DAY FIFTEEN: 

Joseph Reveals His Identity

Genesis 45:1-46:7 

Joseph recognized his brothers immediately and had them in his power. He could avenge himself for what they did to him and all the pain they caused him. He didn't do that, but he also didn't reveal his identity at that first meeting. He wanted to see if they were the same men who threw him in a pit and then sold him off as a slave. They passed the tests Joseph put them through. When he threatened to keep Benjamin as his slave Judah made an impassioned plea to stay in Benjamin's place. 

At this point Joseph can't hold his emotions in any longer. He orders the Egyptians out of the room. This is a moment just for the twelve sons of Jacob. Through his tears he cried out "I'm Joseph! How is our father?" The brothers couldn't speak. We read that they were "dismayed." The Hebrew word can also be translated disturbed or terrified. All these years they thought he was dead. But here he is! And not only is he not dead, he's running Egypt! What will he do to us now? We deserve whatever Joseph dishes out for us.

But Joseph wasn't out for revenge. He had forgiven them long ago. Had he held a grudge the Lord would not have been with him and given him favor. Joseph had come to see that there was a larger purpose in all that he had endured. God put him in this position of power so that he can save his family! Slavery and imprisonment were the schools God used to teach Joseph humility and trust. Seven years as Pharaoh's right-hand man preparing for the coming famine established Joseph as a man of ability and integrity. And now, with his brothers before him, he realizes what God has done. He said to them, "And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt." His brothers did an evil thing, but God turned it into good!

Joseph grabbed Benjamin in a bear hug and wept. The others slowly realized that God had done something magnificent! They too started to weep and they had a group hug. Twelve brothers, together again, but this time in peace and harmony. They were witnesses to God's amazing grace. They deserved to die for what they did to Joseph. Instead God has saved their lives through Joseph.

Joseph sent his brothers back to Hebron with gifts and with wagons and pack animals. Go tell Dad I'm still alive and ruling Egypt. Load up your families and everything you have and come down here. There are five more years of famine ahead. I'll take care of you. When Pharaoh heard he was delighted and urged them to come. I love Joseph's last words to them as they head out: "Do not quarrel on the way!"

Jacob was stunned when he heard the news that Joseph was alive! We read that his heart went numb. The Hebrew word means to be faint or weak. He's floored and can't believe what he's hearing. But then when he saw the wagons and all that they brought back, he realized that Joseph really was alive. God was so good to let Jacob see his beloved son before he dies! They loaded up everything and headed out. On the way, the Lord spoke to Jacob in a dream. "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes."

When they arrived Joseph brought them before Pharaoh. He gave them the Nile delta region, the land of Goshen, for their home. There they would find grass for their flocks and Joseph could look after them. In time Jacob died, but before that he blessed and prophesied over each of his sons. They took his body back to Hebron to bury him in the Cave of Machpelah along with Abraham and Isaac. This small family grew into a multitude and the nation of Israel was born. When Joseph's time to die came he ordered that his body be carried back to Canaan when they left Egypt. Goshen was not their real home, and they would return someday to the land God promised to Abraham.

Next week we'll continue our study with Moses and the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.

Two words, forgiveness and providence, scream out from this passage. Joseph's brothers had wronged him grievously. They ripped him from his father and caused him years of pain. If anyone had a right to be bitter over his lot in life it was Joseph. Instead of nurturing resentment he gave his life over to the Lord. Then there was no room for anger toward his brothers. God then was able to work with Joseph. He had gifted this young man with an amazing ability to organize and administrate. God gave Joseph favor with everyone and he was God's instrument for saving His people.

There is no room in our lives for unforgiveness. God doesn't allow us the false luxury of bearing a grudge. "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" is the only part of the Lord's Prayer that Jesus explained. He said, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15) Jesus told Peter it wasn't enough to forgive his brother seven time. Seventy TIMES seven! The command to forgive is for our own good, and forgiveness is more about us than about the people who have hurt us. Nelson Mandela said "Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies." Resolve now to obey God's command and forgive those who have hurt you. If you just don't have it in you, pray that God will enable you to do what you can't do on your own. Forgiveness is freedom!

When I was a young Christian the story of Joseph left me in awe. God planned all of this and used the brothers' sin and Joseph's suffering to accomplish His will. When his brothers feared that Joseph would take his revenge after their father's death he reassured them: "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." (Genesis 50:19-20) We call this providence, The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines providence in this way: "God's works of providence are, his most holy [a], wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions." (Q. 11) Nothing can stop God from accomplishing His purposes in the world and in our lives. He takes bad things and brings good out of them. As Joni Eareckson Tada wrote, "Sometimes God allows things He hates to accomplish things He loves." When things go badly for us, when we run into that "crook in the lot," we're tempted to think that God doesn't love us and that He doesn't care. Nothing could be further from the truth! He loves us more than we can ever know, and He is working in our lives for our good. There's a purpose for everything we go through. Nothing is wasted in God's economy. Rest in that great promise from Romans 8:28- 30, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

I leave you today with this heart-searching song from Kevin Levar:

DAY FOURTEEN: 

The Brothers Return 

Genesis 43:1-44:34 

Good morning! Yesterday we saw what happened when Joseph's brothers showed up in Egypt to buy grain. They hadn't seen each other for at least twenty years. Joseph's brothers didn't recognize him (he was a boy of 17 when they sold him, and now he's dressed as an Egyptian). But he certainly recognized them! Joseph began a cat-and-mouse game with them, which continues in today's reading.

The famine was still in full force in Canaan and throughout that region. The food that Jacob's sons brought back from Egypt was nearly gone. He asked them to go back and buy some more. From this point on Judah takes the lead. Judah was the one who suggested selling Joseph into slavery rather than killing him (Genesis 37:26-27). He promised to take care of Benjamin and to offer his life as surety for his little brother's. He and his brothers didn't resent Benjamin's favored position as they had with Joseph. They saw the terrible sorrow they had caused their father. It took some doing, but Judah finally convinced Jacob to allow Benjamin to come with them. It was either that or let all of them, including Benjamin, starve. He sent his sons back to Egypt with double the money (to cover the cost of the grain they bought and then found their money in the sacks), along with a few of the fine products of the land, like pistachios, almonds and honey. 

They set out and came before Joseph once more. When he saw Benjamin, who had been a little boy when Joseph last saw him, he ordered his servants to slaughter an animal and prepare a feast for these visitors from Canaan. Joseph treated them harshly the first time and now is throwing a dinner for them? The brothers wondered if this was part of a plan to do them harm. Worried about the money in their sacks, they approached Joseph's chief assistant and explained what had happened. I love the assistant's reply: "Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money." I wonder if Joseph himself paid for the grain they took back so that the books would balance. Then the assistant went to the prison and brought Simeon to the feast. They were all together, twelve brothers, in one place for the first time in two decades!

Joseph arrived home for the feast. He asked if their (and his) father was well and they answered that he was. He took a close look at Benjamin and asked if this was the youngest brother. His heart melted as he saw his baby brother, now a man in his twenties and all grown up. Joseph was moved to tears, but left the room until he could control his emotions.

The feast began. Joseph sat at a table by himself. Then all of his Egyptian guests were seated together. Finally the eleven brothers were seated by themselves. The Egyptians considered eating with foreigners an abomination. They were seated according to the birth order. How could this man Zaphenath-Panea know this? And when they were all served, Benjamin's plate was heaped high with five times what the others received! They couldn't help but wonder why.

When it came time to leave Joseph played the same trick again. He ordered that their money be put back into their sacks. He also ordered that his prized silver cup, from which he drank at the banquet, be put in Benjamin's sack. The brothers set out for home but didn't get far. The police overtook them just outside the city and brought them back. Joseph accused them of stealing his cup. They denied it and said that if he finds his cup among them that man shall die and we'll become your slaves. Sure enough, when they opened the sacks, there was Joseph's silver cup in Benjamin's sack! The other brothers tore their clothes, a sign of deep grief at the loss of a loved one. They were grieved for their father, who would certainly die when he heard the news of Benjamin's execution and their enslavement. Joseph said that he would show mercy. Benjamin would stay and be his slave and the rest were free to go.

