We shall continue with the
study of the Book of Genesis this week.
(1) What does verse 1 appear to signify in terms of the covenant made by God with Abraham?
(2) Jacob was the
direct recipient and victim of the harm and hurt inflicted when Isaac
played favorites in preferring his brother. Consider why he then would
repeat the same
mistake.
a. Did he act "like father like son"?
b. Did he value the child born in his old age?
c. Did he project his love on Joseph due to his deep love for Rachel, the mother of Joseph?
d. Did he see that Joseph possessed godly qualities unequalled by the siblings?
e. Any other reason?
Whatever the reason might be, should Jacob play favorites?
What was the consequence of his action?
(3) Based on what we read about the older sons of Jacob so far, what kind of bad report do you think Joseph had been bringing to his father about his brothers? Should he have done so?
(4) The translations of “a richly ornamented robe” vary considerably and there is no consensus among scholars, except that it would have been a princely garment that distinguished Joseph from his brothers and it was not a garment worn at work. Was this garment the real cause for their hatred of Joseph? Jealousy among siblings is not uncommon. Why would it lead to hatred in this case? What might be the real cause?
(5) Dreams were significant in ancient times. Why didn’t the two dreams of Joseph require interpretation? Should he have told them to his brothers and even his father? Did he not know he was hated? What does this tell us about Joseph’s character?
(6) Why did Jacob keep “the matter in mind”? Would he be thinking about God’s choice for the direct succession of the Abrahamic Covenant? Who ended up being this successor? (see Matt. 1)
(7) What is the main message to you today and how can you apply it to your life?
As the story of Joseph unfolds, we have come to see a very special young man who was not stained by the company he kept, meaning the 10 brothers whose lives were marked by extreme violence and immorality. But as we were first introduced to him in Genesis 37 as a seventeen-years-old young man, he appeared to be not just a dreamer, but a totally naïve person.
He enjoyed the special favor of his father, to the point that he was probably spared much of the menial labor that the other brothers had to shoulder. This naturally invited jealousy. I would be jealous too, if I were one of his siblings.
Recall that Jacob placed Joseph and Rachel in the line, way back in the rear as they were facing a possible attack by Esau. All his siblings could see with their eyes that they were not important at all to their father. I am afraid that might explain not only their jealousy, but their growing resentment against Joseph.
The making of a special garment, just for Joseph could not be the real reason, compared to the above.
But, as young as he was, did he not sense the resentment of his brothers? The two dreams that he had were so plain for everyone to see. To tell them once was to invite further resentment. To tell them twice would only invite hatred. How naïve Joseph was!
Have you ever come across a person like Joseph — living a life handed to him on a silver platter and not having to go through the hardships of life that others have to endure. He presumably spends his time dreaming more than working, and is such a naïve person rubbing people the wrong way while not even being aware of it. Frankly, he would not be a person who could gain a lot of friends!
To a certain extent, it reminds me of the young Van Gogh who began as a zealous young Christian at an age similar to that of Joseph. His raw zeal for the Lord put him into troubled waters, and he ended up being rejected by Christian leaders, one after another. They eventually drove him away not only from ministry, but away from God.
Had these mature and experienced Christian leaders (the headmaster of a Christian school and parish priests) not rejected him like the brothers of Joseph, who knows if Van Gogh would have become a Joseph — a blessing to others, even in the field of arts!
(1) What happened previously at Shechem (Gen. 34)? Why did Jacob feel the need to send someone to see if all was well (a distance of about 50 miles)?
(2) Why was Joseph not tending the flock with them?
(3) What kind of clothing was he wearing when he went to see his brothers?
(4) Was the plot to kill Joseph something done impromptu?
(5) Did either Jacob or Joseph realize the extent of the brothers' hatred? Why not?
(6) In their conversation what was the particular grudge they held against Joseph? Why did Joseph’s dream bother them so deeply?
