Genesis 37:1-38:10 - 2009 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] father we thank you that your mercies are new every morning every day great is your faithfulness we now approach this time Lord um it's a very different kind of a time from many church services it's a good chunk of study time that requires diligent listening over a longer period of time we pray for grace Lord for that we pray Lord that you'd help even the weakness of the speaker and you'd help our ears to gain what your spirit may be wanting to say personally to us about an issue maybe you've been wanting to speak to us about something for a long time well whatever it is we read in the New Testament where your servant Paul said the things in the Old Testament were written for our benefit and so Lord we want to glean what you might be talking to us about in Jesus name Amen last time we were together we noted that Joseph occupies some prominent real estate in the book of Genesis I want you to just think for a moment that the Holy Spirit allotted one-fourth of the book of Genesis to the subject of one man named Joseph one-fourth 25% of the book is dedicated to Joseph compare that with the ten words that God allotted in explaining the first statement about creation in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ten words followed by two chapters of a very undetailed account of the creation of the universe it seems like you'd want to reverse that because it would seem that most people would really be interested in origins where we came from how did it all happen and yet were arrested that the Holy Spirit has a different priority and emphasis than we might we might want to make it all about origins the Holy Spirit wants to make it all about people especially a very unique person of whom nothing bad is said there's only two people in the Bible it has nothing bad to say about net is Joseph and the other is Daniel it doesn't mean they were sinless it just means that it's not recorded there's a lot in contrast to what is recorded about Joseph's brothers for example but nothing evil is said of Joseph and as we mentioned last time and we add communion it's because Joseph looks a lot like Jesus and that is Joseph is a unique type of Jesus Christ so when you put the big picture together it doesn't really surprise us that the Lord would spend that much time and that much focus on one person the story of Joseph is a classic story it's a rags to riches story an obscure kid introduced here at the age of 17 becomes the second most powerful person in the world the prime minister of Egypt second only to Pharaoh but more than that in line with that but more than that it's a story of Providence now some of you know what that is others of you have only heard that word but you're a little bit unsure as to what that means I want you to be sure I want you to understand the meaning of Providence in the Bible the idea of God's providence means that God takes ordinary events and arranges them that's Providence in Choa sovereign god superintending or arranging natural events for a pre-determined outcome it's different than the miraculous when we talk about Providence it it doesn't necessarily mean the miraculous let me explain a miracle is when God intervenes in natural law or contravenes natural law Providence is where God utilizes natural law whereas a miracle is God acting supernaturally unnaturally Providence is where God is working supernaturally naturally natural events normal events the stuff that every day is made out of but when you look back and you see the Providence of God God's hand overruling leading people through events you realize this isn't circumstantial its providential we all have examples of Providence I look back on my life it just so happened that one night I was invited by a previous girlfriend to a potluck where I noticed a young girl across the room asked her name her name was Lenya it wasn't circumstantial it was providential that was the Lord it just so happened that I was good friends with a guy years ago who said to me one night I'm thinking of moving to Albuquerque that started a chain of events in my own heart as I look back on it that wasn't circumstantial that was providential it just so happened that the landlord at our previous building I wanted to charge more rent we weren't willing to pay it and he was going to kick us out of that building and it just so happened at the same time this place was up for sale and vacant it wasn't circumstantial however it was providential God's hand was in it and so too with Joseph here's a young man as you'll see despised by his brothers and bad things happen to him but God is gonna weave all things together for good to this one who loves God and is called according to his purpose it's a beautiful testimony of that scripture Romans chapter 8 verse 28 Joseph will go down to Egypt now I'm telling you something in advance before we get into it cuz I want you to see a big picture Joseph is gonna be down in Egypt and come to a place of great prominence and power why because God needs to fulfill a promise that he made back in chapter 15 that is still left dangling so since you have your Bibles with you just go back a couple chapters to chapter 15 and notice something Genesis 15 verse 13 then he the Lord said to Abram that's Abram that's his name before he was changed to Abraham know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them for 400 years and also the nation whom they serve I will