Mercy is a tool of a Real Hero

The Coat of Many Colors

We can relate Joseph to what our Lord went through. Joseph was the firstborn son of the beloved wife and the favorite son of his father. When he was sold as a slave to execute a plan to deliver his brothers from death, they gave the coat of many colors dipped in the blood of a lamb to his father. Christ was the favorite Son of God from His beloved wife Israel. He executed a plan of many colors by giving us a robe of righteousness dipped in His own blood. The white robe of righteousness is the coat of many colors.

Josephs Tunic

For an seamless garment such as an tunic, one might want to use an element of ornamentation by weaving with threads previously dyed.

Special threads of many colors that were being saved for the first-born.

Josep's father loved him more than he did his brothers, and had shown his preference by making him a dress (don't laugh) which appears to have been a long tunic with sleeves, worn by youths and maidens of the richer class. (See my notes on Matthew 6:1, night visions.)

Now it's most likely also that some of the Hebrew apparel of the day was a patchwork of many different colors due to them being embroidered.

A very long time ago in a place called Canaan there lived a man named Jacob.
Jacob married Rachel.
Jacob had twelve sons.
Jacob loved all his sons but his favorite son was his eleventh son, Joseph.

Joseph had dreams that he would tell his father.
His dreams made his brothers mad at him.
He would dream that the stars in the sky would bow down before him.

His father gave him a gift.
A rainbow colored coat made from the finest fabric.
The fabric was beautiful and soft.
Not at all like the rough fabric that his brothers wore.
The gift by their father to Joseph made the brothers jealous. One day the brothers were tending the sheep. Joseph went to check on them. The brothers saw him walking toward them wearing the coat of many colors and that made them more and more angry. 
  When he approached his brothers, they grabbed him. They tore off his beautiful coat. They threw Joseph in a pit. Later, a group of traders were coming. The brothers took Joseph from the pit. They gave him to the traders who were going to Egypt.

 Joseph being lead off as his brothers collect the money for him.

They had to tell their father something that wasn't true. They couldn't let their father know what had happened. They took Joseph's coat and smeared it with animal's blood. They went to their father and showed him the coat. Jacob cried when he saw the coat. He thought his son was killed by an animal.
The brothers said nothing. Joseph wasn't dead. He was living in Egypt He was sold to a rich man as his slave. Joseph worked very hard. Joseph knew that God would take care of him. The Pharaoh, the King of Egypt had some dreams that he couldn't understand. He told his smartest men the dreams. Not one of them understood the dreams.
Someone told Pharaoh about Joseph and that he might be able to understand them.
Pharaoh sent for Joseph.  Joseph said, "It is not I who can do it but God. He will tell you what your dreams mean." He told Joseph his dreams. "A hard time comes for Egypt, Pharaoh.  A time when there will be no food.  Begin preparing now, " said Joseph. Pharaoh was so happy with Joseph. He made Joseph free. Joseph was no longer a slave. "You will work with me.  Begin preparing for the hard times to come," said Pharaoh Joseph worked hard. He gathered the food. He became the second in command of Egypt He became rich and powerful When the bad years came, the people did not go hungry. There was plenty of food because of Joseph. During the hard times, Jacob and his other sons didn't have enough food. Jacob told his sons to go to Egypt and get some food. He did not know why, but there was plenty of food there. When they got to Egypt, the brothers went to the one in charge of selling food. This man was Joseph. They didn't recognize Joseph. He was rich and wearing fine clothes. Joseph knew who they were but didn't say anything to them. He welcomed them and sold them the food they needed. The brothers left. Soon, they needed more food. Jacob told them to return to Egypt. This time when the brothers went to Joseph to buy more food, Joseph said,"I am Joseph."
The brothers were surprised. The brothers were sorry for what they had done to Joseph.
"Don't be angry with yourselves that you sold me to traders, " said Joseph.  "God did this.  He sent me here to help people." Joseph added, "Now please return to your homes.  Bring all of your families here and we will all live here together." When Jacob saw Joseph for the first time in many years he said, "This is the day I dreamed of." Joseph and all his family lived happily in Egypt.

You see even though his brothers did him wrong, Joseph FORGAVE them because he loved GOD and his brothers. Sometimes we to are hurt by friends and other people and we get angry, and upset. In the Bible we are told that if we dont FORGIVE those who wrong us, GOD will not forgive US.  To forgive means to FORGET>   So we should just do that..FORGET all about it

The Story of Joseph

This is the story about a young man named Joseph.  His father's name is Jacob, and they lived in Canaan from where his grandfather was from.

