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Category: Pentateuch Genesis-Deuteronomy

IN THE BEGINNING… Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy – Pentateuch [5 books] It’s the LAW of GOD!
Forgive us our trespasses. Jesus teaches many lessons from these books of the Bible and we have forgotten MANY of the issues and applications to our 21st century life. How can you SHARE from the beginning of the Bible with your SOCIAL ‘Friends’ and talk of Jesus as Lord? Please TITLE your post by the topic, not the verse. Include links to scriptures and helpful references. — Please post or tell us in a COMMENT how you talk of Jesus through this topic and these Old Testament scriptures.

  • A River of Redemption Flowing from Eden – Joseph

    Joseph Unlike Moses

    “Can we find anyone like this, a man who has God’s spirit in him?” … Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh and no one will be able to raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt without your permission.” Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah… – Genesis 41

    None can dispute that Joseph and Moses were both redeemers of the Hebrews, but they were very different men. The Lord called Moses to bring Israel from Egypt, but used Joseph to save both Egypt and Israel. Joseph, or Zaphenath-paneah as he was known in all of Egypt, preceded Moses by some generations. You will encounter two very different men by comparing the beginnings of their contrasting lives.

    Moses

    We read in Number 12: Moses was a very humble man, more so than anyone on the face of the earth. The Lord, speaking to Aaron & Miriam said:

    “Listen to what I say:
    If there is a prophet among you from the Lord,
    I make myself known to him in a vision;
    I speak with him in a dream.
    7 Not so with my servant Moses;
    he is faithful in[a] all my household.
    8 I speak with him directly,
    openly, and not in riddles;
    he sees the form of the Lord.

    What could be more humbling than standing before the form of the Lord, hearing the words of the Almighty directly?

    Moses was born into humble circumstances, raised in knowledge of both power and lowliness and willingly obeyed the Lord’s commands. Though brought up as a prince of Egypt for two decades, his mother sewed humility into Moses’ heart, as his servant nursemaid.

    Because he was a prince, Moses could easily escape to Midian for twenty more years to live a humble life in freedom. His choice to defend Hebrew slaves would have been self-indictment of disobedience to the King’s commands and conviction resulting in his own death. A return to Egypt at age eighty in obedience to the Lord showed only humility in the face of certain powerful opposition from Pharaoh.

    Moses is raised, educated and served by slaves in an Egyptian palace of perhaps the most powerful man on earth in his time. Joseph, by contrast, comes to Egypt by birth, but as a seventeen-year-old slave.

    Joseph

    Unlike Moses, Joseph was by no means a humble young man. He was blessed with good intellect and great favor, but learned humility later in life. He lived in the land of Canaan and tended sheep with his brothers. 

    (Do you recall from our previous post what Pharaoh thought of shepherds?) Joseph would not only enter Egypt as a shepherd, but as a captive slave.

    Genesis 37:

    3 Now Israel [Jacob] loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a robe of many colors for him.

    Trouble waiting to happen. This teenager, Joseph, is favorite of his father (his mother, deceased) who makes him look like an administrator over his adult working brothers. Joseph is anything but humble and in fact appears to his brothers to be full of himself, even arrogant.

    5 Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”

    8 “Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.

    We know God’s purpose for Joseph and that the outcome would finally prove Joseph’s dream to be true. In fact, Joseph would become a redeemer of Egypt because of his dreams from the Lord.

    … So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

    18 They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Oh, look, here comes that dream expert! 20 So now, come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits…

    … his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took Joseph to Egypt.

    Joseph, betrayed by his brothers for twenty pieces of silver, becomes a slave in Egypt.

    The Lord was with Joseph

    How can you say that the Lord is with someone betrayed, taken into the hands of God’s enemies and condemned to exile? The evil hand of his own brothers perhaps betrayed him to eventual death. Why does God allow it?

    As Joseph’s story unfolds we learn the answer of the Lord from the very words of Joseph to his brothers.

    Genesis 39:

    2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, 4 Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority…

    … the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph. The Lord’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. 6 He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority…

    But Joseph again suffers unexpected consequence due to false accusation by his master’s wife.  His master then obligingly sends Joseph to prison.

