SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: We have extra copies.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't bring one and you'd like one to follow along, raise your hand up real high, and uh somebody will get to you with one of those.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone need one at all?
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we have up on the screen the name of the network here in the house.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to uh jump on board there, you can do that.
SPEAKER_00: I believe the password is up there for you as well.
SPEAKER_00: The book we're studying is the first book in the Bible, first book of the Old Testament, and it's called Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: It begins within the beginning, and so we've entitled the whole study of Genesis in the beginning this time.
SPEAKER_00: We've uh been through it before and may get to go through it again.
SPEAKER_00: I love this book.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you you you jump into these narratives, uh, there's just so much here and so many new things uh to learn.
SPEAKER_00: Today we'll take verse uh chapters 36 and 37, fear not.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it sounds like a lot of text, but this is uh this is the last of the uh genealogies in chapter 36.
SPEAKER_00: So I know several of you will be very disappointed that we won't have another genealogy after this one.
SPEAKER_00: Um myself, I do kind of enjoy reading through these, and every now and then there's a brilliant little statement that just sort of surfaces in the middle of all the names, and it just reminds you of uh uh of some of what's going on, uh, and that it's uh there's so many things about it, I'll point some of that out.
SPEAKER_00: But today I want to start with uh, let's see if I can do this.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a pointer here that, you know, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Technology here, right?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll be reading about uh Esau and his his uh descendants and how they settle down here in Edom to the south and a little bit east and down into the mountain range Seir.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we will I'll remind you that most of uh the activity in terms of the sort of hub of activity has been Hebron, and that is right about here.
SPEAKER_00: Um Jericho is up about here, Jerusalem's down in this area right here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh sorry about the uh rambling of my green dot there.
SPEAKER_00: That's the best I can do with my, I'm a little blood sugar low this morning, I think.
SPEAKER_00: So we're uh we're gonna hit Shechem.
SPEAKER_00: We've well we've talked about Shechem before, that's right up here.
SPEAKER_00: And then we'll see Dothan.
SPEAKER_00: I know most of you think of Dothan as in Alabama, but but there is one here as well.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, I mean it's quite fascinating to me.
SPEAKER_00: I uh uh do we have some of the uh I think we've got a couple photos of the digs at Tell Dothan.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is this is one of the sites uh that the uh one of the Wheaton um uh professors of archaeology, biblical history and archaeology has been working on for quite some time.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so our Bibles are set in space-time history as well as geographical, real places in geography.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as opposed to, you know, you might you might read uh uh another kind of literature that sounds fantastic and has all kinds of amazing things happening, um, but then you go to find, you know, uh the land or the or the name of the person, whatever, and you and you can't find them anywhere, and that's because you might have been reading a legend or a myth or something like that that that was fictional.
SPEAKER_00: But this this book that we study, this this catalog of 66 books, a library, if you will, that we call the Bible, is actually set in space-time history, real names, real places.
SPEAKER_00: You can cross-check it, and that just sets it in a whole nother leap, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It just makes it makes everything kind of different.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, there's some of the guys doing some of the digs there, and they found some amazing stuff there, including stuff that dates back to the uh uh Middle Bronze period, which is the uh that era of human history.
SPEAKER_00: I think it runs uh 2200 BC to about 1500 BC.
SPEAKER_00: So it certainly would include uh some of what we're reading right now.
SPEAKER_00: So, with all of that in terms of history, I would like very much to read for us, if you will, uh Genesis 36 and 37.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, uh, what we know not, I pray that you would show us, teach us, what we uh see not, I pray that you would show us what we um have not, I pray that you would give us, and what we are not, Lord, pray that you would make us.
SPEAKER_00: So, at 120 years old now, um uh we studied last week.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Matt led us through chapter 35, and uh Isaac had died at 180, and now Esau and Jacob are 120 years of age.
SPEAKER_00: So it's awesome to think about, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Uh these are the records of the generations of Esau, that is, Edom.
SPEAKER_00: So he went by both names.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jacob goes also by Israel, same person, Jacob, Israel, and um, and with Esau, uh, he's also called Edom from time to time, which means red.
SPEAKER_00: And most of the Bible commentators will tell you probably had red hair and was a hairy man.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's exactly what they would say.
SPEAKER_00: Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan, Ada, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Holybama.