This is where we see a changed heart in Judah. He was the one who came up with the idea of selling Joseph instead of killing him. Now he was the one pleading for Benjamin. He told how this would destroy their father and he offered himself as a substitute for Benjamin. He would stay and be a slave in Egypt where he had sent Joseph to be a slave. Just let Benjamin go!

If Joseph was emotional before, just imagine what he was feeling after Judah's speech. You don't have to imagine- just come back for tomorrow's study and see!

Joseph's brothers are changed men. When they took Joseph's bloody coat to Jacob and saw his grief, they regretted what they had done. They were sorry for the bad consequences, and if they could go back in time and change it they would have. But at that point they were not repentant. They were not sorry for how they had sinned against God as well as Jacob and Joseph. They had lived with their guilt for twenty years. When Joseph put them in jail they knew that they deserved to be punished for what they had done. They were more concerned about their father and Benjamin than about themselves. Judah, who thought so little of Joseph, now offered himself as a substitute for Benjamin.

It's important that we know the difference between regret and repentance. Paul gave the Corinthians a stinging rebuke in his first letter. He wrote this in his second letter: "For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death." (2 Corinthians 7:8-10) Have you felt this godly grief, sorrow for your sins, for offending God first and foremost? This godly grief is God's gift to us. It impels us to repent and to trust in Jesus.

I leave you today with this song from the late Keith Green, based on David's prayer in Psalm 51.

DAY THIRTEEN: 

Ten Brothers Go Down to Egypt

Genesis 42:1-38

Yesterday we saw Joseph begin his day as a prisoner, just as he had for so many years. But by the end of that day he was Pharaoh's right-hand man, dressed in the finest of clothes and running Egypt. An amazing turn of events! But it really wasn't a sudden thing. It was thirteen years in the making. Joseph was seventeen when his brothers sold him into slavery. He is now thirty years old. Thirteen years as a slave and a prisoner would have discouraged and hardened most men. But Joseph drew near to the Lord. The proud boy with the grand dreams and the colorful coat was humbled, and he had nowhere to turn but God. The Lord used those years and all that Joseph endured to shape him for this moment. God does the same thing with us, if we will let Him. The hard times we endure will prepare us for what God has for us if we will just learn the lessons therein.

Joseph went to work. He decreed that one-fifth of the harvest in each of those seven good years be gathered and stored. Joseph brought the Lord's favor and the managerial gifts he received from Him and soon there was so much grain that he stopped measuring it! When one storehouse was filled it was sealed up and another built.

Then came the bad years, which were so bad that soon everyone forgot those good years. I came across an article that cited an ancient inscription that told of seven years when the Nile River didn't overflow its banks as usual. The floods each spring brought a new layer of rich soil and the needed moisture to sprout the new crop. Without this help from nature all the man-made irrigation systems they had devised were useless. The rest of the Middle East also experienced a great drought and famine. The ancient world looked to Egypt. Joseph opened the granaries and fed not just Egypt but many other nations as well.

Jacob and his family were living in Hebron when the famine hit. Food was growing scarce and there were lots of hungry mouths to feed. Jacob had heard that there was grain in Egypt, and he told his sons to go down and buy some. The thought of going to Egypt caused a lump in their throat. That's where they had sent Joseph. He was such a wimp that there's no way he could have handled slavery. He must be dead by now. But it was either go to Egypt or starve, so they set out with enough donkeys and money to bring back food for their hungry families. Jacob kept Benjamin, his youngest son and Joseph's full brother, with him. He was all that was left to remind him of his beloved Rachel. He had already lost Joseph, and he couldn't bear to be bereaved again.

The ten brothers arrived in Egypt and asked where they had to go to buy grain. They were told to go and see Zaphenath-Paneah, the man in charge of everything. You'll remember that's the Egyptian name Pharaoh gave Joseph. They found an important-looking man who was giving orders. They came and bowed down before him out of respect and maybe even a little bit of fear. Joseph instantly recognized his ten older brothers! And here they were, bowing before him, just like his dream so many years ago! They didn't recognize Joseph, however. No doubt he looked quite different than when they had last seen him. At least twenty years had passed, and they all assumed that Joseph was long dead.

Joseph didn't let on that he knew them. He spoke to them through an interpreter even though he understood every word they said. He had them in his power, and he could have ordered their deaths. Instead he played with them, much like a cat plays with a mouse it has caught. He spoke harshly to them and accused them of spying out where Egypt was vulnerable to attack. Amalekite raiders from Canaan were always a threat, so Joseph's suspicions seemed quite real. The brothers maintained their innocence. They told the story of their family: "We're twelve sons of one father. You see ten of us here. One is with his father back in Canaan, and one has died." Joseph had just found out that his father and his little brother Benjamin were alive! He didn't let on, though. He ordered them to prison to await execution unless their youngest brother would come and back up their story. They could send one man back to Canaan to get the boy. No one volunteered. They would rather die in Egypt than have to face their father. Three days later Joseph visited them in prison. He said that he feared God, their God, and didn't feel right about starving their families back in Canaan. Nine of you can go back and take food with you. One of you will stay here in prison. When you come back with your little brother I'll release the imprisoned brother and you can have all the food you want. But if you don't bring him you won't get a single grain! 

Three days in prison had given Jacob's sons time to think. Joseph died in Egypt and now they would die in Egypt. God is punishing them for what they had done so long ago. They didn't know that Joseph could understand them when they talked about all of this. Joseph was overcome with emotion and had to leave the room. When he had composed himself he let everyone but Simeon go and ordered that grain be given to the rest. He also ordered that their money be put back into their sacks. So the nine set out for Canaan with life-saving food for their families. When they stopped for the night one of them opened a bag of grain to fee the animals and found his money! Now they would be branded as thieves! They saw this as another sign of God's judgment. But the worst is yet to come. When they get home they'll have to tell their father what happened. 

Jacob was crushed when he heard the news. Joseph is dead, and now Simeon is as good as dead. There's no way he would allow Benjamin to go back with them. Reuben tried to convince his father that they would take care of Benjamin. He even said that Jacob could kill two of his sons if he didn't bring Benjamin back. But Jacob would have none of it. The thought of losing the last of Rachel's sons was just too much. Sounds a little like how Jacob treated Joseph, doesn't it? Yet this time the sons aren't angry and jealous. 

We'll pick the story up again tomorrow when the food runs out and they have to return.

Thomas Boston (1676-1732) was a Scottish preacher and theologian. He wrote a wonderful book entitled The Crook in the Lot. The title comes from Ecclesiastes 7:13, "Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?" (KJV) God in His sovereignty has ordained our lot, who and where we are and what we have in life. Part of His plan is to throw in "crooks," twists and turns, as we've seen in Joseph's life. These crooks are His means of accomplishing His will in our lives. He wrote, "The truth is, the crook in the lot is the great engine of Providence for making men appear in their true colours, discovering both their ill and their good; and if the grace of God be in them, it will bring it out, and cause it to display itself. It so puts the Christian to his shifts, that however it makes him stagger for awhile, yet it will at length evidence both the reality and the strength of grace in him." That's certainly the case with Joseph. The trials God allowed him to endure tested him and shaped him so that he could be of use to God. The same is true of us. Instead of complaining and thinking that God doesn't love us, let's embrace God's lot, even the crooks. Keep trusting God and rest in his grace.

I leave you with this song, Refiner's Fire. May this be our prayer!

