Patriarchal Chronology Leading to Joseph

Transcript

GRS 2-10
1/30/2010
Patriarchal Chronology Leading to Joseph
Genesis 36-37
Gil Rugh

We are on the Book of Genesis and we are about Chapter 36 and are moving through an overview of the patriarchal period and I thought this would be a good time and some of you have asks about some matters related to chronology. So I want to take a little bit of time and just establish something of the dates of the patriarchs and it’s remarkable how specific we can be on the dates of the patriarchs. One of the clearest dated periods of time for us really that helps us to get a balance. We are about 2,000 years After Christ. And the patriarchal period begins about 2,000 years Before Christ. Little before that, but Abraham is about 2,000 BC. So we see a certain balance with where we are.

When look at the chronology; a man named Edwin Thiele has done the foundational work entitled “The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings.” We have that at Sound Words and if you really into sorting through numbers and so on, he has the work on dating the Hebrew kings of the Bible. Now I mention that because his work becomes foundational for establishing the dates we will work from. He has established the date for the end of Solomon’s reign as 931 BC that is pretty universally accepted at least among evangelical scholars. So we do not really have a debate on that. There may be a years or so difference on some of the dates I am going to give you, but there is general agreement 931 BC is the end of Solomon’s 40-year reign and when the kingdom is divided under his son. So we work back from there.

Turn to First Kings Chapter 6 verse 1. First Kings Chapter 6, now we have our foundational date 931 BC. That’s when Solomon’s 40-year reign as king came to an end. Now in First Kings Chapter 6 verse 1, we are talking about Solomon beginning to build the temple, but note what verse 1 says; now it came about in the 480th year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the 4th year of Solomon’s reign over Israel. So he begins the temple in the 4th year of his reign and that was 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt. That establishes the Exodus in 1445 or 1446 BC and I will be following the 1446 chronology because those are the dates I have picked up to use John Wickham charts and so on. He will use 1445 and the difference is do you include the year or do you operate up to that year that makes the difference, you get into that of you want. But you can see where 1445-1446 BC, we are going Before Christ. So we add the 480 years to the 4th year of Solomon’s reign and we get to 1446.

Now go to Exodus Chapter 12, we have established the date of the Exodus 1446, the date we use. Now go to Exodus Chapter 12 and verse 14. Now the time that the son’s of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years, at the end of the 430 years to the very day. All the host of the Lord went out from the land from Egypt. Now we know that the Exodus occurred in 1446 BC and Israel was in Egypt for 430 years. So we add 430 more years on and we are 1875-1876. We will use the 1876 date. We consistent with 1446, is when Jacob and his family arrived in Egypt. Now Joseph was there earlier, remember. But it’s when Jacob brought his family down in to Egypt that marks when Israel and that all there is to Israel, the family of Jacob at that time begins their sojourn in Egypt. So now we have too clearly established dates. We have the date of the Exodus at 1446 BC and we have the date of Jacob going down into Egypt to join Joseph in 1876 BC. So now I have a list of dates and these came from an article in Bib Sac in 1980 article done by Eugene Merrill. Some of you accessed that kind of material on the internet. We also have a book by him Kingdom of Priests, which is a History of the Old Testament. He doesn’t add this particular chart in there, I don’t believe, but he has very helpful information on the chronology.

We have established 1876 as the date when Jacob went down into Egypt. Now we are told in Genesis Chapter 47 that Jacob was 130 years old when he went down into Egypt. So we say well, then we can find out when Jacob was born. You add 130 years to the 1876 date and you have Jacob born in 2006 BC. And Jacob and Esau are twins, so we know when Esau was born as well. So here is the birth of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 verse 26. You see how we are working back in once they give us a date. We know Jacob went down into Egypt in 1876 and the Bible tells us he was 130 years old. Well, even I can add that up, although I have taken his numbers to just to be sure. And we have now the date for the birth of Jacob. And we know that Jacob’s father Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born. And that is found in Genesis 25:26 that Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob and Esau were born, so you add 60 to 2006 and now we know that Isaac was born in 2066, the birth of Isaac 2066. You say we can come to some pretty definite date for these individuals.

