Chuck Larsen

Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave to traders on their way to Egypt. It was Judah’s idea to sell him rather than murdering him. The text makes it pretty clear that it was because of the profit motive most of all. Judah may have wanted to save Joseph’s life, but that’s just a guess. After Joseph was taken away, Judah’s life went downhill, but Joseph’s life went uphill. At the same time, Judah was negotiating sex with a cult prostitute in Canaan. The prostitute was Tamar, his daughter-in-law. The story shifts back to Joseph in Egypt. There we see Judah’s little brother resisting the sexual advances of his bosses’ wife. Tamar, Judah’s sexual partner, uses Judah’s staff and ring to convict him of his guilt in this affair. He repents and acknowledges his wrong and says that Tamar was more righteous than he was. It’s like having a blue dress covered with DNA evidence proving sexual contact. It just can’t be ignored.

Now we move to Egypt and see Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph of seducing her. She, too, brings evidence against Joseph. She has taken the garment he had left behind and used it as evidence that he had attempted to rape her. Interestingly, Joseph’s accuser presents proof of his guilt with Joseph’s garment. This is the 2nd time in Joseph’s life that the person he’s responsible to, first his father then Potiphar, is deceived about him by one of his garments. His brothers brought the coat of many colors to Jacob with blood on it to prove that Joseph had been killed by wild animals (or something!). Tamar uses her evidence to convict Judah of the truth of his guilt in her conception. Potiphar’s wife uses her evidence to deceive Potiphar concerning Joseph’s guilt. Judah appeared innocent until proven guilty. Joseph was sinless while appearing guilty.

Sometimes we care more about appearing innocent than we do about actually being innocent. Yet, while man looks at outward appearances, God always looks at the heart. In Joseph’s apparent guilt, the story includes three statements that say “and God was with Joseph.” In Judah’s report, the mention of God is totally absent. It’s more important to God for us to “be” innocent than it is to “appear” innocent. I like the way Susan Brayford concludes her discussion on Joseph’s story. She writes, “Despite the blaming and sarcastic tone of his wife’s accusation, Potiphar believes her version of the story and, because of his anger, has Joseph thrown into prison. Joseph’s real Lord, however, knows the truth and continues to work in the margins to secure a favorable situation for Joseph.”¹

¹ Susan A. Brayford, Genesis: Commentary, ed. Stanley E. Porter, Richard S. Hess, and John Jarick, Septuagint Commentary Series (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), 407.

In Genesis 38, we read about Judah’s adultery with his daughter-in-law, who posed as a prostitute. The result of that illicit encounter was twin sons. One of which is Perez. If you look at Matthew chapter 1, you will see his name in the genealogy of Jesus. How strange is that? God chooses Abraham from amongst a city of moon-god worshippers. He chooses Isaac over Ishmael. He chooses Jacob, the deceiver, over Esau, and remarkably, he Chooses Judah over Joseph. I surely would have chosen Joseph, the most Christ-like figure in the Old Testament. But, no, God chooses Judah. Judah was the brother who decided to sell Joseph rather than kill him because there was no profit in murder. He was the brother who married the Canaanite woman. He was the father of two sons by her, Er and Onan, who were so wicked that God killed them. He was the one who negotiated a price with a prostitute for sex; he was the one who was willing to stone his daughter-in-law for immorality while he hid his role in the pregnancy. He was everything he shouldn’t be and nothing he should have been. On the other hand, Joseph was everything he should have been and nothing he shouldn’t have been. Yet God chooses Judah!

Now, let’s look at the women in the line of Christ. In Matthew 1, there are references to only four women in the line of Christ. One might not expect to find any of these women there. They are Tamar, whose story is told in Genesis 38, and who presented herself to her father-in-law as a prostitute to trick him into impregnating her. Rahab is the prostitute of Jericho, who hid the spies at the time of the Israelite conquest. Ruth, the Moabitess, was the descendant of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter that took place in a cave after they fled unwillingly from the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But, Ruth, the Moabitess, ended up with a book in the Bible named after her. Then we meet Bathsheba, the one who had an adulterous relationship with King David while her husband was out to war. Her name is not mentioned, but the text tells us that her son, Solomon, was born of her, the wife of Uriah! An interesting thing about the genealogy of Matthew is that it lists women at all. The Old Testament genealogies don’t include women. But the New Testament writers want us all to know that women count.

