Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at Beyondthebasics.blog. Click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond the Basics. You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page. And for only four dollars a month, you can receive access to the full uncut episode which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio. You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now, on to the show.

You know we’ve all had to repent for various things many times in our lives. This is a very regular occurrence for most of us, but sometimes there’s deep hidden sin that God needs to deal with in our lives and in those times God will orchestrate circumstances to lead us to repentance. In Romans 2:4 it says, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? So God will show us kindness. He will do things for us to reveal his kindness and his love so that we will be led to repentance. And this is what we’re going to see God doing with Joseph’s brothers in Genesis chapter 42. God is going to orchestrate these circumstances in this chapter to lead them to repentance for what they did to their brother Joseph many years prior. So, let’s get into the chapter.

Starting off in verse 1, it says, when Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt. So this was likely in the first year of the famine, the reason being in chapter 45 verse 11, it says, “There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come so that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty.”

In Genesis 45, there’s still five years of the seven-year famine left. And this is after Joseph’s brothers take a couple trips back and forth from Canaan to Egypt. So quite a bit of time has passed between chapter 42 and 45. So likely this chapter takes place in the first year of the famine.

So it says, so Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”

Now, this word look is the same word in Hebrew as “learned” earlier in the verse. So it says Jacob learned that there was grain and then he says, “Why do you look?” That word “learned” and word “look” is the same Hebrew word. He’s asking, “Why do you look at one another?”

Probably because Jacob’s sons obviously would have known or likely would have known that there was food in Egypt as well and they clearly did not want to go there. So it’s as if they’re sitting around needing food, kind of looking at each other like who’s going to be the first one to get up and go. For one thing, it’s a dangerous journey from the land of Canaan to Egypt. They could end up being enslaved. We already know that there’s slave traders on that route and if they were to be captured by these slave traders and sold into slavery, that’s a very real possibility. And it probably also reminded them of what they did to Joseph because they sold Joseph to those slave traders that were heading to Egypt. They probably didn’t want to be reminded, but they’re going to be reminded in a very clear way and they’re going to be confronted with that as we move on through this chapter and through the next few chapters.

So in verse 2, Jacob said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt, go down and buy us grain.” So Jacob says to his sons, “Go down and buy grain for us there that we may live and not die.”

So this phrase, live and not die, foreshadows the end of the story, which if you’ve read through the rest of the Genesis, you know that they live and don’t die.

So, moving on in verse 3, it says, 10 of Joseph’s brothers went down. So, 10 of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.

So, in verse 4, Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. So, Benjamin was the only one of Rachel’s sons left, at least according to Jacob, because Jacob had no idea that Joseph was still alive. So, Jacob was extremely protective of him. Now, he didn’t know that God was already working in these events for many years, ever since Joseph was sold into slavery. And that’s partly because his sons had deceived him. They weren’t telling him the whole truth. He had no idea what was happening. So Jacob was naturally going to be very protective of his son, Benjamin, but he was overprotective compared to the lack of protection he provided for his other sons.

So in verse 5 it says, then the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. So that phrase among the others is important. This verse, it provides a picture of the entire earth coming to buy grain. And we see that in the last verse of chapter 41, it says, moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe over all the earth. It gives us a picture of a flood of people coming from across the whole earth, descending on Egypt. And the brothers joining this flood of people across the whole earth. What does this remind you of? It reminds you of the flood narrative. This language tying it to the flood narrative show that this judgment, this calamity of the famine across the whole earth is from God. God was responsible for the flood, God is responsible for this famine because it’s the same language of judgment in both instances.

So in verse 6, now Joseph was governor over the land. So it’s highly unlikely because he was governor over the entire land that he would be present for most individual transactions with foreigners. But God is part of this story. God is the main driver of this story and He’s with Joseph so that He would be present when His brothers arrived.

So later in verse 6, Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Just like in Joseph’s dream many years earlier in Genesis 37, if you remember, in verses 5 through 8, there was a dream that Joseph had and he told it to his brothers and he said, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed. Behold, we are binding sheaves in the field and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright and behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. And his brothers were very angry about it and hated him.”

In verse seven, Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers. This is the same word as recognized earlier in the verse. He recognized them and he treated them like strangers. Joseph recognized his brothers, but treated them as if he didn’t recognize them.

And then it says that he spoke roughly to them, or he spoke hard to them. So the picture is of a hard, gruff, intimidating man speaking to his brothers. So he asked them where they came from. They said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”

And then we’re told again, and Joseph recognized his brothers a second time. Remember, anytime anything’s doubled in these stories, it’s an indication that this is God’s plan. This phrase is repeated, that Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Why is it repeated? Because it shows that this is God’s plan. It shows that God brought them here, that God placed Joseph in the right place so that he would be there to meet them, so that he would recognize them, and so that they would not recognize him.

Why didn’t they recognize him? Joseph was a teenager when they sold him into slavery. His voice had probably changed. He was clean shaven because he was basically living as an Egyptian and Egyptians did not like body hair and so they were clean shaven rather than the bearded men that would have lived in Canaanite or in Hebrew culture. And he spoke through an interpreter. So he was not even speaking Hebrew. He was speaking Egyptian or whatever language it was that they spoke in those days.

Not to mention, his brothers did not expect him to be there at all. They sold him into slavery. And he wasn’t even that good of a shepherd, so they certainly didn’t expect him to survive in slavery when he was a kid. Jacob had basically given him the position of the foreman. He wasn’t even doing the hard work. So for them to sell him into slavery, they expected him to die in slavery and not even die at an old age. This would have been the last place they would have expected to see him. They’re encountering Joseph in a completely unexpected place. There’s no reason why they would think that he would be there. They’re not going to recognize him in that instance.

So, moving on in verse 9, Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. So, that could indicate what Joseph’s motives are for what he’s about to do. He’s not looking for revenge. He remembered the dreams, because he saw his brothers bowing before him, and that would have triggered the memory of the dreams. So, he realizes, wait a minute. This is from God. We already know from the last chapter that He forgave His family. He forgave His brothers. So He’s not trying to get revenge on them. Instead, He’s recognizing that God is doing something here and He wants to be part of what God is doing so that hopefully one day His family can be restored.

So He tells them, “You are spies.” Now Joseph accuses them of being spies three times in this chapter in verse 9 and verse 14 and verse 16. If you remember, we talked about Joseph being tested three times through betrayal. First by his brothers, then by Potiphar’s wife, and then by the cup bearer. Now, Joseph’s brothers are going to be tested three times through accusation. And this is going to reveal the repentance in their hearts. Remember, at the beginning I talked about how God is going to lead Joseph’s brothers into repentance. This is how it’s going to be done. They’re going to be accused of being spies three times. That’s going to be the test that they’re going to have to go through that’s going to bring out repentance in their hearts.

So they deny it and they say, “No, we’re honest men,” in verse 11.

Well, they were not. They were not honest men. In fact, the next thing that they said was a lie about their brother. In verse 13, they said, “We, your servants, are 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father and one is no more.”

Now, they may have thought that Joseph was dead. Or they might have been lying knowing that he was enslaved. Either way, it’s a lie because they didn’t know that he was dead. And of course he wasn’t. He was very much alive and standing in front of them, but they didn’t tell Joseph, of course, what they did. They didn’t tell him the reason he’s no more. And then if you notice, they say it last as if it’s an afterthought. They say, “Oh, we’re 12 brothers. We’re the sons of one man and Canaan. We’re not, we’re not spies. We, we got another brother. And he’s with her father. Oh, and we had another one, but he’s dead now.”

So this provides a possible reason for Joseph’s accusations for him to continue to accuse them of being spies because he may have seen through this afterthought about him that they were still unrepentant for what they had done many years earlier.

So Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you, you are spies.”

In verse 15, he says, “By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.”

Joseph is going to keep them there until his youngest brother, Benjamin, comes there to Egypt to meet Joseph. So in verse 16, he says, “Send one of you and let him bring your brother while you remain confined that your words may be tested.”

So this is the first of two plans that are going to be set forth by Joseph. Again, remember, the number two reveals God’s hand working in this story. So we can tell that by Joseph presenting two plans, that this is going to be God working through Joseph and through his brothers to get the whole family down to Egypt. This is how it’s going to happen.

So in verse 17, he put them all together in custody for three days, similar to what they put Joseph through. They put Joseph in custody in the pit. Now Joseph is putting them in custody. Shows that God will visit our unrepented sins back on us to produce repentance. At least that’s what he’s doing here to his brothers. I hope that doesn’t happen to you or me, but God will do that sometimes. I’m not gonna say every single time, because I don’t pretend to know the ways of God when it comes to leading us to repentance. I’m sure each one of us individually is different, but this is one means that God will use to bring us to repentance, visit our unrepented sins back on us.

So in verse 18 it says, on the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God.”

And in verse 19 it says, “If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go.”

So Joseph knew it was safer for them to go together than for one man to travel alone. Again remember this was a very dangerous journey between Egypt and Canaan. And he also knew that they would have to return eventually to get more food. They weren’t going to buy enough to last them another six years. So Joseph wasn’t trying to be cruel or to kill them. He just needed to find out if they were sincere and repentant. And he didn’t need to keep all of them there in custody in order to do that. He could just keep one of them and send the rest back home, knowing that they would need to return eventually.

So he says in verse 20, “Bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.”

Now earlier remember Jacob had told them that they would live and not die if they go to Egypt. Now if they leave one in prison they will live and not die. You see the progression of events by going down to Egypt. Originally all they had to do was go to Egypt to live and not die but now they actually have to leave one of their number in prison in order to live and not die. This is why that language of going down to Egypt was included in the beginning of the chapter. It is a dangerous thing to go down to Egypt. Things get worse going down to Egypt.

Verse 21, then they said to one another, “In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother.”

So the three days in custody accomplished its purpose. They were starting to recognize what they had done to Joseph. And this association came so quickly. It means they probably thought of what they did to him often. I mean, wouldn’t it haunt you if you did something like that? Sold your brother into slavery? After deciding you weren’t going to kill him, you’re just going to make money off of him instead. Probably haunted these brothers and now they’re encountering difficulty, they’re encountering hardship by spending three days in prison and they immediately recognize and make the association between spending three days in prison and what they did to Joseph.

This is a result of a guilty conscience. This is what a guilty conscience will do. If you’re living with a guilty conscience because of something you’ve done in the past, anytime something bad happens, you’re going to think that it’s a result of what you did in the past. That sin in the past needs to be repented of. There’s somebody that you need to make right with. You need to go make it right with them. This is what can happen if we’re not careful and we live with unrepentant sin.

So they say, “In truth, we are guilty considering our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul.”

So they recognized God’s discipline for what they had done, even though what they had done seems unrelated to the current situation. But they had gone down to Egypt and been put in prison just like Joseph was, and they make the connection. They say that, “We saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”

They’re recognizing that they saw Joseph’s distress when he was in that pit, and because of that now, they are in distress being released from prison. They’re starting to realize that God is disciplining them for what they had done.

So moving on to verse 22, Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy?”

Well, he didn’t really tell him. I mean, he said that they shouldn’t kill Joseph, but just throw him in a pit. And he had the intention of rescuing him later, but he didn’t tell him that. He was just trying to buy time. He never even really said that they shouldn’t kill Joseph. He just said, throw him in a pit. So Reuben is trying to make excuses for what he said, but he says, “you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”

Spilt blood must be paid for. This is a very common theme in the book of Genesis. So they must have assumed that Joseph died in slavery because they’re talking that they are receiving a reckoning for his blood or the shed blood of their brothers being made right. So what’s interesting is that this actually proves that Joseph’s motive is not for revenge because he’s going to bring good back on his brothers for their guilt. We’re going to see in a little bit how generous he was to his brothers when they leave. So he’s going to bring good. He’s going to return good to his brothers. It proves that he’s forgiven them. Instead of returning to them the bad that they deserve for the bad that they did, he’s gonna return and repay them with kindness and generosity.

So in verse 24, Joseph turned away from them and wept because Joseph saw that his brothers were beginning to see the gravity of their sin and he returned to them and spoke to them. So we see Joseph’s attitude change toward his brothers. It’s clear that he heard Reuben’s confession and his heart was softened and he realized that they were starting to recognize their sin. So now, we don’t see any more accusations from Joseph. Instead, we only see generosity. So this picture of Joseph turning away from them and then returning to them, that’s language of repentance. Joseph repented of his accusations toward them, and now he’s gonna show them generosity. Well, he’s still gonna go forward with his plan, but we’re not gonna see him accuse them of being spies anymore.

So in verse 24, and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. So Joseph heard Reuben’s confession, which caused him to weep. So he took Simeon instead of Reuben. It should have been Reuben, most likely that should have been bound up and kept in custody because he was the firstborn. But since Reuben was the one who had the confession that this is a reckoning for our brother’s blood, Joseph took Simeon into custody instead and allowed Reuben to go free.

So now in verse 25, Joseph is gonna give a threefold order to his servants. He’s going to say, “Okay, it’s time for the brothers to go. Servants, here’s what I want you to do. One, I want you to fill their bags with grain. They bought the grain. I want you to fill their bags. Second, I want you to replace every man’s money in his sack. So all the money that they paid to me, I want you to replace it. And third, I want you to give them provisions for their journey back to Canaan.”

So they go on the journey, they leave, they load their donkeys with grain and departed, in verse 26. And then in verse 27, and as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder, at the lodging place he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. This forces the question now of what to do with the money. This is the test that’s going to reveal the repentance in their hearts. And we can actually ask ourselves the same question, what would we do with that money? If I were one of Joseph’s brothers and I got to the lodging place that night after leaving Egypt and I opened up my sack to feed my donkey and I saw the money in there, what would I do? Would I do the right thing and go return it to him or would I keep it for myself? Say, “Huh, looks like somebody made a mistake. Looks like it’s my lucky day.”

Or would I say, “Uh-oh, somebody made a mistake. I gotta go make this right.”

So in verse 28, he said to his brothers, “My money has been put back. Here it is in the mouth of my sack.”

At this, their hearts failed them and they turned trembling to one another saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

So, we know as the reader that it was Joseph who put the money in their sacks, but from the brothers’ perspective, it was God. They’re seeing God’s hand in these events. It shows us that God is working through Joseph to bring the brothers to repentance. They even see it now. They see that God is working through these circumstances.

So in verse 29, when they came to Jacob, their father, in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. So now this continues the theme of doubling because they’re going to tell the whole story a second time. So this is going to be the second time we read this story in the same chapter. There’s that doubling theme again, showing the hand of God in all of this.

Now the last time they told their father what had happened, they lied. Of course, the last time that they had told their father a story of what had happened, it was when they had sold Joseph into slavery and then they went to their father and told him that they had found his coat torn and covered in blood and then he had been eaten by an animal. But this time they tell him everything. With exception, of course, because in verse 31, it says, “We said to him, we are honest men.”

Well, at that moment they were, but of course, they’re still lying about what happened to Joseph. Because in verse 32, they say, we are 12 brothers, sons of our father, one is no more. So they’re still saying that Joseph is no more. They’re still lying. But the difference is, previously, when they told Joseph about their family in verse 13, they mentioned that “one is no more” at the end after mentioning the youngest, Benjamin, as if Joseph was an afterthought. But now, when they retell the story of their father, they mention Joseph before Benjamin, which could be an indication that they’re starting to recognize their wrong. It’s starting to take more prominence in their minds.

Then in verse 34, they say, Joseph tells them, “Bring your youngest brother to me, then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.”

Well Joseph never actually said this. He actually said, “You shall not die.” Although the ability to trade is implied, but it’s not what he said. He said, “Do this and you shall not die.” So they’re minimizing the danger that they were actually in by going to Egypt.

Then in verse 35, as they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid, because now they could all be accused of theft.

In verse 36, Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children,” which is an indication that Jacob believed his sons may have been responsible for Joseph’s so-called death. And here’s why. Because when they returned from Dothan without Joseph, they came back with more money than they had left with because they sold him for 20 shekels of silver. Now they’re returning from Egypt without Simeon and they have more money than they left with. So Jacob is potentially starting to recognize a pattern here. Why do these guys keep leaving and coming back with one less brother and more money? He’s starting to recognize something’s up.

So he says, “Joseph is no more.”

So Jacob still believed the lie that Joseph was dead. And this grief caused by that lie is going to result in strange actions made by Jacob, most notably that he’s going to not allow his sons to return with Benjamin to Egypt because that’s a requirement. If they want to buy more food, they have to return with Benjamin. Jacob’s not going to allow that. He would rather allow his family to starve than lose Benjamin like he lost Joseph.

And then he says “Simeon is no more.”

That’s compared to Joseph being no more. It’s the same language. So he believed that Joseph was dead and he said Joseph’s no more. Now he says Simeon is no more. So basically Simeon was as good as dead to Jacob because Jacob would not allow his sons to return. So Jacob was basically giving up on Simeon saying, “Not gonna let you return, Simeon’s just gonna die there because I can’t let you return with Benjamin.”

And he says, “Now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.”

This complaint that Jacob has, all this has come against me. The whole world is against me. It’s compared to Joseph who never complained even though he encountered far worse circumstances. And it’s contrasted with what Paul says in Romans 8:28. He says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

See, we know that Jacob was called according to God’s purpose, but he so idolized his sons from Rachel, his wife, that he forgot that God works all these things together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. And he thought all these things were working together for bad to come against him.

So in verse 37, Reuben presents a solution, because he is a man of solutions. He is always coming up with solutions, but they’re almost always bad ones, and this one’s no better. He says, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring Benjamin back to you.”

Obviously, he’s trying to convey confidence that they were gonna return with Benjamin, but this is not helpful. “Hey, Dad, I know you just lost your second son, but if we don’t come back with Benjamin, you can kill my two sons, your two grandsons.” How’s that for an exchange? It’s terrible. It’s not helpful.

So Jacob said in verse 38, “My son shall not go down with you.”

So Jacob clearly preferred Benjamin over Simeon. He says, “For his brother is dead and he is the only one left.” The only one of Rachel’s sons left. He says, “If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.” And that’s how we end this chapter.

So how does Genesis 42 point to Jesus? We don’t have a whole list of ways that Joseph foreshadows Jesus in this chapter, so it’s gonna be a little bit less intense as it has been in the last few chapters. But we do see that Jesus’ resurrection is foreshadowed in the way that the brothers are put in prison. So we see that Simeon is put in prison and his brothers are set free. So they all, all of them, all 10 of them spend three days in prison, and then one man is selected as a ransom for his brothers. The rest of them are set free on the third day. And it even says in verse 18 that Joseph says, “Do this and you will live.”

So let’s go over that again. The brothers are in jail for three days. On the third day one man is given as ransom for his brothers. The rest of the brothers are set free on the third day and they are given life. So it’s not a perfect analogy, but the language is clear. It’s clear that it’s pointing to the resurrection. That one man is given to set all of them, all of the men free on the third day and to give them life. That’s what Jesus’ resurrection did. Jesus, by being raised from the dead on the third day after his death, set his brothers free. He set free anybody who would believe in him. Anybody who would believe in the resurrection, they’re set free. They’re given life because Jesus was given as a ransom to pay for all of our sins. He was resurrected on the third day and as a result, He set us free and gave us life.

The other way this chapter points to Jesus is one day there’s going to be a seven-year period of testing for Israel to bring them into repentance as a nation. Now, I know there’s probably all different views, all different eschatological views represented by those of you who are listening. So some of you may agree with this, some of you may not. This is my view. I believe that there will be a seven-year period where the nation of Israel is going to be tested to bring them into repentance and to recognize that Jesus is their Messiah. And that’s detailed in Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 through 27. It says, “70 weeks are decreed about your people in your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity.”

And the prophecy goes on to detail how those 70 weeks would take place. So the angel described seven weeks and then 62 weeks and then, “At the end desolations are decreed… and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week,” the final week of the 70 weeks, “And for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering and on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

And then at the end, after that final seven-year period, Jesus will return. The Messiah will return to a nation of Israel that has finally recognized him as their Messiah, the one who would set them free from their final oppressor, the Antichrist. Note, I said at the end is when Jesus returns. I am not a dispensationalist. I do not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. I do not believe that Jesus comes back before that seven-year period. I believe the church will go through that period with Israel and will be on the earth to welcome Jesus back at the end of that seven-year period. If you disagree with me, that’s cool. I’m fine with that. I’d love to have a conversation with you about it if you want. But that’s another way that this chapter and really this whole storyline here for the next few chapters is going to point to Jesus.

So what can we reflect on this week? Well, I want us to do a little bit of a deep dive into our past. I’m not a therapist. I’m not a counselor. I’m not a somebody who’s going to try and talk you through healing or inner healing or anything like that. But, I do think it’s important to take a look back from time to time.

So the question I have for you this week is, why is it important for us to confront our past sins and failures? If we haven’t dealt with our past sins, we need to. Why is that important?

Meditate on that question, and if you have any past sins or failures that you have not dealt with, I encourage you to deal with those this week. Deal with them before the Lord brings you to a place where he has to force you to deal with them like he does with Joseph’s brothers. Deal with them now. This is a great opportunity. So let’s pray.