judge afterward they shall come out with great possessions but as for you you will go to your fathers in peace you will be buried at a good old age but in the fourth generation they shall return here for the iniquity of the amorite is not yet complete did you get that there's Abraham in the land God promised him he says actually your descendants are going to leave this land and be in another place for a period of time and that I'm going to bring them back here which begs the question why bother I mean once they're there to begin with why not keep them there why do you have to take them out to a different place well number one to teach them a very important lesson which I'll show you why before we end tonight but number two because God is a merciful God you see the inhabitants of Canaan the Canaanites called in verse oh I missed it now called in verse 16 the amorite s' chapter 15 verse 16 the amorite s-- was the chief tribe of the Canaanites God would give the Canaanites an opportunity to change to repent you see God's gonna judge them and he's gonna usurp their authority and position in the land by bringing the Israelites to take over but he's not just gonna do that without warning he's gonna give them four hundred years so they're gonna have Abraham Isaac and Jacob and you're gonna have that testimony to the Canaanites of the monotheistic God who loves people and wants to change their world that message will be able to resonate in Canaan for four hundred years but then when the iniquity or the sin of the Amorite SRI ch's the level at which God says now I have to act then God will act in judgment so do you understand that God is patient 400 years I would say is a long time to wait for somebody to change I think after 400 years ago I don't think it's going to happen how about judgment time well that's what happens 400 years later God will kick the Canaanites out and the Israelites will take over and God gives to them the land of Canaan God is a very patient and merciful God so that's a prediction they have to leave the land and so to prepare for them leaving the land so that it's favorable at least at first Joseph will go down to Egypt and providentially become second-in-command to get it all ready so that the children of Jacob can go down there be given the land of goshen prosper increase in population until they become slaves and Exodus chapter one and two and then they will take the Exodus in Exodus ten and eleven and twelve and get back into the land so now back to chapter 37 where we are trying to begin verse one now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan his father Isaac was indeed a stranger in Canaan much more so than his son Jacob was a stranger it would seem that if you were to look at Jacob's life he resembled in his value system the people of Canaan more than Isaac his father Isaac wasn't perfect but Jacob was far removed from even the righteous standard of his father do you know the Bible says that we too are strangers in our land that's how Peter writes his first epistle Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Cappadocia Galatia both inia etc same book chapter 2 Peter says I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul we live in this world we're in this land but we're called to be strangers I get worried that sometimes my life isn't strange enough but I become at home in this place that I'm to be a stranger in we're to be different we're to be separate and Jacob as we have already seen and we'll be reminded of even here he and his family their lifestyles are resembling more and more the people of Canaan rather than being a stranger like his father this is the history of Jacob Joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock his brothers with his brothers and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah his father's wives and Joseph brought a bad report to his father that is about them now Israel that is Jacob with his new name loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he also made him a tunic of many colors you would think that with Jacobs experience with favoritism that is his father showing favoritism and he the son experiencing that that he wouldn't enter into this you know just think back several chapters when Jacob was younger and still at home and he would have remembered how his father Isaac favored his oldest brother Esau over him and he saw the effects that that kind of favoritism could have in a family when one sibling realizes my dad loves my older brother way more than me he experienced that and you would think there's no way he's gonna make the same mistake newsflash he makes the same mistake it is true oftentimes the sins of parents are passed on to their children not wittingly but unwittingly it's an interesting fact that people that come from abused situations when they're younger they've been abused by their parents often become the ones who abuse as time goes on they replicate that it's what they're used to seeing it's what's been modeled to them and so Jacob loved Joseph more and all of his older brothers could see it think back a few chapters but not as far think back when Jacob met Esau after he comes back from paddan-aram and he finds out that Esau wants to meet with him and he's all paranoid remember that so remember how Jacob lines up the people who were going to meet him first the the the infantry the front lines will be the livestock and his slaves because they're the most expendable then there will be the