GOD BUILDS HIS NATION
JOSEPH
MANY BAD THINGS HAPPENED TO JOSEPH
BUT HE KNEW THAT GOD USED THEM FOR A PURPOSE
(Genesis 45:5-8)
Joseph’s own brothers sold him!
Well actually they even wanted to kill him. But his oldest brother, Reuben, tried to save him.
Joseph even spent a few years in jail!
But God gave him the ability to understand dreams
And PHAROAH the king, needed dreams to be explained
And eventually Joseph became the top ruler for the king
And that is how he brought his family to Egypt
Where God planned for them to grow into a great nation
We learnt about Abraham - and how God would build a great nation through Abraham
Abraham had a son called ISAAC
ISAAC had 2 children called JACOB & ESAU
JACOB has 12 sons, and JOSEPH was one of them!
God began again with Noah, this time with a single nation, whose task it would be to tell all the other nations about God. First of all God had to form that nation.
To do this, He chose a man whose name was Abram (later changed to Abraham). Abram was Noah’s great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson. God blessed Abram and told him that all the families on earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3). In time, Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, had 12 sons, whose descendants became the 12 tribes of Israel. But how does a family become a nation? Somehow, God had to keep all these people together until there were enough of them to form the nation of Israel. To do this, God sent a famine in that land. Because of this, Jacob and his family went to live in Egypt, where there was plenty of food, and where one of his sons, Joseph, had become the Prime Minister. After Joseph died, the Egyptians made the Israelites slaves. This kept the Israelites in Egypt until, after 400 years, there were enough of them to become the nation that God wanted to form.
At the right time, God made the Pharaoh of Egypt release the people of Israel. God then led them by His servant Moses to the land of Canaan, which He wanted to be their homeland. At first the Israelites were unwilling to trust God and enter the land, so God made them wait for another 40 years until the people of that generation had died, and there was a new generation made up of their children, who were willing to obey God. God gave the Israelites, through Moses, His Law, including the Ten Commandments.
www.creation.com
JOSEPH LIVED FOR 110 YEARS - AND HIS FAMILY GREW IN EGYPT
BEFORE JOSEPH DIED HE TOLD HIS FAMILY THAT
GOD WOULD HELP THEM AND LEAD THEM OUT OF EYGPT
AND BACK TO THE PROMISED LAND
“Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” GENESIS 50:24