Genesis 34-41 Recap | OT Ep 5

In this episode, Austin and Ashley continue to explore biblical narratives in Genesis 34-41, focusing on the stories of Dinah, Jacob, and Joseph. They emphasize their passion for this podcast of trying to bridge the knowledge gap between believers and pastors. The discussion highlights God reaffirming His covenant with Jacob, the moral complexities of the characters involved, and the overarching theme of God's sovereignty in the lives of His people, particularly through Joseph's journey from betrayal to leadership in Egypt.

Reading Plan - Old Testament in One Year
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Transcript

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Hey everyone,

My name is Austin. And my name is Ashley. Welcome to the Clean Slate Podcast. Where we're finding Jesus in the Old Testament.

Welcome into episode five. So glad you guys could join us. I wanted to chat with y'all just for a minute and tell you about a passion that Ashley and I have and a big reason in why we're doing this podcast. But in order to do that, I need to make a couple of disclaimers.

One, we are both so thankful for faithful teachers of God's Word. Ashley and I have benefited in our lives from a multitude of godly pastors the Lord has placed in our path. And I'm sure that's the same for many of you. The second disclaimer is that we have an issue in our culture that we believe that everyone with a microphone in their hand or in front of their face is an expert and we're here to listen and learn from them. To be sure,

God did give pastors and teachers for the building up of the body. And we should listen to them, but he also gave YOU his Word. And it's the very same Word that that pastor or teacher studies when they're preparing to preach a message to you. So the passion I mentioned is this, Ashley and I live to see the knowledge gap between the believer sitting in the audience and the pastor on the stage, narrow.

because we know that as our knowledge of the Lord and what he did for us increases, we will love him better and draw closer to him. And when we draw closer to him, he changes our hearts. So you guys can find some of the free resources that we have found helpful linked on our Facebook page.

Well said.

As we start off in chapter 34, we have one of the most startling developments in this entire the daughter of Jacob and Leah, was visiting the women of the land.

bought the land that he settled on from Hamor, who is the ruler of the land.

As soon as Shechem saw Dinah,

He seized her and let's just say defiled her in an unthinkable manner.

Shechem formed a dark and evil obsession with Dinah and actually tells his father to negotiate with Israel and get Dinah for his wife. Now again, remember that in last episode, Jacob was renamed Israel.

So you can see those names used interchangeably.

So Hamor, Shechem's father, goes and talks to Jacob. Jacob had already heard what had happened and waited until his sons came in from the field before talking with Hamor. So the sons of Jacob returned and were rightfully angry, but come up with a deceitful plan.

Wonder where they learned that from. They've had a very great example of deceitfulness

from their dad Jacob and their granddad Laban. So they quote unquote agree to Hamor and Shechem's request only if every adult male in their city is circumcised. Because Shechem is drawn so strongly to Dinah, he agrees to this plan.

Once the men of the city have complied and are recovering from the circumcision, Simeon and Levi sneak into the city and kill every man in the city, including Hamor and Shechem.

They take all of the women and children and return back to their camp.

Now Jacob was very upset that they had done this and he shows that by saying, you have brought trouble on me. You know, not is my daughter okay? in concern for her wellbeing? no, we're still looking out for ourself right now.

Then Simeon and Levi angered by the fact that Jacob seemed to only be worried about himself. they ask, shall he treat our sister like a prostitute?

So just an important thing with that question they asked there, it's not really clear who they're asking it to. I think traditionally it's understood that they're asking that about Shechem. In other words, they're saying, shall Shechem treat our sister like a prostitute and get away with it? Which would be a fair question.

But also, and this is...

for my money, this is the appropriate thought here, is they're saying that about their dad. They're saying, shall Jacob, our father, treat our sister like a prostitute? And what they mean by that is, she was taken advantage of and hurt and all Jacob seemed interested in doing is making a business deal. Right? So either way you go,

They have a fair question and a fair frustration.

I agree, it is indeed a fair question. So moving into chapter 35, God tells Jacob to go up to Bethel and stay there and build an altar.

Remember, this is the same place that God appeared to Jacob in a dream where he promised to be with him the first time. Jacob tells everyone to put away the foreign gods that were with them and to purify themselves and change their garments.

On their way, God had protected them by sending a terror on the cities they passed by. At this point, what had been done at Shechem had become known to the people in the whole land of Canaan as Jacob had feared. So this terror was to protect Jacob and his people as they traveled.

