Noah
This period of history covers the lives of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. These are pretty substantial characters in Jewish and Christian history, so we will devote a lesson to each one. This lesson will look at Noah, and the next lessons will cover the others.
Noah
Noah lived in an incredibly wicked time. According to Genesis 6, mankind had become so corrupt that "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time" (Gen 6:5b). As a result, God's heart was filled with pain and He found himself wishing that He had never created humanity or the earth (Gen 6:6-7). Yet in the midst of all that, Noah found favor with God. Noah was Enoch's great-grandson, so he had a very godly heritage -- but his great-grandfather was not why Noah found favor with God. He found favor based on his own personal relationship with God. The bible tells us that "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God" (Gen 6:9).
Noah did come from a godly line, but most of them had died before Noah's sons were born. The bible tells us that Noah was 500 years old when he had his three sons. At that point, only his father Lamech and his grandfather Methuselah are still alive. (When Noah was a child, many of his ancestors were still living. Enosh, Kenan, Mahalel and Jared were all alive in addition to his dad and grandfather. Enosh died when Noah was 87, so he had a chance to know him personally. Joash died when Noah was 369, and the other ancestors in-between those two.)
Genesis 6 and 7 lead us to believe that Noah was 500 years old when God instructed him to build the ark, and that it took about 100 years to complete it. Five important events took place in Noah's life during those 100 years. The first three were happy events -- each of this three sons got married. But the other two, which occurred near the end of that period were very sad events. His father, Lamech, died when Noah was 595 years old. A mere 5 years later, his grandfather, Methuselah, died.
The flood began very shortly after his grandfather's death -- it was a maximum of 7 weeks (the 17th day of the second month -- Gen 7:11), and it may have been substantially less than 7 weeks.
Noah and his family were still grieving for his grandfather, who had just died. God did not wait until a convenient time to spare their lives! The entire earth had been spared from destruction while Methuselah was alive because his life was a prophetic living intercession for mankind. Once he died, destruction followed swiftly. God gave Noah and his family a week's notice to get themselves and the animals on the ark. Then the flood began.
The flood was no small event. Gen 7:24 says, "The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days." The early Jews did not use the same calendar as we do, but I am going to use our modern day calendar to give you an idea of the passage of time. Noah and his family were sent into the ark on Feb 7 and the flood started on Feb 17. (Noah was 600 years old when the flood started.) The ark came to rest on Mt Ararat (the tallest mountain in the area) on July 17 and on Oct 1, the tops of the other mountains became visible above the flood water. Noah sent out the dove the first time on Nov 9, but the dove came back because the earth was still flooded. He send out the dove a second time on Nov 16 and it came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf. Noah sent out the dove a third time on Nov 23, and it did not come back. The following Jan 1, Noah took the covering off of the ark. By Feb 27, the earth was completely dry and they left the ark. They were in the ark a year and 20 days.
The first thing Noah did when he got out of the ark was to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to God. Noah's sacrifice pleased God because his heart was set after God. God responded to Noah by promising: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done." And God created the rainbow as a reminder of His covenant with all the living creatures of the earth.
Then, God immediately entered into a covenant with Noah and his family. God gave them the original mandate He had given to Adam and Eve -- to be fruitful and multiply and fill (e.g., re-populate) the earth (Genesis 9:1). He also gave them a restriction, just like he'd given one to Adam and Eve. The original restriction had been "do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The new restriction was "you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it" (Gen 9:4). This restriction remains in effect in Jewish dietary law to this very day. That is what makes meat Kosher -- draining the blood out of it before cooking it.
It is very interesting that the restriction was not lifted off of the church in the first century. They were released from the covenant of circumcision, but they were charged: "You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality" (Acts 15:29). I believe the "abstaining from blood" restriction was left in place more from Jewish thinking than from the direction of the Holy Spirit. This restriction predated the law and went back to God's instruction given Noah right after the flood. In Jewish thinking, abstaining from blood was the "modern day" equivalent of abstaining from the forbidden fruit -- it was how they exercised their free will to obey God -- by honoring this one restriction God placed on them.
Over time, that restriction lifted from the church. God has not treated the breaking of that second restriction (don't eat blood) like He treated the breaking of the first. That is because Christ's death and resurrection lifted that restriction off us. Now we are under a new and different type of restriction: Instead of choosing to abstain from something to please God, we must choose to receive something; Every man, woman and child must come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to receive eternal life and intimate relationship with God. The shed blood of Jesus for us removes us from the restriction of abstaining from blood. It is replaced by the communion, where the bread is symbolic of partaking of Jesus' body, which was killed for our sakes and the wine (or grape juice) is symbolic of receiving the shed blood of Jesus to cover our sins.