Now how old was Abraham when Isaac was born. Abraham was 100 years old. So you add 100 to 2066 and Abraham was born 2166 years Before Christ. So we have the birth of Abraham in 2166. So we have now a series of dates to anchor everything else on. Put the birth of Terah here. Eugene Merrill has it in his chronology because we can establish that it’s a little trickier, that is the good word to use, takes a little more comparison. We are told at the end of Genesis of 11 that at 70 years of age, Terah had his three sons. Now the indication would be that he didn’t have all these three sons the same year. They weren’t triplets. But evidently when he was 70, that’s when his sons began to be born, the first of them was born. Abraham is listed first there, then called Abram, but he was not the first born. But since he is the most prominent, he is listed first.

Now in verse 32 of Genesis of 11 we are told that Terah died when he was 205 year old, that’s the father of Abraham. His father died when he was 205. In the Book of Acts, Chapter 7 verse 4 Stephen says that Abraham left Haran when his father died. And we were told in Genesis that Abraham was 75 years old. So in other words, he was born when his father Terah was 130 because his father died when he was 205, and when his father died, Abraham left Haran and he was 75 years old, when he left Haran following the death of his father at 205. So Terah was 130 when Abraham was born. So we come do a date of 2296 for the birth of Abraham’s father. And that’s about as far back as we can go precisely and accurately establishing the dates. And we are not going to go into the issues in chronology. Some of you have a copy of the Genesis Flood by Whitcomb and Morris. And they have a great appendix in there on the problem of dates before Terah in that period of time, after the flood, and up the Terah.

And you have gaps in the genealogy and other issues that have to be taken into consideration assure chronology. This is in many of our Bibles, particularly order editions. He just added all the dates in the genealogies. The problem is we know there are significant gaps in those genealogies, so their other issues that have to be taken into consideration. So for example, I believe Whitcomb and Morris in that appendix in the Genesis Flood say there could be as many as 3,000 to 5,000 years after the flood to the time of Abraham. But you can read that, we are only interested for our purposes right now in establishing some of these dates for the patriarchs. You can establish when he married Hagar, when Ishmael was born because we were told Abraham was 86 when Ishmael was born; he married Hagar as a concubine wife the year before. So by these dates we establish those facts, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah happens before the birth of Isaac.

So some of these dates get somewhat established for us and you have the marriage of Isaac because we were told how would Isaac was when he was married. So if you want to go through, you go through the Old Testament. You can add these out for yourselves. We have two lists there. We are really going from 2296 BC down to 1806 with the death of Joseph. But that’s how you establish the chronology of this period. You are starting basically with 931 as the year in which Solomon’s reign ended. We know he reigned for 40 years, though you had First Kings Chapter 6 verse 1 and then you had Exodus Chapter 12 verses 40 and 41, we are told that from the time that Jacob took his family down into Egypt until the Exodus was 430 years. So we established those anchor dates and worked back as I have shown you on that. So it gives you an idea of some of the dates. So when usually we talk about the Abraham, we say well he was around 2,000 years Before Christ and Abraham died in 1991 BC. We know that because we are told how old Abraham was when he died in Genesis Chapter 25. We know when he was born, then we know the date of his death. Something you might note why you have these dates on there is we are going to be looking at Joseph shortly.

In 1899, Joseph was sold by his brothers into Egypt. And I want you to know here. Joseph was sold in 1899. His grandfather Isaac does not die till 1886. So he lives for 13 years after Joseph was sold into Egypt, even though he is dropped out of the picture. Remember Isaac is the father of Jacob who was the father of Joseph. So there are a lot of family things not mentioned. Now Isaac will die before Jacob goes down, 10 years before Jacob takes his family down into Egypt. But he is alive when Joseph is sold. He would have been there when the brothers came back and said that Joseph must have been killed by a wild animal and experienced something of the grief of Jacob over the loss of this son and for 13 years he lives assuming and then dies assuming the Joseph ad just been killed by wild animals. It was not the case. Sometimes it is interesting because these figures drop out when they have played the role that is significant in moving the history along and that they may be continuing and their life is necessarily over. We noted that a number of years before it actually took place.

Chapter 35 recorded the death of Isaac in verse 29 and we are told in verse 28 he was 180 years old when he died. So you know that those dates had help us to establish, you know what is the year. But he does not die here remember. Isaac’s role is really finished. So you have a summary of the rest of his life and he is going to die when he is 180 years old. But he is not going to die for a number of years. You note Chapter 36 just gives you something of parenthetical explanation of Esau and then Chapter 37, we will pick up with Jacob and Joseph again. So we know about the year where we are and Isaac has about 13 years yet to live, but here you have an historical note when he died.