DAY TWELVE: 

Joseph: Prison and a Promotion 

Genesis 39:1-41:57

Yesterday we saw Joseph on his way to Egypt where slavery awaited him. His brothers carried his blood-stained coat to their father Jacob, who took the news of his favorite son's death very hard. We're ready to see what happened to Joseph in Egypt. But you'll notice that we've skipped chapter 38 and I'd like to fill in that gap before we proceed.

Chapter 38 tells the sordid life of Judah, Jacob's fourth son. Judah's firstborn, Er, married a woman named Tamar. Er was so evil that the Lord killed him! Er hadn't fathered an heir, so it fell to his brother Onan to marry Tamar and produce an heir for his dead brother. Er wasn't crazy about this because a son with Tamar would be considered his brother's son and would inherit Er's birthright (a double portion of Judah's estate). If Er has no heir, Onan will get the birthright. So Onan refuses to impregnate Tamar and God kills him! Judah has one more son, Shelah, but he's just a boy. Judah is also leery of giving his last son to this "black widow" Tamar. He told her to go back to her father's home to live until Shelah was old enough to marry her. The years went by and Shelah grew up, but Judah didn't send for Tamar. It looked like Tamar would grow old and die as a childless widow in her father's house. She wasn't about to let that happen. She posed as a prostitute and seduced the recently-widowed Judah and became pregnant by him. When Judah found out he was furious at Tamar's harlotry and demanded that she be executed. She presented proof that Judah was the father and he was duly chastened. Tamar bore twin boys, Perez and Zerah. Judah was both father and grandfather to these boys. We read Perez's name in the genealogies of Jesus. Jesus had a few skeletons in His family closet! But that shows us how God can use imperfect people to achieve His perfect will. 

Now on to Joseph. Such a handsome specimen didn't sit for long in the slave market. Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's bodyguard, bought him and put him to work with his household staff. Verse three says, "His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands." Even though he was ripped from his father and all that he knew, the Lord was with Joseph in Egypt. He was there to help and bless him. And Joseph served the Lord by serving Potiphar faithfully and ably. Potiphar noticed Joseph's abilities and put him in charge of everything he had. He didn't have to worry about a thing with Joseph in charge. Potiphar also prospered because the Lord was with Joseph.

"Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance." The same thing is said of his mother Rachel in Genesis 29:17. Joseph was a looker, and Potiphar's wife noticed him. She flirted with Joseph, and when he ignored her subtle advances she came right out and said "Lie with me." Her invitation was tempting. Potiphar hadn't provided a wife for his young servant as he should have. And who would know? Potiphar is always away on Pharaoh's business. But Joseph said he couldn't betray his master's trust. More than that, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" To commit adultery with his master's wife would be a sin before the God who was with him and who had shown him such favor. She wouldn't take no for an answer and kept after him day after day. Finally she grabbed hold of Joseph's cloak to pull him onto her bed. Joseph slipped out of it and ran from the room. Potiphar's wife screamed rape and told her husband when he returned. Normally a slave would be put to death on the spot for something like this. But Potiphar knew both his wife and Joseph. He knew each one's character. He trusted Joseph and didn't trust his wife. But if the story got out it would embarrass Potiphar and possibly damage his standing in Pharaoh's court. So he sent Joseph to the royal prison. How unjust! Joseph didn't do anything but serve his master faithfully, and now he's sitting in jail.

You would think that Joseph seethed in bitterness. But he didn't. He set about serving the warden just has he had his master. Soon the warden saw that everything prospered under Joseph's management and before long he gave this prisoner charge of the prison. One day two new prisoners arrived, the royal baker and the king's personal butler. Both had offended Pharaoh in some way and were sent to jail until he decided their fate. These men both had vivid dreams that haunted them the next morning. They told them to Joseph, who by the grace of God was able to interpret them. The butler's dream meant that in three days he would be forgiven and restored to Pharaoh's service. The baker's dream, however, revealed that in three days he would be hanged! Joseph asked the butler to put in a good word with Pharaoh so that he could get out of prison. But the butler, not wishing to remind Pharaoh that he was in prison for a reason, didn't tell him about Joseph. Joseph languished in prison for two years after this.

Then Pharaoh himself had two very disturbing dreams the same night. In the first dream seven fat cows were devoured by seven gaunt, starving cows. In the second dream seven plump and full ears of grain were eaten by seven parched heads of grain. These dreams haunted Pharaoh, so he asked his wise men and magicians what it meant. They were unable to interpret the dream. At this point the butler spoke up and told about how Joseph had interpreted his dream and the baker's dream. Pharaoh sent for Joseph and after he had bathed and shaved he was brought into the palace. Pharaoh described his dream and God gave Joseph the interpretation. Both dreams carried the same message. Egypt would experience seven years of bumper crops, followed by seven years of severe famine. Joseph advised Pharaoh to find an able administrator to store one-fifth of the produce of the good years so that it will be available for the bad years. Pharaoh knew that he was looking right at just the man for the job. He took his signet ring off of his hand and gave it to Joseph. You're in charge! "without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name: Zaphenath-paneah, "one who reveals mysteries." He also gave Joseph the daughter of a priest for a wife. Joseph went right to work, organizing for the task that lie ahead.

What do we learn from Joseph's story to this point? First and foremost, God is always with us. Joseph had every reason to feel that God had abandoned him. His brothers sold him into slavery. Then his master's wife falsely accused him and he ended up in prison. The Lord was with Joseph through those dark days. He gave Joseph hope and gave him favor first with his master and then with his captor. Isaiah 43:1-2 says, "But now thus says the Lord,he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.'" God does not always, or even usually, spare us from hardships and trials. But He is always with us in the midst of them. The Lord was with Joseph, and He is with you and me!

Second, it's always right to do the right thing. God is always pleased when we obey Him even when it costs us something. Joseph could have given into his master's wife. Who would know? But he knew that God would know. He was right to flee from her enticements. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says, "Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

Third, God's work in our lives will eventually bear fruit if we will stay faithful to Him. Psalm 75:6-7 (KJV) says, "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another." We must rest in Him and be faithful. James 4:10 says, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."

My final observation is that Joseph stands in contrast to his brothers. Reuben and Judah were sexually immoral. Simeon and Levi slaughtered all the men of Shechem. Jacob knew their characters and you see what he said about each of them in Genesis 49. But Joseph was a humble servant of God who kept faith in all of the relationships of life. None of his brothers could have handled the opportunity that Pharaoh handed Joseph.

That's our dose of God's Word for today. We'll continue with the story of Joseph tomorrow. In the meantime I look forward to your comments and questions!

DAY ELEVEN: 

Joseph Sold Into Slavery

Genesis 37:1-36

Good Monday morning! On to the third week of our study. All this week we'll be looking at the life of Joseph. Let's begin with some background.

We left off last week with Jacob back in Canaan after twenty years in a foreign land. He returned with four wives, twelve sons and one daughter. Jacob's family life is very complicated, but I'll try to unpack it for us. Jacob wanted just one wife, Rachel, whom he fell in love with at first sight. He gladly worked seven years for her father and his uncle, Laban, so that he could marry her. But Laban tricked Jacob and palmed off his older and apparently less desirable daughter Leah on him. Laban offered to let Jacob marry Rachel after the honeymoon with Leah if he would work another seven years. So Jacob ended up with two wives, one whom he loved and the other not so much. The Lord saw that Leah was unloved so He allowed her have children. Rachel, however, was unable to conceive. Leah quickly pumped out four sons: Reuben (behold, a son), Simeon (heard, because she said God heard her prayers), Levi (joined to) and Judah (praised). Genesis 30:1 says, When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!" She gave Jacob her maid, Bilhah, to bear children on her behalf, just like Sarah gave her maid Hagar to Abraham. The baby war was on! Bilhah gave Jacob two sons, Dan (judge) and Napthali (wrestling). Leah had stopped having children, but she got back in the game when she gave Jacob her maid, Zilpah, who had two sons, Gad (a troop) and Asher (happy). Then Leah herself had two more sons and a daughter, Issachar (recompense), Zebulun (exulted) and Dinah (judgment). Then Rachel finally had a son, whom she named Joseph (may God add). Rachel's heartfelt prayer was to have another son. The Lord answered her prayer, but she died shortly after bearing a son whom she named Ben-oni (son of my pain). Jacob, however changed his name to Benjamin (son of my right hand).

