What Could Unity Unlock In The Church

We track Joseph’s story through themes that prepare us for Mount Sinai, showing how God uses dreams, famine, and even family dysfunction to keep His covenant promises moving. We also wrestle with unity, seeing how God forms a divided people into one and what that means for the body of Christ today. 
• the road from Genesis themes to Mount Sinai clarity 
• dreams in the ancient world and why paired dreams signal certainty 
• Jacob’s favoritism and the coat as nobility 
• the brothers’ betrayal and the meaning of eating together 
• using holy acts for evil and what that reveals about hardened hearts 
• God’s presence with Joseph outside the promised land 
• famine as a tool that moves people and softens hearts toward God 
• prison as a political holding place and the cupbearer and baker dreams 
• Pharaoh’s dreams and Joseph’s plan for seven years plenty and famine 
• Joseph as a strong type of Christ and why it matters 
• unity across the twelve and a link to Acts 1 and Pentecost 
• New Testament roots in Torah and staying grounded as we near Sinai 
Let’s be that light and let’s get grounded. 

Transcript

Joseph’s Dreams And Ancient Meaning

Favoritism And The Nobility Coat

Betrayal In The Pit And The Table

Holy Signs Used As Weapons

Joseph In Egypt And God With Him

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hello and good day from Minneapolis. My name is Barb. I'm the host of Biblically Wired. If you've been following us recently, you would know we are in the middle of a teaching on our way to Mount Sinai. And what we've been doing is we've been going through Genesis, coming up with themes and groundbreaking observations that will help us get a good picture when we get to Mount Sinai, a much fuller picture than we've ever had. We know around Mount Sinai, we know that covenants are a big deal. We know that promises and patriarchs are part of this. We know about the seed promise from Genesis 3.15. And we know that the generations of Jesus Christ are around Mount Sinai. We know all this good stuff. And today we are going to talk about famine and dreams and Joseph and his brothers. And it's not going to be going through the story at all. So you might want to go back and read the story later. It's chapter 37 of Genesis through 50. Now, Joseph is Jacob's son. We are now coming down in our hot air balloon. We are done with Abraham. We are done talking about Isaac. Jacob was Isaac's son, the one the seed was going through. And now we are here, and Jacob has 12 sons. The 12 tribes of Israel, the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel, are present right here. All right, that is crazy because in Genesis 12, God says he's going to start these nations. He says that kings will come through you, he tells Abram and Sarai. And look at where we're at. We now have 12 sons. We're in the wilderness. Everything's tidy. But then Joseph has the first two of six dreams. So dreams. There are three sets of two dreams in this story. All right. Now, dreams in the ancient times were considered to be from the gods. Now, hopefully, Jacob's family believed in one God and believed dreams came from that God, right? But in ancient times, dreams were discussed. They had some confidence in dreams. They chewed on dreams. They thought about it, right? And so we've got to realize God does use dreams of importance. I do want to say that scholars like to talk about the fact that God is presenting himself less and less as we go through the patriarchs. With Abraham, he is with him. Jesus comes as the angel of the Lord many times. Then we're going to see with Isaac a little bit less, with Jacob a little bit less, but he does wrestle that angel. So Jacob gets some good God time, but now God is going to come in visions and dreams. Now we want to talk a little bit about the setting here. The brothers can't stand Joseph. Jacob is quite a dysfunctional father. If you look through the text of his life, he seems almost neglectful, but that just is what it is. But he's not just a great father. The whole 12 is a little bit dysfunctional. Jacob is a very wealthy man. He is very wealthy. And he's wealthy and looked up upon in the area as a great man because he has 12 sons. Now Joseph, being that 11th son, one of the sons of Rachel, he makes sure everybody knows is his favorite. His favorite. It's very dysfunctional. So the brothers already can't stand Joseph. Jacob goes as far as making him a coat. And this coat was not a coat of many colors, like a lot of us have always believed. It is more likely and best translated as a coat of nobility. It had long sleeves, it went to the ground. It's hard to work in the dirt, and it's hard to shepherd the sheep in a long tunic. And Joseph was basically being very honored in his home. Now, the brothers can't stand him, they'll barely look at him. There is no way they're gonna even talk to him unless it's dire. And then Joseph has two dreams. The first set of two dreams. Interestingly, he tells the brothers his dreams and they get more mad. But it is my belief that he felt he had to tell them the dreams because they were part of the dreams. It was like they got a group email, and he's like, the rest of you gotta read this email. This is crazy. It is more so pleading with them to listen. And we don't quite understand it. But look at the two dreams. The first dream