sons of Leia the sons of Bilhah the sons of Zilpah and that whole family thing finally at the very end will be his most loved Rachel and his loved son Joseph way in the back to protect him favored status and that causes a division in the family so Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and Rachel was the only woman he loved we know that from previous Scripture also we made him a tunic of many colors a tunic of many colors or a multi-coloured robe a robe of royalty one commentator said it would it had sleeves and went down to his ankles a multi-coloured robe that showed favored status like a prince from a king would wear now it's pretty obvious if you're wearing something like that you can't do much manual labor right because the work outfit a few thousand years ago was a sleeveless shortened tunic so your legs and arms could move and you could do some work but this is like going to work with a tuxedo obviously the statement his father is wanting to make is Joseph you don't have to do hard work like your brothers you can just sort of supervise them I know you're the youngest but just tell me how you think they're doing verse two he brought back a bad report it's gonna get worse really quick goes from bad to worse really quick when his brother saw verse 4 that their father loved him more than all of his brothers they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him they couldn't even say Shalom that's the idea they couldn't extend Shalom greetings to him can you remember back when you grew up was there somebody in your neighborhood or in your class or at your school who was pampered maybe from a very wealthy family got everything they wanted and they were the talk around school was there anybody like that in your neighborhood I think back to a girl were just down the block from where I lived and she was 15 years of age her dad was a wealthy attorney in town in California and when she was 15 and she just got her learner's permit her dad bought her a brand-new red Porsche now that's stupid but in that kind of treatment that kind of favoring toward her he set her up for misery she had a miserable existence people around her didn't like her nobody liked her sort of like Joseph so back again they couldn't speak peaceably to and remember back in verse 2 Joseph was out there in his nice coat watching him work and brought back a bad report dad they're not doing a very good job now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers and they hated him even more you see why wouldn't you hear the dream so he said to him said to that he said to them please hear my dream which I have dreamed there we were binding sheaves in the field and then behold my sheaf arose and stood upright and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my seat there are some things that if you know you just keep quiet about I'm not Joseph so I really can't speak for him but if this were me and I had a dream like this I think I'd have probably just kept it inside and just just really see if it was the Lord or if you know maybe I had a dream because of LOX and bagels and onions the night before I want to make sure before I announce it that it's really the Lord because this is gonna get him into trouble they wouldn't receive this listen Joseph was young he's 17 excited about life as most seventeen year olds are and naive so he has this dream he's all excited he guess what you guys you guys like all bowed down to me and that cool I know now I'm gonna give away my age but I remember back maybe some of you do if you're if you're the Ancient of Days like I am do you remember Leave It to Beaver any of you here remember Leave It to Beaver hands up really that many of you do okay so Joseph was like the Beave remember the Beave how innocent he was hey wool like wall-e you know just so innocent about life and you know it wasn't till like Eddie Haskell and lumpy beat him up a few times and he just sort of wised up took him a while this is the bead of the Old Testament his brother said to him here's their reaction so you indeed reign over us or so you indeed have dominion over us so they hated him even more duh for his dreams and for his words Joseph the dreamer of dreams it's pretty interesting that Joseph's own dreams get him into trouble I keep this in mind thirteen years later someone else's dreams will get him out of trouble because God will give him the ability to unlock the secret meaning of other people's dreams and it will be accurate is from the Lord verse nine then he dreamed still another dream oh boy and told it to his brothers see what I mean by naive and he said look I I've dreamed another dream and this time the Sun and the moon and the Eleven stars bow down to me the first stream if his dad would have heard about it maybe he thought well he's just a kid you guys come on brush it off give him a break get over it he's just 17 years old he's a kid but now he's got his attention now he's troubled over this this is getting personal so he told it to his father and his brothers and his father rebuked him and said to him what is this dream that you have dreamed shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you what's the answer to that will they yes yes yes everything he is dreaming will happen they will bow down to him as he occupies that notable position in Egypt now watch this and his brothers envied him that's to be expected but his father kept the matter in mind hmm maybe this isn't from a late night lox and bagel