After the flood, Noah became a farmer and he planted a vineyard. Even though he was a godly man, he was not perfect. One of the things he made from the fruit of the vineyard was wine. One night he got so drunk that he ended up naked and unconscious in his tent. His son, Ham, found him and then went out to tell his brothers about their dad. The other two came in backwards and dropped a blanket over their dad so that they did not look at his nakedness. The bible does not say precisely what Ham did/said, but it must have been pretty bad. When Noah awoke and heard what his son "did to him," he was very upset and pronounced curses on the boy and all of his future offspring.
Noah was 950 years when he died. He lived 350 years after the flood started.
Abraham
This period of history covers the lives of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. We already covered Noah and now we will look at the life of Abraham.
Abraham and Sarah
Noah and his family were commissioned to be fruitful and multiply and populate the earth. They began to fill that commission. Over time, the earth was populated again. Then God started longing for a special people to be set aside from all of the other people of the earth as His people. He longed for people who will honor and worship Him, ones He could have a personal relationship with.
Terah was Abraham's father. He was a descendent of Shem, Noah's firstborn and oldest son. The bible does not tell us anything about Terah's personal relationship with God. I am guessing that he did not have much (if any) of a relationship with God, because God called Abram out of his father's household to go follow Him. (God did wait until after Terah died before He asked Abram to leave his father's household.)
Abraham must have been very important to God. The history of all that happened before God called Abraham only took 11 chapters of the book of Genesis. But when we get to Abraham, God goes into much more detail and devotes 14 chapters to his life. In other words, God had more to say about Abraham than about everything that happened from creation until the day that God called Abraham to leave his people and follow Him!
Abraham's name was originally Abram, which means "blessed father." That was almost ironic since Abram's only wife (Sarai) was barren. Children were precious and very desired in those days, and Abram probably wanted a son more than anything. It must have been exceptionally frustrating for both Sarai and Abram that they could not have any children.
Abram's story starts in Genesis 12, when Abram was 75 years old. God spoke to him and told him to leave his father's house and go "where I will show you." Along with that, God promised to make him a great nation. Abram already knew his wife was barren, so he did not have a clue how God would do that. But he was obedient. He gathered his wife and his ward (his orphaned nephew Lot) and set out with no idea of where his destination was. He simply followed God.
There was a famine in the land, so Abraham went to Egypt. (Isn't it interesting that many years later, his descendents would also relocate to Egypt to avoid a famine?)
Abram had faith, but he did not have perfect faith. He trusted God enough to leave his household and set out to follow God. But he did not fully trust God to protect him "en route." Abram's wife (called Sarai at that time) was incredibly beautiful. Abram was afraid that the pharaoh would kill him to take his wife into his harem. So Abram told a white lie that Sarai was not his wife. So the pharaoh took Sarai into his harem and paid Abram with all sorts of riches -- cattle, sheep, slaves. But God had every intention of protecting the bloodline of the people He was about to raise up -- so He prevented pharaoh from having any sort of intimate relationship with Sarai. God motivated Pharaoh to return an untouched Sarai to Abram by giving him a serious disease. So Abram kept his newly acquired riches, got his wife back and was "invited" to leave Egypt immediately.
Life went on for Abram. His nephew Lot set out on his own and settled in Sodom. Some raiders came by and carried Lot and his possession off captive. Abram mustered up an army from his trained servants and went to rescue Lot. In the process he also captured a great amount of riches (the spoils of war) that had been carried away captive by the raiders. When Abram rescued Lot, he ended up with all of these spoils. When he returned from the rescue, he ran into Melchizedek king of Salem, who was also a high priest for God. Abraham tithed 10% of his spoils to God by giving them to Melchizedek, God's priest. This is the first recorded tithe.
After some lengthy period of time, God appeared to Abraham again and renewed His covenant with Abram. Abram suggested that his servant Eliezer become his heir since he had no kids. God told him, No, and promised a heir from Abram's own body -- e.g., a literal son.
At this point God had not told Abram who the mother would be. So Sarai decided to help God out by having her slave Hagar mother a child for Abram. Sarai's plan did not go a as well as she originally expected, because Hagar became haughty and contemptuous after she was pregnant, and made Sarai miserable. Of course, Sarai complained to Abram about this. There was quite a bit of household tension over this. Sarai became abusive to Hagar, who ran away. She was about to die in the wilderness when an angel met her and prophesied to her about her son. Hagar went back to Abram's household and had her son, Ishmael.