Now Chapter 36 is going to talk about Esau. He is not a major player as far as the history of Israel, in the sense he is not in the line of promise. The line of promise comes to Jacob, but his family is important because those who come from Esau and the families that are going to come from him are going to become the enemies of Israel in their future history and it became a real problem for them through the rest of the Old Testament. There is going to be a stress in Chapter 36 that Esau is Edom. Remember0 another name for Esau was Edom and he is red. And we saw where Mount Seir was, the region of Edom down on the western side of the Dead Sea and then down below that, becomes region of the Edomites and they become a major enemy of Israel. Obadiah, the prophet ruled his prophesy against Edom for their treatment of Israel and so on.

Okay, Chapter 36 verse 1 opens up. Now these are the records of the generation of Esau that is Edom because we don’t have the Esauites, but we do have the Edomites. So we don’t want to forget tat Esau and Edom are the same, the name for the same person. And so the Edomites are the descendants of Esau, and there will be other people involved as well. You note in verses 2 and 3 he took wives from the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon. These are different names than given earlier in Chapter 26 verse 34, Chapter 28 verse 9. It could be these are alternative names and some would suggest that may be his earlier two wives died, I think perhaps more probably that these are alternative names for those two wives.

You have to note that they are different names, it could be those earlier wives died and they were replaced, but it could be as his traditional Esau as Edom and these wives could be identified by other names in their connection. Then talks about who is born to his wives and he prospers. Part of this is God’s plan for Israel’s future and even the development of future enemies is part of God’s plan, everything is in the plan. There Esau has so much that he separates from Jacob his brother verse 7, their properly became too great for them to live together because remember much of their wealth is going to be measured in herds and flocks. So they need to have space. So he moves to the hill country of Seir. And we are told again, the end of verse 8 Esau is Edom. So we go to the hill country of Seir, Mount Seir, to the country of Edom that is the region we are talking about, that we noted on the map down there, bottom of the Dead Sea area.

Then these are the generations, verse 9 of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir, repeated emphasis on who these people really are. Down in verse 16, we are not going to work through all of these. But verse 16 tells us, the third one in Chief Korah, Chief Gatam, and Chief Amalek and you are aware the Malachite are going to become major enemies of the Israelites, play major role along the way. We begin to see some of these people that are going to become a opponents are really from the same line, they are just not in the promise line of God, but the descendents of Esau become major opponents of Israel and as we saw with Ishmael, so we see with Esau that out of the un-promised line of Abraham come many of the enemies of the Israel’s developing history.

The Malachites will attack and oppose Israel in Exodus 17 when they come out of the Exodus. Hezekiah the godly king finally destroys the Malachites. In verse 20, these are the sons of Seir the Horrite. Now remember in verse 9 the Edomites are going to settled in the region of the hill country of Seir. Now we were told in verse 20 these are the sons of Seir the Horrite and these are probably the original settlers of this region of Edom and what happens is the descendents of Esau intermarry with them, intermingle, and intermarry. So they become mixed and part of the descendents of Esau as they are absorbed into Esau’s family and the lines intermingle because of intermarriage. So you have the old name if you will, Mount Seir, the hill country of Seir, which becomes identified with Esau and thus the country of Edom and the Edomites.

In Verse 31, these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel and that was probably written as the materials put together over the years under the direction of spirit, obviously probably somebody writing the even in the days of the monarchy to make a note here that in this period of history they were no kings in Israel, but they were kings in Edom. Though this region is more developed if you will than the children of Israel and in there lines are developed. Now with that overview of the Esau’s family in its rather detailed development, we are going to return to Jacob. So also Chapter 36 is important, but it’s somewhat of a parenthesis in the developing of the promised line, but it is important because it will help explain where some of these future enemies of the Israel have come from and you realize that there are family connections in their history.

