The Story Of Joseph Part 6--Success In Egypt

 Genesis 37: 36; 39: 1-6 

We've seen how Jacob's sons hated Joseph for being Dad's favorite, so they were going to kill him, but they sold him instead, to the caravan that just happened to be passing by. And the Ishmaelites who were from Midian put him on the slave-block in Egypt. 

(36) the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's officer, the captain of the bodyguard. 

This is the last verse in chapter 37, which sets up resuming this story in Chapter 39 after talking about Judah in chapter 38. 

(1) Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there. 

The man, Potiphar, who bought the slave, Joseph, worked for Pharaoh; he was the commander of the military bodyguard for Pharaoh himself. 

(2) The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. 

So Potiphar bought Joseph to be a house servant. 

(3) Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. 

Right away his master saw that whatever he did worked out really well, and it looks like he recognized that it was the Lord God that Joseph worshiped who was causing him to be successful. 

(4) So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. 

This success had Potiphar promote him to being his personal assistant, and he even had him decide matters concerning everything he owned, both in the house  and even in the fields he owned. 

(5) It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house on account of Joseph; thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field. 

Potiphar noticed that since Joseph was advising him in whatever matters he asked him about, whenever he did what Joseph said, it turned out profitable, no matter what area the expertise was in. 

(6) So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate. ...

So Potiphar let Joseph directly manage everything he owned, and he didn't even need to hear about anything, because he knew it would go well with Joseph in charge. The only thing he decided for himself was what to tell the cook to make for dinner! 

It looks like Joseph made life a lot easier for Potiphar, taking care of everything for him. This is the attitude that every successful employee has toward their employer, to make them look good, to prosper them, not thinking of themselves. 

I think this bode well for Joseph when trouble occurred. 

O my Father, You love us so much, and You want us to love You back and to love one another as You have loved us. Please help us to love our employers and serve them as Joseph served Potiphar. He is such a good example to follow in our work careers. 

My Father, teach us how to love one another in all of our relationships with one another, to learn what would be actually loving compared with what would only be co-dependent. We are so susceptible to the lie that helping someone when they are capable of helping themself is loving, when it is actually only serving our own self-image as someone who "helps." 

O Father, send out Your children to share with the whole world how much You love us. You love us so much that You will hurt us, though You will never harm us. And You sent Your own beloved Son to hurt on our behalf, to die in our place, so that we could live. Please bring all Your embryos to the birth into Your family, and fill Your great house with Your uncountable children. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation, to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus! 

The Story of Joseph Part 5--Jacob Mourns

 Genesis 37: 29-35

Reuben saved Joseph's life by talking them out of killing him as soon as he approached, so they threw him into the pit and had lunch. Now Reuben comes back from wherever he's been (taking care of the flock?), unaware that his brothers sold him into slavery. 

(29) Now Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments. 

He must have thought that they'd killed him anyway!

(30) He returned to his brothers and said, "The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?" 

He's dreading facing his father Jacob without Joseph! 

(31) So they took Joseph's tunic, and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood; 

Now here's what they did: they staged a show for their father. 

(32) and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, " We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son's tunic or not." 

Here they can claim that they didn't lie--but they did deceive him, so that he would come to a false conclusion. 

(33) Then he examined it and said, "It is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!" 

Which he did, just as they wanted him to do! 

(34) So Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. 

Jacob went into deep mourning at the apparent loss of his favorite son. This is how his other sons loved their father, to break his heart like this! Their hatred for Joseph overshadowed everything else.

(35) Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, "Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son." So his father wept for him. 

They all tried to console him, but the loss was just too great for Jacob. He concluded that he would never get over this grief, he would always miss this son of the wife he loved, and would die and go to the place of the dead (Sheol) still grieving. He didn't think it would ever get any better. 

O my Father, I pray for all those who have lost a child. That must be the most grievous grief, as children are not to go before their parents. Jacob's heart was rent into tiny bits, and he didn't think it would ever mend. 

But You are a God of comfort! You comfort the brokenhearted, and You were gracious and You gave Jacob another son by Rachel, the twelfth son. 

O Father, Your ideal is for one man to have one wife for life, but when Jacob's double-dealing was turned back on him by Laban, he ended up with two wives, which wasn't fair to Leah. But, Father, this family's dysfunction is a lesson to all of us, that Your way is best, after all. 

And this story of Joseph is a very interesting journey You led him through. You prepared him, even at the tender age of seventeen, to be able to spend many years of turns in the road, before his dreams came to pass. 

My Father, You have given us the whole story, the whole Big Picture of Your great Plan of the Ages for Mankind, and You have given us Your Spirit to teach us Your Truth so we need not be surprised when we encounter what You have told us will come. 