Jacob's home was full of strife and contention. His twelve sons were pawns in their mothers' war with each other, as their names reflect. They were brothers but also rivals, just as their mothers were rivals. I don't know how Jacob could stand it! God seems to have allowed polygamy, but it was never His command or His ideal. There is not a single instance in the Bible where a home with more than one wife was happy. Many of you wondered how Jacob got away with cheating Esau. From this you can see that he didn't! Sometimes God's providence does look a little like karma. Yet God would use these twelve sons of Jacob to form the twelve tribes of Israel.

Our passage today begins with Joseph bringing a "bad report" to his father about how his brothers were shepherding the flocks. No one likes a tattle-tale, and this certainly didn't endear Joseph with his brothers. Jacob compounded the problem by playing favorites. Just as Rachel was his favorite wife, Joseph was his favorite son. Though he was eleventh in birth order, Jacob treated him as if he were his firstborn. He gave Joseph a special colorful robe. Dyed fabric was rare and expensive in those days. A coat made of various colors was a lavish gift. Again, this didn't endear Joseph to his brothers.

Joseph had a couple of dreams and shared them with his family. The first was a harvest scene where his brothers' sheaves of grain bowed down before his sheaf. Then he dreamed that the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed before him. The meaning is obvious: everyone, even his father, would bow to Joseph. The brothers seethed. Jacob gave Joseph a mild rebuke, but remembered what he had said.

One day Jacob sent Joseph to check up on his brothers, who had taken the flocks to Shechem. But they weren't in Shechem, where they were supposed to be. The locals said that they had moved on to Dothan. Dothan was on a major trade route, and no doubt had a lot more exciting night life.  Here's a map:

Joseph's brothers looked to the south and saw a splash of color on the horizon. They knew it was Joseph, in that fancy coat of his. He had told on them before, and would probably do so again. They had had enough of this dreamer, and they determined to kill Joseph as soon as he reached them. Reuben, the firstborn and apparently a cooler head, suggested that they throw Joseph in a pit instead. Reuben knew how his father would take Joseph's death, so he planned to rescue him later and take him back. But while Reuben was away, the rest of the brothers saw a caravan of Ishmaelite traders headed west. The Ishmaelites were descendants of their great-uncle Ishmael. Why kill Joseph when they can make some money off of him? They sold him for twenty silver shekels, enough to have a really good time at the taverns in Dothan. So they hauled Joseph out of the pit and handed him over. When Reuben came back learned that they had sold Joseph he tore his robes, a sign of sorrow and exactly what he knew Jacob would do when they told him. What had they done? And what will they do now? They decided to tell Jacob that they found Joseph's many-colored robe, torn and smeared with blood, the victim of wild animals. They killed a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. Jacob reacted as Reuben had feared. His sorrow was so profound that his sons thought he would die. There was no consoling him.

I'm amazed at how many of the great men of the Bible had utterly dysfunctional families. The priest and judge Eli didn't discipline his sons and they became scoundrels. David had a son who raped his sister and another son who killed a brother and then tried to kill him. King Ahaziah's mother Athaliah murdered her grandchildren so that she could rule in her son's place. So family problems are nothing new. Jacob made his problems worse by playing favorites with his wives and with his children. The hurt of rejection led to rivalry and retaliation. Tell and then show the ones you love how you feel! Don't assume that they know- we all like to hear it. John Wesley's mother Susanna had twenty-one children and the challenge of rearing them on their pastor father's salary. They all turned out well, in part because she didn't play favorites. Here are her house rules.

Joseph didn't help himself, either. It turned out that his dreams were indeed prophecies from God. But Joseph didn't react with a grateful humility before the sovereign will of God. He let it all go to his head and eagerly told everyone. Yes, God will use Joseph to save his entire family, and everyone will bow to him. But he must learn humility through humiliation before God can use him. The Bible has a lot to say about pride, none of it good. Here's the entry for pride from Nave's Topical Bible. You won't have to click on very many of the verses before you get a sense of how God feels about human pride.

Tomorrow we'll see how Joseph fares in Egypt, and how God uses him.

I'll leave you with another clip from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. The first part of the clip is a repeat of what I posted last week, "Jacob and Sons," but goes on to the "Coat of Many Colors." Vicki will tell you that I don't like musicals. But I really love this one. It's a faithful yet fun retelling of this Bible story.

God's Friend

Genesis 15:1-6

Sermon #2 in the 100 Essential Passages Series

Today's sermon is posted! If you weren't able to be in worship this morning you can listen to and also read the sermon here.

Tomorrow we start Week Three. We'll look at the life of Joseph. I can't wait!

DAY TEN:

Jacob and Esau Reconcile

Genesis 32:1-33:20

Good morning! We've reached the tenth of the one hundred passages we're studying. Yesterday we met Jacob and Esau, twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Esau was a man who lived for the present moment and gave no heed to the things of God. Jacob, whose name means cheat, lived up to that name when he deceived his father and took the blessing he intended for Esau. Esau's rage simmered. He was waiting for his father to die, and then he would kill Jacob. Rebekah sent Jacob away to her family in Paddan-Aram, where he would be safe and where he could find a wife from his own people.

Here's a brief summary of what we're skipping. Jacob arrived safely. He met a beautiful young woman named Rachel. It was love at first sight! And even better, it turned out that she was his cousin, the daughter of Rebekah's brother Laban. Laban welcomed Jacob and asked him to stay and work for him. Jacob said that he would serve Laban for seven years if he could marry Rachel. Laban agreed, and the next seven years flew by. Laban held a big wedding feast and then, according to the custom of that area, escorted Jacob to the house where his wife would be waiting for him. Jacob couldn't be happier! But when he woke up in the morning and turned to look at his bride, and there was another woman in his bed! It was Rachel's older sister Leah! The name Leah means "weak eyes." It sounds like she wasn't as attractive as her younger sister and her father hadn't been able to marry her off. Jacob was furious! Laban told him that custom prevented him from giving his younger daughter in marriage until the older was married (something he neglected to tell Jacob seven years earlier). Laban offered another deal: work for me another seven years and you can marry Rachel too. Just finish the honeymoon with Leah and you can marry Rachel next week.  Jacob's love for Rachel was greater than his anger at her father, and he agreed. So Jacob got more than he bargained for, two wives instead of one. Jacob the cheat had met his match in Uncle Laban!  Leah started having children immediately, but Rachel couldn't conceive, so she told Jacob to have children for her with her maid. Leah wasn't to be outdone, and she gave Jacob her maid to have more children. Now Jacob had FOUR wives! Before long Jacob had ten sons and one daughter. Finally Rachel conceived and had a son, Joseph (we'll talk about him next week). Laban continued to cheat Jacob, but the Lord was with him and he prospered in spite of his uncle's chicanery. After twenty years it was time to take his family and flocks and head back to Canaan. This is where we come to today's passage.

Each step that brought Jacob closer to home also brought him one step closer to meeting his brother Esau. He was filled with murderous rage when Jacob left. What if he wants to make good on that threat to kill him? He sent a large portion of his flock ahead, a gift that would hopefully pacify Esau. He also divided his family into two groups and sent them ahead of them. Jacob followed along by himself, last of all. Maybe if Esau sees that he's a family man now he won't kill him.