SPEAKER_00: That's an interesting name, too, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Holy Bama.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it sounds like they're either related to a president or or perhaps from Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure which one that might be, but it's an interesting name.
SPEAKER_00: It means tent of the high place, which isn't necessarily a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, high places were places where people would go and worship.
SPEAKER_00: And in the cases of Canaanites, they would go and worship pagan deities.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, little uh uh either carvings or stone statues that they had made themselves, human beings worshiping things that they had made.
SPEAKER_00: Eyes, perhaps, but couldn't see, hands, but couldn't do anything, feet but couldn't move, mouths but couldn't speak, these statues.
SPEAKER_00: Almost makes no sense when you start to just think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Just rationally, it makes no sense, right?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we, though, in our own day and time, worship things that we make or that we do?
SPEAKER_00: We just have another version of the same problem, don't we, in that we our hearts are creating idols all the time and we're we're essentially uh worshiping them.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Ohlebamah is the daughter of Ana, the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite, also Bazamath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebioth, and Ada bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Bazamath bore Ruel.
SPEAKER_00: Ohlebamah bore Jaush and Jalam and Korah, these are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: Then Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all his household and his livestock and all his cattle and all his goods which he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and he went to another land, away from his brother Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: And so they literally, this is just probably just because of their wealth, because of their, you know, the sheer number of animals it needed to graze, and the space that they needed for them to do uh any kind of farming, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: This needed more space, so they went to another land, and it will be Edom, which I pointed out to you earlier on the map that they go and settle in.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so verse 7, for the property had become too great for them to live together in the land where they sojourned, could not sustain them because of their livestock.
SPEAKER_00: So Esau lived in the hill country of Seir.
SPEAKER_00: Esau is Edom.
SPEAKER_00: So again, south and east, just a little bit of the Dead Sea there over in the uh uh southern region of what was called Canaan at the time.
SPEAKER_00: These then are the records of the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna let you read the rest of this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're gonna we're gonna jump to chapter 37 because I want to get there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but there are some really important things.
SPEAKER_00: Drop to verse 24 for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I love this, this just is that kind of live-body detail that I really love.
SPEAKER_00: These are the sons of Zibion, Eiah and Enah.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Anna who found the hot springs.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some of your translations might say that, and because the ancient language is a little hard to translate, but he found the hot springs in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: It might say in your translation, the water, or it might, in some cases, it might say the vipers, the snakes.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody here like snakes?
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people, how many of you hate snakes?
SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing to okay, that's yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But most of us like a hot spring.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and there are indeed uh a lot of uh, if you if you've been to Israel, if you've been down to the Dead Sea area, uh you know that region is rich in minerals.
SPEAKER_00: You know that uh there are all kinds of spas that have risen up in the in the southern part of the Dead Sea where you can go and spend thousands of dollars and lots of time, and you'll come out and your skin will feel really great, and it's really awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I've not done it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going on, I'm just going on based on what people have told me.
SPEAKER_00: But that what I wanted to do there with verse 24 is just say, look at that.
SPEAKER_00: He's the Anna that found the hot springs in the wilderness when he was pasturing the donkeys of his father Zibion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're just writing a fairy book, you don't include that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's just superfluous at that point.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're writing history, if you're writing real, the guy that actually, you know, you know, like we have a lot of towns where you pull into the town and says, this is such and such a city, the home of, and there's a notable person, right?
SPEAKER_00: And here, down, all the way down there, they've got a sign in their ancient way, and they wrote a little thing that this is the home where so-and-so found it, the hot springs, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And so for historical purposes, just fascinating to me.
SPEAKER_00: And you go on and read the rest of those uh over lunch together and while you're while you're waiting for your food to come, and but it you'll find it quite fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know why I think that's true, why I would even suggest that.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why.
SPEAKER_00: It's this it it is uh this it has the scent and smack of real history.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: They aren't just made-up names, they're names that you read elsewhere in the Bible, or sometimes even in you know, uh literature that isn't contained within the scriptures, ancient Near Eastern literature that we find.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's got that smack and that scent of history because it's real details.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about topography, it talks about the way the land is, it talks about the relationships between the people and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: So he got this book Genesis that has some fantastic claims, makes some amazing claims to answer the question, where'd everything come from?
