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Tag: Genesis

  • 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 – Commandment

    Master, which is the great commandment in the law? – Matthew 22:36 KJV

    Commandment

    צָוָה tsä·vä’ 

    • – to command, charge, give orders, lay charge, give charge to, order

    The King James Version of the Bible uses ‘Master,’ rather than teacher in this most important question. Our contemporary culture dilutes both the teaching component of leadership and the degree of its authoritarian necessity.

    A teacher, father, president or king may give a command, but obedience depends on a relationship between the master and one receiving the command.

    Commandment implies both authority and relationship.

    From before creation and man, God was and IS in charge. The Lord commanded Adam not to desire to know of good and evil; but now obedience to God requires discernment between good and evil. 

    Now command comes to man less directly through other men and women. Though implicit authority of command requires obedience, mortal men command those with whom we have relationship and assume responsibility. Ultimately, our authority relates to God, even when spoken through the command of others.

    Law and Scripture also imply the Authority of the Lord God. Obedience, however, will follow only out of our love of  God. Respect, honor and obedience to a ‘commander’ of mortals ultimately reflects their relationship with Almighty God.

    Although we will not examine it here, the Authority of God the Holy Spirit also commands those who accept the Lord as our loving Master.

    “Which is the greatest commandment…?”

    Christ Jesus answers quoting the law of Moses, who was given authority by God Almighty

    Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:5

    Command: Love the Lord your God. What an appropriate answer for all of us. So simple.

    Jesus answers our question about obedience at the most personal level. Not a specific detail of law, but a relationship with God as our Lord. 

    Moses states God’s commandment reminding faithful servants to love THE EXISTING ONE, THE LORD.

    Returning to the LORD יְהֹוָה

    DEUTERONOMY 30:

    “When all these things happen to you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you come to your senses…

    Look back before the Law and you will discover that command was simple, specific, relational and purposeful. The LORD is our Maker and our Master.

    Yet Moses reminds the Lord’s followers:

    11 “This command that I give you today is certainly not too difficult or beyond your reach.

    12 It is not in heaven so that you have to ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?’ 13 And it is not across the sea so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?’

    14 But the message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it.

    The Relationship of Command to Obedience

    The Father-Son relationship provides a good illustration of the loving advocacy for the commanded son. The Hebrew followers of Moses viewed him as a father like Abraham, with the authority of God the Father.

    ‘Obey me: to be blessed, or safe, or that you (my children) might prosper.’

    Moses continues: 15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.

    16 For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

    17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not live long in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan.

    19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

    Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 love the Lord your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him.

    For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land the Lord swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

    The Command of the LORD includes Commandments of the Law

    Moses had led the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt. Many credit him for saving Israel, but the Nations witnessed that their Savior IS the LORD.

    God gave this new nation a Commandment and Law through Moses. The LORD gave rules and regulations to be judged and administered by leaders; initially Moses, Aaron and God’s anointed elders. 

    Next, we will briefly examine the Commandments and the Law of Moses. 

    To be continued…