When the men who lived there asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “They will kill me to get her, because she is so beautiful.” But some time later, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah. Immediately, Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is obviously your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” “Because I was afraid someone would kill me to get her from me,” Isaac replied. “How could you do this to us?” Abimelech exclaimed. “One of my people might easily have taken your wife and slept with her, and you would have made us guilty of great sin.” Then Abimelech issued a public proclamation: “Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death!” Genesis 26:7-11
Dear God, I liked the commentary I heard this morning about this story regarding Isaac and Rebekah. As I was sitting in my typical judgment over Isaac for his weakness, lack of faith, etc., the commentator asked how many times we repeat either the mistakes of those who came before us or even the same mistakes we’ve already made? How many times do I lose my faith and fall into my own traps?
One of the biggest things I worry about is the mistake(s) I make unknowingly. The harm I do without realizing it.
Father, this is a short and easy prayer today. Help me to not do any harm today. Lead me not into temptation. Help me to see it and embrace you with all that I have. Deliver me from evil, please, Lord.
6 The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
7 The descendants of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush was also the ancestor of Nimrod, who was the first heroic warrior on earth. 9 Since he was the greatest hunter in the world, his name became proverbial. People would say, “This man is like Nimrod, the greatest hunter in the world.” 10 He built his kingdom in the land of Babylonia, with the cities of Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh. 11 From there he expanded his territory to Assyria, building the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, 12 and Resen (the great city located between Nineveh and Calah).
Genesis 10:6-12
Dear God, I wanted to follow up this morning on Noah’s curse of Ham and see how it ended up. I couldn’t remember. My assumption was that Moses, in recording all of this in writing, was using the curse story to explain the subjugation of Ham’s descendants over the millennia, but from going through this passage, it looks like Ham’s first several generations of descendants did just fine. In fact, they became quite powerful and influential.
I know that there is probably an interpretation of all of this that I don’t get. In fact, every passage I read is an English interpretation of a text written by someone in a different culture with different paradigms for life. Everything I process is an incomplete interpretation of the story because no one today can completely understand what it was like back then, why stories were handed down the way they were, or why Moses recorded them the way he recorded them.
Father, use the collected scripture you have provided to me to speak to me and teach me. Let your Holy Spirit whisper in my ear and guide me into submitting myself before you and knowing you better. Help me to be exactly the man you need me to be for the people in my life. Let your kingdom come into the world through me.
After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked. When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: “May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.” Then Noah said, “May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant! May God expand the territory of Japheth! May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.” Genesis 9:20-27
Dear God, I was looking at this passage today and I came up with a controversial take on it. Is this a case where Noah was wrong in cursing Ham? Did he overreact out of shame? Was there more to their relationship than this story tells? Did Ham do the wrong thing? Sure. Was he disrespectful and mean? You bet. Did his actions deserve the curse of eternal slavery for him and his descendants? Well, that seems a little harsh.
I heard a teaching on this passage that I completely disagreed with. In fact, I’m not even going to repeat it here because I thought it was so ridiculous. But I think the person or people who came up with the theory were doing their best to justify Noah’s response to Ham instead of entertaining the idea that Noah made a mistake. The Bible’s forefathers made mistakes all of the time. Some of them were called out, but maybe all of them weren’t. Maybe some are just there for us to make our own judgment. Kind of like I’ve talked about with the disciples taking it upon themselves to appoint Mathias as Judas’s successor instead of waiting for you to bring Paul into the fold.
Father, I guess the point is that I make all of these mistakes too. I overreact. I make mistakes. Please keep my mistakes from reverberating too much through history. Help the dominoes that knock over because of my mistakes be few, and restore them to your original plan and design. And when I make the mistakes, make me quick to repent and redeem what I have done.
3 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.