(7) Why did Reuben want to rescue Joseph? Was he not the one who was so wicked as to lay with his father’s wife (35:22)?
(8) How did Joseph feel when he was suddenly seized and thrown by the brothers into the cistern?
(9) Why did Judah also want to spare Joseph’s life?
(10) Was the passing through of the Ishmaelite caravan a coincidence?
(11) Now that Joseph was sold as a slave to Egypt, what would the future be like, as far as Joseph was concerned?
(12) How great was this change to Joseph?
(13) Have you had as great and sudden a change in your life?
(14) What is the main message to you today and how can you apply it to your life?
The Bible does not makes clear why God passed over Reuben, Simeon and Levi, and made Judah the one with the blessing by which “The Scepter will not depart from Judah…until He comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is His” (Gen. 49:10). The Messiah did come from Judah.
Perhaps, the sin of Reuben (in sleeping with his father’s wife) was indeed so great that it disqualified him as the successor of the Abrahamic covenant, and Simeon and Levi were so violent (in killing the entire city of Shechem) that there was no way God could use them. But, Judah was certainly no choir boy.
We would read later in Genesis that he had two sons, Er and Onan, Both were very wicked to the point of being put to death by God. While both sons had to answer for their own sins, Judah certainly did not give them a godly example at home. After the death of his wife, he purposely sought out a prostitute and not just any prostitute, but a shrine prostitute. This meant that he did not mind being associated with idol worship.
Yet God is always gracious and as we have considered previously, His desire is not just to make use of an individual to achieve His mission, but to mold him into someone who knows His heart, someone who is worthy to be His co-worker. Here we have a glimpse of the work of transformation in the life of Judah.
Reuben was the first one who intervened for Joseph, but his intervention was out of a sense of obligation as the oldest of the brothers. As he put it, “The boy isn’t there! How can I go home?” (Wenhem’s translation) His worry might not be for the safety of the boy, but how he would face his father!
But Judah did not have the same obligation, and yet he too sought to intervene and these were his words, “after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood”. While he knew he could not overrule his brothers, he pled on behalf of Joseph based on his conscience. While the rest of the brothers had hearts of stone, Judah, at least, had a conscience that could still be awakened.
His conscience was further awakened by the righteous action of Tamar and eventually, he assumed the role of leader (as the first-born) of the brothers by pledging himself to be a slave to save all his brothers from Joseph (Gen. 44:33). Perhaps because of this, even our Lord Jesus Christ is called “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5). What a glorious reward!
(1) What did Reuben do when he found that Joseph was not in the cistern? Wenham’s translation of v. 30 is “How can I go home?” What did Reuben mean by this?
(2) What can we tell about the relationship among these ten brothers of Joseph?
(3) How did the sons deceive their father, Jacob?
(4) How did Jacob deceive his father, Isaac? Do you see any resemblances?
(5) “What goes around comes around.” What do you think of this?
(6) Whose deception was more evil? Why?
(7) What is the historical significance of this selling of Joseph?
(8) What is the significance of him being sold into the household of the captain of the guard of Pharaoh?
(9) What is the main message to you today and how can you apply it to your life?
Reading how Jacob was deceived by his sons, in using Joseph's robe stained with the blood of a goat, I am reminded of this proverb. It resembles Jacob's deception of Isaac in so many ways.
Jacob deceived his father and now, his sons deceived their father.
Jacob deceived his father through a dress that he put on, pretending to be his older brother. Jacob’s sons deceived their father also through a dress, pretending that their brother was devoured by some ferocious animal.
Jacob deceived his father for his blessing by serving up goat as game. Jacob's sons deceived their father to avoid his wrath by serving up Joseph’s robe with the blood of goat.
The parallel is very striking. The master deceiver is now being deceived by his own sons.