Chapter 37, this is the sail of Jacob by his brothers, a remarkable turn of events and you see the sovereign hand of God in caring out his purposes and plans. We saw even among those who do not belong to him with Esau preparing the way for how is going to use those, who will recognized him to worship him. But here in even the unpleasant and we will call the disastrous events of those the God has chosen from himself, God is sovereignly working his purposes. God had revealed to Abraham in Genesis Chapter 15, so all the way back at the beginning. Genesis 15, God had revealed to Abraham that Abraham’s descendents were going to go down into Egypt. Spend 400 years in the Egypt. One of the reasons was the wickedness of the Canaanites was not yet ripe. God was not yet ready to bring final judgment on the Canaanites for their sin. And another reason as we will see in the context as we move along was to preserve and protect his chosen people Israel until them into a mighty nation. He is going to do this in the context of suffering in great trial

So verse 37 picks up. Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned in the land of Canaan. These are the records of the generations of Jacob. So we have really picked up, go back to the end of Chapter 35 and at the end of verse 22, there were 12 sons of Jacob and you have listed the 12 sons of Jacob, record of the death of Isaac, which of the end of Chapter 35, still yet futurise, it’s still living when we come to Chapter 37, but he is out of the picture now. He is not playing any role in the developing story. So you can really jump in the flow of things from the end of Chapter 35 to the beginning of Chapter 37. We are going to pick up, we have mentioned the 12 sons of Jacob, now let’s develop what happens here and Joseph will become the key figure. Verse 2 tells us this happens when Joseph was 17 years of age that would have been 1899 BC, and we saw, we may have written some of those dates down from the chronologies we put up. Where at 1899 BC, remember Isaac is going to live till 1886 BC. Joseph was 17 years of age, he was pasturing the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, he is still a young man 17, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives and Joseph brought back a bad report about them to his father. You know you could read into this if you did not have the biblical account and know that Joseph is a good guy; you could say he is a tattletale and he is sort of an arrogant young man, but that’s not how the story portrays him. Evidently what the sons of Jacob had done was wrong, and it’s not what their father would have wanted. So Joseph brings a report. Now the situation gets a little worse.

Verse 3, now Israel, that is the other name for Jacob, remember. Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was the son of his old age; and he made him varicolored multicolored tunic. You see some of the problems in the family. We really could build the whole psychological history out of this in our day. You know, here is part of problem, you favoritism among kids and Jacob is the problem because he is playing a favor, and he not only loves Joseph better, he wants to be sure everybody knows he is his favor. He even dresses him differently. So the other kids have their regular robes that you got and work on, but not Joseph. He’s got a special robe.

You know what that mean, every time his brothers looked at him, they remained you know who dad likes? Dad loves Joseph more than any of the rest of us. What a terrible way to carry out family life. There is anywhere indicated in any way in scripture that any of this is wrong. I am not saying it’s a good idea to show favoritism among your kids, but even if your dad favors brother or your sister, does it mean you need four years of psychological counseling to help straight out your life, forget it. You are not the first. Almost 2000 years Before Christ, they were showing favoritism in the family. You never find Joseph apologizing to his brothers even after there are reconciled in Egypt. You know, I want to apologize. Dad should not have been making me his favor. You never find Jacob doing that, it’s just a non-issue. You get side tracked and so many things, like I am side tracked talking about it.

All right, let’s move on. Jacob loves Joseph more than all his sons. This is a varicolored tunic. It can mean several things, it could be a quote of many colors, and that’s the most popular way we know of it. But it could also mean a long robe with sleeves, which indicates that he did not do the same kind of labor that his brothers did or it could be a ceremonial robe with ornaments. Well we do know this is a special robe, it is going to be something that just add to the animosity of the brothers toward Joseph.

Verse 4, his brothers’ saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, so they hated him. This hatred is so intense, they can’t even cover it. They don’t even speak to him on friendly terms. I mean we have seen some of the problems in the patriarchal families; usually this is going on here in Jacob’s family and among the brothers. Joseph, special son of Jacob, the one who will be the err, in which he is the right of first born, even though the line of promise for the messiah will not come through again. He’s hated by his brothers so much, so they can even carry on a civil conversation. They don’t speak to him among friendly terms. And it’s going to get worse. Joseph had a dream and it’s this dream shows him ruling over his brothers. Now you think in this kind of situation in the family, he might have kept the dream to itself, but you know what he who tells it to, his brothers.

He said to them, verse 6. These are ones who hate him, can’t even talk to him civilly. Please listen to this dream which I have had; for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and stood erect; your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf." So this picture you know of all the grain and all of the sudden, the sheep could represent, Joseph stands up and all the others representing the brothers bowed down before him. Then his brothers said to him, verse 8, are you actually going to reign over us? Are you really going to rule over us? Now this is a message from God, a dream given to Joseph.

