Each meeting covers one lesson. The passage, questions and notes are all on the lesson page, and group members can print their own copy.
Leaders need only this guide: first the flow that is the same every time, then the focus points and tips for each lesson.
A lesson takes about an hour. Meet weekly or every other week — whatever fits your group.
Each Meetingabout 55 min
Snacks and catching up
10 min
Read together
10 min
Discussion
25 min
This week
5 min
Close (prayer optional)
5 min
Opening: Start with last time’s ‘This week’: ‘Did you do it? How did it go?’ For the first lesson, ask everyone to say in one sentence why they want to read about this person. The leader goes first.
Read together: Take turns reading the passage, a few verses each. The leader reads the short notes between sections.
Discussion: You don’t need to discuss every question in ‘Think It Through.’ Pick one or two from each group, add this lesson’s focus points, and that is plenty.
This week: Read it together, and ask each person to decide on the one small thing they will do this week.
Close: You can pray using a verse from the lesson. If some aren’t used to praying aloud, a minute of silence together is fine too.
Focus 1 (vv. 3–4): The tunic. Ask the group: what has favoritism or comparison in a family left behind in people?
Focus 2 (vv. 18–28): How hatred turned, step by step, into the wish to kill. Ask the group to notice the words the passage uses: hated, hated all the more, envied, conspired.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of a family member there is distance with. Next time, ask each other: did you say that peaceable word?
Leader tip: This lesson touches favoritism and broken relationships between siblings. Some may be living in it now, or may have been the favored one, or the overlooked one. Don’t ask anyone to talk about their family; let people share only if they want to. Don’t sort Jacob, Joseph, or the brothers into simple good and bad people; the passage records what happened and rarely passes judgment. Question 9 only lets the group know the ending; there is no need to go into Lesson 7 here.
Focus 1 (vv. 8–9): Joseph’s reasons end with “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (v. 9). Ask the group: when you make a choice, what usually comes to mind first?
Focus 2 (vv. 19–23): He did what was right, and ended up in prison. Ask the group how ‘God was with him’ and ‘he still went to prison’ can both be true at the same time.
Focus 3 (This week): Next time, ask each other: did you use that sentence this week?
Leader tip: This lesson touches on sexual harassment at work, abuse of power, and false accusation, and some in your group may have lived through these. Keep a few things in mind. Being a victim is never the victim’s fault. Joseph ‘refused’ and was still falsely accused and imprisoned; the passage does not say that doing right means you will not suffer, so don’t teach it that way. Speak of his master’s wife only as the passage does; don’t turn this lesson into ‘women are a temptation.’ Don’t press anyone about their own experience; let people share only if they want to. If someone becomes upset, stay with them after the meeting, and if needed, involve a pastor from their church or a professional counselor.
Focus 1 (vv. 6–8): In prison, Joseph still notices other people’s sad faces, and he gives the credit for interpreting dreams to God. Ask the group: when you are in a hard place, can you still see other people?
Focus 2 (vv. 14, 23): ‘Remember me’ and ‘forgot him.’ Ask someone to share a time they were forgotten, then read together “At the end of two full years, Pharaoh dreamed” (Gen 41:1).
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of a promise they forgot. Next time, ask each other: did you get in touch?
Leader tip: This lesson can easily be turned into ‘just wait patiently and God will surely turn things around for you.’ The passage makes no such promise; it only records two blank years. Keep the focus on the God Joseph speaks of, not on a reward for waiting. The baker’s execution can simply be read as the passage gives it, without dwelling on it. Question 10 may touch the hurt of being let down. Don’t press; let people share only if they want to.
Focus 1 (vv. 14–16): ‘It isn’t in me.’ Ask the group: when someone praises you, what are the first words you usually say?
Focus 2 (vv. 51–52): The two names. Ask the group: is where you are right now a ‘land of affliction’? Have you seen any fruitfulness there?
Focus 3 (This week): Next time, ask each other: when someone praised you this week, what did you say?
Leader tip: This lesson is easy to turn into ‘Just be patient, and good days are sure to come.’ The passage makes no such promise. It says nothing about Joseph’s two years of waiting, so don’t fill them in. If question 11 touches someone who is suffering now, don’t rush to give answers, and don’t push anyone to ‘see the fruitfulness.’ Let people share only if they want to.
Focus 1 (vv. 6–9): The bowing and the dream. Ask the group what it might have been like for Joseph when he ‘remembered the dreams.’ (Say clearly that this is a guess.)
Focus 2 (vv. 21–24): The brothers speak their guilt; Joseph turns away and weeps. Point out that both happen in the same room, and neither side knows what the other is going through.
Focus 3 (This week): Next time, only ask, ‘Did you write it?’ What was written does not need to be shared.
Leader tip: This lesson touches family wounds left unresolved for years, meeting again, and whether to be reconciled. Don’t push anyone toward reconciliation, and don’t press; question 11 says plainly it is for writing only. Why Joseph was harsh, why he put them in custody, why he kept Simeon — the passage does not say. The group can discuss it, but please say it is a guess. Don’t settle it as ‘Joseph was testing them’ or ‘Joseph was getting even.’
Focus 1 (v. 17): Joseph handed the brothers an easy way out. Ask the group: in everyday life, what does it look like to leave one person behind and go home safe yourself?
Focus 2 (Gen 37:27; 44:33): Read Judah’s two sentences side by side. Ask the group how they see these two sentences coming from the same man.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one person who needs someone to stand up for them. Next time, ask each other: did you do that small thing?
Leader tip: This lesson touches on ‘being willing to take something on for someone else.’ Don’t turn it into ‘suffering is a virtue,’ and don’t ask anyone to sacrifice themselves for others or to stay in a situation that is harming them. Judah stepped in for a younger brother who was about to be taken away; he was not quietly putting up with harm. Question 10 is clearly marked as private — don’t press, and don’t ask anyone to talk about what they did in the past. And don’t fill in how Judah changed; if someone asks, you can say, ‘The passage doesn’t tell us. We only see these two moments.’
Focus 1 (vv. 4–8): Joseph says ‘whom you sold,’ and he also says ‘God sent me.’ Ask the group: why do both need to be said?
Focus 2 (Gen 50:15–21): After their father dies, the brothers are still afraid. Talk together: why do being forgiven and no longer being afraid both take time?
Focus 3 (This week): Next time, just ask, ‘Did you write it?’ No one needs to share what they wrote.
Leader tip: Don’t use Gen 50:20 to tell someone who is suffering, ‘This is all God’s good plan.’ The verse first says, “you meant evil against me” (Gen 50:20), and Joseph himself wept several times (v. 2; Gen 50:17). When you meet someone who has been hurt, first stay with them; don’t argue a point. Forgiveness is also not a demand to reconcile right away: between Joseph first seeing his brothers again and making himself known to them, several chapters pass (Gen 42–45), and even after their father’s death the brothers are still afraid (Gen 50:15). Question 11 is for writing privately; don’t ask about it in the group.
Principles
The leader is not a teacher, but someone walking alongside everyone else.
Give everyone a chance to speak. If some talk a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s hear from those who haven’t spoken yet.’
Don’t rush to give answers. If there is silence, wait a few more seconds.
If you can’t answer a question, it’s fine to say, ‘I don’t know — let’s look into it together,’ and come back to it next time.
What is said in the group stays in the group.
At the start, the leader can share their own answer first. Keep it simple and honest.
In the lessons, words in double quotes with a reference are scripture. What the passage does not say, we can only guess; guessing is fine, as long as we say we are guessing.
Don’t press on painful things. If someone becomes upset, stay with them after the meeting; if needed, involve a pastor from their church or a professional counselor.