Lord, thank you so much for this week. thank you so much for my listeners for every single one that you are speaking to hopefully through this podcast, through your word most importantly. I pray that as we read and as we meditate and as we ask questions as we pray. Pray that you would reveal things to us from our past, things that maybe we haven’t repented of, failures that we haven’t come to terms with. Help us to confront those things, confront those sins and deal with them and repent if we need to. Pray that you would help us to see that you are the one who brings restoration to families, to friendships, to relationships. I pray that you would do those. I pray that you would do that in our families and our relationships. There are so many broken families out there, Lord. We begin to do the work of mending those families together, bringing people into repentance so that those families can be brought back together and be whole once again. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Well, thank you as always. Love to hear your feedback. Always love to hear your comments. So go ahead and leave a comment on the website, on social media. Always love hearing from you guys. Don’t forget to click like, give the show a five star rating, whatever you can do on whatever app you use, whether it’s YouTube or Spotify or whatever it is, to help increase the visibility of the show so that hopefully more people can be blessed and be exposed to Scripture and to Jesus himself. Thanks. Have a great week.

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Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at Beyondthebasics.blog Click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond the Basics. You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page. And for only four dollars a month, you can receive access to the full uncut episode, which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio. You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now, on to the show.

Have you noticed how God uses things, events, situations in our lives to prepare us for the next thing? And we get to the next thing and we realize we wouldn’t be prepared for it if it weren’t for the previous experiences or circumstances that we went through, what God brought us through. I like to think of it as a symphony written by God, that our lives are like a symphony, each note informing the other, each event like notes informing the rest of our lives. And if we’re surrendered to Him, we’ll be able to follow those notes on the page to create a beautiful sound of worship to our God.

This is what we see in Joseph’s life. He’s surrendered to his God. The events in his life prepare him to meet a king. So let’s get into Genesis chapter 41.

So the first thing it says in Genesis chapter 41 is after two whole years. After two whole years of what? Well, after two whole years of Joseph being in prison, after the cupbearer and the baker were released from prison, the cupbearer was restored to his position, the baker was hanged, and Joseph had asked the cupbearer to remember him when he was restored to his position and mentioned his name to Pharaoh, but he had been forgotten. This likely would have been very discouraging for Joseph. He had finally found a way out of this prison and now he’s been waiting for two years. Nothing’s happened.

If you have been following along, you will see that waiting is a theme in the lives of Abraham’s family. Abraham had to wait for Isaac to be born. Isaac had to wait for Jacob and Esau to be born. Jacob had to wait to return to the land. And now Joseph has to wait to be rescued from slavery and prison. We often find ourselves waiting on God longer than we wanted or planned. It’s not just for these wonderful men of faith in the Bible. It’s for us. This is how God builds our trust and our character.

If you’ve also noticed, as you’ve been following along with the story of Joseph, the theme of two pops up constantly. And we’re told many times that two means it is established by God. So the fact that Joseph is waiting two more years indicates that the events that happen in this chapter are established by God. God clearly knew that Joseph needed two more years in prison, and so God kept Joseph in prison for two more years. How many of us are willing to accept the fact that the reason God hasn’t removed us from difficult circumstances is because God knows that we need to be there?

It’s difficult to accept, but it’s true. That number two tells us it’s an indication that this is ordained by God, meaning if God desired to do it any other way, he would have, but he didn’t. This is the way he wanted to do it.

So after two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile. And in verse two, behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows. So the dream goes on, behold, there came up out of the Nile, seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them and stood by the cows on the bank of the Nile. Verse 4, and the ugly thin cows ate up the seven attractive plump cows, and Pharaoh awoke.

Verse 5, and he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. Now we have a third set of two dreams. Remember the first set was Joseph’s dreams about his family bowing down to him. The second set of two dreams were ngiven to the baker and the cup bearer, and now Pharaoh is having the third set of two dreams. And this indicates we have three sets of two. So there’s two important numbers there. Three sets of two. Three is the number of something that was completed by God or a trial or the work of God. And then that number two in the story of Joseph indicates that something was ordained or directed by God. So this indicates that all of Joseph’s life, all these events, this is the culmination, the completion of everything that God has been working in his life. It was all directed and ordained by God. The dreams were the driver of everything. It was the dreams given by God that set all these events into motion.

So the second dream, behold, verse 5, seven years of grain, plump and good were growing on one stock. Verse 6, And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. So moving on verse 7, it says, And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump full ears, and Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream.

So in the morning his spirit was troubled. Just like the cupbearer and the baker were troubled after their dreams, Pharaoh woke up troubled after these two dreams. This is, I believe, an indication that a dream is from the Lord. I’ve talked both on the podcast and on social media. If you follow me or the show on social media, I post a lot of these questions that we talk about in the show for discussion. And I’ve talked about how do we know if a dream is from the Lord. And I believe that this is one of the ways we can know that a dream is from the Lord because many times people in the Bible, when they have a dream from God, wake up troubled. Keep that in mind. If you ever wake up from a dream and you’re troubled, could be an indication that it’s from the Lord. Not necessarily. Could just be a nightmare. Let’s hope it’s not that.

So moving on to verse 8, Pharaoh sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams. So he was seeking an answer to the riddle of his dreams and he didn’t even know that they were from the Lord yet. He was seeking God and he didn’t even know it. This is why God reveals himself to people, especially in the form of dreams so that they will seek him. God will reveal himself in ways that make people ask questions, that will make people seek the answer to the questions that they’re asking, and they will end up finding that the answer is God himself. And that’s what’s going to happen with Pharaoh. But he doesn’t even know it yet.

Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh, because interpretation comes from God. Even though the dreams themselves and the interpretations were quite simple, if you are listening to the Patreon show, you were able to hear a lot of the symbolism in the dreams and what those symbols represent and how easily the dreams can be interpreted. And if you aren’t listening on Patreon, go ahead and subscribe, you’ll be able to hear some of that. That’s the kind of content you’ll be able to get if you go and subscribe on Patreon. But the interpretation of the dreams were simple. But the magicians couldn’t come up with the interpretation.

So in verse 9, then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “I remember my offenses today.”

So he says offenses in the plural. So he remembered his sin against Pharaoh and he remembers his sin against Joseph. He probably didn’t want to remind Pharaoh of the reason he was in jail in case Pharaoh became angry again. So he calls it his offenses. He says, “I remember my offenses.”

But his offense or his sin against Joseph was that he had forgotten about Joseph immediately after he was reinstated. But now his memory returned at the perfect time, exactly the time that God intended. So he tells a story to Pharaoh. When he was in prison, he and the baker in prison, in verse 11, he says, “We dreamed on the same night.”

Now he’s going to tell the story from the previous chapter, from Genesis 40, for a second time. The fact that this story is being told a second time, again there’s that number two, the things being repeated or things coming in pairs highlight God’s hand in all these events. So once again we realize the cupbearer remembering Joseph now as opposed to two years ago is what God intended. This is the perfect time. This is when God intended this to happen.

So he tells Pharaoh in verse 12, “A young Hebrew was there with us.”

And he says this in contrast to the Egyptian wise men and the magicians. So again, highlighting the foolish compared to the wise, the weak compared to the strong. He says he is a servant of the captain of the guard. The cupbearer tells Pharaoh the story from the previous chapter. And in verse 14, Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit.

So after a long period of waiting, now things are happening very quickly. They quickly brought him out of the pit. The waiting was intended to prepare Joseph for quick events later on. That waiting is when he developed dependence and devotion to God because when things happen quickly, he has to already have that dependence and devotion in place. Otherwise, he can fall into greed, into corruption, into all sorts of sin and wickedness that comes along with great power. We can learn from this. We can learn that when we are in a time of waiting it’s intended to develop dependence and devotion to God, because later things may move quickly. And if we don’t have that dependence and devotion to God already in place, we can be led astray when things happen quickly later on.

So they brought him out of the pit. Now this is compared to the pit that Joseph was thrown into by his brothers all the way back in Genesis 37. He was thrown into a pit. Now he’s finally being brought out of the pit. So they brought him out of the pit. And what did Joseph do when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes? So he shaved himself because Egyptians didn’t wear beards like the Hebrews and also probably had a pretty gnarly beard after being in prison for however many years. So he shaved himself and then he changed his clothes.

Now a change of clothes represents and foreshadows a new beginning or a throwing off of old things and putting on new things. Now something interesting to note here that this is the third time that Joseph has lost his garment. The first time he lost it as an heir to his father’s inheritance. Then he lost it as a slave when he resisted Potiphar’s wife. Now he lost it as a prisoner when he stands before Pharaoh. Remember that number three can be an indication of testing or it can be an indication that what God is doing is complete. So the third time Joseph has lost his garment, that means Joseph has now put off his old self. He is now putting on the new garment. He’s going to actually literally put on the robe of a ruler here pretty soon. God’s work in him is finally complete. That’s what this is indicating.

So he changed his clothes and he came in before Pharaoh. Now he was standing before the most powerful man in the world. Imagine what this would be like. He was a young Hebrew from a family that was barely a nation, not even a nation really, at best that could be considered a tiny nation. He was trafficked away from his home, sold into slavery, and now he’s brought before him the most powerful man in the world, the Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. And Pharaoh is gonna ask him for advice.

Moving on in verse 15, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream and there’s no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. So Pharaoh believed that when Joseph heard a dream, he could understand it. He believed Joseph had this wisdom and understanding inherent in himself.

But Joseph says in verse 16, it is not in me. So Joseph doesn’t take any glory or credit for himself, but he says God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer or in other words, an answer of peace that’s in the New King James version. And I like that wording, an answer of peace. Not that the answer would be a message of peace or favor. We’re going to find out that it’s not. It’s certainly not. It’s a message that famine is coming. So definitely not a message of peace or favor, but that the answer would bring peace to his spirit. Because remember, his spirit had been troubled ever since verse 8 or in verse 16. For eight verses, Pharaoh’s had a troubled heart. Nobody could tell him what the meaning of the dream was and he’s become more and more troubled. And now this young man, this young Hebrew comes before him and says, Hey, I can’t interpret dreams, but God can. And he’s going to give you an answer that will bring peace to your troubled spirit.

So in verse 17, then Pharaoh is going to tell Joseph the dreams and we’re going to read the dreams a second time. Do you notice the theme of two or the theme of doubling once again? Need I say more? I think you get it by now, right? So Pharaoh tells Joseph the dream a second time. So I’m not going to read the entire dream all over again.

So in verse 25, Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he’s about to do.”

So now God is revealing his will and his purposes to a pagan king rather than to a prophet. I’ve talked about this before, but God is not going to send disaster without warning. Abraham had previously filled this role. Abraham was a prophet. God sent disaster. If you remember when God was going to destroy Sodom, he came and talked to Abraham first. Abraham was able to intercede for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and then the angels went and told Lot. So Abraham was a prophet and Abraham was who God told when he was about to send disaster because Abraham had a deep relationship with God.

But after Abraham, his family slowly descended into sin and corruption. His family no longer had that deep connection and relationship with God to where God would tell them about the things that he’s about to do. So he told Abraham the things that he was about to do because he had a relationship with Abraham. But as his family slowly descended into sin, they lost that relationship. Now Joseph, of course, is righteous, but he has no influence because his family is so corrupt that they sold him into slavery and he was a slave and a prisoner, he has no influence, who is he going to tell? God gives Joseph this dream, who is he going to tell? He can’t tell anybody. Nobody would listen to him, so God’s got to tell Pharaoh, he’s got to tell a pagan king. We need to be careful before we dismiss those who refuse to profess Jesus as their savior, those who refuse to follow Jesus, that nothing that comes out of their mouths could possibly be from God. I believe it’s very important to listen to unbelievers, to hear what they’re saying, because often they will give warnings to the church without even knowing.

In verse 26, “The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years, the dreams are one.”

So these seven years are not specified as years of plenty. Egypt always had plenty. In fact, Egypt was the most prosperous nation in the entire world at that time because of the Nile River, as I mentioned earlier. A year of plenty would not have been out of the ordinary. Joseph didn’t need to specify that here. He just needed to specify that it would be normal years, which were always years of plenty. And then the seven lean cows and the seven blighted ears of corn would have been seven years of famine in verse 27. And the famine is specified because this was the main point of the dream. Joseph doesn’t mention plenty or great plenty until verse 29 where he says there will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt because that wasn’t the main point. The main point was the famine. So he didn’t mention the plenty until after he talked about the famine. The famine is the point of the dreams, not the great plenty.

So in verse 32, after Joseph gives the interpretation of the dream, which is that there will be seven years of plenty, seven years of famine, he says in verse 32, the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God and that God will shortly bring it about. That’s where we’re getting this theme of two, doubling. Doubling means that it’s fixed by God. That’s why so many things are doubled or come in pairs in this story.

But the language is interesting where Joseph says that it’s fixed by God because what it means is that no amount of intercession could turn God away from what he determined to do. I believe that there’s certain things that God is going to do no matter what humans say, no matter how much we pray, no matter how hard we pray, no matter how much we cry out for mercy, there are certain things that God is going to do because He has a long-term purpose in mind and these specific things are needed in order to move the earth into the purposes that He has for the earth and especially when it comes to Israel. In Isaiah 46:8-11, it says: “Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My council shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my council from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it.”

What God has determined to do, he will do it. There is nothing that can change it. And this particular famine was fixed by God. No matter what Joseph did, no matter what Pharaoh did, it could not turn God away from sending the famine. So what is wisdom? Wisdom means that sometimes the answer is not always to pray an intercede for God to turn. And I don’t know how to know the difference. But Joseph did here.

See, Abraham, when God told Abraham that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham interceded. Joseph had wisdom and did not intercede. Instead, he planned, he prepared. How do we know when to intercede and when to prepare? That’s not an answer that I have for you in this episode, unfortunately, because I don’t know. But I want to present it to you as something to consider. Is intercession always the answer? It wasn’t here in chapter 41. The answer was to prepare. Joseph recognized that what God was going to do, he was going to do. There’s nothing that can change it. So let’s prepare.

So in verse 33, Joseph says, now therefore, he’s about to tell Pharaoh what he should do about the dream. He’s going to provide the application beyond the interpretation. Interpretation requires knowledge, knowledge of what God is saying in the dream. We can use this principle even now in our own dreams from the Lord. Interpretation requires knowledge. Interpretation is just saying, this is what the dream means. This is the meaning of the dream. Application, which is what Joseph is about to do, requires wisdom. Interpretation says this is what the dream means. Application says this is what to do about it. We need wisdom to know what to do about it. Joseph had wisdom to know what to do about this dream. We need wisdom to know what to do about the dreams that God gives us. We need wisdom to properly apply God’s word. Joseph had both. Joseph had knowledge and he had wisdom.

So Joseph tells Pharaoh in verse 33, “Select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one fifth of the produce of the land.”

So some say that Pharaoh up to this point was taxing the people about 10%. So Joseph here would have doubled their taxes. Now they’re paying one fifth, which is 20%. And he says, “Let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities and let them keep it.”

So rather than a central location, they should store up the grain in each individual city. So this was to put people’s mind at rest so that once the famine comes, they wouldn’t have to go super far to buy food. They can get it right there in their city or in the city that’s nearest to them. And he says in verse 36, “That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine.”

So God is providing abundance before the famine to be kept in reserve. His provision during the years of plenty is going to require partnership and good stewardship in order to reserve enough food for the famine. Poor stewardship of God’s provision will result in a lack of provision. So he says, “The food shall be reserved for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt so that the land may not perish through the famine,” implying that the land could perish if Pharaoh didn’t implement and follow wisdom.

That’s concerning, but thankfully in verse 37, this proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants, or in other words, it seemed good. Just like the fruit was good to the woman in Genesis 3, this proposal seemed good to Pharaoh. That’s the wording that the NIV and the New American Standard use, but this is actually a good proposal and not a deception. So why is it using the same language as Genesis 3? “And the woman seeing that the tree was good for food…”

Why is it being compared to that? Because it’s an inversion. It reveals a redemption of the story of the fall, or at least it’s pointing towards a redemption of the story of the fall. See, the woman saw that the tree was good for food and she was deceived. She did not use wisdom. She ate the food when she had an abundance of food already in reserve for her. She ate the food that she was told not to eat. She didn’t use wisdom. Here Joseph gives Pharaoh a proposal to put into reserve food and do not eat it until the time of famine and Pharaoh sees that it is good. It’s a redemption. It’s a way forward. It’s a turning point in the story.

So in verse 38, Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this?”

Joseph stood out among the magicians and the priests not because of who Joseph was, but because of the Spirit of God that was in him. Pharaoh even says, “Can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God?”

This is the first time the Holy Spirit is mentioned to be coming upon someone, and it’s not in the context of miraculous things, but it’s in the context of practical things, giving wisdom and insight to deal with a global crisis that is on the horizon. In fact, there’s a common misconception that the Holy Spirit only comes upon people in the Old Testament that He does not dwell in people. But it is clearly stated here that the Spirit resides in Joseph. He says, in whom is the Spirit of God? Spirit is in Joseph.

See, Joseph shows us a Spirit-empowered life of wisdom and understanding. Joseph shows us what it looks like to live a life empowered by the Holy Spirit, and it’s a life of wisdom and understanding. The Spirit is there to give us wisdom, revelation, to know God, to know His purposes.

Verse 39, then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this,”

So Pharaoh gives glory to God just as Joseph did, he recognizes that this power is from God and not from Joseph. “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.”

So here Pharaoh begins to indicate that Joseph is the man for the job. Remember, Joseph encouraged Pharaoh to find a discerning and wise man. Now Pharaoh says, “There is none so discerning and wise as you are.”

Now there’s no indication that Joseph was seeking a government position. The text does not indicate to us that Joseph was trying to be this man who was discerning and wise. He was only brought before Pharaoh and only did exactly what he asked, which was provide the interpretation of the dream as well as a wise application.

So in verse 42, Pharaoh gave three gifts to Joseph. First, he gave Joseph the signet ring on his hand, which carries Pharaoh’s authority. He gave him garments of fine linen. So Joseph was no longer wearing the rags of a prisoner, but now he’s wearing royal garments. And these royal garments replaced his coat of privilege from his father. And Pharaoh gave him a gold chain around his neck instead of prison chains. So this highlights, complete turnaround, new life, new beginning for Joseph.

In verse 43, he made him ride in his second chariot. Joseph had once rode with a caravan of slave traders and now he’s riding in a chariot as a king.

In verse 45, Joseph receives a new name. Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zephaneth-paneah, which reveals his new purpose. This name likely means “God speaks and he lives,” which refers to God giving the message that will save the lives of many. This is Joseph’s new purpose to speak the message that’s going to save many, many, many lives. Again, pointing to Jesus one day. And also in verse 45, he gave him in marriage to Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On. So Joseph was given an Egyptian woman to be his wife.

So in verse 46, Joseph was 30 years old. He was very young to have so much authority, but he had been refined and prepared since he was 17 years old. That’s 13 years of preparation from 17 to 30. Joseph was 30 years old, entering the service of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, and Joseph did all the things that he recommended to Pharaoh. He went out from the presence of Pharaoh, went through all the land of Egypt, and during the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly, just as God had promised in the dream. And he gathered up all the food of those seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt and put the food in the city. So he did just as he recommended to Pharaoh. He gathered up the food, 20% of everybody’s food production and put it in every city in the nation of Egypt from the fields around it. He stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea.

And then in verse 50, two sons were born to Joseph. In verse 51, Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, which means forgetting, for he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.”

Now, doesn’t mean that he forgot he had a family. Doesn’t mean that he had forgotten where he came from. He couldn’t have. He gave his son’s Hebrew names. So he definitely didn’t forget where he came from. Instead, he forgot two things. He forgot his hardship or his sufferings, meaning it didn’t matter to him anymore. And he forgot his father’s house, meaning he had let go of what his brothers did to him. Because forgetting and forgiving are used interchangeably in the Bible. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that Joseph forgot about what happened to him or forgot that he had a family. It means that he forgave. It means he let go of what his brothers did to him. His forgiveness can be very difficult. It took 13 years for Joseph to do it, but he did it. And in fact, he was so committed to forgiveness that he encoded it in his son’s name.

So moving on to verse 52, the name of the second he called Ephraim, which means twice fruitful, which again, there’s the theme of doubling indicating God’s hand in Joseph’s family. And he says in verse 52, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my afflictions.”

So Joseph recognized that the Lord had rewarded him for his sufferings. Luke 6:35 says, “But love your enemies and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” Love your enemies and your reward will be great. It is so hard, I know, sometimes to love those who have hurt you, who have damaged you. It is a hard thing. And sometimes that’s what separates those who are willing to follow Jesus from those who are unwilling, is that phrase right there, love your enemies.

If you’re hearing this and you’re struggling with what somebody has done to you in the past, and you’re saying, “I don’t know if I can follow a God who would allow that to happen to me or who could be responsible for that to happen to me,” here you have a choice. This is your choice. You know, Jesus tells us we need to count the cost when we decide to follow him. If you’re on the fence and you’re hearing this, you need to count the cost of following Jesus. This is the cost. Love your enemies. If you can handle that cost, if you say, “Yes, I am tired of fighting, I am tired of struggling in my heart and in my spirit, tired of the anguish and the pain that past hurts have done to me, that people in my past have done to me.”

If you’re saying that and you’re saying, “I don’t know what to do, but I want a different way.”

This is the way. This is how you follow Jesus. Love your enemies. Expect nothing in return. Do it. Because why? Because you love God. Because you have surrendered yourself to Him. Because He has a greater plan. He has a long-term plan. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Jesus rules in righteousness and justice. You can count on it. You can see it all through the storyline of this scripture. If you were on the fence today, if you’re listening, see how Jesus deals with injustice. He does deal with it, and He will deal with it once and for all, one day when He returns. Now love your enemies, expect nothing in return, and your reward will be great. For even Jesus is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. He would not expect you to do it if He didn’t do it Himself first.