Indeed, all our actions do carry consequences. If we think we can get away from our sinful deeds, we are kidding ourselves. Our sins will catch up to us; it is a matter of time. If they catch up to us sooner rather than later, it is the grace of God. The sooner we are made to face our sins, the sooner we may repent and be forgiven. If our sins never catch up to us, then it is a real curse!
You may ask, “What if we sincerely repent of our sins? Shouldn’t all their consequences be borne by our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross?” That is true: As we repent, our sins and their consequences have all been borne by our Lord on the cross and thus we are forgiven and we are reconciled to God. However, it does not mean that we will not have to face the natural consequences of some of our actions in the here and now. Just as David had been forgiven of his sins of murder and adultery because of his sincere repentance (Ps. 51), his immoral actions did leave a horrible impact on the spiritual lives of his children, plunging his family into the tragedy of rape and murder (2 Sam. 13).
What goes around thus comes around. But the amazing fact is, even in having to face the temporal consequences of his sins, David could testify that “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” Yes, God will see us through even if our wound is self-inflicted.
(1) For whatever reason, God has chosen Judah as the successor of the Abrahamic Covenant. How did this story of Judah serve to illustrate the continuous threat to destroy God’s covenant?
(2) Why would Judah eventually consider Tamar more righteous than he was? (The better translation is, “She is righteous, not I.” [Waltke, 513])
(3) The story falls into two parts: Vv. 1-11 beginning with “At the time” and vv. 12-30 starting with “After a long time”.
Vv. 1-11
a. What did Judah’s action of leaving his brothers (i.e. his father’s family) moving, and then marrying a Canaanite woman signify? Consider especially how he was given the (unknown-to-him) status of being the chosen heir, and how Abraham and Isaac intentionally avoided the marriage of their son(s) to Canaanite women.
b. Given the fact that both sons of Judah died because the Lord had put them to death due to their wickedness, how would you describe Judah’s moral and spiritual condition?
c. Why was Onan’s action of continuing to have sex with his sister-in-law while spilling the semen on the ground be considered wicked to the point that the Lord would punish him with death?
d. What did Judah do for his third son? Why did he do that? Why did he eventually recognize such an action as not being righteous?
(4) Vv. 12-30
a. What did Judah do immediately after the death of his wife?
b. What did he do after he had recovered from his grief?
c. In contrast, what did Tamar do during all these years?
d. What option did a normal widow, like Tamar, have?
e. Why did she still dress herself daily as a widow?
f. In pretending to be a prostitute, what was she risking?
g. What might be the reason for her having such a determination to bear a child for her husband?
h. In what way was she righteous?
i. The Bible seems to emphasize that Judah “did not sleep with her again”. What might be the significance of this? Waltke remarks that this incident marks the transformation of Judah. Do you agree?
(5) What is the main message to you today?
One of the special features of the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ is the intentional inclusion of the names of several women which, in ancient Hebrew tradition, was odd, as only the fathers would matter when it comes to genealogy. Not only were these women so named not of Semitic origin in their backgrounds, but they, at best, were of suspect character. Rahab was a known prostitute, Ruth sneaked under the bed of her future husband, and Bathsheba bore Solomon out of an adulterous affair with David. Here, in Genesis 38, Tamar, a Canaanite was drafted into the same sacred genealogy through some questionable circumstances. Yet, through the mouth of Judah, she was declared righteous!
We have to understand that, although the Mosaic Law’s mandate of the obligation to continue the line of the deceased, childless older brother came much later in Deuteronomy 25:5-6, it was obviously the cultural mandate of the time.
But Tamar had a choice. She could, at her not-so-old age choose to remarry and start a new family, or she could choose to wait until the third son of Judah grew up, and that might take another ten years.
As we know, she chose the latter option, and she would make sure that she would not be lured into knowing another man by putting on her widow’s clothes every day. Everybody knew she was a widow and everyone also knew that she wanted to remain a widow. She was not available!