episode the night before maybe really this dream is from God after all if somebody would know about God speaking through dreams it would be Jacob yes chapter 28 he had his own dream of the angels of God descending and ascending from earth to heaven and the Lord spoke to him the Covenant God made a promise to him and he woke up the next day and called it beth el the house of God the place where God is God is in this place and I knew it not so he's thinking okay maybe this is from the Lord and indeed it was now there's a very important passage and we just got to stop here here we are in the first book of the Bible the very last book of the Bible mentions also the Sun and the moon and the stars remember that if you don't either right in your margin to look at later or look at now if you are quick to turn to Revelation chapter 12 where it says now a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and with the moon under her feet and on her head a garland of twelve stars then being with child she cried out in labor and pain to give birth and another sign appeared in heaven behold a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadem's on his head and he drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who is ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born and so the male she bore a male child who was to rule all the nations with a rod of and the child was caught up to God into his throne I've always been fascinated as to how many interpretations for the woman in Revelation chapter 12 exist one of the most prominent and popular ones is that the woman in revelation 12 represents the church it's the church going through tribulation it's the church suffering during that era well if it's the church she's got a problem because she's pregnant and that doesn't fit the description given by Paul as the virgin Bride of Christ here's what's great there's only one other place in the Bible where Sun Moon and 12 stars are given and the interpretation is given and that's in our passage in Genesis 37 and Jacob Joseph's father gives the interpretation because he knows exactly what the Sun the moon and the stars are it represents himself Jacob Jacob's wife or Joseph's mother Rachel and all of his brothers which are the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel so now we don't have to guess what it is and just pull out some random interpretation because we think it fits best our iso jeddak theology but we can say oh I know what the answer is it represents Israel and you would be right it represents the nation of Israel this is why knowing the Bible is so important because when you know the Bible it makes the last book of the Bible a whole lot easier to understand it's not a tough book the book of Revelation all of the idiomatic expressions are already unlocked in previous books of the Bible and so when you're familiar with him you go oh I remember that and therefore that's the interpretation and so that's just an important tie in from Genesis 37 to Revelation chapter 12 now back to chapter 37 of Genesis then his brothers verse 12 went to feed their father's flock in shechem now that's 60 miles north and Israel said to Joseph are not your brothers feeding the flock and Shechem come I will send you to them and so he said to him Here I am and he said to him please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks and bring back word to me that is not a really wise thing he's doing so we sent him out to the from the valley of head have run out of the valley of Hebron and he went to Shechem it's quite common for people who have flocks and herds and are feeding them to look for pasture land in greener areas and Shechem was higher elevation and times of the year would have much more verdant possibilities for the animals however do you remember what happened and Shechem Shechem was the place were Simeon and Levi two of the sons of Jacob committed mass murder when their sister Dinah was raped and you remember that Jacob had to leave and flee in a hurry because he was afraid the blood is really bad here we got to get out of town but now years have passed and he sends his boys back to Shechem because he still owns a piece of property back there it's his land so he sends him up to his land but now he's having second thoughts because there is no doubt bad blood still between the Shechem i'ts and my boys I better send Joseph up there with his fancy little coat and see how they're working verse 15 now a certain man found him and there he was wandering in the field and the man asked him saying what are you seeking he said I'm seeking my brother's please tell me were there feeding their flocks the man said they've departed from here for I heard them say let us go to Dothan so Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan Dothan is ten miles north of Shechem so if Shechem is 60 miles north of Hebron go another ten miles you go to the city dothan but Dothan happened to be on the caravan routes this is why it's important Dalton was on the caravan routes that went from the Mediterranean westward eastward inland and it would connect with the main caravan route that went from Syria Damascus all the way down to Egypt which brings us to really the highlight and the mystique of our story now verse 18 when they saw him afar off even before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him and they said to one another look this dreamer is coming come therefore let us now kill him and cast him into some pit and