Jacob had a visitor that night. A man (actually an angel) suddenly appeared and attacked him! They wrestled until daylight. Jacob was tenacious and wouldn't give up. The man touched Jacob's hip and dislocated it. Despite the pain Jacob continued to cling to his opponent and wouldn't let him go until he blessed him. Jacob received a new name- Israel, which means "one who prevails with God," because he had wrestled with God and didn't give up. Jacob wanted to know the angel's name, but he wouldn't tell him. All of a sudden it dawned on Jacob that he had been wresting with God Himself! Some scholars say he wrestled with Jesus, the Son, in a pre-incarnate appearance. Whoever it was, the encounter changed Jacob's life. 

He finally came face to face with Esau. And Esau was actually happy to see him! He wasn't angry any more. God had answered Jacob's (Israel's) prayers and gave him favor with his brother. Esau invited Jacob to live with him in Edom. But Jacob knew he had to go back to Canaan. He settled in Shechem. His mother, Rebekah, had died but Isaac was still alive and they eventually met up. The Promise goes on!

Jacob is a fascinating man! He's devious and willing to do almost anything to get his way. At the same time he was also devoted to God. The Lord worked in and through Jacob. He let the cheater endure twenty years under Laban, one of the greatest grifters of all time. He wanted just one wife but ended up with four. He went back home trembling at the thought of meeting Esau. He wrestled with God through the night and wouldn't give up. Jacob received a new name, which would become the name for the nation that God would create in fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. 

It's been a great week! Next week we'll look at the life of Joseph and how God shaped and used him.

I'll leave you with a little preview of our studies next week with this opening scene from the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat. Look closely- if you're my age or older you'll recognize someone who was quite famous in the day.

DAY NINE:

Jacob and Esau Conflict

Genesis 27:1-28:22

Welcome to Day Nine of our study! We're skipping over a lot of things to get to the story of Jacob and Esau, so I'll give a quick summary.  Sarah died at the age of 127, then Abraham died at the age of 175. Isaac grew up and was ready to marry. His father sent a trusted servant to find a wife for him among his relatives in Haran. He brings back Rebecca, daughter of Abraham's nephew Bethuel and she marries Isaac. They remain childless for a number of years, until God answers their prayers with twins! While she was pregnant there was a lot of rumbling in Rebecca's womb, like fighting. The Lord told that's exactly what was happening. Her babies were fighting with each other and would separate into two nations. The youngest would rule over the oldest. Esau was the firstborn. His name means "hairy," and it was apt because he was covered with red hair. But his brother came into the world right after that, with his hand firmly grasping Esau's foot. They called him Jacob, which means "heel holder" or as some translations put it, supplanter. A supplanter is someone who puts himself in ahead of someone else by devious means. It was as if Jacob was grabbing his brother to pull him back so that he could be the first born. The two boys grew up. Esau was a rugged outdoorsman who loved to hunt. Jacob stayed close to home and helped his mother with the cooking. One day Esau came in from the field and was very hungry. Jacob was cooking a pot of lentil stew and it smelled so good to Esau. He asked for some and Jacob replied, "I'll sell you a bowl for your birthright." The birthright was a double portion of the father's estate that went to the first born. The birthright wasn't just about money. It was also a special honor for the recipient. Esau said "Okay," about as casually as that. The trade seemed fair to him at the time. So Jacob gave him a bowl of soup and some bread. This was the first time Jacob supplanted Esau, by taking his birthright.

Now we come to today's reading. Isaac was fully aware of the prophecy that the younger would rule over the older. Esau had already despised his birthright. But Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob. He especially loved the wild game that Esau brought back. He spoke secretly (or so he thought) with Esau and told him that he wanted to give him the blessing. He told Esau to go out and bring back a deer and cook it, so that after eating he would bless Esau. Rebecca was within earshot and heard the conversation. She was not about to let Isaac deprive her son of the blessing that was rightfully his. She told Jacob to go and prepare a lamb, using Esau's recipe. Then she had Jacob dress in some of Esau's clothes and tied fleeces to his arms and neck so that Isaac, now blind, would think that he was Esau. Jacob wasn't sure about the idea- what if my father recognizes me? Then he'll curse me! But he went ahead. The plan worked and Isaac blessed Jacob in the place of Esau.  "May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!"Isaac thus passed on the covenant God made with Abraham and which in turn fell to him on to Jacob.

No sooner than Jacob left, Esau returned and brought in a savory venison roast with all the trimmings. "Here I am! Eat up and then give me your blessing." Now Esau was confused! Didn't he just bless Esau?  He sounded like Jacob, but he felt and smelled like Esau. When Isaac figured out what had happened, he trembled! He had thought to outwit God and was himself fooled. The blessing was already given, and there was no taking it back. Esau was furious! "Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." Isaac did have a blessing for Esau, but it wasn't like the one he gave Jacob. Esau was angry and plotted his revenge. He'd wait until his father died and then he'd kill Jacob! Rebecca saw Esau's rage and knew he'd make good on the threat. She told Jacob that he had to leave until Esau cooled down. She talked Isaac into sending Jacob back to her family in Paddan-Aram (the vicinity of Haran) to find a wife. She told Jacob to come back, with his wife, in a few months.

Jacob set out on his long journey all by himself. He came to Bethel, where Abraham built an altar to the Lord, and spent the night. There he had a dream of a ladder between earth and heaven, with angels going up and down that ladder! And God spoke to him: "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." When Jacob woke up, he had an appropriate sense of awe. "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Bethel means house of God in Hebrew. Jacob made a vow to serve the Lord faithfully if he would bring him back home.

God was as good as his word, but there are lots of twists and turns yet to come in the story of Jacob! More about that tomorrow.

The Bible has oh so much to teach us! Let's look at Isaac, Rebecca, Esau and Jacob. Isaac was the child of promise, long in coming but so precious to his parents when he was born. God had blessed him with a beautiful wife and in time two sons. God said that the older shall serve the younger, but Esau wanted to see his favorite son, Esau, get the blessing. He trembled when he realized that he had done what God wanted him to do all along, to bless Jacob. God will see that His will is accomplished, whether we are willing participants or not.

Rebecca was a schemer. She told Jacob to deceive his father and take the blessing that was rightfully his. When Jacob had qualms she said "let the blame fall on me." Then she sent Jacob away, thinking that he'd be back in a while. But when Jacob left, that was the last that Rebecca saw of him. She died before he returned. Our plots and plans to bring about what we want rather than what God wants always bear bitter fruit.

Esau was a man who lived for the moment and didn't care about pleasing God. He was hungry right now, and all he wanted was some food. His birthright meant nothing to him and he gladly traded it for some soup. When it came time for the blessing he didn't get it. His tears couldn't change that. Hebrews 12:16-17 says, "[See to it] that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears."

And Jacob, who got both the birthright and blessing through deceitful means, was nonetheless the heir to the promise to Abraham. His character is questionable. But God has a way of shaping us! Jacob the cheat will himself be cheated when he arrives at Paddan-Aram. More about that tomorrow when we consider the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau.

Here's a beautiful rendition of "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder" that will bless you:

DAY EIGHT:

Isaac's Birth and Sacrifice

Genesis 21:1-22:19

Good morning, friends! God is good! On to Day Eight of our study. Before we dig into today's content I'll briefly cover what we're skipping. Sarai, lamenting her childlessness, presented Abram with her Egyptian servant named Hagar to have a son and thus fulfill God' promise.  Sarai told Abram to marry Hagar and have a child with her that Sarai could consider her own. Hagar bore Abram a son, Ishmael, but of course it didn't work out as Sarai planned. But at the age of 86 Abram is finally a father! God changed Abram's name to Abraham. Abram, you'll remember, means "exalted father." Abraham means "father of a multitude." Sarai also received a new name, Sarah, which means princess. In chapter 18 Abraham hosts three mysterious visitors. One of them announces that Sarah will have a baby about that time next year. Sarah was eavesdropping and heard. She burst into laughter at the thought of bearing a child at her age (she would have been 89 years old). One of the visitors asked "Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Sarah denied laughing, but she was busted! Then after that we read about God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and how angels led Lot and his family to safety (except for his wife, who looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. And in chapter 20 we see an old dog hasn't forgotten an old trick. Abraham once again passed Sarah, possibly pregnant with Isaac by this time, as his sister- this time to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. God again protected Sarah, and Abimelech, though very angry with Abraham, allowed him to stay. Again, it seems that Abraham gets away with this outrageous behavior. But really he doesn't. There are always consequences for sin, even if they're not obvious at the time.