SPEAKER_00: To do that?
SPEAKER_00: You're kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: That's a bold move on the part of God.
SPEAKER_00: But then when you think about it, he's God.
SPEAKER_00: He's the creator of everything.
SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't he know where everything came from?
SPEAKER_00: He created it out of nothing, the source of all human life, the significance of each and every human life.
SPEAKER_00: As you read those names, even as Kim prayed, you find that each and every one of those names represent a human person with a story.
SPEAKER_00: They had a biological mother and father.
SPEAKER_00: They had many of them siblings of some sort.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see some sibling rivalry here in the next chapter, won't we?
SPEAKER_00: Um, the connectivity of all human persons.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see how, even here with Esau, named also Edom, he's related, isn't he, to Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we read of some of the descendants of Esau, we're kind of reading about the cousins of the descendants of Jacob, which you read about last week when Pastor Matt walked you through chapter 35.
SPEAKER_00: And there is a sense in which we are all connected in some way, you know, distant cousins, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the spiritual longings of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, our Bibles are not merely a record of lives lived, but they this is a record of God who has been in pursuit of a people that he created and placed within them a hunger and a longing for him.
SPEAKER_00: And what's gone wrong with the world, which is a question philosophers ask all the time, cultural uh and analysts ask that all the time.
SPEAKER_00: What's gone wrong with the world?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible also answers that question.
SPEAKER_00: When sin entered the world, our hearts rebelled against the one who made us and created us with a longing, and the deepest longing that he created us with is for him.
SPEAKER_00: And sin entered the world and we turned away from him and try to live our lives as if he doesn't matter or doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's wrong with the world, as Genesis would summarize.
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, we have God's unfolding plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the rest of chapter 36, which ends with Chief Magdal, Chief Aram, and by the way, some of your translations might say Duke or King.
SPEAKER_00: And so these are uh ancient uh titles that uh probably would represent from what a lot of the commentaries would suggest, that probably represent somebody who's a who's a leader of a of a of a tribe or a clan, as they might call them back then, perhaps of a thousand people or so.
SPEAKER_00: These are the chiefs of Edom, that is Esau the father of the Edomites, according to their habitations in the land of their possession.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Edomites will be mentioned again and throughout uh our Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: Um we've we've we find them uh sometimes being the enemy of Israel, just as Jacob and Esau were sort of, you know, fighting with each other a little bit there, as we've already studied their story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and they had a great reconciliation, I think, in chapter 33, and uh and and they come back together to bury their father at the end of chapter 35, there believe I believe.
SPEAKER_00: And so there is this give and take in the relationship, and it looks very much like a relationship, like we would expect a relationship to look.
SPEAKER_00: So these are real people with real stories and a real need for God in their lives and the redemption that God can bring to their lives.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna title chapter 37, The Time the Dream Became a Nightmare.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you might want to sit up straight.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those times.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of you do remember your dreams often.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty, pretty, you're pretty good at it.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's great at it.
SPEAKER_00: She remembers her dreams in in technicolor, remembers what she wore, remembers what I wore, if I'm in it, if I'm even in it, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um she remembers, and it's usually got stuff that's completely disconnected.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's like people are chasing her, and then there's an art vark.
SPEAKER_00: And and then over here is a game of Monopoly that three people are playing, and then why they I don't know why they're doing that, but one of them is really routing the other ones, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And and I don't I don't understand all of that.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm a very simple kind of guy when it comes to dreams.
SPEAKER_00: I barely ever remember any of my dreams, and I may have told you that before, but let's look at these dreams that Joseph had and the whole story that centers around it.
SPEAKER_00: Because really, at this point in chapter 37, the rest of Genesis is going to be focusing in on the story of God at work in the life of this guy named Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: And it's pretty fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: He's 17 years old as we open this up.
SPEAKER_00: Check it out.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned in the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: And see, that's exactly where he was supposed to live, because as you recall, um, God had chosen Jacob to be the one who would ultimately through whom ultimately would come Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so Jacob, and uh in his all of his connivings in uh his relationship with Esau, had basically stolen the birthright and the blessing from Esau.
SPEAKER_00: And that would include the land of Canaan and having it as a possession.
SPEAKER_00: So we even see Esau honoring that as he moves to Edom.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob is here in Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: These are the records of the generations of Jacob, and right here you would expect there to be a genealogical record, but there isn't.