we shall say some wild beast has devoured him we'll see what will will become of his dreams but Reuben heard about it and he delivered him out of their hands as the eldest the firstborn and he said let us not kill him and Reuben said to them shed no blood but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness and do not lay a hand on him that he might be delivered from out of their hands and bring him back to his father they see Joseph they remember the dreams it's as if they're saying look you might be a dreamer but we're a bunch of pragmatists and we're gonna make sure that your dream never comes to pass we're gonna kill you Reuben had already messed up and wasn't in great terms with his dad so I think in order to win back his father's favor he goes no we can't do this seeking to deliver Joseph from out of their hands and it says that he might deliver him out of their hands and bring him back to his father so it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic tunic of many colors that was on him and they took him and cast him into a pit and the pit was empty and there was no water in it why'd they strip the robe off of him because that robe now it shows the very focus of their disdain that robe represented the special relationship that this young boy had with his father and that was what they were envious of they didn't have that relationship dad didn't love them as much as dad loved him as shown by that coat every time we see that stupid coat he reminds us of that so let's take off that stupid coat and they did they stripped him and they put him in a pit now the pit was a cistern if you've read through the scriptures you're familiar with the term cistern but really until you go to Israel and see a cistern you have no clue what a cistern is like cisterns were dug out of the ground of the ground in Israel is usually most everywhere solid rock like concrete so what they would do is they would dig out by hand hammer and chisel and it would take months or years to dig this huge cavernous hole to store water because in the Middle East it's the rain from heaven Deuteronomy 11 that God says I will water the earth with so in the ancient days they couldn't walk into their kitchen and turn the faucet and have water come out of the sink and because they didn't have an abundance of water in that land like in places where there are great rivers they had to collect rainwater so every time it would rain they would build diversion channels and the channels would empty into these holes or cisterns once they would dig them out then a plasterer would come in and lay a nice layer of sealant plaster around that cistern in Israel in the garden tomb the place where some people believe Jesus was buried and then rose from the dead there's one cistern they've discovered that could hold 250,000 gallons of water now you have an idea of this huge hole and this is the background for some very important scriptures like in Jeremiah where the Lord said in chapter 2 my people have committed two evils number one they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters number two they have dug out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water you can imagine how frustrating it would be if you spent months and months and months digging out of solid rock your cistern only to discover that there's a fissure in the rock and that maybe even by a little bit of seismic activity was made worse so you put water in it it all empties out my people have left me a fountain of living water and artesian well and they're drinking out of broken cisterns that can't hold water so many of our experiences can't hold water and yet we try to drink from them and be refreshed by them so that's the cistern there was this big empty pit and it was empty because it wasn't the rainy season it hadn't rained so there's no water in it and it's a great place to store a prisoner so they put him in the cistern because it says there was no water in it and they sat down to eat a meal they lift her up their eyes and looked there was a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing spices balm myrrh on the way to carry them down to Egypt that's the caravan route I was telling you about so Judah said to his brothers what profit is there if we kill our brothers and conceal his blood you know let's let's make some money off of this come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother and our flesh and his brothers listened then Midianite traders pass by so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver and they took Joseph to Egypt okay so which group was it the god Joseph was that the Ishmaelites or the Midianites I mean it's a bit confusing you read it says these Ishmaelites were coming out so they sold them to the Midianites and then the Ishmaelites took them it's like well so so which one answer both here's how it worked if you remember ishmael was the son of Abraham through Hagar the Egyptian handmaiden of Sarah Midian was also the son of Abraham through his second wife cateura both children of Abraham both became sizable nomadic nations but in the early stages which is now in their nascent stages they're just small groups of people and typically when caravans would travel down to do commerce business with any notable Empire like Egypt they would travel together in bands they would form alliances together it would add to the strength of bargaining so both were together the Ishmaelites and the Midianites and they took Joseph down