Joseph the Dreamer

Joesph

The following script was written for use with Handle Bag puppets. Use and construction of Handle Bag puppets is included in the book, "Puppets, Kids, and Christian Education." The script is availabe for personal use, but may not be redistributed.

Joseph the Dreamer

A long time ago, there lived a man named Jacob. (Enter Jacob) Jacob had many sons. (Enter Sons) Of all his sons, Jacob loved his son Joseph the best. To show his love, he gave Joseph a beautiful coat full of many colors. (Enter Joseph showing off coat) When his brothers saw the coat, they became very angry and left. Jacob followed quickly behind them. (Exit Jacob and brothers)

One night as Joseph slept, (Joseph settles down to sleep. Lights dim) he had a dream. (Shadow light comes up) In his dream, he and his brothers were bundling up stalks of grain into sheaves and his brothers sheaves all bowed down to his sheaf. (Shadow sheaves appear and bow to single sheaf.)

Another time, Joseph had a different dream. He dreamed that he saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars and they all bowed down to him. (Shadow sun, moon, and stars appear and bow. Shadow light off. Front lights back up.)

He told his brothers about the dream. (Enter brothers) Which just made them even more mad at him and again they just left. (Exit brothers.) He also told the dream to his father, Jacob. (Enter Jacob.) Jacob scolded him for telling such a thing, but he kept thinking about what Joseph had said.

One day Jacob sent Joseph out to see his brothers who were caring for the sheep. (Exit Jacob.) Joseph found his brothers (Enter brothers) but when they saw him, they were still so angry that they threw him in a pit (Brothers surround Joseph and Joseph drops from view.) and took his coat. They sold Joseph to a caravan that was traveling to Egypt. (Exit brothers)

(Enter Jacob, then brothers) The brothers showed their father Joseph’s coat and told him that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Jacob was very upset and cried for a long, long time. He could not stop thinking about his son, Joseph. (Exit brothers and Jacob.)

In Egypt, Joseph was a slave, but he was tricked and thrown in prison. In prison, he met Pharaoh’s cup bearer, who was also a prisoner. (Enter the cup bearer.) The cup bearer was freed, however, and went back to serving Pharaoh his wine. (Enter Pharaoh.) Pharaoh was the most powerful man in all of Egypt. Whatever he said was law, but today he was very troubled. He had been having strange dreams that he could not understand.

When the cup bearer heard this, he told the Pharaoh a story. When he was in prison, he had a strange dream. (Lights dim. Shadow light comes up.) He dreamed he saw a grape vine with three branches. When the grapes were ripe, he squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and gave it to him. Another prisoner, named Joseph, explained that the dream meant that in three days he would be freed.

Another prisoner, Pharaoh’s baker, also had a dream. He dreamed he was walking with three baskets of bread on his head and birds flew down and ate the bread. Joseph explained that the dream meant that in three days the baker would be killed. In three days, it all happened as Joseph said it would. (Shadow light off. Front lights back up.)

Pharaoh sent for Joseph to interpret his dreams. (Enter Joseph.) Joseph explained that he could not interpret dreams, but that God would give him the answer. Pharaoh told Joseph his dreams. (Lights dim. Shadow light on.) In his first dream, he saw seven fat cows come out of the Nile River. They were followed by seven skinny cows that ate the fat cows, but still they were as skinny as before.

In the second dream, there was a stalk with seven full, ripe ears of grain. Out of the stalk grew seven other ears, thin and dry and the thin, dry ears swallowed up the full, ripe ears. (Shadow light off. Front lights back up.)

Both dreams mean the same thing, explained Joseph. God is telling you what will happen. There will be seven years of record harvests followed by seven years of famine. You must store grain from the first seven years to feed your people during the years of famine. (Exit Joseph.) Pharaoh was so grateful to Joseph that he made him governor of all of Egypt. (Enter Joseph with new clothes. Exit Pharaoh and cup bearer.)

When the famine hit the land, Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt looking for food (Enter brothers) and Joseph had them bring all of their families to Egypt, including their father, Jacob. (Enter Jacob.) Jacob was overjoyed to learn that Joseph was still alive and Joseph forgave his brothers for the terrible things they had done, because now he understood his dreams and he knew that God had sent him ahead to Egypt to save many peoples lives.