While Judah acted unrighteously, fully intending to deceive his daughter-in-law, depriving her of the opportunity to start a new life with a new family, Tamar acted righteously, fully committing to being the wife of her deceased husband and doing whatever possible to bear a descendent for him within the family of her husband. Her action might seem a little odd in the eyes of the modern, but she risked her life in the process. Her action was an act of faith, nonetheless. And, she was rewarded to be the bearer of the seed that carried on the Messianic line of genealogy.
(1) If you were a teenager like Joseph, and were sold by
your brothers into slavery, how would you feel with respect to the following?
a. Your brothers
b. God
c. Your future
(2) What does it mean that his master “saw” that the Lord was with him?
(3) Can people “see” that the Lord is with you? How? Can you give a few examples?
(4) What kind of a life must Joseph have had in order for God to be seen in his life?
(5) Judging from the way Potiphar trusted Joseph, describe how he thought of the following:
a. Joseph as a person
b. The God of Joseph
(6) As beautiful as the life of Joseph was, both inside and out, did his “prosperity” last?
(7) If Joseph caved in, what excuses or reasons could he have had in sleeping with his master’s wife?
(8) Although under tremendous pressure, what were the reasons why Joseph did not cave in?
(9) What precaution did Joseph take to avoid this temptation?
(10) What then is the essential message of today and how may you apply it in your life?
We have to admire the purity of this young man, Joseph, who could have easily caved into the temptation. After all he was only a slave. However his loyalty to the master, his integrity as a person and his fear of the Lord combined to produce a spiritual giant in him. As young as he was, he was spiritually mature to know that there were temptations that we could deceive ourselves into believing that we could ably confront. The only way was to flee, and this echoes what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness…”.
May I invite you to reflect on the lyrics of this familiar hymn, Yield Not to Temptation, as we seek to emulate Joseph’s example:
Refrain
Ask the Savior to help you,
Comfort, strengthen and keep you;
He is willing to aid you,
He will carry you through.
1
Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin;
Each victory will help you some other to win;
Fight manfully onward, dark passions subdue,
Look ever to Jesus, He’ll carry you through.
2
3
Shun evil companions, bad language disdain,
God’s Name hold in reverence, nor take it in vain;
Be thoughtful and earnest, kindhearted and true,
Look ever to Jesus, He’ll carry you through.
To him that o’ercometh, God giveth a crown;
Through faith we shall conquer, though often cast down;
He Who is our Savior our strength will renew;
Look ever to Jesus, He’ll carry you through.
(Horatio R. Palmer, 1868)
(1) Given Joseph’s story, how do you understand the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, in which we are to ask our Father in Heaven, “lead us not into temptation”?
(2) What would result if Joseph just gave in once to his master’s wife?
(3) Why was Joseph so careless as to leave his cloak in the house?
(4) In her accusation of Joseph, what did she say that would gain sympathy and support from people in the household? (Note that they should know all too well that she was promiscuous and that her accusation was probably a lie.)
(5) Who was Joseph to Potiphar? Why would Potiphar not simply kill Joseph in his rage?
(6) Joseph went from being the darling with the
most noble garment in his father’s house, to being a slave in Egypt, and then to a
prisoner with no hope of being released. Consider the following:
a. Under the same conditions, would you have given up on yourself and your future?
b. What kind of attitude can you detect in Joseph even in his circumstance?
c. How special was Joseph?
(7) What is the main message to you today and how can you apply it to your life?
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons lived in the land of Canaan which was not only violent and immoral, but polytheistic. They worshipped many gods. Even in the land of Mesopotamia, the fathers of Abraham were also exposed to the worship of many gods. Interestingly, among the many gods that they worshipped, such as Sin, the moon god, or Baal, the god of fertility, there is the God, El, that they also worshipped and this is the God that they believed to be the Creator. The question is the following: Since they believed that this God, El, is the Creator God, why would they not stick to Him and Him alone.
