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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 20 - God Promoted Joseph and Took Israel to Egypt

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

For this online lesson you may wish to open another window in your browser to view the Online Bible from the link above. A third window may be opened to view the Bible Dictionary as well. During your lesson you can toggle between the windows in your browser. Also, you can open a Word or WordPad/Notepad or other word processing program and use it to record answers to text questions or as a place to jot other questions that come into your mind during the study. Minimize your notes window while you are viewing pages in your browser and then maximize it to record more notes. You will see as you study that God has the marvelous ability to reveal His answers to us at just the right time and when He does, you may record this information into your notes.

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. What was the big difference between Esau and Jacob? Esau did not value God’s promises given to Abraham concerning the Deliverer. Esau did not admit he was a sinner and trust in God’s mercy. Esau lived for the present and for material gain. Jacob admitted that he was a sinner and trusted in God. Jacob valued the promises concerning the Deliverer.

2. Why didn’t God forget His promises about the Deliverer given to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and to Abraham? God didn’t forget because He is unchanging and He always does what He says.

3. What did Jacob see in the dream given to him by God? He saw a stairway resting on the earth with its top reaching to Heaven. God’s angels were walking up and down the ladder, and God stood above the ladder.

4. What did this dream mean? It meant that the Deliverer, who would be the descendant of Jacob, would be like the stairway connecting the earth to Heaven. Through the Deliverer, people could be brought back into oneness with God.

5. God spoke to Jacob in a dream. How does God speak to people today? God speaks to people today through His Word, the Bible.

6. Who was Jacob’s favorite son? Joseph.

7. How did Joseph’s older brothers react to their father’s love for Joseph? They were jealous, and they hated Joseph.

8. What did Joseph dream? Read Genesis 37:7-9.

9. What did these dreams mean? They meant that Joseph would be given a position of authority over all his family.

10. Who knew Joseph’s future and showed it to him through his dreams? God did.

11. How much of our future does God know? God knows it all.

12. What did Joseph’s older brothers do? They sold Joseph to become a slave in Egypt. 

In our last lesson we read how Joseph was sold to traders who took him to Egypt, where he was sold as a slave.

For a short time everything went well for Joseph in the home where he worked, but when his master’s wife made false accusations against him, Joseph was put into prison.

Joseph still trusted in God.

- Even though Joseph was hated by his brothers and lied about by his master’s wife, he still trusted in the only true and living God.

- He knew he was a sinner and could only be forgiven by God’s mercy.

- He trusted in God’s promises just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

No one can ever please God unless he believes what God says. The greatest thing that you can do is to accept God’s Word as the truth and to trust in all that He has written in the Bible.

- Consider:

Although God spoke to people in the past through dreams and was planning to show Pharaoh through his dream what was about to happen in Egypt, that is not God’s usual way of speaking to us now. Why is that? Does He no longer know what is going to happen? Of course He does. He has not changed. He still knows everything about the future. Since God doesn’t usually speak to people today through dreams, how then does He tell us what He wants us to know about the future? He teaches us the things He wants us to know through His Word, the Bible.

Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, did not know or worship the true and living God. The Egyptians worshiped the sun, moon, and stars, animals and creeping creatures, and the Nile River.

LOCATE EGYPT AND THE NILE RIVER ON THE MAP.

But even though they did not worship God, God planned to use this king and his country to fulfill the purposes of God.

God is ruler over all people and nations even though they may not know or worship Him.

- He can use anyone in whatever way He chooses to fulfill His purposes.

- God is sovereign.

- He is the supreme ruler of everything.

- Consider:

Whenever we make something, it belongs to us; and we make the choices about how our belongings will be used.

- If you make a batch of cookies, they’re yours to:

Keep

Give

Take to a bake sale.

- If you erect an apartment building, you decide whether to:

Rent it out

Make it into condominiums

Sell it to another owner.

God is the Creator of all people. He is the giver and sustainer of life.

- He has made us, and we rightfully belong to Him.

- God can do whatever He wishes with us.

- And because God is righteous, everything that He ever does to people is right.

- God was working through the lives of an Egyptian pharaoh and an Israelite prisoner on behalf of all of His people.

At this time, Joseph was in prison.

- Even there in prison, Joseph believed that God’s purposes were right for him.

- Though he did not know at the time how God was going to work, Joseph trusted God and lived by faith, believing that God would do what was best.

Joseph was unable to interpret the dreams of the king, but he trusted in the Lord to give him the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams. God gave Joseph understanding so that the king would know what was about to take place in his country. God never fails those who trust in Him.

Even though Joseph had been through difficult experiences, the Lord was still in control.

- The Lord had not forgotten Joseph.

- The dreams which God had given him as a youth were about to be fulfilled.

God always does what He plans.

- No one can stand against Him.

- When it was time for Him to do what He planned, He brought Joseph out of prison and gave him a high position, just like He had shown him through his dreams when he was a boy.

Again, God was bringing to pass the things that he had shown young Joseph in his dreams. His brothers did indeed bow down before him!

 

Joseph wept when he disclosed his true identity to his brothers. Rather than treating his brothers as their deeds deserved, Joseph explained to them that God was in control of the situation, and that He had used the brothers’ horrible actions to work for good.

God knows what is going to happen; God always keeps His promises.

- Many years before, God had told Abraham that his descendants would go to another country.

- Even though many hundreds of years had passed, God did what He had promised.

- All that God says in His Word will happen just as God has said.

A very difficult series of events in Joseph’s life actually was the unfolding of the fulfillment of God’s promise. The descendants of Jacob, or Israel, were now called the children of Israel, Israelites, or Israel.

Today, we are still hearing about Israel in the news. And today, God still keeps His promises. He is still the sovereign God. And through the Bible, He is still calling men to believe Him.  

QUESTIONS:

1. What happened to Joseph in Egypt?

2. Who took care of Joseph in prison?

3. Why did God take care of Joseph?

a. .

b.

c.

4. Who gave Joseph the understanding of Pharaoh’s dreams?

5. What did Pharaoh’s dreams mean?

6. Is God able to do whatever He wants to do even in places where the people do not know and worship Him?

7. How did God fulfill the dreams which He had given to Joseph when he was a youth?

8. Why did Jacob take all of his family down to live in Egypt?

a.

b.

c.

d.

9. What were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s descendants called?

10. What motivated Joseph to act as he did?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 96: Joshua, Chapters 4 and 5

Day 97: Joshua, Chapters 6 and 7

Day 98: Joshua, Chapters 8 and 9

Day 99: Joshua, Chapters 10 and 11

Day 100: Joshua, Chapters 12 and 13

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Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

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Lesson content compliments of  New Tribes Missions. Adaptations done by permission.