Joseph's Colored Coat
The father of the Jewish Nation, Israel, had twelve sons.
Those twelve sons became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. One son, named
Joseph, was born when Israel was an old man. Joseph had a younger brother named Benjamin
and Israel loved both his young sons very much. Sometimes the other sons felt he loved the
younger boys more than he loved them.
| Joseph's father did feel a special love for Joseph, because
Israel was very old when Joseph was born. He showed his love by giving Joseph a beautiful
coat. |
 |
This coat had many bright colors in it. In
those days, colored cloth was very expensive, so the gift was very special. Joseph's
brothers were so angry that they began to hate him and could not even talk to him. |
Joseph was a dreamer. But, his dreams were
special. God used Joseph's dreams to help save a nation.
| One day Joseph told his brothers about a dream
he had. He dreamed that he and his brothers were working in the field, gathering sheaves
(bunches) of wheat. In his dream, his brothers' sheaves bowed down to his sheaf. His
brothers did not like this dream because they thought Joseph felt he was better than they
were. |
|
Later, he told them another dream. He dreamed
that the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to him. This made his brothers
very angry. They thought the dream meant that they should fall down and worship
Joseph. |
One day, Israel sent Joseph to find his
brothers who were watching the flocks. They had traveled with the flocks some distance
away and Joseph wandered around looking for them. Finally, he found a stranger who knew
where his brothers were.
| When the brothers saw Joseph coming, (they
probably knew it was Joseph because he wore his colored coat) they began to talk to each
other about how they could get rid of him. They even talked about killing him. |
|
But, one brother, Reuben, talked the brothers
into putting Joseph in a pit in the ground, instead of killing him. He secretly planned to
go back later and rescue Joseph. They grabbed Joseph and put him in the hole in the
ground, then sat down to eat their food. |
| Soon, a group of traders came by and Judah had
an idea. He told his brothers they should sell Joseph to the traders. So they did. |
|
When Reuben came back to rescue Joseph, he was
gone. He was very upset. The brothers decided to put the blood of an animal on Joseph's
beautiful coat and tell their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. |
When they told their father the story, Israel
was so sad and upset that he tore his clothes off. His whole family gathered around to
comfort him. All the brothers kept silent about the truth.
So, Joseph was taken away and his new owners sold him to a
man who worked for the Pharaoh (king) of Egypt.