Genesis 3:1-6
Dear God, I was thinking about this story this morning and wondering about the oral tradition of it being handed down. Why is it told the way it is told? So I’m going to make some assumptions here. Two key ones, really. Assumption #1: Moses wrote this thousands of years after it happened. Assumption #2: It’s an accurate version of what Adam and Even first shared with Seth and their other children with nothing being changed over the millennia.
So what did Adam and Eve share about this experience? Why did they tell the story this way. I guess I really don’t know why they said what they said about it, but the apparently communicated that the serpent first approached Eve even though Adam was apparently standing right there. Was this significant? Was Eve perhaps a little more precocious than Adam? Could he have just as well have approached Adam first? We will never know. But the order of events does seem to play into the “curse” God gives later.
16 Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.[c]”
17 And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. 19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:16-19
Funny, but I just noticed something in this curse. For Adam, it was an indefinite curse of the ground. For Eve, however, you pointedly say that it is about her relationship with Adam. I suppose I would also point out (and I heard this point from Baylor professor Beth Allison Barr in her book The Making of Biblical Womanhood) that apparently women being subject to men was not part of the created order. You did not design my relationship with my wife to be a dominant/submissive one. Your perfect created order was for us to be truly partners and equal with each other. Isn’t it interesting that, as men (and some women), we have taken this passage of a curse as a justification for male dominance instead of seeing it for what it really is: against the created order.
Father, I don’t want to be domineering over my wife, and I don’t want her to dominate me. That’s a hard thing to pull off in any relationship because, more often than not, one spouse will be more dominant in personality than the other. Frankly, in our marriage, I have the more dominant personality. So it is up to me to submit to and strive to bring our marriage and relationship back to your perfect created order as much as possible. So help me to do that. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear. Help me to be exactly the husband and father you need me to be.
Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway. At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord , the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!” The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz. Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.” Genesis 28:10-2
Dear God, it is hard to make the decision to worship you as our father worships you. Well, that’s not quite right. Let me put it this way. At some point, each of us has to make a decision. In this case, Jacob had wanted his father’s blessing that came from you, the God his father served, but judging from the ultimatum Jacob laid out at the end of this passage, he really didn’t have any intention of serving you until this experience. You weren’t yet his God.
At some point, my grandfather had to make a decision about following you. He had to do it for himself. I wish I had asked him about his faith while he was alive. I went to church with him and my grandmother. I saw him sing in the choir. I went to a Bible study with both of them once when I was in college. I know they went to at least one retreat at a Christian retreat center. But I don’t know much about his personal relationship with you or his journey to being your child. I don’t know his testimony.
I do, however, know my dad’s testimony and how he had to wrestle with you before he submitted. And I know my own testimony. Mine wasn’t as much of a wrestling as a seeking. When someone would tel me about the fruits of the Spirit you offer through submitted relationship (along with the fire insurance from hell), I wanted it. I was willing to give up my will for yours. At least in the moment. It seems I continuously struggle to take back piece of self-indulgence that I’ve surrendered to you. But I’m still here, working out my faith day by day.
Now it’s my children’s turn to figure it out for themselves. They are grown. And I’ve seen them each respond to life and to you differently. I’m reminded of when my grandmother (father’s mother) used to tell me that she just wanted her three sons to be “fine Christian men.” I’m sure that’s what Abraham wanted for Isaac and Ishmael (well, maybe Godly since “Christian” didn’t exist yet). I’m sure that’s what Isaac wanted for Esau and Jacob. And now, this passage shows a step Jacob was taking in that journey.
Father, my grandfather has completed his journey. Help his sons on theirs. Help their children on theirs (including me on mine). And help the children of this next generation. Give visions. Beckon. Inspire. Convict. Whatever it takes. Do it for all of our sakes and for your glory.
After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This is the account of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. But Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth, while his father, Terah, was still living. Meanwhile, Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. (Milcah and her sister Iscah were daughters of Nahor’s brother Haran.) But Sarai was unable to become pregnant and had no children. One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there. Terah lived for 205 years and died while still in Haran. The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
Genesis 11:26-12:4
Dear God, maybe we aren’t as great as we think we are. Maybe, sometimes, we are just convenient to your plan.
