介绍:
Teacher's pet!
When I was a little girl, that was the class would call the boy or girl that seemed to be the teacher's favorite. In our Bible lesson today, Joseph was the favorite of 12 sons. The Bible says that his old father Jacob loved Joseph best because he was the son of his old age. Perhaps there are other reasons as well. We do know that Joseph was a very wise and obedient son even at just 17 years of age. And according to Genesis chapter 37, not all of Jacob's sons were that way.
As far as we know, all of Jacob's sons were shepherds. That means they watched over their father's many herds of animals. Joseph was sent by his father one day to check on 4 of his brothers. They were out in the field with the herds.And the Bible tells us that Joseph had to bring back an honest report to his father. But oh, oh, Joseph brought back to his father their evil report. That means they were doing very bad things. What it was we don't know for there are many many ways to sin. Disobeying our parents or pouting, perhaps Jacob’s sons mistreating the animals, maybe they were talking mean to each other or saying dirty things. Oh, there are many ways to sin, but there is one everlasting punishment. The punishment for sin is that we were separated from God forever. You know, you may look at someone else and say："At least I don't do what they do!" But remember, God sees us all as sinners. And He saw what Jacob's sons were doing even though we don't really know what it was. When Joseph brought back the evil report to his father, his father knew it was true for Joseph was honest. He was a son who loved to obey and please his father, a son that could be trusted. How Jacob loved that boy, so much so that he made a special coat with many colors just for Joseph. It was a coat like a king's son would wear. You know it was probably easy for Jacob to love Joseph because Joseph was a wise and obedient son, and the son of his old age. God loves you and me even when he sees us filthy in our sin. Isn't that sin like filthy cloth？God loves us so much, that He sent someone to change clothes with us, well ,sort of. You see, when Jesus died on the cross almost 2000 years ago, the Lord Jesus was taking your sin and my sin that filthy filthy garment of sin upon Him, so that we can have His pure, clean righteousness that was also like a garment, or coat. Oh how much God loved us, to do that for us, much more than Jacob could have ever loved his son Joseph. Of course he loved him, and everybody knew it including those 10 Joseph's bothers. Now Benjamin was the baby brother, so he didn't know much about this. But those 10 older brothers saw that new coat Joseph had, and they were very upset. And when his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than them, they hated him. They could not speak peaceably to him. They were thinking, not only was Joseph a little tattle tail, but he was daddy's favorite that he could get something special they couldn't get. Oh my, their hearts were so full of jealousy.
The Bible says that one night, Joseph had a dream. It was a strange dream, and when he woke up the next morning he wanted to tell someone about it. Now, if it were you and me, would we want to tell those brothers？No, we would be so upset with them, who would want to talk to them？Do you know Joseph had such a forgiving spirit, that is exactly where he went. And this is what he said to them. "Hear, please, I want you to hear what I dreamed. We were in the fields, and we were bundling our bundles of wheat. And all of a sudden, my bundle of wheat stood up, and yours stood up too. And all of a sudden , your bundles of grain bowed down to my bundle." Oh, how do you think those brothers felt？They spoke to him："Do you think are you trying to tell us that you are going to rule over us？Do you think that you are going to have dominion over us？" The Bible says "And they hated him yet the more, for his dreams and for his words." What will Joseph's brothers do？You can be sure it is a very shocking story next week. So don’t miss it.
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