    21 But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden. 22 The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there. 23 The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.

    Although Joseph must remain in Pharaoh’s prison, in fact by the Lord’s purpose he is given authority.

    Dreams and Prophesy

    Prior to this and before betrayal by his own brothers Joseph had had another dream, which turns out to be prophesy.

    Genesis 37: “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

    10 He told his father and brothers, and his father rebuked him.

    Now in prison Joseph has another prophetic dream. Remember, he is in charge of and this time no doubt respected by his fellow prisoners.

    Genesis 40:

    5 The king of Egypt’s cupbearer and baker, who were confined in the prison, each had a dream. Both had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own meaning…

    9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph… 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was positive, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream.

    18 “This is its interpretation,” Joseph replied. “The three baskets are three days. 19 In just three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from off you—and hang you on a tree.

    And so it happened that not only was the baker hanged, but the cupbearer was released, forgetting about Joseph. 

    Genesis 41:

    At the end of two years Pharaoh had a dream… 9 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I remember my faults… 

    12 Now a young Hebrew, a slave of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, he interpreted our dreams for us, and each had its own interpretation. 13 It turned out just the way he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was hanged.”

    14 Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph…

    This brings us to the historical scenario where the Lord shows a coming famine, seven years into the future. The King of Egypt trusts Joseph to help them prepare. The severity of the middle east famine will eventually bring Israel to send his other sons from Canaan to Egypt for grain.

    A Prophet of Two Lands

    The Lord’s purpose in Joseph’s captivity and rise to power in Egypt is to save two lands from famine and prepare Israel for the promised land. As you know, he is brought before Pharaoh and interprets dreams of prophesy.

    15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you that you can hear a dream and interpret it.”

    16 “I am not able to,” Joseph answered Pharaoh. “It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”

    It is always God who brings true prophesy. The truth of Joseph’s predictions make Pharaoh a believer in the Lord God!

    “Can we find anyone like this, a man who has God’s spirit in him?”

    39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one as discerning and wise as you are. 40 You will be over my house, and all my people will obey your commands. Only I, as king, will be greater than you.”

    Contrary to Culture

    “Only I, as king, will be greater than you,” Pharaoh states. He is not a god, but a most-powerful man dependent upon God and his true Prophet. 

    Note that the changes ahead for Egypt will take fourteen years. Israel’s sons will enter the land as immigrants in need, bowing humbly to this leader, second in command to the King.

    So he placed him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh and no one will be able to raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt without your permission.”

    45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah and gave him a wife, Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest at On.  And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.

    Joseph’s Administration
    46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph left Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout the land of Egypt.

    To be continued…

     

  • A River of Redemption Flowing from Eden – to Goshen

    Pulled from the Torrent, a Redeemer Forgotten

    Perhaps you recall that the name Moses or מֹשֶׁה Môsheh means drawn; from drawing out (of the water), i.e. rescued. He is revered as a rescuer of Israel, but how did Moses get to Egypt in the first place? As a baby fleeing harm in a wicker sarcophagus, Moses was plucked from certain death in the waters of a river in Goshen.

    Psalm 18:

    16 He reached down from on high
    and took hold of me;
    he pulled me out of deep water.
    17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy
    and from those who hated me,
    for they were too strong for me.
    18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
    but the Lord was my support.
    19 He brought me out to a spacious place;
    he rescued me because he delighted in me.

    Pharaoh’s daughter then brought Moses into the house of the King of Egypt where he was raised in the best of privileged circumstances. She takes him from a wicker ark closed over him by his Hebrew mother and draws the child from the water into her saving arms. 

    Exodus 2:

    5 Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, 6 opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

    She most certainly would have known her father’s command:

    Pharaoh then commanded all his people: “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.” – Exodus 1:22

    2:10 When the child grew older, she [Moses’ mother, hired as a mid-wife] brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

    Migrant Tribes in the Lands of Others

    Perhaps you have not thought of it: peoples or tribes are homeless families looking for a place to live.

    The Hebrews were one such people; yet the Lord God is their ever-living חֲיָא Patriarch, even more so than Moses or Abraham. Ever since Abraham they raised sheep, migrated to lands where they could sustain life and became merchants trading with citizens and travelers in lands to which the Lord would lead.