SPEAKER_00: These are the records of the generations of Jacob, and it goes right into Joseph was 17 years of age.
SPEAKER_00: He was pastoring the flock of his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll remember that Jacob essentially has four wives as we know it at this particular time.
SPEAKER_00: He has Leah, he has Rachel, he has Bilhah and Zilpah.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we're set up already.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of you have dysfunctional family in any way, shape.
SPEAKER_00: No, don't raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: But we're set up at least to understand and feel some of the pain of what uh what could possibly go wrong, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so he was 17, and so he's a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: This guy, you got to picture this guy too.
SPEAKER_00: 17.
SPEAKER_00: Young, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Um, just got his chariot driver's license, and all of this is about to happen to him, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh Joseph brought back a bad report.
SPEAKER_00: He was out there uh shepherding along with his brothers, brought back a bad report about them to their father.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so he's a young man, 17 years old.
SPEAKER_00: He's got some shepherding skills, but he comes back and he he does what some would say is kind of a tattletale kind of a thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh um and and and you know, he's one of the youngest of the of the whole group, and the there he is running back to to you know, tattletale on his brothers.
SPEAKER_00: But he was favored by his father.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see that.
SPEAKER_00: Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he uh was the son of his old age, and he made him a very colored tunic, um, richly uh probably rich in color, uh, ornamental.
SPEAKER_00: Some would say a long robe, some would say it was even symbolic of the fact that he was favored.
SPEAKER_00: So it was a visible sign of uh Jacob's love for Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: And uh that that was kind of every time the other kids would see it, it would be like just a reminder about how they weren't the favored ones, right?
SPEAKER_00: His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.
SPEAKER_00: That's a nice way of saying they're really angry with him, they're really mad, and just couldn't even talk to him and couldn't even be civil.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you had have had an argument with another human person at some point, and you could not speak to them on friendly terms.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's exactly this is human beings here that we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And they're jealous, they're bitter, uh, there's competition, and uh it's funny because it just kind of reminds us of Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: He saw a little bit, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That little bit of Jacob is a heel grabber, he wants to take, he's coveting something, he wants what belongs to another, you know, properly.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it just runs through as a human problem, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
SPEAKER_00: So have a dream.
SPEAKER_00: It's not always true that you should tell everybody about your dream.
SPEAKER_00: All right, just a thought, you know, just a suggestion.
SPEAKER_00: But um, he said to them, please listen to this dream which I have had again.
SPEAKER_00: And not yet good at dream interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: He'll bit he'll get better at that later.
SPEAKER_00: I think learning through this experience, he may learn something about interpreting dreams.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he says, uh, for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood tall, and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how do you think that went?
SPEAKER_00: You got the multicolored coat, you got dad's love.
SPEAKER_00: He seems to be favoring you in ways that just have made us mad for lo these many, many 17 years since you were born.
SPEAKER_00: And now you're gonna tell us of this, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that went very, I'm not sure that was a smart move.
SPEAKER_00: His brothers said, Are you actually going to reign over us?
SPEAKER_00: Are you really going to rule over us?
SPEAKER_00: So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
SPEAKER_00: Now he had still another dream.
SPEAKER_00: And he related it to his brothers.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think at that point, you know, like how'd it go last time, bro?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, did you not sense the acrimony?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't you not sense the heat in the room or the tent was raising when you were telling them your dreams?
SPEAKER_00: So he does it again, you know, and lo, I've had still another dream, and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's all of heaven is bowing down to me.
SPEAKER_00: And 11 is the number of brothers.
SPEAKER_00: So it's this is, they're supposed to, I mean, they would get this, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and he related it to his father and to his brothers.
SPEAKER_00: His father's rebuked him.
SPEAKER_00: Even his father who favored him is rebuking him, right?
SPEAKER_00: And said to him, What is this dream that you've had?
SPEAKER_00: Shall I and your mother, you know, sun and moon, and your brothers, eleven of them, actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?
SPEAKER_00: So his father gets this and kind of rebukes him in this whole thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a this is a dad who is keeping something in mind, and I'm not sure exactly what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe you who are who are parents will understand that, pondered it a little bit, mulled it over a little bit, didn't want to just react, uh, but he's mulling it over, thinking it over.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I'm not sure what that means.