It’s interesting that Genesis doesn’t really give us any great insights into why you chose Abram. I imagine it had something to do with the fact that he was pretty much willing to do any weird thing you asked him to do.
Leave your family and go where I tell you (to be disclosed later). Okay
Listen to Sarah and send Hagar and Ishmael off to seemingly die. Okay.
Sacrifice your son on an altar to me. Sure.
I would imagine that the people around Abram/Abraham thought he was pretty weird. A religious zealot. But you gave him credibility through the blessings you gave him so I would imagine that was enough reason for the people around him to go along with him.
Is everything I just typed heresy? I don’t know. Maybe. But then I think of Paul. It certainly wasn’t his love for Jesus or goodness that made you call him. It was his zeal that you knew you could redeem and redirect for your purposes (is that more heresy?). Samson? Well, Samson was just a mess of a person, but certainly your person for a specific time. It certainly wasn’t his goodness or love for justice and mercy that earned him your favor. Jacob? A scoundrel if ever there was one, but you had some specific plan for this clan spawned by Abram through Isaac and Ishmael. Thousands of years later, and these are the two dominant religions in the world.
It makes me think of a Rich Mullins song called “Who God is Gonna Use.”
As part of the intro to this YouTube video he said, “Some people say, ‘Rich, don’t you feel like a phony talking about Christ?’ And I say, ‘No, I don’t because I don’t believe Christ loves me because I’m good.'” Then he goes on to sing about all of these people in the Bible you used about whom there was nothing particularly Godly. Balaam’s donkey. Pharaoh’s daughter who found Moses. Esther. Pilate.
So what’s my point in all of this? I think it’s that I can let go of any search for significance and rest assured that whatever significance you want my life to have you can accomplish with or without my decision to be significant. My job is to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love my neighbor as myself. I’m called to do that because you deserve that. As to my worth in your kingdom, one day you will hold me accountable for what I did or didn’t do with my life.
“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Matthew 25:31-40
I’ll admit that I don’t try to solve every problem I see. I don’t think there is any way that I possibly can. But then again, that is why you have the body of Christ and not just me. My job is to be sensitive to what you are calling me to do.
Father, give me ears to hear and eyes to see. Help me to not embrace my own posterity, but to embrace you. Help me to also see others through your eyes. Help me to not judge. To not assign a “kingdom value” to them. I would have totally discounted Abram, Jacob, and Samson. There are national leaders whom I discount now. I definitely have my opinions about who should win the next election for president, and I will vote that way, but I can also recognize that I don’t know your heart on this and I will trust that you are working out a greater plan that I cannot see even if it looks on the surface like we are taking two steps backward.
So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110. He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manasseh’s son Makir, whom he claimed as his own. “Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.” So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Genesis 50:22-26
Dear God, this is a brief chance to see Joseph as a father. It’s actually our second glimpse. The first was when Jacob blessed them, but ignored their birth order and it upset Joseph. Then it talks about him seeing his great grandchildren born. It paints a picture of interest in his children, their children, and their children.
We don’t get any stories about the boys, good or bad, so it’s hard to know, but Genesis certainly isn’t shy about telling us the ugly part of their lives. That’s why I kind of get the impression that things turned out alright for Joseph as a father. First, I don’t know how many wives he had (or daughters), but it appears he only had the two boys so it’s not like he was just having tons of kids by tons of women (that we know of). I don’t know. I’m doing A LOT of inferring here, but Joseph seemed to live a reasonably controlled life that made room for loving his family (children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren) and also his brothers. And he also lived a life of forgiveness, choosing to not punish his brothers for what they did to him.