to Egypt that's just to clarify that if you're wondering they sold it for 20 pieces of silver now that's the price of a handicapped slave that's what he was worth to them he was they were making a statement about how they did not value him then Reuben returned to the pit and indeed Joseph was not in the pit and he tore his clothes and he returned to his brothers and said the lad is no more and I were shall I go so they took Joseph's tunic killed a kid of the goats and dipped the tunic in blood do you remember a few weeks ago when we skipped ahead to Genesis 49 and that's the scene when Jacob is on his deathbed and he's prophesying over all his kids everybody says about his son Reuben says Reuben is unstable as water sort of like what it says in the book of James a double minded man is unstable in all his ways that was Reuben he hates his brother he wants him out of the picture he doesn't really want to kill him he then leaves for a while then he comes back here's the point this guy was so vacillating in his life he now lacks the ability to exert any meaningful influence on people around him and here's the principle half-hearted godliness can never withstand active wickedness if a person is not filled with conviction and lays down what he believes in and how he'll behave and what's important to him if it's just sort of yeah kind of what when he's around other people like the brothers they'll sway him he won't be able to influence them they'll influence him in fact so half-hearted godliness can ever withstand active wickedness that sort of sums up this man's life oh but there'll be more of him before we are done something in verse 31 they took Joseph's tunic and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the tunic in blood hmm how did they deceive their dad by killing a goat ring a bell how did their dad deceive his dad by killing a goat remember Rebecca said quick go get a goat kill it and put the skins around your arm because you have you know you're such a smooth kid and your brother's so hairy and so he came in with these goat skins on and he would feel rougher like he has a lot of hair and he would smell horrible like his brother so when dad who didn't see very well he said that's the smell of Esau the smell of Oldfield he smells like you know a goat field anyway the point here is that you reap what you sow and they sent the tunic of many colors and brought it in to their father and said we have found this do you know whether this is your son's tunic or not and he recognized it he said it is my son's tunic a wild beast has devoured him without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces now he's gonna believe that for 20 years then Jacob tore his clothes puts a cloth on his waist and mourned for his son for many days and all his sons all his daughters rose to comfort him there's a couple lessons before we finish out these verses in the chapter number one be very careful about envying other people who they are what they have what their status is what their position is how your parents or the boss treats that one or those individuals because Envy which turns to jealousy is like a time bomb just stays there but it's waiting to detonate it was James who said in Chapter three of his little book he said we're envy and self-seeking exists there will be confusion and every evil work they were envious it exploded into a very rash decision to would do away with their brother and then the second lesson is Romans 8:28 all things work together for good to those who love God now we're gonna follow that principle in the life of Joseph we typically see that from an analytical viewpoint here we are analyzing Joseph's life thousands of years later so easy for us to look at his life and say oh yes that's so marvelous how Romans 8:28 works now think of it from Joseph's vantage point right here everything he had known is gone he's now on their way to a place he's never been he has no idea what's going to happen to him at this point he doesn't know Romans 8:28 he didn't have a New Testament now he does trust the Lord and God providentially will work and it's amazing how he clings to the Lord but that's the second principle all things work together for good so all of his sons all of his daughters arose to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said for I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning and thus his father wept for him now the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar an officer of Pharaoh and a captain of the guard the Pharaoh that is mentioned in that verse is probably am enemies ii who reigned in the 12th dynasty of egypt from 1929 BC to 1895 BC the capital of Egypt at that point was Memphis not Tennessee Memphis Egypt 12 miles out of Cairo this wasn't like the Pharaoh Elvis that's not that Memphis we're talking about a whole different deal now Potter far is the term pata fara and pata fara can be translated that means he whom was given by rah the sun-god or given by raw Potter Farah Josephus tells us that pata far was the chief Baker in the house of Pharaoh whether that's true or not we don't know but he gives them that title as well or the chief cook not the chief Baker that'll come in chapter 39 the chief cook chapter 38 it came to pass let's see how far we get before we have to close came to pass at this time that Jude had departed from his brothers and visited a certain a doula might whose name was Huayra I'm gonna warn you that this chapter seems very out of