So once they arrived, God reaffirmed his covenant with Jacob. Now this is super important. Remember, a lot has happened recently. imagine Jacob hearing that he is still Israel and God has not changed his mind about him would have been really impactful. Guys, this is why going to church and hearing the gospel is so important. We go through stuff, don't we?

So even after we have heard the gospel and believed it for our salvation, we need to hear it again, not for salvation, but for our sanctification, that as we go through the junk in life, be it our poor decisions or other people's poor decisions that affect us, we can still have confidence that we are God's chosen people, that He hasn't changed His mind about us, that we are still adopted and He will never leave us or forsake us, even when we don't live up to the salvation we've been called to.

So moving into chapter 36, we see the descendants of Esau.

And there are several of Esau's children whose name will later be associated with a place. So just like we just read Shechem, it was also the city of Shechem. We'll see later in Scripture that the land of Israel was named for Israel. Jacob, the one we are reading about now. So Esau's people would eventually push the Horites out of the land in the same way that the Israelites would push the Canaanites out of the land much later.

Once Esau's descendants pushed the Horites out of the land, they renamed the land Edom.

in other parts of the Old Testament. So you can and Esau kind of interchangeably there also.

So moving into chapter 37, we're actually going to kind of do chapters 37 through 41 in this section of our recap as kind of a flyover. the story shifts from really being Jacob's story to being Joseph's story. And it will kind of stay that way for the rest of Genesis.

because 13 years actually passed between chapter 37 and chapter 41. There's so much that happens. So we're going to focus in on the really important parts,

make sure you're reading this. And if you have a good study Bible, just go through and read the notes. You're going to learn a ton about this section. Just as a disclaimer, if you don't have a good study you a recommendation for one, you can either email us at podcast.cleanslate@gmail.com, or you can send us a message on Facebook.

So in this section, we see that Joseph, the son of Rachel, is clearly Jacob's favorite son. And Jacob gives him the infamous, if you grew up going to VBS, coat of many colors. I know that I have done that color sheet a whole bunch of times. as a recap within a recap, think about what we learned earlier that happened to Dinah. And now all the other boys born to women

not Rachel, are essentially being treated like they're illegitimate children since Joseph is being treated like he's the firstborn. Right? So you can imagine how that would make this group of guys feel. Joseph, already not liked (by his brothers) takes a bad report back to Jacob after being out in the field with his brothers. Snitches get stitches.

You did not just say snitches get stitches in a Bible study recap. did. Okay. I'm from the South side of the kingdom.

So then after all that, Joseph has a couple of dreams, both of which are about him.

reigning over not only his brothers, but also his father. That second one about him reigning over dad, that actually gets him rebuked by dad. Dad didn't like that. He didn't have anything to say about the first one, but he did not like the second one.

The brothers decide they've had enough and at first they're going to kill him, And Reuben, who is the firstborn son Jacob, really talks everyone off that ledge. Like, no, we're not going to do that.

they're out in the field and this happens, they're away from dad, they throw Jacob into a pit. I guess they're trying to decide what to do with

While Reuben is away, the other brothers decide, hey, we're going to sell him into slavery instead. That'll get rid of him and we didn't kill him. And in their minds, that's somehow a reprieve. That's a good thing to do. So this is how Joseph lands himself in Egypt. They sell him to a trading caravan that's coming by and that caravan in turn sells him to someone in Egypt. We'll come back to that in just a moment.

So Ruben returns from the field and goes to the brothers and he sees that Joseph is not there and he begins to question them. Like where is Joseph? What have you done with him? And they tell him they sold him into slavery and Ruben instantly knows

that that's going to be the end of him having any chance of getting a blessing from his father. Ruben's already made some other mistakes. And so this is going to be final straw and he knows it. So to keep themselves out of trouble with dad, they come up with a plan to tear the coat of many colors and to throw goat blood on it.

in order to make it look as if Joseph had been killed by an animal. they follow through this plan and Jacob believes that his son has died and he mourns bitterly for Joseph, his favorite son.

Meanwhile, Joseph is in Egypt and he's been sold into Potiphar's house. Potiphar was a captain of the guard the Egyptian military.

Joseph begins to work for Potiphar and is just very successful at everything that he does. Ultimately, that lands a position stewarding all that Potiphar had. Joseph essentially ran the household. At some point, Potiphar's wife takes an unwelcome notice of Joseph and tries to get him to sleep with her.

continually refuses and Potiphar's wife is actually so forward that she grabbed him by the clothing trying to convince him to lie with her. Joseph being an honest man ran out of the household and left her standing there holding his garment. Potiphar's wife then decides to frame Joseph and make it appear as if he tried to harm her.

