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JU Good Character: The Story of Joseph Print E-mail
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Preparation:
  • Scripture readings from:    Genesis 37:1-36, Genesis 39:6-23, Genesis 41:41-57
  • Spend some time in prayer for the lesson and each student—that God will open their hearts and minds and teach them from His Word.
Introduction: 
There are some incredible people in the Bible who exemplify what it means to be a person of character.  We are going to look at several over the next couple of weeks.  Today we will look in the Old Testament and examine Joseph’s life.  There are several times throughout his life that he shows that he is a man of character and because he was a man of character, God rewarded him and allowed him to have power and money in the country of Egypt.  His life wasn’t perfect, however, he had to go through A LOT to get to that point …including being a slave and going to prison.

Discuss:
  • How many of you know the story of Joseph from the Old Testament?
Please note that this is not the Joseph in the New Testament who was the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus.  This is Joseph who was the son of Jacob (or Israel) and Jacob was the son of Isaac and Isaac was the son of Abraham.

Jacob had a total of 12 sons from his two wives and two concubines.  Joseph was the first son born to Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel, so Joseph was Jacob’s favorite.
  • Take a minute and imagine what it would be like to be the favorite child of your father.  Now take a moment and imagine what it would be like to be the other children who are not your father’s favorite.
  • How would it make you feel as the favorite?  How would you feel toward your siblings?
  • How would you feel to know that your father has a favorite and it isn’t you?  How would you feel toward the brother/sister who was the favorite? 

Activity/Digging deeper:  We are going to act out a couple of parts of the story of Joseph as we read it.  Have the students not only read it, but stand up—get into it!!  Choose a student to be the narrator, Israel/Jacob, Joseph, someone to be the voice of “the brothers”, Reuben and Judah.

Read/act out Genesis 37:1-36

Say:  After Joseph was sold into slavery, they took him to Egypt where he became a slave to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard.  Potiphar loved him and put him in charge of his entire household and God blessed Potiphar’s household because Joseph was in charge.  But then….. (assign someone to be Potiphar’s wife and Potiphar)

Read/act out Genesis 39:6-23

Say:  While he was in prison, a couple of guys (the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and the baker) who were also in prison had dreams that they wanted interpreted.  God told Joseph what the dreams meant and he told the two guys.  It turns out that the baker was executed but the cupbearer was released.  Joseph told the cupbearer to remember him and to have Pharaoh release him from prison.  Although the cupbearer promises to do that, he forgets all about Joseph once he’s out until two years later Pharaoh had a dream and wants it interpreted.  The cupbearer recommended that Joseph come to interpret it (since he’s done such a good job with his own dream!).  Pharaoh calls Joseph in and tells him the dream.  Joseph tells him that the dream means that there are going to seven good years—years of abundance with plenty of grain grown.  Those years will be followed by seven years of severe famine.  Joseph’s recommendation to Pharaoh was to find a wise man to put in charge of storing up the grain during the seven years of plenty in order to save it for the seven years of famine.  Pharaoh thinks that is a great idea and decides that Joseph is the man to do that! (assign someone to be Pharaoh)

Read/act out Genesis 41:41-57

Many of you probably remember how the story ends, but basically Joseph’s brothers end up coming to him because they needed food (pretty ironic, huh?).  Joseph eventually tells them who he is (because they didn’t recognize him!) and they have a family reunion with all the brothers and their father!!


Discuss: 
  • Based on this story that we have just acted out, where are some places that Joseph had good character?
  • What character qualities did you specifically see in him? (purity, honesty, etc.)
  •  Can you think of a time in your life that you have been in a situation where you had to choose whether you were going to do the right or wrong thing?  Share.
  • What do you think you would have done if you had been in the same situation as Joseph?  Would you trust God if your brothers had sold you into slavery and you had been put in prison?

Side Story:
Now is a great time for you as a professor to share something from your own life or the life of someone you know where you made the difficult decision to maintain your character rather than follow the crowd or do what may have seemed easier at the time.

Application:
Ask the students to consider how they would like to be like Joseph.  Have them come up with a situation where they have not been living as a person with good character (either at home or school or church or wherever) and have them come up with a different way to handle the situation when it comes up again during the week.  Professors….hold them accountable on this situation—ask them about it next week.

Close it out:
What are the benefits to being a person of good character? (God rewards you when you choose to do what is right…it will probably not be in the same way that he rewarded Joseph, and we may not really see our rewards until we get to heaven, but often there are earthly benefits to doing what God commands.)

Pray together and for each other!  Pray that God will help you choose to stand firm and obey His commands (that He gave us because He knows it is best for us!)
 
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