Gilbert House Fellowship

ALL OF us have had a wilderness experience of one kind of another. For Joseph, much of it was spent in prison cells.

Two years after interpreting dreams for the baker and cupbearer for the king of Egypt, Joseph is summoned to make sense of a pair of disturbing dreams for the pharaoh. You know the story: God showed the king that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh placed Joseph in charge of storing up grain for the lean years.

We discuss the reason that God allowed Joseph to endure years in a foreign land. It was more than just saving his family from famine; this was God’s long game to set Israel apart from its pagan, Semitic-speaking neighbors.

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

IF THE Bible had truly been edited to make the apostles, prophets, and patriarchs look better, chapter 38 of Genesis would have disappeared long ago.

This week, we discuss the unseemly episode of Judah’s relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, by whom he fathered Perez, an ancestor of Jesus.

We also discuss the history of the period to explain the timeline between Abraham and the Exodus, which is variously described as “four hundred years” (Gen. 15:13, Acts 7:6), “the fourth generation” (Gen. 15:16), and “four hundred and thirty years” (Ex. 12:40-41, Gal. 3:16-17).

How do we reconcile the 400/430 year discrepancy, and how do we square that with four generations (Jacob > Levi > Kohath > Amram > Moses), since Levi was an adult before Jacob and his family followed Joseph to Egypt?

Here’s the best answer, courtesy of Answers in Genesis: In Abraham’s day, Egypt included the Levant, modern Israel, Lebanon, and western Jordan and Syria. So, the 430 years began with Abraham was called from Harran because he was in “Egypt” almost as soon as he crossed the Euphrates. The 400 years began when Ishmael, his son by Hagar the Egyptian, mocked and persecuted Isaac.

The “fourth generation,” of course, refers to Moses, counting his great-grandfather Levi as the first generation after Jacob.

Here is our timeline, based on this logic:

* Amorite kingdom of Babylon founded — 1894 BC

* Abraham born — 1951 BC

* Abraham arrives in Canaan — 1876 BC

* Isaac born — 1851 BC

* Isaac marries Rebekah — 1811 BC

* Hammurabi becomes king of Babylon — 1792 BC

* Jacob and Esau born — 1791 BC

* Abraham dies — 1776 BC

* Hyksos take over Lower Egypt — c. 1750 BC

* Isaac dies — 1671 BC

* Jacob arrives in Egypt — 1661 BC

* Jacob dies — 1644 BC

* Joseph dies — 1590 BC

* Ahmose drives Hyksos out of Egypt — c. 1550 BC

* Moses leads the Exodus — 1446 BC

* Joshua leads the Conquest — 1406 BC

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOSEPH APPEARS to have been something of a spoiled brat. Either he had no self-awareness at all or his self-image was so inflated that he didn’t care what his brothers thought of him.

The story of Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery is a reminder that even in times of trouble, God has a plan, and He brings His plans to fruition through flawed and imperfect humans.

We also discuss the history of the chiefs and kings of Edom, including the interesting reference to one “Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates” who ruled Edom sometime before the rise of the kingdom in Israel. Check a map — the Euphrates is a long way from Edom! Who was this Shaul, where was Rehoboth, and did he rule a kingdom that included much of modern Jordan and Syria?

Here is a link to the book Derek mentioned, Edom and the Hyksos by David J. Gibson (https://bit.ly/3cFIVok).

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JACOB WAS not exactly an ideal father.

His reaction to the rape of his daughter Dinah by the prince of the city of Shechem is puzzling. Genesis chapter 34 shows that he didn’t say anything when learning of Dinah’s humiliation, or while his sons Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah’s six brothers by their mother Leah, plotted revenge against the city of Shechem, slaughtering the men after deceiving them into being circumcised.

Jacob’s concern was not for Dinah or the murdered men, but for himself: “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”

We also discuss Jacob’s reunion with his brother Esau, the spiritual significance of the city of Shechem (and its patron god, Resheph), and the deaths of Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah, Jacob’s wife, Rachel, and his father, Isaac.

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

FEEDING THE dead was an integral part of the world in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived.

We’ve previously discussed Abraham’s distress at not having an heir to provide for him in the afterlife; this week, we explain why Jacob’s father-in-law, Laban, was so upset about losing his teraphim, the small idols that represented dead ancestors who had to be summoned to a meal every month with a necromancy ritual called kispum.

We also discuss Jacob’s separation from Laban, his encounter with angels along the Jabbok River, and his wrestling match with the Angel of God, another manifestation of Christ in the Old Testament.

