Short Attention Span Sunday School: Primary 6 Lesson 16 Joseph Was Sold Into Egypt

PRIMARY 6 LESSON 16 JOSEPH WAS SOLD INTO EGYPT

CLASSROOM PREP

Post Psalms 24:3-5

Other quotation ideas to post:

"The time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a season to be strong."
—Gordon B. Hinckley

"We will all face fear, experience ridicule, and meet opposition. Let us—all of us—have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God’s approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully but also as the determination to live decently. As we move forward, striving to live as we should, we will surely receive help from the Lord and can find comfort in His words."
—Thomas S. Monson






OPENING ACTIVITY/OBJECT LESSON IDEA OPTIONS

1/Bring in a trap of some sort - unused ideally, clean.
Talk about the different parts of the trap, what you put in for bait, how an animal gets baited etc.
Share how this relates to us in our lives...
What are we tempted by?
What baits us?
What do we need to avoid being baited and tempted?

2/Object lesson on self control, temptations, pure hearts...many are found online.

3/Watercolor reveal - everyone gets a paper plate that you’ve previously drawn on with a white crayon a heart.

Pass out watercolor palettes and paint brushes and have a big bottle of water for them to easily dip their brushes into. They paint over the plate with a wet brush and some watercolor paint to reveal the heart.

Today we’re going to talk about what happens next with Joseph. What tempts us? How can we avoid those temptations? How can we show the Lord where our heart it and that it’s pure? How can we keep our hands clean from sin?

LESSON

So last week we talked about Joseph and his brothers.
What happened? (have someone review it quickly)
And what were we supposed to learn about bitter vs sweet?

So we are going to continue learning about what happens next with Joseph.
He’s sold to Potiphar and then what?
Remember, with the story of Joseph we’re looking for ways in which he shows that he knows that God is with him!

So here’s the scripture we’ve been waiting for:
Genesis 39:2 “And the Lord was with Joseph…” (put this on the board)

Hmm….do you think Joseph believed that?
Yes, he must have understood that because he served Potiphar faithfully.

Genesis 39:4 Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him (put this on the board)
Genesis 39:5 ...the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake (put this on the board)

This was a big decision for Joseph.
What if he had decided to turn against God because he felt God had turned against him?
What if he’d felt God just simply must not exist for this horrible thing to happen?

Well that would have been the end of the story.
But there’s more.
Joseph continues to serve God faithfully where he was, with Potiphar.
Potiphar noticed this and made Joseph in charge of everything in his household.

Potiphar had a wife and she thought Joseph was just great in every way.
She comes along and wants Joseph to basically be her boyfriend.
He knows that’s wrong - she’s married!
So he rejects her, which is the right thing to do!

But there’s a consequence for him here, unfortunately.
Because when he rejected her, he ran off leaving part of his clothing behind.
She gets mad.
Remember we’ve talked about when we get mad, often it’s because we’re hurt?
And we can choose what to do with that hurt?
She deals with it by using that clothing to frame Joseph, by lying to Potiphar, and gets Joseph in trouble!

Potiphar throws Joseph into prison and we read again in Genesis that God was with him,
In Genesis 39:21. “But the Lord was with Joseph and shewed him mercy” (have this on the board)
In prison, Joseph was put in charge of the other prisoners.
He knows God is with him so he isn’t afraid.
Genesis 39:23 it says again “the Lord was with him” (have this on the board)

A few years go by and a butler and a baker get thrown in prison.
They get to know him in prison.
One day Joseph saw them in the morning and noticed they were sad.
And what do you do when you see a friend is sad? You ask them what’s wrong.
He said literally “Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?” (Genesis 40:7, have on the board)

They said to him, We have dreamed a dream and there is no interpreter of it.
They share their dreams with Joseph and he interprets them.
The butler dreamt of a vine and some branches.
He tells the butler that his dream means he’ll be out of prison within three days.
The baker sees that Joseph can interpret and he’s like, hey I had a dream too!
He tells Joseph that he dreamt of white baskets.
He tells the baker that his dream means that he will die in prison with a week.
Both come true.

The Pharaoh has a big feast for all of his servants.
He restores the butler to his job and gets him out of jail, but he has the baker killed.

The butler forgets about Joseph.

How would Joseph feel?

So two years later, the Pharaoh has a dream.
It’s a dream where the Pharaoh stands by a river and involves some animals.
He slept again and dreamed again,this time about ears of corn.
He asks everyone to interpret it -- wise men, magicians, etc.
No one could interpret the dreams!
And he wants to know what it means.

The butler remembers that in jail, Joseph could interpret dreams.
They get Joseph out of the prison, and it says in Genesis 41:14 that “he shaved himself, and changed his raiment” (put this on the board)
Wouldn’t you get yourself cleaned up before seeing someone important?

The Pharaoh tells Joseph that no one can interpret his dreams, but he heard Joseph could do it.
Joseph says in verse 16 “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh and answer of peace.” (have this on the board)
So he finds out the meaning of the dream! There were 7 years of plenty. There will be 7 years of famine!
Joseph encourages him to be prepared for the famine, store extra food!

So they do and the Pharaoh is so grateful that Joseph is promoted to a high honor in Egypt!

Joseph is over everyone, second only to the Pharaoh, even over Potiphar!

LESSON FOLLOW-UP

What can we learn from Joseph?

(have a little discussion about all the elements of the story that they liked, remember, and learned from)

DREAM ACTIVITY (my version of the Who? What? Where? game)

(Have 2 pieces of paper per kid and colored pencils or drawing tools of some sort)

Now it’s your turn - you guys are going to draw a dream, any sort of dream.

It could be about unicorns, it could be about cupcakes, or soccer, or a unicorn playing soccer while eating cupcakes! Just make sure it’s Sunday-appropriate.

(Give them time to do a good detailed job and make sure they put their name on the paper)

Now you’re going to pass your paper to the person on your left/right (pick one and use it each time)

On your other piece of paper (upon which you’ve previously drawn two columns and a bunch of lines), you’re going to write the person’s name in the first column and in the second column you’re going to write your interpretation of their drawing/dream.
(Continue on with everyone looking/writing/passing until everyone is done, then have everyone stand up one at a time with their drawing, and everyone says their interpretation!)

VIDEO OPTION

Just like Joseph, we can feel temptations all around us to move away from the Lord and towards that which will cause us to lose our testimony. 

This video shows a situation where someone is tempted to choose the wrong thing and not remain pure, and not stay close to the Lord:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-11-005-leave-the-party?lang=eng

(Discuss what they gathered from this video - there may be a lot of comments and thoughts they want to share)





TESTIMONY/TAKE HOME


I am grateful for this Gospel of Jesus Christ that keeps me close to Him.

The more I know these stories in the Old Testament, the more I see good examples of prophets who choose the right and who try to avoid temptation and bad situations!

I'm grateful for Joseph and what we have learned about him!

We should strive to keep our hands clean!

Take home ideas:

- Hand-washing stuff (cute hand sanitzer, bar of soap, )

- Pure heart related stuff (heart-shaped treat, stickers, craft)