Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 48-50.

I realized as I started writing that my thoughts on today’s passage do not really tie together.  So, I will just write them down as I come to them. I find it interesting that Jacob blessed the second of Joseph’s sons over the first born son, just as his father had blessed him over his elder brother Esau.  I am unaware of any significance to this fact other than that the tribe of Ephraim, the younger of Joseph’s sons, was more prominent in the nation of Ancient Israel than the tribe of Manasseh.  Then, Jacob’s predictions/blessings of his twelve sons seem prescient in a way that might lead one to think they were attributed to Jacob by someone from a later era who knew how things turned out.  Except, that I would expect someone who knew how things turned out in the Israelite settlement of Canaan to mention the connection between the descendants of Levi and the priesthood.  Further in looking at these blessings, the blessing of (or perhaps just prediction about) Judah contains elements which clearly connect to the Gospel accounts.  I cannot help but see the mention of the donkey connecting to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And between the phrase about washing his garments in wine. the blood of grapes connects in my mind to what Jesus said about wine and His blood at the Last Supper.  Additionally, it seems to me that the account of the Egyptian mourning for the death of Jacob and the recording that many officials of Pharaoh’s Court accompanied Jacob’s sons to Canaan for Jacob’s burial represents something which will at some point match up to some archeological record.  Finally, we have Joseph’s deathbed command to his brothers (personally, I suspect that this actually referred to the descendants of his brothers as much as to his actual brothers, but “brothers” was less cumbersome to write).  Joseph both demonstrated his faith in God and provided a “myth” for the descendants of Jacob to rally around.  The way I am using “myth” here I mean a story, which may be true or may be false (in this case I believe it to be true), which provides a basis for a group of people to unite around and for them to have hope when bad times arise.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 45-47.

When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, they were terrified that he held a grudge against them for what they had done.  Their reaction on their first visit indicates that they had been living with guilt for having sold their brother into slavery all of these years.  Now, he had chance to pay them back for their treachery, and they could not blame him.  However, instead of having lived with a grudge against those who had wronged him, Joseph had lived his life making the best out of every situation and worshiping God.  So Joseph saw what had happened to him as part of God’s plan.  Instead of seeking payback against his brothers, Joseph used his position, and his understandings of Egyptian bias, to get his family the land in Egypt best suited for them.   Joseph did not spend his life bemoaning his fate and seeking to inflict suffering on those responsible for his suffering.  In fact, he did not assign blame for his suffering to anyone.  Instead he chose to look at his suffering as necessary steps for God to put him in the place where he could do the most good.  Let us live our lives similarly.

Another interesting thing about this passage is that it allows us to look at the archeological record to see if we can confirm it.   Interestingly, there was a period in Egyptian history where power shifted from a  group of nobles to the Pharaoh in a manner which might match up to that described as happening under Joseph.  In addition, a group of people with ties to Canaan occupied the area of Egypt referred to here as Goshen in a time frame which might be consistent with the way this passage describes Jacob’s descendants settling there.  However, the timing of those two archeological findings are currently believed to have occurred earlier than the biblical account records Joseph as having lived (there are a couple of events which are recorded later in the Bible for which we have solid archeological evidence and dating, and the biblical account gives us a pretty solid idea of how long before those events Joseph lived–it is actually a window of time, depending on how you interpret several passages which give length of time between events).  On the other hand, some recent developments in archeology have led archeologists to question whether a significant portion of early Egyptian history occurred as far back in time as currently believed (to understand this one must understand that the dates for events in much of early Egyptian history are arrived at by counting backwards from certain events which are reliably dated and recent findings suggest that some of that counting backwards was based on faulty assumptions).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 42-44.

I am not sure that I ever noticed this before: when Joseph insisted that one of them remain imprisoned in Egypt until they returned with their youngest brother and chose Simeon, Joseph’s brothers returned to their father and families with the food they had bought.  They remained in Canaan until they ran out of food.  However, when Joseph demanded that they leave Benjamin, they all returned to Egypt and Judah, whose idea it had been to sell Joseph into slavery, offered himself up as a slave in Benjamin’s place.  I am not sure I can word the importance of this difference in how they responded to Simeon’s imprisonment and Benjamin’s potential enslavement.  In addition to that I want to note that when he sent his sons to Egypt a second time Israel thought he had lost a second son with Simeon’s imprisonment…he did not think that Simeon would be alive to be released when his brothers returned to Egypt.  Part of the difference in the reaction of Joseph’s brothers to the imprisonment of Simeon vs the potential enslavement of Benjamin was the fact that they believed the situation was punishment for what they had done to Joseph.  Simeon shared their guilt in that, but Benjamin did not.