    Recall that the persecution of the Hebrews in the time of Moses was consequence of envy of their prosperity by the rulers of the land.

    Exodus 1:

    8 A new king… said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are. 10 Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

    11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

    In the first hall of the Temple of Rameses II

    Egypt’s and Israel’s Forgotten Redeemer

    Genesis 46:

    The words of Zaphnathpaaneah:

    “I will go up and inform Pharaoh, telling him, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

    32 The men are shepherds; they also raise livestock. They have brought their flocks and herds and all that they have.’

    33 When Pharaoh addresses you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you are to say, ‘Your servants, both we and our fathers, have raised livestock from our youth until now.’

    Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable to Egyptians.”

    All about Goshen

    Goshen & Ramses

    To be continued… 

  • A River of Redemption Flowing from Eden – Commandments and more

    Moses Descends With Commandments of the Lord

    Moses has before saved Israel from destruction, but this time  an angry Lord God could have justly killed these covenant-breaking Hebrews, who heard the Commandments of the LORD God! 

    Do you recall how when Israel had first heard the voice of the Lord speaking the Commandments to them how they feared the Lord?

    Previously, in Exodus 19:

    9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you and will always believe you.”

    14 Then Moses came down from the mountain to the people and consecrated them… 

    16 On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people in the camp shuddered. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

    18 Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.

    Just imagine what it must have been like for those consecrated and gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai before the LORD. 

    Exodus 20:

    Then God spoke all these words:

    This is superscript preceding the Ten Commandments. THE LORD SPEAKS!

    Yet It ought to be enough that the Commands, whatever they may be, come directly from the Voice of the Lord, Who begins:

    2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

    The Ten Commands are specific, spoken directly to this Hebrew audience with the LORD GOD. And these Commandments of which many of us know only a few also become foundation for Law.

    Would you claim any law as inviolable? And does a foundational principle given by our Creator not perfectly define justice for all mankind, even to this day?

    Consider the Commandments here as translated from their Hebrew root words (linked to Strong’s Concordance in the Blue Letter Bible).

    TEN WORDS עִבְרִית

    20:3 לֹֽא יִהְיֶֽה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָֽיַ

    20:4 לֹֽא תַֽעֲשֶׂה־לְךָ פֶסֶל וְכָל־תְּמוּנָה אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וַֽאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתַָּחַת וַאֲשֶׁר בַּמַּיִם מִתַּחַת לָאָֽרֶץ

    20:5 לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחְוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם כִּי אָֽנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבֹת עַל־בָּנִים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִים לְשֹׂנְאָֽי׃

    20:6 וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לַאֲלָפִים לְאֹהֲבַי וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָֽי׃ ס

    20:7 לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת־שֵֽׁם־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהוָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר־יִשָּׂא אֶת־שְׁמֹו לַשָּֽׁוְא׃ פ

    20:8  זָכֹור אֶת־יֹום הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשֹֽׁו

    20:9 שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּֽעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָּל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ

    20:10 וְיֹום הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹֽא־תַעֲשֶׂה כָל־מְלָאכָה אַתָּה וּבִנְךָֽ־וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָֽתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ

    20:11 כִּי שֵֽׁשֶׁת־יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיֹּום הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל־כֵּן בֵּרַךְ יְהוָה אֶת־יֹום הַשַּׁבָּת וַֽיְקַדְּשֵֽׁהוּ׃ ס

    20:12 כַּבֵּד אֶת־אָבִיךָ וְאֶת־אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָֽךְ׃ ס

    20:13 לֹא תִּרְצָֽח׃ ס

    20:14 לֹא תִּנְאָֽף׃ ס

    20:15 לֹא תִּגְנֹֽב׃ ס

    20:16 לֹֽא־תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָֽׁקֶר׃ ס

    20:17 לֹא תַחְמֹד בֵּית רֵעֶךָ לֹֽא־תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ וְעַבְדֹּו וַאֲמָתֹו וְשֹׁורֹו וַחֲמֹרֹו וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶֽךָ׃ פ

    I invite you to study the translation below and where you question a 21st c. English wording of the Commandments to study the linked Hebrew.