SPEAKER_00: But there are really different responses here to the same message.
SPEAKER_00: The brothers out and out, hate, and anger on the grow, and probably visible and audible.
SPEAKER_00: That's not recorded.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get all of the yelling and screaming that might have gone on, a little bit of it, but not all of it.
SPEAKER_00: And Dad kind of gone, hmm, hmm, hmm.
SPEAKER_00: And later, even though this is actually what happens, that doesn't necessarily justify that Joseph should have opened his mouth and told them all of this.
SPEAKER_00: There are three different parties involved with ancient historical literature like this.
SPEAKER_00: There's the omniscient narrator who is actually going to tell us stuff that the people on the ground don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And the narrator is sort of inspired by God to preserve this record.
SPEAKER_00: And that's great.
SPEAKER_00: There's the expectant reader, that's all of us, and we're kind of wondering where do I fit in this story?
SPEAKER_00: And how's this relate to my everyday life?
SPEAKER_00: And so we're kind of expectant, hoping something like that will happen.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the people that are actually living it out on the ground here.
SPEAKER_00: And they're ignorant of some of the truths that we will be able to come to some conclusion about because they're actually living it.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have the book of Genesis to study.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't pull up, hey guys, settle up, we're gonna have a Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do Genesis 37 tonight.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have that option.
SPEAKER_00: So we have that, and it's a little bit better for us, but but it when you read stories like this, it's just amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And I so appreciate the way God has preserved all of this in these details.
SPEAKER_00: His brothers went to pasture the flock, the father's flock in Shechem.
SPEAKER_00: You saw that on the map earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Israel says to Joseph, this is Jacob, Israel saying to Joseph, Are not your brothers pasturing the flock in Shechem?
SPEAKER_00: Come.
SPEAKER_00: And that's about 50 miles from Hebron, probably.
SPEAKER_00: Um, come and I'll send you to them.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, I will go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh 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.
SPEAKER_00: So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
SPEAKER_00: A man found him.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know who this man is, but this man he runs into says, Behold, uh it's it says, Behold, he was wandering in the field, and the man asked him, What are you looking for?
SPEAKER_00: And Joseph says to him, I'm looking for my brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Please tell me where they are, pastoring the flock.
SPEAKER_00: And the man said, They've moved from here.
SPEAKER_00: I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan.
SPEAKER_00: So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
SPEAKER_00: So that's about another 15 miles.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, this is not in a car, this is you're walking, you know, this is pretty slow to get there, but it's taking a while and it's a very dangerous kind of situation.
SPEAKER_00: But when they, the brothers, saw him, Joseph, from a distance, and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how would they know it's him?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's wearing a multicolored tunic.
SPEAKER_00: And he's wearing that proud thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a neon sign says, Father loves me best.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and they can see him from a distance and they know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like they thought they got away from this pesky little punk.
SPEAKER_00: And now here he is coming after us again.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, the last time he was with us when we were shepherding, he ratted us out to dad.
SPEAKER_00: Is that gonna happen again?
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: They said to one another, here comes this dreamer.
SPEAKER_00: Now then come, let's kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how far they've gone in their thinking and their attitudes toward him.
SPEAKER_00: We'll throw him into one of the pits and we will say, a wild beast devoured him.
SPEAKER_00: Then let us see what will become of his dreams.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Reuben heard this.
SPEAKER_00: Reuben's the eldest.
SPEAKER_00: You'll remember that.
SPEAKER_00: Reuben has made a few missteps at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Reuben might be thinking to himself in some way, I really blew it in chapter 35.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not thinking chapter 35, but you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: Um he's thinking that way.
SPEAKER_00: He did blow it, and he knows it.
SPEAKER_00: But he heard this, and so he starts to think it all through a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so um these guys got murder on their minds.
SPEAKER_00: They want to stifle the dreams, shut them down.
SPEAKER_00: Reuben hears a verse 21 and says, Um, uh, and he rescued him out of their hands by saying, Let's don't take his life.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's the narrator who's omniscient, telling us something behind the scenes that even the brothers don't know, but the narrator is telling us something so we can kind of see what Reuben's doing, what he's up to right there, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Came about that when Joseph reached his brothers, that they uh stripped Joseph of his tunic, of course, that would be the first thing they would do, the sign and symbol of Dad's favoritism toward Joseph, right?