When Abram was 99 years old, God appeared to him again. He gave him the covenant of circumcision and promised him a son with Sarai as the mother. Abram had a bit of trouble believing God at this point because both he and Sarai were getting pretty old and Sarai had already hit menopause. Childbirth was physically impossible at this stage in their lives. At that time, God changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning "Father of Many." And God changed Sarai's name to Sarah, meaning "mother of nations." Abraham may have struggled a bit with believing that he and Sarah would have a son -- but he did not struggle with obedience. He was circumcised the same day God told him about circumcision, and so was every male member of his household.
God appeared to Abraham a second time "near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day" (Gen 18:1). This time God was accompanied by two angels. He repeated the promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a son, but he put a time table on it -- about this time next year! Finally Abraham had a date. Apparently, Abraham found it easier to believe God this time. However, his wife Sarah was eavesdropping, and she laughed (in ridicule) at God's promise. God called her on it, asking why she laughed and declaring that nothing was too hard for God. Sarah denied laughing because she was afraid and God said, "Yes, you did laugh."
Immediately after that incident God sent the two angels on to Sodom, which is where Lot lived. He told Abraham that He was about to destroy Sodom and it's sister city -- Gomorrah -- because of their sin. Abraham interceded, asking God to spare the city if a mere 50 righteous could be found in it. God agreed to this. Then Abraham began bartering in intercession with God and God got down to a promise that He would not destroy the city if there where a mere ten righteous people in it. God agreed to that as well. [Perhaps if Abraham kept going, he might have gotten it down to one (Lot) and prevented the destruction of those two cities. But Abraham stopped at ten.]
The angels got to Sodom and could only find one righteous person -- Lot. They told Lot that God was about to destroy the city and sent him away out of it. They instructed him to hurry to the small city of Zoar because they could not begin destroying the cities until Lot was safely there. The angels also instructed them not to look back. Lot's wife disobeyed that instruction and she was instantly killed -- by being turned into a pillar of salt. As soon as Lot and his two daughters reached Zoar, the Lord rained burning sulfur on these cities, totally destroying them and killing all of the inhabitants. Lot became terrified and fled Zoar to go live in the mountain wilderness with his two daughters.
At that time, Abraham also moved on -- to Gedar. This was about the time that Sarah was pregnant but before she looked pregnant. Now the most amazing story happened. The king of Gedar, named Abimelech, wanted Sarah (now almost 90 years old!) for his harem. She must have been a stunning beauty to still look that good at 90. At any rate, Abraham fell back to his old tricks and said that she was his sister. So Abimelech took Sarah for his harem. But before he could touch her, God struck him with a sickness and warned him in a dream that Sarah was a married woman. He returned Sarah to Abraham and Abraham prayed for him and he was healed.
In due time, Sarah had her son. This time she laughed for a different reason: she was full of joy at having had a baby -- something she had desperately wanted to do all her life but was unable to do. So she named the baby Isaac, which means laughter.
Ishmael began making fun of his infant brother, and Sarah became afraid that he might actually try to harm his younger half-brother. So she convinced Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. He gave them food and water, but it ran out in the desert and they almost died. The boy, Ishmael, cried out to God for help, and God sent an angel to show where some water was. The angel also prophesied over Ishmael that God would make him a great nation. So Ishmael grew up in the desert after that and Abraham never saw him again.
The family traveled some more, and baby Isaac grew into a boy. Then God, who Abraham knew and trusted, made a very uncharacteristic request. He told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering on one of the nearby mountains. Abraham did not argue with God; he instantly set out to obey Him. The very next morning, Abraham saddled his donkey, bringing Isaac and two servants along. It took them three days to reach the base of the mountain. Abraham and Isaac left the servants behind and went up to the mountain to do the sacrifice.
At that point, Isaac had no idea that he was to be the sacrifice. He even asked his father, on the way up, if they'd accidentally forgotten the lamb for the sacrifice. And Abraham replied that God Himself would provide the lamb. Isaac did not know his father was talking about him until Abraham bound him up and laid him on the altar. Abraham fully intended to obey God's request, and was about to slay his son with the knife. Right then an angel called out to him and told him not to do it -- that it was a test. Now that God knew he would not withhold his "only son." So God commended Abraham for his obedience and pronounced many blessings on Abraham and his descendents.
There are a few more stories about Abraham in Genesis, chapters 23 to 25. You might want to read them if you get a chance. Abraham, the great man of faith, died when he was 175 years old.
Isaac
This period of history covers the lives of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. We already covered the first two (Noah and Abraham) in previous lessons. This lesson will look at Isaac's life.
