Intermediate Level, Block 3—Good Land to Egypt
Week 30
Jacob and Joseph—The End of Genesis
Point to Emphasize: God knows what will become of each one of us.
Reference Reading: Genesis 45:1—46:8; 46:26-34; 47—50
Memory Verse: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you… (Jeremiah 1:5)
Story Sample
Today we come to the end of the story of Jacob and his son Joseph. We have told you many stories about these two men and there are many more we could tell. Maybe you could ask your parents to read more to you about these two men from the book of Genesis.
After Joseph dealt with his brothers, as we heard last week, he sent them back to Canaan to return with Joseph’s father, Jacob. When they brought him to Egypt, Joseph and his family were all together again at last. Joseph took special care of Israel and his brothers. Jacob and his twelve sons were together, but they were in Egypt, not in the land that God had promised Abraham.
Do you remember Jacob in the beginning? From the time he was born, he was a supplanter, using trickery to always get what he wanted. But God came to him again and again and he was changed. At the end of his life he became a man who no longer tricked others but blessed them. When Joseph brought Jacob to Egypt to live with him, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. There is a custom that the lesser person is always blessed by the greater. Here Pharaoh was the top person in all of Egypt and yet he was blessed by Jacob. That must mean that Jacob was greater than Pharaoh! Wow! Also, at the end of his life Jacob blessed all of his sons, one by one. God had done so much with Jacob during his lifetime!
And we also know that, after being mistreated and sold by his brothers, and then enslaved in Egypt, his son Joseph became the ruler of Egypt. But from the very beginning, he trusted in the dreams that came to him from God. Later, when he was in prison, he interpreted the dreams of others: the cupbearer, the baker, and even Pharaoh. Even though the dreams he had as a child were not yet answered, he still believed that God was over those dreams. When he was young he had dreamed that his family would one day bow down to him, and as the ruler of Egypt, he finally had his dreams fulfilled.
The book of Genesis ends with the stories of these two men. It is so encouraging to see two such different lives and how much they changed – Jacob, from being one who tricked people to one who blessed them, and Joseph, from being one who was mistreated to one who ruled. God led them through so many things in order to change them.
Myself, I was a rowdy child who thought I was the best at everything I did. I did well in school, so I thought I knew everything; I was good at sports, so I thought I would always win; I obeyed when I went to the children’s meeting, so I thought I was a “good” girl; I was even respectful to my mom and dad (most of the time!), so I thought I was the perfect daughter. But eventually I failed at all those things; I failed a test at school, I lost a softball game, I was disobedient at children’s meeting, and worst of all, one day I disrespected my dad in the worst way. God changed me to one who believes that only God is the best at EVERYTHING. It makes me wonder what will happen to each one of you here in this room today. What will happen to you as you grow up? Only God knows where He will take each one of you. [Storyteller, insert your story of how you were changed as you grew older.]