Being a Chinese who grew up in Hong Kong, I can understand the reason. People in China have worshipped many gods for thousands of years and still do. Many of the gods they worship are considered by themselves minor gods, but they still worship them. The reasons include the following:
- They believe in territorial gods that protect specific areas, and so if they are farmers, they would worship the god of harvest; if they are fishermen, they would worship the god of the sea.
- They also believe that some gods are more powerful than others. It is like looking for a doctor that works: They would shift from temple to temple to find a god that would hear their specific prayers.
- Behind all these, they have a sense that the most powerful God is too remote and fearsome that He may not care, nor be accessible!
In the midst of this established polytheistic environment in both Mesopotamia and Canaan, how then can historians explain the sudden emergence of the worship of one God, El, and that His worship would spread so widely throughout a nation called Israel. The only explanation is that the account of Genesis is a true historical record and that this God, El, revealed Himself to Abraham and his successive generations in such an unmistakable way that He has affirmed that He is the only true God and there is no other God.
(Note: As this God, El, appeared to Abraham and his descendants and eventually to Moses, He has made known His name as Yahweh. And perhaps, to distinguish Himself as the One True God (before the formal introduction of His name, Yahweh), the Bible uses Elohim, the plural of El, to point to the mystery of the Trinity, and yet uses a singular verb form always, to denote Him as one God.)
I am always amazed that these forefathers, including Joseph, could establish such a firm faith in God with only oral traditions handed down from previous generations and without the 66 books of Scripture that we all have. They should put us to shame.
(1) Given the story of the cupbearer and baker, how would you compare life in ancient times and life in the modern times of most of the western world? What might have contributed to such a difference?
(2) We do not know exactly how the two prisoners offended Pharaoh. If you were the cupbearer or the baker, how would you feel being imprisoned by the king?
(3) Which imprisonment was more unjust — that of the two officials or that of Joseph?
(4) How did Joseph demonstrate the difference in experience that God’s children should have in times of sufferings or adversities from those who are without God (see 39:21-23)?
(5) From Joseph’s response to their dreams in v.8, do you think Joseph saw the dreams of the two former servants of the king as pure coincidences?
(6) After interpreting the first dream, what did Joseph do in vv. 14-15? Why did he say what he said?
(7) Was Joseph’s prayer answered, according to v. 23?
(8) Why did God not answer his prayer, even though the dreams and their interpretation by Joseph were no coincidences at all?
(9) What happened eventually in 41:9? Do you know how long it had been since the cupbearer was released? (See 41:1.)
(10) Do you have unanswered prayers? What have you learned today that can help you give praise to God today?
(11) What is the main message to you today?
These days, it appears to be fashionable to blame Christianity and Christians for many of the problems of the world, both past and present — the brutal crusades, the apparent resistance to science and reasoning, the apparent lack of support of the ecosystem and more.
When I was reading the story of the two jailed officials of Pharaoh in Genesis 40, I could not help but thank God for the democracy and freedom we enjoy today. But many people have forgotten how this precious freedom that we enjoy, especially in the western world, has come about. It has been the result of the gospel.
Apart from the key message of salvation through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the gospel is a gospel that proclaims the equality of all human beings irrespective of gender, color and race. This was unheard of in the world before Christianity. Sure, the Romans had a fairly sophisticated legal system, but it did not treat all people as equal.
It was the message of true equality of all people that paved the way for the modern-day justice system and democracy of the West. Not only that, the establishment of universities, labor unions and hospitals, and the abolition of slavery and child-labor have all been direct products of Christianity.
Jonathan Hill has written a book, What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us, in which he details a lot more of the contributions that Christianity has made in the last 2,000 years, including those in the fields of arts and culture. James Hannam, the author of The Genesis of Science also makes a strong case for the contribution of Christianity to science. In other words, the world would definitely not be the same without Christianity. We, in the West, would still live under the totalitarian reign of some kind of Pharaoh. A scary thought!