SNEAK PEEK: The Red Thread
God Knows What He’s Doing
This week’s reading: Genesis 37 – Exodus 3
This week’s memory verse: Genesis 50:20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
The story of Joseph
The story of Joseph began in central Israel (then called Canaan) when he was seventeen years of age (circa 1800). It continued in the fertile valley of the Nile River in Egypt, and ultimately ended with his burial back in Israel.
Hot Fact: Joseph's Coat
several popular garden plants are called 'Joseph's Coat," a name based on Jacob's favourite Joseph. The name is used because Joseph received a coat of many colors from his father and the plant of the same name, has leaves showing a mixture of colors.
Egypt during the period from about 2400 BC to 1400 BC was a dominant world power. Its population of about seven million lived mostly in the Nile Valley, an exceedingly fertile area approximately ten miles wide and seven hundred and fifty miles long. Desert plateaus rise about one thousand feet above on each side.
The pyramids, which were tombs for the pharaohs (meaning great house) were built between 2800 and 2000 BC. The Great Pyramid of Cheops covered an area of thirteen acres, rose seven hundred and sixty-eight feet high, and used 2,300,000 stones with an average weight of two and one half tons. They were cut from a quarry twelve miles to the east, floated across the Nile during flood season and dragged by 100,000 men to the building site. It took ten years to build the causeway and twenty years to build each pyramid. The outer shell was covered in intricately carved granite.
The flow of the last fourteen chapters of Genesis goes like this.
Chapter 37 Joseph was sold by his brothers and taken to Egypt
Chapter 38 Judah's family line through his daughter-in-law, Tamar
Chapter 39 Joseph has success in Egypt
Chapter 40 Joseph interpreted dreams in prison
Chapter 41 Joseph interpreted pharaoh's dreams and was promoted to Prime Minister, he married and had two sons
Chapter 42 His ten brothers came to Egypt to buy grain
Chapter 43 They returned a year later with their younger brother Benjamin
Chapter 44 Joseph tested his brothers
Chapter 45 He revealed his true identity
Chapters 46-47 His family moved to Egypt and prospered
Chapters 48-49 Jacob blessed his sons and grandsons
Chapter 50 The moral of the story and Joseph's death
A fifty-two page Study Guide for use in small groups and Bible Study are also available.
People: King Tut
In 1922, a scientist discovered an almost intact tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Some say it is the greatest archaeological discovery of all time. However, many didn't realize that King Tut was a relatively unknown character in Egyptian history. It was only because of is well preserved tomb that he has become famous.
The characters of the story (circa 1800 BC):
Joseph - the eleventh son of Jacob, grandson of Isaac and great grandson of Abraham, is a picture of Jesus.
The Red Thread
Joseph had many similarities to Jesus who would be born some 1800 years later, so he served as a prophetic portrait of the coming saviour. For example like Jesus, Joseph was:
o Loved by his father (37:3)
o Rejected by his jealous brothers (37:4 - 8)
o Sold for silver (37:28)
o Tempted but did not sin (39:9)
o Bound and imprisoned with two others (39:30 - 40:2 & 3)
o His brothers bowed down to him (41:43)
o At thirty years old, he rose to power (41:42 - 44)
o Cast into a pit but was freed (37:24, 28)
o Revealed himself to his brothers (45:1)
o God used his suffering to save others (50:21)
Judah - the birthright flowed through Jacob's fourth son right down to Jesus.
Tamar - Judah's daughter-in-law and the mother of his two sons Perez and Zerah.
Potiphar - Joseph's boss in Egypt and the chief executive in Pharaoh's court (his wife, although important to the story as a villainess, was not named).
Pharaoh - the most powerful ruler on earth at the time
People: Moses
Moses was a common name in Egypt and it means "born of" in Egyptian. Several kings had the name Moses within their name. For example, Rameses means born of Ra, the Egyptian god. Thus, Moses name had significance in Egyptian, as well as in Hebrew.
Joseph's circuitous pathway to rulership (37-50)
The story of Joseph flows like a best selling drama. He was sovereignly chosen by God to lead his family (the Israelites) into Egypt for four hundred years in order to protect them. There they would multiply from seventy persons to two million, and become powerful enough to ultimately take ownership and control of Canaan, which God had promised to give to Abraham's family.
The pathway that Joseph's life took is a model for any of us. He knew who he was and understood God's purposes. He endured and passed with honours a number of difficult challenges. He was hated by his jealous brothers, sold as a slave to a passing band of traders, falsely accused of raping his boss's wife, put in chains and fetters for years in an Egyptian jail, forgotten by a man who owed him his life-but was ultimately, at the right time, made by God to be the second most powerful man in the world.
He was smart, good looking, spiritually tuned, gifted in the interpretation of dreams, wise, patient, humorous and very godly. Because he stayed closely aligned to the shepherd and on the path that had been prepared for him, Joseph fulfilled his destiny in every way. Even though others plotted against him, God turned evil into good. That's the same promise that he makes to each of us.