is that they are all binding, big sheaves of wheat, and Jacob's big thing of wheat stands up straight and tall, and all of the brothers, their wheat bows down to Joseph's. And then he has that the sun, moon, and stars are bowing down to him. Well, the ancient world believed that if you have two dreams in a row with similar or same meaning, that there is something afoot. You are like in the batter's box, something imminently is going to happen to you. God has made a choice, it's solid, there's no change in this direction. And interpret it and get ready. Now, Joseph having two dreams like this basically tells him to be prepared. God is possibly starting some type of destiny, some type of big change for Joseph. And that might have been another worry on his mind. And he wanted his brothers to know. So his brothers say, I mean, seriously, dude, do you think you're gonna rule over us? Do you think you're gonna reign over us? Ruling is more so the wheat dream because that's more of like a family that's on their property. The word for reign is demonstrated in the sun, moon, and stars. So Joseph is somehow gonna be raised up in power to where not only his family bows down to him, but many, many more. Okay, so the boys set out and we see what happens, right? They trap Joseph when he comes to check on them. They strip him of his robe and they throw him into a pit to be sold to an Ishmaelite caravan. Now, as I read this portion, I couldn't help but kind of be aghast at the fact that, first of all, you know, they threw him in this pit, and they seemed to not argue about that very much. There was a little knickknack paddywhack about it, but they decided, no, we're gonna make some money, we're gonna sell him, and that was based off Judah's recommendation. But in verse 25 of chapter 37, there are some words in the beginning of that verse that kind of blew my mind. At this point, Joseph is in a pit crying out for help, and it says they sat down and ate together. All right. So if you followed my teaching and past teachings, we know what this means. It means they were of one mind. You sat and ate with people, and it demonstrated you are in agreement with them. This is why the Pharisees were so upset when Jesus sat mate with tax collectors and prostitutes. All right, so we know these brothers are fierce, but can you believe what they did? They took that rope, they got blood on it, and acted like Joseph got mangled by some wild beast. Well, here's the deal with those brothers that I want us to focus on. These brothers are not some godly gaggle of Jacob's sons. It took Jacob quite a while to bend a knee to God. Really, it did. And now he has these 12 sons, he's slightly neglectful, and he's rich. These boys haven't had to really call on God's providence, possibly. They've had a lot of things at their fingertips, and they've been told they are descendants of Abraham, they are receiving the blessing of God living in wilderness in honor of his ways. And I think we can get that way as Christians, and we can actually get very hard and very far from the actual heart of God when we're in seasons where everything's quite easy. But these guys can't be like that, they're the head of the 12 tribes. Something's got to change, something has to change. Now, there's two things they do in scripture that I'm I like marvel about and in a bad way. One, a few chapters prior, Simeon and Levi convince this group of men to circumcise. Their sister had been raped, and for payback, they pretend they're gonna be in the community with them. All these men get circumcised and then they kill them. In this story, they're gonna use, they're going to sacrifice an animal and use the blood as a trick. Both of those things, circumcision and sacrifice, are holy, holy, holy acts of God. And they are using them as trickery. And to me, I just got the chills last night because I'm like, oh my gosh, God, this would be like me convincing someone to be baptized and drowning them, using something that is so wholly precious to God and using it for evil. Now, this is this is a bunch of guys that are not godly. So when we consider God moving them to Egypt, I think it behooves us to think about the fact that sometimes being in a new place where you gotta get along with new people is a part of sanctification. These guys need to be sanctified, and God, out of love for them and his promises, is going to move them and all their families to Goshen, right to Goshen. Okay, so we see Joseph, we see God moving him to Egypt. Despite the trouble the boys have caused, the boys return home and move on with their lives at this point. But Joseph, Joseph has moved on, all right. So Joseph's name means add or increase, and what we see in his life is this constant increase. Well, right now we're at a low point, but Potiphar is going to buy him or purchase him, and Potiphar is going to allow him to keep being raised up in his household as a servant, and Potiphar adores him. He sees his intelligence and even says that Potiphar can see that the Lord is with Joseph. Four times in chapter 39, it talks about the Lord being with Joseph. The reader knows that the Lord has not left him, although, look at this, he is off the property of Jacob and company. Now remember what the ancient minds thought. The ancient minds thought you needed to be in one place as a people of God, and God reigns over just that land. They