Joseph was seventeen (old enough to drive a car these days), and he had eleven brothers; and only had one brother younger than him.  Can you imagine having eleven brothers to play with, or fight with?

Because Joseph was one of the youngest sons, his father spent more time with him, and he became very special to him.  So Jacob had a special robe made for Joseph.  (They didn't have jackets back then, so this was a very special jacket).  It was very beautiful and had every color you could imagine in it.

All of Joseph's older brothers saw this and they got very jealous.  The word jealous means that Joseph's brothers disliked him because they thought his father liked him more, and because he got the special coat.  They got so jealous they couldn't even say a kind word to him.

One day Joseph had a dream, and he went to go tell his brothers.  He said, "Guess what?  Last night I had a strange dream.  We were tying up bunches of grain out in the field when suddenly my bunch stood up, while all of yours gathered around and bowed to me."  The brothers looked at each other in disgust, but Joseph continued.  "Then I had another dream that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to me."

"Who do you think you are?"  The brothers said.  "Do you think that you are better than all of us?  Do you think that we would ever bow down to you?"  This made the brothers dislike Joseph even more.

When he told his father about his dreams he said, "Those are strange dreams."  But he thought carefully about  what Joseph had told him.

A few days later Joseph's father asked him to check on his brothers.  They were in the fields quite a distance away.  So Joseph went to find them.

When the brothers saw Joseph in the distance, they made a plan to kill him.  But when Reuben, Joseph's oldest brother heard this he said, "Let's not kill him, just throw him in a well out here in the field."  He said this because he was secretly planning to come back and rescue Joseph when the other brothers had left.

So when Joseph came to them, they took off his beautiful robe and they threw him in an empty well.  A little while later a group of people came by that were wanting to sell some things in Egypt.  One of the brothers spoke up, "Why don't we sell him to these people, this way we never have to see him again, and we don't have to kill him."

The other brothers liked this idea, so they sold him to the people who were going to Egypt.

Unfortunately Reuben had been working and hadn't seen what happened.  When he returned to the well he noticed that Joseph was gone.  He had been sold to an important man named Potiphar, an assistant to the Pharaoh of Egypt.

The rest of the brothers took Joseph's beautiful robe and dipped it in animal blood and took it back to their father.  When the father saw this he cried, "Some animal has killed my son."  And he cried for many days, so much that nobody could comfort him.

Now Joseph had started out as a slave, but the Lord was with Joseph and He helped him do everything right.  So Potiphar made him his helper, and put him in charge of everything that he owned.

The problem came when Potiphar's wife lied about Joseph to her husband, so Potiphar had Joseph put into jail.

The Lord was still with Joseph in jail, and the warden put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners.  He never worried because the Lord was with Joseph and helped him do everything right.

After Joseph had been in jail for some time a cupbearer and baker to Pharaoh had been sent there.  One night each of them had a dream.  They told their dreams to Joseph and he told the cupbearer that he would soon be let out of jail.  "Please tell Pharaoh about me, and ask him to get me out of here."  Joseph said.

When the cupbearer was freed he forgot about what Joseph did.  So Joseph stayed in jail for two more years.  Until one day the Pharaoh had a dream, and nobody could explain it to him.  The cupbearer then remembered what Joseph had done for him, and Joseph was brought to Pharaoh.

"Can you understand dreams?"  Pharaoh asked.  "I can't, but God helps me."  Joseph replied.  After Pharaoh had told him his dream Joseph explained, "God is warning you.  There will be seven years when nothing will grow and there won't be any food for anyone."

"What can I do?"  Pharaoh asked.  "God has shown you what to do.  There will be seven years before the bad years that will be very good.  So good that there will be extra food for everyone.  So you should save a little bit  of each years harvest, that way you will have enough to get you through the bad years."  Joseph said.

Pharaoh believed all that Joseph told him, and put him in charge of all the land of Egypt.

People came from all countries to buy grain from Joseph, because the whole world was in need of food.  Some of those people were Joseph's brothers.  When his brothers came, Joseph recognized them, but they did not know who he was.  (It had been over 10 years since they had seen him).

The brothers all bowed to him because he was an important person.  Just as he dreamed they would at the beginning.

After a few meetings with his brothers he could not keep it in any longer and Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph!  Is my father alive?"  But his brothers couldn't answer him because they were afraid.  Then Joseph said, "Come here.  I am your brother, the one you sold!  Do not worry, and do not be angry at yourselves for selling me, because God has put me here to save people from starving."

So his father, his brothers, and their families came to live in Egypt with Joseph, and they had all the food they needed.

Joseph story used with permission. Not authored by Dan Wheeler