In this sermon, Chuck Missler discusses Genesis chapters 35 through 37. He begins by praying for understanding and guidance from the Holy Spirit. He then highlights the importance of faith and recounts the stories of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and the walls of Jericho falling. Missler also emphasizes the significance of Romans 8:28, which states that all things work together for good for those who love God. Finally, he focuses on the story of Joseph and how his brothers ignored his cries for help when he was in the pit, only to regret their actions 22 years later.

Welcome to the 21st study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, Genesis chapters 35 through 37. All righty, let's stand for a word of prayer. I assume you would like to stretch. Heavenly Father, we praise you. We just thank you for the privilege, the unspeakable privilege, of gathering together in the name of Jesus Christ to open your word to us. We just pray, Father, that you would indeed do that to our hearts and our minds. That we might behold those things that you've placed here for our learning. We just ask, in accordance with your promise, Father, that you just send your teacher, the Holy Spirit, to open our understanding. That we might behold those very specific things that you've placed here for our feeding, this night, and to his glory. Amen. Okay, we're in Genesis, and we're finishing up what can be regarded as a second major section. The first major section of the book of Genesis is typically considered by many the first 11 chapters. The pre-Abraham section. The creation, the flood, and Noah, and Babel, and all of that. And the first 11 chapters usually are treated as a unit. Many people who undertake a commentary will deal with that totally separately from the rest. And, of course, we've covered that. The next major section starts, really, with the call of Abraham, chapter 12, verse 1 on. And that's what we've been into, in effect, with Abraham, and then Isaac, and Jacob. And we are in the last couple of chapters here that have their intense focus on Jacob. It's tempting to take the couple of chapters here of Jacob, and pick up one more chapter late in the book, chapter 49. Because that's where Jacob will reappear in prominence, and prophesy over the 12 tribes. Since that, in itself, is a study in its own right. It's my thought, we'll do that when we get to chapter 49. But if I was to take chapter 49 and tie it to what we have tonight, we'd sort of put a ribbon on Jacob, setting the stage for Joseph. And so it's our real intention tonight to sort of tie off, in a sense, Jacob. The only thing I'll leave loose, if you will, is we'll leave 49 when we get there. It'll be probably better, if for no other reason, it won't confuse the tape librarians. Okay, we are in chapter 35. And in chapter 34, you may recall, we had, well, Jacob, you realize, was called back to Bethel. And instead, he hangs around Sukkoth and Shechem, and so on. And he ends up being a real mess, as exemplified by this mess with Dinah. His daughter was violated by the men of Shechem, and a couple of his sons get pretty barbaric in their handling of that situation. They become murderers and slaughter Himar and all the Shechemites. And you may wonder, why is that grisly story placed right there, if for no other reason, than as an indication of the exposure that one has when he's not where God really wants him. And I think we covered that adequately last time. Tonight, we're going to see Jacob finally get it together. He has been, let's just jump in and see. Chapter 35, verse 1. And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee, when thou fleddest from the face of Esau, thy brother. Notice what verse 2, I want to take one more verse, then we'll sort of tie together. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you. Be clean, and change your garments. Let us arise, and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, and so forth. You know, it's something, I think verse 2 helps us understand verse 1. This whole command by God to arise, and now go up to Bethel, is in the form of a reproof. Jacob was not where God wanted him. As evidence of that, he is among all these strange gods. Rachel, of course, had taken the terror of him. We studied that, right? It's also interesting that his sons are also idol worshipers here. They had all kinds, all manner of household gods, demonic contrivances. The leprosy of sin, from the beginning with Rachel, it had spread throughout the family, and Jacob hadn't done anything about it. He may have meant well. Who's the high priest of the family? Jacob. Incidentally, very officially. What is the rights of the firstborn? What is the birthright? Actually, I didn't mean to say firstborn. The birthright that falls in the firstborn, unless it's a forfeiture, right? What is the birthright? Double portion inheritance, head of the household, and priest of the family. Who is that? Jacob. Had he done a decent job? No. What does God say? Because you didn't do a decent job, I cast you out? No, not at all. He says, arise Jacob, and go up to Bethel. God perseveres. We saw him wrestle Jacob to the ground a chapter or so back, and we have him still calling. But he says, arise and go up to Bethel. He's calling him out of where he's at. Where is he? In Shechem, yes, but where else is he? In the world. In the world. Look what happened to Dinah. Look at the whole mess. He is analogous to being in Egypt. What's the only cure for world illness? Separation. Separation. Doesn't have to be geographic, necessarily, but separation from the world. We could make a whole study on that if you like. Now, God has an objective for Jacob. Why does he want him in Bethel? What does he want him to do in Bethel? True, what's more important? Close. Build an altar? Yes, it is. But what else? God said unto Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel, and do what? Dwell there. Dwell there. Very interesting. What's God's goal? Fellowship. Fellowship. You know, it's very, very interesting. I think one of the most important lessons in the scripture is to really understand God's motives. What's he after? And I'm fascinated with the contrast between David and Solomon. If you and I were writing a report card for Solomon and David, with Solomon, we'd give him straight A's. What did Solomon do? Man of peace, right? Not war. Sounds pretty good. Built the temple. Well, that's a big deal. Built the temple. Temple of Solomon. That's obviously a major milestone. And not just in the secular sense. In God's sense, too. I mean, you know, David wanted to, and God wouldn't let him. It's too important. Had to be man of peace. Your son Solomon will do it. David says, that's okay. I'll pay the bills in advance. Which, so David, even though Solomon gets all the credit, really, David has made most of the arrangements. But Solomon built the temple. Terrific. Who ushered in the highest pinnacle of Israel's commercial and foreign relations prominence in its entire history? Solomon. By treaties and by commerce and by... Terrific, right? Queen Yeshiva. Heard these wild stories. Couldn't believe it. So she travels there to sea for herself. And she says, the half of it was not told me. It was recorded twice in scripture. So you and I, if we were evaluating kingship, we would put Solomon pretty high. We all know what, you know, what Solomon asked for. God says, hey, Solomon, what would you like? And we all know what Solomon asked. For riches? For power? No. For wisdom that he might rule the people better. So God says, you got that. And you get wisdom and power, and you get riches and power also. So we all know the story how Solomon asked for the right things, and he got a pat on the back, and he had this incredible reign in Israel, right? How does the scripture deal with Solomon's reign? Do you ever find it mentioned? Not very often. And when you do, you find it always the adverse side of the comparison. The reign of Solomon is not looked upon in the scripture as a big deal, except yes, it was prosperous. We look at Solomon and we're disappointed. The Lord said, speaking of the lilies of the field, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these, right? You always find the reign of Solomon's used as a yardstick, but in an adverse sense, you know, something that even exceeds it. Now let's look in contrast to that, David. We look at David, and we can write a report card, David, and we wouldn't be too impressed. Poet, shepherd, warrior, spending most of his time running. What kind of a reign did he have? Led the civil war, had murder, the sword didn't depart. He committed adultery, murdered the husband, conspired to cover it up. His own household was a disaster of intrigue, and strife, and double dealing, and the whole bit, right? A mess. We look back at David's reign as human beings, we say that's terrible. Yet there's something very strange in the scripture. Every page of the Bible, almost every page, makes reference to the throne of David. Not the throne of Solomon, the throne of David. And every place you go, God goes out of his way to extol David, right? Okay, what did David ask for when he was to be king? We all know what Solomon asked for because it's recorded so nice and neat in the narrative. What did David ask for? That I might dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And that was a higher thing to be asked for. David's passion was to dwell with the Lord. The Lord honored that. The Lord said after David, he's the only one that said that, he's a man after his own heart. And we discover in all of this that God isn't, he's interested in us being effective, secondarily. Sure he wants us to be an effective king, or insured salesman, or whatever it might be that we're called upon. Sure he wants us to be effective. But that's down the list a bit. What's the number one thing he would have of us? Give to the poor? No. Fellowship. Fellowship. That's what it's all about. And what's the greatest commandment? Love a very specific thing. Deuteronomy 6. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength. And if you could do it the way Christ quoted, he added a phrase, in all thy mind. There's a whole study in that, that doesn't appear in the Old Testament, doesn't appear in the mind of Christ, and so forth. Point is, that's his number one commandment. That's even more than love your neighbor. That's the second commandment, right? What's the number one commandment? Now my thesis is that if you do that, then you have them all. That's catch 23 or something. How do you do that? We're a little off the subject, but yet we're not really. How do you keep the greatest commandment? That's a tough, by the way, that is not an easy commandment. It's tough for all the rest. It's probably easier not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to murder or be angry. How do you love the Lord with all, not most of, all your heart and soul and strength and mind? How do you do that? There's only one way I know of and it's a secret. We know that if we pray and we're in the will of the Lord, he will answer that prayer, right? Sometimes you pray for something he thinks pretty good, but it might not be in his will. It may not be heard. You pray for the Holy Spirit to help you keep that commandment. Is there any way he could refuse? Is there any way he can say you're not in his will? Hey Father, send the Holy Spirit by your supernatural power, help me keep the first commandment. Period. Carriage return. End of message. That's all I need, Father. I have only one request. That one. In the morning, you don't want to go through devotions. If I'm tired, if there's nothing else really burning in my mind. That's my favorite prayer. This day, Father, through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, help me keep that first commandment. Deuteronomy 6, 5 and 6. I'm going to put it that way. Very interesting, interesting thing because I submit to you that if you do that, the rest will fall into place. It's very, very interesting. I think that's the secret of David's throne. Was he a neat king? No. He was all screwed up. He really was. I mean, as a reign, if you look at it, you know, by the Archdiocese, why is he so important? Because God made him important. And the greatest name in Israel, saved the Messiah himself. And in contrast, that Solomon, whereby all are the Archdiocese, would be a big deal. And yet, it's interesting, he ain't. He sort of becomes something quite antithetical. Quite antithetical to do that. And there's a whole prophecy thing that we won't get into tonight. That's another story. But here we have Jacob. Here we have Jacob. And God is saying to Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. I see that very seriously as a call to fellowship. A call to fellowship. That should be your highest ambition. The highest ambition you have. To fellowship with him. Not to witness more. Not to help raise funds for this project or that project. Or to, you know, you make your own list of neat things to do. Very dangerous ground. Very easy to get into legalism or in a work strip or to try and help God. Boy, there's lots of stories, Ishmael and others, where he tried to help God do his thing. He doesn't need your help. Not in that sense. What does he need? What has he created you for? Fellowship. That should be your number one goal. The rest will follow as a love gift. Fellowship number one. How do you do that? Well, one way is to invoke Deuteronomy 6 by the Holy Spirit. You'll find lots of other ways to communicate about the rest, because if you're in fellowship, then you have communion with one another. Okay. Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau, thy brother. We're going to come across a very interesting idea here. I'm going to suggest to you that before the chapter is over, that there are some 30 years lost out of his life. All the years at Patamaran and Shechem and Zucca were lost, put away. They're out of fellowship. And we'll come to a little side study on that, but I'll sort of give it a mention now as we go. But God is saying, you know, from the time you first appeared to him when you fled from the face of Esau, thy brother, it was a long time ago. And where did he appear to him? Right here at Bethel. That's where he's being called to return. Verse two, and Jacob said to his house, notice Jacob didn't mess around this time. Something's happened. What's happened? Phanuel and the rest. God has appeared to him, God said to him, so for Jacob said unto his household and all that were with him, put away the foreign gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. Put away strange gods. Gee, we could take off on this one too, couldn't we? Right? Put away strange gods. Someone in the back room saying the god of the Ferraris as well as the god of the Porsches, right? Put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. It's interesting how garments are a symbol in the scripture. What are they a symbol of? Righteousness. And one of the classical passages of Isaiah 64.6, your righteousness are as what? Filthy rags, if you want to use the polite translation. Use menstrual claws if you want to use the literal Hebrew. In other words, the whole issue of us being clothed in our righteousness which is as filthy rags. What's the Lord clothed? We learned last night, Psalm 104. What's he clothed in? Light, you betcha. And how is the church going to be clothed in Revelation 19 and so on? White, without one spot or wrinkle. Because she's clean now, as Christ provided for her to be clothed that way. Another concept that's interesting, just to sort of throw things out as we go here. You notice that they're always changed or replaced. Your heart's not healed, it's created anew. Why? Because it's incurably wicked, Jeremiah says. It's interesting here, the idiom too, is to change your garments. Change your garments. Exchange, you know, the old for the new. Well, let's keep going. Verse 3, and let us arise and go up to Bethel. And I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress. Who answered me in the day of my distress. And was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their hand, and all their earrings, which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak, which is by Shechem. These, you know, if you really want to get into a side trip, and you want to lay a trip with someone about earrings, you can do a study on earrings in the scripture. We find earrings were used to make the golden calf in Exodus 32, chapter 32. We also see Hosea in chapter 2, verse 13, will launch out about earrings, and lest you girls get a little uncomfortable about that, I should point out that the earrings there were apparently linked to a form of idolatry and and in those passages, I mean, because we also, you know, lest I lay a trip on you, I'm just, I don't want to confuse you, because indeed, Rebecca was given what, by Eliezer? Earrings, sure. In fact, some think they were nose rings for that matter, but that's even a little more weird for our culture to relate to. It's interesting that they didn't take the earrings and sell them, or trade them for goods to feed the poor, or what have you. I can hear Judas at Jacob's elbow saying, gee, let's take the earrings and sell them and give the give it to the poor, right? Scripture seems to indicate that you can't divert the things of Satan to be used in the service of God. That's a suggestion. Examples, Acts chapter 19, verse 19, where they burn the books and others. In any case, they take the earrings and these teraphim and whatever else was in the family. The very fact that they're in the family is sort of startling. It tells you a lot about what the 30 years were like. In any case, and they bury them under the oak, which was by Shechem. Verse 5, and they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were around about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. Strange phrase. Don't know a lot about what it means. Indeed, there was reason for them to be pursued, because this chapter 35 follows chapter 34, and the grisly mess of chapter 34, this whole bloody episode following the violation of Dinah, would be a reason enough for some of the city states to rise in rebellion, or not rebellion, but in an act of aggression against Jacob. You could argue that, gee, maybe they were frightened because of the bloody way that the sons, Simeon and Levi, handled this thing. Don't think so. Verse 5 says, the terror of God was upon the cities that were around about them. They did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. There's a couple of reasons why I think this is here. I'll come back to that at the end. There's another pattern here I think that's interesting, but in any case, just in terms of the narrative, the cities are trembling. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan. That is Bethel. Luz is the old name. The old name meant what? Anyone remember? Departure. New name is Bethel, house of God. Bethel. Bethlehem, house of bread. Bethel, the house of God. He and all the people that were with him, verse 7, and there he built, and he built there an altar and called the place El Bethel, God of the house of God. Because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother. But Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak. I don't know how you bury someone under an oak. I mean, I have a tough time visualizing exactly what that means. In fact, it's sort of strange that it's phrased that way. I mean, why would you care? I mean, here's Deborah. They didn't feel fit to mention her much since she was Rebecca's nurse when he first got Rebecca, right? Hasn't been mentioned since. And now there's sort of a little passing reference that she was buried under an oak, and the name of the place was called Alon Bekuth, the Oak of Weeping. Deborah is obviously missed. Deborah apparently is a very faithful nurse, servant of Rebecca, so I'm not knocking her. But I do have the belief, and that's the thing I'm sharing with you for you to accept or reject or sort of try on for size, whatever, is that nothing's here by accident. There's a reason the scribe, and I don't mean the guy that penned this, I mean the Holy Spirit, had to put this here. He's casting a view, an image. He's trying to get through to us on a message. Why is Deborah, this is Rebecca's nurse, died, she's buried under the oak? We're going to discover there are three deaths in this chapter. The power of death is all over the chapter. We have the death of Rebecca, excuse me, Rebecca's nurse. We're going to have Rachel died when she gives birth to Benjamin, and we're going to have Isaac, the old man, also will die in this chapter. And then we have, well, let's do it one step at a time. After Rebecca, excuse me, I keep saying Rebecca, after Deborah, Rebecca's nurse died, verse 8. We get to verse 9, and God appeared unto Jacob again when he came out of Paddanuram and blessed him. Strange phrase. He'd left Paddanuram some time ago, right? And he went to Sukkoth and Shechem, it's all the same. But the reference is back, and just to get at, to show you what I'm driving at, I believe that from the exile in Paddanuram, plus the Sukkoth and Shechem things, are an interval, a parenthesis of exile during which Jacob is out of favor. And we're seeing that curtain close. That portion of his life is being finished. And the passing away of Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, suggests that. It's also interesting that she's treated like the things, the idols and the earrings. Done what? Placed under an oak. Buried, put behind them as they go to Bethel. We're sort of cleaning the decks, clearing the balance sheet, wiping the slate clean, if you will, perhaps. Notice what God says, God appears to him, verse 10, and God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob. Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty. That's a very interesting word. Very, very interesting word. Because it occurred only once before in Genesis 17, verse 1, where that word was revealed to Abraham. El Shaddai, translated in the English, God Almighty. The supplier of all your need is what it means. It's a different word for God than, say, Elohim, the creator of heaven and the earth. Or Yehovah, or however you want to pronounce it. The God of the covenant. Or any of several other names of God. It's the El Shaddai, the God, the supplier of all your need. Totally unique phrase here. Introduced to Jacob, or Israel, the first time. Introduced to him after his name was changed to Israel here. God said unto him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply a nation, and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, to divide the west bank from the east bank, and so forth. No, I guess it doesn't say that. Excuse me. To thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him, and God set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone. And he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil thereon. First mention of a drink offering. Not found among the Levitical offerings, but we're not going to get into a whole thing on that here tonight. But, and he poured oil on it. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel. Let's cover a couple of things. I have the, I introduced to you the idea of lost time. The fact that your clock stops. All the years with Laban were lost. The years of Succoth and Shaggum were lost. 20 years of Jacob's life were wood, hay, and stubble. First Corinthians 3. You know what I'm referring to? Built on either of two foundations. Wood, hay, you know, wood, hay, stubble, or gold, silver, precious stones. And the day will declare. It'll be tried by fire, right? Your days are going to be tried by fire. Are your days in Bethel, or are they in exile? Are they apart? Let me show you something kind of interesting. Hold your place here, because we will return to Genesis eventually. Hebrews chapter 11. The Holy Spirit summarizes some things in Hebrews, and it's interesting. Hebrews chapter 11, we've referred to many times, the so-called Hall of Faith. The summary of the great major milestones of the faithful in the Old Testament, recounted by the epistle of Hebrews for his purposes. But it's an interesting chronicle for many reasons. But I want you to notice verses 24 on, for about five or six verses, is about Moses. And we get to verse 29. It says, By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians attempting to do were drowned. Verse 30, By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. And then he goes on and talks about some other examples, Rahab, and under Joshua, and some other things. Very interesting that with just the stroke of a pen, we skip over 40 years from the crossing of the Red Sea, which they pass through by faith, according to the writer of Hebrews, to the walls of Jericho falling, which is by faith. It's very interesting that what's blotted out are 40 years in the wilderness of a lack of faith, grumblings, and murmurings, and lessons, and school exercises, in a sense. Very interesting. 40 years lost. And I think that's really what we're seeing here with Jacob. We see the links with Paddan Aram severed. The terephim have been put under an oak. Deborah, the nurse, is buried under an oak. Rachel will shortly be buried. And we're going to see, in effect, it taking death in Jacob's life to set the stage. The stage it's set for is Benjamin being born, who has two names. I'm getting a little ahead of the story. Let's take another few verses, and then come back and summarize, because I've left out another piece to this. Verse 16. And they journeyed from Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. And Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, fear not, thou shalt have this son also. Rachel wanted a son very badly. That was one of her concerns. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, or she died during this event, she will die. But as her soul was departing, that she called his name Ben-Onai, which means son of my sorrow. The word sorrow and birth pangs are synonyms. Remember Jesus said in Matthew 24 in the Olivet Discourse, all these are the beginnings of sorrows. First week, first half of the week, the first half of the week, known as the Great Tribulation, the last half of which is called the Great Tribulation. The first half could be, as called by some commentators, the beginning of sorrows. Technically the beginning of birth pangs. In any case, Rachel says, called his name Ben-Onai, son of my sorrow. But his father renamed him Benjamin, the son of my right hand. It's very interesting that that's the father's name for Benjamin. And what does the father call him? The son of my right hand. Doesn't take a lot of imagination to see some things going on here. We'll come back to that. Now this is the twelfth, the final of the twelve sons of Jacob, making up the twelve tribes. Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And you can go there today and visit Rachel's tomb. Jacob set a pillar upon her grave, and this is the pillar of Rachel's grave until this day. And we'll get into some other things. We have talked from time to time about how Jacob is a type of Israel, right? You can see this particular period as perhaps the glimpse of the restoration of Israel. Jacob had left home, as God had told him, and Bethel is back in chapter 28. Then he went into exile for a substantial period of time. Now God is calling him out of exile, arise and return to Bethel. He has Jacob purge his family of idolatry, and that's part of what's going on in the book of Revelation. He acknowledges God answered him the day of distress. And to get to develop that more thoroughly, you may recall from our Zechariah studies, Zechariah 12, 13, 14, those tapes, we talk about how Israel as a nation will acknowledge their Messiah as a prerequisite condition to his return. The fact that terror fell upon the surrounding Gentiles is interesting. The Shackamites. It's interesting that he built another altar. It's interesting that the links with the past are severed, that God manifests himself again, and that Israel shall be thy name Jacob no more. Israel shall be thy name Jacob no more. Their new home, no excuse me, he introduces a new name. In this case it's El Shaddai. Revelation we see him introduce another new name. Even Jeremiah makes reference to that. Their prosperity is assured. Their land, the land commitment is reconfirmed to them. And oil is poured out on the pillar, which could be seen as the Holy Spirit being poured out. And it's out of my right hand, you can carry it from there yourself. Okay, let's keep moving. I've got a few other things I want to also get into tonight. We're down to verse 22, right? 21. Verse 21. And Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edah. It came to pass when Israel dwelt in the land that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine. Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. The sons of... Now here it takes an excuse here just to... Oh incidentally, this issue of Reuben, so I don't... It's because of this incest that Reuben forfeits the birthright. Seems like a rather grisly thing just to insert here. You may wonder, well, while that's not a trivial thing, it's a significant sin, there may have been lots of other sins and events occurring among this rather rough bunch of guys. But this one particularly is noted because it's the reason that Reuben, who was the firstborn, forfeits the birthright. We know that from Genesis 49, chapter 49 makes specific reference to the fact that it's because of this sin that Reuben lost his birthright. And it's inserted here as a preceding event to the genealogy. So it sounds like they're unrelated issues, but they're really not. Sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon and Levi, and Judah. Now isn't that interesting? Reuben forfeits due to incest. Simeon and Levi, because of this, of the murders of the Shechemites. And who's next? Judah. And we will see the scepter confirmed on Judah by Jacob in chapter 49. And Issachar and Zebulun, the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin. Notice he gives the natural parents first, Leah and Rachel, then the handmaidens. Sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, Dan and Naphtali. Sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram. It's interesting that Rachel bears to Jacob two sons, but three tribes. Two sons, but three tribes. Because we're going to see Joseph is actually going to spawn, if you will, two, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they will be adopted by Jacob to become two tribes. So out of 12 sons, you've got 13 tribes. And that'll help explain some things that we'll get into a little later. Leah bore six altogether, right? Two murderers, an incestuous fornicator, and I don't know what the other guys did. Verse 27, Jacob came unto Isaac, the father. The old man now is still alive. I assume he's in pretty poor health, because he had eyesight problems when back 30 years ago. So he was aging. Came to Isaac, his father, and to Mamre, unto the city of Arba, which is Hebron. How interesting that that's so much in the news today. Where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the days of Isaac were a hundred and four score years. And Isaac died and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. Now that's got to be an interesting scene. We don't have much amplification of it. But that Esau and Jacob buried him. Now he actually died quite a bit later than here, as far as the chronology is concerned. If you're really concerned about the organization of the text, it's a strange place to put it. He actually dies some 10 years later from what we're going to read. However, it's put here to highlight the change in leadership. It focuses our attention that Jacob is the focus of the theme in the scripture. There's something else that's kind of interesting. If you may recall, you notice death here is so often in the scripture treated so softly. You know, when Rachel was, when her soul was departing, it said. And when Isaac was gathered unto his people, and so forth. Interesting. Lots of meaning in those phrases. Something else that's interesting, that in Exodus chapter 3, verse 6, when God introduces himself to Moses, he says, I am the God of Isaac. Not I was. Isaac, who had long passed from the earth, was still alive, as far as God is concerned. I am the God of Isaac. Not I was. Interesting. Interesting situation. We could get into whole time domain things and so forth, but I think I've badgered you enough on those themes from the earlier sessions. Okay, let's take this chapter here. You can relax. We're not going to go through all the genealogies because I can't pronounce these words any better than you can. But we will comment. These are the generations of, we have Esau mentioned about Jacob being buried. Now we have the generations, that is the genealogies of Esau, who is Edom. A fairly substantial number of times in this chapter. I forgot to count them. Esau and Edom are made equivalents. And Esau took his wives, the daughter of Canaan, Ada, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and some others that I won't try to pronounce. And it goes right on through and gives you some genealogies born to Esau. I want to pick up a couple as we get down here. Verse 6. He took his wives, his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had gotten in the land of Canaan, went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob. For the riches were more than they might dwell together, and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. Thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. And he's the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites at Mount Seir. And these are the names of Esau's sons. Now his first son is kind of interesting. Eliphaz, the son of Ada, the wife of Esau, Ruel, the son of somebody else, and so on. The sons of Eliphaz were Timon, Omar, Zepho, and Gethem, and some others. Now hold yourself here and turn to Job chapter 4. Job chapter 4. Remember, Job has a couple of problems. He has a lot of things happen to him, and then he has, as if that wasn't enough, he has these three friends who try to explain why these things are happening. And the bulk of the book of Job is really discourses between Job and his three friends. And as you know, with friends like these, you don't need enemies. Job had enough problems. But one of these three friends, look at chapter 4 verse 1. Eliphaz, the Timonite, answered and said, etc. We don't know much about these guys. But many scholars believe that the book of Job well predates the books of Moses. Bear in mind, the book of Genesis is one of the five books of Moses. While it recounts events from Adam on, the book of Genesis is a book of Moses. Job is an older book than the books of Moses. And there's lots of evidence of that from the text if we're studying the book of Job. We go into it. No point in doing that tonight. Job is an older book than the books of Moses, and there's lots of evidence of that from the text if we're study the book of Job we go into, no point in doing that tonight. But there's a couple of names in Job that show up in these genealogies of the Temanites which were descendants of Esau. One of them, skipping ahead, in verse 33, and Bala died and Jobab the son of Zerah of Basra reigned in his stead. Notice now Jobab, and some people believe, or there's some traditions and some scholastic interest in the possibility, that Jobab is Job. And it's interesting that he reigned. It's also, if you get into this whole thing, you can also find people who hold to the view that it was Job that built the Great Pyramid, not the Egyptians. There's a lot of evidence to indicate that the Great Pyramid at Giza is a different internal architecture than all the rest. And there's all kinds of bizarre ways to explain that if you're an Egyptologist, but there are some traditions that it was preceded to