I’m back, after a much-needed spring break! While I enjoyed the break, I definitely was glad to get back in the BSF routine last night.
The focus of the rest of this year’s study will be on Jacob’s favored son, Joseph. While he is not in the promised Messiah’s line of Judah, Joseph is considered to be a picture of Christ in the Old Testament. This explains why we don’t see much of the bad side of Joseph.
Over the past few lessons, Jacob’s family has proved that they cannot remain pure on their own. So God wants to move them to Egypt. They will stay there for 400 years, and He will help grow them into His chosen people. God will use Joseph to move the Israelites to Egypt.
This week’s lesson shows us sibling rivalry at its worst. Hatred among Joseph’s brothers leads to a murder plot. But we also see God’s mercy at its best. God uses one of the Bible’s deepest, darkest situations for His glory and purpose.
Joseph is a 17-year-old boy who is tending the flocks with his half-brothers. He gives Jacob a bad report about his brothers (too bad we don’t know what the report was about!), causing more dissension between Joseph and his brothers. It seems that Jacob never learned his lesson regarding favoritism because the Bible tells us that he loved Joseph more than any of his other children.
To demonstrate this favoritism, Jacob gives Joseph a coat. This coat is used to symbolize someone who is an overseer and who didn’t do hard labor. The brothers resent the fact that Joseph receives this special coat, and they hate him for it.
God gives two dreams to Joseph that indicate his family will bow down to him. Joseph foolishly tells his family about these dreams. This makes his brothers hate him even more.
Later Jacob asks Joseph to check on his brothers. He walks 50 miles to find them, but they moved on. He walks 20 more miles when the brothers see him coming. The brothers plot together to kill Joseph. The oldest brother, Reuben, half-heartedly protects Joseph and proposes that they not kill Joseph but instead put him in a pit to die. So the brothers agree. They capture Joseph, put him in the pit and sit down to eat a meal.
As they are eating, the brothers see a caravan headed to Egypt. They decide to sell Joseph as a slave to this caravan. They cover Joseph’s coat with blood and tell Jacob that Joseph has died. Jacob could not be comforted as he grieved over Joseph’s apparent death.
This first story of Joseph’s life show us that God is sovereign and uses pain and suffering for His purpose. His plan unfolds exactly as He wants it to. He is in control of everything, and nothing takes Him by surprise.
God intends good to come out of every situation for those who are His children: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 NIV
Sometimes we see God’s purpose on earth. At the end of Genesis, Joseph’s family sees how God used all of the circumstances in his life for his good and for God’s glory (Genesis 50:20). But other times we don’t see God’s purposes fully fulfilled through our lives until we look back while in His presence in Heaven. In which situation do I need to focus on the fact that God is in control and will use it for His purpose?
Chapter 38 may seem a little misplaced in this part of the Bible. But of course God has a purpose for this story about Judah. God chose Judah and worked through him. Through his line, the Messiah came.
Judah continues his family’s sinful ways and marries a Canaanite woman. They have three evil sons. The first son is so evil that God strikes him dead, leaving his wife, Tamar, as a widow. Culturally, the second son should have married Tamar because she was childless. But this son doesn’t cooperate.
When God kills the second son, Judah tells his daughter-in-law Tamar to go back to her father’s house. Judah promises to let her marry his third son later. But he never intends to keep this promise.
Tamar figures out Judah’s deception. But she so desperately wants to be a part of God’s family that she disguises herself as a temple prostitute and sleeps with Judah. She asks Judah for payment of her services. When he promises to send her a goat, she asks for a personal guarantee and promise. He gives her some personal items as his guarantee.
Later Judah condemns Tamar when it is revealed that she prostituted herself and became pregnant. But then he repents and publicly accepts his responsibility as the twins’ father. Judah, Tamar and Perez (one of the twins) are included in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.
This story shows us God’s grace. It is not earned or deserved. God showed His grace both to Judah and Tamar, a sinful Gentile woman. At least we ended this week’s lesson on a happy note!
And here’s Avery with her memory verse for last week.
Genesis 35:3 NIV