I am using 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 realizes that his brothers are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect Benjamin, he breaks down.  In light of their loyalty to Benjamin, their father, and each other, Joseph realizes that he was sent by God into Egypt for a reason.  That reason was to provide succor to his family in their time of need.  I believe that Joseph had believed all along that God had sent him to Egypt for a purpose, but at this moment he realized what that reason was.  All of the troubles which Joseph had gone through served a purpose, and that purpose was more than just making him the second most powerful man in Egypt.  Joseph realized at this moment that his elevation to his great status was not a reward from God for his faithfulness.  It was yet another job which God had given him.

Joseph could have invited his family into Egypt and insinuated them into positions of power in the country in order to strengthen his own position there.  Instead, he encouraged them to come to Egypt and remain a separate people, an invitation which his brothers embraced.  The children of Israel could have become rulers in Egypt, but if they had they would have become Egyptians.  More importantly, Joseph remembered the promises God had given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would possess the land of Canaan.  If they became rulers in Egypt that would not serve God’s purpose. So, instead, Joseph and his brothers arranged for their families to remain separate from the Egyptians and not be assimilated there in the way which had been happening in Canaan.

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

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

There are multiple things which can be discussed about today’s passage, but I am going to focus on one.  Abraham had several sons, but in particular, Ishmael and Isaac.  They each went their separate ways once they were grown.  Actually, we can go back before that.  Abraham and Lot, his nephew, arrived in the land of Canaan together, but soon went their separate ways.  Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob.  They each went their separate ways and started their own households.  Jacob had twelve sons who formed the basis for a nation.  Actually, they became a federation of nations.  Why did Jacob’s twelve sons not go their own ways?

The answer is in the story of Joseph.  First, the guilt the brothers felt over what they had done to Joseph bound them together, and made them protective of Benjamin.  Second, they saw the pain Joseph’s loss gave to Jacob, and realized that he would have similar pain at the loss of any of them (as illustrated by what he says about Simeon when they return from Egypt the first time).   Further, they stood together to protect their brother Benjamin.  When Joseph’s cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, they all returned to Egypt.  They could have left Benjamin to his fate.  Or, Judah, or one of the other brothers, could have returned to Egypt to argue Benjamin’s case or offer themselves in his place.  But, no, they all returned to argue for their brother.

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

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

When I was growing up I was led to believe that when Joseph recounted his dreams he was being an arrogant, spoiled brat. That he understood the dreams the way that his brothers and his father did. The more often I read this the more convinced I am that Jospeh just found the dreams weird. He told the first one to his brothers because he was kind of excited about this strange, weird dream he had which seemed to him to be a portent of some kind. He told the second one to his father because his brothers had belittled him for the first one. Don’t get me wrong, I think the passage makes it clear that Joseph was spoiled. Part of me wishes that we knew what “bad things” joseph’s brothers did that he reported to their father, but tat is not in the story for us to form an opinion about Joseph’s character as a boy. That story is here to show us another reason why Joseph’s brothers resented him.  

At this point, Joseph’s brothers hated him.  This led them to do something they later regretted.  The oldest, Reuben, saw that this was a bad idea, but instead of talking his brothers out of it, he tricked them into doing something which he thought would allow him to save his brother.  Judah also did not want to kill his brother, but lacked the wisdom to see that they should return him to their father.  He did however have the influence over his brothers to get them to choose a different course of action.  This story is the first foreshadowing of when Jacob blesses his son and declares that Jacob, not Reuben, will be the brother who leads the family in the long run.

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

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

Even in today’s passage we don’t find out why Esau had set out to meet Jacob with an army of 400 men.  However, it seems clear to me that it was not out of hostility to Jacob.  In fact, it seems obvious that Esau was glad to see his brother once more.  There are some interesting things which can be gleaned from the interactions between Esau and Jacob in this passage.  First, Esau initially refuses the gifts which Jacob had sent ahead of himself to Esau, but accepts them upon Jacob’s insistence.  

I am going to write what I think happened here.  Esau had heard that Jacob was coming home, being pursued by a hostile force. So, Esau gathered his men and marched out to protect his brother.  Esau did not realize that Jacob had become a force in his own right and anticipated welcoming him into his “household”.  Esau anticipated bringing Jacob under his protection.  Therefore, Esau was surprised to discover the size and strength of Jacob’s household.  Nevertheless, he was willing to bring his brother under his protection.  Especially since doing so would have made Esau a power in the region.  However, Jacob had no interest in becoming a subordinate in someone else’s household after gaining his independence from Laban.  But, Jacob did not wish to offend his brother by outright rejecting him.  When the brothers parted I believe it was in mutual agreement that they would live separately but without any hostility.  We see that the brothers were amicable from the end of the passage when they came together to bury their father Isaac.

