Lessons from the Life of Joseph pt 2: Forgiveness

This story is part of the Beyond the Story: Life Application Series for kids. These are perfect to be used in your jr church/jr high classes or to be used as part of your homeschool discipleship program. You can download all of the additional resources for this lesson here, or you can grab the entire pack of 52 lessons and resource packs here. This series is ideal for kids who know the Bible stories already and are ready to hear them with a deeper understanding of how they relate to their every day lives.

If you’re new here, I’m Tonya Johnson, founder of Helping Hearts Ministries where I specialize in working with parents and ministry leaders who are focused on building a solid foundation for the next generation. I believe that it’s important to stay ahead of the crowd when it comes to keeping the attention of our children. As homeschoolers, we have the unique advantage of being able to tailor our child's education in a way that fosters that child/parent relationship and ignites their love for both learning and Jesus. The world is fighting for their hearts; we need to fight 10x harder. 

The scavenger hunt, heart walk review game, verse cards, song sheets, lesson (printable form with review questions highlighted) and craft are all part of the Download Pack. 

For a small group of kids (10 or less), give each kid one half of a broken heart and have them hunt to find the other half. For a larger group, divide the kids into teams and give each team one half of a broken heart. This works best if you print the hearts onto different colored paper. When the kids find the other half of their heart, they bring it back to their seat with them. Important: Remind kids that if the heart they find does not belong to them, leave it where it is. 

-forgiveness is for you, not for the other person

-only you can forgive, not one can do it for you. 

This week's snack is super easy!! Give each kid a ring pop and a bowl of grapes. We're focusing on Joseph's life after he became Pharoah's right hand, so the grapes and ring pop remind us of Joseph's royal status during this time. Another variation is to give each kid grapes to eat during the lesson, and then the ring pop can be passed out right before they leave. If you're working with a smaller budget, consider getting one or two ring pops and using them as a quiet seat prize instead of giving one to each child. 

Items needed: Ring pop for each kid, grapes

You may choose to read the story of Joseph directly from the Bible (Genesis 39-47), a bible story book, or by writing out your own words. I always recommend using scripture throughout your story, regardless of which route you decide. The life application is forgiveness regardless of what is done to you. You can grab free bible story images here for every Bible story.

So last week we talked about Joseph being sold to some men from Egypt as a slave. Joseph was brought to potiphar. He was the captain of the guard for the Pharaoh which was kind of like the king, and Potiphar liked him. Potiphar saw that he was a hard worker and the Bible says he made Joseph “overseer” of his house. Unfortunately, Potiphar’s wife also liked Joseph and wanted Joseph to be her boyfriend. Now, if you’re married, are you supposed to have a boyfriend, NO!. Joseph loved God, and he knew this was wrong so he ran away from Potiphar’s wife. This made her so mad that she lied to Potiphar and said that Joseph tried to kiss her. Was this true? No, but Potiphar believed his wife and threw Joseph in jail. So now, not only has Joseph been thrown into slavery, he’s now in prison. How do you think he felt about his brothers now? He was probably really mad at them right?

While he was in jail, there was a baker and a butler in there also that Joseph became friends with. Each of these men had a dream that they didn’t know what it meant, so they asked Joseph to interpret them, or tell them what they meant. The butler’s dream meant that he was going to come out of jail and get to be the head butler to the Pharaoh again. Now Joseph was well liked in jail, even the guards liked him and put him in charge of things. He told the butler, "Hey, when you go back to Pharoah’s house, remember me". Remind me, who is the Pharaoh, what did he do? Yes, so he had a lot of power! Joseph said, "Tell Pharaoh that I’m down here and that he should get me out too". Do you think the butler remembered him? No, he got out and the Bible says he forgot all about Joseph. If you were Joseph how would you feel if that happened to you?

One night though, Pharaoh had a dream and no one could interpret it. You know what happened then? The butler was like "Oh, I remember this guy in jail his name is Joseph who can interpret dreams". Pharaoh called to Joseph, and Joseph explained that the dream meant there would be 7 good years and then 7 years of famine, who knows what a famine is? Yes, no food or very little food. Joseph didn’t do this on his own, he told Pharaoh that God was the one interpreting the dreams and telling Joseph what to say. Joseph also told him of a plan on how to make sure his people always had food, even through the years of famine. Now Pharaoh liked this, he liked having someone whom God was showing favor to so he decided to make Joseph ruler. Joseph was in charge of all of the food for the entire country of Egypt.

Now, the 7 years of plenty came, and Joseph directed everyone in Egypt to bring part of their corn to store it for the bad times. That way when the food stopped growing, everyone would still be able to survive. Other countries didn’t do this, so when the 7 years of famine came, people from all the surrounding countries came to Joseph to buy food, guess who showed up? His brothers!! Now if your brothers sold you into slavery, and then you sat in jail for two years, would you give them food when they came asking? What would you do?
You know what the Bible says? In Ephesians 4:32 it says, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” God forgave us and loved us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for us. There’s nothing anything else can do that’s worse than us being the reason Jesus died, so we’re commanded to forgive people just like God forgave us. Do you think Joseph forgave his brothers right away? Do you think it was easy for him?

the Bible says it was very hard for Joseph to forgive his brothers, and he actually put them through several tests before forgiving them. In the end though, he did forgive his brothers even though they had done a horrible thing to him.

Ever done a cakewalk? This is set up similarly. Prior to class, print hearts out on different colored paper and write numbers 1-20 on the back of each heart (more than 20 kids? divide into groups of 20 or less) Put colored hearts in a circle with the questions down, numbers side up. Play music and have the kids start walking; when the music stops they stop. Call out a random number, and the child standing on that number picks their heart up and answers the corresponding question. You can choose to give points or prizes for this. All kids stay in until you get down to the same number of hearts as kids. For example, let's say you have 12 kids. When you get down to 12 hearts, every time a kid answers a question they sit down (hearts never go back on the ground once a question is answered). To add extra fun, the last kid standing gets an extra special prize if they answer their question correctly. 

Before class: Print a set of circle for each kid. If your class is on the younger side, cut the circles out ahead of time. 

The kids can color while music is playing, and then workers can walk around the room helping assemble the wheel with brads.

Geared toward children ages 7+, this series is designed for kids who know the basics of each Bible story already. Maybe they've been in church since birth, or maybe they're just a bright child who memorizes facts easily. Either way, they're ready to look beyond the story. 

They're ready for a more in depth look at each major story in the Bible with an emphasis on how they can apply the biblical principles in their every day life, real world style.

If this sounds like something that could benefit your homeschool or your church, click the button below.

Grab this free Bible Lesson Planner, and turn any bible story into an exciting lesson! 

If you like anything you see, simply click on the picture for more information.