SPEAKER_00: They strip him of his tunic, the very colored tunic that was on him.
SPEAKER_00: And they took him and threw him in the pit.
SPEAKER_00: Now the pit was empty without any water in it.
SPEAKER_00: And they sat down to eat a meal.
SPEAKER_00: Now that just shows how callous they are at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Murder on their minds, tossed him in the dry well that he would not be able to get out of.
SPEAKER_00: He's likely screaming and hollering at this point.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You're my brother! You know, and he doesn't understand in his naivete of even telling them those dreams.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that he just didn't understand that telling those dreams would be such an offense to them.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but he is completely shocked.
SPEAKER_00: He can't believe the betrayal, the rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they sit down and order pizza.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they just literally sit down around the well there and eat some food together, eat a meal.
SPEAKER_00: And again, shows, I think, um, how callous uh they are at this point.
SPEAKER_00: As they raise their eyes and look, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead with their camels bearing aromatic gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to bring them down to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Judas said to his brothers, What prophet is it?
SPEAKER_00: This is Judah, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What prophet is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?
SPEAKER_00: Come, 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.
SPEAKER_00: And it's fascinating to me, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, the name Judas is a Hellenized version of the Old Testament named Judah.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, a guy named Judas sells Jesus for 30 shekels.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, God is on the move, even in the dark and wicked life of Judah, because Jesus will be from the tribe of Judah.
SPEAKER_00: Is that not powerful?
SPEAKER_00: When you start to think about it, look at what God can do.
SPEAKER_00: Take the darkest scenario and transform it, change it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, We're not gonna profit.
SPEAKER_00: His whole point is about prophet Judah, right?
SPEAKER_00: Come over, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he's our brother, our own flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And his brothers listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: Some Midianite traders, which is it, Ishmaelites or Midianites?
SPEAKER_00: It's both.
SPEAKER_00: I know some people read this kind of thing and they go, oh, the Bible's contradicting itself.
SPEAKER_00: You know that, oh, that shows us that part of that was written by one guy and part of that was written by another guy.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it may have been written by different people.
SPEAKER_00: It's quite possible.
SPEAKER_00: It may be that this is an edited work.
SPEAKER_00: That's quite possible.
SPEAKER_00: But Midianites and Ishmaelites could easily have been the same.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the Ishmaelites would be like saying, Are you, you're an from, like for us, you're an American.
SPEAKER_00: But raise your hand if you're a Tennessean.
SPEAKER_00: Or raise your hand if you're a Nashvilian.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it gets a little smaller.
SPEAKER_00: Or are you where are you from in Nashville?
SPEAKER_00: You know, so there's that same idea here.
SPEAKER_00: The Midianites would indeed be Ishmaelites too.
SPEAKER_00: And these Midianite traders passed by and they pulled him up, lifted him out of the pit, sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver.
SPEAKER_00: Thus they brought Joseph into ease.
SPEAKER_00: Reuben returned not, returned to the pit.
SPEAKER_00: Evidently Reuben, and we're not told this by the narrator, but evidently he was not there at that time when this Midianite group comes through, and the other brothers pull them out of the pit and sell them.
SPEAKER_00: He comes back, Reuben does, and Joseph wasn't in the pit.
SPEAKER_00: So he, Reuben, tore his garments.
SPEAKER_00: He's, remember, this in his mind there was going to be a way to save Joseph's life.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's been, what happened to him?
SPEAKER_00: Where is he?
SPEAKER_00: And he returned to his brothers and said, The boy's not there.
SPEAKER_00: As for me, where am I to go?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they took Joseph's tunic.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get a lot of uh of narration here about how that all goes down.
SPEAKER_00: But they did take Joseph's tunic and they slaughtered a male goat.
SPEAKER_00: Ironic, because when Jacob lied to his father Isaac, he used the skins of a goat and the meat of a goat.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: So Joseph's brothers slaughtered a male goat and they dipped the tunic of Joseph, the very colored coat, in the blood, and they sent the very colored tunic and brought it to their father.
SPEAKER_00: And this is time is going by really fast here.
SPEAKER_00: They literally are going to travel the 65 miles back to Hebron, where Jacob is.
