Day 18 · January 18
Kids Corner — Day 18
Genesis 37:1–38:30 · Matthew 12:22–12:45 · Psalm 16:1–16:11 · Proverbs 3:27–3:32
Today’s story
Joseph’s favored status breeds jealousy, and his brothers sell him into slavery while Judah descends into sexual compromise. God’s covenant family is clearly flawed, yet God’s purposes continue through and beyond their sin.
Jesus casts out demons, exposes the danger of hardened unbelief, and teaches that true kinship with him is marked by obedience to the Father. Neutrality toward Jesus is impossible.
Psalm 16 rejoices in God as the believer’s secure portion, counselor, and path to life. In God’s presence there is lasting joy.
Do not withhold good when it is in your power to act. Love is demonstrated through timely justice and generous action.
The story in children’s words
Joseph was seventeen, and his father loved him very much and gave him a beautiful coat of many colors. Joseph dreamed that his brothers' bundles of grain bowed down to his bundle, and his brothers hated him for it. They threw him into an empty pit and sold him to traders going to Egypt, then made their father believe a wild animal had killed him. Jacob cried and cried and would not be comforted. In Judah's family there was sadness too, but twin boys were born, and one was named Perez. Jesus healed a man who could not see or speak, and said God's kingdom had come. He also said He would be in the heart of the earth three days, like Jonah in the big fish. Jesus, who came from Perez's family line, would die and rise again, just as He said.
It points to Jesus
Joseph’s humiliation and later exaltation foreshadow Christ, the beloved Son rejected by his own and yet used by God for
salvation. Jesus also redefines family around obedience born of faith.
Talk about it
What themes begin to emerge in Joseph’s story?