Category: Genesis

When things are difficult are you the realist, “things could be worse?” Or the pessimist, “things will get worse?”  Or the optimist, “things will get better?”  As Christians we are not to be sanctified versions of our pre-conversion personalities, be they optimistic, pessimistic, or realistic.  We are not to interpret events according to worldly wisdom or subjective feelings.  We are to conform our minds, hearts, and wills to the Word of God.  The Word of God informs us what to be optimistic about, and what to be pessimistic about.  Ultimately I would argue that pessimism and optimism are identical with the Biblical categories of good and evil, though much contemporary preaching makes them out to be.  They are attitudes that can be either good or evil.  Faith and unbelief should replace being an optimist or a pessimist.  If we are faithful, there are things about which we will be adamantly pessimistic, such as the plight of sinful man and his ability to save himself; and, if we are faithful, there are things in which we are ardently optimistic, such as the saving work of Christ.

Some may read this chapter thinking Joseph’s hopes have been shattered.  No doubt Joseph is disappointed that the cupbearer did not immediately remember him, but the point of this chapter is not to utterly devastate us or Joseph’s before his being lifted up, but for us to eagerly anticipate his being lifted up.  No doubt Joseph being frail flesh cried out, “How long O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1), but I am sure he ended upbraiding himself, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love” (Psalm 13:5).

What is here to build Joseph’s hope and ours?  The Word of the Lord (Romans 10:17).  The interpretations Joseph gives come not by his own wisdom, investigation, or skill; the interpretation is from the Lord.  Joseph is donning the mantle of a prophet.  And everything happens in this chapter exactly according to the prophetic word of God delivered through Joseph (Genesis 40:22).

Each of these officers has one dream, two dreams altogether.  Pharaoh will have two dreams in the next chapter.  When we first meet Joseph in chapter 37 he has two dreams.  The symmetry shouts divine causality.  Joseph tells Pharaoh that the two dreams mean that the thing the Lord will do is certain.  Joseph’s two dreams that begin this last section of Genesis tell us what God is up to throughout the whole narrative.  If these single dreams come to pass, what of the double dream?

As for us, what of the Word of God that shouts to us all that is ours in Christ from Genesis to Revelation?

After all the shady cats we have dealt with so far in Genesis, Joseph is a welcome breath of fresh air.  Joseph is a hero, he is exemplary, we can learn many moral lessons from him, but do not turn this text into a breadless sandwich. 

Imagine trying to eat a breadless sandwich.  It’s so messy if makes a Carl’s Jr. commercial look polite.  How do we make this text breadless?  We turn it into a fable, and when we do, it gets messy.  Sadly I wonder how much daily Bible reading is nothing more than going to the text to glean a few moral maxims and life principles.  Our daily Bread ironically becomes breadless.  Simply, many go to the Bible just to know what to do.  Surely the Bible contains commands, and we should desire to obey and follow God, but when you read the Bible seeking only law, you lose the Bread of life.  When this story is read as a fable the meaning is no more than, “Keep your clothes on, and if you lose them, lose them running away from sex and not toward it.”  What I am proposing is not that we make less of the text but more.

So where is the bread?  Look at the phrase repeated twice for emphasis at the beginning and the end, “The LORD was with Joseph” (Genesis 39:2, 3, 21, 23).  These are the loaves that hold the meat of this sandwich together making it edible.  We have seen this kind of language before in Genesis at “Jacob’s Ladder” (Genesis 28:13-15).  What is the context there?  It is God renewing with Jacob the covenant made with Abraham and Isaac.  God is sovereignly orchestrating the events of the Patriarch’s lives in faithfulness to His covenant.

Now we see Joseph as only a hero, but God as the hero.  God is not blessing Joseph because of his moral superiority, but in faithfulness to his covenant with Abraham.  John Sailhammer put it this way, “This is not a story of the success of Joseph; rather it is a story of God’s faithfulness to his promises.”