Not long after settling near the town of Shechem, the ruler of Shechem tried to integrate Jacob, his family, and his wealth into the town.  The son of the ruler raped Jacob’s daughter thinking that Jacob would then have no choice but allow her to marry him afterwards, thus opening the door to the whole family intermarrying with the people of the town.  Jacob was not receptive to this idea, but felt that he was in a weak position relative to the people of the region.  However, Jacob’s sons, especially Dinah’s full brothers, were incensed at the idea that Shechem thought he could get away with doing this.  Proving they were their father’s sons, they deceived the local men into thinking they had won and convinced them all to be circumcised.  While the men were recovering, Jacob’s sons attacked the town, killed all of the men, and took all of the wealth, women, and children for themselves.

Jacob, fearing that the people of the area would conclude that he and his family were bandits, retreated to Bethel and rededicated himself and his family to serving God.  I suspect that Jacob was also afraid that his sons would get a taste for being raiders and bandits.  He knew that they could not survive if they roused the people of the region against them.  This explains his renewed insistence that his entire household give up the worship of other gods and dedicate themselves to the Lord.  The passage does not tell us this, but I suspect that during this time Jacob refreshed his family’s awareness of the stories which had been passed down to him from the time of Noah.

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

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

I have never quite known what to make of the fact that Rachel stole Laban’s idols when she fled from him with Jacob.  Certainly the fact that she took them is an important part of the story.  Perhaps part of the reason they are mentioned is to show why Laban was so angry about Jacob’s departure, but that seems like an unnecessary addition.  As I think about it I come to the conclusion that this is included to show us how even the Patriarch’s struggled with idolatry.  Even though they had the stories passed down from Noah about who God truly was, they still experienced the temptation to worship other gods. And even though they remained a separate people from the people among whom they lived, the temptation to adopt the worship practices of those around them was always there.

When Jacob left his meeting with Laban he sent messengers ahead to let Esau know he was coming home.  However, the messengers discovered that Esau was already coming to meet Jacob with an army of 400 men.  We never learn what prompted Esau to set out with this small army.  Was he coming to attack Jacob as Jacob feared? Or had he heard of Laban’s pursuit of Jacob and was he coming to defend his brother?  In either case, Jacob responded to the perceived threat by turning to God.  It was only after asking God for His protection that Jacob sent out his gifts to Esau.  Here is the lesson for us: Jacob called on God for His protection and aid, but did not then just sit back and wait.  He did what he could to persuade his brother to forgive him for his past sins.  

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

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

There is no reason to believe that the Abimelech who Isaac interacted with was the same as the one whom his father, Abraham, had interacted with.  In fact, there is reason to believe that Abimelech was more of a title than proper name.  One thing we do see is that Isaac had a similar relationship with this Abimelech as Abraham had with the previous one.  First, he tells him and his people that his wife is his sister. Then he gets into repeated disputes over water rights with Abimelech’s servants. Finally, he enters into a treaty with Abimelech.  In both Abraham’s and Isaac’s case these events illustrate the trajectory of their lives.  At the first encounter, Abraham and Isaac were relatively weak compared to Abimelech.  As time went by they became more powerful until Abimelech was frightened that they might raid his lands causing him great problems.  

I have never quite known what to make of the story of Jacob stealing Esau’s blessing from their father Isaac.  We know from yesterday’s passage that Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob, but that does not fully explain Rebekah plotting to have Jacob steal Esau’s blessing.  I think that Rebekah did this more because of Esau’s wives than anything else.  Perhaps she even did it to set up the excuse to send Jacob to her brother to find a wife.  Perhaps the most telling part of all of this is that when Esau learned that Jacob had gone to his Uncle Laban’s to find a wife, he went to his Uncle Ishmael to obtain a third wife.  Esau had married his first two wives without consulting his parents.  When he realized how strongly his father disliked the local women, he went, without consulting either of his parents, to get a third whom he hoped would be more to their liking. 

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

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

When Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, there were two elements to his commission to the servant.  The first was to find a wife for Isaac from Abraham’s homeland from among his family.  The second was to under no circumstances ever take Isaac to that land.  If the servant could not find a woman to come to Canaan to be Isaac’s wife he was freed from his oath.  From this we see that it was very important to Abraham that Isaac marry a woman from the family traditions, but it was more important to him that Isaac not return to his homeland and get caught up in whatever was going on there.  It seems to me that Abraham wanted Isaac to have a wife who would reinforce the traditions he had taught Isaac against the traditions of the people among whom Isaac lived, but did not want him to experience the corruption of that tradition which was going on in Abraham’s homeland. 

We can take a lesson from how both Abraham’s servant and Rebekah behaved in this passage.   When Abraham’s servant arrived outside the town where Abraham’s brother had settled he asked God for guidance.  He did not just generically ask for guidance.  Instead, he made a very specific request, “I am going to do this. Let the woman you intend for Isaac respond in this way.”  By making his request for God’s guidance, he made sure that there could be no doubt about the answer he received.  We often fail to do this for one of two reasons.  We either lack faith that God will guide us, or we want to do something that we know is not His will.