Isaac
Isaac was born when his mother was 90 years old and his father 100. His first recorded experience with God was rather dramatic and occurred when he was a boy -- we are not sure of the exact age but maybe 10 or 11 years old. This is when his father took him along to a special sacrifice to God. Isaac traveled three days journey with his father on the back of a donkey. When they got to the base of the mountain, they left their two servants at the base camp and started up the mountain. Isaac carried the wood while his father carried the fire and knife. Apparently he was no stranger to sacrifices because he noticed that they had left a very important part of the sacrifice behind -- the lamb! And his father only said, "God will provide the lamb." I imagine Isaac kept one eye on the bushes as they walked up the path, looking for the lamb that God was going to provide.
It must have been a shock to him when his father bound his arms and legs and laid him on the altar. Isaac had probably been told the story of his miraculous conception over and over again, he probably knew he was a miracle child. And suddenly his young life was about to be taken away from him by the very God who miraculously caused him to be born. I wonder what was going through his mind as his father raised the knife, about to kill him?
Suddenly an angel called out to his father and spared his life. God provided a ram (not a lamb) as the sacrifice and he walked down the mountain with his father. I am guessing that Isaac was forever changed by that experience, that he had a sense of destiny on his life, and maybe a sense that he was living for God and not just for himself.
The next major event in Isaac's life took place maybe 26 or 27 years later. His mother died when he was about 37. Isaac was very close to his mother and took her death very hard. He grieved for over three years and only stopped grieving for his mother when his father found him a beautiful young wife and he got married. Even the story of how God provided his wife, Rebekah, is quite miraculous. It is filled with multiple "divine coincidences" and can be found in Genesis chapter 24.
As it turned out, Rebekah was barren. (That is not too surprising, since she is related to Sarah, who had also been barren. Isn't it amazing that the women who God selected to be the mother's of the nation of Israel were both barren?) There is no doubt that Abraham taught Isaac about the promises and covenant that God had made with him. He knew he was destined to help father the great nation that God had promised would come through Abraham's linage. And yet he remained childless.
Isaac spent 20 years praying to God for a son before God answered that prayer. When he was 60 years old, God finally gave him twins -- Jacob and Esau. The boys were as different as day and night. Esau was an outdoorsman, a hunter. But Jacob was a "mama's boy" and a bit of a manipulator. Isaac really spent time with and favored one son, Esau. And Rebekah favored the other. This seemed to cause some tension between the boys.
Isaac's dad, Abraham, died when he was 175. Isaac had an older half-brother named Ishmael, who had been exiled from the family just after Isaac was born. Ishmael grew up in the desert. But apparently the boys kept in some sort of touch. When Abraham died, he was buried by both of his sons (Gen 25:9). After their dad's funeral, Ishmael sort of dropped out of the story. The bible mentions Ishmael had sons and that he was 137 years old when he died. It also mentions that his sons lived in hostility towards all of their brothers. So it sounds like Isaac and Ishmael's relationship was, at best, distant and strained.
Good family relationships seemed to be a serious weakness in this entire family line. First there was the conflict between Sarah and Hagar. Then there was a conflict between the two half-brothers, Ishmael and Isaac that started when Ishmael mocked his baby brother and was "exiled" from the family. Then there were strained relationships between Isaac and Jacob because Isaac as a father strongly favored one son over the other. And there was the strained relationship between Jacob and Esau.
After the boys were born, God came and personally made a covenant with Isaac, giving him the same promise as his father had received -- that God would make him a great nation. There was a famine and Isaac planned to go to Egypt. But God instructed him to go to the land of the Philistines instead.
Once he got there, Isaac ran into the same "problem" and same inappropriate response as his father had made. The king, Abimelech, noticed Rebekah, who was apparently a stunning beauty. So the king sent palace representatives to inquire about Rebekah and Isaac said, "She is my sister." (When his dad did the same thing, it was a half-truth -- Sarah was Abraham's half-sister. But Isaac told an outright lie. Rebekah was his cousin, not his sister.) This time the king did not take Rebekah into his harem. However, there was still a danger that any number of other men could have taken her as a wife or concubine. So God allowed Abimelech to discover she was really Isaac's wife, and then he rebuked Isaac for the lie, but he also made an official decree protecting both of them.
Isaac earned his living as a farmer. God blessed Isaac while he was in Abimelech's kingdom and be became so wealthy and prosperous that he became a political threat. The king asked him to leave his kingdom, explaining that he felt Isaac had become "too powerful" for him.