some of the others by another tribe, headed by a leader. And there are some scholars that believe that that leader was Job. Why do we get into this? Because of Isaiah 19. Isaiah 19 is a passage which implies that there'll be a monument in Egypt that will have a prophecy influence, and some people think it was built by Job, and there's a whole side trip we could get into that is really off the subject. But I mention these kinds of things intrigue you. You can run with that one. There are lots of references. Clarence Larkin has some quaint appendices to some of his books which go into some of these things. It would be a good beginning. They're interesting, an interesting side trip. Be cautious because it can also derail you from a more fruitful study of the Word. We won't go through this whole genealogy because I'm not sure that would be that fruitful. I don't have that much to contribute there. I think those of you that would like to go through this, I'll give you a few places that you might want to run with, things you might want to run with if you're interested in Esau. Recognized descendants of Esau are the Edomites. And they get pretty bitter. Esau was pretty, frankly, defrauded, as far as he's concerned, by his younger brother, Jacob. So he nurses some bitterness which, of course, gets conveyed into his tribal traditions. And so the Edomites are pretty bitter. In Numbers chapter 20, for example, it's the Edomites that refuse to let Israel cross the land. Israel wants to take a shortcut. The Edomite says, no way. And there's a big issue there. Later on, when the kingdom is set up, Saul, the king, has to fight them in 1 Samuel 14. And Amaziah, the sons of Esau, became devil worshippers. Became devil worshippers. And Jehovah orders them destroyed in 2 Chronicles 25. God doesn't mess around. And 2 Chronicles 25 will allow you to run with that. There is a prophecy about Edom. And I'll mention only three things here so we don't derail the whole evening on the subject of Esau. But those of you who are interested in the prophecies with respect to Edom, you might find it interesting to look at Jeremiah 49, particularly verses 17 and 18. Jeremiah 49, verses 17 and 18. A prophecy about Edom. If you want to go further, the entire book of Obadiah, the entire book of Obadiah, deals with the doom and destruction and what have you of Edom. Or the Esauites, if you want to put it that way. Now, their capital city for a time before they were destroyed was a place called Petra, which is the Greek name. The Hebrew name is Basra. Oh, he says now the plot thickens. And what's interesting is, from Daniel chapter 8 and some of the other prophecies, when we hear we talk all about the so-called Antichrist that seems to hold sway over the known world, or certainly that part of the world, there are three exceptions. The Daniel recounts of nations that will not be under his thumb. Ammon, Moab, and Edom. That's an area we would consider more or less Jordan. For some reason, no explanation, are not under the subjugation of the Antichrist. We don't know why. We know why in a teleological sense. That is, when things get tough, the remnant in Israel flee unto where? Petra. You all know that. Okay, good. Furthermore, there is an argument among some scholars that that remnant will nationally petition the Messiah to return. And that's a prerequisite to condition the Lord's return. Because when the Lord returns, we see in Isaiah 63, what is his first job? To wipe out the enemies in Bazaar. He goes to the rescue of the remnant. And we have a tough time visualizing Jesus Christ with a sword drawn in battle, but that's what, if you want to see that passage, read the first third or half, whatever, of Isaiah chapter 63, and you'll have a physical description of the Lord's second coming. It may surprise you. His vesture dipped in blood, Revelation 19 says, but it ain't his. His blood was shed for us. Whose blood is all over his vesture? Isaiah 63 tells you. Now, if you're interested in this whole subject, I won't recount it now, get the Zechariah tapes. The last couple of chapters in our study of the book of Zechariah, we went into some of this. We went into some solid things, and we also went into some sort of speculative things. And that's all on the Zechariah tapes available from your tape sources. One other thing about Edom, we can't leave, I might mention that the Romans and the Greeks called the Edomites Idiomans. And so one of the most famous Edomites of them all was Herod and his whole dynasty. And you might find that interesting. That's an interesting link between Esau and Jacob. Esau and Jacob. Now, there's one other thing that I find kind of interesting that we might want to look at. I'd like to look at a prophecy that, and this is not so much, it relates to Jacob, it relates to a particular time of year that we're heading into. You might turn to Numbers 24, and we have one of the strangest prophets in the scripture. This character called Balaam. And we know Balaam well, if you study the book of Revelation, because we have references to Balaam in the book of Revelation, and because of that, we spend some time trying to understand what it was that Balaam was all about. He's a very strange character. He apparently has the prophet's gift. By the way, a prophet's gift is no big accolade. Caiaphas also prophesied, the high priest. He says it's expedient for one man to die for the good of the people. And he knew he was prophesying when he did it. He didn't realize quite how, all that was involved. There are a lot of interesting prophecies. I might also call your attention to, I forget, is it Matthew 25, I forget the location where the Lord says, you know, that many shall prophesy in my name, cast out demons, and so forth. And he says, depart from me, I never knew you, right? You don't know the passage? I think it's Matthew 25, right? It's interesting, each of the examples he uses there are gifts of the Spirit. Numbers 24, we have Balaam prophesying. Now we are very well aware of Balaam's prophecies for hire, where Balaam tried, bribed Balaam to curse Israel. And Balaam went about to, but then didn't. And that frustrated Balaam to no end, and you know the story. Or should, or you can dig it out for yourself. But there's a prophecy in here that's an interesting prophecy, just because Balaam's a bad guy, doesn't mean he doesn't have some interesting prophecies. Numbers 24, verse 15, it says, And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Peor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said, he hath said, Who heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open? I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not near. There shall come a, what? A star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth, or children of Tumal. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies. And Israel shall do valiantly. And we can go on, I don't want to make a whole study of Balaam's prophecies. Out of Jacob shall he come, and shall have, oh, one last verse, important. Out of Jacob shall he come, who shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. Very, very interesting prophecy, by this strange character, Balaam. And it points, it again ties to the destiny to succeed over Esau, but the thing that caused, brought to mind, was a couple of things. It's interesting to have the scepter of Israel referred to as a star out of Jacob. A star out of Jacob. Okay, where was Jacob dwelling, and where did he bury Rachel? Bethlehem, how interesting. Interesting, too, that the star is out of Jacob, as we move into the Christmas season. Every time you see a star, you think of the Christ child. Yes, but also remember it was a star out of Jacob. Very, very interesting Jewish holiday we're getting into. Very interesting, interesting period, in effect. Well, I won't take more time on Jacob, I mean on Balaam, except to point out that he was probably a descendant of Laban. I think we covered that, did we not? Okay, this brings us to chapter 37, and I thought it would be good to get our feet wet in chapter 37 before we take our break, because we're about to enter the third major section, the last section, in effect, of the book of Genesis. The story of Joseph, and for a lot of interesting reasons, it's a different kind of, oh, one other thing we should do in sort of looking at our thing structurally. Hold your place here and turn to Romans chapter 8. We've done this before, but I thought it'd be well to remind ourselves. Romans chapter 8, and of course you should always check to make sure verse 28 is still there. I find it very useful to do that frequently. There are times I sometimes worry, and I have to check to make sure it's still there. Romans 8, 28. There are times I have my doubts, and we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called, according to his purpose. Then he gets into a little theology, or cosmology, or whatever you want to call it here, for whom he did 4 and 0, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. What's your destiny? What does God want you to do? Fellowship with him. To what end? To be conformed to the image of his son. That he might be the firstborn among many brethren, many like him. We know that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and so on. Verse 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Predestinated, called, justified, glorified. Your path as a believer. Predestined, called, justified, glorified. Right? Good. Abraham was predestinated. He's a sample. His whole story is the story of election, sovereign election of God. In Isaac shall his seed be called, the scripture says. Jacob is the story of justification. The major role of the story of Jacob is that if he can justify Jacob, there's hope for you and I. Okay? That brings us to the fourth, glorification. Joseph. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Those four key milestones of the book of Genesis are the outline Paul is using in Romans. Whom he predestinated, them he also called. Whom he called, them he also justified. Whom he justified, them he also glorified. Isn't that fascinating? Now did Paul necessarily have the book of Genesis in mind when he wrote it? I don't know. Maybe not consciously. Who really wrote both books? Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit did. So it's no surprise to see his fingerprints on his handiwork. The structure of the book of Revelation underlying the structure of the book of Romans. Okay. Let's take a, having, now we're, now we're moving into glorification. Joseph will be the story of glorification. The book of Joseph, we're going to, was really technically has its start here in, in Genesis 37. And I might mention several things. First of all, there are more details about Joseph than probably any, and more personal details than any other biblical character, except Christ himself, of course. And maybe David. That's a hard one to, I'm not going to break those ties. More details though about the, secondly, Joseph is one of two people, only two people in the scripture of which no ill is spoken of. There are only two people in the scripture, again I'm excluding Jesus Christ. There's only two people in the scripture that have no evil spoken of. That does not mean they were free of sin. It just means their sins were not recorded. In general, one of the great testimonies to the reliability, authenticity, and validity of the scripture is its candor describing the sins of even like Moses, his own, in the Torah and so on. But there are two people. Daniel is unquestionably one of them, which there's no evil spoken of. But does that mean that Daniel was sinless? Of course not. It just is not recorded. Please the Holy Spirit not to record it. Joseph runs him a near second. Joseph has no evil spoken of him. There's one subtle incident near the end where you can tell he is sort of cross purposes with what God is apparently going to do. But it's not really evil. It's just, it just gives him a, you know, an A minus relative to Daniel. As a Daniel freak, I have to sort of, you know, keep that in proper perspective. The other thing I will mention with my tongue in my cheek, is that the two guys of which there's no evil spoken of were both professional executives. Daniel reigned under both Nebuchadnezzar and also Darius the Persian. And of course Joseph reigns under the Pharaoh of Egypt. And it's very interesting to see they're both professional executives. But as you know, as I always want to remind you, as businessmen, you all know, as they did, it's not what you know, it's who you know. And they had a close relationship with the right guy. So, okay. Now the thing that I won't get into tonight, but I'll give you a hint that we'll take up, I'll pass out outlines when we get back together, you know, after the first year, is I will give you a list of over a hundred ways that Joseph is a type of Christ. Saying right up front, nowhere does the scripture say he's a type of Christ. Some of these other places where I say so-and-so is a type of, you know, Adam is a type of Christ, I'm on sound ground because Paul helps me. Other places that Abraham is clearly a type of the Father and Isaac is a type of Christ in the sense of the offering of Isaac. I'm on sound ground because the scripture illuminates that in that context. To the best of my knowledge, I'm not aware of an explicit confirmation that Joseph is intended to be a type of Jesus Christ. But I'll nevertheless show you an outline of over a hundred ways that Joseph is a type of Christ. Apparently, just de facto, there are some interesting parallels, a lot of them. And by the time we're through studying Joseph, I think we'll blow your minds about the different things that occur in Joseph's life. And we'll come to a few of those here as we start. Something else I'll mention, Joseph, if you've been counting carefully, is the eighth major example of faith. The first one was Adam, who believed God's word and shows something about the nature of faith. Abel, also the whole story of Abel, according to Hebrews 11.4 was the blood sacrifice. So we have something of the foundation of faith, an offering of faith as opposed to an offering of works. Enoch has a continuing walk, as we learned in chapter 5, Genesis. Noah, complete trust, as exemplified by Hebrews 11.7. Abraham, of course, obedience. Hebrews 11.8 describes that in his obedience and offering Isaac as perhaps the high point of his instruction to us about faith. Isaac, also, his example of faith, strangely enough, is his acceptance after the fact of God's hand in what was going on. I'll suggest a doubt-destroying power of faith. Hebrews 11.20 compared to Genesis 37.33 would be your way to unravel that particular issue of Isaac's faith. And, of course, Jacob, discipline and sense of what finally happens. That brings us to the eighth, Joseph, who, of course, is the glorious triumph of faith, where he goes from the pit of death, in effect, to the throne of the world at that time. Interesting story, fascinating story. Now, of course, Joseph also, thus, is an octave, a new beginning, an eighth. He's the eighth in the sequence of seven, if I can put it that way. Okay, and I think perhaps one way to start is just to sort of jump in, and then we've got a few minutes. Let's do that. Chapter 37, verse 1. Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a sojourner in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock of his brethren. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now, it's interesting, the particular characters that he was taken up with here that's focused is Bilhah and Zilpah. Now, can you imagine the structure of the group? The six sons of Leah were the natural sons of the first wife. So they obviously would feel a precedence, right? We have a cast of characters, Reuben, the incestuous one, Simeon and Levi, the two murderers of the Shechemites, and then Judah, who of course ends up, yeah, well, he gets, he has his problems too later. Now, Rachel's son, Joseph and Benjamin, also have a, and are very younger, but have a claim. There's another group, the sons of the concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah, right? And it's just my guess, just my personal supposition, that they probably are in some sense, structurally, second class citizens, or at least feel that way, and therefore have something to prove. So they're likely to be the rebellious, assertive, you know, edgy ones, right? And those are the particular ones that are singled out here. In any case, though, Joseph, the young Joseph, brings their father their evil report. Now, do you think Jacob, the father, trusted his sons? I don't think Jacob was any dummy. You know, it takes one to know one. That guy was a pretty shifty character, and I think he had his sons figured out that they were treacherous, murderers, fornicators, what have you. They're a rough bunch of guys. And Joseph is his favorite, as will quickly emerge. So Joseph is the tattletale. He's the guy that keeps the old man posted on what's going on out in the field. Verse three, Israel loved Joseph more than all his brethren, all his children, excuse me, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him, wrong, a coat of many colors. Uh-uh. That comes from the Latin Vulgate, and it's an unfortunate translation that has been picked up by every Sunday school book since the dawn of history. Okay, wrong. It wasn't a coat of many colors to the best of our textual analysis. It turns out to be a long-sleeved robe. And the significance of that is several-fold. The significance of a seamless robe, sleeveless robe, is a workforce. They're awkward to work in. And if you were working in service, they were uncomfortable. If you were ruling, not working, you had a long-sleeved robe. Or put another way, in our culture, they're a staff man, not a line guy, but that's a, I'm being facetious. Now, what's significant about the father giving Joseph a long-sleeved robe is two-fold. Locally and practically, it was a tip-off