Here is the Bread of Life.  It is not about what we do, it is about what He has done, is doing, and will do.  The Bible is a story more about God’s action throughout history than how we are to act.  Our acting is and effect of His action in Christ.  The Bible becomes breadless when we read it void of its redemptive story.  Let me close with an example from Deuteronomy.  In Deuteronomy 30:11-13 God tells His people,

For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.  It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’  Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’  But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

What?  The law is not too hard for you?  This sounds nothing like Paul.  Are Paul and Moses in opposition?  Not at all.  Why is it that the law is not too hard for them?  Because it is in their hearts.  How did it get there?

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.  – Deuteronomy 30:6

Put the law in its proper context, God’s redemption of a people onto Himself.  They were not redeemed because they kept the law.  They received the law because they were redeemed.  Put the Bread back on the sandwich and know life instead of death.

Oh the tension between the tender and the terrifying that is this passage.

This is not a flannel graph friendly passage.  Sister Sue never taught this in children’s chapel.  If your pastor preaches expository messages and is going through Genesis this might be the only time you hear him say “semen” in the pulpit.  But beware, Moses is not trying to titillate your senses.  Do not use this text as a basis for explicit material as the subject of art.  One could use Moses as a proof for realism, but not sensualism.  Sin is not romanticized here.

So one could misread this text by handling it wrong, treating it more like a romance novel, or a racy drama; or one could misread it by making light of the sins presented here.  Yes, here God’s providence works such that from all this sin comes the Savior.  God’s plan is not thwarted to work all things together for good, not even by the saints own sins.  Yet there is a tension here.  We may not presume upon God’s grace.  Some sinners die, some live.  We are not even clued into the wickedness that was Er’s, God need not give any justification to us.  He would be just to condemn us all to such a sentence for any one minute of our lives.

It is precisely this tension that makes God’s gracious providence so astounding, so outrageous.  God loves and works things, all things, for the good and salvation of such despicable depraved souls.  His providence seems promiscuous.  But alas, these are the only kind of humans for God to love, darkness loving, sin wrecked, cursed, and depraved enemies.  Yet God’s love toward them is holy, for the Son of Perez, our Lord Jesus, would bear the wrath for our sins. 

Here at the cross tension between the terrifying and the tender is revealed most powerfully.  Concerning those crucified beside Christ, one was saved that all may have hope, but only one that none might presume.  It is only in this tension that God’s love truly floors us.  If we lose sight of His terrifying Holiness we may no longer sing that God’s grace is amazing.

We have now entered into the last section of Genesis (37:2-50:26). This book ends the way it began, leaving us in awe of God. The Joseph stories are not primarily written for us to glean trite moral lessons from, they are there to teach us about God. Really this whole section has one unified majestic point – the providence of God. Genesis begins by stunning us with God’s creative power, it concludes stunning us with His power. God not only calls all things into being, He sustains His creation, guides it, and governs it towards His ends. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith says the following of God’s providence:

God the good Creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, to the end for the which they were created, according unto his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will; to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy.

How do we know that this is the point of the story? Our initial clue are the prophetic dreams given to Joseph by God. They function as an interpretive gird in this section the same way that Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:10-22) did for the eighth section (25:19-35:29). But this is not the only interpretive key we are given. The theological climax of what this section is to teach us is not explicitly stated until the end. The primary cause in sending Jacob to Egypt was not his brothers; it was God (Genesis 45:5-8). What God does is not simply turn his brother’s evil for good, but plan and will his brother’s evil for good (Genesis 50:20).

The great puritan John Flavel said, “The providence of God is like Hebrew words – it can only be read backwards.” The story of Joseph is a story of God’s providence, it must be read backwards. In fact all of the Old Testament is a story of God’s providence, it must be read backwards. Or as Sinclair Ferguson wrote, “…the events, imagery, and language of the Old Testament are like a shadow cast backward into history by Christ, the light of the world.” Later in the same great book, In Christ Alone, he goes on to write:

The invisible is more substantial than the visible;
The future shapes the past;
The new is more fundamental than the past.

What does all this mean?