It seems the way God is handling it, it’s only going to antagonize the family problems. But the fact that the family has problems since it is not functioning. It doesn’t change God’s plans and he is going to use the problems of the family for the accompanying of his purposes. You note, he doesn’t cause the family problems just because Joseph is the favorite son, just because he gets preferential treatment does it mean his brothers ought to hate him. We might say, well I think they have good reason to it, why? I mean is Jacob obligated to do the same for the other sons. We get this mentality that we think is the cause of problems and really cause of our problems is the sinful way we deal with the things that come into our lives. So God is not the cause of the problem here, but the problems magnified by what God does in Joseph’s life and he does not tell Joseph keep this dream to yourselves.

The end of verse 8, they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. So the hatred is building. Now into this framework God gives him another dream. It is getting worse. He said Lo, I have had still another dream and he related it, note verse 9 says to his brothers, father is going to also hear, but this is going to go tell his brothers. You begin to wonder does Joseph really have any grasp of how bad the situation is. How they really see him and folding around in a bubble? His brothers hate him, can’t even speak civilly to him and he is going around, waking up in the morning, can’t wait to his brothers awakening. So he can tell them I had another dream. Lo, I have had still another dream; behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me. He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him. Jacob rebuked him and said, what is this dream you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?” I mean Jacob is taken him back by this. He realizes in the dream the sun refers to him, the moon to his mother, to Jacob’s wife, Joseph’s mother and then the eleven stars referred the Joseph’s eleven brothers, everybody is going to bow down to you. Incidentally the imagery here.

Jump over to Revelation Chapter 12. This imagery is picked up pointing to Israel in Revelation Chapter 12 and it’s here we have to be careful to interpret the scripture in the context of the scripture and in Revelation Chapter 12 verse 1, a great sign appeared in the heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars, who we talking about? Well, go back to Genesis 37, you are talking about to Israel. Jacob and his wife and his twelve sons, it’s a nation Israel and this is the woman who is with child. So we are not talking about marry the Mother of Christ or any in that kind of concept here. We have to understand why do they use the picture of the woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the crown of twelve stars. Well, that’s already set out in the Book of Genesis representing Jacob, his wife and their twelve sons. So it’s the nation in Israel.

Come back to Genesis 37. We are not going to get into Revelation Chapter 12 right now. All right, that is the background and we were told as a result of this, verse 11, his brothers were jealous of him. His father is mulling at over. He has rebuked him for this, but he has not forgotten, his brothers are just so jealous of Joseph. So the brothers travel off with the flock and Israel verse 13 says to Joseph, I want you to go check on your brothers. Your brothers are in Shechem, we are down here in Bethel. So you got to travel north. Remember on the map up to Shechem. Come here and I will send you to them. And Joseph said, Okay I will go. He is ready to do what his father wants him to do. Go now and see about the welfare of your brothers, the welfare of the flock, bring word back to me. You get a sense of the family here.

In verse 2 Joseph brought a bad report back to dad about how his brother were doing there job in shepherding and may be they were not doing it the way they, may be they were fooling around on the side when they should have been working. And you get the sense now Jacob’s going to send Joseph to check on the brothers who are far enough away, 60-70 miles ways or so, that Jacobs wants to know what do you do? You send the son who is the tattletale. I know when I send Joseph; he will bring back a true report, what are his brothers are going to think when Joseph comes over the hill. Oh, here comes the one who is going to check on us, so as Joseph goes.

The verse 14, he came, he is still down in the region of Hebron, that I say Bethel earlier, Hebron down the bottom, down lower. And then he travels up to Shechem and the man found him, he says, where are my… if you see my brothers and they slowly pass through, they have conversations, oh yeah, they traveled on north to Dothan. Though, Joseph went and found his brothers at Dothan. Now we have moved up quite a ways. Hebron was down about the middle of the Dead Sea and there at Dothan where I meet some. This is where the sails going to take place and then the Ishmaelites will bring him down along the coast of Egypt. The brothers see him coming, in verse 18 at a distance and of course they can recognize him, why? He stands out. He’s got that special coat that marked him off from everybody else. They see him coming in the distance, and before he came close, they started talking and saying, you know let’s get rid of him. This is our chance. They are far enough away from home that we can kill him and cover it up. Verse 19, here comes this dreamer, dreams really greeted on them, let’s kills him, throw him into one of the pits and what do we do? We will say a wild beast killed him and that’s happened. You know, here he is traveling by himself, a wild animal jumps out, catches him by surprise, molds him to death, choose the body, all they find is a piece of his cloth. So that’s the plan.