Looking at the story one might wonder why Judah’s offer to be enslaved in place of Benjamin moved Joseph more than all of the brothers offering to be enslaved with Benjamin.  The latter was not exactly what a simple reading of the passage suggests.  If Joseph had enslaved all eleven of them as they “offered” it would have had serious negative consequences for the Kingdom of Egypt in dealing with other foreigners.  The brothers understood that when they made the offer.  Understand, I do not want to diminish the fact that they were united in standing up for their brother Benjamin.  So, while Joseph was touched by his brothers standing up for Benjamin, who had clearly taken his place as his father’s favorite, it was Judah’s willingness to suffer in Benjamin’s place which moved Joseph to tears.  His brothers had changed.  They had become a family.  And it was at this point that Joseph understood why he had experienced the suffering which he went through.  God had a plan to forge Jacob’s family into a nation.  Abram and his brothers went their separate ways.  Isaac and his brothers went their separate ways.  Jacob and Esau went their separate ways.  But Jacob’s sons stayed together and became a nation.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 39-41.

It feels like I write this every year, but I want to focus on how Joseph gives us a model on how we should deal with set backs in our lives.  Despite the many set backs Joseph experienced in his life he never stopped doing the best he could.  When his brothers sold him into slavery and he ended up in Potiphar’s house, he worked hard and to the best of his abilities so that he rose to a position of importance in Potiphar’s household.  Then he was falsely accused of attempted rape and thrown into prison.  Once more, he worked hard and to the best of his abilities, rising to a position of importance.  Then God gave him an opportunity to bring himself to the attention of those who could get him released from prison, and they forgot him and left him to rot.  Finally, in God’s time, he got the opportunity to be released from prison.  And at every step along the way Joseph honored God and gave credit to Him for his success.  When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, he rejected the offer on the basis that he would not sin against God.  When he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s two servants in prison, Joseph gave credit to God.  When he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, he once again gave credit to God.

Yesterday, I wrote about how very recent archeology shows that there was indeed a kingdom of Edom in the time period covered by the kings of Edom listed in yesterday’s passage.  Today, I spent a little time to see what modern archeology might say about Joseph.  I found that while we do not find a record of someone who matches Joseph we do find a record of a period of good years and famine years which fit that described here.  As importantly, we do not have record of who served in the role which the Genesis account of Joseph suggests that Joseph filled.  But there is a record of a Canaanite (Joseph would have appeared as a Canaanite in Egyptian records) serving in a similar role.  We have no reason to believe this particular Canaanite was Joseph, but it confirms that a Canaanite could fill have risen to that role in Egypt.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 36-38.

I have never understood why this passage contains the genealogy of Edom’s kings.  Today it occurred to me that this might provide information which can be checked against archeological finds.  So, I did a little looking and discovered that, until the late 1990s, the consensus in the field of archeology was that Edom did not exist as a kingdom this early in history.  However, recent finds indicate that there was indeed a kingdom there at the time these kings would have ruled.  Which makes this yet another example where archeologists and historians were convinced that a civilization mentioned in the Bible never actually existed, only to have discoveries confirm that the Biblical account was more accurate than they had wanted to believe.

For a long time I thought that Joseph was a spoiled brat in the account of his behavior before his brothers sold him into slavery, that his brothers’ animosity towards him was partly his fault.  But as I have re-read the passage over the years I have come to the conclusion that he genuinely did not understand that his dreams suggested he thought he would rule over his brothers and father.  The other thing I find interesting is that Joseph’s brothers were pasturing their flocks in the vicinity of Shechem, where a few years earlier they had killed most, if not all, of the men of the town, and Jacob sent his favorite son there without an escort.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 33-35.

