A Slave Who Obeyed God

Joseph was one of Jacob’s younger sons. His older brothers saw that Joseph was their father’s favorite son. How do you think they felt about that? They were jealous of Joseph and hated him. When Joseph had some unusual dreams, he told his brothers about them. They thought the dreams meant that they would one day bow down to him. Now they hated him even more!

One day Joseph’s brothers were looking after sheep near the city of Shechem. Jacob sent Joseph to see how they were doing. From far away they saw Joseph coming and said to one another: ‘Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him!’ They grabbed him and threw him into a deep pit. But Judah, one of his brothers, said: ‘Don’t kill him! Let’s sell him as a slave instead.’ So they sold Joseph for 20 pieces of silver to Midianite merchants who were going to Egypt.

Then Joseph’s brothers dipped his coat in the blood of a goat, sent the coat to their father, and said: ‘Isn’t this your son’s coat?’ So Jacob thought that a wild animal had killed Joseph. He was heartbroken. No one could comfort him.

In Egypt, Joseph was sold as a slave to an important official named Potiphar. But Jehovah was with Joseph. Potiphar saw that Joseph was good at his work and that he could be trusted. Soon Joseph was put in charge of everything Potiphar owned.

Potiphar’s wife noticed that Joseph was handsome and strong. Day after day she asked Joseph to lie down with her. What would Joseph do? He refused and said: ‘No! This is wrong. My master trusts me, and you are his wife. If I lie down with you, I will sin against God!’

One day Potiphar’s wife tried to force Joseph to lie down with her. She grabbed him by his clothes, but he ran away. When Potiphar came home, she said that Joseph had attacked her. She was not telling the truth. Potiphar was very angry, and he threw Joseph into prison. But Jehovah did not forget about Joseph.