always forgot that God is the possessor of the universe.Anywhere someone goes who lost Jesus Christ to this day is with God. There's nowhere we can go to get away from him, and there's nowhere we can go where he will not be with us, as he promises. So they're like, oh wow, okay, Joseph's in Egypt, and four times Moses pens the words, the Lord is with him. And we know four reveals part of the Lord's intention, which is full-on pursuing the world. So what's going on here from big picture? It is famine coming. A famine is coming. So I want to talk about famine, and I want to think about the main character, God. All right, just picture God looking down at the land. He sees where everybody lives, he knows what's going on everywhere, all the population where it is, right? Famine causes populations to move. People have to move during famine. The animals move. You have to go to the lusher places, you got to go to the green places. And as a matter of fact, famine was the reason the first civilization ever in the history of mankind was started, and that's Abraham's homeland. Abraham, great-grandpa to Joseph, was in the first civilization known to man. Ask any historian, ask a scientist, archaeologist, Mesopotamia was the first civilization, and the reason it became a civilization was famine. So what famine does is it causes people to be forced to work in community. You can no longer count on your fields to bring produce. There's no rain. So what these people have to do is they have to dig irrigation systems around the rivers so that they can grow food. Now, once they're doing that together, they have to start forming a city or civilization. And famine is one way God moves and grooves. All right. So think about think about him here. Now, another thing I want to say about famine is that famine can be the biggest blessing because in our own lives, when we're in plenty mode, when we're in plenty mode, our hearts can grow very hard towards God. But famine causes us to remember God, his providence, and to plead with him again for mercy and grace to see and to repent and to come back to that throne that is the best place for us. And sometimes it takes famine or trials to get us there. Joseph is almost like a sacrificial lamb, like Jesus Christ, and he is a type of Christ like none other. And the way I kind of picture it, I picture an hourglass. All right. The Israelites are on one side as sand. God said they will be like sand. And on the other side is the Egyptians, and God needs to get them over to the other side through the life of Joseph. And that's what he's going to do. Joseph is going to be raised up to power, and it's going to allow a place for the Israelites to settle. All right, so that's famine. So we've got his brothers sitting there doing their thing, and then we have Joseph at Potiphar's home. Joseph is falsely accused of something and put into prison. He's in prison, and again, God brings the increase, and two more dreams are coming. The cupbearer and the chief baker are put into jail. And I want to explain this ancient jail. This is not where murderers go or rapists or drug dealers. No, those people are killed. They are not continuing to walk on this earth. This is where political prisoners go. This is where people go because Pharaoh has to set them aside until he makes a decision. This could be a foreigner that comes to the gate and he claims he's from Babylon and they want to do their due diligence. And so they put him in to their jail and they get a messenger over there to be certain this man is not a spy. And then they take him back out again. So this is like a place to politically set people apart. And this cupbearer is Pharaoh's right-hand man, one of his right-hand men. He is an advisor. He is with Pharaoh a lot. And it's not so much that he tastes his drink. I don't even think he does. No, he is a cupbearer, someone that helps bear the burden the Pharaoh has. He's an advisor. He is a very, very politically powerful person. The chief baker, he is a very rich man. He has a very big job in the palace, a Pharaoh. Okay, so picture, picture Joseph in jail. There's been some political prisoners. He's in charge of them. They come and go. And in the door walks who? And last night I was like, okay, Lord, if I was in prison, like help me understand. I'm a Hebrew slave. I'm like a nobody in this culture. In the door comes JD Vance. JD Vance. Oh boy. Okay. What's going on? This is Pharaoh's right-hand guy. This is crazy. And then maybe um Kamala Harris. I'm just making stuff up. So Kamala and JD are there. And I decide, you know, you're looking, you're both looking pretty sad one morning. And I sit down to talk to him because I'm very approachable. And they tell me their dreams and I correctly interpret them. Now I want out of this prison. And before they leave, I ask JD Vance, hey, when you return to the Pharaoh, will you please remember me? And it's clear in scripture, he forgot about it. Forget about it, right? Now two more years go by to the next set of dreams. The Pharaoh has two dreams in the same night. And those dreams verify that famine is coming. Joseph is called out of prison, the cupbearer has this epiphany. JD Vans brings them to the Pharaoh. And Joseph interprets the dreams to be that Egypt is going to get seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. And he gives them this brilliant, intelligent