Strengthen us, Father, to persevere and endure as all the anger of the devil is unleashed against us, and as we stand and see Your wrath poured out on the world around us without touching us. 

That is what You said would happen, and I see so much of it beginning to take place already. Keep me strong with my feet on the Rock, and I will not be moved. 

Father, send us out while there is still time, to share with every living person how much You have loved us, and sent Your own Son to save us from ourselves! 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus! 

The Story of Joseph Part 4--Sold

 Genesis 37: 18-28

Jacob had sent his youngest of his 11 sons, Joseph, to search for his brothers who were shepherding the flock miles away from home, and he finally found them. 

(18) When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. 

While Joseph was still some distance away from them, they recognized him, and before he could hear what they were saying, they plotted to put him to death. This is some serious negative passion being expressed here, this family is very dysfunctional. This will not be the only "sin" these brothers will commit against the family. 

(19) They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer! 

(20) "Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!" 

They were thinking about the dreams Joseph had told them about, with their sheaves and the stars representing them bowing down to Joseph as though he were a king they would do obeisance to. They already hated him for being their father's favorite, and they resented him and were jealous of him. They couldn't see anything about him to say anything nice about. 

(21) But Reuben heard this and rescued him out of their hands and said, "Let us not take his life." 

(22) Reuben further said to them, "Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him"--that he might rescue him out of their hands, to restore him to his father. 

But Reuben tried to talk them out of it. He wanted to make sure that he could be brought back home again to his father. So he rescued him from immediate death. 

(23) it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him; 

(24) and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it. 

(25) Then they sat down to eat a meal. 

By the time Joseph came to them, they had decided, and they grabbed him, tore off his fancy robe, and threw him into a hole in the ground, a dry cistern. Then they sat down to leisurely eat their lunch, a meal Joseph could have brought to them. How cold! What unfeeling apathy! 

And as they raised their eyes and looked, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, on their way to bring them down to Egypt. 

While they ate, they looked up and saw a caravan approaching. 

(26) Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? 

(27) "Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers listened to him. 

Now Judah speaks up, as he sees an opportunity to gain a profit off of selling their brother into slavery. And they all listened to his "good idea." So Judah also saved his life, from being left to die in the pit. 

(28) Then some Midianite traders passed by, 

They are Ishmaelites by bloodlines, and they are Midianites by where they come from geographically. These are the samy guys, people. 

so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. 

Twenty shekels of silver was the price of a slave. A shekel was twenty gerahs (Exodus 30: 13; Ezekiel 45: 12), which came to 2/5ths of a troy ounce of silver, or about eleven dollars that they received for him.  

Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt. 

So these traders brought Joseph into Egypt as a slave to be sold on the block. 

His brothers thought they'd never see Joseph again. Little did they know, until years later, that their evil scheming would set up everyone for where God wanted them to be! 

God is so wise and smart and clever that He uses even evil and destructive decisions to further His will for all of us, for our good, both now and forever. And He will have all the credit, all the glory for He planned all of it out ahead of time. 

O my Father, You knew what would happen, and how Your chosen people would be, and You still gave them every advantage. 

Now today, Father, now that Your Son has come to be our Lamb of God to die for us, and You raised Him from the dead, now You give us even more advantage than Israel, in giving us Your own Holy Spirit to live in each of us. Now we have Your Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Strength, Spirit of Wisdom, Your very Spirit of Life itself. 

My Father, You gave us Joseph to see so much of Christ's character. So far, we've seen his unquestioning obedience to his father Jacob, and his betrayal by those who were close to him, his own brothers, being sold as a slave. 

Father, You have loved Your Son as Jacob loved Joseph. Jesus obeyed You every moment and every step He took, and every word out of His mouth, and every act and miracle, and even His death was in obedience to Your will. And He was also betrayed and sold by His close friend, His own disciple. 

O Father, send out Your messengers and missionaries to all the world. Let every living person hear and respond to Your Love, Your generous and gracious gift, to seek You, and accept Your Salvation; or to reject You and suffer the consequences. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever, Amen. 

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus! 

The Story Of Joseph Part 3--Obedience

 Genesis 37: 12-17

We just learned that Joseph was one of twelve sons of Jacob, and that because he was the baby, he was his father's favorite; which caused his brothers to be jealous of him, and think badly of him. 

Then he had a couple of dreams that made them dislike him even more. 

(12) Then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem. 

We see here that they were shepherds. 

(13) Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers pasturing the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them." And he said to him, "I will go." 

