“The Forgiven Forgive”: A Short Object Lesson on Joseph

Introduction

This is Joseph. And this is a straw that goes all the way down into the heart.

And what comes out of this straw is what’s in the heart. It’s the same with us. What is in our heart comes back out of us, like out of this straw. But back to Joseph.

Object lesson

Joseph had eleven brothers. Imagine that at the breakfast table. And one day Joseph got a beautiful, colorful new coat from his father Jacob. Because Jacob loved Joseph in a very special way. And Joseph was over the moon. He never wanted to take the coat off. Maybe he even showered in it.

Joseph’s brothers got really jealous. No wonder. They wanted a coat like that too.

And as if that weren’t enough, Joseph also had strange dreams. He went to his brothers and told them, “Hey brothers, I had a dream: I’m the greatest. A king you all bow down to!”

Well, a little tip from me. Even if you have a dream like that, you’d better not tell your siblings. Joseph apparently didn’t know that. Now his brothers hated him even more. They talked about him behind his back, they tore him down, they couldn’t stand him at all.

What do you think that did to Joseph?

That doesn’t stay outside. That goes deep inside.

And one day, when they were alone with Joseph, the brothers grabbed him, ripped his beautiful coat off him and wanted to kill him. Imagine that. His own brothers. But not all of them were on board. So they decided to sell him to a slave trader instead. He took Joseph far away, to Egypt, and sold him there as a slave. And the brothers told their father Joseph was dead.

Joseph was betrayed and sold. By his own family. Far from home, far from Dad, and nobody is coming to save you.

Things didn’t get better in Egypt. Joseph worked hard. For eleven years he slaved away. He did everything right, and still one day he was accused of something he had never done. So Joseph ended up in prison. Innocent.

Do you know that feeling? You didn’t do anything wrong, and you still get the blame?

And then he sat there. In prison, in a foreign country. Months. Years. Everyone had forgotten him.

That goes deep inside too.

Look at that. This is what it looks like when anger and hurts build up inside us. And do you remember? What is inside us …

… comes back out.

What might have built up inside you? Maybe you’ve been insulted. Maybe this week. Maybe you fight with your siblings a lot and it makes you angry. Maybe your classmates pick on you and you get a stomachache every time you go to school.

If THIS is inside Joseph, what do you think would come out of him if he ever saw his brothers again?

But the story doesn’t end here. Because God had not forgotten Joseph. One night Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had a really creepy dream. Pharaoh woke up drenched in sweat and needed someone to explain what the dream meant. Someone told him there was a man in prison who knew about dreams: Joseph.

So Joseph was brought in. And he explained the dream to Pharaoh. “You have to prepare yourself and the whole country and store up supplies for seven years. Because after that there will be seven years of famine.”

Pharaoh was so impressed that he got Joseph out of prison and made him the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, in charge of preparing the country for the famine. Wild, right? Joseph went from prisoner to prince in one day.

And after seven years the famine really came. Joseph’s brothers and his father lived through this famine too. They had nothing left to eat. So Jacob, Joseph’s father, sent the brothers to Egypt to buy food. And there they fell on their knees before the powerful prince and bowed low.

They had no idea who was standing in front of them. But Joseph recognized them immediately. He knew who was kneeling THERE in front of him.

Think about it. Joseph now has ALL the power. He can do whatever he wants with his brothers. They are completely at his mercy. He could throw them in prison. He could make them slaves, exactly as they did to him. He could really pay them back.

And we can see what has built up inside him. What do you think comes out of him now?

Joseph looked at his brothers. And his eyes filled with tears. “It’s me,” he cried. “I am Joseph, your brother!”

The brothers were scared to death. They thought, now comes the punishment.

But Joseph said, “Don’t be afraid. God used the evil you did to make something good out of it.” And then he hugged them. All of them. He forgave them. He didn’t punish them, he saved them. He brought the whole family to Egypt, where they were safe and had enough to eat.

Wait a minute. How does that work? THIS should be inside Joseph.

I’ll tell you a secret. Joseph wasn’t simply a nicer person than we are. Joseph couldn’t do that on his own strength. None of us can. If someone has been really mean to you, you can’t just press a button and the anger is gone. The secret was that Joseph had lived with God his whole life, and God filled him from the inside.

And I’ll show you that now.

The balloon is God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit. When we believe that Jesus died on the cross for all the evil we do to others and that others do to us, and that he took all this pain, all this anger, on himself, and we ask him to take it from us and to come into our lives because from now on we want to live our lives with Jesus, then this happens:

Do you see that? When Jesus fills us, God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, comes into our life, into our heart, and pushes out the anger and all the negative stuff that has built up inside us. And look where it ends up.

With Jesus. Because Jesus already paid for it on the cross. For what others did to YOU. And also for your anger, your fear, all of it. And you can hand that over to him. You can’t manage it alone, at least not for long. With him you can.

Application

Like Joseph, you can forgive, because God’s Spirit lives in you.
You can forgive, because Jesus has forgiven you.
Because Jesus has done good to you, you can do good.

But that doesn’t mean we can simply say, “I forgive, so now everything is fine again.” No. When someone has hurt us, healing takes time. Our heart needs time to heal.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean it stops hurting.

Imagine you break your leg. What would you do?

You would go to the doctor, because you know they will help your leg grow back together properly. But usually you come home with a cast, and the bone still needs time to grow back together before you can put your full weight on your foot again.

What would happen if you didn’t go to the doctor? Then the bone might grow back together wrong, and you could have permanent pain when walking.

It’s the same with forgiveness. If we decide not to forgive, it can keep hurting us permanently. Our wounds can’t heal. But if we go to Jesus, who can treat the wounds in our heart, and ask him to help us forgive, we will find that these wounds hurt less over time and heal.

Even more, through that we will see other people’s heart wounds heal too.

When Joseph forgave his brothers and told them not to be afraid, they didn’t have to be afraid anymore and could receive that forgiveness. Their wounds, from not being loved as much by their father, were allowed to heal.

You can forgive, because Jesus has forgiven you.
Because Jesus has done good to you, you can do good.

If someone, for example, takes your snack and eats it without asking you, and you find out, you’re probably angry. Don’t go straight to that person. Talk to Jesus first. He helps you with your anger and helps you forgive.

When you then go to the person, you could say, “It hurt me that you took my snack. You could have asked me if you could have some. I would have liked to share it with you. If you want, I’ll bring you something tomorrow. What would you like?” The person will probably think you’ve lost it and will ask you: Why aren’t you angry at me?

Then you can say: I was angry, but I gave my anger to Jesus and he helped me with it. He is my best friend. Do you want to get to know him?

What other ideas can you think of?

Closing

Here’s what we’re going to do now. We take a moment and think about the last few days. I’ll play some music in the background while I pass around paper and pens.

As soon as you have paper and a pen, take time to think about the following:

Is there someone you still need to sort something out with, something that happened in the last few days or last week? Who would you like to apologize to, or whom would you like to forgive?

Write it down. Talk to Jesus about it. Ask him to help you. If there’s something you still want to sort out with a person, talk to that person as soon as possible.

English version: September 2026