SPEAKER_00: And all along the way, lots of opportunities to talk about how they're going to reveal this to dad.
SPEAKER_00: And some of them shuffling, and some of them being feeling, you know, vindicated.
SPEAKER_00: They got their revenge on Joseph and all that.
SPEAKER_00: And some of them, just I mean, just think about how callous you've got to be to go tell your dad this.
SPEAKER_00: It just breaks my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And they brought it to their father and they said, We found this.
SPEAKER_00: Please examine to see whether it is your son's tunic or not.
SPEAKER_00: Not our brother's tunic or not.
SPEAKER_00: Not Joseph's tunic or not.
SPEAKER_00: Your son's tunic or not.
SPEAKER_00: Then he examined it and he said, It's my son's tunic.
SPEAKER_00: Wild beasts has devoured him.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
SPEAKER_00: And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him.
SPEAKER_00: But he refused to be comforted, and he said, Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning.
SPEAKER_00: I'll when I pass away, I literally will be weeping for the rest of my life for my son.
SPEAKER_00: So his father wept for him.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's officer, the captain of the bodyguard fade to black.
SPEAKER_00: And now I want to know what's next.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just remind you that we encourage you to read ahead.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we'll pick up.
SPEAKER_00: So we have uh we have uh from here, of course, as we've seen on the map, uh, real places that are named in this chapter, and some real space and some real space for discussions to happen, manipulations to be arranged, conspiracies to be talked about, um uh anger vented, frustration vent, all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Real people going through all of this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: What do we see here?
SPEAKER_00: At the very least, there's a warning against parental favoritism, and actually I should I should just say there's a warning against favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: Um because we do it, all of us do it at some point, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We we arrange for things so that we can meet somebody that we favor.
SPEAKER_00: And we're opportunists, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: And so we treat them differently in some way.
SPEAKER_00: We in the, you know, Jesus would talk about it, he'd say, you know, give them a prominence seat, uh, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: And favoritism is, I think that's a good warning for us in this particular passage.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're going to get to the gospel in this, which is really great.
SPEAKER_00: But I think there are some everyday practical uh lessons that we can draw from this as well.
SPEAKER_00: So favoritism, uh, and and those of you that have multiple children, I'm sure you struggle with it a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Um if if you are a sibling of many, you might understand either feeling on one side or the feelings on one side or the other of favoritism that was shown.
SPEAKER_00: Um my mom has four sons, and I am her favorite.
SPEAKER_00: And so are my other three brothers.
SPEAKER_00: And and she makes sure that each one of us knows that.
SPEAKER_00: See.
SPEAKER_00: But I think it's a good word to all of us at any time.
SPEAKER_00: Don't show favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: Every single see, the the back behind all of this is the worldview of the biblical thinker.
SPEAKER_00: When asked the question, what does it mean to be a human person?
SPEAKER_00: Uh the answer from Genesis comes back.
SPEAKER_00: It's to be created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, every human person, whether they believe what I believe or not, whether they look like me or not, whether they live in our country or not, or somewhere else, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Every human being has intrinsic value.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Simply because they're created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the Bible leaves no room whatsoever, not one bit of room for racism or some kind of prejudice against somebody else because they don't think like you or think like me or look like you or look like me.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: Every human person has intrinsic value because they're created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: I may not reflect that image very well at any point in time in my life, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: And others may reflect that image even worse, or twist that and distort that image even more like a carnival mirror.
SPEAKER_00: But there is something in every human person when they're created in the image of God that makes their life important to God from the womb to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: No matter where they're born, no matter how old they are, how young they are, how infirm they are, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Every human person, womb to tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, I think we're reminded here to read the room.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that an awesome thing there?
SPEAKER_00: That, you know, Joseph, read the room, dude.
SPEAKER_00: Um, read the tent, I should say.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, read the tent.
SPEAKER_00: Um just didn't, ah, and I'm I'm speculating a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I I get it.
SPEAKER_00: Please don't email me.
SPEAKER_00: Um but but I might but but I kind of look at it and I go, you know, I I've and maybe I identify with open mouth, you know, switch feet, you know, for him.
SPEAKER_00: Because his foot goes, the one foot goes in on the first dream, and then he switches feet on the second dream.
SPEAKER_00: And you've done that, haven't you?