Simply put, it means that the story of the Lord Jesus, his person and work, is not a divine afterthought, a heavenly plan B hurriedly scrambles together when plan A went horribly wrong. No, the coming of Christ was in the plan before the fall. Everything that preceded it chronologically actually follows it logically.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph. He is the righteous, elect, and anointed Son, lifted up by His Father and hated by men, for He exposes our disobedience. He is sent as a lamb to the slaughter, not ignorantly, but knowingly by His Father. He is handed over to the Gentiles, suffering for our salvation. After going to the lowest depths bearing the wrath of God, His Father raises Him up, sets Him in the position of supreme ruler, and then using this new power Jesus saves those who have so horribly sinned against Him.

This is the supreme story of God’s providence (Acts 4:27-28). All of history centers around it.

If you were to randomly pick this chapter, “the pagan phonebook”, for study I doubt you would receive much nourishment from it.  Not that there isn’t much nourishment to be gained, but it is like handing a whole crab to a child who has never learned how to penetrate the shell.  There is succulent meat for the feasting, how do we extract it?

I think genealogies like this are a great argument for closely studying a book of the Bible and for expositional preaching.  Expositional preaching should teach you how to read your Bible.  If you come to this text in isolation you come to it without the combination to unlock its treasures.  If you come to it having noticed the themes that are developing throughout the book however, its meaning begins to slowly unfold.

Thus far we have seen that it was Jacob who received the blessing not Esau.  Yet Esau is blessed with wives, children, and great possessions.  Edom seemingly becomes a mighty nation much more easily than Israel, driving out the original inhabitants of their land, the Horites (Genesis 36:20-30), well before Israel drives out the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 2:12).  They progress as a nation much more quickly, having kings before Israel does (Genesis 36:31-43).

The pagans often progress more quickly than the saints.  This is nothing new.  In Cain’s genealogy (Genesis 4:17-26) great cultural progress is made in herding, musical instruments, and metal working.  It is the descendents of Cain who are first mentioned as building a city.  What cultural advancements and contributions come from the line of Seth?  None from a secular vantage point are mentioned.  But it is with Seth’s birth that people begin to call upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:2).  It is in Seth’s line that the rhythm of death is thrown off (Genesis 5:24).  It is in Seth’s line that a man finds favor in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:8).

Esau seemingly has none of the pain that Jacob had to endure, yet all of the gain.  But notice what is lacking.  There is not a hint of the spiritual blessing.

Esau may be blessed in the lesser sense, but he is cursed in the greatest sense.

We need not envy this passing world that we are just passing through.

You know you’re getting old when your generation gets its own radio station.  Yes, Tulsa now has a Gen X radio station, 106.1, and yes I listen to it being reminded of some of  the music I unfortunately liked, some which I still do, and some why I wonder why it still exists in any format.  So I am driving to church listening to aforementioned radio station and hear “One Week” by… um… I hesitate, The Barenaked Ladies.  It’s a fun, up tempo little ditty, of which the chorus makes sense to me but the verses seem to be a discombobulation full of pop-culture references.

Some critics think this chapter to be something like “One Week”.  Little more than slightly organized chaos.  They use it to question the inspiration of Genesis, or at least to argue for different authors contributing to the whole over a period covering up to the deportation to Babylon.  After all, Jacob’s life has consisted of meal size portions so far, why did we go bite size all of the sudden?

I rather think this is some excellent story telling on Moses’ part, weaving together all the motifs that have appeared throughout Jacob’s life bringing this section (25:19-35:29) to a close.  They are the themes of the sojourner’s life.  They are the themes that will unite all of Abraham’s offspring together as we traverse this world.  What are they?

1.   God’s initiating grace (Genesis 35:1).  Yes, repentance once again is called for in Jacob’s life but it is preceded by God’s speaking and commanding.

 

2.  Repentance and obedience(Genesis 35:2).  Purity is a prerequisite for worship.  This putting away of idols is a repeated event throughout Israel’s history.  It will be a recurring one in our lives as well for idols always creep in.  If God is to be our God, He will have all, no other gods allowed.

