Genesis 50

The first book of the Bible draws to a close with the passing of Jacob, and then Joseph. Both are embalmed, per Egyptian custom, which I found interesting. Per his request, Jacob's body was taken with great ceremony (I wonder what folks who saw that processional would have thought!) to be buried with his forefathers, and I suppose that in order for remains to make such a journey that would pretty much be required. If it were not so, surely Jacob would have brought Rachel's body to be buried in his family's tomb rather than laying her to rest as they traveled.

After they return from burying their father, Joseph's brothers once again get paranoid that Joseph might seek revenge on them. Of course he has no such interest, and calms them down, but it is surprising how much their actions haunted them over their entire lives. I guess that should serve as a warning to us that we should be careful of what we do so that we don't regret things or live in fear our entire lives.

When Joseph nears death, he too shows a desire to be buried in the promised land - and makes his family swore that they will do so when God brings them up out of Egypt. I wonder if he realized how long it would be before that happened...

Genesis 49

Just as Jacob blessed Joseph's sons in the last chapter, so now he is blessing the rest of his children. The metaphors used throughout this passage are often interesting, and I'm sure would make much more sense if one had a command of the original language. However, I would like to note a couple that are outstanding.

Judah: To this son, and his family line, the throne of Israel was given (even here, hundreds of years before they would have a king). An allusion is also made to Jesus, in the phrase "until he comes to whom it [the scepter] belongs; the nations will obey him" (NET) - and sure enough, He was born into the tribe of Judah.

Reuben: Because of some rather incestuous acts that were briefly mentioned earlier, Reuben is stripped of much of his rightful position as firstborn. I am almost sad about this, as he was the one who kept the other brothers from killing Joseph early-on.

Simeon and Levi: The revenge they took by killing a whole city earlier in Genesis is remembered here, and they are chastised for it. This description of them as being violent is interesting, since it is from Levi's tribe that the priests would be chosen later on - usually service to God and His temple is seen as being separated from violence (for example, in David not being permitted to actually build the temple because he was a man of war).

Genesis 48

Jacob is nearing the end of his life, at the ripe old age of 147. We see in this passage that he wanted to bless Joseph's two sons, but contrary to the norm of the day he blesses the younger son more than the firstborn. I wonder if this was done because he himself was not the firstborn child to his father? It seems to catch Joseph off-guard, but when he tries to correct it Jacob is quite firm in his choice.

Other than that there isn't much to say here. We are drawing near the end of Genesis, and I am looking forward to the more active first few chapters of Exodus!

Genesis 47

This portion of scripture covers three things: the settling of Israel in Egypt, the success of Joseph's plans to feed Egypt, and Jacob's desire to be buried with his fathers back in their promised land. Of those, the bit that stuck out to me most during this reading was the middle one.

Joseph seems to set up a socialist economy - he manages to get all of the people's money, then livestock, and then even land in trade for the food they need to survive. At that point, then, the citizens of Egypt are little more than tenant or servants to Pharaoh, but the system seems to work. He also implements a 20% tax, as he says that 1/5th of the goods produced should go to Pharaoh, while the remainder is to be kept by the workers to feed themselves and their families. That seems like a pretty fair tax rate, all things considered, but I should probably stop myself before I go into a rant about taxation. That is better left for one of my other blogs ;)

I wonder if one could go back in other historical records and identify this 1/5th tax. It is noted in the passage that it was in effect still at the time that was written, which at best must have been a few hundred years later.

Genesis 46

This chapter is mostly a listing of Jacob's descendants who went with him to Egpyt, but it does have a couple of interesting things. One is the promise God gives to Jacob that He himself will lead Jacob's offspring back out of Egpyt, after making them a great people there. This of course will come to pass in Exodus, and not without a bit of persuasion - but God is true to His word.

The other odd fact is from the last verse - "everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting to the Egyptians.” Similar language is used back in chapter 43, when Joseph sits down to eat with his brothers - we are told that the Egyptians find it disgusting to eat with Hebrews. It must have been a cultural issue of some sort, but I wonder what it was.

Genesis 45

Ah, the finale!  Joseph put on quite a show, and I think it would be priceless to see the faces of his brothers when he revealed himself.  In fact, I bet a good MasterCard commercial could be made out of that:

"Being sold into slavery: 0 silver.

Being promoted to Pharaoh's side: 1,000 silver.

Saving Egypt from famine: 1,000,000 silver.

Seeing your brother's faces when they think you will kill them: Priceless."

Or something like that :)  We can tell from the rest of the passage that his biological brother Benjamin was particularly close and important to Joseph, and the reunion with his father in the next chapter promises to be good as well.

Genesis 44

Revenge of the Joseph - Part 3!

Two things interesting to note here:

1) Joeseph has a 'divination cup'? I mean, sure - he interprets dreams... but that is a gift from God (as he has already awknowledged). I wonder, then, if this was just to fake his brothers out; or perhaps it was more of a cup used for offerings to God? Either way, the use of the term seems odd given how much against witchcraft and the like God is.

