Genesis 50

In this chapter, Joseph dies and Jacob is buried. It's not as weird as it sounds.

The real story is verse 20. I can't count the sermons and books based on that verse. My Reformed brothers and sisters seem to love the story of Joseph in general and verse 20 in particular. All I'll say is be very careful about deriving a general principle from a specific instance.

Genesis 49

Jacob's blessings for hiss sons are prophetic, describing their past, present, and future.

It's amazing that the patriarchs were also prophets. They spoke directly with God. The Holy Spirit, who knows the future, spoke through Jacob, and Jacob let him. That's what most people forget about hearing from God: letting him talk.

Genesis 48

Jacob knew the value of a blessing like no one else, and he also knew what it meant to favor the younger over the elder.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that Jacob and God knew exactly what they were doing when Jacob crossed his arms.

Genesis 47

In this chapter Jacob meets Pharaoh.

Jacob isn't impressed with the most powerful man in the world. Interestingly, the opposite is true. Jacob is130 years old, which compared with his father and grandfather makes his days few indeed.

Not that I'm holding anyone up as an example, but I like that Jacob was unimpressed with Pharaoh's title or position. Rather, it was Pharaoh sought Jacob's wisdom.

We shouldn't be so eager to bend the knee to earthly titles. The spectacle of two professing Christians fighting each other over some office is frankly disgusting. Nothing in this world will last. If we have the spirit of the living God in us, what can this world add? The world should be running to God's people, not the other way around.  

Genesis46

In Genesis, genealogies usually mark the end of one story and the beginning of another. Here's the exception.

In this case, tells the reader that all the males of Jacob's line went to Egypt. The entire nation of Israel was there, as promised by God.

Genesis 45

At last we get the big reveal.

Joseph can no longer control himself,and Joseph tells his brothers who he is and what he's become, and instructs them to move themselves and their families to Egypt. He then sends gifts to his father, inviting him to move to Egypt, and then settles them all in the best land he knows of.

That's forgiveness.

Genesis 44

Benjamin came, and Joseph treated him like a king ... for a while, anyway. He then had his little brother falsely accused, and got Judah to beg him.

Lord only knows what the Egyptians thought.

Genesis 43

Finally, someone callsJacob on his favoritism. Judah points out that if they don't get food soon, not only will Jacob  and Benjamin die, but so will the s wother ten brothers and their children,

God intended them to go to  Egypt. What Jacob wanted was about as important as what you or I want. When God means to do something, he does it.

Genesis 42

Did Joseph mess with his brothers because of the way they treated him?

Yeah, probably,

Notice that Jacob didn't send Benjamin. He was still playing favorites.  Naturally, since Benjamin was Rachel's other son, he was both the one Joseph wanted to see and Jacob's favorite. Joseph found a way to get what he wanted without giving himself away; he'd later use that intelligence to save his family.

Genesis 41

"Oh, by the way, a couple years ago I met a Hebrew who might be able to help you."

The amazing thing is that Joseph patiently kept working. Of all the patriariarchs he was probably the only one who trusted Yahweh from the beginning.

Genesis 40

I didn't set out to write devotions,but that's what these have become for some people. I didn't st out to have a stroke, either, but that's what happens when you're not paying attention.

One thing I've never liked about "devos" is the way they always seem to hold up Bible characters as people to be imitated. This may come  as a shock to you, but you're not the Joseph of the Bible. You won't be accused by Potiphar's  wife, or run a prison from the inside, or save Egypt and the rest of the world  by saving grain for seven years.

Not that there's nothing admirable about Joseph. In this chapter, he trusts God, but still works hard. There's a lot we can learn from Joseph.

But I'm not holding him up as an example or anything.

Genesis 39

What's most interesting to me about this chapter is what it says about sin.

When he was attacked by Potiphar's wife, Joseph didn't worry about sinning against Potiphar. He didn't worry about sinning against the wife. He could hurt the, no doubt, but he could only sin against God.

Sin is, at its heart, rebellion against God. It's breaking his rules, which he gets to make because he made everything. That's why every sin is ultimately against God.

Genesis 38

Here's a small side-story that ended up having big consequences.

Judah wasn't a great man. That's one thing I like about the Bible. It's not full of paragons, but of people. Real people, with real flaws. The people in Scripture look like the ones around me.

Kings and our Savior himself were descended not only from a whoremonger and a woman pretending to be a hooker, but from the child of their union. And God told everyone.

Genesis 37

It was no secret that Jacob played favorites.

Rachel's was his favorite wife. Joseph was his favorite son. Everybody knew it too. How do you think Gad or Zebulun felt about that?

Add to that the fact that Joseph was kind of a snot, as most of us were at 17, and there's little wonder his brothers did what they did.

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Genesis 36

In Genesis, genealogies usually mark major turning points, and this chapter is no exception, as the focus shifts from Jacob to his son, Joseph. Neither appears in chapter 36, though, which is instead devoted to Esau and his family.

It's worth taking a look at Esau, because he fell into traps that are still around today.

First of all, he thought he could make up for past mistakes with present obedience. When he learned that his parents hated hisCanaanite wives and had sent his brother to take a wife from his own people, he immediately went and married a cousin, one of Ishmael's daughters. Second, he was impulsive, only thinking of the moment rather than the future. Thirdly, he was a bully, taking 400 men with him to meet his brother.

Esau didn't trust God, though God still blessed him. He wasn't chosen to be the father of the Israelites, though chiefs and kings were still among his descendants. Esau was a rebel, though God still loved him.

In other words, he was a like us.

Genesis 35

Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob, but she was also the only patriarchal wife not buried in the family tomb.

God generally blesses the first marriage of someone; in fact, it's hard to think of a case in which that's not true. (Remember that just because something's in the Bible doesn't mean that God approves of it.) The only exception I can think of is David and Bathsheba, and I admit I haven't figured that one out yet.

Regardless, Leah was Jacob's first wife, and it was her fourth son, Judah, who would be the many-times-great grandfather of both King David and Jesus the Christ. We saw in the last chapter why Simeon and Levi, the second and third sons, were skipped over, but what about the eldest, Reuben?

This chapter provides the answer. Reuben slept with his father's concubine, which in that culture was tantamount to claiming her as his own. He thought it was secret, but his father knew about it, and so did God.

Of course, God can choose whomever he likes. But there's usually a good reason when he breaks his own rules.

Genesis 34

Here we get the beginning of an explanation as to why Judah is blessed above his brothers.  Keep in mind that as Leah's fourth son, he wasn't entitled to much.

The second and third sons killed an entire city. Admittedly, Shechem was probably not even a small town by our standards, and the killing was done to avenge the rape of their sister, Dinah. Still, Simeon and Levi lied, and their bloodlust should have been with the one who defiled her, not with his whole town.

So why wasn't the first son, Reuben, chosen? Patience ...