place because we're starting with the life of Joseph and then it's sort of like this long weird bad story like it like this parenthesis in the middle of Joseph's story then we get back to Joseph in chapter 39 why is it here for two reasons number one to show us a contrast between Joseph and his brothers between light and darkness between good and bad number two to provide for us the genie logical background of the most important person in the Bible who is Jesus Christ from the lineage of Judah and what you discover about this tribe of Judah that we put such mystique around is that once you find out Judah and the descendants of Judah if you were picking a lineage for your Messiah you would stay away from Judah it's surprising that Jesus has this lineage and that Matthew includes some of those names in his genealogical record in Matthew chapter 1 so all of this happens chapter 38 covers a period of about 20 years while Joseph is in Egypt simultaneously these are some of the events happening back home and since it's really a story of Jacob's family part of Jacob's family is Judah says Judah saw their a daughter of a certain Canaanite his name was schewe and he married her and went into her so you can see Judah has problems already he's marrying a Canaanite he knew the wishes of his father and grandfather and great-grandfather stay away from the people of this land they have worship different gods they have different value systems nonetheless he doesn't care he's a chick she's beautiful good enough for me I'll marry her so she conceived and bore a son and called his name her well that's his name what's her name her easy to spell she conceived again and bore a son and called his name Onan she conceived again and bore a son and called his name Shayla you could pronounce it Sheila but that just wouldn't be right for a guy so I'll use the Hebraic emphasis and say Sheila cuz that's how it would be probably be pronounced he was in kesab when she bore him that's about eight miles outside of Hebron and Judah took a white Fuhrer's firstborn and named her Tamar but her Judah's firstborn was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord killed him now this is interesting because this is the very first time the Bible indicates or comes right out and says that God kills someone takes an active measure to do away with somebody's life because they were wicked it's not the last but it's the first and we're not told what his wickedness was we can suppose but it'll only be a supposition we don't know now it's the first but I mentioned it won't be the last one of the notable ones in the New Testament is in Acts chapter 5 a couple by the name of Ananias and Sapphira who claimed that they were giving all that they had to the Lord and they were really lying about it and so the husband comes in and says we're pledging so much to God's work and he didn't have to pledge anything that the amount wasn't the issue just the fact that he lied was the issue so the Bible says he just keeled over dead and they drug him out and buried him his wife comes in later and says hey you know my husband and I were dedicating so much money to the Lord for his work and Peter says now why is it that you and your husband have both conspired to lie to the Holy Spirit you haven't lied to man you've lied to God behold the hands of those who have taken your husband out to bury him they're gonna wait for you to kick the bucket and they're gonna take you out and bury you so she dies in they take around barrier another notable time is at the Lord's Supper in first Corinthians chapter 11 when Paul the Apostle indicates that people in the church actually died because they abused the Lord's Supper and in that chapter first Corinthians 11 he said for this reason many are weak have become sick and have died as a direct judgment now it seems in all of these cases if I may try to interpret why it seems in all of these cases something new was beginning God was doing a new work there was a new dimension operating a new thing happening and like the early church it was so pure up to that moment and the first time hypocracy entered into the church it was so grave an offense to the Holy Spirit that that is the divine response and they just kill over dead it obviously doesn't still happen you imagine if it did happen can you imagine if God was as severe with us as he was with Ananias and Sapphira you know what that would mean that would mean if if we're in a worship service and we come to the song I surrender all some people would go because if they said they were surrendering all but they weren't surrendering all then like Ananias and Sapphira s' we've been doing a whole lot more funerals so e dies which leaves his wife with the problem she has no offspring now I can just tell you we won't be able to make it to this chapter but we can take it through a couple verses so it says verse 8 Judas said to Onan this is number two son go into your brother's wife and marry her and raise up an heir to your brother this was a common practice even before the law of Moses as you can see way before this is a common practice in Asia and Africa but it originated in Mesopotamia where Abraham was from it became known as the levirate law of marriage if you want to find out how God treats it through Moses just go ahead and read Deuteronomy 25 not right now but later on Deuteronomy 25 outlines it and so here's the deal you got brothers and one brother gets married and that means that his son and