2) I had not realized that Judah played such a big role among the sons of Israel. He is the main actor in these last few chapters, not counting Joseph.

Genesis 43

Joseph does such a good job of keeping up the pretense that he does not know the sons of Israel, and credit must be given where it is due. I especially like the small touches like seating them in order of age when dining - little things to mess with his brothers' heads :)

I wonder how long they left their brother Simeon in the prisons of Egypt? Judah indicated in verse 10 that they could have made the round trip to Egypt twice, so unless he was exaggerating then it must have been a fair length of time. I wonder if Simeon thought they had abandoned him, or if he would not have expected them to return because of Jacob's protective attitude toward his youngest son (Benjamin)? So many interesting questions...

Genesis 42

Joseph finally gets to teach his brothers a lesson for the way they treated him! I imagine it must have been very conflicting, though: on one hand getting back at them, even in a small way, probably felt good - but at the same time it had been so long that he may just have wanted to burst forth and hug them. I think the way he went about things was very wise, though, and worked out well.

Reading this section makes me want to rent Joseph - King of Dreams.  It was made by the same folks that did Prince of Egypt, if memory serves, and I enjoyed that pretty well (despite some historical inaccuracies).  Has anyone else out there seen those movies?  If so, do you think they are worth buying or just renting?

Genesis 41

I'm not trying to make excuses, but I fell asleep with Gus in my arms at 2:30am last night. I've done the reading for yesterday - but there is enough to write about that I don't want to just rush it at this late/early hour. I'll update this post with my thoughts after I've had a chance to get some more rest.

*Update: 9/20/08 10:47pm*

More dreams, and more inspiration from God to help Joseph interpret them. This time around, though, the gift gets the attention of Pharaoh - and so impresses him that Joseph becomes his second-hand-man. This ends up largely sparing Egypt from the ravages of famine, and in turn will allow a way for Josephs father and brothers to also survive that difficult time.

What I spent a little time looking at after the reading was the age of Joseph during all these events. He was 17 at the time he first crossed his brothers (Gen 37:2), and is now 30 when he has his audience with Pharaoh. That means about 13 years in servitude/prison in Egypt, and then another 14 at least as ruler of Egypt (7 during the years of plenty, and 7 more during the famine). His brothers will come to see him during the famine, so it will have been at least twenty years since they last saw him - no wonder they didn't recognize him! But I get ahead of myself...

Genesis 40

Today we have the first two recorded dreams that Joseph actually interprets (with insight from God). These are done while in prison, and of course reality follows exactly has predicted. What else do you expect when the God of the universe is the one both creating the dream and providing the meaning? ;)

As a side note, the earlier dreams that Joseph had - which got him in trouble with his brothers in the first place - didn't get an official interpretation (or at least, it wasn't recounted in the Bible). Instead, the folks Joseph told about the dreams seemed to instantly know what they meant. I wonder if it was just that those dreams were more transparent, or if the 'gift' that Joseph had from God was actually shared among the whole family.

Genesis 39

Poor Joseph! He has a great life at home, and his brothers sell him to slavers. Then he works his way up in his master's house, and because he refuses the advances of his boss' wife he ends up in jail. It is cool to see that Joseph doesn't despair of these things, though, but instead works hard in every situation and is blessed by God. What a great encouragement!

I would like to say, though, that if I had been in Joseph's shoes I would have gone to my boss about his wife's inappropriate solicitations. I'm sure that would have caused some marital strife, and might still have gotten him tossed in prison (that was God's way of getting him where he needed to be, after all) - but I don't like taking things like that lying down (no pun intended).

Genesis 38

Well, I guess my post yesterday was a bit presumptuous - the meat of Joseph's story doesn't start until chapter 39. Today we have an odd account, in which God kills a man for being evil (we don't get an explanation of what he did), and then kills another man for withholding a child from the first man's wife. These were both sons of Judah, who then goes and pays a prostitute for sex who turns out to be the woman in question: his daughter-in-law! That, though, does not seem to warrant God's wrath - or at least not the same level of punishment. This seems odd to my sensibilities, but I suppose that is just further proof that God alone should be the judge of people's actions and motivations.

Genesis 37

Ah, the coming few days should make for very good reading! Here we have the start of the saga of Joseph, Israel's favorite son - how he flaunted his dreams in front of his brothers (bad idea - they outnumbered him), badmouthed them to their father (did they deserve it?) and then got sold into slavery.

It is interesting to note that Reuben, the eldest brother, was able to keep the others from killing Joseph; whats more, he seems to have had plans to return him to their father. I wonder if that was an attempt to repair his relationship with Issac, which was presumably strained when he slept with one of his father's concubines (a fact I failed to mention in my post on Genesis 35).

