The Bible Course for Children

Joseph is Freed

Genesis Chapter 40 and 41

You now know the story of Joseph up to the point when he was in prison. But he didn't have to stay there forever.

How he was delivered from it, I am telling you today. Read the story in your Bible as well.

One day, two of Joseph's fellow prisoners have a dream. When they wake up in the morning, they know exactly what they dreamed, but they do not know what the dreams mean. When they tell Joseph the dreams, he can tell them what God has foretold to the two men in the dream. He tells these prisoners how their lives will continue. Just as Joseph interprets (that is, explains) the dreams, so it happens.

Two years later - Joseph is still in prison - the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has a dream. He asks all his servants what it might mean, but none can explain the dream. Then a servant of Pharaoh remembers that Joseph had correctly interpreted a dream for him years ago in prison. Therefore, Pharaoh quickly calls Joseph out of the prison and tells him the dream.

He says:

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none to interpret it. And I have heard say of you, you understand a dream to interpret it. (Genesis 41:15)

Joseph does not now answer: "Yes, I can do this!", no, he says: "God will answer what is beneficially to Pharaoh." Joseph is not a fortune teller or clairvoyant, but he knows the living God in heaven and knows that God will tell him the meaning of the dream. In verse 25 he says: "God has told Pharaoh what He is about to do."

What about dreams and their interpretation today? When Joseph was alive, the Bible did not yet exist, and therefore God often spoke to people through dreams. However, we have the Word of God, the Bible. We can read it and thereby recognize what God wants from us and what will happen in the future.

Therefore: Be careful with all fortune tellers, horoscopes, and the like! These things are always from the devil, not from God.

But now, let's continue with the interpretation of the king's dream:

Seven years shall come in which there will be great abundance throughout all the land of Egypt. After them, seven years of famine will follow (Genesis 41:29-30). Joseph explained that for seven years there would be a very good harvest of grain and then seven years when the harvest would be very, very poor. That's why the Pharaoh should collect and store grain during the years of good harvest, so that there is food to eat in the seven years that follow, and the people do not starve.

1

When the king hears the explanation of his dream, he says to Joseph (Genesis 41:39-40):

Your response:

  • only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.
  • After God has revealed all this to you, there is no one as wise and understanding as you.
  • shall all my people be ruled;
  • You shall be over my house, and at your command,

At this time, Joseph is 30 years old.

When he was sold into slavery by his brothers, he was 17 years old. So there were 13 years in which he had to live as a slave and prisoner, despite being completely innocent. Nevertheless, he did not lose his trust in God.

God rewarded him for it and set him free.

2

Under Joseph, the land was abundant.

And in the seven years of plenty the land brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years that was in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities; the food of the fields of the city, which were round about it, he laid up in it. And Joseph laid up corn as sand of the sea exceeding much, until they left off numbering; for it was without number. (Genesis 41:47-49)

Your response:

  • And Joseph stored up corn as sand of the sea, exceedingly much, until they left off counting, for it was without number.
  • And the land brought forth in the seven years of abundance by handfuls.
  • And he gathered up all the food of the seven years that were in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities; the food of the fields, which were round about each city, he stored up in the same.

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Bible course: The Bible Course for Children

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