Genesis 1/7/2018

GENESIS

January 07, 2018

By Pastor Kim Hickcox

(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let’s pick up where we left off – Genesis 37:12-36.  We left Joseph boasting about the dreams that the Lord gave him and getting himself into deep trouble with all his brothers. We ended with Genesis 37:11, which says “And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the saying in his heart.” So after this, “Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers in feeding the flock in Shechem? Come and I shall send you to them.’ And he said to him, ‘Here I am.’’’ Genesis 37:13

Have you ever wondered why they still hung around Shechem? I mean after they killed every male and took everyone else captive because of their sister Dinah.  It must have been good pasture land. I looked it up to see if the name had any significance, but all it said was that it was a place in Palestine (which I refer to as Canaan). But I guess it became the spoils of war, so they grazed their flocks there. “And he said to him, ‘Please, go, and see whether it be well with your brothers and well with the flock and bring me word again.’ So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron and he came to Shechem.” Genesis 37:15

If you remember, Hebron was where Israel’s grandfather Abraham lived, hence his being called a Hebrew, it was also where his dad Isaac grew up, so we are still in the same geographical area.

So we innocently start out with a normal task; the little brother is sent to see how his big brothers are doing. What could go wrong, right? So he gets there, asks around for his brothers as he can’t find them, and is told that they packed up and went to Dothan. (Again, no specific meaning.) So (I assume) Joseph thanks the man and heads for Dothan and here is where is all goes south!

“And when they saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to slay him. ¹⁹And they said to one another, ‘Behold this dreamer is coming. ²⁰Come now therefore, let us slay him and cast him into some pit and we will say “Some awful beast has devoured him.” Then we will see what becomes of his dreams.’”  Genesis 37:18-20

Can you imagine?! Talk about petty!! They actually wanted to killtheir little brother and then break their father’s heart by telling him that his youngest son who HE sent out to check up on them was killed by a beast!!

Well, thank God for Rueben! “And Rueben heard it and he delivered him from their hands and said, ‘Let us not kill him.’²²And Rueben said to them, ‘Do not pour out blood! Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness and do not lay a hand on him,’ so he might get him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again. ²³And it was when Joseph came to his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, his long tunic that was on him.²⁴And they took him and put him in a pit, and the pit was empty with no water in it.” Genesis 37:21-24. This last fact is very significant, as the pit could easily have been an old abandoned well.

Then Judah – the same Judah mind you who became so incensed when Shechem violated his sister because of how he was disgracing the Lord,  says when they see some Ishmaelite merchants coming, “‘What profit is it if we slay our brother  and conceal his blood? ²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our flesh.’” Genesis 37:26-27

What a toots!! I don’t know about you, but every time I read this passage, I thank God for my brothers! (Love you Jeff! Love you Mark!)

So is there a moral to this story?  Could be to be careful who you share your dreams with.  But more than that, I think we are starting to see a pattern:

1. Following the Lord will not necessarily make you popular or keep you out of perilous situations. Apostle Paul writes, “Five times I took forty strokes less one by the Jewish leaders, ²⁵I was beaten with a rod three times, I was stoned once, I suffered shipwreck three times, I have spent a day and a night in the deep sea: ²⁶in many journeys in danger from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in danger from my people, in dangers from heathens,  in dangers in a city, in dangers in a wilderness, in dangers in  sea, in dangers among false brothers, ²⁷in labor an in hardship, in sleepless nights many times, in famine and in thirst, many times in fasting, in cold and lack of sufficient clothing…” 2^ndCorinthians 11:24- 27
2. Rejection, at least for a while, should probably be expected. Moses was rejected, “And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. ²And they said, ‘Has the LORD indeed spoken only to Moses? Has He not also spoken with us?’ And the LORD heard.  ³(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men on the face of the earth.)
   
   
   “⁴And the LORD spoke suddenly to Moses, to Aaron and to Miriam, ‘Come out you three to the Tent of Meeting.’ And the three came out. ⁵And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud in the door of the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forth. ⁶And He said, ‘Now hear My words! If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will make Myself known to him in a vision and will speak to him in a dream. ⁷My servant Moses is not one of those, he is faithful in all My house. ⁸I speak to him mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches, and he will see the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?’” Numbers 12:1-8 (P.S., that would settle everything for me!) And Moses turned out to be “The Law Giver” whom the pious followed even to the exclusion of their long awaited Messiah – Y’shua!

However, Y’shua told us in John 16:33 “…in this world you will have distress: but be of good courage, I have overcome the world.”

“Then the Midianites, merchantmen, passed by and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of sliver, and they brought Joseph into Egypt.” Genesis 37:28. Judas sold out our Savior for thirty pieces of silver, the slave price of the day.

We will see many more similarities between Y’shua and Joseph as from now on Genesis is his story, or, being a foreshadow, His story that Joseph was honored enough to model for us.

I pray every week on what the Holy Spirit would like to share with you, but sometimes, like today, I feel like He’s speaking to me. This week ws like a roller coaster, but God is good – ALL the time! Amen?  I hope this helped you as much as it did me. God bless you all!!

SHALOM