    TEN WORDS – ENGLISH EQUIVALENT 

    1. You shall have no other gods before GOD
    2. You shall not create man-made dead art (idols) of the LIVING GOD. Do not bow in worship to idols, and do not serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ guilt of immorality, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate the LORD GOD, and showing mercy to thousands of them who love me and who keep my Commandments.
    3. Do not say, ‘Lord God,’ lightly without meaning or with deceptive intention; for THE EXISTING ONE will not hold guiltless any who take his name in vain.
    4. Recall the sabbath to keep it holy. Labor and do all your work in six days, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work; you, your family, servants, working animals or guests within your gates.
    5. Give weight to consideration of the significance of your father and your mother, that your days may grow long on the earth your Lord God gives you.
    6. Do not murder.
    7. Do not be unfaithful to your husband, your wife or the Lord God.
    8. Do not steal.
    9. You shall not answer testifying with lies, deception or inaccuracy against friend, companion, fellow citizen or other.
    10. Do not desire the house, wife, servant, work animals or anything belonging to your friend, companion, fellow-citizen or another.

    Reaction and Response to Receiving God’s Commandments

    Israel, therefore, responded differently to the LORD each time the Commandments were given.

    First, the Lord spoke the Commandments within hearing of all the Hebrew people. And what was their response?

    Exodus 20:

    18 All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 “You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses,

    “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”

    20 Moses responded to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you will fear him and will not[c] sin.”

    21 And the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the total darkness where God was.

    What next?

    Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.”

    And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. – Exodus 24:3-4

    12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

    16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud. 17 The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop.

    18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

    After the Stone Tablets

    We now return to where we left off previously in The Ten Commandments to Moses’ second return in Exodus 34.

    Moses’s Radiant Face

    29 As Moses descended from Mount Sinai—with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain—he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord. 

    30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! 

    They were afraid to come near him. 

    31 But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. 

    33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out.

    After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 and the Israelites see Moses’s face, that the skin of his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.

    Response to Moses’ giving of the Law

    Everyone whose heart was moved and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord… Exodus 35:21a

    After their earlier rebellion by worship of the golden calf, Israel finally yields to the Lord. (Yet their obedience will remain situationally spurious.) Their exodus continues from Sinai to the Jordan. Yet first the Lord commands the making of a traveling place of worship, a Tabernacle and place of meeting.

    Leviticus further outlines worship and duties of priests exclusively assigned to the descendants of Levi. Moses’ five books move on to Numbers, the Hebrew title is Bemidbar or “In the Wilderness” (rbdmb) (of Sinai?). Because we cannot dwell on additional important moral direction given by the Lord in these books, I only mention them here. However any look at the Commandments would be incomplete without consideration of Moses’ final book of Deuteronomy.

    Deuteronomy

    We would do well to remember that Moses’ life may be simply summarized in three parts of dual generations. Moses was born as a Hebrew slave, but raised in the palace of Pharaoh with great favor until age forty.

    He then was forced to flee to Midian, where he raised a family until age eighty. Finally, and most amazingly, most everything we read in the Books of Moses takes place between the ages of eighty and one hundred and twenty.

    Some of the record of Deuteronomy was no doubt recorded in writing by Moses’ assistant and successor, Joshua.

    Deuteronomy also reconfirms the Commandments and makes reference to them more than forty times.

    Call to Obedience

    4 “Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, enter, and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 

    We will defer a look at statutes and ordinances to a later post in this series. Before we once again point to the Ten Commandments, just one brief glance:

    8 And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

    The Lord chose Israel as example of His righteous leading to the nations whose redemption will come later in Christ Jesus.

    Deuteronomy 5:

    Moses summoned all Israel and said to them… 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb…

    6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery…

    7 Do not have other gods besides me…

    (and nine more)

    Have you considered God’s Commandments and how you must apply them to your life and relationships? For the Lord our God is a personal and loving Creator of all things and Judge of all men.

    32 “Be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or the left.

    To be continued…

     

     

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