 

3.  Protection (Genesis 35:1)  As Robert Robinson wrote:

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;

Hither by Thy help I’m come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

 

4.  God reminding us who we are in Him (Genesis 35:9).  In Christ we are sons of God, children of Abraham, joint heirs with Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit, slaves of Christ, and saints.

 

5.   God reminding us of His promises (Genesis 35:11-12).  O, how easy we forget and distrust.

6.  Death and life, joy and sorrow, laughter and weeping (Genesis 35:18).  The Lord gives the Lord takes away.  God’s covenant presence does not mean the absence of distress (Genesis 35:3), but His presence in it, sustaining us through it, and hearing us when we cry.

This is the life of a sojourner.  The promises made to Jacob in Genesis 28:13-15 are the glue that binds all these vignettes together.  All these promises are at least partially fulfilled here.  As sojourners we taste of heave now, but we are not there yet.  The kingdom of God is in-breaking, but yet to come.  We live in the tension between the here now and the not yet.  And so we journey as these recurring motifs sound throughout our lives until one day, we too, fade from the narrative and are gathered with our people, like Isaac. And thus that biggest and greatest and eternal chapter will begin.

I think two truths are powerfully seen here; the need for God’s people to be distinct, and God’s protection of his promises.

As Israel wandered the desert, Moses, inspired by the Spirit of Yaweh, recorded the book of Genesis.  Here Israel could see the immorality and false promises that make up their historical dealings with the Canaanites, those whom God had called them to annihilate.  They were not to intermarry, why?  The issue was not racial, it was religious. 

Allow me an important tangent.  Interracial marriage is not forbidden by God, interfaith marriage is.  I agree with John Piper that, “interracial marriage is not only permitted by God but is a positive good in our day. That is, it is not just to be tolerated, but celebrated.”  Toward that end I highly recommend listening to the sermon, Racial Harmony and Interracial Marriage, from with the quote above comes.  If you have no desire to consider the beauty of interracial marriage might I remind you that only four women are mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of our Lord, and we are certain that three of those women were not Jews, and it is highly likely that Bathsheba (Uriah her husband was a Hittite, 2 Samuel 11:6) was not as well.

Now back to being distinct.  The covenant people’s distinction is threatened seemingly by everyone in this text.  One might argue that the sons of Jacob are opposed to blurring any lines, but their sacrilegious treatment of circumcision speaks otherwise.  They empty circumcision of all religious meaning.  On this John Sailhammer says,

Circumcision was not limited to Abraham’s descendants but was rather given as a sign of one’s joining in the hope of God’s promises to Abraham.  It was, in fact, a sign given of the covenant promise that Abraham would become the father of “many nations” (17:5).  But in the way the sons of Jacob carried out the request that these Canaanites be circumcised, it offers a curious reversal of God’s intention.  They offered circumcision as a means for the two families to become “one people”.  The Canaanites were not joining the offspring of Abraham; rather the descendants of Abraham were joining with the Canaanites.

The sons too were blurring the line.  What does it mean for us today to be distinct?  John MacArthur commenting on 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 gives us several helps as to what it is not.  Distinction does not mean:

1. Refusing to associate (we can work with, have business with, and friendships with unbelievers)
2. Refusing to cooperate (we can endeavor together in good that does not compromise the gospel)
3. Retreat from society (as the Amish)
4. Divorcing an unbelieving spouse (1 Corinthians 7:12-13)
5. It does not mean even refusing to associate with immoral unbelievers (1 Corinthians 5:9-10)

What does it mean?  It means we do not blur the lines of those who are in the covenant and who are out.  It means that we never associate or cooperate in such a way as to deny the gospel.  It means that we are not “bound together with unbelievers in any religious event, enterprise, or activity”.  MacArthur goes on to say that, “To be bound together with unbelievers in any spiritual effort is irrational, sacrilegious, disobedient, unprofitable, and ungrateful.”

Everyone party in this narrative threatens this distinction, and by implication the promises of God.  Dinah’s foolishness, Shechem’s lust, Jacob’s passivity, Hamor’s politics, the Hivite’s greed, and the son’s vengeance all threaten God’s covenant people and His promises.  But all they can do is threaten.  God often works through and in spite of the foolishness of man.  Rather than destroy distinction, they help preserve it.  His promises are invincible.

