Robbie: Last week we learned about Jacob and Esau. Today I am going to tell you the story of Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph. Jacob loved Joseph so much, he gave him a special coat with bright colored stripes on it. The coat was beautiful but it made his brothers very jealous.

God loved Joseph too and He had big plans for him. God told Joseph about his plan in dreams. One day Joseph told his brothers all about his dreams.

Joseph: And I dreamed that there were all these bundles of wheat and they bowed down to my bundle of wheat. Isn’t that cool? That’s not all!

Brother 1: (getting angrier) Really, dear brother Joseph. Do tell!

Joseph: In this one, the sun moon and stars bowed down to me! How cool is that?

Brothers 1 and 2: Grrrr....

Robbie: So one day when Joseph was coming out to see his brothers...

Brother 1: Here comes Joseph. Let’s kill him!

Brother 2: I say we throw him down the well.

Brothers: Yah!!!!!

Joseph: Hey guys, what’s up? Why are you looking at me that way? (Brothers throw him down the pit.) Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

Brothers: Ha ha ha ha!

Brother 1: If he gets found, Dad is going to be, like, soooo mad!

Brother 2: Look!

Robbie: Across the field there came some men who bought and sold slaves. The brothers got a really mean idea.

Brother 2: Let’s sell him! Then we can tell dad that an animal ate him. We’ll pocket the money and buy a new Play Station game with it.

Brother 1: Good idea, except for one thing.

Brother 2: What?

Brother 1: Play Station hasn’t been invented yet, you bozo!

Brother 2: Oh yeah.

Robbie: So they sold Joseph to the men and the men took Joseph to Egypt. When the brothers went back to their father Jacob, they told him that Joseph had been eaten by a crocodile and all that was left was his beautiful coat. Jacob cried about this for a long, long time.

Meanwhile, Joseph was doing OK. God was helping him and gave him the special power to understand what dreams meant. That gift made him so popular that the Pharoah, the king of Egypt put him in charge of all Egypt.

Pharoah: (New Jersey Accent) Joseph my boy! I have had a weird dream! I ate cucumbers before bedtime but that usually just gives me nightmares. This dream wasn’t scary just totally bananas!

Joseph: The dream was about bananas?

Pharoah: No. no, the dream is driving me bananas.

Joseph: Oh, well what was the dream about, your highness?

Pharoah: Ok, so there’s these 7 fat cows right? And then there comes these skinny cows and the skinny cows eat up the fat cows. I just don’t get it. Nope, I just don’t get it! What does it mean?

Joseph: That’s easy, sire! We are going to have 7 years of great crops and 7 years of bad crops. We need to plant and harvest and store all we can so we will have enough food for the 7 years of no crops.

Pharoah: Oh, I get it! Say, your pretty good, Kid! Stick with me, you’ll go places!

Robbie: So the people of Egypt did what Joseph told them. Soon they had tons of food stored up. Because they had no food, everyone needed to get food from Joseph in Egypt. One day, even Joseph’s brothers showed up to buy food. Joseph gave them food but they didn’t recognize him at first. Then... he told them who he was. They bowed down to him, just like in the dreams. Joseph forgave his brothers for being mean to him. Jacob was thrilled to find out his son was alive and well. Joseph gave his family plenty of food to take back with them. He saved their lives even though they had been so mean. Now that’s a hero!