[022] Joseph in prison - Activity Worksheets

After Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites, they took Joseph to Egypt and sold him as a slave to Potiphar, the king’s official in charge of the palace guard. Joseph lived in Potiphar’s home.

Soon Potiphar realized that the Lord was helping Joseph to be successful in whatever he did. Potiphar liked Joseph and made him his personal assistant, putting him in charge of his house and all of his property. Because of Joseph, the Lord began to bless Potiphar’s family and fields. Potiphar left everything up to Joseph, and with Joseph there, the only decision he had to make was what he wanted to eat.

Potiphar’s wife soon noticed that Joseph was handsome and wanted him to sin with her. He said, “My master has placed me in charge of every¬thing he owns. No one in my master’s house is more important than I am. The only thing he hasn’t given me is you, and that’s because you are his wife. I won’t sin against God with you.” She kept begging Joseph day after day, but he refused to do what she wanted or even to go near her.

One day, Joseph went to Potiphar’s house to do his work, and none of the other servants were there. Potiphar’s wife grabbed hold of his coat.

Joseph ran out of the house, leaving her hanging onto his coat. Potiphar’s wife kept Joseph’s coat until her husband came home. Then she said, “That Hebrew slave of yours tried to attack me! But when I screamed for help, he left his coat and ran out of the house.”

Potiphar became very angry and threw Joseph in the same prison with the king’s prisoners. While Joseph was in prison, the Lord helped him and was good to him. He even made the jailer like Joseph so much that he put him in charge of the other prisoners and of everything that was done in the jail. The jailer did not worry about anything, because the Lord was with Joseph and made him successful in all he did.

Joseph was put in jail because a woman told a terrible lie about him. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had also put his baker and his cupbearer in jail too. A cupbearer is someone who takes a drink before the king does to make sure there isn’t any poison in the drink.