Genesis 37 - 38

Genesis 37 – Betrayal 

In this chapter we see God’s great power is at work in the events of Joseph’s life.  God used him to fulfill His purpose for Israel and the world.  Jacob made the Promise Land his home.  His son Joseph was Jacob’s favorite because he was born to him in his old age.  Joseph’s brothers were very jealous, which turned into hate for Joseph.  This turned quickly into attempted murder.  Jacob should have remembered how he felt when his father, Isaac loved his brother Esau more than him and all the problems that occurred because of it.

It is human nature to love some more than others.  This is wrong.  We should not hate anyone, but hate the evil and the sin they do.  We should always love the person.  Jacob showed favoritism between his cons.  Jacob loved his son, Joseph so much that he even made him a richly ornamented robe.  How do you think his brothers felt about that?

Showing favoritism is prohibited in Scripture.  It is inconsistent with God’s character.  Favoritism is a sin.  “For God does not show favoritism.” - Romans 2:11.  “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism.” - James 2:1.  “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, you are doing right.  But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.” – James 2:8-9.  Other Scriptures on favoritism are: Col. 3:25, 2 Chron. 19:7, Deut. 10:17, Gal. 3:27-28. Acts 10:34-36, 1 Tim. 5:21 and I could go on.

Favoritism is when you choose a person or thing because of some merit or worth, but Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of God’s requirements.  None of us deserve God’s favor, but He gives grace to us all. 

Are you guilty of favoritism?  We tend to put people categories by what clothing they wear, the kind of car they drive, the kind of house they live in, their social status, and even their race.  When we do these kinds of things, we are acting contrary to God’s values.  As Christians we are supposed to be imitators of Christ.

Principle:  God does not show favoritism, but accepts all people.

Joseph brought a bad report to his father about his brothers.  Notice Jacob is now called Israel, which was the name God gave him when he became mature in his faith.  Joseph probably thought he was doing the right thing.  If the brothers were doing a bad job at tending the flocks, his family’s livelihood would be at risk.  This showed he had integrity.  However, this was a bad idea, because this made his brothers hate him all the more.  “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” – Prov. 10:9.  “He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.” – Prov. 21:23.

Joseph had a dream that he would be the heir of blessings and boasted this to his brothers.  This made them hate him all the more.  Then he had another dream and boasted about it, too.  In this dream the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to him.  The eleven stars were his brothers.  Now they were even more jealous of him.

One day Israel told Joseph to find his brothers and the flocks they were tending and bring them back.  Joseph was obedient.  He went to find them, but they were not where they were supposed to be so he traveled further and found them.  As Joseph approached they plotted to kill him.  Rueben and Judah convinced the other brothers to not kill him.  Instead they put him in a well so he couldn’t escape.  Joseph probably screamed and cried for them to let him go, but they wouldn’t listen.  Judah suggested they sell Joseph into slavery.  Then, when a caravan of Midianites came by, they sold him for 20 shekels.  They took his robe and soaked it in goat’s blood and took it to their father.  “We found this.  Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe”. – Gen. 37:32.  Israel assumed a wild animal had killed Joseph.  He was deceived just as he had deceived his brother, Esau in the past.  Then the caravan of Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an official of the Pharaoh.

Life is not always easy.  We all endure hardships.  God always uses those hardships to bring about His perfect will. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” – Rom. 8:28.  As you look back at your past, I am sure you can see that God’s hand was there.

Joseph was mistreated by his brothers, but God was always with him.  God used Joseph and guided him to be the second most powerful person in Egypt as we will see in later chapters.  Joseph reminds us of Jesus.  Both were rejected by his own people, both were betrayed for money, both were found guilty when they were innocent, both brought salvation to their people.  Jesus was greater and willing gave His life.  He saved all humanity by His death on the cross.

Are you or your family involved in ungodly behavior?

Do you hold envy or bitterness to someone in your family or in your church?

What mistreatment are you enduring?

Do you feel God’s presence?

Do you treat each of your children the same or do you have a favorite?

Principle:  Sometimes God uses hardships to bring about His perfect will.

Genesis 38 – Tamara and Judah

Judah left his brothers.  Perhaps he had enough of his family.  Maybe it was also because of his guilt and all the pain he caused his father who thought Joseph was dead.  So Judah went one way and Joseph another.

Judah married a Canaanite and she bore a son, Er who married a woman named Tamar.  Er was very wicked and the Lord put him to death.  It was the custom that if a man dies and leaves behind a widow with no heirs, then the brother of the deceased would marry his brother’s widow and have children so that the legacy would be massed down.