way to prevent Egypt from literally dying during famine. Not only will Egypt be the salvation for the nation of Israel, but Egypt's going to be a salvation spot for the world. And Pharaoh is going to become incredibly rich. And so I want to get into this Joseph being a type of Christ. And I feel like sometimes people can go overboard because obviously you could make anything a type of Christ. You could say a tree gives refuge. You could personify many things created by God and consider them a type of Christ. And sometimes I feel like hermeneutically people go a little overboard with this, but with Joseph, absolutely not. Let's just start with the easiest stuff. He was a long-awaited son, he was despised by his own brothers. He was put into prison and the pit without a fair trial. He was sold for silver. He had a great destiny. Because of his life and the way God used him, of course, we give all glory to God. He rescued and helped save physically on. This earth, similar to how Jesus helps save spiritually, and you can go on and on. The part that I think is super cool is the Pharaoh makes him second in command. And by doing this, the Pharaoh even entrusts him to do things and basically is saying, Whatever you do, I agree with. And when I think about Jesus, just think about a few of these verses. John 4 34. John 6 38, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And Matthew 26, 39, the famous verse in the Garden of Gethsemane, not as I will, but as you will. Jesus so often talks about the Father and I are one. And Jesus, in an earthly sense, because he was on earth and he was fully human, was definitely second in command. All of that put together just it a great argument for the fact that Joseph might be the biggest type of Christ in scripture. I can't think of anything bigger. There is one more thing I want to talk about that has been inspiring me the last few days, and I've been chewing on it, and it's it's going kind of far. It's going kind of far. What we see happen, we see the brothers come, right? And we see them come to meet Joseph. And at first, there is 10 that come. Joseph makes 11. Joseph sends them home. Then all 12 of them are together, and they become one in mind and one in their goals. Now, if you fast forward, there is something I've always wondered about in Acts 1. I have wondered about the root in what Peter decides to do in Acts 1. As they are waiting in the upper room for the Holy Spirit, Peter has this push in his spirit that they must replace Judas. They need one more disciple, and they draw lots and they choose Matthias. And you can read all about this in chapter one of Acts. Immediately after that, you see the Holy Spirit come. And I've heard this described that Peter understood until the 12 are together as one mind, the big move of God cannot come. And I've always wondered what is the root of that? Where did he get this impression or this idea? And I see this around Mount Sinai. I see them gather according to their tribe. We see until the 12 tribes are ready to march, nobody moves until the trumpet sounds and everybody's present. And you definitely see that until there is this unity, there's not this big move of God. Now, I am taking this one step further today. I'm starting to think about the body of Christ. The body of Christ has so much disunity. And Jesus, his last prayer for us as believers in John 17, he first prays for the disciples, and then he prays for those who are going to come after the disciples, which is us, and he prays for unity. And I've always realized, of course, he knows, unless there's unity, the body of Christ is not going to grow. It's not going to reach the ends of the earth. Of course, that's the prayer. And as I think on this, I have to think about my own contribution to the body of Christ. How much am I benefiting unity in the body of Christ? I need to be to the point and get to the point very quickly that I don't care what your political views are, I don't care who you voted for, I can serve next to you, and we can go together and serve the single mothers and the homeless and the foreigner. If the body of Christ could get unity across the board, I feel like there could be revival in our land. And I can see Jesus' prayer still being continued on the throne as he prays for us constantly. And the only one I can control in this is myself. So I'm gonna go about it. I'm gonna go about it. That's one thing I'm taking home from the life of Joseph. And another affirmation, you guys, that everything in scripture is rooted in the Torah. I have been told this and told this. I have yet to find anything in the New Testament that is not rooted in the Torah, the first five books. It's an incredible, incredible discovery path we are on together. I hope it is becoming beneficial to you in your spirit, in your family, in your home, in your friendships. Let's be that light and let's get grounded. Let's start feeling that dirt under our feet around Mount Sinai. We are almost there. And let me tell you, the sun is going to shine. I have never been the same. After realizing God's pursuit of humanity at that point in time. So I hope this blesses you. We are easing into summer pretty soon, and I'm going to be on a summer break, but I promise we will get to Mount Sinai first. And until then, keep your chin up and thank you for listening to Biblically Wired. I am so humbled.