See God returned to Joseph what his brothers had taken and more. Joseph had a prominent position in a family with a coat of privilege and now he had a prominent position in a nation with a robe of royalty. All he had to do was love, love his enemies, trust in the Lord. God returned it to him.

So in verse 53, the seven years of plenty came to an end and in verse 54, the seven years of famine began to come as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands except Egypt, which had plenty of food. It says in all the land of Egypt there was bread because of Joseph’s wise and faithful stewardship.

And then in verse 55, when all the land of Egypt was famished, now we see the famine start to reach Egypt. Egypt typically wasn’t affected by droughts and famine because of the Nile River, because it provided water for crops, even when it didn’t rain a whole lot. So this had to have been an extremely severe drought, much more than normal.

And in verse 56, so when the famine had spread over all the land or over all the face of the earth is what the New King James and the New American Standard says. That phrase over all the face of the earth should remind us of what? It should remind us of the flood covering the face of the earth. So this indicates again that this is an act of judgment by God by using the same language that was used about the flood.

So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe over all the earth.

Why was the famine so severe? Well, God had a purpose. And we’re going to find out that Jacob’s family will have to move to Egypt as a result of this famine. There has to be a purpose because otherwise God could have stopped it, right? I mean, if God told Pharaoh the famine was going to happen, if he knew it was going to happen, couldn’t he have stopped it?

Isaiah 45 verses 5 through 7 says, “I am the Lord and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that my people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord who does all these things.”

God does both he forms light and darkness He makes well-being and creates calamity. He does both. If he tells Pharaoh the famine’s gonna happen, he’s not gonna stop it. God does all these things. We need to recognize who God is.

How does this chapter point to Jesus? Well, as we’ve seen many times already over the last few chapters, Joseph foreshadows Jesus in several ways. First, he brought a message from God. Hebrews 1:1-2 says: Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world. So, God spoke through his prophets in days of old, and now he’s spoken to us by his Son who is Jesus.

Joseph brought a message from God. Now Jesus has brought us a message from God.

Joseph provided bread that brought life to the world. Jesus did that as well. John 6:27-33 says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” So they said to Him, “then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

So Jesus came down from heaven. He is the true bread from heaven. He gave life to the world, just like Joseph.

Joseph was brought up from the pit, so was Jesus. Remember that word pit is symbolic of the grave. 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 says: For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Joseph went from obscurity to authority quickly. Jesus did as well. Matthew 4:23-25, and he went through all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.

So Jesus began teaching and proclaiming the gospel, and suddenly everybody was following him very quickly.

Joseph went from a servant to a prisoner to a ruler, just like Jesus. Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” So he was a servant.

John 18:12-13 says: then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. So Jesus was arrested in John 18. He was a prisoner.

And then in Philippians 2, as I mentioned, one of my favorite sections of the scripture, I’m going to read this once again, verses 9 through 11. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. So Jesus went from a servant to a prisoner to a ruler, just like Joseph.

Joseph didn’t seek authority, but it was given to him by choice. John 18:37 says, then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king.” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” So Jesus was born. His purpose was to bear witness to the truth. Pilate was the one who told him that he was a king. That was not what Jesus sought. In fact, Jesus was tempted by Satan to claim his kingdom when it wasn’t his time, and he resisted that temptation because it wasn’t what he sought.

Joseph began his public ministry at age 30, so did Jesus. Luke 3:23 says, Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son as was supposed of Joseph the son of Heli.

The Holy Spirit came upon Joseph at the beginning of his ministry. Same with Jesus. I mentioned that earlier on, so I don’t need to read those verses again.

Joseph was given a new name. Jesus will have a new name when he returns. Revelation 19:11-13 says: Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

Joseph ruled over Jews and Gentiles. So does Jesus. Romans 10:12 says there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

Joseph forgave those who persecuted him. Luke 23:34 says, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” and they cast lots to divide his garments. Jesus forgave those who killed him.

Joseph forgot the sins of his brothers. So did Jesus. And Isaiah 43:25 says, “I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. “

All the nations came to Joseph, and one day all the nations will come to Jesus. Zechariah 8:20-22 says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, “People shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities, the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.

That is speaking of the day that Jesus returns, nations will come to seek Jesus in Jerusalem at his throne.

And then, lastly, they came to buy bread from Joseph. Same with Jesus. Isaiah 55:1-2 says: Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

So those are the ways that Joseph specifically points to Jesus, but also Joseph is presented as a second Adam. I mentioned this a little bit earlier. He relies on God’s knowledge of good and bad, and he’s given authority over all the land, just like Adam was. Adam was given authority over all the land, and he’s given the image of Pharaoh to rule in the form of the signet ring and the royal garment. So he’s given the image of Pharaoh to rule the land, just like Adam was made in the image of God. He’s provided with a wife by Pharaoh, just like Adam was given a wife by God. Adam lost the land through disobedience, whereas Joseph will preserve the land through obedience. So Joseph here is showing what could have been if Adam had obeyed God like Joseph did. He’s being presented as a second Adam.

Now Jesus is the true second Adam. 1 Corinthians 15:45 says, Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, the man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of the dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. So, Jesus is presented as the last Adam, the one who will bring resurrection to all those who bear the image of the last Adam.

And in Romans 5:12-19, it says: therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience, the many will be made righteous.

A lot there, but what it’s saying is that Jesus is the second or the last Adam. He is going to make right all the things that Adam made wrong by his sin.

Finally, the theme of pairs in the story of Joseph. We’ve noticed the doubling or the pairing in many of these stories of Joseph. It points to Jesus’ ministry because Jesus’ ministry comes in pairs. He came once to die and He will come again to reign on the earth. So Jesus’ ministry is also in pairs. A lot there. It’s a lot more than just Joseph interpreting a dream.

But we talked a lot about wisdom and so the question that I have for you this week to reflect on is related to that. And the question is, what are some examples in your life oftimes when you’ve had to completely rely on God’s wisdom. And how can you seek the Lord for wisdom in the future? How can you gain more wisdom? How can we gain more wisdom from the Lord? Meditate on that question. Talk to the Lord about it. Talk to the Lord about wisdom. How He would give you more wisdom. See if the Bible says anything about it. Search that one out this week.

Let’s pray. Lord, I thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the story of Joseph and all the things that we can learn from it. I pray right now that you would give each one of us, those who are listening, wisdom as we seek you, not the knowledge of good and evil, not the knowledge of good and bad, but that we would seek you and in seeking you receive wisdom, receive your wisdom. God, I pray that you would use us to speak wisdom to the wise. I pray that you would humble our hearts so that you would use the foolish things to speak to the wise, use the weak to bring down the strong. Thank you that that is how you work, that you work through the weak and the foolish things of this world. God, I pray that for anyone struggling to forgive, for anyone struggling to believe that you could have worked through past hurts, through past trauma, pray that you would minister to those who are listening that are feeling that way right now, that you would speak to them and reveal yourself to them. Holy Spirit, reveal yourself to them right now in your Word in a very personal way. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at Beyondthebasics.blog, click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond the Basics. You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page. For $4 a month you can receive access to the full uncut episode which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now on to the show.

Have you ever gone through a really difficult time? Really hard circumstance and found out once you got through to the other side that what you learned during that time was actually invaluable? This is what Joseph is experiencing in Genesis chapter 40. He’s been enslaved, wrongly imprisoned, for something he didn’t do, but it’s gonna become training ground for the future. He’s gonna encounter two men that have dreams, and he’s gonna interpret those dreams. And this is gonna prepare him for his future when the Pharaoh, King of Egypt, is gonna have a couple dreams, and Joseph is gonna have to interpret those as well.

So let’s get into Genesis chapter 40. So it says, starting off in verse 1, sometime after this. So the question is what? Sometime after what? Going back to chapter 39, sometime after he was put into prison for allegedly trying to sleep with Potiphar’s wife, which of course he was not trying to do, but he was falsely accused. So sometime after he was thrown in prison is when the events of this chapter is going to take place. So, he was in prison for a while. He stayed there for a while, but he was faithful and served humbly while he was there, while he was waiting. I believe he was waiting for the Lord to deliver him. I think he knew, even now at this point, that the Lord had a plan.

So, sometime after this, the cupbearer of the King of Egypt, so the cupbearer could also be interpreted as the butler. Basically, his job was to taste Pharaoh’s wine before giving it to him to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. So he had access to Pharaoh’s ear, meaning, in other words, he had close access to Pharaoh. He was able to speak to him one-on-one. He had direct access to the most powerful man in the world at that time. That’s going to be important later on in the next chapter. And also, we find out that Pharaoh’s baker was there. The baker had charge of Pharaoh’s meals. Also probably tasting them before Pharaoh ate them to make sure that they were not poisoned.

So we’re told that they committed an offense in verse one. We’re not told what this offense was, but very possibly they were suspected of attempted murder potentially through the poisoning of Pharaoh’s food or drink, which would make sense because that was their job. We’re told they committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt, and Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cup bearer and the chief baker.

So their titles here in the second verse are repeated from the first verse. And this could be an indication that it was actually one of their employees that may have committed the crime, but the supervisors, the chief cup bearer and the chief baker were being held responsible. That’s one possibility of why their titles are repeated so quickly in the narrative along with that word chief in front of them. Basically it’s saying, look these guys were in charge, this wasn’t just any old baker working at Applebee’s, he’s the chief baker, he’s the guy in charge. No offense to line cooks out there that may be listening.

So it says in verse 3, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined. So they came under Joseph’s care. And we know from the previous chapter that the Lord was with Joseph. We found that out going through Genesis chapter 39. And I believe that’s why we’re not told the crimes that these two committed, because the real reason they were there was to meet with Joseph and his God. We know that God has directed Joseph and been with Joseph, and directed the outcome of his life. Joseph is there for a reason. He’s there to meet with the cupbearer and the baker. The cupbearer and the baker are there for the reason to meet with Joseph and God.

So in verse four, the captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them. So then we’re told in verse four that Joseph attended the cupbearer and the baker. In other words, he served them. Joseph here is showing true leadership. He could lord it over these guys that are in this prison. He could flex his authority. He’s a man that’s had authority in Potiphar’s house already. He knows his position. He knows his worth. But instead, he served them. He attended them. He’s showing true leadership.

So Joseph shows us what this looks like in practical terms, even for those who are going through persecution. Even in persecution, we can serve others. We can show others the love of Christ.

So in verse 5, moving on, it says, one night they both dreamed, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt. So this is the second set of two dreams. Remember, the first set of two dreams is when Joseph had two dreams when he was a teenager. This is the second set of two dreams. There’s gonna be a third set of two dreams in the next chapter. So we’ll talk more about that in the next chapter. But notice that, that this is the second set of two dreams. That’ll be important.

So in verse 6 it says, when Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. Now, this is interesting, this phrase that he saw that they were troubled, because Joseph could have been consumed with bitterness over his situation. He had been taken captive by his brothers, they attempted to kill him, and then they decided to sell him into slavery, and then he finally had a good master that gave him an elevated position in his house, and then his master’s wife accused him of trying to sleep with her, and then he was thrown in prison. And Joseph just does not seem like he can catch a break. He could be so bitter. How many of us would end up so, so bitter over this? Angry, just steaming, sitting in our cell, saying, why me? Why did this happen to me? I didn’t do anything. I didn’t deserve this. I know that’s what I’d be doing. But Joseph didn’t do that. He didn’t sit there and have self-pity. Instead, he noticed the troubles of others.

See, if he was consumed with bitterness over himself, he wouldn’t have noticed somebody else’s troubles. If we allow bitterness and self-pity to take over when we are moderately inconvenienced compared to what Joseph goes through, we’re never going to notice other people’s troubles. And then we’re never going to be in a situation where we can minister to them, where they can hear the gospel, where they can encounter the love of Jesus. And in Joseph’s case, he happened to encounter somebody who had the ear of the king. How many of you would like that situation? And then find out later, you missed a chance to minister to that guy who had the ear of the king because you were too busy sitting in self-pity. I say you, but I’m speaking to myself too. We all deal with that. We all struggle with that. I do all the time. We all do. It’s normal. That’s why it’s so important for us to see somebody like Joseph who overcame that and see the results of what happens when he overcomes that temptation to give into the bitterness.

So in verse 7 it says, So he asked Pharaoh’s officers, who were with him, in custody in his master’s house. Now that’s another interesting phrase, because previously Joseph had attended them, in verse 4, as his superiors. He was a servant and he attended these two men who had very high elevated positions in Pharaoh’s government. But now, this language here in verse 7 says, they were with him in custody. So, it’s like the roles have flipped. Joseph is no longer the servant, with them being the masters, now they are all on equal footing in the prison. They are all in custody together. See, negative circumstances especially, but many types of circumstances have a way of removing the differences between us.

So Joseph asks the two men, “Why are your faces downcast today?”

And in verse eight they said to him, “We have had dreams and there is no one to interpret them.”

So Joseph replies, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

So Joseph gives glory to God instead of taking it for himself, so that reveals his humility. He could have said, “Well, I could probably interpret these dreams. Why don’t you tell them to me?”

But instead he says, “Interpretations belong to God.” He knows that he doesn’t have the ability to interpret these dreams, but God does. And since God is with him, there’s no reason why God couldn’t reveal the interpretation to him.

Now, it doesn’t necessarily say that the dream was from God, just that the interpretation is from God. Although I think it’s likely that the dreams were from God as well. Dreams in the Bible, we’ve seen these several times already, but I don’t believe I’ve talked a whole lot about dreams in the Bible. Dreams are interesting because God actually gave more dreams to pagans than to his own people in the Bible. And there were some of his own people, of course, that received dreams such as Abraham and Joseph, as we’ve already found out, but more often they were given, even in this book, to pagans. Abimelech. Pharaoh.

Now I believe that God still speaks in dreams today. Although we do need to be discerning. I’ve had several dreams that I believe are from the Lord. But not every dream that I have is from God and not every dream that people claim to be from God is actually from God. We have to be discerning. We have to know Scripture when we hear these dreams. We have to know Scripture. They have to line up with what it says in scripture. They have to line up with the character of God because false prophets may use false dreams or use true dreams falsely.

They said to him in verse 8, “We’ve had dreams and there’s no one to interpret them.”

And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

So Joseph’s not trying to increase his dream interpretation ministry here. He genuinely cared about these men and he wanted to help them. Like I said, he was in prison himself and he could have been sitting there in self pity, but instead he had compassion that they were troubled. He took the time to go find them and say, “Why are your faces downcast?”

He wanted to help them. 1 Corinthians 13 verses 1 through 3 says, If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Joseph ministered to these men because he had compassion, because he had love. We can have all the dreams, all the visions, all the prophecy in the world. It doesn’t matter. If we don’t do it in love, it’s worthless. If we don’t do it because we see people hurting and have compassion, then we might as well just pack up our ministry and go home. It’s worth nothing.

So in verse 9, the chief cup bearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me.”

So the images in this dream would have been familiar to the cup bearer. He served wine, which is a fruit of the vine, a drink made of the fruit of the vine, and this is possibly an indication here that the dream could be from God, because they’re images familiar to the one having the dream.

Then verse 10 it says, “On the vine there were three branches and as soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth and the clusters ripened into grapes.”

So that language reflects a quick progression. That’s saying there’s three branches and as soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth. It’s quick, it’s showing that whatever’s happening is happening very quickly. So this indicated to Joseph that this would take place in three days. That’s where he gets that three days from, is the quick progression.

In verse 11, moving on, “Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”

Then Joseph said to him, “Three branches are three days.”

So, everyone’s gonna find out if this dream is true in three days, because Joseph is saying this is gonna come true in three days. So we’re gonna find out. Is Joseph right? Or is he just making stuff up?

Now the number three indicates that it’s established by God. The number three is an indication that something is established and done by God. We see this all through the Bible. And God is, especially in this chapter, you’re going to see the number three all through this chapter. So God’s hand is shown all throughout this chapter because of the number three.

So verse 13, moving on, “In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head,” meaning his case would be heard by the king, and the cupbearer would be restored to his position.

“And you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly when you were his cupbearer.” And then in verse 14 he goes on and says, “Only remember me.”

So he says, “Remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.”

So essentially he’s saying, “Hey cup bearer, show me the mercy that you’re going to be shown in three days.”

Then in verse 15 it says, Joseph says, “For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews.”

So he was reiterating that he was kidnapped unjustly and sold into slavery. And he says, “Here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.”

So not only was he kidnapped, but he was thrown into prison unjustly. He never had a fair trial. And now here he is in prison and he calls it the pit, which if you remember when Joseph was being thrown in the cistern by his brothers, that was also the pit. So Joseph is comparing being thrown in prison with being thrown in the cistern by his brothers. Even though God’s favor was on him during this time, he’s saying the betrayal of being thrown in prison, it stung just as much as when he was thrown in the pit by his brothers. And it still felt just as dark as when his brothers betrayed him.

So we’re not told in the narrative here how difficult this was for Joseph to be in prison because he is immediately promoted and shown favor. But this was a very dark time for Joseph. And by him comparing prison to the pit that he was thrown in by his brothers, it’s revealing how dark this time felt for him, how much betrayal he felt, which makes it all the more remarkable how he was able to have compassion on these two men and go out of his way to serve them and help them out.

Now, the prison probably was not as bad as being stuck in a cistern or in a pit underground. It was reserved for prisoners of the king, so it’s not like these were just common criminals that they could just throw in a dungeon somewhere and leave them there and forget about them. They were prisoners of the king and they were usually fairly important people that were thrown into this prison. So they would have likely have been treated a little bit better than your average prison.

So in verse 16, when the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he assumed that he was going to receive a good interpretation. Also, he saw that the cupbearer received a favorable interpretation. And so the butler assumed that the interpretation of his dream would be favorable as well. So now he’s going to speak up. And he says, “I also had a dream. There were three cake baskets on my head. And in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh.”

Now this food would go stale quickly sitting in this basket out in the open air like that. Again indicating the dream would come to pass quickly. So again indicating that this would happen in three days. And he says, “But the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.”

Instead of the baker giving the baked goods to Pharaoh to eat it, the birds were eating it out of his head. So this is in contrast with the cupbearer putting the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. The cupbearer actually was able to put his cup in the hand of Pharaoh in his dream. The baker was not able to do that. Instead the birds came and ate the food before he could give it to Pharaoh. So that indicated that the baker would not share the same fate as the cupbearer.

So in verse 18, Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you.”

There’s a double meaning here, meaning Pharaoh would hear his case but he would order his execution. And the way that the Egyptians would execute criminals is that they wouldn’t hang with a rope. They wouldn’t hang them. They would cut off the head and then impale the body on a stake. So that’s why Joseph says, “He’ll hang you on a tree or on a stake and the birds will eat the flesh from you.”

So Joseph didn’t shy away from giving bad news. He heard the dream and he didn’t do what we do so often these days and soften the blow. If we hold the truth back from people, we are doing the world a disservice because who benefited from this dream? Who benefited from the interpretation of the dream? Well, it wasn’t the baker. He died three days later. It didn’t matter if he was told the correct interpretation or not. It was the cupbearer who benefited. He could have explained away the correct interpretation of his dream. He could have looked back on it and said, “Oh, yeah I could see how Joseph could get that. Come on magicians, you’re better than that.”

But it was the second dream from the baker that the interpretation also turned out to be correct that proved to the cupbearer that Joseph heard from God. It was the message of blessing and it was the message of judgment. Both together they were necessary to prove that Joseph was not just trying to make them feel better, but that he truly heard God’s voice. We have to be willing to do the same.

So what happens? Well I’ve alluded to it for most of the chapter, but in verse 20, on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. So the Pharaoh heard their cases and then in verse 21 he restored the chief cupbearer to his position and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand, but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. So the interpretation of the dreams came true.

And verse 23, yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Not that he forgot Joseph existed, but his attention was not turned to Joseph. This is the third great wrong done to Joseph, which indicates the large amount of testing he had to endure. Remember the number three also indicates a time of testing. This entire section of Genesis is narrating the testing that Joseph is going through. First, he was betrayed by his brothers. Second, he was betrayed by Pharaoh’s wife. And now third, he’s betrayed and forgotten by the cup bearer. But this is going to be the last time he’s going to be wronged.

And this is important because it’s easy for us to remember that God had great things in store for Joseph if we’ve heard the story. If we’ve read all the way through the book of Genesis, which many of you have, it’s easy to see the great things that God has for Joseph and say, “Oh yeah, Joseph, what man intended for bad, for evil, God intended for good. And God used Joseph and he placed Joseph into this elevated position in the government. Yeah, God does that.”

Well, we can’t forget about the reality of the betrayal that Joseph went through over and over and over. Three times he was betrayed. This betrayal was harsh, harsh discipline, harsh training. This time that he spent in Egypt away from his own family, away from his own culture, it was hard. He had to spend all these years in Egypt learning the language, the customs, because he’s going to become second in command in the government of Egypt. The only one above him is going to be the king, Pharaoh. He wouldn’t be able to effectively rule without the knowledge of the land, without the knowledge of the language, and without the knowledge of their customs. He wouldn’t be able to do this. He had to spend that long in the land in order to learn what he needed to know to effectively rule. It takes time to learn a culture and a language and Joseph would have never gone there on his own.

In Psalm 105 verses 16 through 22 it says, when he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron, until what he had said came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him, the ruler of the people set him free, he made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom.

So it was the word of the Lord that tested Joseph to prepare him to rule. See, many of us want the greatness of Joseph’s role later in the book of Genesis but aren’t willing to go through the training required for the role. Like I mentioned earlier, greatness is only shown through a willingness to serve. Greatness is only brought about through a willingness to go through the required training. How many of us desire these great ministries? We see these celebrity preachers that we follow on Instagram and we go to their churches, we listen to their sermons and we say, “Imagine what the Lord could do with me. Imagine what the Lord could do through me if I had that role.”