to the other brothers, not just that he was teacher's pet or something, he was favored, but the connotation are that he's the one destined to rule. Now, he's not going to be the guy to rule in the messianic sense. That's Judah. The tribe of Judah is where the Messiah comes from. That's not what's in view here. Something else is in view. The Jacob himself may not be sent. But the feeling among the brothers is that Joseph is the guy going to get pegged for the rights of the firstborn. And in fact, he does get the rights of the firstborn. He gets the double portion and so forth. So don't confuse the rule in the messianic sense of Judah, because it's the tribe of Judah, that Jacob will ordain to be the messianic line. But it's Joseph that's going to get the rights of the firstborn, which is a double portion, the head of the household, and a lot of other things. Although one can think in secular terms that what Pharaoh gives him as inheritance may be a lot more significant from our point of view than what Jacob did. It's obviously not true in the true sense of the term, but you'll just see. But in any case, visualize Joseph with a long-sleeved robe. And while you do this, I obviously want to put in the back of your mind another person who wrote a psalm, perhaps, from his mind's-eye view of hanging on the cross looking down. The Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he looks down there, and he sees the heathen have encompassed me about, the dogs, the goyim, if you will, that surround me. They cast, they divide my garments among them, right? All but one thing. They don't tear up the one thing. They cast lots for the prize. What was the prize? The robe. They divide my garments among them, and they cast lots upon my vesture, he says in Psalm 22, as he looks a thousand years in the future for what it's going to be like. Interesting. So already we have a hint of this beginning. A long-sleeved robe, a symbol of rulership. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and they could not speak peaceably unto him. Now, frankly, humanly speaking, I can understand that. The obnoxious young squirt's making a pest of himself, and it's not easy to love a guy like that. He's got the, you know, the keys to the car and the whole bit. Joseph dreamed a dream. Now, Joseph, you know, if it wasn't enough trouble, Joseph has, he has a neat scheme to win the hearts and minds of his brothers. Now, by the way, before I leave this, he says his brothers, they hated him. Do you know why they hated him? Jealousy. How do I know? It's obvious, but how do I know? Acts chapter 7, verse 9, Stephen tells us that, because Stephen, in his discourse in Acts chapter 7, comments on the Old Testament and fills in a lot of holes that are not clear from the text. Now, the passage in Acts 7-9 isn't that important, but it's a clue that we learn a lot about the Old Testament from Stephen as an inspired comment on the Old Testament. So, just a little thing you can put in your notes and trace down on your own. I'd like to make use of the time we have to get as far as we can in chapter 37. Okay, and now, Steve, correction, Joseph has this little thing. He has a dream, and he told it to his brethren, and they hated him yet more. So, understand what you get. He said unto them, Here, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf. Terrific. I can't understand why you guys don't think that's neat. I thought it was terrific. Verse 8, his brethren said unto him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? You young whippersnapper, you're the young guy, you know. Or, Shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. So, it's not only the fact that he has these dreams that's frosting him, but he obviously isn't keeping it a secret. He's sharing this with them. Verse 9, And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, I have dreamed a dream more. Behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. Sun and the moon and eleven stars. I'm the twelfth. See, the sun, moon, twelve stars, right? And the eleven stars and the sun and the moon both, they give obeisance to me. Verse 10, And he told it to his father, and to his brethren. His father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying. Now, this is really interesting. His father's kind of, he asked the question, and we assume he's a little frosted by it. We don't know. Is it a scholastic inquiry of an old man who thinks the hand of the Lord might be on this? Nothing to exclude that. That may be what's on mind here. It's hinted at that the father, you know, the brethren envied him, of course, disliked this, or nasty about it. The father pondered these things. You think of Mary and some of the things she had about Christ and his youth. She pondered those things in her heart. Maybe didn't understand them at the time, but tucked them away and digested them. Now, this passage is extremely important to us for another reason. Hold your place here and turn to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12 is regarded by many commentators as the most difficult chapter in the book of Revelation. It's that chapter which is one proof of the difficulty. It's that chapter that most commentators get into trouble on. They get themselves lost in the bramble bush. Chapter 12, verse 1, And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, and she being with child cried, and prevailing in birth pained to be delivered. And many commentators, number one, try to make this woman the church. And as Chuck, I love the way Chuck Smith puts it, because if that's the church, she's in trouble. She's pregnant. And the church is presented in the scriptures the virgin bride of Christ. So he's got a little problem there. Now, who is the woman? The identity of the woman in chapter 12 is crucial to understanding chapter 12. How do we know? Jacob tells us. Many people reading this says, gee, there's the 12 stars. They somehow are linked to the zodiac. Nonsense. The zodiac is satanic in the astrological sense. What is the sun and the moon and the 12 stars? Very simple. Jacob tells us. It's Israel. Jacob, his wife, and the 12 sons collectively speak of Israel. Who is the woman? The woman of correction. Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. In the garden of Eden, when God declares war against Satan, which is what that verse is really doing, says, I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. Who, Eve? No. Collective womanhood from there through Israel to the birth of the Messiah. To the extent that Israel started with Eve, to that extent, that's who the woman is. And once you understand that, the rest flows. How do we know? Genesis chapter 37. Now, the key idea in the book of Revelation is every idiom in the book of Revelation is explained in the scripture. Not in some prophecy handbook or time magazine or something else. It's explained in the scripture. If you want to know who the sun and the moon and the 12 stars are, find it in the scripture. If you want to find out any of the idioms, the seven lampstands, the seven spirits which are before his throne, who are the seven spirits? The Holy Spirit is as enumerated in Isaiah chapter 11, verse 1 and 2. Every verse in this revelation is explained elsewhere in the scripture. That's why it's a blessing. One of the many reasons. Because to understand the book of Revelation, you have to go into every other book in the scripture because it's all linked together. Deliberately encrypted that way. And here's one of the places. We also know that the woman, of course, has a man-child who's to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, so that ties together. The main enemy of the woman is Satan. If you want to understand anti-Semitism, you understand Revelation chapter 12. It's a totally different kind of thing than simply ethnic prejudice. Something supernatural going on there and this explains it. And if you're interested in that, get the tapes in Revelation 12 and go with it. But anyway, this is all back to Genesis chapter 37. We get this identity link, this crucial link, from Jacob himself as he interprets this idiom. Son of the moon and the 12 stars. Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee upon the earth? Yes, 22 years later. You will come to Egypt and bow down before the ruler of the earth, not realizing it's your son Joseph. And we have the buildup starting now to one of the most incredible dramatic scenes in all of literature. We often think of some of the great contrasts that make exciting drama. You cannot find any more dramatic than this story of Joseph and Genesis. Incredible groundwork being laid here. But anyway, here's the father saying, you've got to be kidding. Mother and I bow down before you? And yet the Holy Spirit gives us just a clue. His father observed the saying. Verse 12. His brother went to feed his father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren... By the way, I wonder what they're doing in Shechem. Haven't they had enough? Anyway, Israel said to Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem. Come, I will send thee unto them. And he said, Here. He doesn't say here am I. That's putting King James to finish the thought. He says, I'm ready. That's the equivalent of saying aye, aye, sir. Let's go. Young boy is ready to do his father's bidding. Like another son is going to do his father's bidding. He said to him, Go, I pray thee, and see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he went out of the vale of Hebron and came to Shechem. And a certain man found him. And behold, he was wandering in the field. The man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the brethren said, They are departed from here. I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And so Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to do what? To slay him. How interesting. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. What did they try to do? Kill him. They conspired against him to slay him. And he said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit. And we will say, Some evil beast has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Reuben heard it. Now this is interesting. Reuben, the one that has been disenfranchised of the rights of the firstborn, goes to his defense and maneuvers so they don't actually draw blood. It's a very unlikely circumstance. You'd think that Reuben would be the worst of the lot, the most envious of the bunch. But he lost his birthright by virtue of violating his father's concubine. Anyway, Reuben heard it and delivered him out of their hands. And said, Let us not kill him. You see what Reuben's doing? He's going to turn the madness of the group to something not good, but less final than what they had in mind. Let us not kill him. Reuben said to them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him that he might rid him, now that's Reuben, that he might rid them out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. Reuben apparently had in mind, we'll settle these guys down, put them in the pit, and when Reuben got a chance, he was going to help Joseph escape and get him back to Jacob. That was apparently Reuben's intent. Okay? And it came to pass when Joseph was coming to his, this is all the plan, okay, so far, so far it's all been just conspiracy. Now, verse 30, 23. And it came to pass when Joseph was coming to his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his long-sleeved robe, that was on him. I don't see any evidence that they drove nails into his hands, or plucked off his beard, or any of those other things. In any case, they took him and they cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, and there was no water in it. And you can make an interesting study of pits wherein there is no water. That's some show. Anyway, they took him and put him into this pit. Pit was empty, there was no water in it. They sat down to eat bread. They lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carrot down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is there if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Let's turn a buck. Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother in our flesh. And his brethren were content. Now in chapter 42 of the book of Genesis, Joseph, let's just turn to that, because it gives you an insight of what happened here that's not obvious from the text. Chapter 42, verse 21, or rather, Simeon. Let's see. They said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore is this distress come upon us. Now this is one of those, in the passage that we'll come to later in 42, this is one of those times of having misgivings about the whole thing. They feel that the bad times they're having is because they have guilt of their brother on their hands. But notice that they saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Okay? Now, what we're seeing here in chapter 37 is that they sat down to eat bread, and they're discussing what to do with him, whether to kill him or sell him to the Ishmaelites. While they are sitting there talking and planning his destiny, he's screaming from the pit. They would not hear, Simeon says. You with me? His anguish. They were deaf to it. It took him 22 years to hear his cry. 22 years later, they will recount all of this. I don't know how long Joseph was in the pit. I'm often fond of speculating, but I have to be honest with you, I have no way to prove that he was in there three days. But that's just Chuck Missler's nonsense. Okay? Verse 28. Then there passed by Midianites, merchantmen, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned into the pit. Now, see, Reuben apparently, by implication, split. And when he came back to the pit, this apparently happened in Reuben's absence. His plot was foiled. He was hoping to rescue Joseph to take back to the Father. Reuben returned into the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he tore his clothes. He's the child is not. And I, where shall I go? Oh, see, the other implication here, another implication I should mention. Reuben being the oldest, is probably responsible. Independent of the fact that he's not really the firstborn, and the right's firstborn, the Father's going to hold Reuben accountable. That's the other dimension of this thing. So Reuben is shook. How is he going to go home now? He's, you know, he's accountable. Now notice what they did in verse 31. They took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats. Notice they didn't take, you know, other things, sheep or cattle. They took goats and dipped the goat, the coat, in the blood. And they set the coat of many colors, or rather the coat of the long-sleeved robe, and they brought it to their father and said, this is what we have found. We know not whether it be thy son's coat or not. That's sneaky. They know darn well it's his coat. They didn't say it's his blood. They let the father jump to that conclusion. Okay, very, very clever. And he recognized it and said, it is my son's coat, and evil beast has devoured him, and Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. And Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. How interesting it is that Jacob, who many years before had deceived his father, using a killed goat to fool his father about the, you know, the identity of his son, is now the father being deceived again by the blood of a goat, by his son's. Interesting, interesting retribution. Verse 35, And all the sons and his daughters rose up to comfort him, and he refused to be comforted, and he said, For I will go down into Sheol unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Now, the next verse really belongs to chapter 38, the Midianites. It goes on, picks up the story from Joseph, sold him unto Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of the pharaohs and captain of the guard. The word is actually eunuch, but don't think a eunuch means what you and I think a eunuch does. And Daniel also is under the head of the eunuchs. That's a whole other thing. It's actually an officer. Potiphar had a wife. Okay. Now, and we'll take all that later. We're going to discover, of course, we have some very, very interesting things. We're going to discover that Joseph gets thrown into prison. We'll discover that the elements that get him out of prison are the bread and the wine. The bread and the wine. The bread is broken. Interesting elements introduced very early. The cup is mentioned four times, just like Passover. And we discover that the three days are prominent in that whole episode of the dreams. And we're going to discover the whole structure of the story of Joseph. It's going to go on and on. You discover he takes a Gentile wife and so forth. We're going to have, as I say, over 100 ways that Joseph is a foreshadowing. And what will become very, very obvious by the time we're through is that we'll conclusively prove using the principles of textual criticism is that the book of Genesis is written after the New Testament. All right. I want to see if you're listening. Okay. I will, I've enjoyed being with you through this part of the book of Genesis. We'll take a few weeks off while we celebrate the holidays and get back after the first of the year. And we'll plunge into the story of Joseph and tie the book together. We'll go through the whole chronicle, probably from a story point of view, the favorite story in scripture, the story of Joseph. And then we'll take in depth the prophecies of Jacob near the end of the book, where we take the 12 tribes and chronicle those 12 tribes as to how they impact the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they impact the end times and the whole history of this nation, Israel, all by Jacob as he leaned on his staff before the end of the book. I look forward to seeing you January 5th. I pray that the Lord will be with you between now and then. And I pray that if nothing else, that he has whetted your appetite to get deeper into his word. Praise Jesus. This concludes our 21st study in the book of Genesis.