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Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan
Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's Word lighting the way!
Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan
February 12, 2026 - Genesis 37 & Psalm 33
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We read Genesis 37 and Psalm 33, tracing how favoritism fuels jealousy and betrayal while God’s steadfast love and sovereignty call us to praise. We apply these themes to parenting, wisdom in speech, and learning to worship with clear reasons and steady hope.
For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.
Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sandborn. Today is Thursday, February 12th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis 37. Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilha and Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colours. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, Hear this dream that I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. His brothers said to him, Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me. But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them. And he said to him, Here I am. So he said to him, Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word. So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a man found him wandering in the fields, and the man asked him, What are you seeking? I am seeking my brothers, he said. Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock. And the man said, They have gone away, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams. But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood, throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him, that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colours that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty, there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat, and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. And his brothers listened to him. Then the Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes, and returned to his brothers and said, The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go? Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat, and dipped the road in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colours, and brought it to their father, and said, This we have found. Please identify whether it is your son's robe or not. And he identified it and said, It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning. Thus f his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in an Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
SPEAKER_01:Psalm thirty-three. Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings, sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap, he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing, he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven, he sees all the children of man. From where he sits and throne, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army, a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord, he is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
SPEAKER_00:So Tyler, you have four kids. I'm gonna test you real quick. Okay. What are their ages?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we have a 11-year-old. You're hesitating. I thought you were about to ask me their birth dates. I'm like, oh boy. That was next. Oh man. So you have an 11-year-old. I have uh, I believe Oakley's 11. 11? You're asking me? Yeah, I'm I'm trying to do the math here. 11. No, she's she's 10. She'll be 11 in April. There we go. Um we're off to a good start. Yeah. Uh Carrie Ann is eight. Uh Ruby is five, and Shepard is two.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. Now tell me which one is your favorite.
SPEAKER_01:Not playing that game. Nice try.
SPEAKER_00:In Genesis 37, we see some favoritism, don't we? With uh Jacob and his baby son Joseph.
SPEAKER_01:Baby boy with with the the most fashionable robe ever.
SPEAKER_00:And it's like deja vu, right? We're kind of like, we've been here, we've seen this. Who are some of the people that we've read about already that have shown favoritism and partiality to one of their children?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we're looking at Father Abraham, and we're looking at a son that gets sent out, get away from me and Ishmael, and then we're looking at Isaac, who he loves, and Esau and that relationship with his father Isaac, and we also have Rebecca and Jacob, uh, just the dueling, the dueling sons that that are favored by each of their parents. Um we have Jacob favoring Joseph, and this is just uh if this isn't a reminder for us somehow in some way, I don't I don't know what else is.
SPEAKER_00:So I asked you who who your favorite child was, and you weren't comfortable answering that. Why not?
SPEAKER_01:Wow. I refuse to pick a favorite. Why why would it be a problem to pick a favorite? Why why why would it be a problem? Well, we look to we look to the book of Genesis so far and we just see just misery. We see we see families in ruin, we see dating each other, siblings just at each other's necks, yeah, and we see we see chaos, we see we see murderous plots.
SPEAKER_00:It's almost like partiality is sinful and and actually can provoke already sinful hearts to to sin even further. So I think if Genesis 37, 4 it says, but when his brother saw that their father loved him, and even that language, when they saw it was observable, it was evident, it was clear, and of course, with the story of Jacob and Esau, that was clear as well. Where uh Rebecca was was favoring her baby boy, come here, let me let me protect you, provide for you, scheme for you, and with you. Yeah, uh, but uh obviously Isaac really loved Esau because he was a good hunter and he made some good food.
SPEAKER_01:What a he had that Michelin scar. What a contrast.
SPEAKER_00:He was making that habanero cheesecake. It's he'd never he didn't learn, even though Jacob experienced great tension between him and his brother Esau because of favoritism and partiality. Here we go again, where he is extending that same sort of partiality to one of his sons. And what's the response? But when his brothers saw that their father loved him, Joseph, more than all his other brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. So we also see we see some responsibility in multiple levels. Here we see some responsibility, of course, from the father uh to not show partiality in the ways that he is. And he's in a sense provoking his children uh to anger, but we we also see, of course, some responsibility individually of the brothers in their response, which was uh sinful. And um, you got to think, like, in some sense, it's not Joseph's fault that his father favors him, you know. Like uh, I'm sure you know, maybe he had an attitude, maybe he had kind of like uh, I'm better than you guys. It doesn't seem that way. The text doesn't give us any indication, but you know, our minds can often make those connections. But nevertheless, we we see just the destruction that partiality can have in a family and in our relationships. And so we see uh envy sprouting again. They hated him. We see the word jealousy talked about in verse 11. His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind that was when he was telling him, telling his brothers that these dreams, and that too is just funny to me. You gotta, you gotta, you just wonder. I mean, again, the text doesn't tell us, so uh we can't say definitively, but you gotta wonder like what's going on in Joseph's mind. Like, clearly, there's tension already with the brothers, he's the favorite of the of the bunch. There's 12 of them. He's the the favorite, and and he has these dreams, and he's like, you know what? Let me go tell my brothers that they're gonna serve me. You know, like I'm not assigning ill intent to Joseph, but maybe maybe there was some just lack of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01:He's always in their shadow, just tagging along. Like, what are my brothers up to today? I guess I'll just follow along and see what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00:They're always like, He's like, guys, I had a dream that you're gonna serve me.