OK, we're ready to pick up with today's passage. Just as the mysterious visitors (no doubt angels) foretold, Sarah gave birth to a son! They named him Isaac, which means "he laughs." Very appropriate, given Sarah's reaction a year ago. She said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." I can't begin to imagine the joy in Abraham's household! God keeps His promises.

But remember, Abraham has another son, Ishmael, who would have been about thirteen when Isaac was born. He was used to his father's full attention. And Sarah, who resented the child she urged her husband to make with a servant, now resented him even more. The stage is set for conflict, and it's not long in coming. At the feast Abraham gave to celebrate Isaac's weaning Ishmael tormented his little half-brother. Sarah had enough, and told Abraham to get rid of both him and his mother. God assured a heartbroken Abraham that it would go well with Ishmael, that in accord with the promise He would make Ishmael into a great nation, too. But Isaac was the child of promise, and the covenant would go through him.

Then we read about the greatest test of faith a human being ever faced. "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Did Abraham hear God right? He's waited all this time for a son. And now God wants him to sacrifice that only son, his only hope for that line of descendants that will one day number more than the stars? But yes, he heard correctly. God was quite specific, Abraham had two sons, and he could have sought out Ismael to sacrifice him. But God said it was Isaac, the son whom he loved, who was to be sacrificed. Abraham's faith in God is amazing! If he agonized over this, it wasn't for long. He got up early the next day and headed out with Isaac and a couple of servants for Moriah. We don't know just where Moriah was, but it was a three-day journey. (Some speculate that Moriah was Jerusalem and that Mt. Zion, the future site of the Temple, was where these events took place). When Abraham saw Moriah in the distance, he had the servants stay behind and he and Isaac went on alone. Abraham tied the wood they brought onto Isaac's back and took a little container with coals from their campfire to light the sacrifice. But one thing was missing, and Isaac noticed it. they've got wood and fire, and there are plenty of rocks everywhere for building an altar. But where's the lamb? That's the most important thing, the reason for going in the first place. Abraham said "The Lord will provide the lamb." That had to hurt, because Abraham knew that God had already provided the lamb- his son.

When they got there and set up the altar, Abraham started to tie Isaac up. Now Isaac wasn't a little boy by this time. He was probably a teenager, and Abraham was somewhere around 115 years old. Isaac could have resisted his father and run away. But he didn't. He let his father lay him atop the altar. We talk about Abraham's faith, but what about Isaac's? It's at least as great.  Abraham took hold of the knife, ready to plunge it into Isaac's chest. But then, at the last second God stopped him! "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." Whew! That was way too close! Abraham looked up and saw a ram tangled up in some shrubs. He caught it and sacrificed it in the place of his son. God once more affirmed His covenant with Abraham, promising to multiply his descendants and to bless the world through them.

There are so many lessons we can take from the life of Abraham that I don't know where to start. So let's start with this whole concept of faith and belief. The best definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Faith is believing without seeing. It is taking God at His word and trusting Him to move in our lives according to His timetable. Some time ago a wise man told me, "God is never late, but He is seldom early." God is kind of like the wizard Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings: "A wizard is neither early nor late- he arrives precisely when he intends." I've shared that with others to comfort and encourage them. And I've had to remind myself of this truth. The great temptation is to help God along when we think He's too slow. Ishmael was born because Abraham and Sarah despaired of having a child of their own. It caused strife and heartache in there time, and the world has been paying for their impatience ever since. The unrest in the Middle East is a continuation of the conflict between Ishmael (the Arabs) and Isaac (the Jews). Be patient and remain prayerful. God will come through and His answer will always be better than anything we can imagine for ourselves.

I'll give you a little bit of extra credit reading, if you'd like to learn more about Abraham. The best book I've read on this man's life is Created to Be God's Friend: How God Shapes Those He Loves by Henry Blackaby (I've given the link from Amazon, but you can find it from just about any online source or from a Christian bookstore). An excellent book that will deepen your understanding of what God is doing in your life.

I'll leave you with this song from Phil Keaggy, entitled "Abraham." Enjoy!

DAY SEVEN:

God's Covenant With Abraham

Genesis 15:1-21

Good morning! Yesterday we met Abram, a man who answered God's call. Your comments from yesterday are really interesting. Abram did what he did because he heard and obeyed God. How can anyone who hears God's voice like that NOT obey? Very easily, I'm afraid. I know that from my own life. Faith is something that is entirely opposite of how we normally operate. We have senses that tell us what is real. We have minds that can calculate risk and potential benefit. Faith tells us to ignore all of that and do what God asks.

Abram's faith is strong, but he's still human. He left his home to follow God to a new home, but he's still a nomad living in tents. He embraced God's promise of descendants more numerous than the sand on the beach, but he doesn't have even one child. His name, Abram, Exalted Father, is so ironic!

God came to Abraham to encourage him. "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." God told him this before. But where's the beef?  "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless...Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." This takes place more than ten years after Abram obeyed God, and while he's prospered materially it's all meaningless without a son to carry on the promise.

God told Abram that he will have an heir, a child of his own. Then God repeated His outrageous promise: "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him,"So shall your offspring be." Say what?!?!?! Abram is about 85 years old, and his wife Sarai is 75. They're way past childbearing and don't have even one child. God will make Abram's descendants as numerous as the stars in the night sky? It's utterly ridiculous and laughable!

But we read in verse six, "And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness." Abram put aside what his senses and his mind told him and believed what God told him. And God accepted Abram's faith and counted it as righteousness. It wasn't what Abram DID that made him righteous. It was what he BELIEVED, and WHO he believed in.

This is another very simple yet deeply profound statement. God does not accept us for our good works We're so used to thinking of things in economic terms that we can't grasp the fact that with God's grace we actually DO get something for nothing. We earn our wages, we pay for what we buy. But you can't by God's love and mercy at any price. It's free to any and all who will believe, thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For our sake he (the Father) made him (Jesus, the Son) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

God hadn't given Abram much detail about how He will fulfill all those promises we read yesterday. But that night God gave Abram another vision. The promised land will belong to his descendants, but not for a long time. They'll spend time in a foreign land (we know that it was Egypt) for 400 years and be oppressed. Then God will bring them out of bondage and into the land to posses it. And you, Abram, will live to a good old age and die with the knowledge that I will do what I have promised. "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying,'To your offspring I give this land, fromthe river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.'"

Tomorrow we'll look at the birth of Isaac, the child of promise, and at how Abraham faced the greatest test of his faith.  I look forward to your comments and questions!

DAY SIX:

The Call of Abram

Genesis 12:1-20

Good morning, and welcome to Day Six. I've heard from some of you that you've had trouble logging in to post comments. Blogspot doesn't make it as easy as they might. The options for logging on are limited. If you have a Gmail account you can use it to get on. If not, you might consider the last option on the list, OpenID. OpenID is an effort to create a single, secure User ID for all Internet content. If you have a Yahoo or AOL account, it's very easy to get an OpenID. If you have any problems, please let me know. You can always e-mail your comments to me and ask me to post them for you.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis are really just an introduction to get us ready for the story of one man and how God used him in His plan to redeem the world. The last part of chapter eleven, after the Tower of Babel, gives a genealogy of Noah's son Shem. While He cares for all people, God is beginning to narrow the focus of His plan to save us. Noah had three sons, but it is through Shem that the line of redemption will come. From verse 27 on we read about a man named Terah. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran died, leaving a son named Lot.. Verses 31 and 32 tell us, "Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran."

