Genesis 37:1-38:10 - Part B

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Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heidzick. A multicolored 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 2, he brought back a bad report. It's going to get worse really quick.

goes from bad to worse really quick. When his brothers 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 the talk around school. Was there anybody like that in your neighborhood? I think back to a girl where.

just down the block from where I lived, and she was fifteen years of age. Her dad was a wealthy attorney in town in California. And when she was fifteen 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 him. Remember, back in verse two. 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, when you hear the dream.

So he said to them, Please hear my dream, which I have dreamed. There we were binding sheaves in the field. And then behold, my sheep arose and stood upright, and the And indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheep. There's 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 really see if it was the Lord, or if maybe I had a. Dream because of locks 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 going to get them 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. Hey, guess what, you guys? You guys like all bow down to me. Isn't that cool? I know.

Now, I'm going to give away my age, but I remember back, maybe some of you do 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 beef. Remember the beef, how innocent he was? Hey, Woolak Wally. You know, just so innocent about life.

And, you know, it wasn't until Eddie Haskell and Lumpy beat him up a few times that he just sort of wised up. Took him a while. This is the beef of the Old Testament. And his brother said to him, Here's their reaction: Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us, so they hated him even more.

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. And 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 as from the Lord. Verse 9. Then he dreamed still another dream.

Oh boy. and told it to his brothers. See what I mean by naï? And he said, look, I dreamed another dream. And this time the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me.

The first dream, 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 locks 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. Yeah. 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 Bethel, 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. I've 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 write in your margin to look at later or look at now if you are a. 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 diadems 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 was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. And so she bore a male child who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And the child was caught up to God and to 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 twelve 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 isogetic 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 It's 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 thirty-seven to Revelation chapter twelve.

Now back to chapter 37. Of Genesis. Then his brothers, verse 12, went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

Now that's sixty miles north. And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers feeding the flock in 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 from the valley of Hebron, and he went You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, the 1960s promised us an explosion of love and brotherhood. But instead, they delivered a nation in turmoil, confusion, and moral decline. Fortunately, God has the solution for our damaged families. And in Beyond the Summer of Love, Relationships in the Real World, Pastor Skip Heitzig gives a biblical guide for marriage and families that can help restore relationships which have been damaged by sin.

Beyond the Summer of Love is our thanks for your gift of at least $25 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resources when you give $25 or more today to help reach people around the world with the good news of Jesus through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. It's quite common for people who have flocks and herds and are feeding them To look for pastureland in greener areas. And Shechem was higher elevation, and times of the year would have much more verdant.

possibilities for the animals. Uh However, do you remember what happened in Shechem? Shechem was the place Where 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 them up to his land. But now he's having second thoughts. Because there is no doubt bad blood still between the Shechemites 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 am seeking my brothers. Please tell me. Were they 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 10 miles north of Shechem.

So if Shechem is 60 miles north of Hebron, go another 10 miles, you go to the city of Dothan. But Dothan happened to be on the caravan routes. This is why it's important. Dothan 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 first born. 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. Thank God. 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 going to make sure that your dream never comes to pass. We're gonna kill you.

Reuben had already messed up. And he 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 colours 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 did they strip their 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. And every time we see that stupid coat, It 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.

Now, 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 uh 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.

thousand gallons of water.

Now you have an idea of this huge hole. Yeah. 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, it was made worse, so you put water in it, it all empties out. My people have left me a fountain of living water in 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 sister. And 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 them in the cistern. Because it says there was no water. in it. And they sat down to eat a meal.

They lifted 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? 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 passed by, so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites. For twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

Okay, so Which group was it? The God Joseph, was it the Ishmaelites or the Midianites? I mean, it's a bit confusing. You read it and says, well, these Ishmaelites were coming out, so they.

Sold them to the Midianites. And then the Ishmaelites took him. It's like, well, so so which one? Answer. Both.

Here's how it worked. Mm-hmm. 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, Keturah. 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 him for 20 pieces of silver.

Now, that's the price of a handicapped slave. That's what he was worth to them. They were making this statement about how they did not value them. 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, where 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. Remember what he says about his son Reuben?

He 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 Ruben. 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, kinda, When he's around other people like the brothers. They'll sway 'em. He won't be able to influence them. They'll influence him, in fact.

So, half-hearted godliness can never withstand active wickedness. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you understand and follow God's plan for your relationships. Beyond the Summer of Love: Relationships in the Real World by Pastor Skip Heitzig is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today.

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