Читать книгу Captivating Bible Stories for Young People, Written in Simple Language - Charlotte M. Yonge - Страница 8

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JOSEPH IN EGYPT.

FIRST READING.

"His brethren envied him."—Genesis 37:11.

I TOLD you how Jacob went away from home, and how God promised to take care of him. He did take care of him: He led him to his uncle, and with him Jacob lived many years, and then came back with flocks of sheep and goats, camels and cows. And he had twelve sons. The best one of them was named Joseph. Jacob loved him very much, and gave him a striped dress of many colors, such as the son who is to be the heir wears in those countries. But his brothers hated and envied him, and were all the time finding fault with him.

One day, when Joseph was seventeen years old, ten of the brothers were out with their sheep, and Jacob desired Joseph to go and see what they were about. He would not tell his father how unkind they were to him, but he went; and as they saw him coming some of them were so wicked as to say that they would kill him, and never let him go home. Reuben, who was the eldest brother, tried to hinder them; but when he saw he could not stop them, he said the best way would be, not to kill him, but to let him down into a dry well just by.

There they meant to let him starve to death; and they let him down without any pity for him. Reuben meant to come by-and-by and take Joseph out of the pit and save him; but there was another brother, named Judah, who did not want to have him killed, and who saw a great party of men, with camels and asses laden with goods, going on a journey. He knew they were merchants, going to sell and buy in Egypt, and he advised the other brothers to persuade them to buy Joseph; for in those days men and women used to be bought and sold, and were called slaves.

JOSEPH SOLD BY HIS BRETHREN.—Gen. 37:28.

So Joseph was drawn up out of the pit; and when the merchants saw what a fine young man he was, they paid the price for him and carried him off, away from his father and all he had ever known or cared for before. The cruel brothers kept his colored dress; and they killed a kid and stained it in the blood, and then carried it to their father, telling him they had found it. Jacob thought some wild beast had met Joseph and killed and eaten him, and he mourned and wept. His sons pretended to comfort him; but not one of them would tell him that Joseph was not dead.

QUESTIONS.

1. Whose son was Jacob? 2. How many sons had Jacob? 3. What did he set them to do? 4. Which did he love best? 5. What did he give Joseph? 6. Where did he send Joseph? 7. What did the brothers want to do? 8. Who wished to save him? 9. So what did Reuben persuade them to do? 10. What did Reuben mean to do? 11. But who came by? 12. What did the brothers do with Joseph? 13. Who persuaded them to sell him? 14. What are people called who are bought and sold? 15. What was done with his coat? 16. What did Jacob think?

SECOND READING.

"The Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand."—Genesis 39:3.

SO we see Joseph a slave. A slave is a servant who belongs to his master, as his cows and horses do; he gets no wages, and cannot go away, but is bought and sold like cattle.

Think of poor Joseph. He was used to live as the son of a great rich prince, wearing a dress of many bright colors, with many servants, and no one to obey but his kind fond father; and living in a beautiful land, all hill and valley, where he used to feed his father's flocks. But now he was a slave in a strange land, with people speaking a language he did not know, and no one to care for him or say a good word to him, shut up in a house in a town, far away from his dear hills.

Still he had one comfort, and the best of all—God was with him. He could still pray to God, and do his duty. And he did his work well, for God helped him, and everything he did was made to prosper in his hand. Then he was trusted. His master knew that he always took care of everything, as if it was his own, and left all to him, quite sure that it would be safe.

But his wicked mistress made up a story that he had behaved ill, and he was put in prison for what he had not done. This sounds hard, but it was God's own way of bringing good to pass, and making Joseph come at last to honor. Very soon he was loved and trusted in his prison; and all he did the Lord made it to prosper.

Think about this. Try when you have anything to do—a lesson or a bit of work—to ask God to make it prosper. Then if you try your best He will help, and it will be sure to turn out well.

Then try to deserve to be trusted. That is a great thing. If you always recollect that God sees you, you will do the same when no one is with you as if all the world were watching; and that is the way to be true and just in all your dealings. If you are only good when you are looked at, you are not like Joseph, but are only doing service outwardly. You must try to live that your parents may

"Out of sight

Know all is right,

One law for darkness and for light."

QUESTIONS.

1. Whose son was Joseph? 2. How many sons had Joseph? 3. What had they done to him? 4. Why had Joseph's brothers sold him? 5. What is a slave? 6. How did Joseph behave as a slave? 7. Who comforted him? 8. How did he take care of his master's things? 9. Who made up a story against him? 10. What was done to him? 11. But who was with him still? 12. Did he always stay in prison? 13. And what did people think of him, wherever he was? 14. What is the way to be like Joseph? 15. If you are trusted to carry a message, how should you do it? 16. Who always sees you? 17. Then, even if no one is by, how should you behave?

THIRD READING.

"Do not interpretations belong to God?"—Gen. 40:8.

THE young son of Jacob, Joseph, had, you know, been sold by his cruel brothers, and made a slave of; and then a wicked falsehood was told about him, and he was put into prison. But wherever Joseph was he tried to do his duty, and so God blessed him; and the keeper of the prison soon found out how different he was from the others, and let him help. I suppose he helped to carry them their food and wait upon them; and he often could say a few kind good words to them.

One day two grand people came in as prisoners. One was the chief of all the bakers, who made bread for king Pharaoh; and the other was the chief of all his cup-bearers, who carried him his wine. Some wrong thing had happened, and they were both suspected of having had something to do with it, so they had been sent to prison.

WANTED TO KNOW THE DREAMS' MEANING.

One morning Joseph saw them both looking more sad than usual; and when he asked what was the matter, they said each had a dream, and they wanted to know what it meant; for the Egyptians used to think a great deal of dreams, and there were men among them who pretended to explain them. Most dreams have no meaning, but these had, and God put it into Joseph's heart to understand them.

The cup-bearer had dreamt that he saw a vine, and that it had three bunches of grapes, and that he was squeezing the juice into the king's cup as he used to do. Joseph said this meant that in three days the cup-bearer should really hand Pharaoh the cup again; and Joseph begged that when he was free, he would tell the king about himself, and get him set free.

Then the baker told his dream—that he had three baskets full of pastry and bread ready for Pharaoh, but that the birds came down and ate them up. Joseph was obliged to tell him that this meant that he would be hanged, and that the vulture and ravens would eat his flesh. So it happened. Pharaoh looked into the matter in three days' time; he caused the baker to be hung, and the cup-bearer to come back to his old place. But the cup-bearer was ungrateful, and forgot all about Joseph in his prison, trusting to him.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was Joseph? 2. Where was he? 3. How came he to be in Egypt? 4. Where had he been put? 5. Had he done anything wrong? 6. Who trusted him? 7. What had he to do? 8. Who came into the prison? 9. What was the cup-bearer's dream? 10. What was the baker's dream? 11. What did Joseph say the cup-bearer's dream meant? 12. What did the baker's dream mean? 13. What happened? 14. What had Joseph asked of the cup-bearer? 15. Did he remember?

POURING OUT A DRINK OFFERING.