Here's a map to illustrate this journey:

They were headed for Canaan, which is straight west of Ur. Why not just travel in a straight line? Because that would take them into the heart of the Arabian Desert, one of the most inhospitable places on earth. So they had to follow the Euphrates River north and then veer south and west toward Canaan. This route had water and the amenities of civilization. Terah made it as far as Haran, but for some reason stopped there. Maybe he liked the area. Maybe he appreciated that it bore the name of his departed son. Whatever the reason, Terah and his entourage stayed in Haran and Terah died there. 

Now let's look at our passage today. "Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Let's think about this for a moment and try to see it from Abram's perspective. God is asking him to take off and leave his family to go to a place that God won't come out and name. If he will do this, though, God will promise him some really great things:

• I'll make a great nation from you. You will populate and rule this land you'll enter;
• I'll bless you. You'll have My protection and you'll prosper;
• I'll make your name great. Abram's name means "exalted father." 
• You'll be a blessing to others- those who bless you I will bless and those who curse you I will curse;
• And I'll bless the whole world through you.

Some incredible promises! And the word incredible is a good one here, because incredible means unbelievable. Why would God choose Abram, who is 75 years old, who has no children, whose wife is 65 and barren? How can he possibly become a great nation with no heirs? How can he pull up stakes and move who knows where?

But that's exactly what Abram did! He packed up his belongings and with Sarai and his nephew Lot headed out for Canaan, his father's original destination. Maybe God made a similar promise to Terah, but he didn't follow through. 

When they arrived in Canaan they found it full of (what else?) Canaanites, who had made a good life for themselves and were unlikely to move just because Abram said, "Excuse me. The Lord said I could have this land." They came to Shechem, not far from Jerusalem, and God again said something incredible: "To your offspring I will give this land." Abram offered sacrifices to the Lord, and then moved his tents to a spot between Bethel and Ai, two places that would have great significance to his descendants.

We might be tempted to think that Abram was somebody who followed God so closely that he never sinned or made mistakes. The last part of this chapter speaks otherwise. During a time of famine Abram left Canaan and went to Egypt. Yes, the famine was severe but God had promised to provide. And once in Egypt, Abram passed Sarai off as his sister because he was afraid that the Egyptians would kill him to claim her. The Pharaoh saw her and took her into his harem. Abram was willing to sacrifice his wife's virtue to save his skin. God stepped in and did what Abram wouldn't. God struck the palace with plagues, and the Egyptians put two and two together. Pharaoh kicked Abram and Sarai out of Egypt, with all they brought plus the wealth they acquired while there.

It's almost impossible to overstate how important Abram (later God changed his name to Abraham, "father of a multitude") is in God's great plan of redemption. This man is the beginning of a thread that will run through the rest of the Bible. Abraham provides the foundation upon which God will build His people.

Tomorrow we'll look at God's covenant with Abram in more detail. I look forward to you comments and questions!

THE SERMON FOR WEEK ONE:

We Messed UP

Genesis 6:5-8

Here's the link for the sermon that goes with Week One. Week Two starts tomorrow!

DAY FIVE:

The Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:1-9

Good Friday morning!  This is the last reading for this week. You can use Saturday and Sunday to catch up on anything you've missed. I'll be preaching this Sunday on what we've been studying. Your comments have been very helpful to me as I prepare the sermon. Sometimes we preachers answer questions that no one is really asking. I'm glad that you've asked the questions that are important to you.

We're skipping over the last part of chapter nine and all of chapter ten, so I'll give a quick summary. The Bible is so brutally honest! Someone once said that the Bible is a book that no man could write if he would, or would write if he could. Noah, the man who found favor in the eyes of the Lord, settled down to farming. He planted grapes, made some wine, got drunk and took his clothes off. Ham saw his father in that state and told his brothers. This had to be more than just informing them of the fact that their father was drunk and uncovered. Perhaps he was ridiculing Noah. Some scholars suggest that some sort of sexual abuse was involved. In any event Shem and Japheth walked backward so that they would not see their father in that state and covered him. When Noah came to he cursed Ham for what he had done, along with his son Canaan. He then blessed Shem and Ham for the kindness they had shown him.

Chapter ten is a genealogy of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. They spread all over the world and divided into many nations and ethnic groups. Even though it comes before the passage we'll consider today these events took place after the Tower of Babel. Verse five says, "From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations." We also read about Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord," who founded the world's first nation-state in what later became Babylon.

Chapter eleven begins "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words." Think of how much easier life would be if everyone spoke the same language! We could travel and work anywhere in the world with no communication problems. There'd be a lot less of the misunderstandings that come when trying to cross language and culture barriers. This was a good thing, right? Yes, but as we've seen that sin nature has passed down from Adam and Eve to all of their descendants, and human beings once again proved that they can take anything that's good and corrupt it. God had told Noah and his sons to spread out and repopulate the earth. Instead, they all stayed together and found a nice place to settle, the Plain of Shinar. This is the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers just north of the Persian Gulf in modern-day Iraq. The soil was very fertile and the climate was favorable. No need to go any further! They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” They looked for a symbol that would unify them and decided that a tall tower, reaching far above the plain and visible for miles, would do the trick. So they set to work. There was no stone in that area and the palm trees that grew there were not suitable for this project. So they made bricks out of mud.and used bitumen (a black tar that comes from oil) for mortar. They were making rapid progress and the tower grew ever higher.

The Lord came down to look at the project and saw what they were doing. He realized that they were establishing their lives apart from Him, in disobedience to His command. If they finish this project they'll go on to even bigger things and nothing will be impossible to them. So God said, "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." The "us" here, as we saw in the creation story, is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the one God in three Persons. Every imagination of man's heart was evil. Yet God loved His creatures and had promised Noah that He would not destroy all mankind again. By confusing their languages so that they couldn't understand one another and would break up into groups with common languages and move on to start their own nations all over the world. They called that place Babel, from a word that means to confuse.

The Tower of Babel was a product of the same lie the serpent told Eve: "You will be like God." Don't go off and spread yourselves out. Stay here, where you can be strong and united, and build a tower to show how great you are. That lie is so tempting, but it never delivers on its promise!

There's something in our human nature that makes us love tall things. We look at the tall mountains and long to climb to the top. We build ever-taller buildings, and since 1998 the record for the tallest building in the world has been broken seven times. The Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai is currently the world's tallest building at 2,716 feet, but there are plans for even higher buildings in the next few years. A few years ago our oldest daughter took us on a boat tour on the Chicago River. It's a lot easier to see the buildings from the water and to see just how tall the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower and seventh-tallest building in the world) and the then brand-new Trump Tower which was nearly as tall. When I was about five years old I remember my parents taking me to the LeVeque Tower, at the time the only skyscraper in Columbus. It stood 556 feet tall, and the cars below seemed as small as ants!

The desire to build big and tall things can be good. The great cathedrals of Europe were built for the glory of God. The Methodist Church's spire is the tallest structure in Sebring and can be seen all over town, it's cross reminding us of our Lord and Savior. I wonder, though, if maybe we Christians have fallen prey to the same "edifice complex" that was behind the Tower of Babel. The church is not the building, but the people of God who meet there. It is the people who make the building holy, not the other way around. One of my assignments in seminary was to write a history of the church I served as a student pastor. It's building burned down on Christmas Day in 1944. I called that a tragedy. The professor corrected me. The destruction of the building was a disaster; the split in the congregation that occurred a few years later was the real tragedy.