Despite his massive wealth, Isaac had some health problems -- he became blind in his old age. Some time after his vision failed, Isaac knew that he was getting on in years. So he wanted to bless his firstborn son, Esau. He sent Esau away to hunt and prepare some game, so that he could eat and then bless his son. But Rebekah overheard Isaac and Esau talking and she schemed for Jacob to get the blessing instead. She made a meal from goats and disguised Jacob to "feel" like Esau. (Esau was a very hairy man, so she attached goat's skin to his hands and neck). Then Jacob went in and intentionally deceived his father to get the first-born's blessing.
Once Isaac realized what had happened, he decided to let the blessing stand. His favorite son asked if he could also have a blessing and Isaac did not have much left to bless him with. This created a terrible tension between the twins, so much so that Esau wanted to kill Jacob. So Rebekah decided to send Isaac back to her brother's house until things "cooled down" a bit. Isaac apparently realized he had a role in creating this tension. He called Jacob in for a blessing and commission. He charged Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman but to take a wife from his uncle Laban's family.
Isaac did not see very much of his younger son, Jacob, after that incident, but his oldest son, Esau, continued to live near him. Jacob went to live with his uncle Laban for many years. When Jacob came back, he reconciled with his older brother and moved back to the general area. But things were still a bit on the tense side, so Jacob ended up settling pretty far away from his dad and brother.
However, when Isaac was close to death, Jacob moved back to live near him. Isaac was 180 years old when he died. Both of his two sons jointly held his funeral. Here we have another parallel. Isaac and his estranged brother Ishmael had jointly buried their father, and now Jacob and Esau jointly buried Isaac.
When we look at the interactions that both patriarchs (Abraham and Isaac) had with their families, we see that even God's elect and chosen ones are human and have human flaws. Both had faith in God and generally obeyed God. But neither one's faith in God was perfect -- such as the "she's not my wife, she's my sister" lie because they did not trust God to protect them. Both had sons who could not get along at all, and both contributed greatly to causing that conflict. We can take encouragement from their example because it shows us that we don't have to be perfect for God to use us -- we just need hearts that are after God and a commitment to obey Him.
Jacob (A.K.A. "Israel")
This period of history covers the lives of Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. We already covered the first three (Noah, and Abraham and Isaac) in previous lessons. This lesson will look at Jacob's life.
Jacob
We already developed Jacob's childhood when looking at Isaac's life. We saw that Jacob was not his father's favorite. His brother was a manly outdoorsman, but Jacob was a bit of a wimp. Jacob was also a manipulator and schemer, which he apparently learned from this mother. The biggest "scheme" was when his father decided to give his brother the firstborn's blessing and sent him out to hunt some game to prepare for him to eat before he blessed him. Jacob and Rebekah plotted together to cook a goat from the flock and to disguise Jacob as Esau. (This only worked because Isaac had lost his sight.) So Jacob went in and stole the firstborn's blessing from his brother. This made his brother furious, and he wanted to murder Jacob. So Rebekah, trying to protect Jacob, sent him to go live with her brother Laban, who lived very far away. The "excuse" she gave was that he was to go find a wife from his own people instead of from the local girls.
God appeared to Jacob in a dream while he was in route to Laban's home. This is the famous dream of the ladder stretching from earth to heaven with the angels ascending and descending on the ladder. God stood at the top of the ladder and spoke to Jacob, giving him the same promise He'd given to Abraham and Isaac. God also promised to be with him and bring him home safely. Jacob's reaction was interesting. First he was afraid, and then he made an interesting vow which basically equated to this: "God, I won't take God as my God now, but if You keep Your promise to be with me and take care of me and bring me home safely, then You will become My God."
Gen 29 introduces us to Laban's character and he is even more of a manipulator than his sister Rebekah. Jacob falls in love with Rachel and wanted to marry her. He agreed to work seven years for his uncle in order to be allowed to marry Rachel. The time passed quickly for him because he was so in love with her. But his uncle schemed on their wedding night and gave him Leah (the older sister) instead of Rachel. Brides were heavily veiled for the wedding ceremony. Jacob may have gotten drunk at his wedding, because he did not realize that he had the wrong woman until the morning, after he'd already slept with her.
Of course Jacob was very upset by this -- he'd worked seven years for the woman he loved and had been given someone else. His uncle made a lame excuse, and told him he could have Rachel a week later if he would agree to work for him for another seven years. Jacob agreed to this, and a week later, he had two wives.
Do you remember how Jacob's father had loved his older brother more than him and had given Esau preferable treatment? Jacob did the same thing with his wives. He was not cruel to Leah, but he loved Rachel more and treated her better. Apparently both of the sisters started out barren. But God took Leah's side (since she was not loved) and gave her four sons. Leah hoped the children would gain her some love and affection from her husband, but it did not work out that way. Jacob remained madly in love with Rachel and ignored Leah.