But you want that role you got to go through the training. The training is hard. Training requires betrayal, difficulty, persecution. It’s not easy. You want greatness? You got to lose. You got to give up. You got to serve.

So how does this chapter point to Jesus? Well we know already that Joseph foreshadows Jesus in many many ways. He has already in chapters past and we’re going to see several different ways in this chapter. So I’m going to list these out for you.

First, Joseph was lowered to the position of the guilty. Jesus was also lowered to the position of the guilty. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, for our sake he made him to be sinned who knew no sin. Talking about Jesus. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So Jesus knew no sin, was made to be sin. He was lowered to the position of the guilty.

Second, Joseph suffered unjustly, yet only cared about the needs of others. Philippians 2:3-8. This is one of my favorite sections of scripture in the entire Bible. I absolutely love this. It says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death, on a cross.

He humbled himself, he suffered unjustly to the point of death, and yet, he had a mind to take the form of a servant. That was all he cared about. Serve others to the point of death.

Joseph was surrounded by two criminals. So was Jesus. In Luke 23:32-33, it says, two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

In the story of Joseph, one criminal was saved and the other was not. A little bit later in Luke chapter 23, we find out that is the case with Jesus. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.”

But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? We indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

And he said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

One of the criminals on the cross with Jesus insulted him. One of the criminals repented and recognized who Jesus was and was saved that day.

Joseph delivered the word of the Lord. In John 3:31-34 we’re told that Jesus also delivered the word of the Lord. It says, “He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the word of God, for he gives the spirit without measure.”

So Jesus was talking about himself there, saying that he was sent by God, so he utters the words of God.

In Joseph’s story, the word from God was proven accurate in three days. Same for Jesus. John 19:22 says, Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, will you raise it up in three days?”

But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

So God had given the word through Jesus saying that Jesus would die and be resurrected in three days, and the disciples remembered and believed when it was proven accurate.

Joseph’s message brought both life and death. Same with the message of Jesus. In 1 Peter 2 verses 4-8 it says, As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “Behold I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

So the honor is for you who believe but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become a cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

So all that to say that Jesus’ message brings both life and death. Life to those who believe and death to those who do not believe.

Joseph was tested three times. Same with Jesus. In Matthew 4:1-3 we’re told Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

And then the tempter tempted Jesus two more times after that in Matthew 4 and Jesus resisted temptation all three times. So that chapter, Matthew 4, details Jesus’s testing. Was he going to give in to the temptation or was he not? And that was done three times just like Joseph.

So a lot of questions I could ask from this one, but I want to hone in on the idea of servant leadership. So how can you learn from the example of Joseph and the example of Jesus and show servant leadership in your home, in your workplace, in your church, in your neighborhood, in your family? What are some specific ways that you can serve those around you? Not so that you can become great, but because Jesus was great and He lowered Himself to be a servant. What are some specific ways you can do that? Think about that. Pray about it.

Let’s pray. Lord, I thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You that You spoke to us in ages past. Thank You that You spoke to these two men, the cupbearer and the baker in prison. You intervened in their lives and that thousands of years later we’re still reading about that story and learning from it. I pray that you would give us wisdom as we read and as we meditate. Teach us to serve others. Teach us to set aside our own desires for greatness and instead to desire the good of others around us. Teach us to hear your voice clearly. Teach us to seek, to seek you faithfully, to remain humble, tethered to scripture so that we can recognize your voice and so that we can recognize when someone may be trying to deceive us. Protect us and guide us each day in Jesus name. Amen.

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Transcript:

Due to the nature of the content of this episode, if you are listening around small children, please use discretion before listening.

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at Beyondthebasics.blog Click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond The Basics. You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page and for $4 a month you can receive access to the full uncut episode which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio. You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now on to the show.

You know, there’s all kinds of injustice in the world today. It’s always been that way. Crime, corruption, poverty, false accusation, oppression. Maybe you’ve even faced some of that injustice in your own life. But you know how we deal with injustice reveals our faith in God when we face injustice. Do we continue to act righteously? Do we continue to work hard? Do we trust that God has placed us in that difficult situation for a reason?

You know, the Bible shows us all over the place that God will place us in injust situations not only for our own benefit, but for the good of God’s plan, for God’s glory. Do we trust that God knows what he’s doing in those situations? I think many times our tendency is to pray and ask God, remove this situation from me, remove this circumstance from me, take me out of this situation, take me out of this injustice. But instead, maybe our prayer should be, Lord, I trust you. However long I’m here I choose to live in righteousness and holiness in devotion to you.

Now Joseph in this chapter in Genesis chapter 39 is gonna face that very situation where he is placed into an injustice situation by God. How is he gonna respond? What is he gonna do about it? Well, we’re gonna find out as we go through the chapter.

So let’s get into verse 1 here. And it says that now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. Now, that phrase brought down is a comparison to verse 1 of chapter 38, when Judah went down from his brothers. The comparison is that they both had an elevated position in Jacob’s family and now they both are demoted.

So if you remember from the previous episode, I mentioned that when Judah went down from his brothers, that was it was a word picture of a moral descent. It also indicates that Judah, who had been the rightful heir to Jacob’s family because of what his three older brothers had done to forfeit the birthright, Judah was now the rightful heir, the one receiving the birthright, but he left. Possibly because of feeling guilt at what he had done to Joseph. But he left and he went down from his brothers indicating the moral descent of his life from that point on. And we went through that in the last chapter.

Now in this chapter, Joseph, he didn’t go down like Judah. He didn’t make the choice to go down. But instead he was brought down and so that’s where the contrast is. Joseph had been elevated because he was his father’s favorite son and he had been the chosen heir. Even though ultimately he would not become the heir. That would be given to Judah. But he would be the chosen heir at the time by Jacob and now Joseph was demoted from that position because he had been kidnapped and sold into slavery by his brothers.

But this is going to reveal the contrast between Joseph’s and Judah’s life. Judah is marked by moral depravity, a descent into the moral darkness of the Canaanites, whereas Joseph is being brought down against his will into the land of Egypt. And where Judah assimilated into the Canaanite lifestyle, Joseph is going to be a light in the midst of the darkness in the land of Egypt.

So we’re told that he’s brought to Potiphar, which means “devoted to the sun,” and he was an officer of Pharaoh. So we’re told that he is the captain of the guard. So essentially he was the head of the Secret Service of ancient Egypt. He was in charge of the protection of Pharaoh.

So in verse 2, we’re told that the Lord was with Joseph, which means he went down to Egypt with Joseph. Just like the Lord went with Joseph’s father, Jacob, even when Jacob didn’t even acknowledge it, the Lord is now going with Joseph down to Egypt. So God didn’t abandon Joseph, but he was more interested in preparing Joseph for the future than he was in Joseph’s happiness or comfort. So he didn’t change Joseph’s circumstances, but he brought Joseph’s success in the midst of circumstances. But it’s comforting to know that God did not abandon Joseph.

And this phrase is repeated four times in this chapter, the phrase, the Lord was with Joseph. In fact, the word the Lord, or Yahweh in Hebrew, is repeated seven times in the chapter. So the phrase the Lord was with Joseph being repeated four times indicates that God’s plan to bless the nations through Joseph will be completed through what he does in this chapter with Joseph and in the coming chapters. It means that God’s hand is on him. It means God’s hand is on every event in this chapter.

And the name Yahweh being repeated seven times, it emphasizes God’s covenant name. That’s what that name Yahweh is. It’s his covenant name. That should bring to mind his faithfulness and his mercy. So despite Joseph facing these extremely difficult and oppressive conditions in his life, extreme injustice, we’re reminded as we read that God is faithful to his promises, God is merciful, and will show mercy not only to Joseph, but to the whole world, or at least the entire Egyptian world and the Near Eastern world at the time. As we’ll find out in several chapters, there’s gonna be a famine, and Joseph is going to end up bringing deliverance to the entire Near Eastern world through the wisdom that he receives from the Lord.

So let’s move on. In verse 3, it says, his master saw that the Lord was with him. Well, let’s back up. Back to verse 2, it says, the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. Joseph had been successful because the Lord had been with him. And in verse 3, his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hand.

So Joseph’s integrity and hard work was a testimony of God, even to the pagan Egyptians. This is what I want us to see here. This is very important. If we can remain faithful, if we can remain hardworking, if we can continue to have integrity and walk in humility in the midst of injustice and persecution, it becomes a testimony even to those around us who do not believe. It’s so easy, especially in this culture, for us to want to cry out, for us to speak up, for us to want to protest, for us to want to do all sorts of things to bring attention to our cause and to the injustice that’s being brought against us. But that’s not what Joseph did. Instead, he put his head down and he worked hard, and he stayed faithful, and he stayed righteous.

Now, what I’m not saying, I want to be clear about this, I am not saying that we shouldn’t speak up for others who are facing injustice. That is absolutely not what I am saying here. We should absolutely speak up and help out and do what we can for those who are facing injustice. For others. That’s called loving your neighbor. When another person is facing injustice, especially when that person can’t speak up for themselves, we should speak out. We should do something. But when it comes to ourselves, the tendency in this culture, and it’s under the masquerade of, like I mentioned, bringing attention to our cause. All it truly is, is complaining. When it comes to our own situation. Joseph here did not complain about his situation. We should not complain about our situation.

So I want to be clear about that. There is a difference between complaining about the situation that we find ourselves in masquerading as bringing attention or raising awareness. There’s a difference between that and actually speaking up for those who cannot speak.

So in verse 4, Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, meaning Potiphar, and he made him overseer. Potiphar made Joseph overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. Joseph now became the highest ranking slave. But Joseph had to be a servant before he could rule. And this isn’t always gonna be a linear path. It doesn’t mean that you’re a servant and you slowly work your way up until you can rule. This isn’t a corporate ladder that we’re talking about here in God’s kingdom. Sometimes there’s ups and downs because the purpose of this is that we need to learn to obey before we can lead.

Jesus talks about this as well in Matthew 25:21. He’s telling a parable about a master and some servants and he gave the servant some money to invest while he was gone. And the first servant comes back and shows His master that he had doubled the money and his master said to him, “Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” So the servant was faithful with a little amount of money that his master had given him, worked hard, he doubled the money, now his master rewards him and sets him over much more.

In Matthew 20 verses 25 through 28 it says, but Jesus called them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

So Jesus gave us this example of being a servant of giving his life so that others could live. And we’re to follow this example. If we want to be first, we need to be slave to others. If we want to be great, if we want to rule, we need to be a servant. That should be our mindset through our entire lives.

And here’s the thing, in the eyes of the world, that’s usually not going to get you very far. If all you do is just serve, serve, serve, serve, don’t do it with the purpose of trying to get others to notice you, but do it for the purpose of the good of others, the world might not notice. The world might not care. But God sees, and He cares, and He will reward those who have that mind of Christ, to be a servant to others who love their neighbor.

So in verse 5, it says, From the time that He made him overseer in the house, and over all that He had, the Lord blessed the Egyptians’ house. So this actually points toward the ultimate fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant, which, if you remember, in Genesis 12:3 says, “I will bless those who bless you, and to him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Even though Joseph was a slave, and a slave that was owned by this Egyptian, the Egyptian treated him well and made him overseer and blessed Joseph, so he was blessed by God. The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house. Not only that, but he blessed his house through Joseph who was the descendant of Abraham because the entire purpose of the Covenant is to bless all the families of the earth. And so this is a little taste of that happening here. We get a little taste of it.

So in verse 6 it says so he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge. Continuing in verse 6 because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. And the reason Potiphar was only concerned about the food he ate is because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews.

So what do we see in these first six verses? We see that God takes an active role in Joseph’s story. We’re gonna see this in several ways. In verse 2 and 3 it says that the Lord was with Joseph. We’re told this twice in verses 2 & 3. So he became successful. Joseph didn’t pout or feel sorry for himself, but he went to work and he did the best he could. Joseph became successful because the Lord was with him.

And in verse 3, we’re told that the Lord caused all that He did to succeed in His hands. Everything that Joseph put His hands to prospered. Everything he tried, everything he attempted, the Lord caused it to succeed. And then in verse 5, we’re told that the Lord blessed the Egyptians’ house. Even though Potiphar was pagan, highly unlikely that he would have worshipped Yahweh, his wealth still increased. He was still blessed because of Joseph. And God did this. God is the one who is responsible for all of this.

But, it’s important to note that Joseph took an active role as well. Joseph had to do the work. Joseph didn’t just sit back and wait for God to do something. He went to work. Essentially, he partnered with God to the point that we can say that God and Joseph did this together. God took his role, Joseph took his role. Joseph’s role was to serve. Joseph’s role was to trust. Joseph’s role was to work. God’s role was to make all of that work into something.

So at the end of verse 6 we’re told that Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. Now the story shifts. We see success. We see blessing. We see Joseph working his way up, we see Joseph being rewarded. Then we’re told that he’s handsome in form and appearance.

So in verse 7 it says after a time or immediately after these things his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph. So his status of being the overseer of the house combined with his looks drew the attention of Potiphar’s wife. And she said, lie with me to Joseph.

The second reason we have this contrast here is that it highlights the contrast between man’s role and God’s role. The previous chapter shows God protecting the covenant. Remember, Judah did everything he could to completely destroy the Messianic line. He married a Canaanite woman, had three sons with her, and God had to take extreme measures, including killing two of Judah’s own sons, in order to protect the covenant, and in order to protect this bloodline for the Messiah. That was God’s work on display. That was God’s power on display in the previous chapter. God was stepping in himself personally to take control of the situation that had become completely out of control because of Judah’s own sin and compromise.

But in this chapter, it’s going to highlight how Joseph and his obedience, integrity, and surrender can bring about God’s purposes. So in the previous chapter, God himself is protecting the covenant. In this chapter, Joseph’s obedience and integrity is protecting the covenant.

Notice what these two chapters, Genesis 38 and 39, are revealing to us, the reader. We do not get to just sit back and wait for God to show his power. It is working in partnership with the Lord. It is, we do our part and God does his part. Our part is to remain faithful, to work hard, to walk in humility and justice. God’s part is to take that which we sow and to reap a great harvest.

So that’s the very clear contrast between this chapter and the last chapter. Obviously, in the last chapter, Judah ended up preserving the covenant by sleeping with his daughter-in-law, who was dressed up as a prostitute. He essentially did it by accident, and only because of God’s extreme intervention in the story. Here, Joseph is going to preserve the covenant by not sleeping with a woman trying to seduce him and instead remaining faithful and holding on to his integrity.

Because giving in to sexual sin in this way was actually greater danger to him than being thrown in a pit by his brothers. Proverbs 23 verse 27 says for a prostitute is a deep pit and adultery is a narrow well. Meaning, the temptation, giving into the temptation of sexual sin is a deep deep pit that will lead to the grave. Once you go down that road it’s impossible to get out. If you remember I talked about two chapters ago, I talked about that the cistern, the pit that Joseph would have been thrown into, it’s impossible to get out without help. You cannot get out. It’s too deep, it’s too narrow. That’s what this proverb is talking about. It’s a deep pit, it’s a cistern that you cannot get out without help.

So why did Potiphar’s wife even try to do this? She may also have thought that she could command Joseph because he was a servant and he would just obey. So she may have thought that she had power over Joseph to make him do this thing. But as it turns out, Joseph refuses in verse eight. And he refuses for three reasons between verses eight and nine.

The first reason is that his master has put everything that he has in my charge. He didn’t want to betray his master’s trust. Joseph was in charge of the entire house, obviously except for Potiphar’s food, and he valued that his master trusted him. He valued that Potiphar trusted him, and he didn’t want to betray that trust. So he starts off with something very practical.

In his second reason in verse 9, he says, “Nor has he kept back anything from me except you,” obviously because she was Potiphar’s wife. Joseph had access to everything else in the house except for Potiphar’s wife, which means these were very explicit instructions. Because Joseph says, “He has not kept anything back except for you.”

And then at the end of verse 9 he says, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” So even if he could get away with this, of sleeping with Potiphar’s wife, he knew that it would still be a sin against God. It shows that Joseph cared about more than just what he could get away with.

So this is a good model for how to resist sin for us. We can learn from how Joseph refuses sin and use the same model. We can recognize how it affects others.

Second, he didn’t negotiate with temptation. He didn’t give in to a little bit. He didn’t go right up to the line. He wasn’t like Eve who had a discussion with the serpent about whether or not it was right for her to take the fruit and eat it. He just simply said, “This is not right, I’m not gonna do it.” He didn’t negotiate.

And third, he was clear. And he didn’t try to be diplomatic about it. He wasn’t concerned about hurting Potiphar’s wife’s feelings. He was clear. He said I’m not gonna do this. This is sin, and I’m not gonna do it. And he didn’t try to salvage a friendship out of it. He didn’t try to make her feel better about what she asked him to do.

But in verse 10 even though Joseph was very clear that this was sin and he wasn’t gonna do it, we’re told that as she spoke to Joseph day after day he would not listen to her. So she continued to ask day after day. Now the text doesn’t tell us how long Joseph had to resist her. But it was at least several days, maybe more. And it says he would not listen to her. He wouldn’t compromise his integrity for his master’s wife.

In verse 11, one day when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house. So because Joseph always avoided Potiphar’s wife now she’s come up with a plan to corner him. And that plan includes no one else being in the house. No one else can witness what happens.

We’re told she caught him by his garment saying “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand because he had left in such a hurry and he fled and got out of the house. So this is the second time Joseph has now left his garment behind. Both times resulted in him being imprisoned. The first time is when he left his coat that he had been given by his father and he was thrown in a pit and imprisoned and then sold into slavery and now he left his garment behind again, resulting in him eventually being thrown into prison by Potiphar. But the important thing is that he fled from sexual immorality, which is what we’re to do.

So in verse 14, Potiphar’s wife called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us.” So now she’s including the servants as victims of Joseph’s alleged assaults. She’s saying, “Potiphar brought this Hebrew in here to laugh at us. Guys, look! Look at what he’s doing. He’s laughing at us. He’s mocking us.”

This is another way that this chapter contrasts with the previous chapter because in Genesis 38, the previous chapter, in verse 23, Judah replied when his sexual sin was found out, he replied, “Let her keep the things as her own or we shall be laughed at. You see I sent this young goat and you did not find her.” So Judah was afraid of being mocked if his sexual sin was found out when he slept with his daughter-in-law Tamar. He was afraid he was going to be laughed at by others. He was going to be mocked.

But now Joseph is falsely accused of sexual sin for the purpose of mocking Potiphar’s wife. So Judah was afraid of what people would think of him if his sin was found out. Joseph was not afraid of what people would think of him for resisting sin.

So in verse 17, Potiphar comes home and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant,” which is all she could call him because she couldn’t use his actual name. She probably felt a tinge of regret, possibly, knowing her, or at least trying to dehumanize Joseph a little bit, because she knew that her false accusation would likely result in Joseph’s death. This was an offense punishable by death, as I mentioned in the previous chapter. Adultery was punishable by death. Prostitution was legal, but adultery resulted in death. That was going to be the result for Joseph here.

She says, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me.” So now she’s blaming Potiphar for bringing Joseph into the house. She’s saying, “This is your fault. You brought this Hebrew into this house. Now he’s here to mock me.”

So in verse 19, as soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled because he knew Joseph’s integrity. He may have even known that his wife was lying, but it’s an impossible situation for him because either he believes his wife and loses the man who ran his household or he believes his servant and he loses his wife.

So in verse 20, Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison. There’s no indication here that Joseph tried to defend himself, but this is the second serious injustice against Joseph. Previously, his brothers acted out of jealousy because of Joseph’s immature prodding through his dreams, telling them of his dreams, constantly poking and prodding at them. But this time, Joseph shows maturity and resists wickedness and is still punished. So this is the second time that serious injustice is being brought on Joseph.

See, his resistance to sin resulted in persecution and we need to be prepared for this. There is going to come a time, I believe, in this nation, in the United States, and if you’re listening in another country, it may already be in your nation. There is going to come a time in the United States where I’m hosting this program that our resistance to sin is going to result in persecution.

Now I mentioned that it’s possible that Potiphar did not believe his wife, and this is why. Because he’s put into prison rather than killed. So this is probably mercy being shown on Potiphar’s part because he could have put Joseph to death, and should have if he actually believed that Joseph had committed adultery.

Then in verse 21 it says the Lord was with Joseph once again and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. That word steadfast love is love that endures and it results in our own endurance. The steadfast love of God, when we recognize and understand and experience his steadfast love, it results in our own steadfastness our own endurance.

Hebrews 10 verses 32 through 36 says, But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession than an abiding one. For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

This is speaking about saints that have been persecuted endlessly and the writer of Hebrews is saying, “What you need is not more stuff. What you need is not political power. What you need is not revenge against those who have come against you. Instead what you need is endurance to continue to endure persecution so that one day you will receive the promise of God. And that endurance comes through experiencing the steadfast love of God, the enduring love of God, the love of God that goes with Joseph in all the injustices that he faced and then goes with us in all the injustice that we face.

Verse 22, we’re told the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there He was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him and whatever he did the Lord made it succeed. So now Joseph is now in charge of the prison that he was put in. So God is using these situations to refine his administrative skills so that one day he can administrate a nation that’s going to provide salvation to many nations as we will see in the coming chapters.

