Week 7 · about 45 minutes
Joseph and the Colorful Coat
Genesis 37 · Memory verse Genesis 50:20
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Joseph’s Colorful Coat), the matching word search and answer key (Joseph in Egypt), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a bright scarf or colored paper coat
Hold up a bright scarf or colored paper coat. In about five minutes, tell the class this: Joseph’s brothers are jealous, but God stays with Joseph when everything familiar is taken away. Show the prop and ask, “What does this have to do with Joseph and the Colorful Coat?” Let two children answer. Then read Genesis 50:20 together: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is today, to save many people alive.” Close by asking one child to say the lesson back in their own words, using the prop.
Story script
Jacob had many sons, and Joseph was the one he favored. He gave Joseph a special coat, the kind of gift that makes other brothers stare. Joseph also told his brothers about dreams in which they bowed to him. The dreams were from God, but the way Joseph shared them did not help. Jealousy grew like a weed.
One day the brothers saw him coming across the field. They took the coat and sold Joseph to travelers heading for Egypt. Then they let their father believe a wild animal had taken him. It was a cruel day. Joseph was a boy far from home, and the coat was gone.
Egypt was not the end of the story. God was with Joseph in a new land, even when Joseph could not see how any dream could still come true. Years later Joseph would say that what people planned for harm, God planned for good, to save many lives.
If someone is unkind because they are jealous, it still hurts. God does not waste the hard chapter. You can tell a safe adult, and you can trust that God goes with you into places you did not choose.
Group game
One child wears the scarf. Others name gifts God gives, not just clothes. Then practice saying I can be glad when someone else is gifted.
Craft
Cut a coat shape and color every panel a different color. Write God is with Joseph on the back.
Memory verse
Genesis 50:20
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is today, to save many people alive.”
Take-home prayer
God, when people are unkind, please stay with me the way you stayed with Joseph. Turn what is hard into something you can use for good. Amen.