Judah told his son, Onan to take Tamar and produce offspring for his brother.  Onan was greedy and wanted his brother’s share of the inheritance so he lay with her but refused to have a child with her.  So he spilled his semen on the ground.  This was also wicked in the Lord’s sight so he was put to death.  Judah ignored the sins of his two sons and blamed Tamar for their deaths.  He was not going to lose another so he told her to wait until his son Shelah grew up, hoping Shelah would escape his duty to marry her.  Instead of providing for her, he sent her away to live as a widow in her father’s house.

After a long while Judah’s wife died and Tamar realized Judah wasn’t going to honor her marriage to Shelah.  One day Judah went to where the men were shearing sheep.  When Tamar heard this, she dressed as a prostitute covering her face and waited for him on the road to deceive him.  She was determined to be part of God’s people.  Of course her methods were not right.  He slept with her and she conceived twin boys.  Since her face was covered, Judah didn’t know it was Tamar.  She kept his seal, cord, and staff in order to later prove he was the father. 

Three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law, Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.” - Gen. 38:24.  Judah said to bring her to him so he could put her to death.  This was his opportunity to get out of giving her as a wife to Shelah.  She sent a message to Judah, “I am pregnant by the man who owns these… see if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.” – Gen. 38:25.  Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” – Gen. 38:26.  These words reminded Judah of almost exactly the words he and his brothers used to deceive Jacob about the bloody coat they showed their father.  Judah repented quickly and accepted sole blame declaring Tamar righteous.  He accepted her sons, Perez and Zerah as his own.

We see the wonderful grace of God at work in Judah’s life.  Judah was willing to betray his younger brother and sell him into slavery, but wasn’t willing to kill him.  He was willing to confess that he did wrong in his dealings with Tamar.  Later we will see when he dealt with Joseph as governor of Egypt.  He was willing to give up his freedom and even his life for the sake of his brother Benjamin, and to save his father Jacob from grief over loss of another son.  This story of Judah and Tamar magnifies the wonderful grace of God.

Do you accept responsibility when you have done wrong?

Have you repented of your sins?

Do you wish to be part of God’s family?

God’s grace covered both Judah and Tamar’s sin and gave them a place in the Messiah's family.  Tamar is 1 of 4 women recorded in the lineage of Jesus.  “Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar” – Matt. 1:3.  God’s grace is greater than all our sins.  His grace shines clearly in this story of a pagan woman named Tamar.  His grace extends to all people who like Tamar want to be part of God’s family.

Principle:  God works in the worst circumstances of our lives to accomplish His purposes and to transform our character.

Sometimes we wonder why some of these stories are in God’s Word.  We have to remember it’s the ultimate story about God and His grace.  Tamar’s story is used by God to continue the line of the birth of our Savior.  Remember He is working with very imperfect humans to ccomplish His will, purpose and mission for His glory and for our salvation. 

This story is a reminder of how depraved and wicked we are and how completely gracious God is.  The story is a reminder that God’s plans will always be done and that He doesn’t chose anyone based on their own merit.  He chose an idolatrous man to begin a nation in Abraham.  He chose a greedy, brother-selling whoremonger man in Judah who is both father and grandfather to be the ancestor of King Jesus.

If we are saved and call ourselves a Christian, it’s not because of anything we did to deserve it.   We are greedy, idolatrous, selfish prostitutes and whoremongers.  Yet God reaches down from heaven with His sovereign grace and saves us anyway.

God is for all, no matter what we’ve done or where we’ve been.  He loves us.  We can come to Him in the middle of our sin and be made clean.  God saves us and restores us to a right, holy relationship with Him.  There is nothing you have done that God hasn’t seen or that will keep you from coming to Him with a sincere heart that longs for Him.  He will meet you right where you are and restore you to Himself.  So what are you waiting for?  He’s waiting for you.

Join me here next week for the next chapter in Genesis.  -- I encourage you to trust in Jesus.

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Genesis 34 - 36

Genesis 34:1-31 – Trouble in Shechem

God’s desires for his people to be holy and live separate from the world.  Shechem was prominent city and not where Jacob was supposed to be.  He had traveled over 500 miles and had only 50 miles to go to Bethel, where God told him to go.  He bought land and settled there in Shechem for 10 years.  Delayed obedience is disobedience and outside God’s will.  It was a land of wicked and sinful people and a land of idol worshippers.  Jacob’s family was under great influence from Shechem.  In chapter 34 there is no mention of God, only evil.