Here’s the link for the book by Dr. Michael Heiser we mentioned during the program, Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches About the Unseen World - and Why It Matters.

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

PORTALS AND contact with the spirit realm are at the heart of this week’s Bible study.

First, we discuss Jacob’s dream during his journey from the Negev to Haran in northern Mesopotamia. We’ve heard the term “Jacob’s ladder,” but the underlying Hebrew word reveals that what he saw was more likely a ziggurat—the ancient Mesopotamian pyramid that represented a stairway to heaven.

We explain the connection between Bethel, “House (or Temple) of God),” and the stone idols later worshiped all over the Near East called baetylia by the Greeks and betyls by modern archaeologists. (Join us at Petra next spring and we’ll show you a few hundred of them!)

Then we discuss the tricking of the trickster, as Jacob’s uncle Laban deceives him into taking his eldest daughter, Leah, as his wife in exchange for seven years of labor. To marry his younger daughter Rachel, Laban demands another seven years’ work—and then tries to keep Jacob even longer because he realizes (through divination, a forbidden practice) that he’s being blessed by God through Jacob.

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

ISAAC IS a transitional character in the Bible, serving mainly as the bridge between Abraham and Jacob. We discuss the stories of Isaac’s adult life—his lie about Rebekah to the king of Gerar and how how Jacob received the blessing that Isaac had planned to give Esau.

While it’s hard to reconcile the deception of Rebekah and Jacob, we must remember that Esau thought so little of his birthright that he sold it to Jacob for a bowl of stew (Gen. 25:29-34).

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries."

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

WE REACH the end of Abraham’s time on earth this week. We discuss the death of Sarah, Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpelah, the marriage of Isaac, the birth of Esau and Jacob, and the short-sightedness of Esau in selling off his birthright for a bowl of beans.

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

HE SURVIVED the destruction of Sodom, but Lot didn’t seem very happy about it.

This week, we discuss the aftermath of the fiery destruction of the cities of the plain, which also leveled Jericho, according to archaeologists. Lot and his daughters retreated into the hills and lived a hermit-like existence in a cave overlooking the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. Their isolation led to the incestuous creation of the nations of Moab and Ammon, longtime enemies of Israel in the centuries that followed.

Then we discuss Abraham’s deception of Abimelech, the king of Gerar, and one of the stranger events in the Bible, the binding of Isaac. Why would Abraham agree to God’s test, to the point that his knife was out, ready to “slaughter”—a Hebrew term (shachat) used elsewhere in the Old Testament for human sacrifice—his only son by Sarah?

Here is the timeline Derek mentioned during the study. Bear in mind that these dates are not universally accepted and mainly show the sequence of events.

* Amorite kingdom of Babylon founded — 1894 BC

* Abraham arrives in Canaan — 1876 BC

* Destruction of Sodom — 1852 BC

* Isaac born to Sarah — 1851 BC

* Isaac marries Rebekah — 1811 BC

* Hammurabi crowned king of Babylon — 1792 BC

* Jacob and Esau born — 1791 BC

* Abraham dies — 1776 BC

* Hyksos (Amorites) rule Lower Egypt — c. 1750 BC

* Jacob arrives in Egypt — 1661 BC

* Ahmose drives Hyksos out of Egypt — c. 1550 BC

* Moses leads the Exodus — 1446 BC

* Joshua leads the Conquest — 1406 BC

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

THE DESTRUCTION of Sodom and Gomorrah was not about alternative lifestyles—and yes, it really happened.

This week, we discuss Abraham’s encounter with God and two angels at the Oaks of Mamre near Hebron, a more likely reason for God’s judgment on Sodom, and we explain why the angels warned Lot to “escape to the hills, lest you be swept away”—and why Lot’s wife really was turned into a pillar of salt.

Links you’ll want to explore after hearing this episode:

* DigSodom.com, the website of the team excavating ancient Sodom (Tall el-Hammam in Jordan)

* PowerPoint presentation on the excavations at Sodom by Dr. Steven Collins, Dean of the College of Archaeology at Trinity Southwest University

* Another SlideShare presentation on the dig at Sodom

* Archaeological architect Leen Ritmeyer’s page on Sodom, including his reconstruction of the city gate where Lot sat as a judge.

* Derek’s interview with Dr. Phillip Silvia, Field Supervisor and Director of Scientific Analysis for the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project from Trinity Southwest University.

Share this episode around — archaeology is cool!

Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as “a must read” that “opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries.”

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com).

Sharon’s last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon’s website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.