will have the right of inheritance the name goes on and everything the father owns will go on from family to family but if they're married and he has no son then that patriarchal Authority cannot pass on and so the brother of that one who died would take his wife and have physical relations with her and produce a son named it after his brother son it would assume all the rights of his brother not his and thus his name would live on that means the land the property the name would stay and that again is outlined the parameters at in Deuteronomy chapter 25 if you want to find out the practical out workings of how that work practically read the Book of Ruth Ruth is all about that because ulema lek and Naomi and their two boys melon and chilli on which means sickly and pining left Bethlehem and went over across the Dead Sea to Moab because it was a famine in Bethlehem ulema luck died Malin died Chilean died leaving Naomi with two Moabite girls they go back to Bethlehem the land that was there was left but there's a chance to redeem the land but to redeem the land a kinsman since there were no brothers there was only a relative of Naomi named Boaz to take the land himself would also have to marry Ruth and produce offspring fast-forward Matthew 22 this is the very law the Sadducees tried to trap Jesus with when discussing the resurrection you remember the Sadducees in the New Testament did not believe in resurrection only the Pharisees did the Sadducees were liberals in didn't believe in that heaven hocus-pocus or literal bodily resurrection so trying to trap Jesus as one day because they knew he believed in physical resurrection they said you know Master the law says that if a man marries a woman and then he dies that his brother has to marry her and raise up offspring well there were seven brothers they said and the first one married a gal and then he died and so the second brother took her and he died and then the third white brother took her and he died and the fourth died and the fifth did it and died the sixth married her and died the seventh died at that point you're wondering what is she putting in the eggs stay away from that chick it was a hypothetical case it was crazy didn't really happen but it was a hypothesis and then they said okay so if you believe in resurrection Jesus in the resurrection whose wife will she be which of those seven and Jesus response was classic he said you're ignorant not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God for in the resurrection they're not male and female they're like the angels they don't marry they're not given in marriage in a whole different dimension but they try to use this to trap Jesus well here's the beginning of that whole law and practice in Israel even before the codification of the law under Moses so brother number two Onan has to step in but own and knew that the air would not be his and it came to pass when he went in to his brother's wife that he emitted on the ground lest he should give an air to his brother and the thing which she did displeased the Lord therefore he killed him also and because the time's up we're gonna have to wait for next week to unravel that one convenient place to end let's pray father in heaven he was the psalmist who was thinking back over the scripture which was to him the Torah Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers in Deuteronomy and in thinking of that he said your word is a lamp to my feet a light to my soul were withal shall a young man cleanse his ways by taking heed according to your word these principles though ancient in their contexts are so relevant in their application we're told Lord that these precepts were given to us and that's why we study all of the Bible because you gave it to us and we understand the roots of things and we understand your plan through the ages and it's marvelous for us Lord to grow in the Grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ again you said a wise man will learn here an increase in learning Lord I pray that as we consider Joseph tonight and in weeks ahead and was we contrast to him with men like his brother Reuben or Judah and we see the contrast between light and darkness between a life that lived close to you and a life that did not relieve in care about you we would see the result in the outcome and that we would lean harder even when we don't understand why this is happening to us Joseph was in that dark pit and then foreigners took him speaking a foreign tongue and he couldn't believe that his brothers would treat him that way and then year after year after year went by and hardship after hardship all the while providentially you were working behind the scenes and that's where we place our faith tonight whether we see a miracle or not is totally irrelevant what is most relevant as we know that we serve a God who works supernaturally even in natural ways we pray Lord that you give us the eye sight to see even part of that plan as we look back over our own lives and rejoice in you thank you Lord for a group that is hungry to hear the word and to apply it you said that you reward those who diligently seek you would you do that again this week in the lives of these your servants in Jesus name we pray amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 9,633

Rating: 4.6491227 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Jesus, Genesis, Sermon

Id: tyZ-By6vZgQ

Length: 60min 51sec (3651 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018