However, Rachel remained barren and she became very jealous of Leah's children. So she had Jacob sleep with Bilhah (her slave) and when Bilhah had a son, Rachel felt a bit vindicated. Bilhah had a second son for Rachel and Jacob. Apparently there was a fierce competition between Leah and Rachel. Since Leah was unable to have anymore children, she had Jacob sleep with her slave, Zilpah, and Zilpah also had two kids. At this point, Jacob had eight sons, but Rachel was not the mother of any of them.
Family life must have been pretty tense. Rachel and Leah were extremely competitive with each other. Genesis 30 records an interesting story -- Jacob was only sleeping with Rachel and he was totally ignoring Leah. Leah had some mandrake plants that Rachel wanted, so Rachel traded for them -- Leah could have a night with her husband if she gave Rachel some of the mandrakes. Leah agreed and Jacob complied and Leah became pregnant with a fifth son. She also ended up having a sixth son, bringing the total number of Jacob's sons to 10. Then Leah had a daughter named Dinah.
Some time later, Rachel finally had a son, who she named Joseph. When Joseph was born, Jacob decided it was time to go home and show his kids to his father. However, Laban wanted him to stay on because God was blessing Laban's household and finances for Jacob's sake. So Laban began paying Jacob wages to continue working for him. Jacob did not recognize God's providence and blessing so he schemed to "get rich." God blessed him despite his scheming, and he ended up massing a huge herd of sheep. Jacob ended up becoming quite wealthy because God was prospering him, but at this point in his life, he did not recognize that God was the source of his prosperity. He thought he was a self-made man, that his scheming and manipulating was why he had become so rich.
Laban's sons became resentful towards Jacob since he seemed to be amassing his personal fortune at their expense. About then, God spoke to Jacob and instructed him to "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives." And God promised to be with him. It turned out to be more difficult than Jacob anticipated to obey that command, because Laban did not want him to leave. Jacob literally had to load up his family and flee. Laban pursued him, and just as he caught up to him, God visited Laban in a dream and warned him to leave Jacob alone. So Laban basically said goodbye to his daughters, blessed his grandchildren and went back home.
God had protected Jacob from his scheming uncle, but his troubles were far from over, because his brother Esau still hated him and wanted to kill him. That was a very real concern to Jacob, particularly when Esau set out to "meet him" en route before he got near his parents (and potential protection). Angels came to Jacob. Immediately after that he came up with a strategy to appease his brother -- first sending an expensive gift and then sending the slaves with their 4 sons, then sending Leah with her six sons and finally sending Rachel and her son last. We do not know if that was yet another scheme that Jacob concocted from his own resources or if it was the suggestion of the angels that visited him. Jacob found himself in a very interesting place. He was risking his life to obey the God who he had not yet committed to follow. God had already met a portion of Jacob's conditions for serving Him -- to be with him and prosper him. Now Jacob was desperate for God to meet the other condition -- to bring him home safely.
The night before he was to encounter Esau (and possibly die), Jacob had a very restless night. He had a visitation and wrestled with "a man" (probably an angel but maybe Christ) all night. We know that the "man" could have freed himself if he wanted to because God and angels are much more powerful than people. So we must assume this was some type of test for Jacob -- that he would persist in seeking after God and not give up. At daybreak the angel told Jacob to let him go and he said he would not let the angel go until he blessed him. The blessing that Jacob got was that his name was changed from Jacob to Israel (one who wrestles and prevails).
When Jacob finally met up with Esau, he humbled himself and Esau had a change of heart and received him warmly. Esau wanted to accompany Jacob home, but Jacob declined and ended up settling in Succoth, a long ways from where Esau lived. Some time later, God told Jacob to return to Bethel and to put away his foreign Gods and serve only God. Jacob obeyed and God met him at Bethel. There God changed his name to Israel, just like the "man" had prophesied in his blessing. At that point, God also renewed the covenant he had made with Abraham and Isaac with Jacob.
Rachel, who was getting elderly at this point, got pregnant with a second son. Unfortunately she died in childbirth. However the baby was born healthy and became Jacob's 12th son. Shortly after that, Isaac (Jacob's dad) died.
You would think Jacob learned some life-lessons to make him wiser in family relationships. But that was not the case. He favored Rachel's two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, far above the other ten. And that created a lot of jealousy and sibling rivalry. He showed overt favor to Joseph over his brothers, and that eventually caused the ten elder boys to plot against Joseph. The were going to kill him, but they ended up selling him as a slave instead. But they reported to their father that a wild animal had killed Joseph.