So how does this chapter point to Jesus? Well, we know from two chapters ago that Joseph foreshadows Jesus. And Genesis 37 showed several different ways that Joseph foreshadowed Jesus. This chapter, there’s several more, and we’re going to go through those.

So first, Joseph was obedient when facing injustice, and Jesus as well was obedient when facing injustice. Philippians 2:8 says, and being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Joseph faced injustice for the purpose of saving the world. Same with Jesus. Isaiah 53:4-6 says, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Joseph was tempted to sin, just like Jesus was tempted to sin in Matthew 4:1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Notice also that Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tempted. We often don’t think of God being responsible for these situations where we’re tempted, and God certainly is not the tempter, but he will very often put us in these situations where we will be tempted. Jesus was led by the Spirit. God was responsible for bringing Joseph into this situation where he would be tempted.

But Joseph resisted temptation just like Jesus resisted temptation. In verse 10 of Matthew 4 it says, Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. So Jesus resisted temptation from the devil three times while he was in the wilderness. Successfully resisted all three of those temptations.

Joseph was falsely accused. Jesus, of course, was also falsely accused in Mark 14 verses 55 through 56. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none, for many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.

Joseph’s robe was stripped from him. Jesus robe was also stripped from him in Matthew 27 verse 31 and when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

Joseph didn’t defend himself against his accusers and neither did Jesus in Isaiah 53 verse 7. The prophet says he was oppressed, he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. And then in Matthew 27 verses 13 through 14 that prophecy is fulfilled. It says, Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” But he gave him no answer. Jesus gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

And finally, Joseph was punished for the sins of others. Jesus also was punished for the sins of others. In Isaiah 53:5 it says, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

So with that said, I want us to meditate on this this week. This question is of how am I conducting myself in my life? Whether I’m facing persecution or not, how are you conducting yourself? Are you conducting yourself with integrity, with humility, with faithfulness? And can others see that?

And then do some soul searching. If persecution were to come, would you be able to sustain that? How would you be able to sustain that? What is it that creates endurance in us? What is it that creates endurance in the face of persecution and in the face of trouble? So meditate on those questions this week. Meditate on this chapter. Meditate on Joseph’s response to injustice and meditate on God’s response to Joseph’s actions.

Let’s pray. Lord, I thank you for this chapter, this opportunity to go deep into your word and discover all the riches that you have for us as we meditate on your word. God, though many of us that may be listening in the Western world do not face serious persecution, there are many of our brothers and sisters worldwide that are. Pray that you would give them endurance. Reveal to them your steadfast love, that they would remain humble and faithful to the end. And for those of us who are not currently facing persecution, for those of us who are not currently facing significant injustice, pray that you would do the work now in our hearts that would create endurance. Pray that you would do the work now that you would prioritize our maturity in our lives rather than our happiness. So that when the trouble comes, so that when the injustice comes, we will be able to face it with integrity, faithfulness with endurance and with the strength of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In Jesus name. Amen.

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Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at Beyondthebasics.blog Click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond the Basics.

You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page. For $4 a month you can receive access to the full uncut episode which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio. You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now on to the show.

Well, have you ever felt completely alone? Maybe you felt literally alone. For example when my wife and I first got married I was traveling for work and I had to leave and go on the road for three weeks at a time. And so literally we were alone apart from each other and it was terrible. We hated it and thankfully that only lasted a few months. But maybe you felt more emotionally alone. You’ve been in a room full of people and felt completely alone. Or maybe you felt spiritually alone, whether because of persecution or attack or doubts or fears, but we’ve all felt alone at times and think back on those times. How did God meet you in those times when you felt alone?

In Genesis chapter 32, we’re gonna find that in the beginning of the chapter, Jacob is completely surrounded by family and an army of angels and as we go through the chapter, he’s gonna slowly become more and more alone until at the end, he’s completely alone on the side of the river and this is where God meets him.

So in Genesis 32 verse 1 remember Jacob had been fleeing from Laban. They had made a covenant to never cross into each other’s territory. So now Jacob was returning to the land of Canaan. God had told him to go back to the city of Bethel. And so in verse 1 it says Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him.

So that word angels also means messengers. That’s the same word that’s going to be used in verse 3, where it says Jacob sent messengers. So there’s two possibilities for why Jacob would be met by angels on his way back to Bethel. The first possibility would be to encourage Jacob. I mean, Jacob was leaving one man, Laban, who wanted to kill him, and as we’re going to find out, he’s on his way to another man who wants to kill him, because he’s going to be intercepted by Esau, as we’re going to find out here in a couple verses. He’s gonna need some encouragement. And previously when Jacob had left the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, he had received a vision of angels at Bethel, and he had faced uncertainty and fear at that time as well. In fact, he was fleeing from Esau, who was trying to kill him at that time. Clearly these visions of angels are happening at a time when Jacob is greatly distressed, when he’s running away from somebody who’s trying to kill him, or who wants to kill him.

The other possibility is that the author is giving us a clue as to the importance of the land that Jacob is entering back into. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 24, we found out that after God drove out Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way back into the Garden to the Tree of Life. So that cherubim guarded the east gate of Eden to keep people out. But now Jacob is meeting angels at the eastern border of the promised land and this time they’re letting him in. So there’s a clear comparison here to the Garden of Eden showing that this land that promised is an Eden land. It is a land that one day would be like Eden. And Jacob, by returning, is foreshadowing the return of mankind to that Eden state, to that paradise state with God.

That doesn’t mean Jacob is perfect at this point, of course. But I think that the author is giving us a subtle message here to say, this is a good thing that Jacob is returning. This is where Jacob is supposed to be. He’s going back to where God had placed man, to where God had communed with man. Either possibility here, of course, would hopefully have had a strengthening effect on Jacob. And I don’t think it’s an either or in this case. They would have been there just to encourage Jacob but also to represent that gate that Eden gate back into the promised land or back into the Garden of God

So in verse 2, when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God’s camp. So he called the name of that place, Mahaneim, which means two camps. There’s God’s camp and there’s Jacob’s camp. In other words, there’s God’s army and there’s Jacob’s army. That’s what that word camp is really referring to. It’s kind of a military word. So he’s saying, this is a strong place. This is a fortified place. Two camps, two armies here.

In verse 3, Jacob sent messengers before him. Now, God’s messengers had just came to him, that camp of angels, and now Jacob is sending messengers to Esau. And he’s sending them to Esau to notify him of his coming, so that Esau wouldn’t think that Jacob was coming to attack him, because, again, last time Jacob had been here, Esau was trying to kill him. And Jacob didn’t want Esau to think that he was returning just to try and pick a fight. So he sent these messengers to Esau to say, I’m coming, but I’m coming in peace.

Now in verse 3, we find out that Esau is living in the land of Seir, or the country of Edom. And this is a mountain range southeast of the land of Canaan. Esau had driven out the Horites who originally lived there. We found out in Genesis 14 verse 6 that the Horites had lived in the hill country of Seir. This was Esau’s inheritance. Remember that Esau was so upset that he didn’t receive a blessing and begged Isaac, his father, to give him a blessing. So Isaac did give him a blessing. It wasn’t quite the blessing that Jacob received, but he did receive a blessing and he received a bit of an inheritance. In Deuteronomy chapter 2 verses 3 through 5, we found out that this land, Mount Seir, was given to Esau by God, Himself.

So God gave Mount Seir to Esau, which means that Esau was no longer living in the land of Canaan. And he could have stayed there. He could have stayed in Canaan to make it difficult for Jacob to claim his inheritance. I mean, Esau wanted this inheritance. Esau wanted this blessing so bad. And Jacob had left. So Esau could have just stayed. And at the very least, Jacob would have to fight him for the land. But instead he left. And God preserved the land for Jacob and Esau went to Mount Seir.

So in verse 4, Jacob tells his messengers to say, You shall say to my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob. Jacob was the patriarch of the family by birthright, but here he humbles himself to be Esau’s servant. So again, he’s trying to take a non-confrontational tone. He’s trying to make it clear that he’s not here for a fight. He says, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants. So Jacob wanted Esau to know that he already had plenty. He already had great wealth and he wasn’t there to take anything from Esau. He already had enough. He had already taken the birthright when he was younger and now he was coming back to claim his inheritance but he wasn’t trying to take anything from Esau anymore. That’s why he told Esau that he had all this wealth.

So then he goes on, he says, I have sent to tell my lord in order that I may find favor in your sight. So Jacob wants to make amends here. Jacob knew that he had alienated his brother. He knew his brother was angry. He’s trying to make amends. But we’re starting to see a bit of a problem here because Jacob already has God’s favor. So he shouldn’t need to seek Esau’s favor.

See, when we already have God on our side, we shouldn’t need to grovel and seek the favor of other people. We should remain confident in God’s protection and in His faithfulness. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be humble. We should always seek to remain humble in every situation and every dealing with human beings. We should always seek humility. But there’s a difference between Jacob telling his brother, Esau, “I’m back. I have enough. I’m not here to start a fight,” and trying to win his favor. Trying to make Esau like him again. Trying to manipulate Esau into thinking that he was okay. Jacob didn’t need to do that. He already had God’s favor. He already had God’s protection. He doesn’t need to seek the favor and protection of another person, even his brother. When we have God’s protection and favor, we don’t need to seek the protection and favor of anyone else.

So in verse 6, the messengers return to Jacob saying, We came to your brother Esau and he is coming to meet you, and there are 400 men with him. This is actually the largest army that we’ve seen so far in the Bible. Remember Abraham took 318 men to fight against that powerful king, Chedorlaomer, who was the pagan king of kings. Esau has even more men with him than that. So Jacob would have seen this as a very fearful thing. He would hear that Esau has 400 men coming towards him and he would assume the worst.

In verse 7, it tells us that Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He did assume the worst. He assumed that Esau was sending this gigantic army after him to get him. And so he was afraid. Even though he had just been encouraged by these angels sent from God, even though God has spent all his entire life protecting him.

Now to be fair, Rebekah had told Jacob that she would send for him after Esau was no longer angry in chapter 27. And Rebekah never sent for him. So for all Jacob knew, the reason Rebekah never sent for him is because Esau stayed angry. But what’s happening here is that Jacob’s former sins were now haunting him because all these things that he had done in the past, all the lies, the manipulation, the deception that he had done to his brother and to his father, He had done to his uncle Laban now. He was fearing fleeing for his life from his uncle and he was fearing for his life in front of his brother and all of it everything he had done is coming to a head here. He is desperate, he’s backed into a corner and he is afraid and he has no idea what to do. So Jacob starts to come up with a plan and he starts to divide the people that were with him.

This is a problem because it actually makes defeat more likely against a large army. He’s actually assuming that he’s going to lose a battle against Esau. Obviously, Jacob would have a better chance at winning a battle against 400 men if he kept his people together. But he didn’t. He started dividing them apart. And in fact, he divided them in two camps. He’s still in this place called Two Camps. But he forgot about the reason why he called the place Two Camps, Mahaneim, because Jacob thinks that he’s about to face down an army of 400 men and he’s got an army of angels with him right there. But instead of trusting in God’s armies he tries to outwit Esau by splitting up his own by dividing his own armies and making it more likely that he would face defeat. So his weak faith is showing here, but thankfully for Jacob the measure of his faith doesn’t affect God’s protection over him as we’re gonna see.

Moving down to verse 9, Jacob is so fearful that now he is finally driven to prayer. He realizes that he’s got no other option left. It’s his last resort to turn to the Lord. It shouldn’t have been his last resort, but he did it and he turned to the Lord. We can’t really judge Jacob, right? How many of us back ourselves into a corner because of our own dumb decisions and when we’ve got no other option left then we finally turn to the Lord and say, “Lord I don’t even know what to do here please help.”

We’ve all been there, we’ve all done that. We can’t really judge Jacob for this. So he appeals to the God of his fathers. He says, “Oh Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.” So Jacob knew he didn’t deserve God’s promises or his protection, but that didn’t stop him from asking for God’s help. He knew that the things that he had done, he had not been living in obedience to God, he knew he didn’t deserve anything that God had promised him. But he asked God for help anyway.

In Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, Jesus tells us, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That phrase poor in spirit refers to those who understand their utter lack. They understand their complete need for Jesus. Just like Jacob we don’t deserve anything from God. We were the ones who deserved the cross. We deserved the punishment that Jesus received. That was supposed to be for us, but Jesus took it. And now, we still don’t deserve anything. The Bible says that all of our works are like filthy rags. Nothing we can do is enough to earn God’s favor. Nothing we can do is enough to earn God’s promises. But he promises us his life and his protection and his grace anyway. Blessed are those who recognize their need for Jesus.

Jacob recognized his need for God. He asks God for deliverance. He says, “Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude.'” So Jacob here is reminding God of his promises.

This is actually a tactic that we see a lot in the scripture where when somebody is backed into a wall and somebody has no idea what to do and is in fear for their life, they remind God of his promises and say, “Hey, God, you promise this and if I die here, then your promise is not gonna happen. Your promise is not gonna come to pass. So you better do something.” And that’s exactly what’s happening here. If Esau attacks and kills Jacob, God can’t fulfill his promise to Abraham because Jacob is dead and his family will be destroyed.

So the question is, does God really need to be reminded of his promises? Because I think that this is a good biblical model for us when we’re praying. We should remind God of his word. When we’re praying, we should remind God of his promises when we’re praying. The characters in the Bible do it all the time, but do they do it because God needs to be reminded? On the contrary, I think it’s because we need to be reminded. We need to be reminded of God’s promises when we are feeling fearful and when we’re feeling alone. When we pray and remind God of His promises, we are strengthened by reminding ourselves of God’s promises because God always keeps His promises. If we have faith in Him, if we trust that He’s gonna keep His promises and we are feeling fearful and we pray, “Lord, help me. If you don’t, Your promises can’t happen.” We’re reminded and we’re strengthened by those promises. So don’t be afraid to pray that way. It’s bold, but don’t be afraid to pray that way.

So Jacob stayed there that night in the place of two camps. And he split up his animals and his family and his servants and he sent them on in droves to his brother Esau. And in verse 16 it says, these he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself. So this was a large portion of Jacob’s wealth. It’s almost like Jacob is offering the birthright back to Esau in exchange for his life.

So again, remember I mentioned that it’s good for Jacob to tell Esau that, “Hey, I’m not here to take anything, I’m coming in peace, I just want to go back home, I’m not here to start anything.” But instead, he went beyond that. He made himself Esau’s servant. He’s trying to earn Esau’s favor and now he’s offering his inheritance back to Esau. All these animals that he had gained while he was with Laban, he’s offering them back to Esau. So Jacob feared Esau more than he feared God, even though Jacob had God’s promises.

See, we must fear God more than the world because we have God’s promises. Second Corinthians 7:1 says, since we have these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. So what is Paul saying there? He’s saying that that we have the promises of God. Because we have those promises, we must cleanse ourselves of sin and fear the Lord, because the Lord has power to keep those promises and bring those promises apart. He is infinitely more powerful than anything that the world can throw at us. So let’s cleanse ourselves. Let’s humble ourselves in front of God. Fear God, not the world.

Jacob feared the world more than he feared God. Jacob feared Esau, his brother, more than he feared God. So he said to his servants in verse 16, pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. This is an indication that Jacob fears Esau more than God, because otherwise he would have gone first. Instead, he put all his family and all his wealth in front of him and put himself last. He’s in self-preservation mode right now.

I mean, he’s thinking that an army of 400 men is coming at him and he puts his family in front of him. Who would do that? I mean, really, men, if you have a family, and women too, if you’ve got children and you saw a group of guys with weapons or whatever coming at you, would you put your children in front of you? No, you’d put your children behind you and you’d do what you can to defend them even though you know you’re probably going to lose. Jacob is convinced he’s gonna lose, and he puts his family in front of him anyway.

So Jacob instructed the first drove, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ Then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are present, sent to my lord Esau, And moreover he is behind us.'” And he did the same thing for the rest of the droves.

And then in verse 20 it says, For Jacob thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me. And afterward I shall see his face, perhaps he will accept me.” So Jacob is still trying to scheme, he’s still trying to manipulate Esau into getting what he wants. So in verse 21, so the present passed on ahead of him and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

In verse 22, that same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his 11 children and crossed the four of the Jabbok. Night here is going to represent chaos, adversity, death. It’s going to foreshadow what’s about to happen. It’s nighttime before Jacob is about to cross a river.

Think about this. It’s darkness before Jacob is about to pass into the waters and cross to the other side. So night represents death, chaos. Then Jacob is about to cross a river, a body of water, go in the water and come out on the other side into what we had already established was symbolic of Eden or life. So this right here is about to foreshadow Jacob’s baptism. The story that we’re about to read is going to take place just before Jacob’s baptism.

Now that doesn’t mean that Jacob’s gonna be a perfect man after his baptism, but I do think that we’re gonna see a significant shift in Jacob’s attitude, we’re gonna see a significant shift in Jacob’s attempt to trust the Lord, and he’s still gonna have his ups and downs, but the trajectory is gonna start to turn after he crosses this river.

That river happens to be, like I mentioned, the Jabbok. It’s a tributary of the Jordan River. And in verse 23, it says that Jacob took them, his family, and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had. And verse 24, and Jacob was left alone.

Over the last 10 verses or so, Jacob had been dividing up his wealth and sending them on ahead of him. Then he divided up his children and sent them on ahead of him, and now Jacob is completely alone. He’s completely vulnerable. And this is where God comes to him. Just like the first time that God had appeared to him in Bethel when Jacob was completely alone, fleeing from his brother Esau, now Jacob is completely alone in fear of his brother Esau and God comes to him.

And it’s interesting to note the way that God comes to him. See, God comes to us at our level. And God obviously knows that He is far above us in every way. So He humbles Himself and approaches us at our level. Psalm 18 verses 25 through 26 says, with the merciful you show yourself merciful, with the blameless man you show yourself blameless, with the purified you show yourself pure, and with the crooked you make yourself seem torturous.

And this is shown in the record of scripture. So in Genesis 18, Abraham was a nomad, and so God appeared to Abraham as a traveler. In the book of Joshua, Joshua was a military general, and in Joshua chapter five, God appeared as a commander of armies. Jacob here in Genesis 32 spent his entire life struggling with others, so God came to him as a wrestler.

And in verse 24, a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. So this man initiated the fight. Jacob didn’t start the fight. This man did, and he wanted something from Jacob. What did he want? What did he want from Jacob? He wanted to take this deceiving man that relied completely on God. And he wrestled with him until the breaking of day.

So this reveals Jacob’s determination. He never gave up, despite the difficult life he had. He never gave up. He never stopped fighting, he never stopped scheming, he never gave up. And he didn’t give up in this fight. But the problem was, he was too reliant on his own strength and cunning. See, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to never give up. I think that’s a good thing. We shouldn’t give up. But in that determination to keep going on our strength, because our strength is never going to get us to the end. We have to rely on God’s strength and His wisdom. That’s what’s going to get us through difficulties.

So in verse 25 it says, when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, even though he could have at any time, because as we’re gonna find out, this is God, he could have won this fight at any time. This was never a fight, if God didn’t want it to be a fight. This is like a UFC champion approaching a child. There’s no fight there.

Really what it’s more like is a dad wrestling with his son or daughter. Dads, if you have small children, like I do, you love wrestling with them on the floor, right? Or wherever. And they love wrestling too. They, they get a kick out of it and they think they can beat you. And so they just keep on doing it. They, they won’t stop. My son, he’s almost two and he just, when we wrestle, he just never, he won’t stop. He won’t give up. Even though I could end that wrestling at any time, just pin him to the ground. He’s done.

But there’s value in holding back on my part to give him the chance, to keep going, but ultimately he’s relying on me to hold back. He’s relying on me to get him through that wrestling and to get him to the other side. I don’t know how well that analogy works. Maybe it breaks down at the end there, but the point is, God could have ended this fight at any time.

When he saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. It says that he touched his hip socket. This is, and I think this is a strange word to use here. Like, I don’t know about you, but I think about if you’re gonna put somebody’s hip socket out of joint, you’re not gonna touch it, and it goes out of joint. You’re gonna punch it. You’re gonna kick it. You’re gonna use all your force that you can muster and hit that person as hard as you can to make that hip joint go out of socket. It’s a, in my opinion, it’s a strange word to use here. He touched his hip socket, but I think there’s a reason. Because this is the same word that’s used in the story about the ladder to heaven.

In Genesis 28:12 It says, He dreamed and behold there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. That word where it says the top of it reached to heaven, that’s the same word here as when the man touched his hip socket. So that ladder was set on earth and it touched heaven and now God came down from heaven on that ladder and touched Jacob.

So I think that word is giving us a clue that this is not just any man. This is God himself. It was God himself that came down. Because there’s always ambiguity, right? At least it seems like it, especially if you’re reading in the English language where words have been translated and the meaning isn’t always completely clear. A lot of times we read these encounters like this. We believe that it’s God because that’s what we’ve always been told. But when you read it you start thinking to yourself, well maybe, is this really God? I mean, how do we know it’s God? And the biblical authors gave us these clues so that we could know, because they wanted us to meditate on it and think about it and pray about it and spend time wrestling with the text, really getting the meaning out of it.

I think that this word is God, even as we read on. Now Jacob seems to be convinced that the man is God, but the text doesn’t actually come out and say that it was God. But I think that this word gives us that indication, because we read about a ladder that was set on earth and touched heaven, and God was at the top of that ladder. And now a man has come down and touched Jacob. So what did he do? He dislocated Jacob’s hip as a reminder of his grace, so that Jacob would go through the rest of his life limping, being reminded of God’s grace on his life, of God’s deliverance.

