Digging In His Word

In some of the best television shows and movies, we see characters who hold great power over others.  It’s what gripping plots are made of.  That’s what’s happening in our story as we pick it up today.  Joseph, whose brothers sold him off as a slave to get rid of him, has managed to rise to the height of power in Egypt and the brothers have had to come to him to buy grain.  Wouldn’t it have been so easy for Joseph, out of spite, to use that power to get even with his brothers?  He was second only to Pharoah… who would stop him?

Imagine that you haven’t seen your family for a long time.  You think you will never see them again.  And then, one day, they just suddenly turn up unexpectedly, in a place where you would never expect to see them.  That is what happened to Joseph in today’s passage.  Joseph’s brothers and his father were still living in Canaan.  Just like in Egypt, the famine had gotten very bad in Canaan and food was scarce.  But Joseph was living a prosperous, luxurious life in Egypt and had even started a family.  He was probably prepared to spend the rest of his life there.

Have you ever been spurred to action by a dream?  Sometimes, we can have dreams that are so troubling and compelling that they cause us to begin to address things in our lives which we may have been passive about before.  In today’s lesson, Pharoah has two of that kind of dream. 

Dreams.  We have many of these, don’t we?  But sometimes, we have those dreams that wake us up sweating and leave us feeling disturbed.  This is what happens in our reading today.  Two men, each have dreams which leave them bothered, and dejected.

So far in our study of Genesis, we have followed a family line from Creation all the way through to the establishment of the Israelites, the nation God chose to deliver a Savior (Messiah) to the world for the salvation of sins.  For the remainder of Genesis, we will follow the life of this 11th  out of 12 sons of Israel, Joseph.  His brothers sold him to some traders as a slave to get rid of him, but God has a purpose for Joseph’s life.  God has established Israel and his 12 sons to build a nation for His use and now He has a plan for Joseph to help preserve that nation from extinction.  This plan unfolds in the remaining 11 chapters of Genesis.

Family… it can be hard, can’t it?  Jacob’s son Judah, we saw last time, had a troublesome brother.  This brother, Joseph, was getting in his way.  And since all the brothers were also fed up with Joseph, Judah convinced them to sell Joseph as a slave, send him off to Egypt and concoct a lie to tell their father about what happened to him.  But the brothers didn’t count on one thing.  Jacob, the father, grieved and mourned for a very long time and no one was able to comfort him (Gen 37:34-35).

Today’s reading begins with Genesis 36.  This chapter outlines the descendants of Esau, also known as Edom.  We can also find this information in I Chron 1:35-54.  In verses 2-3 of this chapter, we see that Esau had three wives, two were Canaanite women, not Semites, and one was Ishmael’s daughter.  Verses 6-8 tell us that Esau moved away from Jacob as they both had so many livestock and possessions that the land could not support both households living near each other.  Esau took his family to Seir, and this is where we find the Edomites living in later Bible accounts.  This chapter tells us of many chiefs and rulers descended from Esau.

Every family has its struggles and Jacob’s was no different.  The second half of Genesis 35 is filled with sad events for this man and his family.  He has just come off a spiritual high with God at Bethel.  Now, in verse 16, we see the family on route to Ephrath, which we know as Bethlehem.  And Rachel begins to give birth.  Remember, she had only one child, Joseph, though when Joseph was born she had longed to have another, second son (Gen 30:22-24).  And remember also, Joseph’s name means ‘May He Add’.

Quite a lot has happened to our friend Jacob.  His family is currently in Shechem recovering from a grave tragedy, the rape of Jacob’s daughter, Dinah (Gen 34).  In retribution, the brothers have attacked and killed every man in the city (not just the one who was guilty) and looted every house.  Jacob is now afraid that his family has become offensive to the locals and is worried that they will ally themselves and attack him and his.

Do you remember when we studied the birth of Jacob’s eleven sons and the Bible told us that he had a daughter named Dinah?  I said, don’t forget her.  The Bible only mentions the birth of daughters when they are important to the story.  Today, we will see what happens with Dinah and how her story interweaves with the rest of Jacob and his family.  It is a story of tragedy.