(14) Then he said to him, "Go now and see about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock, and bring word back to me." So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 

Joseph was not working with his brothers, he was left at home when they went out, and Jacob sends him out, maybe with a lunch for them, to see how they're doing, and he obeys his father and goes. 

(15) A man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him, "What are you looking for?" 

(16) He said, "I am looking for my brothers; please tell me where they are pasturing the flock." 

(17) Then the man said, "They have moved from here; for I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. 

Some unnamed guy sees him looking kind of aimless, and asks him what he's doing, so he goes all the way to Dothan to take his brothers their lunch. He doesn't have any problem being the errand boy here, and goes as far as he needs to execute his mission for his father. 

Everything we've seen about Joseph up to this point is directly leading to how he will end up in Egypt. It has to be God's hand that is guiding this young man's steps. Even though Jesus will not derive from Joseph's line, but of his brother Judah's, Joseph is still a type of Jesus, in so many ways. 

O my Father, please help us to realize that we all as Your children need to be illustrations of the character of our Lord Jesus. Teach us how to think Your thoughts, to have Your attitudes, and to accomplish Your will for each of us as we live our lives. 

O Father, help us to understand that when other people act against us, to realize that it's not to harm us, but to bring about good for everyone. Even if they intended it to harm us. Your purposes will be accomplished through our choices, and when we cooperate with You and not let others upset us, but continue to trust You through it, then You will even reward us for what we're doing in Your power. 

Father, send out Your children as Your messengers and missionaries, to share with everyone how much You love us all. Let every person hear to want to know You, and draw near to You. Fill Your great house with all of Your uncountable family, Father. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus! 

The Story Of Joseph Part 2--Dreams

 Genesis 37: 5-11

The Dreamer.

God often gave dreams to certain chosen ones, especially before Scripture was written. 

(5) Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 

(6) He said to them, "Please listen to this dream which I have had; 

(7) for behold we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf." 

(8) Then his brothers said to him, Are you actually going to reign over us? Are you really going to rule over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and his words. 

Who else would he share this information with, but those he lived with, and who were in the dream. But it didn't help with the relationship he had with his brothers. They already hated him.

(9) Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, "Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." 

(10) He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?" 

(11) His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. 

Now God repeated the dream to him, and included his parents, also. Would these dreams come true, were they a prophecy? All he can do is just remember that he had the dreams and wait and see what would happen. 

His brothers were jealous of him, taking their father's love, but was it his own fault? His father Jacob responded as though Joseph was thinking more of himself than he should, but he just kept it in mind. 

Here we see that God is already working in Joseph's thinking, maybe to encourage him later when hard times come. It will be many years he will have to hold on, so God is preparing him for what is to come. 

O my Father, You are so good to all of Your created beings. You made Mankind to be Your own children, and You do everything possible, and even the impossible, to draw Your chosen ones to Yourself, while still allowing us to make a free choice. 

When You show Yourself to someone, though, how can we not be entranced and enamoured with You? How can we not draw closer to You, and want to love you back? 

You gave Joseph such an encouragement to sustain him when You knew how much he would have to suffer before he would be able to enjoy prosperity. 

And, Father, You gave me the desire to share Your love with people all over the world. And it has been many years, and I am still wanting to be Your foreign missionary! Father, are you just sending my writings abroad, or are they going ahead of me? Will you be sending me out there? 

O Father, send out all of your children, to every living person! They all need to hear from Your messengers and missionaries who can carry Your story, Your love, everywhere, into every nation! Everybody needs to hear, and open their minds and hearts to understand how much You love everyone! So they will be able to choose to turn to you, while they still have a free choice, before You allow the enemy to deceive them in such a way that they will no longer have freedom of choice, and cannot turn to You! 

My Father, bring all of Your embryonic children to the birth into Your own family, and fill Your great house with all of Your uncountable progeny! 

And at the end, every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come! 

The Story Of Joseph Part 1--Coat Of Many Colors

Jacob (Israel) had 12 sons, who became the 12 Tribes of Israel. I will write about one of these sons, Joseph, who led a very remarkable life. 

Genesis 37: 2-4

(2) Joseph, when seventeen years of age, was pasturing the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father. 

(3) Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic. 

(4) His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. 

This does not look like a very good beginning. When he's still a kid, he tells on his big brothers, and probably got them in trouble. 

And, because he's the baby, their father favored him, and made him a "coat of many colors" which was probably a long, full-length coat with long sleeves. This word is also used of the "kind of garment the virgin daughters of the king wore" later in II Samuel 13: 18-19, talking of one of King David's daughters. So this was a very distinguished piece of clothing. 