Sometimes the frame is as important as the picture.  Sometimes it is part of the picture.  Sometimes it is necessary to properly interpret the picture.  Don’t lose the frame for the picture.

After stealing the birthright Jacob flees Esau.  He encounters angels, He encounters God.  He heads toward Laban.  Years later after gaining the flock, he flees Laban.  He encounters angels, He encounters God.  He heads toward Esau.  Do you see the frame that unites chapters 28-33.

Now for the glue that holds the frame together.  In the first encounter with God that we call Jacob’s ladder, God promises Jacob offspring, land, and blessing.  God says that he will be with him wherever he goes, and bring him back to the land (Genesis 28:15).  God will not leave off this work, He will do all that He has promised (Genesis 28:16).

Jacob’s fear then is an expression of unbelief.  But his unbelief, or weak faith does not nullify God’s faithfulness.

Do not fear.  God will bring us home.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,

I have already come;

‘Tis Grace has brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

– John Newton

Fathers stoop to wrestle with their sons, but woe to the son who mistakes his father’s condescension for true weakness.  Though He stoops he still sets the rules.  Here God comes in the form of a man, reserves His power, and wrestles with the wrestler.

With a touch, not a powerful blow, Jacob’s hip explodes.  Jacob will not prevail because of superior strength; he will prevail only in prayer.  But before he is blessed he must be further broken, blessedly broken.  God’s severe mercy must cut to heal.

Jacob must relinquish his name, his identity.  A lady will hesitate to give her name to a creeper because information is power.  To relinquish his name is to tap out, to say uncle.  But more than this it is to admit who he is.  Is he not rightly named Jacob (Genesis 27:36)?  Previously he stole the blessing by concealing his identity; God demands we confess if we are to receive His blessing.  There can be no masquerade, no disguise.  The truth of who we are must be owned up to.

Upon Jacob’s confession of his old self God redefines who he is, He changes his identity.  Jacob then asks the Stranger’s name, but notice the change of tone.  God demanded the name, Jacob asks politely and is refused, but He is blessed.

It is of the utmost importance to realize that in this wrestling match God bestows nothing that He has not already promised.  God has not been pinned to the mat, Jacob has, and yet in a sense he walks away winning, he is blessedly broken.  As Derek Kidner said, “It was defeat and victory in one.”  Or as Bruce Waltke comments,

The limp is the posture of the saint, walking not in physical strength but in spiritual strength.  God’s severe mercy allows Jacob a victory, but it is a crippling victory.

The self-sufficient wrestler has become the dependant-cripple, and this is a glorious thing, a good thing.  May we all be so stricken, so defeated, so devastated, so blessed.

There is much of the old Jacob here, but there is also something new.  Although upon hearing of Esau’s enigmatic approach he first plans, then he prays, and what a beautiful prayer it is. 

He calls God every name in the book, in a beautiful way.  He begins His prayer by thinking on who He is talking to.  When struggling in prayer, begin with God.  Then Jacob expresses such humility confessing he is not worthy of the least of all of God’s kindnesses.  Take all of God’s kindnesses toward us and put them in a barrel such that the greatest rise to the top and the least fall to the bottom, then scrape the sediment off the bottom – this is what Jacob says He is not worthy of, nor are we.  Only after adoration and confession does he humbly bring his petition before God pleading on the basis of God’s promises.  The Word of God fuels, informs, and empowers his prayers.  You cannot be mighty in prayer if weak in the Word.  We are to pray in faith, and faith comes by the Word.

So Jacob oscillates between planning and prayer, but God does not capitulate in faithfulness.  God is faithful when we failthlessly plan.  This is evidenced not just in God answering Jacob’s prayer, but in Jacob praying.  Prayerless Jacob now prays a model prayer.  Jacob’s prayer is both a result of God’s grace and a means to more grace.  Pray to learn how to pray.  Pray for grace to pray as a means to more grace.