coat of many colors – Michelle Lesley

Previous Lessons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27

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Read Genesis 37

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Questions to Consider

1. Where was “the land of [Jacob’s] father’s sojournings”? (1) Review lesson 27 (link above) if necessary.

2. How many children (sons and daughters (35)) did Jacob have, and what were their names? Which of Jacob’s children does chapter 37 focus on? Why? (36, Exodus 1:1-6)

3. What are some principles we can learn from Jacob, Joseph, and the brothers about being godly parents, children, and siblings both in our biological families and our church families?

4. In what ways does Jacob’s unique love and honor for Joseph paint a picture of God’s unique love and honor for Christ, His Son, as well as for us, His sons and daughters through Christ?

5. What are some elements of Joseph’s life that point us ahead to the life and ministry of Christ?

(2)-

(3)-

(4-5)-

(7,9)-

(8,10)-

(12-16)-

(18)-

(20-22,24)-

(23)-

(26-28,36)-

(28)-

(29-30)-

(31)-

(32-34)-

6. Compare and contrast verses 5-8 with the subsequent mistreatment Joseph received at the hands of his brothers. Might Joseph have been tempted to focus on his circumstances and allow them to cause him to doubt God’s Word to him in 5-8?

7. How did the brothers’ sin impact their family? How has your own sin impacted your family and/or your church family?

Homework

Have you ever been in a situation as dire as Joseph’s that caused you to doubt the truth of God’s written Word? How was God faithful to bring you through that situation? In what ways did He show Himself to be true to His Word? Find a passage of Scripture that proved true in your situation, and write it out.

Suggested Memory Verse

Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.
Genesis 37:31

Throwback Thursday, Types and Shadows

Throwback Thursday ~ In the Shadow of the Son

April 23, 2015April 21, 2015 Michelle Lesley

Originally published March 6, 2013

Once, there was a father who sent his beloved son on a journey far away from home. The son was to seek out the father’s other children who had been separated from the father for quite some time. Quite willingly, the son went.

But when the son arrived at his destination, he found that his brothers had strayed away from where they were supposed to be, seeking greener pastures. So the son went after them and found them. He met them right where they were.

His brothers saw their father’s favored son coming for them. They hated him and everything he said and stood for because they knew he was to be in authority over them. It had been foretold. They conspired to kill him and bury him in a pit. Then, the prophecy of his authority over them would not come true.

The brothers stripped him of his robe and drenched it in the blood of an animal they had sacrificed for this purpose. They stripped him of his dignity, his favored status, and, if possible, his father’s love and approval. It was an attempted coup to knock the prince off his throne.

When they were finished, they threw him into a pit that had never held another man’s body. They sat down to eat, returning to life as usual.

But it wasn’t enough. Revenge is a meal that never satiates.

The brothers determined to turn the favored son over to a rough pack of wealthy heathens. They wouldn’t dirty their hands to kill him. Their brother’s life would rest in the hands of foreigners who had no part in their family line. And so the son’s fate was sealed.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:8-9

His closest brother sold him out for pieces of silver, for the price of a slave. Life, as he knew it, was over.

Later, another brother would peer into the pit to see what had become of him. “He is gone!” the brother discovered to his great distress and sadness. Little did he know that the favored son had risen up out of the pit. He would rise in power to deliver the very brothers who had hated him and plotted his death, as well as myriads of others who didn’t even know him.

Who was this favored son? He is the One who has taken away our reproach and added us as sons and daughters into God’s family. He is Joseph, the forefather. He is Jesus, the Son.

Based on Genesis 37.

Bible, Types and Shadows