Jacob did the very same thing Lot had done.  Lot settled in Sodom and we know what kind of place that was.  One day Jacob and Leah’s daughter, Dinah went to visit the women in the city of Shechem.  It was probably an alluring place as the world is today for our children even those from Christian homes.  A man named Shechem (who had the same name as the city) let his lust get the best of him and he raped Dinah.  “When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.” – Gen. 34:2.  The scripture was clear.  She was raped.  This might have been avoided, if she had not been allowed to go there alone.  It was very dangerous in that day for women to be alone.  Shechem had no sense of doing anything wrong.  It was their culture to take what they wanted.   

Then Shechem wanted to marry Dinah, but he needed her family’s approval.  His father, Hamor after seeing Jacob and all his wealth, wanted his people to intermarry with Jacob’s people.  Her brothers, Simeon and Levi became very anger when they heard about what had happened to Dinah.  They let their emotions get out of control and took matters into their own hands.  They made a cruel plot pretending Shechem could marry Dinah and all their daughters could intermarry with the men of Shechem.  First, all the men had to be circumcised.  The men agreed.  While the men were still hurting and could not fight, Simeon and Levi attacked them killing every man and looted the city.  They took their flocks and carried off all their wealth including their women and children.  The men, women and children of the town were innocent and not responsible for what happened to Dinah. 

Principle:  Settling outside God’s will engages with evil and endangers others.

The people of God were behaving just like the people around them.  What Jacob’s sons did was very wrong, but two wrongs don’t make a right.  What Shechem did was nothing compared to the brutality of Jacob‘s sons.  They used their religion to trick and slaughter, loot their goods and take their wives and children as slaves.  All this could have been avoided if Jacob had gone to Bethel as God had told him and not stayed gone to Shechem.  God wants us to separate ourselves from the world and not live as the world lives. – 2 Cor. 6:17-18.

Jacob was unhappy about his son’s behavior, because they had acted wickedly.  Jacob’s family was not using their special identity as God’s people.  Now Jacob’s whole family was in danger.  Jacob’s sons did not respect God by using circumcision to their advantage.  They used it to take revenge instead of using it as a covenant with God.      

God’s judgment to Simeon and Levi was revealed on Jacob’s deathbed in Genesis 49.  They didn’t escape the consequences of their evil, but would suffer judgment.  They were cursed and would receive no inheritance.  They would be scattered throughout Israel.  However, later the Levites moved into obedience to God, but still had no inherited land.  They became Israel’s tribe of priests.

No one in this story was innocent.  Dinah let her desires lure her to visit the sinful city alone, which was a dangerous thing to do.  Hamor and Shechem wronged her.  Jacob should have done more about the situation, but he seemed more worried about his own safety.  The behavior of Simeon and Levi was the worst.  They were very angry and took revenge.  They were cruel to the men in Shechem and then murdered them.  They certainly didn’t behave like people of God.

Jacob’s sons took revenge for what happened to Dinah.  God’s people should not take revenge.  That’s God’s job.  “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” – Rom. 12:17-19.  It’s not a sin to be angry.  It’s how you handle it that can become sin.

Where are you compromising God’s Word?

How are you resisting the world?

How is disobedience compromising your family?

When someone wrongs you, do you take revenge or do you leave it for God? 

Do you take polite revenge?

Do you do what is right in the eyes of others?                                                         

Genesis 35:1-15 – Renewal by Repentance

There are murdered people everywhere, Dinah is violated and Jacob is silent.  They didn’t deserve God’s grace, but God remained faithful to Jacob and his family line.  God wanted to pull Jacob out of the pit and restore his relationship with Him.  God reminded Jacob the last time he messed up and Jacob recognized his mistakes.  God gave him 2 commands:  go to Bethel and to settle there and make an altar to Him. 

Jacob served God, but it seems his family did not.  They used idols.  Before they went to Bethel Jacob told them,   “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.” – Gen 35:2.  They had to choose between God and their idols.  So they gave them up and repented.  They all journeyed to Bethel.  God’s pure grace protected and preserved Jacob and his family by sending terror to the towns all around them so no one would pursue them for the wrong his sons had done.

We all have idols whether we realize it or not.  An idol can be anything we desire in place of God.  Where you spend most of your time, money and energy can be an idol.  It could be your job, your children, your hobbies, your money or your pleasure.  “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” – 1 John 5:21. 

What do you need to be cleansed of?

Where do you spend most of your time?

What is keeping you from recognizing your idols?

Have you repented of your sins?

If so, how has God blessed you?