Reuben verse 21 doesn’t like the plan and he is the oldest and feels a responsibility here for work would take place, even though he loses the position of first born, the rights to go with that he still is the oldest and feels responsible for his brother here. So he said let’s not shed his blood, verse 22, let’s throw him into this pit, in the wilderness. There is a dry well here, let’s just drop him down into the cistern. That way his blood will be on our hand and were told Reuben at the end of verse 22 thought he would rescue him, later he could come back when the brother were off with the flocks and get Joseph out of the pit and tell him get back home and so spare him. Verse 23, the brothers take off his multicolored tunic and his fancy robe and they threw him into the pit.

Verse 24, the pit was empty, it didn’t have water. And you see something of the callousness. Here they take their young brother, they take his robe that grapes on him because it’s the statement that there father loves him more than he loves any of them. Then when they had taken off out of robe, they throw him into this empty cistern. And then the next verse says, verse 25, they sat down to eat a meal. I mean, they are happy with their plan. We sometimes note, my conscious does not bother me. I am comfortable with this. That doesn’t say anything. That’s not the final test. They are come for well enough to eat. You think boy, there were doing this to your brother and having this on your mind and we are going to leave him here and just let him starve to death. That’s what most of the brothers here are thinking. What a way to dry, when your brother dying, you sit down and eat.

Well, well, they are eating and after the meal, Reuben evidently goes off, perhaps tent to some of the flock and that, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead with their camels bearing different spices and so on. They are going to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, verse 26 what profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood. Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, that way we make money. If we let him to die on a pit, he is just gone. But here we can make money and then we also won’t be guilty of his blood. We won’t be murderers. I would remind you. It is from the tribe of Judah that the messiah will come. You note the most admirable character in this picture. So let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites. You note here in verse 28, then some of the Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up, lifted Joseph out of the pit, sold them to the Ishmaelites and you have the interchange of the name Midianites and Ishmaelites.

The Ishmaelites were descendents; remember of Abraham through Hagar, their son Ishmael. The Midianites are also descendents of Abraham through his wife after Sarah died Keturah in Genesis 25. And the name Ishmael liked became a general term for the desert tribes, but the Midianites are specific group within the overall grouping generally known as the Ishmaelites, these desert tribes. So a specific group within the general group that we would call Ishmaelites. These are the Midianites, descendents from Abraham’s wife Keturah in Genesis 25. Interesting how these intersecting relatives come back into the picture. Interesting 20 pieces of silver is what they got. And we know from secular records of the time 2000 years Before Christ, that was the going rate for slaves. So they sell him here and about what you could expect to get for a slave.

Now you see something of the accuracy of the biblical record. Deceit goes on with Jacob, it was his life characterized by deceit. Now here he is deceived by his own sons. They have sold him. Then they killed an animal, dipped Joseph’s robe in the blood, then they returned to their father and verse 32, they say here we found this tunic. Could you identify it? It looks like Joseph’s, but we are not sure. So he looks at it. Verse 33 says it’s my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him, surely Joseph has been torn into pieces. Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. All the sons and daughters tried to comfort him, he refused to be comforted and said surely I will go down to Sheol and mourning for my son. So his father wept for him.

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt, the part of a Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard. Now we have Joseph in Egypt. What a tragedy for a young man, 17 years of age, sold by his own brothers, coded off by this band of Midianites to Egypt, a strange land, far he m4oved from home and sold as a slave. All in the plan of God and Joseph is going to have a rough time here, for a number of years, all in the plan of God. You know we read how the story comes out and we read what happens early and we say well you know, we take comforted in the back, we know how it’s coming out. It’s all part of the plan of God, but you know we need to keep in mind in the difficulties come into our life. We also know how is going to come out, don’t we? We have read the last Chapter, right? I know what the final end for me is. It’s glory beyond description. There is an inheriting stored up from me in the presence of God which is secure and safe. So why do I get frustrated? Why do I get worried? Why do I afraid? I want to minimize the tragedies, the pain that comes into our lives. But one of the good things about the study of the Old Testament is we are reminded God is sovereign.

