Joseph faced great adversity after being sold into slavery by his brothers. However, he overcame difficulties by faithfully serving Potiphar, which led to him rising in station. Despite facing false accusations, Joseph maintained his integrity by refusing the advances of Potiphar's wife. Though imprisoned, Joseph trusted that God was in control of his circumstances.

1. The Life of Joseph

2. Our theme for the year is “Walking by Faith and
Not By Sight”. The theme was chosen to
encourage us throughout the year when we
encounter tough times. Luke 17:1 tells us that
offences will come in our lives. The goal of this
study is to help us to understand how to
overcome adversity when it shows up. For this
study we have chosen to study the life of
Joseph who overcame great adversity in his
life.

3. Encouragement Text: Genesis 50

4. Abram & Sarai = Great Grandparents
Isaac & Rebekah = Grandparents
Laban = Grandfather/ Uncle (Rebekah’s brother)
Jacob & Rachel = Parents

5. Genesis 12:10-20 (Abram gives Sarai to Pharoah)
Genesis 26:1-11 (Isaac gives Rebekah to
Abimelech)
Genesis 27:1-13 (Rebekah tricks Isaac)
Genesis 29:16-25 (Laban tricks Jacob)

6. Genesis 30:14-16 (Rachel betray Jacob)
Genesis 34:13-29 (Simeon & Levi betray Jacob,
Hamor and Shechem)
Genesis 35:18-22 (Reuben betray Jacob)

7. Genesis 25:26-28 (Jacob was Rebekah’s favorite)
Genesis 33:1-2 (Joseph & Benjamin was Jacob’s
favorite)
Genesis 37:3 (Joseph was Jacob’s favorite)

8.  How did you feel as a child when adults seemed to favor another child over you?
How do you feel now when you sense someone getting an advantage simply
because of favoritism?
 What happens in a family or organization when trickery or deceit become the
usual way of relating and getting things done?
 How do you think Rebekah and Isaac should have handled their natural
preferences for one twin over the other? What does it say about their relationship
that they let their preferences turn into competitive favoritism?
 Jacob’s objections to deceiving his father were more timid than principled. What
do you think he learned about scheming and deceit from his mother?
 Rebekah tricked her husband and older son on Jacob’s behalf. Her brother Laban
then tricked Jacob and Rachel on Leah’s behalf. What should Jacob have learned
from the humiliation of being tricked by his uncle?


9.  What do you think happens in our souls when we
start feeling sorry for ourselves because our family
backgrounds are less ideal than we wish they
were?
 Who has an ideal family background? How can
the love of God and the power of community help
us overcome our family backgrounds?
 What does God transform at the time of new birth
(2 Co. 5:17; Ezek. 36:26-27)? What resources does
God give us to overcome any negative family
heritage?

10. Genesis 37

11. One of the strange dynamics in family life is when
children grow up they often repeat the mistakes
of their parents. Dysfunctional families tend to
result in dysfunctional families. It’s difficult to
unravel all the factors involved in making
families dysfunctional, but Genesis 37 provide
some valuable lessons by giving us a look at
Joseph’s experiences in life.

12.  In Genesis 37:3, Jacob gives Joseph a coat. Let’s
take a look at how this coat encouraged poor
behavior by Joseph. We want to look at the
description of the coat, the significance of the
coat and the qualification for the coat.

13.  It is described as "a coat of many colors.“
(Genesis 37:3) These words are a translation of
two Hebrew words. The two words together
mean a long-sleeved coat, tunic, or robe
reaching to the ankles. These coats were
sometimes brightly colored, as "many colors“
suggests. But very often they were simply
white with some elegant embroidered trim in
the appropriate places.

14.  It signified rank. It indicated that the wearer
was an overseer or master. It was not the coat
of the common laborer. He wore a shorter
coat, normally knee length and
sleeveless, which was more suitable for hard
labor than was a long-sleeved, ankle-length
coat. By giving this coat to Joseph, Jacob plainly
indicated that Joseph was to have the
privileged position of preeminence over his
brothers in the family's administration.

15.  These would vary from family to family, but
normally one must at least be the firstborn to
be given such a coat. Joseph, of course, was not
the firstborn. Then why was he given the coat
instead of Reuben, the firstborn, or one of the
other older sons of Jacob. Some say because
Joseph was the firstborn of the chosen wife
Rachel. Others believe it was because of
Joseph’s character but scripture says “he loved
Joseph more”.

16.  Insensitive is defined as showing or feeling no
concern for others feelings. Genesis 37:1-11
shows just how insensitive Joseph was.
 1.) Disrespectful to his father 37:9-10
 2.) Degrading to his brothers 37:5-10

17.  To instigate means to urge on or stir up.
Joseph definitely did that, even though it might
have been unconsciously done. Genesis 37:14-
23 shows stirring up the situation even more by
wearing the robe to the field to get a report on
his brothers.