This caused his brothers to resent him and dislike him so much that they couldn't even say anything nice about him. 

This looks like a pretty dysfunctional family. We will see how God uses this dysfunction to have them act out His plan in their lives. 

O my Father, since you showed us that You can use dysfunction in this family, then You can also use the dysfunction in my family, too. Please call all of my family members into Your own family, also. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 

Happily Ever After!

 Ruth 4: 13-22

This little love story actually began when Ruth decided that the real God was the God of Israel and gave her love and allegiance to the Lord, when she came with Naomi to Judah from Moab. 

Being a poor widow without a man to support her, she needed to get a job, to work for food for herself and her mother-in-law to eat, so she began to glean some grain that the reapers had left, in a field that she just happened to find. 

Lo and behold, who would own that very field, but a relative of Ruth's deceased husband, who qualified to be a go-el,  "kinsman-redeemer," and he had even noticed her and given her extra favors. 

So Naomi advises her in a very bold and risky plan to let Boaz know what his options were, and to leave the outcome with him. 

Well, Boaz has been watching this beautiful, exotic girl all summer, and when she showed up after the harvest party, asking him to marry her, he wasted no time to seal the deal, convincing the "closer relative" to give up the foreign girl! So Boaz bought all of their property and claimed Ruth the Moabitess to be his wife, and their prospects for happiness were very bright. 

(13) So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 

Boaz married Ruth, and even though she had not conceived during her 10-year marriage to Mahlon, God opened her womb now, and she had a little boy! 

(14) Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. 

These are the women who witnessed Naomi's despair when she first got home to Bethlehem, and they are rejoicing with her at God turning everything around for her, providing this grandson, who will grow up to take care of her. And they bless this baby with fame and popularity. 

(15) "May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him." 

They recognize that having this grandson will encourage her discouragement, giving her back her life, and bring joy and sustenance to carry her in old age. And that her dead son's wife has given her more than a whole passel of sons, in loving her so much and obeying her which led to having this son. 

(16) Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap, and became his nurse. 

This doesn't mean that Naomi was a wet-nurse, which was not possible, but the word used here, aman, means that she "cared for him" as a guardian. 

Some scholars have taken this as a ceremony in formally adopting this child as her own, but it may have been just a loving grandmother delighting in her first grandchild. 

(17) The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi!" So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. 

This is a different group of women, these are Naomi's close neighbors, rather than the acquaintances who lived in the town. These friends are the ones who named him, which is the only example of a child being named by someone other than the immediate family. The name means "a servant," probably as an indication that he would serve Naomi in enriching her life. 

(18) Now here are the generations of Perez: to Perez was born Hezron,

(19) and to Hezron was born Ram, and to Ram, Amminadab, 

(20) and to Amminadab was born Nahshon, and to Nahshon, Salmon,

(21) And to Salmon was born Boaz, and to Boaz, Obed, 

(22) And to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David. 

This genealogy expands the brief account in V. 17, giving the whole line from Perez, the son of Judah. This line was honored by God in choosing David to be the king over Israel, but it was already honored with Nahshon being a prince of the house of Judah, also, in Moses' time (Numbers 7:10, 12). 

This list agrees with the accounts of Jesus' ancestry lists in Matthew 1: 3-6 and Luke 3: 31-33. 

O my Father, You are so good to all of us. Thank You for this beautiful love story, that demonstrates so wonderfully how our Redeemer rescues us, the foreign outsiders! You are Love, and even romantic love! You called Israel your wife, who was repeatedly unfaithful to You with other demonic gods; and now the church is the bride of Christ, the Bridegroom, looking forward to the Wedding Feast, and so romantic! 

Father, You had Solomon also give us the Song of Songs, but this little tale puts it all in a nutshell. You love us so passionately, even our Lord's death on the Cross is called His Passion. Help us to see and understand these romantic concepts clearly, without any of the distortion the world puts on it. 

O Father, help us to see our relationships with one another through Your pure eyes, to not allow anything in that would sully our friendships or our romantic entanglements. Keep the marriage bed pure, and guard us from overstepping the bounds of Your narrow road our feet trod. 

My Father, help us to enjoy the one-flesh pleasures innocently as we anticipate the one-Spirit marriage with You forever. Let us understand the pictures You give us to see Your spiritual realities that You are preparing for us. 

O my Father God, send out your children while it is still today, to share Your love with every living person before tomorrow, when they will not be able to hear. Show us how to bring every embryo to the birth into Your family, Father, to fill Your great house with all of Your uncountable family. 

And eventually every eye will see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, our Messiah, our Bridegroom, the Lord God Almighty, King of all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!