Many years after the Tower of Babel the Apostle Paul stood on another high place, Mars Hill, overlooking Athens. He said, "[God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us..." (Acts 17:26-27) This scattering of the people all over the world was a part of His great plan to redeem us!

Next week we'll see how God's plan unfolds further in the life of Abraham and his family.

I'll do my best to post this Sunday's sermon on the church's podcast page by early afternoon so you can listen if you aren't able to be with us.

DAY FOUR:

God's Covenant with Noah

Genesis 8:1-9:17

Good morning!  Yesterday ended with Noah, his family and all the animals on the ark, being swept along in the raging flood.  Today we move on to life after the flood.

"But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark." Can you imagine forty days and forty nights of torrential rain and crashing waves? There might have been times when Noah and his family wondered if God really did them a favor by putting them in the ark. I was serving a church in Wisconsin when January of 1985 brought a long spell of cold and snow.  By snow, I mean one big snowfall of 18 inches followed by temperatures as low as -30º!  We weren't able to have worship that month. That's when I understood cabin fever! Surely it must have been far worse for Noah and his crew. But God didn't forget them. The rain stopped and the waters started to recede. It took another 150 days, however, for the waters to recede completely. But the sunshine and being able to go topside and smell the fresh air must have been heavenly!

One day they felt a jolt as the ark came to rest in the Mountains of Ararat (not necessarily Mt. Ararat itself, but in that range of mountains). This is in the far eastern part of modern-day Turkey, near the border of Armenia and Iran. Mt. Ararat itself is nearly 17,000 feet high. They knew that the waters were going down, but they couldn't yet see land. After a while Noah sent out "drones," first a raven and then a dove, to look for land. The raven didn't come back, apparently finding a place where it could stay. He then sent out a dove, which came back. Seven days later he sent the dove out again, but this time she returned with a twig from an olive tree. There's dry land somewhere out there!  When the dove went out after seven more days, she didn't return. She'd found a place to nest.

Soon God told Noah to open the door and let everyone out of the ark. The animals left and headed off to "be fruitful and multiply," replenishing the earth's animal life. Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices to God, thanking Him for keeping them safe through the flood. This pleased God, and He said, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” God had destroyed the earth because of the wickedness of mankind. He could do that over and over and over again, but that bent to evil will still be there and will still infect all people and taint all that they do. So God promised never to flood the earth again. The seasons will follow after one another until the end. We read in the next chapter that God gave a sign: "I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh." What a beautiful reminder of God's love! I have to smile every time I see a rainbow, because it reassures me that God keeps His promises.

God commanded Noah and his sons to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." It's a great big world that needs to be repopulated. In chapter one God told man, created in His image male and female, to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. He reasserts this command to Noah and his sons. He put a fear of man into the animals so that they would respect our God-given authority. I thought about that when we were out at the Grammer Farm for our church picnic. Those cows weigh 800 pounds or more and could easily hurt or kill their caretakers. But they don't. They obediently submit to milking, and they gratefully receive their food. I think of this every time I get on a horse (which, I admit, I haven't done for a long time), I think of this half-ton beast between my legs. He can easily throw me off and stomp me to death. Instead, he lets me saddle him, put a bit in his mouth and he takes me wherever I want to go. Even the wild animals which could harm us have a healthy fear that causes them to run from us. This dominion carries with it responsibilities as well as privileges. This is not a blank check to abuse animals or to rape the earth for its natural resources. We must be wise stewards of God's world, which we will pass on to our children and children's children.

Yesterday we looked briefly at Abel's murder at the hands of his brother Cain. It was just the first of many to follow. God said in Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." Human life is precious to God. He made us for a relationship with Him, and no one has the right to murder someone who offends us or has something we want. Anyone who does so with "premeditation and malice aforethought," to borrow language from Perry Mason, must himself die. Not because the life of the murderer is worthless, but because the life of the victim is priceless. It is entirely appropriate for the judge to say, after sentencing someone to death, "May God have mercy on your soul." Murder, like any other sin, can be forgiven through the work of Christ received in faith.

Manslaughter, self-defense and war are special circumstances, which we'll discuss when we get to the Ten Commandments.

Thank you for reading this. I eagerly await your replies!

Pastor Marty

DAY THREE:

Noah's Ark

Genesis 6:5-7:24

Good morning! Thank you for all of your responses to our study. They've been very helpful to me as I work on the sermon for Sunday. I know that a lot of people "lurk," that is they read but prefer not to post any comments.  That's perfectly fine! If you'd like to share your thoughts with me privately you can send them to my e-mail address: martin.radcliff@gmail.com.  

Now on to today's Scripture.  This is where we begin to skip parts of the Bible in order to hit the high points in 100 readings. I'll briefly fill in what we've skipped.

Yesterday we saw Adam and Eve evicted from the Garden of Eden. They must now make their way in a much less hospitable environment. Chapter four begins with the birth of their first son, Cain, and then reports the birth of their second son, Abel. Cain killed Abel, luring him out into the open field. When God confronted him and asked where Abel was, Cain replied with a phrase that's a part of our language to this day: "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Lord banished Cain, who moved away with his wife to begin a new life. The genealogy of Cain's descendants follow, with hints of increasing depravity with each generation.  The chapter concludes with Eve bearing a third son, Seth. The chapter ends with thee words: "At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord." God preserved a faithful remnant in the midst of an increasingly dark world.

Chapter five is where people usually get bogged down when they read the Bible.  It's the dreaded "begats." It's a list of Adam and Eve's descendants through Seth. We see some astronomically long lifespans.  Adam was 930 years old and Methuselah had the longest life in the Bible at 969 years.  We see the phrase "and he died" over and over again. No matter how long they lived, they still died. It's a reminder to us of our own mortality. It's also a reminder that God cares about us individually. We don't know anything about most of those listed, but God had their names recorded to teach us that He cares about everyone.

Now on to Noah! As one generation succeeded another, the lines of both Cain and Seth showed more and more depravity. Finally God had had enough! Verses five and six are powerful: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." God's heart was broken! The creatures whom He had created in love ignored Him and abused one another. This is a reminder to us that God is grieved when we sin.

There was one man, however, in that generation who was different. "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." His name means "rest." The word translated favor is rendered grace in the King James Version. Grace is, in fact, favor with God, a favor that we cannot earn but which He freely gives us. God graciously chose Noah for what must have been the most ambitious construction project the world had seen up to that point.

God told Noah that He was going to destroy the world with a great flood. He commanded Noah to make an ark. The word in Hebrew means "box," and is the same word used of the basked that carried the baby Moses. This box was certainly bigger than a breadbox!  The measurements are in cubits, which is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, roughly 18 inches. Thus the ark was 75 feet wide, 45 feet tall and 450 feet long! Noah was to fill that ark with two of every kind of bird and animal, along with enough provisions to feed all of them.  What a job! And imagine the ridicule that Noah and his sons endured from the ungodly people around them. But they completed the ark and the animals came in. Then we read in 7:16 "And the Lord shut them in." Once that door was shut, no one else could enter the ark. Everyone else was doomed. I think God Himself shut the door to spare Noah from doing it, knowing that he was condemning the rest of the world to death. This is a reminder to us that a day will come when God will close the doors of our lives.  Hebrews 9:27-28 says, "And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Jesus is our ark, our place of safety, from the God's righteous judgement for our sins!

The rains came, for forty days and nights. The waters rose and the ark lifted off the ground. There was no means to steer the ark, so they drifted. When the rain finally stopped, it took 150 days for the water to dry up. We pick up the rest of the story in tomorrow's reading.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:36-39, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." The first part of the story of Noah is a warning of God's coming judgment and a call to repent. Tomorrow we'll see the other side of Noah's story, which is a bright promise for the future.

Thank you again for all of your thoughts! This is turning out to be quite an interesting study.