Father, I don’t know that there is really anything I can take from Joseph as a father and apply to my life, but it is refreshing to see one of these guys seem to care about the development of his children and how their lives turn out for their own sake and not his. As I get into Exodus, I’ll start with Moses’s mother and go from there. It will be interesting to see any parents of note that I haven’t considered before. In the meantime, please help me to be the father, husband, brother, son, etc. that you need me to be for my own family.
Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel. “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it. “Simeon and Levi are brothers— their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. “Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk. “Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend toward Sidon. “Issachar is a rawboned donkey lying down among the sheep pens. When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor. “Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward. “I look for your deliverance, Lord. “Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels. “Asher’s food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king. “Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns. “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.” All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him. Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.” When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
Genesis 49
Dear God, it is an interesting to consciously choose to curse some of your children (and seemingly their descendants as well). I mean, who does that? That can’t be a sign of good parenting, right?
I also notice that Jacob seems to have completely embraced the idea that the rights of the firstborn are NOT absolute. Again, maybe this is because he was the second-born child and he took his brother’s birthright and blessing. His father, Isaac, was second-born to Ishmael and had taken his brother’s blessing. Now, he actually had a grudge against Reuben so he kind of let him have it. Then he showed he still remembered how Simeon and Levi slaughtered that town in the name of defending their sister’s honor and he cursed them as well. That brought the first positive blessing to Judah, the fourth-born son. I suppose what I should probably do is break the blessings down by who the mother was. There are four mothers here (as I recall). Was their a difference in how he looked at his son based on their mother?
Leah
Reuben – Bad blessing
Simeon – Bad blessing
Levi – Bad blessing
Judah – Good blessing
Issachar (born after Asher) – Good blessing
Zebulun (born after Issachar) – Good blessing
Bilhah (Rachel’s servant (slave?))
Dan – Good blessing
Naphtali – Good blessing
Zilpah (Leah’s servant (slave?))
Gad – Medium blessing
Asher – Good blessing
Rachel
Joseph – Good blessing
Benjamin (Rachel died in childbirth) – Good blessing
Hmm. That’s interesting. Only the first three got bad “blessings,” if you want to call them that. Gad’s was okay, but he has to be attacked first. When I just read them through, it felt like there was more negativity than that, but, no, it was limited to the first three, with whom Jacob had a specific beef. And, going back to an earlier prayer about him and his fathering, his problems seemed to center more on how the boys’ actions impacted him than whether they were right or wrong. The thing about Reuben and the concubine is interesting. It gets half of one verse (Gen 35:22a – While he was living there Reuben had intercourse with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Jacob soon heard about it.” This is right after Rachel died in childbirth with Benjamin and Bilhah had been Rachel’s slave. I wonder if Reuben thought she was unimportant to Jacob because Rachel was dead. Who knows? But it doesn’t say that Jacob did anything about it at the time. It seems that he waited until this moment to blast him with it. Not very good parenting.
Father, my dad had a friend who used to say, “Everyone has a purpose in life, even if it’s to serve as a bad example.” Well, I have to tell you, God, I don’t think much of the example that Jacob was for us. He lied and cheated. He was passive aggressive and selfish. He didn’t mind showing all of his boys who his favorites were. He held grudges. I have to say, it’s hard for me to see how he compares favorably with Esau. But there it is. You used him. You used him to build a nation. You used him to shape the world, an influence that continues to this day, thousands of years later. So thank you that I don’t have to be perfect to be used by you. Thank you that you just ask me to love you and do my best and then work around when I fail. Thank you for the redemption you offer me as a Gentile. I am very grateful.