SPEAKER_01:They'll never believe this. They'll never believe this.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, everyone was bowing down to me, even you. The sun, the moon, and the 11 stars, mom, dad, and all of the brothers are gonna they're gonna bow. Uh, and so there's just there's tension and there is division, there's jealousy and envy. And uh what a warning for us uh today, where whether it's with our children or our friends or our coworkers or whoever we might interact with, partiality really can have some devastating effects. And of course, those who respond to partiality, in this example, the brothers, they're responsible for that sinful response, and they don't get a pass because Jacob is is showing partiality. But nevertheless, uh, we see that the sin of partiality can be very ruinous uh to relationships and ruinous uh to family. And as a result, here we are again circling back. Esau wanted to kill Jacob. Uh, that was obviously more connected to him stealing things, the blessing, and the all of that. But we we have um Joseph's brothers wanting to kill him, and uh family is rising against family. We even started all the way back in Genesis 4. A brother did kill another brother, and what was that for? Jealousy and envy. It's almost like Genesis is trying to warn us of the seriousness of envy, the seriousness of jealousy, the seriousness of partiality, uh, and just the ruinous, devastating effects that it can have on a family when we don't take heed to these warnings and we don't learn from past mistakes. And so Jacob unfortunately just takes some cues from his father Isaac, and he shows partiality. And here we are. There is a poor baby brother Joseph getting thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, and that's how he ultimately ends up in Egypt, uh, which is how the text ends. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
SPEAKER_01:Now, I I don't want to borrow from future uh chapters in Genesis, but I I can't help but think of the famine ahead. I can't think uh help but think about just the ways that this dream does represent in some ways how uh his brothers will will bow before him when he is elevated to uh the number two spot in all of Egypt. But um I'm I'm hopeful as I look forward to the story. Like it, it's the story that you read multiple times. It's it's the hope that we have. Uh God's people are um, though they struggle, though they fail often, um, God's God is faithful and he's providing a way and orchestrating behind the scenes the whole time that his people will be um will be making his name known. Um and we look at our text today in Psalms, uh, his name being known in all the world is is being accomplished now on every every continent. There are people that lift up the name of the Lord shouting for joy. And I can't help but think about heaven. When I think when I think about Psalm 33 uh singing an a new song to the Lord, like how many how many different albums will will there be in heaven for all of eternity? Um I can't I can't I'm I can't even understand what that would look like to sing a new song um for for the rest of eternity in the presence of the Lord. But we see um we see a good uh example of uh submission. I'm I'm looking at how in verse six, Pastor Josiah, the word of the Lord, the heavens were made by his word, but creation is made through communication, um, through the order of God's power. And as we look down to verse eight, there's a reverence and a fear, a respect that is due to the Lord. Verse eight says, Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the the world stand in awe of him. And and this is a great reminder for us as we look at creation submission, uh, submission, uh submitting rather to the Lord. That's a great reminder for us to look to the Lord, stand in awe of him and and submit and follow his design, follow his order, follow his commands.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and that's how the psalm begins. We have a variety of different imperatives, commands as the psalm opens, shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Verse 2, give thanks to the Lord with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings, sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. So those are the commands and the imperatives that govern the psalm. And then really the rest of the psalm is sort of an explanation as to why we should do that, why we should shout, why we should give thanks, why we should make melody and sing and play skillfully. Well, it's because the word of the Lord is upright, and by the word of the Lord the heavens were made. Let all the earth fear the Lord. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. The Lord looks down from heaven, he sees all the children of man. There's this list of reasons why we should shout and praise and give thanks and sing to him. And even I love verse one where it says, Praise befits the upright. It's fitting, it's something that is good and proper. And we've kind of been talking about this on Sunday where we we've talked about sound doctrine, things that fit kind of healthy living. We see that exact thing here as well in Psalm 33, uh, the response of the Lord being who he is, making the heavens and earth, uh, all of the ways that he brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Uh, it's because uh he is who the the Lord strong and mighty, the the Lord mighty in battle. And as a result, what's our what's our fitting response? Praise. Praise befits the upright. And so uh those commands at the beginning are hey, live this way, feel this way, respond in this way, worship this way, and and then really uh there's just a ton of different reasons and rationales for why we should do that. Uh, behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear them, fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love. Our soul waits for the Lord, he is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. So Psalm 33 really is uh just a great uh sort of arsenal of rationale uh you know reasons for worshiping God because uh he is worthy, because of his steadfast love, because of uh him creating all of creation just by the word of his mouth and uh praise befits the upright. It's the only sort of natural response. And I believe uh, you know, our response should be uh that Romans 12 reality that Paul talks about to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable act of worship. So we see that here as well in Psalm 33. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.