SPEAKER_00: You've you've when the words rolled out of your mouth, don't you remember a time when you were going, oh no, oh no! And there was no way to retrieve them, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And you just made a mess of things because you didn't read the room or you didn't read the moment.
SPEAKER_00: And it's happened to me all the time.
SPEAKER_00: So a good lesson for all of us, I think.
SPEAKER_00: And I think though, thirdly, and this is where we turn, I think, to the eternal and timeless uh lessons that that really are here for us our longing for a perfect love.
SPEAKER_00: You see that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I see that in the brothers who are just desperate for their father's affirmation and love.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you'd think that Jacob might have known a little bit about this because he was his mama's favorite, and Esau was the daddy's favorite in the Isaac and Rebecca household.
SPEAKER_00: And you would have thought maybe that Jacob would be more aware of that and not shown favoritism like he did to Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: But what it says to me is that for all of us, whether we're the parents or the children, or whether we're the mad and angry siblings, or whether we're the favored one, is that all of us are longing for a perfect love.
SPEAKER_00: We all want to be fully known and fully loved.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the beauty, really, of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I I I've got to I've got to move quickly.
SPEAKER_00: That leads me to my final point, which would be this God's always at work, sometimes silently, but nonetheless sovereignly.
SPEAKER_00: Working out his plans and purposes, often despite our immaturity, Joseph, foolishness, everybody, and even our wickedness, the brothers in this particular case.
SPEAKER_00: John Lennox has a book on the life of Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: He said, sad when some people with the best of motives, eager to protect the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, forget the glory of God's genius in creating human beings capable of responding to Him in trust and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: It is equally sad when others so stress human freedom that they make no space for the glory of God's providence.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we see in this chapter the glory of God's providence on display because he's literally shepherding history.
SPEAKER_00: Because we've got the perspective of people who have read to the end of the book.
SPEAKER_00: See, we know the story.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're seeing here is God shepherding all of this to where the story of redemption begins to flow.
SPEAKER_00: Joyce Baldwin has one of the really great commentaries on Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: She said Joseph was going through an experience which was become a major theme of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The godly servant was despised and rejected, only to become the rescuer of those who abused him.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's shepherd was underrated, was struck down, and his sheep scattered.
SPEAKER_00: But the sheep found they were the Lord's people.
SPEAKER_00: The way of the cross involved for Jesus betrayal by a friend, as well as agony and death.
SPEAKER_00: But it was the way to life for all believers.
SPEAKER_00: You see how this story in 37 foreshadows the greater Joseph, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The one who actually suffers and dies, and it is his death and resurrection that become for us life in his name.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph, in a similar way, has been sold to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you know the story.
SPEAKER_00: He'll go down there.
SPEAKER_00: And because he goes down there and God is with him, we'll be told that over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: God is with him.
SPEAKER_00: He ends up being used by God to save his entire family, as well as many, many thousands of people, just because the Lord uses him in a powerful way to save food during the time of famine.
SPEAKER_00: So this is just an amazing story to me, and it continues to remind me of my deepest longings, your deepest longings, to know that perfect love.
SPEAKER_00: And give me an opportunity for all of us to be reminded that that perfect love is actually found in the person and work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We'll close with this quote from Spurgeon blot out every other reflection from your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Sit down by the hour together.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing that now.
SPEAKER_00: And meditate deeply on this one resplendent display of unmerited, unexpected, unexampled love.
SPEAKER_00: Christ died for the ungodly, including the parents that don't get it right all the time, including the favored kids and the kids that feel rejected, including all of the people that are victims of wickedness at the hands of others.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus came to die for sinners like me, broken people like me, and broken people like you.
SPEAKER_00: For that we give thanks.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for this amazing story.
SPEAKER_00: Um, a sense of the drama building as we get to that last verse.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want to miss what we just read here.
SPEAKER_00: And as we consider how it does indeed point forward to the great love of Jesus for each and every one of us, I pray that uh the good news of the gospel will find root in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that we will look up to you to see that our Redeemer has come, to give thanks.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't left us alone at the bottom of the well.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but indeed, uh, Lord, you have come to rescue us, to set us free, and to give us life in your name.
SPEAKER_00: And so we come to give thanks in Jesus' name and for his sake.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And amen.