When Jacob and Esau met Jacob acknowledged that the bad blood between them was his fault.  Esau, on the other hand, made it clear that he forgave Jacob and invited Jacob, and his family, join his household.  Jacob politely declined Esau’s invitation.  I point this out because when this passage was explained to me as a child it was used as an example of Jacob’s trickery.  Those who explained it to me believed that Esau intended to force Jacob to become subordinate to himself.  I read this instead as Esau offering Jacob his protection.  In fact, the very next story highlights this.  If Jacob had accepted  Esau’s offer, Jacob would never have been in a position where Shechem would have raped his daughter.  Really, this story is really about Shechem and his father trying to force Jacob to accept a relationship with them similar to the one he rejected with his brother.  Jacob’s sons pretended to be intimidated into going along with Shechem’s plan, but not too intimidated.  Yet, after his sons gained their revenge, Jacob feared that the rest of the locals would come after him and his family.  And what was the result of all of this?  Jacob was reminded of the oath he swore at Bethel when he was heading to Haran all of those many years ago.  Jacob returned to Bethel and had his family begin to practice monotheism, worshiping only God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 31-32.

Yesterday I wrote about Jacob’s wages from Laban and how he managed to grow his wealth by breeding Laban’s flocks so that the choicest offspring of each generation were those which belonged to Jacob.  When Jacob speaks to Leah and Rachel about leaving Laban, the way he describes his wages from Laban suggest that yesterday’s passage was a simplification of their deal and what happened.  This makes the first explanation I offered for how Jacob’s breeding program worked unlikely, but leaves the second two remain reasonable.  After some years, Jacob reviewed his situation and realized that he had reached the point where conflict with his in-laws was inevitable.  Further, he realized that those who lived in the region owed greater allegiance to his in-laws than to him.  I am sure Jacob’s decision to leave was one which he considered for some time before he became convinced that it was time to go.  It is not clear how God spoke to Jacob telling him to return to Canaan.  Perhaps Jacob heard a voice speaking to him, perhaps some other sign.  Perhaps even, as I suggested a few days ago, he received word from his mother that it was safe to come home.  His preparations when he heard that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men suggests otherwise, although those preparations could have just been an excess of caution.

The night before Laban overtook Jacob, God spoke to him to say nothing either good or bad to Jacob.  I have wondered for some time if perhaps part of that message from God was news that Esau was coming with 400 men.  Laban would have known the bad blood between Esau and Jacob, but would also have realized that they were twin brothers.  He would not have known if Esau was coming to support his brother, or to kill him.  Even if Esau was still murderously angry with Jacob, he might not take kindly to someone else killing his brother.  However, Laban also would not have wanted to risk being pulled into Jacob’s side if Esau attacked him.  Perhaps God spoke to Laban by supernatural means, or perhaps Laban reacted to mundane information in the way in which God desired.  More importantly, God caused Jacob to have ill-will towards Laban which guaranteed that he would never return to Haran for aid.  Laban accused Jacob of stealing his household gods, which was nominally true since Rachel had indeed done so.  But Jacob was unaware that Rachel had done so and was therefore furious when Laban was unable to prove his accusation.  In fact, as I read this, Jacob interpreted this as Laban telling lies to stir up animosity among his relatives towards Jacob.  I think the thing which I get the most out of today’s passage is that God sometimes uses mundane information to speak His message to us and we need to be listening.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 29-30.

We have here a second example of polygamy.  And once again it does not go well.  There is clearly jealousy and rivalry between Leah and Rachel.  Which is all I am going to write about that today.  Over a period of time which is not clearly laid out, eleven sons are born to Jacob.  After the birth of Joseph, Jacob talks to Laban about leaving and returning to his homeland*.  Some people believe that Joseph was born seven years after Jacob married Rachel and that Jacob was just opening negotiations for his pay going forward.  It seems unlikely to me that the drama described as going on between Jacob’s wives could have taken place in just seven years.  In any case, Laban did not want Jacob to leave and asked him what it would take for him to stay and continue to manage Laban’s flocks (or a portion of them).  They reach an agreement which Laban promptly violates, just as he had the agreement about Jacob marrying Rachel after working for him for seven years.  Jacob  did not fuss about the fact that Laban had removed every speckled, spotted, or dark colored lamb from the herd, despite the fact that Laban had just agreed that those would be Jacob’s (Laban would certainly have argued that he had only agreed that those born going forward with those characteristics were to be Jacob’s).  Jacob had a breeding plan.  We know from modern study of breeding that looking at striped bits of wood as described would not increase the incidence of speckled, spotted, and dark colored lambs.  I think there are three possible explanations for what happened.  First, perhaps there was a chemical of some kind in the types of wood which Jacob chose which caused the flocks to give birth to offspring with the characteristics which Jacob desired.  Second. perhaps Jacob knew the flocks well enough to know which rams and ewes would be most likely to mate to produce offspring with the characteristics Jacob desired and he placed the wood there as misdirection.  Third,  God just chose to bless Jacob and caused his scheme to work even though there is no scientific explanation as to why it actually would work.  Personally, I think what happened was a combination of the second and third explanation.   I would like to point out that Jacob clearly successful at more than herding and breeding sheep and goats as the donkeys and camels he acquired would not have come from his deal with Laban.

