In this episode, Elijah’s deity shows up and consumes the sacrifice with fire.  As though this were not startling enough, the sacrifice and the wood had been drenched.  This demonstration had the intended effect, namely, the Israelites acknowledged their God was indeed God.  Afterwards, Elijah slaughters the prophets of Baal!  Then, the prophet outruns King Ahab to Jezreel, even though the king is in a chariot and Elijah is on foot!  I point out why this story should not be seen as a historical description.

This episode is narrated in 1 Kings 18.  It is the famous contest on Mt. Carmel.  This story also features Obadiah, a man who serves both Ahab and Israel’s God.  Obadiah was the one who told King Ahab that Elijah wanted to meet him.  Of course, Obadiah was worried that Elijah might get cold feet and not appear.  Elijah convinced Obadiah otherwise. 

When Ahab and Elijah met, they traded insults.  Then Elijah proposed a contest.  The prophets of Baal were to prepare a bull offering, but were not to apply fire.  Elijah would do the same.  Then, both would call on their respective deities to supply the fire.  The prophets of Baal did just that, but there was no answer.  This is part 1—the story concludes next week.

In this story, Elijah denounces King Ahab of Israel, threatening that God is about to induce a drought.  This forces the prophet to flee the king’s wrath.  God directs the prophet to go to a place where there is enough water.  Ravens would supply food!  Soon, though, that area is depleted by the drought.  So, God orders the prophet to go into Canaanite territory.  God had commanded a widow to take care of Elijah.  But when he found the woman, she was in the process of making her final meal for herself and her son.  Nevertheless, Elijah had her cook something for him first, then promised that henceforth she would have an unending supply of flour and cooking oil. 

That happened!  Subsequently, the widow’s son fell ill—he was either at death’s door or dead already.  She was irate, of course, at Elijah.  Elijah was not too happy himself, all but accusing God of putting him in an impossible situation.  Eventually the prophet prayed for the lad and he was soon restored, either being raised from the dead or recovering of some sort of coma.  Upon witnessing this last miracle, the woman declare that Elijah was indeed a prophet and that the Israelite God spoke through him.

In this episode, Joseph’s ten brothers arrive in Egypt to buy food. He immediately recognizes them, but they do not recognize him. Immediately, he accuses them of being spies. They insist that they are honest men, ten of twelve brothers, one of whom is dead and the youngest of whom is still with their father, Jacob. Joseph demands that one of the brothers return to Canaan and fetch the other brother. He puts them in jail to think about this. Afterwards, Joseph comes up with another plan. Nine of the brothers can return home, with the provisions they came to buy, fetch the other brother, and return to Egypt. In the meantime, Simeon will stay in a cell in Egypt. Having no choice, the brothers buy food and return. When they get home they tell Jacob what has happened. Of course, he is upset. He has no intention of letting Benjamin out of his sight which also means that he will never see Simeon again. Making matters worse, the money for the food was in the sacks carrying the provisions. On the way home, only one brother had found the money; now, every brother would be implicated. Eventually, again having no choice, Jacob sends his sons back to Egypt with Benjamin in tow.

In this episode of the Joseph story as narrated in Genesis 37—50, Joseph has been thrown into prison after having been set up by Potiphar’s wife, who accused him of rape. But in prison God was with Joseph, which meant at least that he caught the eye of the warden. This led the warden to make Joseph a custodian in the prison. In time, two men—a butler and a baker--who worked for the Pharoah were imprisoned. While there, they had disturbing dreams. Joseph was able to interpret these dreams. In both cases, Joseph knew what the dreams meant. The Butler was reinstated and the Baker was executed. When Pharoah two years later also had disturbing dreams, Joseph was summoned to interpret them for the king. Once again, Joseph was uncannily correct. The dreams predicted Egypt would experience seven years of agricultural bounty followed by seven years of famine. Joseph also suggested that the Pharoah needed to appoint someone who knew how to deal with this situation. The Pharoah appointed Joseph on the spot, making him second in command in all of Egypt. Joseph got a new Egyptian name, jewelry, royal clothing, and an Egyptian wife, who subsequently bore him two sons. Just as Joseph had predicted, seven years of incredible growth occurred, followed by terrible famine. The drama will continue when Joseph’s own family finds itself in desperate need of food at a time when only Egypt has food for sale.

In this episode Joseph’s relatively cushy job of taking care of Potiphar’s household was destroyed. It came about because of Potiphar’s wife, who had an eye for the handsome Joseph. She crudely invited him to bed, which Joseph politely declined. But she would not take “no” for an answer. Once, when she and Joseph were alone, she again made a play for him, but this time by grabbing his garment. Joseph bolted, leaving his garment with her. That allowed her the opportunity to frame him, the consequence was that an enraged Potiphar had Joseph thrown into prison. It seems that God’s being with Joseph was a cruel joke. But God once again was with Joseph, which caught the warden’s eye. Eventually, Joseph was made a custodian who was in charge of the other prisoners. Once again, Joseph had landed on his feet.

In this episode, Joseph finds his brothers who, at first, plot to kill him, but eventually sell him into slavery. Reuben’s efforts to save the lad failed. To cover their tracks, the brothers kill a goat and smear its blood on Joseph’s coat. Then, they show the coat to Jacob, who immediately recognizes it. Jacob cannot be consoled. In the meantime, Joseph is sold to an important Egyptian official and, because God is with him, is put in charge of all the affairs of the man who bought him as a slave.

The story features one of the younger sons of Jacob, who favors this son over his other sons. Jacob’s partiality makes his other sons despise Joseph. The situation gets worse when Joseph has dreams, the import of which is that he will eventually rule over his own family. When the brothers go to Shechem to take care of their sheep, the tone-deaf Jacob inflames the family dynamic by sending Joseph to go see his brothers and bring back word of how they are doing. Of course, Joseph had done this early in the story when he told his father that what his sons were doing was “evil.” What happens when Joseph finds his brothers will be treated in the text podcast.

Jesus’ genealogy according to Luke is impossible to harmonize with the one in Matthew. It goes in descending order from Jesus clear back to Adam. In contrast, Matthew’s genealogy begins with Abraham and goes in ascending order to Jesus. Even Joseph, Jesus’ father, has a different father: Heli (his name is Jacob in Matthew’s genealogy). In Luke’s genealogy, Jesus is descended from Nathan, David’s son, rather than Solomon, David’s much more famous son. Also, by mentioning the pre-Israelite stalwarts in Genesis 1-11, Jesus’ connection to humanity in general is stressed.

Though we moderns find genealogies boring, the writer of this Gospel began his story with a genealogy. This genealogy does two things: (1) It puts Jesus squarely in Israelite/Jewish tradition. Jesus was as Jewish as one could get! Every name in this genealogy would have been familiar with the initial audience, people who knew Jesus’ Bible (the Christian Old Testament) quite well. (2) The second feature of this genealogy emphasizes Jesus’ kingship over Israel. That is why the only son of Jacob mentioned is Judah, his fourth son. But Judah was David’s ancestor. Plus, when David is named, his title of king is also mentioned. As well, keep in mind that this genealogy atypically features five women, four of whom—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah’s wife—were non-Israelites. Of course, the fifth woman was Mary, Jesus’ mother.