18.  To what extent do you think Joseph contributed to
his brother’s irritation, and to what extent was he a
victim of circumstances? Was he in any way a victim
of God’s plans?
 To what extent so you think Jacob (also called Israel)
contributed to the impending relational train wreck
between Joseph and his brothers?
 What jobs did Jacob assign respectively to his older
sons and to Joseph? Why would Joseph wear his
special robe for his job?

19.  What does this story suggest about the dangers
of letting unresolved family conflicts fester?
 What might a father do in a blended family to
build harmony and reduce animosity between
step- or half-siblings?

20. Genesis 39

21.  Joseph arrived in Egypt in chains, his high
hopes shattered, his life in ruins. The taunts of
his brothers still rang in his ears, "
'Bye, 'bye, Joey! Happy dreams!" What had
become of those fine dreams of his? dreams of
power, dreams of position, dreams of
prominence and the riches of the world poured
into his lap? He was a slave! He is in a foreign
country, away from family, on a less than
perfect job. How do you move on while
dealing with such dysfunction?

22.  1. Don’t allow people to pull you into their
problems on the job. Joseph was one of many
slaves and servants and it would have been
easy to get caught up in complaining about his
situation but he didn’t. He simply did his job.
Stay away from backroom and around the
corner meetings to talk about the negatives on
the job and just do your job.

23.  2. Don’t allow your personal problems to effect
your job performance. Potiphar did not care
about how Joseph got there. He cared about
what Joseph did while he was there. It’s tough
to drop your feelings and emotions and do
your job at times but we must learn to do that.
Verse 2 tells us how we can do this. The Lord
was with Joseph, and he became successful.
Joseph did not show up successful, he had to
work to get there.

24.  3. Don’t allow your position to become your
disposition. Joseph might have been sweeping
the floor but he was the best floor sweeper
there. We have to learn to be faithful over a
few things before God can promote us to
something else. Potiphar watched Joseph and
saw Joseph working hard for God not him.

25.  Potiphar was not the only one watching
Joseph. His wife was watching Joseph to and
she like what she saw.
Power, positions, popularity and prosperity are
all very seductive to people. Plus scripture
tells us that he was a good looking man. She
asked, insisted, nagged and finally tried to take
it.

26.  Verse 12 says that Joseph ran up out of his
clothes getting away from her. This was a
risky move for Joseph. Sleeping with her could
have improved his current condition.
 1. Extra Favor and Fun for Joseph
 2. Eventual Freedom for Joseph

27.  Verse 9 tells us that in spite of the possibilities
for Joseph personal satisfaction he refused to
sin against God. Early in his life Joseph had
taken advantage of the favor that was shown to
him by his father but here he proves to be
wiser. Joseph dealt with the promotion by
Potiphar a lot better than he dealt with the one
by his father. Joseph remained humble.

28.  Verses 19 – 20 are hard to swallow. Joseph did
the right thing but still got lied on, slandered
and thrown in jail. Life does not seem fair at
times but we must seek to understand God’s
purpose for our lives even though it seems to
cause us a great deal of pain. Consider the
following:

29.  1. God takes the blessings and trials of
everyday life to purge the sin and scum from
the believer's life. In Joseph's case, the sin was
pride, arrogance, haughtiness, and cockiness.
 God takes the blessings and trials of everyday
life to teach the believer whatever he needs to
learn to become the worker and servant and
leader God wants him to be

30.  3. God takes the blessings and trials of
everyday life and strengthens the believer to
make better decisions in the future. God wants
to entrust us with more and more work and
service, entrust us with more and more to do
for Him and mankind. Every tough experience
is to enrich our character; it is to teach us some
trait that will strengthen us for future
decisions. This is the reason God allows us to
face tough times and terrible trials. We see this
in Joseph's life

31.  4. God takes the blessings and trials of everyday
life and teaches us the greatest of all lessons: He
and He alone can take care of everything, both
now and eternally. We must, therefore, trust Him.
God is sovereign; He is in control of everything, of
all the events in our lives and upon earth. And
God works all things out for good to those who
love Him, those who truly love Him. God has both
the knowledge (omniscience) and the power
(omnipotence) to work all things out for good. God
is sovereign: He can control and take care of
everything in our lives.

32.  The remainder of this chapter shows that God
is protecting and keeping Joseph. His dreams
have fallen apart, he’s in prison, but scripture
says that God is with Joseph. How interesting?
Verse 22 says that God gave him favor even in
prison.
 Joseph should be dead at this point for what he
was accused of but God was guiding his every
step.