Paul had something similar in his life in 2 Corinthians 12 verses 5 through 9. Says on behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

So Paul here is saying, If I wanted to boast, I had all sorts of reasons to boast. And the Lord knew it. So he gave me a reason not to boast. He gave me this thorn in the flesh so that I would be forced to rely on God’s grace. And that’s what’s happening to Jacob here. He’s now going to be forced to rely on God.

So in verse 26, the man said, “Let me go for the day is broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” This basically encompasses all of Jacob’s struggles with others. His brother, his father, his father-in-law, he’s always looking for a blessing. Everywhere he goes, everything he does, he’s always looking for a blessing. He’s looking for a blessing when he took Esau’s birthright, he’s looking for a blessing when he deceived his father, he’s looking for multiple blessings with Laban. This is what his life is all about. He’s desperate for blessing.

This because it can seem here that Jacob is commanding God. He says, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” But he’s not commanding God. In Hosea chapter 12 verses 3 through 5 it says, So Hosea told us that Jacob actually wept when he was asking God for this blessing. He wept and sought his favor. He wasn’t commanding God. He was desperate. He realized all he had left was to hold on to God. And so in weeping and in desperation, he asked God for a blessing because it was his weakness that resulted in the blessing. It was not his strength. Previously, Jacob had attempted in his strength to wrangle blessings out of others. But now in his weakness all he’s got left is to hold on to God and ask for a blessing.

Are we seeking for blessing in life out of our own strength, out of trying to manipulate events, manipulate life and manipulate others for our own benefit? Or do we go to the Lord in weakness and weeping, recognize our utter lack, say “Lord we need you.”

So in verse 27, the man said to him, “What is your name?” Now the last time Jacob was asked this, he lied. Genesis 27, Jacob’s father said to him, “Who are you my son?” And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn.” So this time Jacob had to face who he was before God could change his name. Previously, Jacob had tried to change his name to Esau. He lied and said his name was Esau. But now Jacob had to say, “I am Jacob.” He had to be honest with who he was. He had to say, “I’m the deceiver,” before God could change his name.

Obviously God didn’t need to know the answer. God already knew what Jacob’s name was. God needed Jacob to know what the answer was just like he needed Adam to know the answer when he asked, “Where are you?” in the garden. Just like he needed Cain to know the answer when he said, “Where is your brother?” God needed Jacob to know the answer Adam answered in fear, Cain answered in arrogance, Jacob answered in desperation and weakness and in honesty.

So then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.” Now the name Israel means he strives with God or God strives, referencing what Jacob had just done wrestling with God. It’s also going to foreshadow what the nation of Israel is going to do. They’re going to strive with God and God is going to strive with them. There’s going to be a wrestle throughout Israel’s history, even to this day.

But Jacob received a new name from God, just like Abraham did. That implies a new beginning or a new purpose. Just like Abraham had a new beginning when he received his new name, now Jacob is gonna have a new beginning with his new name. As I mentioned, this is right before his baptism, essentially. It’s the same event, maybe right after. It’s not very clear, but that baptism is the point of becoming a new creation, that passing from death into life. And that’s what’s happening here. Jacob, by receiving a new name, is now being given a new beginning, a new life.

So he says, “Your name shall be called Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Jacob won. Jacob prevailed, but he prevailed through surrender. He didn’t win because he was stronger than God. Of course not. He won because he surrendered to God. That is one of the most primary, fundamental ideas that we as followers of Jesus need to understand. We do not win through strength, we win through surrender. Matthew 16:25 says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” We only find life through losing our life, through laying down our lives and surrender to God.

So then in verse 29, then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face.” And that word Peniel means face of God, and this is the first memorial of Jacob’s wrestle. It’s the first place that Jacob names to memorialize his wrestle with God.

And he says, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” He would die if he saw God’s face and in a way he did die again. Playing off that the theme of baptism in a way. He did die because he was actually given new life. He was delivered, his life was delivered, he was given a new life and now again in verse 31 the Sun rose upon him which represents a new day and a new life.

All this imagery here, in these few verses, in this section of this chapter, is showing that Jacob is a new creation. The creation language of there is evening and there was morning. The passing through the waters. This is all a picture of Jacob receiving new life, of his death and his resurrection, his death into new life.

So it says, the sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip. This limp was the second memorial of Jacob’s wrestle. He would live with this forever, until the day he died. In verse 32 we’re told, to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket. This is a Jewish custom to remind them of God’s grace. It wasn’t required by Mosaic law, but they did it anyway, just to remind them of God’s deliverance, God’s grace on his people.

Do you have any reminders of God’s grace in your life? Is there anything that you do to remind you of God’s grace? I’ve always grown up in a Protestant church and I think as Protestants over the centuries we’ve rejected ritual and memorial and tradition many times in the case of the Charismatics and the Pentecostals, which is what I grew up in. We’ve rejected those things because they risk becoming stale, but if done in sincerity and in humility, they are a wonderful reminder of what God has done for us. And I think as Protestants we could use a little bit more of that.

But I do think the one thing that we do that’s common for all of us as followers of Jesus is communion. This is the one custom that we have that we all do together to remind us of God’s grace, the beauty of His sacrifice on the cross. It’s not required. We don’t need to do it to get into heaven, but this is something that we can do. We should always, always take communion with sincerity, with humble hearts, reminding ourselves of God’s grace that has been extended to us because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

That said, how does this chapter point to Jesus? Well there’s two ways. The first way is that Jacob approached God based on the covenant he made with Abraham. If you go back to verse 9, when Jacob prayed to God he said, “Oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac.” So he approached God based on that covenant that God had made with Abraham. He’s saying, “God you are the God of my grandfather. I know you made this covenant with Abraham. I know that is passed down to me.”

So that’s how Jacob approached God. He recognized that this covenant was real and he recognized that he was part of that story and we can approach God based on the new covenant through Jesus. The way Jacob approached God is, is it points to the way that we can approach God through the New Covenant.

Hebrews 4 verses 14 through 16 says, Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So the author of Hebrews there is saying, look we can approach God on his throne with confidence when we need help and we can do it through the new covenant established by Jesus.

So the second way this chapter points to Jesus is Jacob understood that he was dealing with somebody more powerful than a normal human in this wrestle at the end of the chapter. Now he called this person God. So this is another appearance of the angel of the Lord. It’s always ambiguous. The author calls this person a man. Jacob called the person God.

And the reason this is important is that this angel of the Lord keeps appearing is because as the reader, especially if we were an ancient Hebrew reader, we’re reading them and we keep looking for the answer to man’s fallen state. And these patriarchs, they’re supposed to bring about the answer. God made this promise to them that the whole world would be blessed through their seed, through their offspring. So we keep looking. Which one is the offspring? Is it Isaac? No. Is it Jacob? No. Is it going to be the next one? The next son? No. We keep looking for this answer in these patriarchs.

And the unknown to them, the answer keeps appearing to them. The angel of the Lord. Thought to be a pre-incarnate Jesus. Whether we can think of him in such a linear way I don’t know but the point is it’s the revealing of God in the flesh and that Revelation of God in the flesh keeps appearing to the patriarchs. It’s happened several times already. We’re only in Genesis chapter 32. We’ve got a whole Bible in front of us. The answer to man’s fallen state keeps appearing to the patriarchs. They don’t even know it.

Just like those men on the road to Emmaus, Jesus was right in front of them. And he got in that chariot and he showed them how all scriptures pointed to him. They had no idea that that man that the scriptures point into was standing right in front of them. It’s the same with the patriarchs, and that’s why we keep doing this. That’s why we have this segment on every episode. Because the answer keeps appearing. The answer is always there. The answer was there from the very beginning.

So in reflection this week, at the beginning of the episode I asked you the question, have you ever felt completely alone? And how has God met you in those times? How has God come to you? At the end of the episode now I want to ask a related question.

What is the value in vulnerability before God? What is the value in being alone and vulnerable before God? Why does it seem like God is able to move so much more in our lives when we’re vulnerable and alone and naked before Him? Ponder that question. Ponder the value of vulnerability before God.

Before I pray, I wanna remind you, don’t forget to like or click follow on whatever platform you’re using. Give the show a five star rating. Always very, very helpful to increase the visibility of the show so that more people can hopefully be blessed by this podcast. Share it with your friends, let your friends know, let your family know if they’re into podcasts, if they are looking for a Bible study to do this is a great one to start with. And of course last but not least, always love to hear your feedback and your comments. Go ahead and leave me a comment on the website, especially those of you who are listening on the radio you can go to beyondthebasics.blog leave a comment

So let’s pray. Lord, I thank you so much for what you are trying to communicate to your people through your word. Thank you that you can reach us through the scriptures. I thank you Lord that just like Jacob wrestled with you, we can wrestle with difficult questions as we read and as we meditate and as we talk to you, as we pray your word back to you. So God, I pray that if anyone who might find themselves in that vulnerable state, anyone who might be finding themselves completely alone right now, I pray that you would come and meet them. Pray that you would come and minister to them. Pray that anybody who is finding themselves fearing others more than they fear you, I pray that you would bring them to that state of vulnerability so that they can meet you. Lord, I pray that all of us, I ask that you would give all of us a heart of humility, a heart that fears you and honors you above all else. In Jesus name, amen.

Well thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next week when we go through Genesis chapter 33.

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Transcript:

Due to the nature of the content of this episode, if you are listening around small children, please use discretion before listening.

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at BeyondTheBasics.blog. Click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond The Basics. You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page and for 4 dollars a month, you can receive access to the full uncut episode which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio. You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now, on to the show!

Many of us have stories of restoration in our lives, whether it’s restoration with family member or friend after a falling out, whatever it might be. Many of us have these stories and it’s important when we consider these stories, when we tell these stories, to recognize the work of the cross in these stories of restoration.

We’re going to get into Genesis chapter 38 today, which is a story of descent into sin, confession, repentance, and restoration. And at the end, we’re going to see that there’s a scarlet thread that reminds us who is responsible for this story of restoration. So let’s get into the chapter.

Starting in verse 1, it happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers. So this was right after Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelite traders. So immediately after Joseph was sold, Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adulamite. It’s possible that Judah was feeling guilty for his part in selling Joseph, especially considering it was his idea.

We don’t really know why Judah left, but we know that, as I’ve mentioned several times already in the last video, several episodes as we’ve been discussing the family of Jacob. We know that Judah would have been considered the firstborn by this point because Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, who were all born before Judah, have all made serious, serious errors and have lost that right to be considered the firstborn and be considered the heir. Judah would be considered the heir at this point, the firstborn. But now Judah, even Judah is now descending from that elevated position of the firstborn, and that’s indicated by this phrase, he went down from his brothers. It’s a word picture there. It indicates his descent from being the heir and the firstborn. It also gives us a picture of a moral descent, which we’re going to see throughout this chapter because the one who proposed sending Joseph into exile is now exiled. He’s self-exiled, but he’s exiled.

So in verse 2, there Judah saw a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. So just like Esau took Canaanite women for wives, which meant trouble for his family, now Judah is taking a Canaanite woman for a wife, which is going to, of course, foreshadow trouble. In fact, this is the first time that someone in the seed line married a Canaanite woman.

This was, of course, forbidden by Abraham. When Abraham sent his servant to find a son for Isaac, he made it very very clear to his servant that his servant was not to find a woman from the Canaanites. And not all of Abraham’s descendants have followed this command, but at least the ones so far in the seed line have. Isaac, Jacob, they’ve all gotten wives from the family of Abraham. But now Judah goes and gets a Canaanite woman. And this is troubling because the Canaanites, as we’ve seen in the last several chapters, they’re beginning to corrupt the sons of Abraham, the family of Abraham. Each generation is getting worse and worse.

Abraham had strong, strong faith, and he had his struggles, of course, but he had strong faith, and he passed that down to Isaac, although Isaac did not finish well. Jacob took a long time, a very large portion of his life, before he started recognizing the authority of God in his life, and now Jacob’s sons are almost completely corrupt. They are murderous, they’re lustful, they are power hungry, they’ve got all sorts of issues. And now we get to Judah’s sons, the next generation in this chapter, and it’s gotten so bad that now Judah’s oldest two sons are so wicked that God had to kill them. How wicked did they need to be that they did worse things than Judah and his brothers did in order to deserve God killing them?

So that’s how corrupt this family has gotten because of the influence of the Canaanites, which is one of the main themes of the book of Genesis. It’s one of the biggest themes that we see and we’ve talked about it so many times over the chapters that we’ve gone through so far. The idea that the Canaanites represent the world, obviously and the Israelites represent God’s people, and when we let the corrupting influence of the world into our lives, sometimes it takes time, but that corrupting influence grows and grows and grows and grows to the point where we’ve lost all sense of right and wrong, all sense of morality. We cannot allow that influence from the world to creep in like Abraham’s family did. We have to be vigilant. The Bible talks about being sober-minded. We have to be watchful.

Moving on, verse 2, he took her and went into her. So this Canaanite woman named Shua bore Judah three sons. First son was Er, the second son was Onan, and the third son was Shelah. And in verse 6, Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

Moving on to verse 7, but Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord. So as I mentioned, we don’t know what Er did that was so wicked. We have no idea. There’s zero indication in the text. But what’s clear is that it was wicked in God’s sight, not necessarily wicked in man’s sight. Or it may have been a hidden sin, something that was wickedly done out of man’s sight, so that nobody else knew. But it was wicked in God’s sight. God saw it, he determined it was wicked enough, and so we find out, moving on to verse 7, that the Lord put him to death.

Now, this is an interesting phrase, the Lord put him to death, because some will say that God doesn’t ever actually kill in the Bible. He only uses agents, like a flood or an army, fire and brimstone, whatever the case may be. But this phrase right here makes it very clear that the Lord Himself put Ur to death. He killed Ur. There’s no other agent involved here. There is no other potential hitman, so to speak. It is a very hard thing. It is a very difficult thing to confront in our own hearts.

We want to think of God as loving and merciful and compassionate and slow to anger and God would never kill and God would never judge and He teaches us to not judge and why would God do those things and He is all those things. God is loving and merciful and compassionate and slow to anger. He is all those things. But we have a difficult time in our modern culture recognizing that there is a higher authority than man who has all authority to kill or to let live as he decides. And if we say that God does not kill, then we remove God’s sovereignty from him. If God doesn’t have the authority and the ability to kill, then God is not sovereign.

In Acts chapter five, verses one through five, it says, but a man named Ananias with his wife, Sapphira, sold a piece of property and with his wife’s knowledge. He kept back for himself some of the proceeds and bought only a part of it and laid it at the Apostles feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why is Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? After it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it.

These are examples in the New Testament where God himself either kills or threatens to kill a human being personally himself. Lest you think that this is only an Old Testament concept, that God doesn’t do this in the New Testament, that the New Covenant did away with this type of God: God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will still deal with sin in the same way.

This is called the fear of the Lord. When we talk about the fear of the Lord, many times we talk about awe, wonder, reverence towards God, and that’s part of it. But the fear of the Lord is also understanding that God has this power, and the fear of the Lord is a good thing. The fear of the Lord is a healthy thing. So, if you’re struggling with this concept, don’t reject it immediately. It is wisdom to wrestle with this. It is wisdom to struggle with this. It is wisdom to talk to the Lord about it and ask Him to reveal to you His nature as the sovereign God.

So let’s move on. In verse eight, then Judah said to Onan, “Go unto your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her.” So this was called a levirate marriage. I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing that word properly. That’s the technical term for this. So Judah told Onan, “Perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, including the inheritance that the son would receive from the deceased brother.

So Onan’s brother, Er, very likely owned some property and this offspring of Onans that would be considered Er’s offspring would inherit Er’s property. That would not be considered part of Onan’s inheritance that he would give to his children. So he didn’t want to give offspring to have children with Tamar because he didn’t want that property to go to Tamar’s son and not have an opportunity to get his grubby hands on it, because if he has no son then he, Onan, receives Er’s inheritance. So this is a big deal. So this is greed that is popping up on behalf of Onan’s part.

So moving on in verse 9, it says, So whenever he went into his brother’s wife, he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. So essentially Onan used Tamar for sex without getting her children. Many people will use this text as proof that masturbation is a sin and that’s not to say that it is or isn’t, but this is not a proof text of that. That’s not what this text is talking about. It’s talking about denying justice to Onan’s sister-in-law. That was Onan’s sin. It was greed and refusing justice in the form of refusing Tamar children. And he essentially used her as a sex slave. She was essentially a concubine to him because he clearly still wanted to sleep with her. It’s not that he just took her into his home and put her in a room and just left her there. He clearly wanted to still sleep with her, but he wouldn’t do the right thing and give her children.

So what he did in verse 10 was wicked in the sight of the Lord and he put him to death also. So now Judah’s two oldest sons are dead. And in verse 11, then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house till Shelah, my son, grows up,” for he feared that he would die like his brothers.

And it’s understandable why Judah would hesitate to give this woman to his youngest son. Her first two husbands have died. And it’s, the text isn’t clear if Judah knew that God was responsible for his two oldest sons’ deaths. It’s very possible that he thought Tamar was responsible. Very possible that he thought Tamar killed them. And he had a duty to give Tamar to his youngest son. So he allowed her to remain in the house, but he was afraid to give her to him because he thought that his youngest son, Shella, would die.

So, Tamar remained there, and in verse 12, we find out that Judah’s wife died. And so, he went up to Timnah to his friend, Hira, and in verse 13, Tamar was told this. So, she found out that Judah left to shear the sheep and left his son, Shelah, in charge of the home, which means he’s no longer mourning his deceased wife, and in fact, this would have been big-time party with the guys. They would be partying, Judah and the guys, so she knew that he would be partying, having a good time, and this also indicates that Shelah was old enough to marry, but Judah was not gonna give her to him. She realized this at this time.

So in verse 14, she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, as in a wedding veil, which is how prostitutes would have dressed to signal their intention in those days. She’s using clothing to deceive Judah, just like Jacob did with Isaac in Genesis 27:27. Isaac smelled his garments and blessed him, said, see, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. Jacob dressed up like Esau in goat skins to make himself smell and feel like Esau so that he would be able to deceive his father Isaac, and also just like Joseph’s brothers with Jacob in the previous chapter. They took the robe of colors and brought it to their father, covered in blood, and said, “This we have found. Please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” In verse 32. And their father believed that Joseph was dead because they used Joseph’s coat to deceive their father, Jacob.

She’s only learning from her adopted family how to deceive with clothing. And it continues this cycle of deception in this family, especially to get something that rightfully belonged to them already. This has happened several times where family members, these members of this family of Abraham have used deception because they needed to get something that should have been given to them already. Obviously the birthright comes to mind with Jacob and Esau.

So she wraps herself up, which specifically refers to the uniform of a temple prostitute, and she sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She dressed like a prostitute, but Judah was her only intended customer, because she goes and sits on the road where Judah would be on. She placed herself where she knew he would see her. She obviously would have known that he would be tempted by her.

Because as I mentioned, moving on in verse 14, for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. So it wasn’t like she could just go find another man to marry in those days because a woman who wasn’t a virgin was undesirable for marriage. Nobody wanted to marry a woman who wasn’t a virgin. So she was already betrothed to Shelah, which in those days was essentially a marriage and just hadn’t been consummated yet.

We think of betrothals in our modern day vernacular. We tend to think of betrothals as similar to an engagement, but a betrothal was far more binding than an engagement is today. A betrothal is a marriage. The betrothal was not able to be broken. If a man and a woman were betrothed and they decided they didn’t want to get married, they had to actually go through a divorce. And once a man or a woman is betrothed, they are no longer eligible to be given to another man because they’re already married. Just like if a man and a woman are married today to each other. They’re not eligible to marry somebody else. It’s impossible. Legally, you can’t even do it.

So this is a sinful act against Tamar by Judah. She was betrothed to Shelah. Shelah was of age and Judah refused to give her to him. He is not doing right by Tamar. He is not showing justice to her, even though he’s afraid.

So Judah saw her in verse 15, he thought she was a prostitute, so he turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come into you.” He did not know that it was Tamar. So she said, “What will you give me that you may come into me?” In verse 17, he answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” So Judah didn’t have the goat with him, so he had to make a pledge. That’s what he’s doing here.

And she said, “If you give me a pledge until you send it,” he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.” So he had to give her something of value so that she could be assured that she would actually receive the goat. So she wanted something that would obviously belong to Judah because as we’re going to find out, Tamar is going to need to prove that Judah was the one who hired her and the one responsible for getting her pregnant. Otherwise, she knew that she would be put to death once she’s found out because she was engaged in prostitution while betrothed to Shelah.

So in verse 18, he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him. So Judah slept with Tamar. He thought she was a random prostitute, but this is actually going to provide a contrast to Joseph’s morality in the next chapter because Judah clearly has no hesitation to sleep with a random prostitute, whereas we’re going to see in the next chapter that Joseph has a very strong sense of morality, that fornication is a sin against God.

And so, as I mentioned, she conceived by him, which was not Judah’s plan, but it was Tamar’s plan. And it was also clearly God’s plan. And I’ll get into why in just a little bit. So in verse 19, she arose and went away, keeping the pledge items with her to prove that it was Judah who had hired her because she was now pregnant.

So in verse 20, Judah sent the young goat by his friend to take back the pledge, but he did not find her. And so he tried to look for her and they could not find a cult prostitute around that area. So he returned to Judah in verse 22 and said, “I have not found her.” Also, the men of the place said, “No cult prostitute has been here.” Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as their own.” So Judah decides to just drop it and forget about it because he knows that he’s going to be embarrassed if somebody finds out.

