The story of Joseph ep. 1 - The dreams

There he is. There he is. The dreamer is coming. Let's kill him now. His dreams will die with him too. Let's not finish him, Reuben responded. After all, he is our brother. Instead, let's throw him in that pit and leave him there. And so they did. Kids, let's travel back in time. We will be traveling back to the land of Canaan around 3,500 years ago. Through our journey, we will discover the plans God had for one of Jacob's sons. Are you all seated and ready to go? Let's start our adventure through the life of Joseph. Welcome to the first story in the series called The Life of Joseph. Joseph was the son of Jacob and one of 12 brothers. He had 10 older brothers and one that was younger than him. Joseph was the favorite son ever since he was born. Jacob, their father, loved Joseph the most because he was the son of his favorite wife, Rachel. Rachel later gave birth to Benjamin, the youngest in the family. Our story starts when Joseph was a teenager around the age of 17. He and his brothers looked after their father's sheep and goats. His older brothers could not stand him because their father loved him more than he loved them. And because Joseph was in the habit of telling their father about the bad things his brothers would do. To show his special love for Joseph, Jacob had a very special robe of many colors made for him. One night, Joseph had a strange dream. The events in his dream had him wondering what it meant. At a loss to understand his dream, he went to his brothers to share his unusual dream with them. Here is what he told them. We were all tying up bundles of grain in the field. All of a sudden, my bundle rose and stood upright while your bundles gathered around mine and bowed down to it. Are you saying you will reign over us and we will be your servants? His brothers responded full of anger and hatred. But Joseph did not know how to answer. Soon after that, Joseph had another dream in which the sun, the moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to him. Joseph could not help but tell his dream to his father and brothers. His father Jacob was not happy with what he had heard. Jacob scolded his son Joseph. What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come bow down before you? Jacob was not fond of his son's dream. However, he kept wondering in his heart what that dream might mean. Jacob and his family lived in Hebron, the very same place where his grandfather Abraham had lived. Jacob's flocks were so large that his sons would often not find enough grazing places for their sheep and goats. Sometimes they would have to travel far away to feed them. One time, Jacob sent his ten older sons to Shechem to feed his flocks there. They had been gone for a few weeks by now, and Jacob called Joseph and told him, Joseph, as you know, your brothers are feeding our family's flocks near Shechem. Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me. Jacob gave Joseph food for the road and some to take to his brothers. And so Joseph left immediately, as it was over 50 miles to Shechem. Once he got there, he looked for his brothers all over the field, but they were nowhere to be found. What shall I tell my father who trusted me to find my brothers? Joseph wondered. As soon as he was getting ready to go back home, he saw a man approaching him. He ran to that man and asked him if he knew where his brothers were grazing their flocks. Your brothers have moved on from here. I heard them say they were going to Dothan. The man answered. Joseph thanked him and went after his brothers. His brothers saw him approaching from a distance and quickly gathered and said to each other, Here comes the dreamer. Come now, let us do away with him and see what will become of his dreams. But Reuben, the oldest of the brothers, did not agree with this idea, so he suggested they would do something else to get rid of Joseph. Do not take his life, for he is our brother, said Reuben. We better throw him in a pit and leave him there. In his heart, Reuben was secretly planning to save Joseph from the wrath of his other brothers. He would rescue Joseph from the pit and safely bring him back to their father. When Joseph approached them, they stripped him of his ornate robe and threw him into the pit. Joseph was very scared, so he started sobbing. Ignoring his cries, his brothers sat far away and enjoyed the food Joseph had given them from their father. While they were eating and having a good time, they noticed a caravan of Ishmaelites getting closer and closer to them. Their camels were loaded with incense, myrrh, and other spices they were planning to sell at the markets in Egypt. That's when Judah caught himself thinking out loud. What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd better take him out of the pit and sell him to the Ishmaelites. That way, we won't be guilty for taking his life, and we'll make some money, too. And so they did. They pulled him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. After they sold him, they divided the money among themselves and returned to their flocks. Then the brothers worked together to make up a story about what had happened to Joseph to share with their dad. They finally decided to make their dad believe that Joseph was killed by wild animals in the desert. So their father would believe their made-up story, they dipped their brother's robe of many colors in the blood of a goat they had slaughtered. They then took the blood-stained robe to their father Jacob. Jacob refused to believe that his beloved son was no longer alive. But when he saw the blood-stained robe, he was sure his son had died. He cried over his son's death for several days. Children, our journey does not end here. God had much bigger plans for Joseph's life. But for now, we'll leave Canaan for the day and return back to the present time. Joseph obeyed God even in his trials. I wonder if we're ready to obey him always, and if we're willing to follow the plans he has for our lives. The series of stories, The Life of Joseph, will continue. We invite you to watch the rest of the series when we publish new episodes. Produced by David and Goliath Productions, you can re-watch this episode, along with the rest of this series, on YouTube on the DG Bible Stories channel. Also, you can find our series in audio format on most podcast apps. We invite you to listen to the DG Bible Songs music. You can find it on YouTube, as well as on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms.