Week 3Joseph’s Youth

Judah & Tamar

Joseph in Egypt

Migration to Egypt

Please begin writing:

If YOU were in Joseph’s shoes, what

would you have 1) felt and 2) prayed During the situation

listed on your piece of paper?

If I were Joseph…I would have FELT __ and PRAYED __ when…– I realized my brothers hate me so much they won’t speak to me.– I just had my first dreams (sheaves, sun/moon/stars)– My dad and brothers rejected my God-given dreams.– I just gave a bad report to my brothers.– I’m on my way to check on my brothers, again.– I was thrown into the cistern, listening to Judah suggest I be sold...or

worse!– I arrived in Potiphar’s house.– I was promoted in Potiphar’s house.– Potiphar’s wife propositioned me.– Potiphar believed his wife’s report and threw me into prison.– I was made the prison trustee.– The king’s two servants came to me with dreams.– The news reached me that my interpretations of the king’s servants

dreams happened!

If I were Joseph…I would have FELT _ and PRAYED ___ when…– When the servant didn’t come back for me.– I heard that Pharaoh needed interpretation.– When I was placed in charge of the food collection operation.– When the years of famine began.– When my brothers appeared and mentioned the one who was “no more.”– When I sent my brothers away.– When Benjamin appeared.– I was about to reveal myself to my brothers and sent the officials out.– Israel finally moved down to Egypt.– Israel blessed (or didn’t) all the brothers.– Israel died.– My brothers told me that Israel made me promise not to hurt them.

www.happyhiatt.comJudah: The Rest of the Story

Genuine and Counterfeit

Week 3 Files

Judah & Joseph

How Old Was Isaac?

Group Questions: Week 3

Songs of Genesis

Power of a Prayerful Mission

More Sidenotes on Sodom

What’s Up with Sodom & Gomorrah?

God’s Faithfulness

Week 2: Noah thru Sarah’s Death

By the way…

Bible Software for Cross-Research

Laughing at Dreamers

Matthew’s Observations

• History repeats itself, over and over.

• The Bible teaches in contrasts.

• God’s providence is very, very active.

• God doesn’t forget about other nations and other people.

• Faithfulness is rewarded.

• Man is never completely faithful. God always is.

The Train Wreck• Favoritism nearly destroyed Jacob & Esau’s relationship,

yet Jacob/Israel repeats the same mistake, except worse. He made this painfully obvious twice:– When meeting Esau, Rachel and Joseph were last.– When giving the coat to Joseph and protecting Benjamin.

• Jacob had been suspicious (Genesis 42:36) and controlling…

• The brothers were clearly living with a foreboding sense of guilt…and rightfully so.

• Ironically, the same providence that reunited and saved the family led the family into Egyptian bondage…which God led them out of, 400 years later.

Oh, the depth and the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!Romans 11:33

Joseph’s Travels““the trip to Egypt was long (250–300 the trip to Egypt was long (250–300 miles) and dangerous, and a round trip miles) and dangerous, and a round trip could consume six weeks’ time”could consume six weeks’ time”

What’s up with the Pharaohs

• Egyptians were obsessed with death. Their 2,000 gods seemed to borrow a lot from the Hebrew tradition.

• Osiris would judge your deeds at death.

• Smart government: large bureaucracy. Developed solar year of 365.25 days. Developed medicines, embalming, and building techniques.

Joseph as a Lesson: Providence

• Amos 6:6 “…who drink wine from bowls…but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.”

• Psalm 105:16-19 (The Providence Psalm)– Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make

known his deeds among the peoples!– When he summoned a famine on the land and broke

all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.

Questions• Questions (Gen. 37:12-17)• As we read this section, several questions come to mind. First, why were

Jacob’s sons pasturing their flocks fifty miles from home when there was surely good grassland available closer to Hebron? Possible answer: They didn’t want anybody from the family spying on them. Second question: Why did they return to the dangerous area near Shechem when Jacob’s family had such a bad reputation among the citizens there? (34:30) Suggested answer: The brothers were involved with the people of the land in ways they didn’t want Jacob to know about. 

• But there’s a third question that’s even more puzzling: Knowing that his sons hated Joseph, why did Jacob send him out to visit them alone and wearing the special garment that had aggravated them so much? One of Jacob’s trusted servants could have performed the same task faster (Joseph got lost) and perhaps just as efficiently. The answer is that the providential hand of God was working to accomplish His divine purposes for Jacob and his family, and ultimately for the whole world. “He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant” (Ps. 105:17, kjv). God had ordained that Joseph would go to Egypt, and this was the way He accomplished it. 

Three Levels of Joseph’s Story

1. Interesting Story2. Faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God3. A “type of Jesus”

– Was only thought to be dead. Jesus really was!– Show other shadows of Jesus

• Genesis 37 unfolds the destructive dynamics of a family that knew the true and living God and yet sinned against Him and each other by what they said and did. The presence of Joseph in the home didn’t create problems so much as reveal them. Consider the destructive forces at work in this family, forces that God in His grace overruled for their good. Where sin abounded, grace abounded more (Rom. 5:20). (Wiersbe, Be)

Old Testament “Types”Old Testament “Types”

• Type vs Antitype• Adam (in a negative sense) 1 Corinthians 15

• Noah 1 Peter 3:20-21• Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18ff, Psalm 110) Hebrews 11:17, 5:6

• Isaac (Hebrews 11)• Joseph• The Exodus, as a whole• Joshua (Jesus!)

The Reconciliation: Repentance Lessons

• Not a time for pretense

• Not a time for formality

• Not a time for excuses

• Romans 3:19 – mouths stopped!

• Luke 18:9-14 – Tax Collector and Publican

• Luke 19 – Zaccheus

• 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 - Repentance