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| FRIDAY | April 22 |
| Read Ellen G. White, “The Return to Canaan,” “Joseph in Egypt,” and “Joseph and His Brothers,” pp. 209–240, in Patriarchs and Prophets; pp. 428–432, in The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1. “Joseph, unsuspicious of what was to befall him, approached his brethren with gladness of heart to greet them after his long, wearisome journey. His brothers rudely repulsed him. He told them his errand, but they answered him not. Joseph was alarmed at their angry looks. . . . They accused him of hypocrisy. As they gave utterance to their envious feelings, Satan controlled their minds, and they had no sense of pity, and no feelings of love for their brother. They stripped him of his coat of many colors that he wore, which was a token of his father’s love, and which had excited their envious feelings.”—Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, pp. 128, 129. |
 What other kinds of “coats of many colors” are there? What are things of the world that we covet after, which sooner or later can easily be stripped from us and defiled in blood? What kind of worldly honors seem to mean so much and yet, in the end, really mean nothing at all?  Think about the context of this week’s lesson and then read Genesis 45:22. What irony is found there?  Joseph often has been seen as a type of Christ. Go through the Joseph story and see what parallels you can find between Christ and Joseph. Share your answers with your class. There’s probably little doubt the brothers felt great remorse for their actions. We don’t know what the father did with the bloodied coat. Perhaps he kept it as a memento of his beloved son. Imagine how the brothers would have felt each time they saw this coat, once a symbol of their jealousy, and now a symbol of their guilt. How can we learn to think before we act and not to do things rashly? How much different this story would have been had the brothers known the Lord whom their father served! If the brothers knew how to pray, how to die to self, how to surrender to the Lord in faith and obedience, none of this would have happened, and so much pain and suffering could have been spared. How can we learn not to fall into the same trap that these men did? |
| I N S I D E Story | ||
| A Passionate Giver Deok Ja (Dohk jah) watched the Christians enter the church across the street from her home in southwestern Korea. The children were so well behaved; she wished her daughters had such friends to play with. One day a woman knocked on her door and introduced herself as the wife of the pastor of the church across the street. She offered Deok Ja a magazine, Signs of the Times. The pastor's wife visited often after that, bringing gifts of vegetables and bread. She invited Deok Ja to attend a meeting on health, and Deok Ja went, because she wanted to know more about healthful living. She attended worship services, and in time, she found Jesus as her Savior and joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. God's love bubbled over in her life, and Deok Ja shared that love with others. But her husband and children held the first place in her prayers. Her husband allowed her to worship and to teach their children about God, but he wasn't interested in religion. Deok Ja prayed that God would work a miracle in her husband's heart and bathed her prayers with kind words and deeds. For ten years she prayed and shared God's love with others, leading many to Christ. She taught their daughters to do the same. Still her heart ached for her husband, who told her that he would consider attending church with her after he retired from public service. Then on New Year's Day one year the family shared their wishes for the coming year. One daughter expressed her wish that the family could be united in Christ. When Deok Ja's husband heard that, he responded, "I'll try." He kept his promise and began attending church with the family. One Sabbath he stood in church and said, "I'm here because I've seen God through my wife, who has prayed for me faithfully for many years." In time he surrendered his life to Christ and was baptized. Today Deok Ja's husband invites his colleagues to special meetings in the church. Deok Ja continues to bring people to Christ through every means pos¬sible. Her daughter has caught her mother's spirit of evangelism and plans to serve a year in the church's 1000 Missionary Movement program in the Philippines. "Evangelism is giving," Deok Ja says. "And our church has many great programs that help us to share God's love with others. Our mission offerings help make this outreach possible, and when someone gives their life to Christ, I invite them to share the blessings they've received with others. In this way many will come to know my beautiful Savior." DEOK JA lives in southwestern Korea. | ||
| Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org |
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