Then in verse 24, about three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral.” So again, as I mentioned, prostitution was actually legal in those days, especially surrounding idol worship, but adultery was not. And since she was technically betrothed, she was technically married, and so this is technically adultery. And so she should be technically put to death, which is the judgment that Judah makes.

In verse 24, he said, “Bring her out and let her be burned.” Now, Judah had committed the same sin as she had, but he was okay with putting her to death, even though he did the same thing. But in those days, Judah had the authority to do this because national governments and court systems didn’t exist. The patriarch was usually the highest authority around. The largest forms of government were in cities as city states are kings. So usually the clan leader, the patriarch of a clan or a family was usually the highest authority in a place and he could pretty much do whatever he wanted.

So in verse 25, she’s being brought out and she sent word to her father-in-law. “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” So she produced proof that Judah was just as guilty as she was, and she actually used the same words that Judah used regarding Joseph’s coat. He used the same words in the previous chapter in verse 32, he said, “These we have found, please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” Saying this to Jacob.

Now, Tamar is saying to him, “Please identify who these are.” So he knows he’s been caught in his deception and he got away with it with Jacob, but now it’s being turned around on him in this chapter by Tamar.

So in verse 26, Judah identified them and just imagine what was going through Judah’s mind at that moment. He had probably forgotten about that night. This was three months later. He’d probably forgotten about that this even happened until he realized who he had done that act with. Until he realized who he had slept with. And suddenly the memories of that night comes flooding back and his stomach drops and he realized what he did.

Now he could have killed her and covered it up because his friend, Hirah, was the only one who knew. In fact, he had done it with Joseph. He had faked Joseph’s death and got away with it. But this time he chooses to do the right thing.

And he says, “She is more righteous than I.” Or, in other words, I’m more guilty than she is. And the reason she’s more righteous is because Tamar is more concerned than Judah is about preserving the family line. And this is important. The whole reason this chapter is even in the Bible is because this is the family line that would result in the Messiah. And he says, “Since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” So, not only did he confess the sin of sleeping with Tamar, but he confessed the sin of not giving her to his son as well.

And then, to finish out verse 26, it says, and he did not know her again. In verse 27, we find out that there’s twins in Tamar’s womb. And one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” But in verse 29, as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. So the brothers are struggling with each other inside the womb, just like Jacob and Esau did.

In Genesis 25:22, it says that children struggled together within her, within Rebecca and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And that’s when Rebecca finds out that she’s having twins. But again, in this case, yet again, the younger overcame the older to receive the birthright. Even though technically Perez came out first and was therefore the oldest son, the only reason that happened is because Zerah stuck his hand out and pulled it back in so that Perez could then come out.

So this is another example of the younger brother overcoming the older brother to receive the birthright. This is a theme that’s seen in every single family in Genesis, that God chooses the younger over the older.

So in verse 29, the midwife says, “What a breach you have made for yourself,” therefore his name was called Perez. Rashi interprets this as saying, what a strong effort you have made, which reinforces that the brothers were struggling inside the womb, and the younger overcame the older.

So, how does this chapter point to Jesus? Well, I mentioned already that this would be the Messianic line. And sure enough, Perez, who we meet at the very end of the chapter, is the ancestor of Jesus. In Matthew 1:3, it says, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. And it goes on and on down to Jesus.

What’s interesting is that Judah’s three sons were the sons of a Canaanite woman, which means they shared in the wickedness and the corruption of the Canaanites, as we saw by the fact that God had to kill two of them. So none of them could produce the Messianic line. The Messianic line, as we’ve talked about so many times, is supposed to remain pure, uncorrupted, but Judah has three sons from a Canaanite woman, so how can any of these sons produce a child that would become one day the Messiah, if that child is corrupted by the seed of the serpent? Canaanites?

Well the answer is Tamar. The word Tamar means palm tree in Hebrew. So that indicates actually that she was a Hebrew woman, somebody from the family of Abraham. Maybe a daughter of one of his brothers, maybe a daughter of even potentially one of Esau’s children, from his Ishmaelite wife who would have still been from the family of Abraham, maybe somebody else, but she would have been a Hebrew woman or somebody from the family line of Abraham somewhere. Therefore, because she is a descendant of Abraham, she could give birth to the messianic line.

So, God orchestrated events in this chapter to result in a pure, uncorrupted son that was not corrupted by the seed of the serpent in the form of Canaanite blood. And it was only God who orchestrated these events. God took an active role by killing Er and Onan to force Judah’s hand.

Recognize what’s happening here. Judah puts himself in a corner. God had chosen Judah, but Judah married a Canaanite woman and had three sons. God cannot have a messiah coming from the line of a Canaanite woman, at least not at this point. So what is God to do? So God actively killed two of Judah’s sons, forcing Judah to be fearful of giving this woman Tamar to his third son, thinking that he would die also, setting off another cycle of deception that resulted in a Hebrew child in the form of Perez.

It seems so strange to us in our modern day that God works in these ways, but it’s so clear in this chapter that he does. We have to reconcile with that. We have to spend some time in the text and in prayer and recognize that God works in these ways because God has a bigger picture in mind.

So another way that this chapter points to Jesus is that the theme of the younger sibling receiving the birthright is present once again, as I mentioned at the end of the chapter. So here’s why this is such a big theme in the book of Genesis. And it’s because we already have a firstborn son.

Colossians 1:15 tells us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Jesus is already the firstborn. He already has the birthright. From before the foundations of the world Jesus was there with God. So we don’t need a firstborn to be chosen from the family of Abraham, because the firstborn has already been chosen. The younger son is chosen to represent humanity. Because we are image bearers, because we bear the image of God, because we are created in the image of God, we should act as the firstborn.

Philippians 2, verses five through eight says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So what Jesus did by taking the form of a servant and humbling himself, we should do. And that is how the firstborn is to act. Because that’s how the firstborn actually acted, the firstborn of all creation, Jesus became a servant. And because we bear his image, we should act the same way. Humble ourselves, become obedient even to the point of death.

Another way this points to Jesus is Tamar puts on the clothing of a bride and a worshiper. I mentioned earlier in the chapter that she wears the veil and she wrapped herself. So she wears the veil, the wedding veil, which is what a prostitute would wear, but also what a bride would wear. And she wrapped herself like a cult prostitute, used in worship of whatever idol they had there. And so she uses this clothing as one who is a cult prostitute, but she gives herself to Judah, who is chosen for the Messianic line, and he’s the father who refuses to find a bride for his son. Notice all those elements.

Now Jesus is going to completely redeem this story. He’s going to purify his bride, who will give herself to Jesus, the Messiah, and the father is going to present a pure, spotless bride to his son. So this story that is steeped in prostitution, moral depravity, still points to Jesus, because Jesus is going to be the one to redeem this story.

As I mentioned at the very beginning of this episode, there’s a scarlet thread that we need to recognize when God redeems, when God reconciles, when God brings reconciliation. And that’s what is happening, that’s what this is pointing to. And in fact, at the very end, there’s a literal scarlet thread tied to Zerah’s hand, and the scarlet thread was seen again in the tabernacle in Exodus 26:1. It says, moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue and purple and scarlet yarns. You shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.

The scarlet thread was seen in the priesthood in Exodus 28:6. It says, And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and of fine twined linen, skillfully worked. Then it was seen again in a later ancestor of Jesus in Joshua 2:21. It says, And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away and they departed and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. This is talking about Rahab, the prostitute, another prostitute, who tied a scarlet cord to the window so that the spies would be able to see which home was hers when the walls of Jericho had fallen, so that they could rescue her, so that she wouldn’t be killed.

So this scarlet cord, this scarlet thread is seen all throughout Israel’s history. It illustrates the redemptive thread of Jesus’ blood throughout Israel’s history. That’s what this scarlet thread is representing. That Jesus and his work on the cross is present in all stories of redemption. And we need to recognize in our own stories of redemption the role of the cross. And we need to thank him. We need to worship.

That’s the question that I have for you for this episode to think about and meditate on this week is, how have you seen the role of the cross at work in your restoration story? How do you see Jesus’ blood at work in your life?

Well, let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for that scarlet thread that we see throughout the scriptures from the first book all the way to the last. Thank you that your blood is shown to be the thing that ties together all stories of redemption and it’s tied together in your work on the cross. We thank you, Lord. We pray that you would continue to work redemption and restoration in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Would you use us to minister reconciliation to others through the work on the cross? Thank you for everything that you’ve spoken to us in this chapter. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Thanks once again for listening. As always, don’t forget to click that like button, subscribe on YouTube, whatever you’re using, give the show a 5 star rating. Always appreciate your help in that way and I would love to hear your feedback as well. If you want to leave some feedback on social media, on the website, go ahead and do that. Thanks once again for listening. I’ll talk to you next week.

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Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at BeyondTheBasics.blog. Click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond the Basics. You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page $4 a month you can receive access to the full uncut episode which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now on to the show.

Have you ever been wronged by someone for what seems like no reason? Especially when it seemed like you were doing the right thing Well, this is what happens to Joseph and Genesis chapter 37.

So let’s get into the chapter. In verse 1, we’re told that Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojournings. So he’s still a nomad, just like Abraham and Isaac, just like his fathers were. And what this means is, of course, that God’s promises have not yet been fulfilled, because he’s still wandering. He hasn’t yet taken possession of the land of Canaan, and he won’t. Jacob will die before Israel ever takes possession of the land. So he stayed in the land of Canaan, compared to Esau who in the previous chapter left Canaan and lived in Seir. Jacob here stays in the land of Canaan.

So in verse 2 it says these are the generations of Jacob. So moving on verse 2 it says Joseph being 17 years old was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah his father’s wives. So he was with four of his brothers. Bilhah had two sons and Zilpah had two sons and they were Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

So Joseph was learning shepherding from these four sons. He was still a boy, and he was learning how to shepherd from his older brothers. And this is when Joseph starts to learn the value of hard work, integrity in his work. It’s when he starts to learn to do the right thing, even when nobody’s looking, even when he gets ridiculed for it. He starts out small. He starts out with small beginnings, shepherding in the field with his older brothers, learning how to shepherd.

He’s with the sons of Bilah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. We already know that Jacob’s sons tended to cause trouble. We found that out in Genesis 34 and 35. We’re not told here what they did, but whatever it was, Joseph clearly felt that it was important to tell his father what they were doing, because, like I said, we already know what these brothers are capable of. Two of them already murdered an entire town. So even though it probably felt to his brothers like he was tattling on them, Joseph clearly had been given the authority to provide a report to his father. His father by this point probably was quite worried what these men were going to do when he wasn’t around to keep an eye on them.

So in verse three, it says, now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons. We can learn from this, because it follows the pattern that we see in these patriarchs. We can learn that children learn dysfunction from their parents. Just like Isaac learned to lie about his wife from his father Abraham, Jacob learned to have favorites among his children, like his father Isaac did. So we need to be careful.

So continuing in verse three, we’re told that Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because, and this is the reason why, because he was the son of his old age.

And we’re told in verse 3 that he made him a robe of many colors. This also can be translated a robe with long sleeves and it’s used, this phrase is only used in one other verse. So it’s possibly a robe that signified royal blood or royalty rather than a shepherd. Certainly it was a robe that signified privilege status, well elevated above shepherds. This was not a shepherd’s robe. This was a robe of royalty, or a robe of privilege that Joseph was wearing.

So what did it look like? We don’t know. It could have just been a long robe with long sleeves made of one color. Or it could have been a robe of many colors as it’s translated into English. But either way, what it probably meant is that Joseph was meant to be Jacob’s heir. Even though he was the youngest, he’d been elevated to the position of the oldest. He was the favored son. He was wearing a robe of royalty. And this would have been another reason why his brothers hated him. He skipped to the front of the line, essentially.

And in verse 4 we’re told, But when his brothers saw that their father loved him, More than all his brothers, they hated him, And they could not speak peacefully to him.

In verse 5, Joseph had a dream. This is the first dream in the Bible in which God does not speak. And then it says he told it to his brothers, which was probably not the best idea. And it’s not exactly clear if he told it to them to antagonize them or if he was just naive. We don’t know if he told it to them to get them riled up or if he really thought it was the right thing to tell his brothers.

In verse seven, we’re told the dream. It says, Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. Here is related to binding sheaves of wheat and it’s interesting because that’s connected to the circumstances of the eventual fulfillment of the dream. Here they’re binding sheaves of wheat in the dream but eventually Joseph’s brothers would come to buy grain from Joseph in Egypt. So the dream not only implies that Joseph’s brothers would bow to him but it implies the circumstances around which they would bow to him.

In verse 8, his brothers said to him, are you indeed to reign over us, or are you indeed to rule over us? So this implies royalty and kingship, that Joseph would take a royal position over his brothers. And considering that Joseph had already seemed to receive the authority of the birthright, the question is not whether Jacob’s sons will bow to Joseph. The question is, will they do it willingly? And the dream implies that they will. It also implies that Joseph would be the one to receive the covenant blessing, but as it turns out, it’s actually going to be Judah. And we’ll see that in coming chapters.

Verse 9, he dreamed another dream, a second dream. And the purpose of the second dream is to emphasize that these two dreams, or that the message of the dreams have been established by God. This is the same reason that God gave Pharaoh two dreams that meant the same thing later on. In Genesis 41 verse 32, it says, and the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God and God will shortly bring it about. Where did Joseph get that when he was interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams? He probably got it from his own dreams, realizing that the two dreams were the same, the same message, and it was repeated to show that the message is fixed by God. The message is determined by God to be brought about.

So he told his brothers the second dream, and the first time he told them his dream it could have been a mistake, as I mentioned, but now we’re going to see a trend. Now this is the second time. His brothers already hated him when he told him the first dream. So why would he tell him the second dream? This is where we see Joseph’s pride. Joseph is starting to feel pride regarding his elevated status. I mean, what 17-year-old wouldn’t?

So in the dream, the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars were bowing down to me. So these bodies, these heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, and the stars in Genesis chapter 1, were created to rule the heavens. But now these heavenly bodies created to rule the heavens are bowing down to Joseph, giving Joseph elevated status even over the heavens. So you can see why Joseph’s brothers would hate him so much after hearing this dream.

Joseph is basically saying you’re gonna bow down to me as if I’m God. Now was that the intended message of the dream? Probably not. I don’t think that’s what he was supposed to get out of the dream. But that’s what his brothers seem to have gotten out of the dream. Even his father rebuked him in verse 10. Even Jacob couldn’t see how his favorite son could be elevated over his own father and mother. He could see how his favorite son could be elevated over his brothers, but not over his father and mother. So he rebuked him. He said what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?

In verse 11 and his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. So Jacob considered it. Jacob pondered it. Jacob didn’t it to turn into hatred for his son.

So then the story shifts in verse 12. Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem, which is where Jacob had been living in compromise. So this is a dangerous town and now his brothers are there alone without Jacob around where they had already committed murder before.

And so Jacob calls Joseph to him and in verse 14 it says, so he said to him go now. See if it is well with your brothers and with the flock and bring me word. Because Joseph had previously brought Jacob a bad report and so now Jacob is gonna have Joseph check in on his brothers again, and this is not gonna sit well with his brothers because Jacob is essentially making Joseph the foreman even though he’s the youngest and probably knows the least about shepherding.

Joseph leaves Hebron, goes up to Shechem, can’t find his brothers and so he meets a man who says, what are you seeking? And in verse 16 Joseph says, I am seeking my brothers, tell me please where they are pasturing the flock. So this is interesting and we’re going to start to see a lot of parallels between this and a certain story. So what this is implying here is that first of all Joseph’s brothers were keepers of sheep. We know that Joseph is being portrayed as a keeper of brothers, the opposite of Cain.

So in verse 17, the man said, they have gone away for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. Dothan was about 10 to 15 miles west of Shechem and it was on a major trade highway between Egypt and the Near East. So it was a very popular area, very high traffic. So in verse 18, Joseph’s brothers saw him from afar and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.

So in verse 20, they come up with a plan. They say, come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. And another word for pits there could be cisterns, which was a very deep pit with narrow openings. It would have water in it often, but it would make it nearly impossible for a prisoner to escape without a rope, because they were so deep and narrow. And they say, then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him.

They say, we will see what will become of his dreams at the end of verse 20. That tells us that Joseph’s dreams are the motive for wanting to kill him. But of course they’re unaware that their plot is gonna lead to the fulfillment of his dreams. So what that tells us is that they didn’t oppose Joseph’s dreams for his own life. They weren’t opposed to Joseph having plans or dreams for his life. That’s not what they were jealous of. They were trying to keep God’s plans for Joseph’s life from happening. They were opposed to God. They weren’t opposed to Joseph.

In verse 22, Ruben said to them, Shed no blood, throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So in verse 24, they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. It’s a good thing because Joseph would have drowned if there was.

And in verse 25, they sat down to eat. This reveals the extreme hardness of their hearts. Imagine your brother approaches, you take him, you throw him into a pit that he can’t escape from, and then you sit there and eat while he cries out for help.

Because we’re told that they could hear Joseph from where they ate in Genesis 42:21, says they said to one another, in truth we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us. Imagine how hard a heart needs to be in order to sit there and listen to the cries of your own brother.

So as they were eating, a caravan of Ishmaelites approached and Judah noticed and said to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? So Judah now is going to propose that instead of killing Joseph, that they sell him to slavery. This sounds like Judah is maybe having a change of heart and wanting to save his brother and not shed his blood. Seems like this is maybe a better plan, but it’s actually worse.

Not worse in the sense that Joseph is better off dead. Of course he certainly isn’t, but it’s worse regarding Judah’s motives. Because Judah knew that they were going to ruin Joseph’s and Jacob’s lives no matter what. Whether they kill him or whether they sell him. But he decided that if they’re gonna ruin these two lives anyway, might as well make some profit off of it. That way they’re not just ridding themselves of an annoying brother, they’re making a little bit of cash as well. So they gain two things in their minds. They get rid of their brother and they make some money. And Jacob is gonna be absolutely devastated no matter what.

So in verse 27, his brothers listen to him, unlike Reuben. Reuben was the firstborn and his brothers didn’t really seem to listen to him much and clearly his brothers just don’t really have a whole lot of respect for Reuben, but they do have respect for Judah because he’s the one that they listen to.

So in verse 28 we’re told the Midianite traitors passed by. They drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit. Imagine being Joseph right now. Imagine what he’s thinking. He’s thinking that his brothers just played a cruel joke on him. Or maybe they changed their minds about wanting to kill him. Maybe he was even apologizing as they are pulling him up for telling him the dreams and saying, guys, I’m sorry, I should have never told you those dreams. Just don’t ever do that to me again. I’m really sorry. And then his brothers turn around and sell him into slavery immediately. Anyway, imagine being pulled out of that cistern, out of that pit, thinking your life was saved and that your brothers changed their mind, that it was going to be okay, and then you’re sold into slavery.

So verse 29, when Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes, which is an expression of extreme grief and despair. And he said in verse 30, the boy is gone and I, where shall I go?

So in verse 31, they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. Earlier in Jacob’s life, he killed a goat to make a stew to deceive his father, Isaac, into thinking that Jacob was Esau to receive the birthright. Now his sons are doing the same thing to him. They’re killing a goat to deceive his father, to deceive Jacob into thinking that Joseph was dead.

So they took the robe, they dipped it in the goat’s blood, they brought it to Jacob, and Jacob identified it and said, it is my son’s robe, in verse 33. A fierce animal has devoured him. So Jacob was convinced that Joseph was dead, and in fact, the way his brothers presented it, they found the coat without finding Joseph’s bones. So that’s why Jacob didn’t even try to find him. He assumed that Jacob had been completely, not just attacked and killed by an animal, but eaten as well.

So Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on, and in verse 35, all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning. Sheol is a Hebrew word for the grave or death.

So in verse 36, we’re told that meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. So this foreshadows what is going to happen to the rest of his brothers in a few generations. They’re going to be sold in slavery to the Egyptians. And we’re told that Potiphar is the captain of the guard, which is Pharaoh’s personal bodyguard, like his secret service, essentially. And he would have been in charge of executions. So this is Potiphar’s role.

And the story’s gonna leave off there. And in the next episode, we’re gonna take a break from the story of Joseph, and we’re gonna talk about the story of Judah, which is gonna take place simultaneously to the next several chapters of Joseph’s life.

Let’s talk about how this chapter points to Jesus. So as I mentioned earlier, Joseph is a picture of Jesus in this chapter. All sorts of ways. First, he was loved by his father. In John 3:35 it says the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. So both Joseph and Jesus were loved by their father.

Joseph was obedient to his father just like Jesus was obedient to his father. John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Joseph wore a royal robe, just like Jesus wore a royal robe. In Mark 15:17, it says, “‘And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.'”

Joseph was destined to be worshiped by Israel just like Jesus is destined to be worshiped by Israel. In Romans 11:26 it says and in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob. So all Israel one day the entire nation of Israel is gonna be saved and will worship Jesus. That’s what that chapter in Romans is talking about.

All Israel would bow to Joseph willingly. We’re going to see that in a few chapters and that’s going to be the case for Jesus as well. In Ezekiel 20 verse 40 it says, For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts with all your sacred offerings.

Joseph was hated and rejected by his brothers, as was Jesus in Isaiah 53:3. Very popular verse, very well known verse. It says, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Joseph’s rejection would lead to Israel’s exile from the land of Canaan. The same with Jesus. Jesus’ rejection would lead to Israel’s exile from the land of Canaan several thousand years later. In Matthew 24, verse 1 through 2, Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple, but he answered them, You see all these, do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. So Jesus was giving a prophecy there of what would turn out to be the fulfillment in 70 AD, where the temple in the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome and the people of Israel were exiled to the nations because they rejected their Messiah who had come to them.

