Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-12
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
For April IS, 1923-JoSeph.
BY DIR. MARION MICH. HULL

dHa thy IuOtHeT'
When Jacob was 81 years old, the
wife of his love gave birth to her
first-born son, and called his name
Joseph. When this boy was six
years old his father and grandfather.
Laban agreed to disagree, and Jacob
went back to his native land, the
Lad that God had promised to give
va AAnAham and his seed after him
forever. Before he had reached
Hebron Rachel gave birth to another
boy, Benjamin, the son of her sor-
row, and died. leaving these two
boys motherless.
For eleven years Joseph had the
opportunity Of knowing and talking
with his paternal grandfather, Isaac,
now an old man of 157 years. No
one can estimate the influence Isaac
had on the young boys life as he
told him OF the promises that God
had made to his father, and had re-
iterated to him. The other boys
there were eleven of them-had the
same opportunity, but they do not
seem to have cared much for their
old grandfather's tales. No doubt
Joseph would often talk with his
father, Jacob, and listen while Isaac
and Jacob, after twenty years of
separation, would talk about the
things concerning the promises of
God to them and to their seed.
The Prince
This attitude of Josephs coupled
with the fact that he was a son of
his old age and of his favorite wife,
made Jacob love Joseph more than
any of his other sons, and he was
not tactful enough to hide his par
TALLY. He selected Joseph as his
heir, and now that his retinue had
increased to such an extent that
now he was himself a nomadic chief
OR prince, he had a princes robe
made for the boy-not woven, but
gether. 1t was a very handsome
garment, and only worn by those
who had claim to royalty. Nor did
this tend to make his older brothers
feel any more kindly toward him.
AS a prince, or chieftain of the
shepherds, he was placed as over
seer over his half-brothers, the sons
of his fathers two concubines. He
was now only a young man of sew
enteen, and what his rough brothers
did to him was a plenty. They
spoke to him so roughly and treated
him so outrageously that he
brought report of it to his father.
Neither did this make his brothers
fool INV ,1on,.o lyin6lIy nd him
Joseph was a thoughtful lad, and
these things that he had been told
by his father and his grandfather
revolved in his mind in the day time,
and took shape in the night in his
dreams. 1t was not necessarily ego
tism that made him relate his
dreams to his father and to his
brothers; it was the very natural
thing for the boy to do; butt hese
dreams did not make his brothers
feel any more kindly toward him;
for you see that Joseph had already
shown himself superior to them, his
mental strength and spiritual superb
GRITTY only tended to make them more
conscious of their weakness and in
feriority-and that never makes any
one feel any more kindly toward an
other.
His dress and his dreams, both
testtfying to his superiority to them,
lroused in his brothers a deep feel
nS or resentment. They had al
eady given their father a great deal
= concern, and this made them more
esentful against Joseph.
The Prisoner
one day their opportunity came.
q Dothan Joseph found them after
q sixty-mile trip, coming on an er-
.and to bring them food from their
-ather Recognizing him some dis
tance off, they conspired against
him, and cast him into some pit,
and tell a lie about it, and then
gioat over his dreams not coming
true. 1t was Reuben and afterward
judah who frustrated the plans, evi.
IDENTIFY of the sons of the concubines.
heuben suggested putting him in a
PIT, expecting to come back after
the others had gone and deliver him
his plan failed because he was
not on han dat the right time.
mere are lots Of Reubens TODAY
with good intentions but they put
their own business first and are nor
On hand whine Gods business must
be done. They look upon their own
business as that which must be
done, and On Gods business as what
may be done if there is time.) There
are numerous pits in that country
with narrow mouths that may be
covered with a stone, and wide hot.
toms. They We're made for catching
ana storing water. This one happen.
ed to be dry at the time and Joseph
was put in to let starve to deaxh
Whlle his brothers Toasted outside
on the daInties that he had brought
them. - III
what the prisoners thoughts were
can better be imagined than de.
scrlbed. He could easily have douht.
ed all that his forebears had fold
INN, and his own dreams and anhi-
TONS as we'll. On the other hand
ne may have and probably did saw
10 himself: God is in this pit as wei
as IN the open field; will trust
HIM the deliver one, and keen His
promises. LID
1t was Judah whom God used TO
save MIN from slow death by starvo.
tlon now. But Judahs suggestion
was not wholly philanthropic. They
couid sell him to the company of
!Shmaelltes coming from the distant
horizon, and have the money to
speno TOT further revelry. Thus
they could rid themselves of this
dreamer. and at the same time get
money for it. And so the prisoner
is transferred from the pit in Do.
than to Potiphars house in Egypt.
while his brothers perpetrate on
their old father (now 1O8 years old
hnn
up the deception for TWENTY-FIVE
years, even though they see that it
is breaking his heart.
rms young Jew slave boy was not
to be kept down, however. He had
inherited from Abraham his dignity
ana pose; from Isaac his gentle
nessness; from Jacob his shrewd.
ness and eye to business, and from
his mother his beauty. Potiphar,
the commanding officer of the
Egyptian army, was necessarily a