Part II: Joseph's Brothers Sell HIm into Slavery

The story of Joseph may well be my very favorite in the Old Testament. God orchestrates events, tragic ones, in a way that shows all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. As you read this story, the foreshadowing of the coming savior Jesus is clear and exciting: A Father's beloved son, hated by His sinful brothers and left for dead, becomes the means of salvation for the sinful brothers who had hated Him.

We opened by putting together a puzzle of Joseph's beautiful colorful coat, given to Him by His Father who loved Him. Each stripe had a phrase from our verse Psalm 121:8 "The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore." The last piece was a splotch of red to signify the animal's blood that the deceitful brothers had splashed on the coat to deceive their father regarding Joseph's fate. The children took turns putting pieces in place and we sang the jingle after each piece.

Next, we moved to our table time and worked on our Attributes of God book. I reminded them that "attributes" are things about God, telling us who He is. We made two signs to go over two columns on our page, one saying "God" and the other "Man". We are going to show attributes that only God has (He is infinite, eternal and unchangeable) and attributes that only man has (we are finite, temporal, changeable.) Then we will add a third column in the middle showing attributes both God and man share. We are going slowly with this, taking time to explain each of the big words. This week, I told the children that "infinite" means that God is everywhere and that He is not limited in anyway. The intention is to supply a substantial answer to the well-known child's question "What is God like?" Little by little, we will lay it all out: "God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and Truth." I find this simple sentence, from the Westminster Confession, has been a great comfort and the key to much understanding in my own life.

Then we moved over to our story time circle. We had a lot of wiggles to get out, since we had been dealing with weighty issues (and sticking down golden letters spelling out "God" and "Man") so we did some fingerplays and played "My Head, My Shoulders, My Knees, My Toes..." faster and faster. This prepared the children for story time. For our opening, I layed out two boxes of pencils: one was all plain pencils, the other was pencils of all different colors with monkeys on them. I asked the children which they would choose. They all said the monkeys. I agreed that I would choose that box too. The pencils are fancier and better quality. We all like to have what is best for ourselves. Then I explained that that was okay, but that sometimes someone else might have what is best -- and we would want to have it INSTEAD of them. This is called being jealous, and we all deal with it because we are all sinful. Then I told them in today's story, they would hear about some very jealous brothers.

I told the story of Joseph, emphasizing that God is all-powerful and that He has preserved Joseph's life by sending a caravan, giving the brothers the idea to sell Joseph rather than leave him to die. Also, God is sovereign and He WANTED Joseph to end up in Egypt. I made sure they understood that even though it might look like God had forgotten Joseph -- he was in control of all that happened and had a plan and purpose for each thing.

We played a verse review game by laying out paper with pictures for each verse on orange paper and activities on red paper. I had children take turns picking an orange paper and and a red paper, then we sang that verse while doing the activity. We made sure to go all around the room doing the activity!

We finished by coloring our picture and answering questions about Joseph being sold into slavery by the brothers who hated him.