CHARACTER NEEDED – BIBLE SKETCHES
Character Needed,
by Robert Allen, published by Regular Baptist Press, includes 33 skits
illustrating the truths of each of the verses in Proverbs 15. These Character
Needed – Bible Sketches are designed to accompany those contemporary plays,
illustrating the same character traits by use of a Bible story.
CHARACTER NEEDED
GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD
Proverbs 15:3
Genesis 40:1-23
Character Trait: Goodness
Cast of Characters
Narrator
Baker
Butler
Joseph
Pharoah
NARRATOR: Joseph was in prison. Oh, it wasn’t because he was a terrible man
who had done something wrong. Joseph was
a very good man—a man who was trying to serve God. Joseph was in prison because someone had lied
about him. He got blamed for something
he didn’t do, and was sent to prison. That seemed like a terrible thing to
Joseph. But God was planning something
good. One day as Joseph sat in prison,
he heard the guards locking up some new prisoners.
BAKER: Hey! Let go of me.
You can’t treat me like this. I’m
the chief baker for the king.
BUTLER: You can’t lock us up! What’s going on here? I’m the king’s very own butler.
BAKER: Quit pushing. I want my lawyer. Let me out of here!
NARRATOR: But the guards didn’t listen to
them at all. They just turned the key in
the lock and left them there in prison with Joseph.
JOSEPH: Hello, there. You might as well quit yelling and pounding
on the bars. I’ve been here a long time
and there’s no way out. Why are you men
here?
BUTLER: I don’t know.
BAKER: I guess we got Pharaoh mad
at us somehow. They didn’t tell us what the
reason was. They just brought us here.
JOSPEH: Well, now that you are here
you might as well get as comfortable as is possible here in prison. We don’t have all the comforts of home, but
there are a couple of beds you can use.
NARRATOR: That night Joseph noticed that
neither of the men slept very well. But
then, the beds were awfully bumpy. The
next morning he asked them about it.
JOSEPH: You fellows look pretty sad
this morning. You didn’t sleep well, did
you?
BUTLER: I had a dream, and it woke me
up, and then I couldn’t get back to sleep.
BAKER: I had a dream too. And I knew there wasn’t anyone here in prison
who could interpret it, so I thought and thought about it. And I don’t know what it means and no one
else knows what it means, and I’m so sad because I’ll never know what my dream
means.
JOSEPH: Isn’t God the One who knows
the interpretation of dreams? Tell me
your dreams, and let me ask Him what they mean.
BUTLER: Well, I saw this vine with
three branches. The branches blossomed and
grapes grew. So I took Pharaoh’s cup and
squeezed the grapes into his cup and gave it to him.
JOSEPH: That’s it?
BUTLER: That was my dream.
JOSEPH: All right. Here’s the interpretation. The three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will send for you and
let you out of prison. You will be
restored to your place as the chief butler, and once again you will give
Pharaoh’s cup into his hand.
BUTLER: Say, that’s great!
JOSEPH: But listen, chief
butler. When you come back into the
palace, tell Pharaoh about me. You know
I didn’t do anything wrong, that I’m in prison because of a lie. Tell him about me and get me out of this
place, too.
BUTLER: Sure. I’ll tell him about you. Don’t worry.
BAKER: What about me? What about my dream?
JOSEPH: All right. Your turn.
BAKER: Well, I was in my dreams
too, just like the chief butler. There I
was in all my glory. I was dressed in my
best baker’s outfit, clean and white. On
my head I had three beautiful white baskets.
I had been baking since early morning and the top basket was full of my
very best baked goods, sweet rolls, bread and other goodies. I was on my way to the palace to take them to
Pharaoh for breakfast. I knew he would
be so pleased with them. As I walked
along, these terrible birds swooped down and started pecking at my beautiful
loaves of bread. I yelled and waved my
arms and did everything I could to scare them away. But other birds came to help and before I
knew it they had eaten everything in the entire basket. Now, tell me what that means.
JOSEPH: The interpretation is from
God. The three baskets are three
days. In three days Pharaoh will take
you out of prison. You will be taken out
and hung. And when you are dead, the
birds will come and eat your flesh.
NARRATOR: The baker wasn’t too excited about
that prospect. But that’s exactly the
way it happened. In three days the
butler had his job back and the baker was dead.
But did the butler remember to tell Pharaoh about Joseph? I’m afraid not. Joseph was still in prison. But God was planning something good. One day the Pharaoh had a dream. And when no one could tell him what it meant,
the butler finally remembered.
BUTLER: Hey! There’s a fellow down in prison who can
interpret dreams.
PHARAOH: Bring him here!
NARRATOR: So the guards ran down and gave
Joseph some new clothes and brought him up to the palace.
PHARAOH: You can interpret dreams?
JOSPEH: God can, not me. But God will give Pharaoh an answer.
PHARAOH: All right. I had two dreams. In one there were seven fat cows and seven
skinny cows. The skinny cows came out
and ate the fat cows. Just ate them
up. And the strange thing is, they were
still skinny when they were done.
JOSEPH: And the other dream?
PHARAOH: Just about the same. There were seven fat ears of corn on one
stalk and seven skinny ears grew up and ate them. And those ears were still skinny. None of my magicians can tell me what it
means. Can you?
JOSEPH: God can. He has told Pharaoh what He is going to
do. God will send seven good years,
years of plenty. Then He will send seven
years of famine that will eat up all the years of plenty.
PHARAOH: What should I do?
JOSEPH: Find a man you can trust
and have him collect enough food during the good years to get the nation through
the bad years.
PHARAOH: That’s a great idea. I trust you.
And I proclaim that Joseph is now the ruler of all my kingdom, second
only to me. Go and do as you have
recommended.
NARRATOR: So Joseph went from prison to
palace in one day, because God was working all things together for his good.
No comments:
Post a Comment