When Jacob returned to Bethel we read that Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah had died. (Gen. 35:8)  Why are we told about the woman?  We don’t know why she is mentioned other than she was a lifetime loyal servant to the family.  She had been with Rebekah since birth.  She traveled with her when she went to marry Isaac.  She was highly regarded by the whole family.

Maybe we’re told about her because servants of all kinds are very important.  Servants must be truthful, faithful, and obedient.  Christians are servants for God and have a sense of responsibility to God which makes us willingly to do His work.  If that describes you, you are special.  Are you a faithful servant to God?  Jesus is called the Servant of the Lord.  When Jesus came to earth, He took on the role of a servant.  He had come to serve and to give his life as a ransom many. (Matt. 20:28)

God appeared to Jacob again and blessed him.  God re-established His covenant promise and reminded him of his new name, Israel.  Jacob set up a stone pillar and worshipped God as He had been directed.  What a contrast from chapter 34 and 35 – from evil to God’s grace.  When Jacob was at his lowest, God called his name to come back to Him.  Jesus came to earth to pay the price for our sins.  His death gives us salvation from sin and power over sin.  We all sin and when we fall, God desires us to come back to Him.

Principle:  Repentance results in a fresh revelation of God.

Sometime it’s difficult to understand God’s purposes for Jacob.  Why was he so special?  He was a deceiver, a liar, a scheming scoundrel and missed up time and again.  In spite of his repeated failures, God renewed His covenant with him.  God delights in giving grace to great sinners.  He loves to save people out of brokenness and chaos so He can get all the glory.  God still chooses people like Jacob.  He chose you and me so He will gain all the glory in Jesus Christ.

If you have fallen in your faith, it’s not too late to return.  God is there waiting for you.  He loves you and misses you very much.  There is nothing you have done or can do that will turn away God’s forgiveness.  So get out of you spiritual slump and get encouraged from God’s Word.  It may not be easy, but you can take refuge in the help of God.

Genesis 35:16-29 – Deaths of Rachel and Isaac 

Rachel gave birth to another son, Benjamin and then she died.  Benjamin was the only son born in the Promise Land.  Reuben, the oldest son wanted to be the next family leader and grab the family inheritance so he had sex with Bilhah who was Jacob’s concubine.  Jacob knew this was wrong, but he could not control his adult sons.  Jacob decided Reuben must not receive the birthright.  Instead, he gave it to Joseph.

Then Jacob’s final sorrow is the death of his father, Isaac.   Isaac lives 180 years.  I am sure Jacob bore these heartaches with a renewed trust in God.

This family was dysfunctional, like many families today.  But God through His amazing grace works through it all to forgive and bring us to Jesus.  This is very encouraging to know that we don’t have to be perfect.  God loves us in spite of our mistakes.

Principle:  God calls believers to separate our hearts from the world so we resemble Him to the world.

What do you need to resist the world in your life?

How will you pray for your family and your future descendants? 

While we were still sinners He died for us.  We need to trust every Word of God.  He knows more than we do and He knows us.  Because of His resurrection, we have all we need to live a holy life.  He’s calling your name.

Genesis 36:1-43 – Esau’s Descendants

There are now 2 distinct people – Edomites and the Israelites.  The Edomites, Esau’s descendants were godless and lived lives of idolatry.  The Israelites, Jacob’s descendants worshiped God.  The Edomites and the Israelites were enemies.

This chapter is about Esau’s generations.  Reading this chapter makes one think why is this in the Bible.  It’s just a bunch of names that mean nothing to us.  Esau was a successful man and very prosperous and powerful.  But he failed where it most mattered, with God.

I think this chapter was written to contrast Esau’s life with Jacob’s life.  It shows us two roads.  A road of earthly success, fame, and power; and the road of obedience to God’s will.  Esau’s family was outwardly attractive, but God was not a part of it.  Jacob/Israel followed God and Esau did not.  Material prosperity doesn’t equal spiritual prosperity and temporary fame doesn’t equal eternal recognition by God.  Esau’s success and famous name isn’t used much and doesn’t mean anything today, but Israel’s name is used almost daily.

We know that Jesus was a descendant of Jacob.  In preparing for this post, I learned something new as I tend to do each week.  One of Esau’s descendants was Herod.  Herod’s father was an Edomite whose ancestors had converted to Judaism and Herod was raised as a Jew.  Jesus went to the cross, while Herod with all his power and fame relaxed in his luxurious palace.

Principle:  Material prosperity doesn’t equal spiritual prosperity and temporary fame doesn’t equal eternal recognition by God.

Join me here next week for the next chapter in Genesis.  -- I encourage you to trust in Jesus.

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