Joseph Goes to Jail

After Joseph was sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites, he was taken to Egypt where he was put in charge of the house of Potiphar, who was one of Pharaoh's officials. Potiphar trusted Joseph.
But one day Potiphar’s wife told a lie about Joseph. Does this sound familiar? Remember Joseph’s brothers told a lie about him also.
Joseph was put in jail. But while Joseph was in jail, the Lord was with him and he was favored by the warden. The warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Sometime later the Pharaoh became angry with his cupbearer and his baker and they were both put in the same jail where Joseph was being held.
One night the cupbearer had a dream and the baker also had a dream. Joseph saw that they were sad and asked them what was wrong. They told Joseph that they had both had dreams and there was no one to tell them what the dreams meant. Joseph asked them “Does not the telling of the meanings of the dreams belong to God?” Then he asked them to tell him their dreams.
So the cupbearer told Joseph his dream and Joseph told him the meaning of the dream. Then he asked him to remember him when the dream was shown to be true, and to mention him to Pharaoh so he would be released from the jail. When the baker saw the favorable meaning of the cupbearer’s dream, he asked for the meaning of his dream to be told to him also. Joseph told him, but his dream did not have a good meaning.
The dream of the cupbearer came true and he was put in the position he held before he was sent to jail, but he did not tell the Pharaoh about Joseph. The baker’s dream also came true and he was killed, just as in his dream.

We learned that several times people told lies about Joseph, and through it all Joseph is faithful to God. He does not understand why the things are happening to him.
We have people that we know that tell lies about people and sometimes it seems like God does not even notice, but God always knows what is happening to his children. And what the people who tell the lies don’t understand is that God takes these bad times and uses them in His own special way for good.
I know about people who had people tell lies about them, and even though we may think that God has forgotten about us, He has special things in mind. He knows all about our situation and he has plans for us. We just need to stay faithful to God and wait for Him to work things out in His own time. And we must also remember that His time is not always our timing, but He will work things out.

For activities we had pages to color of the story. We sang songs and had snacks. I always send the color sheets home with the children and they can tell the story to their parents.

Suggestions for snacks: Someone could be the “Cupbearer” and pass out cups of juice or Kool-aid. Someone else could be the “Baker” and serve cookies or cupcakes.

Other suggestions: Have the children play the parts of the characters and act out the story.
Talk about dreams and have the children tell about dreams that they have had.