Joseph and His Brothers

This made the other sons jealous because it showed everybody that Joseph was the favorite son.
Jacob had twelve sons. Of all his sons, he loved Joseph best because he was born to him in his old age. To show his great love, He made Joseph a beautiful coat that had many colors.

One day Joseph said to his brothers, "Last night I had a dream. We were in the field tying bundles of grain together. Suddenly, my bundle rose and stood upright while your bundles gathered around mine and bowed down to it."
His brothers asked, "Do you think that you are going to rule over us?” And they hated Joseph even more because of the dream.

A few days later Joseph’s father said to him, “Your brothers are out tending my sheep. I want you to go to them and make sure that everything is well with them.”
Joseph went as his father had told him, but when his brothers saw him coming, they made plans to kill him.
“Let’s kill him and throw him into a pit and say that he was eaten by a wild animal.”

But Reuben, the oldest of the brothers said, "Let's not take his life. Let’s throw him into this pit here in the desert, but don't harm him.”
Reuben said this because he planned to come back later and rescue Joseph and take him back to his father.
So they stripped Joseph of his beautiful robe and took him and threw him into the pit.
Then they sat down to eat their dinner.

As they were eating, they looked up and saw a caravan of merchants coming their way.
They were on their way to Egypt.

"What will we gain if we kill our brother? Let's sell him to these merchants instead.”
So when the merchants came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him up out of the pit and sold him for twenty pieces of silver.
Then they killed a goat and smeared its blood over Joseph's coat of many colors. They took the bloody coat back to Jacob and said to him. ”We found this bloody coat in the wilderness. Look at it and see if it is Joseph’s coat.”
Jacob recognized the coat and said, "It is my son's coat! Surely some ferocious animal has eaten him. He must have been torn to pieces."

Then Jacob wept bitterly for many days. All of his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
Meanwhile, the merchants took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials.
Lesson -- jealousy can lead to terrible sin!