We all have dreams, don't we? (Let the children respond).  But, we soon forget about our dreams.  However, long ago in Bible times some people were given dreams by God and these had important meanings.  There was a young man named Joseph, who was given two such dreams by the Lord.

In both of these dreams God showed to Joseph some things that were to come to pass in the future.  Now Joseph was a son of Jacob, the man who fled from Esau his brother after he obtained the birthright from his father, Isaac.

Jacob had moved to his uncle Laban and stayed at Laban's home for many years and had twelve sons.  Joseph was the second youngest son.  As the sons grew up, they became herdsmen and keepers of cattle and sheep.

Jacob loved his son Joseph very dearly and to show how much he loved Joseph, his father made him a beautiful coat of many colors.  However, this made the other boys very jealous of Joseph.  Do you get jealous if your brother or sister get a big present from your parents? (Let the children respond).

Joseph had his first dream where he dreamed that he and his brothers were in a field gathering grain.  Each of them had gathered up a bundle of grain, and all their bundles bowed down to Joseph's bundle, which stood straight upright!  It might have been better for Joseph if he had kept this dream to himself.  But, in his excitement he told his brothers all about the dream.

They understood it to mean that Joseph expected that some day they would all bow down to him, and this made them even more jealous and angry and they hated Joseph even more.

A little later Joseph had another dream.  In this dream, Joseph saw the sun and the moon and eleven stars bow down to him.  Again Joseph made a big mistake by telling this dream to his brothers and to his parents.  His father was upset because it seemed to mean that at some future time, he as Joseph's father, would have to bow down to his son!  Of course that made Joseph's brothers more angry than ever!

Not long after this Joseph's brothers went to a part of the country called Shechem to find better fields for their flocks.  They were too far away to go back home each night, so after they had been gone for some time, Jacob wanted to find out how they were getting on, and how their flocks were doing.

Now, Joseph was too young to work in the fields with his brothers, so he had stayed at home.  His father asked him if he would go to Shechem and find our how his brothers were getting along.  Joseph willingly set out on this errand, but when he arrived he couldn't find his brothers anywhere!

He was wandering around in the fields when a man came up and asked him who he was looking for.  Joseph replied that he was looking for his brothers and the man told him that they had gone to a place called Dothan.

So Joseph travelled on until he came to Dothan where he found his brothers caring of their flocks.  When his brothers saw him approaching, they agreed to an evil plan!  They decided that they would kill their brother.  They caught their dreaming brother and seized him, and were ready to take his life!

The eldest son, Reuben pleaded with his brothers not to kill Joseph.  He suggested that they should rather drop Joseph in a deep pit and leave him there.  Reuben's plan was to rescue Joseph when the other brothers weren't watching!

The brothers agreed to this, but after they had put Joseph into the pit, they noticed a nearby travelling group of Midianite merchants who were on their way to Egypt.  So they sold Joseph to the Midianites as these merchants bought and sold slaves to rich people.  The Midianites took poor Joseph to Egypt, where he was sold as a slave to an officer of the Egyptian king.

To hide their crime, the brothers took Joseph's coat of many colors and dipped it in the blood of a goat, and then returned home to their father.  When their father saw the blood on the coat, he was convinced that his beloved son Joseph had been killed by a wild beast.  Years went by, and Jacob thought that Joseph was dead, while all the time his brothers knew that he was a slave in Egypt.

Yes, Joseph's brothers called him a dreamer and those two dreams that God gave to Joseph had caused him a lot of trouble.  No doubt his brothers thought those dreams would never come true.  After all, how could Joseph ever rule over them now that he was a slave in Egypt? As year after year went by, no doubt Joseph's brothers remembered what they had done and chuckled, "We fixed him all right.  He thought we would have to bow down to him, but he was mistaken!"

But, there was one thing Joseph's brothers did not know.  They didn't know that God gave those dreams to Joseph, and that God would be sure to make them come true.  God always keeps His promises, doesn't He? (Let the children respond).

It's a terrible thing to be jealous.  It causes hate, anger and bitterness.  It was jealousy that caused Cain to kill his brother Abel.  And those older brothers of Joseph became jealous of him, and as a result they came to hate Joseph.  Remember, jealousy always leads people into trouble!

If you have any jealousy in your life, make sure you ask ask Jesus to forgive you and to take away all anger and hate out of your life!

God bless.