these words because he believed the dreams God had given him. It was like he was saying, “I had dreams, and God showed me what they meant. Even though those dreams haven’t come true yet, I believe that their interpretations were from God. And I believe that yours are from God, too.”
This is called speaking by faith. Even though Joseph’s own dreams weren’t fulfilled, he didn’t speak based on that. His speaking was based on his belief in God and his belief in what God would do.
After Joseph spoke, the cupbearer and the baker told Joseph their dreams. The cupbearer had dreamed of a vine with three branches that budded and grew grapes. In the dream, the cupbearer squeezed some of the grapes into Pharaoh’s cup and gave the cup to Pharaoh. Joseph explained that the dream meant that the cupbearer would be freed from prison and would serve as Pharaoh’s cupbearer again within three days. He asked the cupbearer to remember him once he was free and back in Pharaoh’s house. He explained that he was innocent and asked the cupbearer to help him be set free.
When he heard this good interpretation, the baker told Joseph his dream, too. In his dream, the baker had three baskets of white bread on his head. The top basket was full of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them. The interpretation of this dream was not as pleasant as the other one, but Joseph spoke it honestly; within three days, he said, the baker would be sentenced to die.
Three days later, things happened just as Joseph had said: the cupbearer was made Pharaoh’s cupbearer again, and the baker was sentenced to die. When the cupbearer went back to Pharaoh’s house, at first he forgot about Joseph, so Joseph remained in prison even longer. But eventually, the cupbearer remembered, and he told Pharaoh about Joseph interpreting the dreams. When Pharaoh heard that, he sent for Joseph, bringing him out of prison. Next week we will see in details how Joseph was released from prison. In the end, Joseph’s speaking by faith was what got him out of prison! Joseph was a person that fully trusted in God. Joseph was not afraid when interpreting the dreams. On the contrary, he spoke boldly by faith.
Maybe you’re wondering how we can be like this today—we aren’t in prison, and God doesn’t really speak that much through dreams anymore. Well, let me ask you this: Don’t you think that Joseph, the baker, and the cupbearer felt sad when they were in prison? Maybe even scared? Let me tell you a story about my two little boys. One day I had to drop them off somewhere, and the younger one got sad and scared as soon as I was gone. But the older one said, “Mom will be right back.” This seems like a small thing, but actually, my older son gets scared when I’m not around, too, just like the younger one. But he believed that I would be back, and he decided to focus on that. So he said boldly that I would be right back. The younger one started to feel better when he heard that, and actually, the older one felt better, too. He was less sad and scared when he spoke by faith—just like Joseph who was released from prison when he spoke by faith! [Storyteller, insert your own story about speaking by faith.] Let’s be like Joseph and be ones who speak boldly by faith!