*As a side note I want to point out that Jacob did not view Haran as his homeland even though his grandfather had come from there and most of his grandfather’s relatives lived there.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 26-28.

As I was reading this I was struck by something which does not fit with our usual understanding of Isaac (or even Abraham before him).  That something has several elements.  First, for some length of time Isaac lived in the city of Gerar.  Second, Isaac gained a great amount of wealth from farming.  Third, as part of gaining that wealth, Isaac also become militarily powerful.  We normally think of Isaac as being a nomadic herdsman, but this passage suggests that he spent a significant part of his life as a farmer.  This story also suggests to me that Isaac was contemporary with the early settlement by the Philistines on the Mediterranean coast, which would push the arrival of the Philistines back a couple hundred years from when conventional archeology dates it.

Next we have the story of Jacob stealing the blessing which Isaac intended for Esau.  I always feel bad for Esau in this story, but I also acknowledge that in some ways his loss of this blessing resulted from his lack of foresight in selling his birthright.  While we only have these two accounts of conflict between Esau and Jacob, it seems likely there were more.  Esau was impulsive and did not always think through the consequences of his actions.  In any case, Esau was murderously angry with Jacob, to the degree that Rebekah thought he might actually kill him given the opportunity.  So Rebekah arranged to send Jacob to her brother Laban for a few years.  There are two aspects to Jacob being sent off that we normally gloss over.  First, Rebekah said that she would send word to Jacob when he should return (might word from Rebekah had something to do with the timing of Jacob’s decision to leave Laban?). Second, Isaac makes clear to Jacob that he should return to the Land of Canaan at some point.  I am confident that Isaac was indirectly reminding Jacob of the story about Abraham’s servant obtaining Rebekah to be Isaac’s wife.  Isaac was telling Jacob that it was OK for him to go to Haran to obtain a wife, but he must not stay there.   Finally, there is Jacob’s vision of the stairway to heaven.  I want to focus on Jacob’s oath.  We tend to view this as Jacob making a deal with God: “God keep me safe and bring me safely back to my father’s household and I will server you.”  I think it was more of a fleece: “If God keeps me safe AND brings me back to my father’s household than God is THE God (not just a god) and I will worship Him, and only Him.”  Jacob was going off to a foreign land where he would have opportunities and he was unsure that he was ever going to come back.  He had heard the stories which his father told about God and the history and creation of the world, stories passed down from Abraham, but he was not sure he believed them.  After all, the people among whom they lived had different stories about the history and creation of the world.  Sure, he had just had a vision which seemed to confirm his father’s accounts, but was it really a vision, or just a dream?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 24-25.

We have two stories here where there is a subtext about what is going on that I do not think we entirely understand.  Usually, when I write about such things it is because I have had an insight giving me thoughts about what that subtext means.  Today I am writing about it because there are elements to this subtext I never noticed before, but I have no idea what the writer is hinting at.  So, we have the stories of Abraham’s servant finding Rebekah to be Isaac’s wife and the story of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob.  When Abraham’s servant wants to be on his way to take Rebekah back to Isaac, her mother and her brother try to convince him to stay for 10 days, but he insists on leaving immediately.  What I find interesting about this exchange is that it seems to contain elements similar to the negotiations Abraham had when he bought the land for Sarah’s burial.  Actually, the first part of this which I thought seemed to indicate the writer saying something I could not quite make out was when Rebekah answered the question about whose daughter she was by listing her grandfather and grandmother.  Then in the story of Esau and Jacob the writer concludes it by saying that Esau despised his birthright in a way which seems to imply more than just that.  All of this says something about the meaning of family, but I am not sure what.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.