We see lived out the difficulties and trials, but we see also clearly set forth, that is the hand of God in it all. Joseph’s testimony in this to his brothers, it wasn’t you ultimately. God did use their sin. But Joseph did not focus on the sin of his brothers, what he focused on is the power of the sovereign God in working his purposes. It’s going to be difficult. Joseph’s going to have a miserable life for a number of years. We will see that as we move into the account. But here, I mean just sold by his brothers, thinking his God abandoned him, it’s all part of the plan of God. I mean nothing, but nothing happens to me apart from the plan of God, does it? God not causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, to those who have the color according to his purpose in Romans 8.

A tragedy come and the first thing I said, all Lord what is wrong? That does mean the pain is not there, but I may say Lord I don’t understand this, but I you are in charge. Lord I don’t see why you do this? But I know that you have a purpose in doing it. It takes the overwhelming despair out of it. It doesn’t mean the pain is not still there. It doesn’t mean the unpleasantness goes away. Joseph’s going to spend years languishing in prison and we see the Book of Songs will tell us that it was unpleasant for him and he was chained there. He did suffer there. God’s at work, so it is work in my life, so I can have a confidence and an assurance. You look back and say oh if Joseph only hadn’t done what. Jacob should have never given him this tunic and Joseph should have said thanks dad, but it would be better if I dress like my brothers, be better if he had those dreams and may be talked them over with his father, but didn’t put him out it in the face of his brothers. It would have been better, no, no, no. We spend too much time trying to think, well what if we hadn’t done this, what if this had happened, may be we should have done this. You know happens in all that. I forget who’s sovereign.

I just conserve the Lord with the best of my ability, make the decisions that I believe are the wisest. I can undo do yesterday’s decisions no matter what they were. So I am not going to park, fret, and fuss and I have no control over tomorrow. But I serve the God who has everything under control. It’s good for me to get this fixed in my mind as much as possible beforehand because difficulties and trials will come. Let say oh it doesn’t make me want to face tomorrow. Well, what I don’t want to face is that I don’t want to be looking and anticipating the trials and difficulty. I just want to keep my focus and get in the practice in the normal flow of life of remain in myself. I serve the God who is sovereign, what he is doing in my life is what he is planned for the accomplishing of his eternal purposes. We know that.

Is this not a byproduct Joseph being sold in a difficulty that sort of sidetracks him from God’s plan, who has significance in 4,000 years later, here we are studying it and we appreciate the place it placed in the purpose of God. I think, well, what about all the little details of my life in the seeming tragedies and hardships and things that fractured my plans, all part of God’s plan, the encouragement to know that we serve the sovereign God, the same God that Joseph served, we saved and he is just as much in control. Though remember I am reading Joseph, he is a unique person, but I belong to God every bit as much as he did. I have greater privileges in some ways because I have the indwelling spirit of God within me. I am serving that same God and I have the confidence of knowing his working, his is purposes and those purposes are going to be laid out.

Chapter 38 is going to give us another one of those parentheses. They will help us to appreciate more fully, it’s not only that the family of Jacob has to go down into Egypt and wait because it’s not kind for God to judge the Canaanites in the land and give it to the Jews, they after go down there to be protected because the corruption around them is beginning to infect the family and threaten the purity of this family as marked out as special to God so God. So God will remove them from among the Canaanites. Chapter 38 will give some ugly picture, what takes in the family of Jacob and some of the consequences that will come.

Let’s just join together in prayer. Thank you Lord. For unfolding this history of your people. Lord, as we concentrate the beginnings of what would become the nation Israel were reminded that there are purposes of plan for this nation are secured and settled. We are living at crucial times in history even as we have been considering together. When you will burying to completion what you have promised for this people that at this stage in the Book of Genesis are just a family with problems and troubles and yet you are working your purposes. Lord our hearts are thrilled to know that we belong to You. We have been called by your grace. We call you are a father. You are sovereign in our lives and all that comes into our lives, Lord the good thing and the bad things, the blessings and the hardships, Lord we face everything with confidence because you are our God. There are no accidents for us. There are no missteps. You are working your purposes for our good and Your glory.

And I pray that that might be an encouragement to each of our hearts and our focus might be on You, the security we have in belonging to You and being cared for by You and having been blessed to read what You have prepared for those who loves you. Thank you for the blessings of Your word in our lives today. Lord I pray that the week before us would be week in which our testimonies shine strong in the midst of the darkness of this world. May we by your grace be privileged to share the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ with family and friends as we anticipate his coming to take the church into the glory of your presence. We pray in His name, amen.