And they left Egypt and returned to their father, Jacob, in the land of Canaan. “Joseph is still alive!” they told him. “And he is governor of all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned at the news—he couldn’t believe it. But when they repeated to Jacob everything Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, their father’s spirits revived. Then Jacob exclaimed, “It must be true! My son Joseph is alive! I must go and see him before I die.” So Jacob set out for Egypt with all his possessions. And when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. During the night God spoke to him in a vision. “Jacob! Jacob!” he called. “Here I am,” Jacob replied. “I am God, the God of your father,” the voice said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make your family into a great nation. I will go with you down to Egypt, and I will bring you back again. You will die in Egypt, but Joseph will be with you to close your eyes.” So Jacob left Beersheba, and his sons took him to Egypt. They carried him and their little ones and their wives in the wagons Pharaoh had provided for them. They also took all their livestock and all the personal belongings they had acquired in the land of Canaan. So Jacob and his entire family went to Egypt— The total number of Jacob’s direct descendants who went with him to Egypt, not counting his sons’ wives, was sixty-six. In addition, Joseph had two sons who were born in Egypt. So altogether, there were seventy members of Jacob’s family in the land of Egypt. As they neared their destination, Jacob sent Judah ahead to meet Joseph and get directions to the region of Goshen. And when they finally arrived there, Joseph prepared his chariot and traveled to Goshen to meet his father, Jacob. When Joseph arrived, he embraced his father and wept, holding him for a long time. Finally, Jacob said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen your face again and know you are still alive.” Then Joseph brought in his father, Jacob, and presented him to Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. “How old are you?” Pharaoh asked him. Jacob replied, “I have traveled this earth for 130 hard years. But my life has been short compared to the lives of my ancestors.” Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before leaving his court.
Genesis 45:25-46:6,26-30,47:7-10
Dear God, the story sort of skips over this part, but I wonder what the conversation was like among the brothers as they returned to Jacob. They were going to have to tell him what they did: “Uh, Dad. Yeah. Well. Remember Joseph? Remember how we told you that he had been eaten by a wild animal? Well, that wasn’t really true. As it turns out, we sold him as a slave to some Ishmaelites–you remember Uncle Ishmael? Anyway, apparently, Joseph is now the governor of Egypt so it’s all good!”
As for Jacob, it doesn’t seem that it mattered much what had happened. His son was alive! I told a group the other night that one thing that surprised me about being a parent was how easy I found it to forgive my children. It gave me a picture of your love for me in a new way. For Jacob, he had his boy back. He had all 12 boys (including Simeon). And now there was hope for his future.
Father, thank you for the experience of fatherhood. Thank you for teaching me so much through my children–both through being a father and what you have taught me through them as individuals. Thank you for growing and stretching me through my wife and partnering with her through this as well. It hasn’t always been easy, but you have really used all of them to shape me and mold me. I believe I’m better and certainly more humble for the experience. Do with me what you will.
In Jesus’s name I pray,
Amen
P.S. I guess I should mention that Jacob agreed to leave his homeland to be closer to his son that could care for him and he allowed Joseph to have that role in his life. That couldn’t have been easy. Help me to be willing to be that humble when my time comes.
So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?” Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.” He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave. ” So his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
Genesis 37:28-36
Dear God, isn’t it interesting that it was Ishmaelites (their second-cousins) that ended up taking Joseph? But I digress.
Jacob’s life of deception and selfishness catches up to him with the story of Joseph. What’s going to be interesting is how you’re going to use all of this as part of an unusual plan to build Israel as a nation that lasts to this day. But it’s also interesting that the Ishmaelites last to this day as well, I’m seemingly larger numbers. But I digress again.
Jacob’s response to Joseph’s loss is pretty typical for a father. I suppose it’s good that Rachel wasn’t around to experience this deception. I’ll bet it was frustrating for the brothers to not realize any of the benefits they hoped to gain from Joseph’s disappearance. Yes, they got rid of the annoyance, but they certainly didn’t get anymore love from their dad. In fact, he went into mourning, and they took away any annoyance that Jacob had with Joseph.
Father, once again there is freedom in this story for me. Your plan for Abraham’s offspring was Jacob-proof. It was also beyond what his sons could screw up. If this is true, it is probably true for me as well. Well, my life is dedicated to you as best I know how, so I will live in the faith that anything I see that isn’t according to my plan is ultimately part of yours.
Emails to God 