Anyways, the following chapters tell a story that is quite familiar to me - and probably to most that grew up in a church. I will do my best not to just recount the events, but instead to comment on them. Perhaps I will notice something new that I managed to miss in the past, which is always a joy and wonder :)

Genesis 36

Wow - lots of names today, many of which I can't pronounce. Being that almost the whole of this chapter is a genealogy there isn't much to say, but there is one item of note. In the first few verses we see that Esau and Jacob had so many possessions between the two of them that they couldn't occupy the same area. I'm not sure if it was reasoning Esau thought of or not, but because Jacob was the heir to Abraham's covenant he was to stay in the land of the promise while Esau and his folk left for other lands. It is also cool to see that, though Esau and Ishmael were not the heirs to this promise God still made them fathers of great peoples.

Genesis 35

In today's reading we once more have an affirmation of the covenant between God and Abraham's descendants, along with a second proclamation that Jacob's name shall be changed to Israel (the first was when he wrestled with God). Prior to this Jacob/Israel instructed his family and followers to dispose of all the old idols and pagan symbols they had, which he buried; I guess Laban never got his 'household gods' back!

There is also a lot of death in this chapter: Rachel's nurse, then Rachel in childbirth, and finally Isaac at a good old age. Poor Israel - Rachel was the woman he fell in love with, and yet she was the first of his wives/concubines to die. It definitely explains why Benjamin, the son she had as she passed away, became his favorite: he was his last memory of her, and also his youngest son.

Genesis 34

I've always been fascinated by the story in this passage - and somewhat horrified. Those of you who know me well probably know that when it comes to matters of military and war I tend to agree with the use of force in situations I think are right, but there are some instances in the Bible where the reaction of one group or person seems overkill. This is definitely one such place!

We find that a prince among the people who live in the area Jacob and his sons moved to falls in love with, and apparently rapes, one of Jacob's daughters. He then asks for her hand in marriage, which is backwards in terms of proper order but at least seems to indicated that his feelings for her are real. Unfortunately we never find out what Dinah thinks of all this, but her brothers obviously do not approve. Rather than just fighting for her honor then and there, which I could see as a legitimate reaction, then feign agreement with the proposal and ask in exchange that the men of the region be circumcised. That is a lot to ask of a whole culture, but they go through with it - and then while they are in pain and less able to defend themselves the brothers (Simeon and Levi at least, maybe more) come through and slaughter them.

The things that bother me here are the deceit and the level of revenge: we don't know how many people were killed, but it was every male in a whole city - so I have to assume at least a few hundred. Further on in the Bible, when Israel the country is facing various enemies, God instructs them to be very complete in their slaughter... but it is one thing when God tells you to do something in order to avoid being corrupted later on by societies that worship false gods, and another to go on killing sprees because you feel that your family has been dishonored. Jacob's reaction is also rather interesting: he doesn't seem to tell his sons that they were morally wrong to do what they did, but that it would make them look bad to other nearby peoples.

Genesis 33

Compared to yesterday's reading there isn't much to say about this chapter. It is the logical conclusion to what we read yesterday, though I do find it odd that ,even after the great reception from Esau, Jacob still didn't go with him. Even if one assumes the excuse he gave about not wanting to drive the animals and young too hard was true, he didn't follow Esau to Seir but instead went to Succoth instead. Perhaps those locations are close together - I should try to find a map online to reference and see. Anyone know of any good Biblical maps available on the web?

Genesis 32

Ah, we have come to one of my favorite chapters in Genesis - and one of my favorite stories in all the Bible! There is a lot of good stuff here, so I'd best list it and try not to miss anything:

1) The very first verse, while lacking in details, is rather cool: "So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him." (NKJV) We don't know what was said, or what they looked like, or how many there were - but it still must have been an awesome experience.

2) When Jacob finds out that Esau, his brother, is coming to meet him he does not instantly run away, nor does he prepare to fight. Instead he sends gifts, showing that he is a peacemaker, and makes intelligent preparations so that if retreat is necessary he is ready - but moreover he trusts in the Lord to make good on His promises.

3) Few men have ever seen God, and even when you count Jesus' life and ministry the total is likely still in the tens of thousands. But as far as I know only one has actually wrestled (physically) with the Lord - and that would be Jacob. He carried the scar from it all his life (where God touched him on the hip), but I doubt that he regretted it even one second.

Genesis 31

I'm not sure what to say about this chapter, to be honest. Most of it is pretty straightforward: Jacob feels threatened by his father-in-law, who has mistreated him over the past twenty years, so he flees with his family and all he owns. Laban pursues him, and because he is not as burdened with young and possessions he catches Jacob and asks for an account of what happened. This is where it gets a little odd, though, as he claims that his idols were stolen when Jacob left. Rachel did indeed steal them, but due to a little bit of lying she manages to keep that fact hidden.

I really wish I knew why she even bothered to do that. Was it just to get back at her father for the way he had mistreated Jacob? Was it perhaps because she actually believed they had power? And would Jacob really have followed through with his promise that anyone found with the idols would be killed as punishment (if she had been found out)?

Toward the end of the passage we once more get an account of a peace pact, this time between Jacob and Laban. I guess these sorts of folks had enough possessions and people in their employ to the equivalent of small countries in that time period, and having that sort of status probably merited this kind of behavior.