Potiphar comes home and hears this story that's false and is furious. Of course, if it was true, that would make sense. And then has Joseph thrown into prison. This prison sentence would last Joseph for years of his life. Some commentators say up to 12 really aren't sure how long, that he was there, but to be thrown in prison for a period of years for doing the right thing would be devastating.

While in prison, Joseph would again rise through the ranks, his penchant for management and leadership again showing through.

Joseph was put in charge of a lot of things in the prison.

During this time, Pharaoh, not Potiphar, Pharaoh as in King of Egypt, had become very angry with his cupbearer and baker and had them thrown into prison. One night, both of them had very distinct dreams. Joseph, who was tending to them the next morning, noticed they were troubled and he spoke with them about their troubles, which were their dreams. Joseph then interpreted their dreams for them.

the interpretation of the cup bearer's dream was favorable. It was that he would be restored back to his position in just three days time. When Joseph gave the cup bearer this interpretation, he asked the cup bearer to remember him. In other words, please get me out of here.

But the interpretation for the baker wasn't so great.

It also had to do with three days, but this time Joseph foretold that the baker would be executed. Everything happened just exactly as Joseph said, but the cup bearer failed to speak to Pharaoh on Joseph's behalf. He forgot him. Two years after all these events take place, Joseph is still in prison, utterly forgotten by the cup

Just as an interesting exercise, let's pause for a moment and look at all the just so happens that got us here.

So Reuben talked the brothers out of killing Joseph. when Reuben's away, a trade caravan heading to Egypt just so happens to come by at the time that Reuben's away. The brothers sell Joseph into that caravan. That caravan just so happens to sell Joseph to Potiphar.

Potiphar's wife just so happens to find Joseph attractive.

Joseph lands in prison and he just so happens to be the one caring for the baker and the cup bearer.

Joseph interprets the cup bearer's dream for him. And the cup bearer just so happens to forget Joseph all this time.

So one day, Pharaoh has himself a couple of very unusual dreams. And when no one could figure out what they meant, the cup bearer remembered Joseph. Pharaoh was desperate to understand what these dreams meant and sent for Joseph, even though he was in prison, so that he could interpret the dreams for him.

Joseph interprets the dreams to mean there will be seven years of abundance in the land followed by seven years of famine.

Joseph tells Pharaoh that the fact that dreams were doubled means that God has determined this is going to happen and there's no way out of it.

He tells Pharaoh that Pharaoh needs to appoint a wise man to be in charge of all the produce of the land and start stocking up for this famine that was going to come. Pharaoh agrees and he names Joseph to the position. I mean, just the amazing turnaround that was instantaneous. Joseph is freed from prison and given a massive amount of authority. Joseph sets out.

to get the storehouses built and to take stock of what he's working with in all the land of Egypt. well for this impending famine. And during that time, Joseph, is effectively vice pharaoh of all of Egypt, gets married and has two sons of his own.

His preparations are successful and the scriptures say that everyone in that area of the world, so think Mediterranean, went down to Egypt to buy grains.

So when we get to this part, you may ask yourself, okay, that's a lot of information. So what does that mean? What's the takeaway? In the scriptures, so often there are multiple things happening at once. In this case, God has set the stage for the family of Jacob to travel down to Egypt. And there's going to be a wonderful reconciliation.

also we're seeing Joseph as a Christ-like figure. Think about it. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers like Jesus was betrayed by the people of Israel. Joseph was wrongfully imprisoned for crime he didn't commit like Christ was crucified, having done nothing wrong. Joseph was then taken out of the pit, the prison, and seated at the right hand of Pharaoh. When Jesus died on the cross,

He stayed in the tomb for three days. He rose to life after that, just as he said he would. And then after staying on the earth for 40 days, he ascended to heaven and was seated at the right hand of God, being given all authority in heaven and earth.

Outside of the points just mentioned, my favorite thing about this story is how God weaves this tapestry of storylines together so that it saves His people from famine, provides for people other than just His covenant people, and still points to Christ all at the same time. This is something Ashley and I lovingly refer to as the Mundanely Miraculous. God, without ever missing, works everything according to the counsels of His will. And He does this every single day.

It may not be as flashy as times that he parts the Red Sea or raises someone back from the dead, but his power is at work all around you all the time. It's just hard to see when you're in the middle of the daily grind.

Trust that if you call on His name, He has not forgotten you,

Alright friends, that's going do it for today's recap. We'll see how the story unfolds in the next episode. May His grace abound to you and to me as we study to find Jesus in the Old Testament.