However, the dispersion of Israel would result in the salvation of the Gentiles. Just like Joseph being exiled resulting in the salvation of the Egyptians, Jesus and Israel rejecting Jesus and being dispersed would result in the salvation of the Gentiles as well. Romans 11:11 says, so I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? Talking about Israel, he says, by no means, rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.

Joseph was wandering alone, all by himself. Jesus also wandered alone by himself. Luke 9:57-58 says, as they were going along the road someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He is saying that you want to follow me you got to be like me meaning I don’t have a home. I wander from place to place you got to be willing to do the same thing.

Joseph’s brothers conspired against him same with Jesus. Jesus brothers conspired against him in the sense that Israel or his brothers his disciples Luke 22 verses 3 through 6 Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them, and they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Joseph was placed where he could never be rescued, in that cistern, in that pit where he couldn’t climb out of it. Same with Jesus, he was placed where he couldn’t ever be rescued, up on a cross. In Matthew 27:41-42 it says, So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying, He saved others he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe him.

Joseph descended below the earth when he was thrown into that pit and Jesus also descended below the earth. In Ephesians 4:8-10 Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying, He ascended, what does it mean, but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And in Matthew 12.40 it says, For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Joseph was sold by his brothers as was Jesus. Matthew 26:14-16 says, Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, What will you give me if I do deliver him over to you? And they paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. Obviously, that’s the same story that I read just a couple points ago, but the point previously was to highlight the betrayal. Here is to highlight the money that was given in exchange for Jesus.

Joseph was as good as dead. His father Jacob believed that he was dead. And Jesus, of course, died in Luke 23:46. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this he breathed his last.”

And the last one here, Joseph was sent to Egypt as a child. Jesus was also sent to Egypt as a child. In Matthew 2, verses 13-15 it says, Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt, I called my son. So many, many parallels between Joseph and Jesus.

This chapter is full of references to the coming Messiah, to the promised seed that would eventually be Jesus.

So a question I have for you to reflect on for the next week is this. Why did God choose to use Israel’s sin instead of confronting it and stopping it? Why do you think God didn’t confront Joseph’s brothers and instead allowed them to continue down this murderous path and use their sin for good later instead? Why didn’t God choose a different way? Why didn’t God confront their sin and stop them from doing it and then find a different way to get Joseph down to Egypt?

I touched on this a bit earlier, but I want you to meditate on that. I want you to think about that because the way that you answer this question is going to reveal how you view God. That’s not a bad thing. That just tells us how we see God. So meditate on that question over the next week and let’s pray.

Lord. Thank you so much for everything that you’ve spoken to us in your word. Thank you that we have difficult stories like this that challenge our understanding of who you are and how you work through human circumstances. I pray that you would reveal yourself to us as we continue to meditate and think about this chapter over the next week. Pray that you would reveal to us your goodness and your mercy and your great plan as you work through circumstances and we may not always understand and I ask that you would give us the peace to be okay with not understanding. And to also recognize that you are sovereign and you are God and you are almighty and you are all-powerful. Bless those who are listening. Thank you for each one of them in Jesus name. Amen

Well thanks for listening. Don’t forget, always want to hear your feedback so go ahead and leave a comment on social media, leave a comment on the website, beyondthebasics.blog, click that like button, the subscribe button, give this show a five star rating. Tell your friends, tell your family, love to be able to reach as many people as possible with this study and hopefully bless as many people as possible.

Thanks once again. I will talk to you on the next episode and we’re going to get into the life of Judah in Genesis chapter 38.

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Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at beyondthebasics.blog. Click the donate button at the top. And that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries, where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America.

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Now, onto the show! In Genesis chapter 36, Esau seems to have everything. Definitely way sooner than his brother Jacob. Money, success, huge family, popularity. But the one thing he didn’t have was the covenant blessing from God. And this is important because we’re going to find in this chapter that worldly success is fleeting because Esau’s story ends in this chapter. And we don’t hear from him ever again.

So, let’s get into Genesis chapter 36. So, in verse 1, it says, These are the generations of Esau. So, remember, in past episodes, we’ve talked about how, when the author of Genesis writes his genealogies, and this goes for the entire Bible, they always put the non chosen bloodline first.

So, in the case of Ishmael and Isaac, Ishmael’s genealogy came before Isaac’s, for example. This chapter is going to give us the genealogy of Ishmael and Isaac. And then the next chapter, in Genesis chapter 37, the same phrase is going to be repeated, except for about Jacob. Again, the non chosen bloodline is always listed first.

So that’s why we have Esau’s genealogy here first, before Jacob’s in the next chapter. As I mentioned, this chapter is going to end Esau’s story, but the nation of Edom which comes from Esau, is going to remain a major player in Israel’s story throughout the centuries. And we’re reminded of that here in verse 1, where it says, that is, Edom. And that phrase is actually repeated three times in this chapter, in verses 1, 8, and 19. So that word Edom in Hebrew is similar to the Hebrew Adam, which means humanity or mankind.

So in verse 2, we’re told Esau took wives from the Canaanites. Now, as we’ve discussed many times, Abraham did not want this for his offspring. In Genesis 24, verse 37, it says, My master made me swear, saying, You shall not take a wife from my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell. Abraham gave the command. His offspring were not to marry the Canaanites, but he did. He married two Canaanite women, and these women made life difficult for Isaac and Rebekah.

I think this chapter is going to give us a little bit of an idea as we look a little bit deeper into their names. So if you notice that Esau’s wives in this chapter have different names than in Genesis chapter 26. So his first wife is called Adah, and she is the daughter of Elon, the Hittite, and that word Adah means ornament.

Now, if you look in Genesis chapter 26, we find that this woman is called Basemath. It says, when Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite, to be his wife. And Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. So, in Genesis chapter 26 she was called Basemath, now she’s called Adah. The question is, is this the same woman, or did Esau actually have more wives and marry two sisters?

I’m going to get into that.

The next woman listed here is Oholibama. Which means the tent of the high place, as in, for idol worship In ancient Near Eastern cultures, they would worship their idols, they would sacrifice to their idols in high places. The idea being that it would get them closer to God, or closer to their god, whatever god that they were worshiping.

But this woman was called Judith in Genesis chapter 26:34. And Judith means praiseworthy. Here, in Genesis 36, she is called the daughter of Anah, and in Genesis 26, she is called the daughter of Beeri. Now, this woman, Anah, in verse 2 here, is different than the Anah that we’re going to find in verse 20. You keep on reading ahead, in verse 20 you’re going to come across a different Anah.

This woman is different, because in this verse, Anah is the daughter of Zibeon, the Hivite, and later in verse 20, that Anah is the brother. So there’s two different Anahs, both related to Zibeon, but don’t get them confused. But what could be confusing is that in the Septuagint, which is the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the Samaritan and Syriac translations, Anah here is called the son of Zibeon.

And that difference is important. And again, we’re going to find out why. I’m teasing this out a little bit. It’s probably sounding very confusing now, but I’m going to wrap it all up here in just a minute. But it is important that Anah is the daughter and not the son, because if Anah is a son of Zibeon, then this is not going to make any sense.

None of these first few verses make sense. But, if she is the daughter, then it all makes sense. And you’ll find out why here in just a minute. So stay with me. Moving on. He also married Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. Now, Basemath means perfumed, and she was originally in Genesis chapter 28, verse 9, called Mahalath.

That verse says Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife. Remember, Rebekah and Isaac were very distressed and troubled by what Esau’s wives were doing, and so Esau wanted to appease them and take a daughter of Abraham as his wife, and so he went to Ishmael’s family and took a wife, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

So it’s the same woman in Genesis 28, she’s called Mahalath, and Genesis 36, she’s called Basemath. Why is this so different in this chapter from the previous chapters that list Esau’s wives? Because on its face, it presents a serious inconsistency.

On its face, it looks like they’re just simply two different authors that didn’t talk to each other before they wrote this down, and one of them clearly got it wrong, but there are three views here. The first view is that they’re the same wives as in Genesis 26 and 28 and their names are changed. The second view is that there are three different wives meaning Esau has a total of six wives. And then the third view is that some of them women are the same and some are different and typically in this view Judith and Oholibama may have been different women and Adah daughter of Elon and Basemath daughter of Elon may have been sisters, as I mentioned earlier.

But I believe that the first view is the correct view that these three women are the same women as he saw his wives from Genesis 26 and 28. And this is why I went into all the meanings of the names. I believe that the names are there for a purpose. And the name changes are there for a purpose. So let’s start with Adah.

Adah was originally called Basemath, meaning perfume. Now she’s called Ada, meaning ornament, or jewelry. So, Adah, the name change for Adah is there to highlight what is important to her and what she does, what she adorns herself with. She adorns herself with ornaments or jewelry and perfume or incense. And these two items would be for the purpose of prostitution and idolatry. Jewelry for prostitution or ornaments and incense for idolatry, possibly even As a cult prostitute.

Okay, now the second wife, Oholibama. Originally, she was called Judith. Now, remember, Judith means praiseworthy. But now, in Genesis chapter 36, she’s called Oholibama because, remember, Oholibama means tent of the high place, as in, idol worship. So now, she is known for her idol worship. And she has a history of adultery, prostitution, idolatry, and this is from the Jewish Women’s Archive, and you can get the full citation on the study guide if you download it from the website. And you can go there and read more about this. But even her name highlighting the tent would imply that she is leaving her house, leaving her house with Esau and bringing her idolatry and harlotry to other men’s tents.

You can clearly see why these women, Adah and Oholibama, would be bringing so much grief. Not only to Esau, but to Isaac and Rebekah. What does Esau do? He says, I’m going to go marry a woman from the family of Abraham. And so he goes and marries Mahalath from Ishmael’s family. Now, Mahalath refers to forgiveness.

So Esau married her to obtain forgiveness from his parents. But ultimately, she became just as idolatrous as the other two wives. Because again, her name is changed in this chapter to Basemath. Which means perfumed. Now she is perfuming herself again for idol worship and potentially prostitution as well.

I mentioned Esau has everything and we’re going to see that as we go through, continue to go through the chapter. But already we’re seeing that Esau’s life was an absolute disaster. A cesspool of immoral and idolatrous behavior.

So let’s move on, and as we go through, I’m gonna highlight the meanings of some of these names that we see. Not all of them, certainly not, but a few of them. And again, as we get towards the end, I’m gonna tie it all together. So in verse four, Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz which means pure gold. Note the meaning of that name and keep it in mind for later. So, Adah bore Eliphaz, Basemath bore a son, and then Oholibama bore three sons.

And in verse 5, these are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan. So, all of Esau’s sons were born in the land of Canaan. This is contrasted with Jacob’s sons, who were all born outside the land of Canaan. With the exception of Benjamin, of course. It would be Jacob’s sons that would actually be the ones who would end up inheriting the land of Canaan instead of Esau’s sons.

So in verse 6, then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. This list of all these things that Esau had, he had so much. He had family, he had wives, he had a huge household. Animals, property, everything he had acquired. This reveals God’s generosity. This shows that even the sons of Abraham that were not included in the Covenant were still blessed. So he went into a land away from his brother Jacob.

So in verse 9, it says, These are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. So Esau had a total of 13 grandsons, or tribes, which is similar to Israel after Joseph’s sons were included. In verse 11, the sons of Eliphaz, the first son of Eliphaz was Teman, who was the father of the Temanites.

Verse 12, we find out that Eliphaz has a concubine named Timnah, and she bore Amalek. to Eliphaz. Amalek would have been the father of the Amalekites, and they were the first ones to attack Israel from the south when they entered the land of Canaan. They were a major enemy of Israel, and they would eventually be completely destroyed during King Hezekiah’s reign.

Verse 13, Reuel has a son named Zerah, which means rising or east, giving the picture of the sun rising in the morning. So keep that in mind. And then in verse 15, It says, these are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. And that word chief refers to a military or political leader. And it’s only used here in this verse and in Zechariah referring to the leaders of Jerusalem in Zechariah chapter 12 verses 5 through 6. In those verses in Zechariah, it’s translated to clans, but it’s the same word and it’s referring to military leaders in that context as well.

Going now to verse 20. It says, These are the sons of Seir the Horite. So the Horites in those days lived in caves. That’s actually what the word Horite means. It means cave dweller. So it was probably actually very easy for Esau to drive them out of the land since they didn’t live in walled cities. They just lived in caves hanging out. They wouldn’t have had the protection of a wall around them.

Verse 21, one of his sons is named Dishon, meaning gazelle. Keep that in mind. And then in verse 24, it says, These are the sons of Zibeon, Aiah and Anah. He is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness as he pastored the donkeys of Zibeon, his father. Why is this story here? Seems so random, right? But it actually could provide important commentary.

This word for hot springs in Hebrew is yamim. It’s the only time it’s used in the Bible, which means it’s a very difficult word to translate. There’s four possible translations according to Rabbi Shmuel Klitzner.

The first is what you see in the ESV and similar translations, which is springs or hot springs. The reason it’s translated this way is because it’s going to be consistent with the motif of finding water in the wilderness. That’s the first possibility.

The second possibility is it could be translated as mules, some would suggest that Anah was the first to breed horses with donkeys to create mules, and that’s what he found in the wilderness.

The third possibility is that it’s referring to the Eimim people. And the reason we have this possibility is because the Septuagint, again, the translation of the Hebrew Bible, uses the proper noun here, Iamin. The Samaritan Targum, which is the Samaritan translation, translates that word to Deuteronomy chapter 2, verses 10 through 11, we actually have a people that are named that are called this. It says the Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and as tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim, they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

The fourth possibility is that it is a corruption of the word Heimim. Or a different spelling of the word Heimim, which could refer to Heimim the son of Lotan in verse 22. Depending on your translation, it’s going to be spelled a little bit differently. In the ESV, it’s spelled Hemam, but that’s the same word, potentially. This would have been Anah’s cousin. Heimim would have been Anah’s cousin. Now, this changes the story. If we use Heimim That means that Heimim was lost in the wilderness and Anah found him while pasturing his father’s donkeys.

Now that’s actually similar to three other stories in the Bible, at least. I believe that this interpretation is very convincing because of the fact that it provides commentary on several other points in the Hebrew Bible. It provides commentary on King Saul later on in 1 Samuel. It also provides commentary Jacob’s family in the next chapter that we have Edom, who is a nation of materialistic and militaristic tribes that still could take the time to look out and care for their brothers and the sons of Israel, the sons of Jacob could not even do that.

So in verse 31, it says these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. Moving on to verse 32, we’re told, Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, the name of his city being Dinhabah. Now, there’s there are several different kings that are listed in this paragraph, and they all have a different city. Each king is from a different city, which indicates that there’s a lack of inherited succession to the throne. What it looks like is that power more likely moved from tribe to tribe. They shared power in this way, by moving the throne from tribe to tribe and city to city.

In verse 39, we’re told of a king named Baal-hanan. It means Baal is gracious, so that’s evidence that Baal worship has now begun in Edom by this time.

So, what’s the purpose of this chapter? Talked about it a little bit, but there’s two purposes. First purpose is, it was written before Israel entered the Promised Land. It was before they entered the land of Canaan, after they had left Egypt, and Edom had refused them entry into their country.

In Numbers chapter 20, verses 14 through 21, to paraphrase the story here, they had left Egypt and approached the land of Edom, and now they were on the edge of the territory of the land of Edom. And they sent messengers to the king and said, Let us pass through your land. We’re not going to take any of your crops. We’re not going to drink any of your water. We’re not going to do anything. We’re just going to stay on the King’s highway. We’re going to stay there. We’re not going to go right or left. We’re just going to go straight through your territory and not bother anybody. And the King of Edom said, no, you come through, I’m going to kill you.

And Israel said, trust me, we’re not going to do anything. If we take anything, we’ll pay for it. Just let us go through. And the king of Edom said, no, you’re not going to come through our land. And he sent out an army to scare them away. And so Israel turned away. So this chapter is written as a reminder for Israel of who Edom is so that they wouldn’t attack them because the temptation would be to retaliate for that incident and go and attack Edom and take over their land.

And in Deuteronomy 2, verses 2 through 5, it says, Then the Lord said to me, You have been traveling around this mountain country long enough. Turn northward and command the people. You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

So, God here is saying, Israel, don’t you dare take the land of Edom. Don’t you dare try and take their land. This is what I’ve given to Esau. This is his land. This is not for you to take. You are not to go to war with them. You are not to retaliate for what they did to you. So, this chapter was written as a reminder. This is your brother. This is your relative. Leave them alone. Honor them. But do not attack them.

The other purpose of this chapter is that it contrasts Esau’s life with Jacob’s life. Esau sought material wealth. And success and found it. You see that all through this chapter. We’re shown that by the meaning of the names. As I’ve gone through, I’ve mentioned some of the meanings of the names, and I told you to keep those in mind. Names like Baal is gracious names like Rising or East names like pure gold. They’re names that are looking for success, the success of the God’s material wealth, and that’s what Esau received. He found it. He got what he wanted. Jacob sought God’s blessing and found it. That’s what Jacob was seeking his entire life for, was God’s blessing, and he found it. So both men got what they had wanted. This chapter shows us what Esau wanted and received.

So how does it point to Jesus, is the question.

Well, the land of Canaan is a picture of Eden, the Garden of Eden, which foreshadows the New Jerusalem. In Revelation, chapter 22, verses 14 through 15, we’re told, Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and that they may enter the city by the gates.

It’s talking about the city of the New Jerusalem. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and murderers and idolaters. And everyone who loves and practices falsehood. So in Revelation 22, we have the city of the New Jerusalem. And those who are cleansed, those who are righteous, are able to enter the city. And outside the city are sorcerers, sexually immoral, the murderers. The idolaters, etc. So, that’s what this is providing a picture of. The land of Canaan, in general, is like the New Jerusalem. It’s providing a picture of the New Jerusalem. And Edom here is outside the land of Canaan just like the sexually immoral and the idolaters are outside the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22. That’s what this is providing a picture of. So do we want to be like the Israelites in the land of Canaan? Or do we want to be like the Edomites? Seeking after material wealth, seeking after false gods, seeking after sexual pleasure, and find ourselves outside the New Jerusalem.

It’s also pointing towards the work of grace in our lives. See, Esau was a pretty gracious, likable guy. His family took care of each other. In fact, if you were to meet Edom, he even forgave Jacob for what he did to him, for the deception that he pulled against him. He forgave Jacob. He was a likable guy. He was a popular guy, but the goodness of his actions and the actions of his family was not enough to secure him a place in Canaan.

We don’t know why God chose Jacob over Esau. The Bible doesn’t tell us. Jacob was a scoundrel. He was not a good person. Esau actually was a pretty nice guy, but Jacob grew in faith in God. Whereas Esau may have grown in graciousness, we see the growth of Esau throughout these chapters in Genesis, but he never actually showed any faith in God.

See, it’s never our works that secure our inheritance in the age to come. It’s our faith. In God’s work of grace alone. Ephesians 2, verses 8-9 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. It doesn’t matter if we become a better person as our life goes on. That’s not what’s important. What matters, are we growing in faith? Are we growing in faith in God’s work?

And the last way that this points to Jesus is that there is going to be a day when each one of us is going to be judged individually for what we do. It’s going to come after the thousand year reign of Christ. In Revelation 20 verses 11 through 13 it says, and I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it from his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the Sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

So, we’re told that each person in Revelation 20, each individual is judged according to what they had done. This chapter and Genesis 36 is a reminder that God sees and knows each one of us. And we’re going to stand before Jesus one day. We’re going to be judged. He knows each one of us. He knows who we are. He knows our name. He knows each person in Edom’s family. He knows your name. He knows my name. He knows what we do. We are going to answer to him one day. But when we answer to him, do we answer on the basis of what we did, or do we answer on the basis of what Jesus did?

That’s the question. So the question that I have for you for this week to meditate on is this. We’ve talked about this several times throughout the chapter. Meditate on what this means. What this implies for your own personal life. The question is this, how does God define success? Do you think Esau was successful by God’s standards or by human standards? Was Jacob successful by God’s standards or by human standards? What are those standards? How does God define success? Meditate on that. Pray about it. Is your life successful by God’s standard or by human standards? That’s where that question should point you to.

So let’s pray. Lord, thank you once again for your word. Thank you for everything that you speak to us, even in a long list of names that are filled with dead people that we will never know. Those of us in The 21st century, it seems so hard to even pronounce these names, much less comprehend what you’re trying to say to us through them. Thank you that you speak through chapters like this, even today. I pray that you would reveal to us what your standards of success are. Thank you that you provide a picture of, of those who live by worldly success so we can see what not to do. So we can see what not to strive for. God, I pray that Each one of us would strive to be successful in your eyes. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Thanks once again for listening. As always, I always want to hear your feedback, so leave me a comment on social media, on the website beyondthebasics. blog Go there, download the study guide to help you along in your study. And don’t forget to click that like button on whatever platform you’re using. or on YouTube, subscribe to make sure you’re getting all the updates and leave a five star review. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Don’t forget, if you enjoy the show and would like to help keep it on the air, go to www. beyondthebasics. blog and click the donate button to make a tax deductible donation. Make sure you designate the donation for Beyond the Basics. You can also click the subscribe button, which will take you to my Patreon page, where for only four dollars per month, you can receive access to an additional 10 to 30 minutes of audio content per episode, as well as access to all previous episodes I’ve released.