Rebekah’s actions are simpler.  She showed great hospitality to a stranger and was greatly rewarded for doing so.  This reflects well on her parents.  She did not even think about it.  When he asked for a drink of water, she gave him one and as soon as he had drunk she offered to draw water for his camels.  I note that she did not actually wait for his reply before starting to provide the camels with water.  Rebekah was well rewarded for her hospitality, but she did so without a thought to receiving such a reward. 

One final note: Rebekah was eager to leave with Abraham’s servant to go marry Isaac.  Perhaps this was just wishing to get out of her father’s house.  Or perhaps this was a similar feeling to why Abraham had left that area many years before.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 21-23.

Just as God had promised, Sarah bore Abraham a son, who was named Isaac.  When Isaac was about to be weaned, Ishmael, his older half-brother pulled a typical teenager faux-pas.  Ishmael made fun of his baby brother.  Now this may have been simple teenager high spirits, or it may have been spoiled brat bullying, or anywhere in between.  The passage does not make clear.  I suspect it was closer to bullying than not.  Whatever the case may be, Sarah insisted that Ishmael and his mother be sent away.  After some serious soul searching, Abraham complied.  Now Abraham was committed to Isaac as his heir and the heir to God’s promise to him.

I want to take a side note here from my main theme to note that Ishmael at this point was fourteen years old at this point.  The way we often read this story, and the wording makes this easy, we tend to think of Ishmael as a young child when he was sent away.  In fact, he is a young man at this point.  Still too young to truly be out on his own, but old enough to start taking some adult responsibilities.  The fact that Hagar led him around the desert aimlessly until their supplies ran out and then left him under a bush tells us something about their relationship.  Surely by this time, Abraham had taught Ishmael something about navigating the territory they lived in.  Yet he either did not provide any guidance to his mother, or she ignored it.

The fact that Abraham had previously sent Ishmael away puts his actions to sacrifice Isaac into a different light then if Ishmael was still around.  After years of not having an heir of his body, then a few years of having one who was half-Egyptian rather than fully of his culture, Abraham finally had an heir who checked all of the boxes.  However, surely if he was truly dedicated to his god, he would sacrifice this son to him, as his neighbors did to theirs.  I do not know whether God spoke to Abraham in an actual voice as the passage implies or not, but a look at his interactions with those around him suggests that he would have certainly felt pressure to sacrifice Isaac from the practices of his neighbors.  Abraham was fully willing to sacrifice his family to server God, but God made it clear that not only does He not require it, doing so is a violation of His will.  We should be willing to risk our families in order to serve God, but God will never call us to a task which calls on us to sacrifice them.

The other two stories in today’s passage reflect Abraham putting down roots in this land.  In the first of these two stories, Abimelech, a Philistine king, approaches Abraham to make a treaty.  I am unsure what the significance is of the fact that he brought his army commander with him, but remember that later David entered into several treaties with people without his army commander, Joab, and Joab later killed those people.  During their negotiations Abraham complained about a well which Abimelech’s servants had forced him to stop using.  Abimelech denies any knowledge of this.  I do not think we are supposed to believe Abimelech’s claim, nor do I think that Abraham believed him.  That exchange was merely the opening for Abraham to establish that the well at Beersheba was his and gain Abimelech’s agreement.  In this exchange,  Abimelech agrees that he will not attempt to extend his territory any further into the area where Abraham grazes his flocks and Abraham agrees that his people will not raid Abimelech’s lands (nothing in the Bible suggests that Abraham’s people raided their neighbors, but we know from history that other nomads similar to Abraham did so).

The final story of today’s passage concerns Abraham obtaining a site to bury Sarah after her death.  When Sarah died near Hebron Abraham approached to local Hittite leaders for a burial site.  Their response was, “You are one of us.  Of course you may bury your wife in our cemetery.”  To which Abraham said, “No, I do not wish to bury her among your dead.  I would like this plot of land over here in which to bury her (and perhaps others who die in my household).”    Here once again Abraham is establishing ownership of some of the land separate from the people among whom he lives.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 19-20.

As a general rule, Christians have put too much emphasis on the desire of the men of Sodom to have sex with Lot’s visitors.  On the other hand, some of those who have pointed to the real problem illustrated in this story have downplayed it too much.  I think we can assume from the text that the fiance’s of Lot’s daughters were not part of the crowd outside his door that night, which suggests that there were also other men in Sodom who were not part of this crowd.  However, aside from Lot, none of the people of Sodom were willing to in any way rein in the excesses of the troublemakers who beset Lot’s guests.   The city had been taken over by its criminal element.

If we look at yesterday’s passage where Abraham bargained with God that God would not destroy Sodom if He found ten righteous people there, we see the impact a few righteous people make.  In Matthew 5:13 Jesus calls His followers the salt of the earth and warns against losing their saltiness.  In the same way that a little bit of salt transforms the taste of food, so a few righteous people transform the society around them.  The men of Sodom said that Lot was judging them because he protected the men to whom he had offered hospitality.  The lesson of this story is that if more of those in Sodom who were not taking part in the evil of the men outside Lot’s door had been willing to say that doing so was wrong, Sodom would not have been destroyed.