This was too much for Jacob. He had recently lost his beloved wife and then his father and now his favorite son. He entered into a severe depression and grieving that lasted most of the rest of his life. Jacob's life was not a very happy one from that day forward. He eventually transferred his affections to Rachel's other son, Benjamin. The bible does not explicitly spell it out, but there are indications that Jacob suffered from depression for a long time after he lost Joseph. He was never close to his other ten sons like he was close to Benjamin and Joseph. You would think he would have been determined to treat all of his sons well, since he did not like it when his own father favored his brother over him. Unfortunately, Jacob repeated his father's mistakes when raising his own children.
Jacob was very protective of Benjamin. When a severe famine hit, he sent all of his other sons to Egypt to buy grain, but he kept Benjamin safely at home with him. Nine of the ten sons returned and reported that the other was in prison in Egypt and would not be released until they brought Benjamin back with them. Jacob was content to let his older son rot in prison in Egypt rather than risk endangering Benjamin. When the food ran out again, and they had to go back to Egypt for more, Jacob reluctantly let his sons take Benjamin with him.
Jacob's personal misery shows us that God's blessings and favor are not synonyms with personal happiness. Jacob was God's chosen and anointed man, the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. He had the potential for much joy from his many sons, all of whom wanted their father's approval and affection. But his own personal issues had not been dealt with, and they became stumbling blocks for him. He ended up acting out on his family the same offenses that were committed against him when he was young. For this we learn that it is very important to allow God to heal our past hurts and move on to wholeness. God desires our joy to be full and He wants to heal us. But if we don't cooperate with Him in the process, it can leave us in a condition where we are unable to experience the joy of the Lord, even when we are surrounded by God's blessings and favor.
Despite his character flaws and weaknesses, God was merciful to Jacob. In the end, he discovered that Joseph was still alive and was allowed to see him again. Jacob relocated his entire household to Egypt and Joseph took good care of him and his family during the famine. He was reunited with his favorite son, and he got to see and bless his grandchildren. His depression lifted those last few years of his life and his faith in God was restored. He believed God's prophesy that after 400 years in Egypt, God would lead the tribes of Israel out of Egypt. That is why he made Joseph promise that he would not be buried in Egypt. He became a man of great faith at the very end and he died a happy man.
Joseph
This period of history covers the lives of Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. We already covered the first three (Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) in previous lessons. This lesson will look at Joseph's life.
Joseph
Joseph was a very pampered and cocky teenager who had managed to totally alienate his ten older brothers. When he was 17, he brought his father a bad report about his older brothers and got them in trouble with Dad. On top of that, he was clearly his father's favorite and this upset his bothers to the point where they could not speak a kind word to him. His dad made him a very ornamented robe and gave it to him to wear. Each time his brothers saw it, it reminded them that he was the favorite and aggravated them. Then Joseph had a prophetic dream where he claimed that he ended up ruling over all of his brothers -- and he was sure to share it with his brothers. Then he had a second dream where is father, mother and all of his brothers bowed down to him -- even his father rebuked him for sharing that one.
Joseph was God's elect, but God had a lot of fine tuning to do in him. God allowed some of this refinement to come through very difficult circumstances. It started when his father sent him out to check on his brothers, who were grazing the flock a long ways from home. When his brothers saw him coming, they plotted to kill him. Instead they sold him as a slave to a caravan that was passing by. They told his father that he'd been killed by a wild animal.
Joseph was sold in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard. God was with Joseph in slavery and everything that he put his hand to prospered. Portiphar noticed how God prospered Joseph, so he promoted him and put him in charge of his entire household. Joseph was a young and handsome man, and Potiphar's wife took a liking to him. She wanted Joseph to sleep with her, but he had too much integrity to do that. So she plotted and schemed and caught him by his cloak in the house when no one else was in it. She propositioned him, and he refused, leaving his cloak in her clutches and running outside.
The saying "there is no fury like a woman scorned" certainly seemed true in Joseph's case. Potiphar's wife falsely accused him of trying to rape her and as a result Potiphar had him thrown into prison. This brought Joseph to a new low.
Joseph had been cocky and arrogant with his brothers. He was in the wrong for behaving that way -- but he got a much harsher punishment than he deserved -- he did not deserve to be sold into slavery for being cocky. He had contributed, at least a little, towards the situation by alienating his brothers. But when he was thrown into prison, he had not done anything wrong at all -- in fact he was thrown into prison for having integrity and refusing to sleep with his master's wife. So this setback was very difficult for him. Joseph had been falsely accused and he was quite miserable in prison.
God continued to be with him, even in jail. He was soon put in charge of running the day to day affairs of the prison. During this time, two of the Pharaoh's officials offended Pharaoh and were imprisoned. Both had dreams and Joseph accurately interpreted the dreams for both of them. The chief cupbearer dreamed of a vine with three branches and he took the grapes from the branches and squeezed them into a cup and gave it to Pharaoh to drink. Joseph told him that he'd be restored to his office in three days. And he added this charge to it -- when you are restored remember me to Pharaoh because I am innocent of the charges against me. The chief baker's dream indicated that he would be executed in three days.
Three days later, the cupbearer was reinstated and the chief baker was executed, just as Joseph had predicted. But the cupbearer conveniently developed amnesia and forgot all about Joseph. Joseph was stuck in prison for another full two years. That was a very unpleasant time for him, but it was also a time where God refined his character and matured him spiritually.
Then Pharaoh had a dream that no one knew how to interpret. Seven healthy cows were grazing and then seven ugly and giant cows came up beside them and ate them. Then there was a second dream where seven full heads of grain were eaten by seven thin heads of grain. Suddenly the cupbearer remembered how Joseph had interpreted his dream for him, and told Pharaoh about Joseph. Joseph was whisked out of prison, cleaned up and presented to Pharaoh. He interpreted the dreams for Pharaoh -- there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.
Then Joseph gave Pharaoh some free advice: get a trusted administrator to store up some of the grain during the time of plenty so that they could sell it to the people during the time of famine. Pharaoh thought that was a great idea and decided Joseph was the best man for the job. In an instant Joseph went from being a prisoner and a slave to being the second most powerful man in Egypt. Joseph was thirty when this happened -- a full ten years after he had been sold to Potiphar.
Joseph married and had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who would later become fathers of two of the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph built storehouses and stored up huge quantities of grain during those seven good years. The famine started, and it was incredibly severe. It hit many nations besides Egypt. People from all over the world started coming to Egypt to buy grain.
The famine began to effect Jacob's family, so Jacob sent his ten oldest sons to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph. Joseph had become the governor of Egypt. He had learned to speak perfect Egyptian, he dressed like an Egyptian and he "looked the part." He spoke to his brothers through an interpreter, and they did not recognize him.
Joseph could not resist giving his brothers a hard time. First he accused them of being spies and threw them into jail for three days. (Could he have been trying to give them a taste of what his three years in jail had been like?) Then he told them he'd let all but one of them go, and asked them to return with their youngest brother and then he'd know that they'd told the truth about all being one man's sons, and he would let the other jailed brother go free as well. The boys started bickering, unaware that Joseph could speak Hebrew. Reuben, the only brother who tried to spare Joseph when the others wanted to kill him, told them that God was punishing them for what they'd done to their brother. Joseph was so moved by this that he had to go into another room and cry privately.
So Joseph held Simeon in prison and the others returned home with their grain. When they got home, the found the money they'd paid for the grain in the sacks with the food. They were afraid they'd be accused of stealing the grain. Jacob chose to let Simeon rot in an Egyptian prison instead of risking Benjamin's life by sending him to Egypt. Eventually the food ran out, and he was forced to send the boys back to Egypt for more food -- and they refused to go unless Jacob would send Benjamin with them. He finally agreed, but was not very happy about it.
When they got back, Joseph had Simeon released from prison and returned to them. They were told they would have lunch with Joseph. There they presented gifts to him and bowed down before him -- a fulfillment of his earlier prophetic dream. After lunch, they were sold their grain and began their trip home. But Joseph had his steward plant an expensive silver goblet in Benjamin's sack. He sent police to pursue and arrest them for stealing the cup. When they were back before Joseph, he told them that he would only arrest Benjamin, the one they'd caught with the cup, and others could go free. Then Judah sort of pleaded for his brother, explaining that he was the favorite son and it would probably kill their elderly father if he were arrested. Judah offered to take Benjamin's place in prison or as a slave.
That broke Joseph's heart -- and he could no longer play games with them. He revealed himself to his brothers, and there was a tearful reunion. Joseph forgave his brothers for selling him into slavery, explaining that God had turned it around for good by making him able to save the family from the famine. He also told them that the famine would continue for another 2 years, so he had the whole family relocate to Egypt, where he could provide for them. When his father arrived in Egypt, he rushed to meet him and had a very tearful and happy reunion.
Joseph lived to be 110 years old and he lived long enough to see his great-grandchildren.
We learn a lot of lessons from Joseph's life. One of them is that the prophetic can be a bit tricky. Joseph's prophetic dreams came true, but many years later than he expected and not at all in the way he anticipated. Another lesson we learn is that God will sometimes allow seemingly bad things to happen to us for His plans and purposes. He may allow us to go through several difficult years, but He will eventually turn our circumstances for His glory.
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