Sharing Blessings

                                                                  Sunday School Lesson
                                                                       January 15,2012
Lesson Focus:
God always works out His plans
Lesson Scripture:
Genesis 45:3-15

Introduction:
In canaan, Joseph's former family was suffering from famine in the region.Joseph's brothers traveled to Egypt for food and came face to face with their brother,whom they had cruelly abandoned years before.He spoke of their having sold him,not to wound their feelings,but to convience them of his identity.His brothers intially reacted in shock, then terror.Joseph could  have had them killed.Instead he spoke words of comfort:"Don't be distressed.God sent me here to save lives,including our family's life".Joseph explained his high position to his brothers and sent them to get his father and then he moved his family to Goshen.He embraced everyone of his brothers in successions,and by those actions,his forgiveness was demonstrated.When Christ manifest Himself to people,he encourages them to draw near to him with a true heart.Joseph did so, and showed hi sbrothers that  what they meant for bad ,god had brought it out for the good.

God's Plan Places Joseph in Power
Genesis 45:3-8KJV
³And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.
   ⁴And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
   ⁵Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
   ⁶For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
   ⁷And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
   ⁸So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Footnotes:

The divinely predicted famine had arrived not only in Egypt,but also in the land of Canaan.So Jacob sent 10 of his sons to buy grain in Egypt.But Benjamin,his yougest son and the second born to his beloved Rachel, he kept at home to protect him from harm.When the brothers arrived in Egypt they bowed to him just like Joseph's dreams had revealed.Joseph explained to his brothers that it was not them, but God who sent him to Egypt ahead of them for the purpose of saving their lives from the famine,as well as the lives of their descentdants.

God's Plan Protects Jacob in Egypt
Genesis 45:9-15 KJV
 ⁹Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not:
   ¹⁰And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:
   ¹¹And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.
   ¹²And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.
   ¹³And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither.
   ¹⁴And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
   ¹⁵Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.
Footnotes:

After Joseph revealed himself to his brothers,he instructed them to hurry back.Joseph was anxious to have his family join him in Egypt.He longed to see his father,and his brothers were to tell their father "God made his son Joseph lord of all Egypt."Joseph directed his family to the region of Goshen which was some of the finest land in Egypt.The reunion between Joseph and his brothers was capped with a great outpouring of emotion.

God has special and unique plans for each of his children.It should be our daily goal to discover and understand how God is working in our lives so that His perfect will can be done in and through us.