Why these women? Martin Luther said so that “no one should be presumptuous about his righteousness or wisdom, and no one should despair on account of his sins.”¹ But there is another critical condition applies to all of these women. They are all Gentiles! The lineage to Jesus from the earliest days does not include only Jews. You see, as Boice says, “… the church of Jesus Christ is called his bride, and that we, for the most part, are Gentiles.”² Boice continues with this and concludes, “I am glad these women are included. In Ephesians, Paul writes that the Gentiles were ‘foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). And so we were! But in the inclusion of these gentile women in Jesus’ family tree we discover that the mercy of God is not limited to one nation, but is for all who will identify with God’s work of redemption through the Savior.”² The New Testament writers tell us that we too are chosen to be children of God. You and I are often what we shouldn’t be and seldom precisely what we should be, but God still chooses us. How strange is that?

1 Luther’s Works, vol. 7, 11. See the ending of the previous chapter of this volume.

2 James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 902.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. It is seen as early as Genesis chapter 4 in the story of Cain and Abel. We see it in the lives of Rachel and Leah as they compete with each other for the affection of Jacob and how they compete with each other over their children. In Genesis 37 it raises its ugly head again. We see again how deep this sin goes as it is once again expressed by brothers against a brother. Joseph’s brothers did not share the favored place Joseph held in the heart of their father, Jacob. Their envy led to hatred. Genesis 37:8 tells us that the 10 brothers hated Joseph. They hated him even more because of the favor the father showed him in the coat of many colors – the symbol of God’s favor on his life. Verse 23 tells us the first thing the brothers did was “strip the coat off of him.” Hatred leads to overt evil acts. They plotted to kill him and threw him in a pit. Then, what’s even worse, the heartless nature of envy and hatred is seen in this phrase in Genesis 37:25-28, “then they sat down to eat.”  Guzik observes, “The heartless character of these brothers was clear—they could eat a meal with Joseph nearby in the pit. They could sit down and enjoy food while their hearts were bent on murdering their brother.”¹ It’s even worse when we remember that they sat down to eat the very meal that Joseph had been sent to bring them from their father. Where was their sense of decency? Where was their conscience?

Joseph pleaded with his brothers for mercy, but they couldn’t hear him. But they would hear his cries later. Guzik quotes from Barnhouse in his commentary concerning this. He writes, “Later, Genesis 42:21 described the conviction of sin they ignored at that moment. In that passage the brothers said: We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us. When Joseph was cast into the pit, he pled with his brothers, and they ignored his cries as they ate their meal.” Then he recounts the Barnhouse quote. “A physicist could compute the exact time required for his cries to go twenty-five yards to the eardrums of the brothers. But it took twenty-two years for that cry to go from the eardrums to their hearts.”¹

It’s only through the intervention of Judah’s greed, which is another one of those seven deadly sins, that they choose to sell him rather than murder him. Envy leads to bitterness, which leads to hatred, which if left unchecked, leads to evil deeds of various kinds. Evil deeds always go someplace also. They do not hurt that target but the shooter. Envy, jealousy along with a variety of other ungodly emotions are all boomerangs! They always come back to the one throwing them.  Someone once said, “Envy shoots at others but only wounds herself.” Envy creates Grinches. Dr. Seuss’ children’s book “The Grinch” illustrates a creature who can’t bear the sight of anyone enjoying himself without getting so mad it bites itself. Don’t bite yourself!

¹ David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 37:23–28

When Joseph finally opened the womb of Rachel, Genesis 30:24 tells us that Rachel “…called his name Joseph, saying, ‘May the Lord add to me another son!’” Guzik says, “The eleventh son born to Jacob through Rachel was named Joseph, meaning May He Add. Rachel felt she had been vindicated by the birth of one son, but longed for more children to continue the competition with her sister Leah.”¹ She thought that now that Joseph was born, he would open the door for more sons to be born to her. The birth of Joseph signaled the removal of her shame and you just about feel the joy leap from the page as we read about Rachel’s excitement at Joseph’s birth. It makes me think of all the excitement that was surrounding Jesus’ birth that we celebrate every year. Remember Mary’s exclamation at Jesus’ birth? It’s recorded in Luke 1:46-48, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”

After Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he was given a new name. Genesis 41:45 says, “And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneah.” Most modern Biblical scholars say that Joseph’s new name means “The revealer of secrets.” That’s attractive because it does describe what Joseph did with regard to many dreams in Egypt. However, let me call your attention to a rather obscure commentator who says Joseph’s new name should not be interpreted according to the Hebrew words. He argues that Joseph’s new name is an “Egyptian word in Hebrew letters.” When you put it back into its Egyptian form, according to Canon Cooke, “…whose dissertation in the ‘Speaker’s Commentary’ on the Egyptian words in the Pentateuch is of very great value.” He suggests that the Egyptian meaning might be, “the food of life,” or “the food of the living.”²

I’ve often said that the Old Testament is about Jesus. This is too. Pink said, “Christ is the One who ‘adds’ to Heaven’s inhabitants. It was to this end that He came to this earth, tabernacled among men for more than thirty years, and then died on the Cross: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’”³ In the earliest days of the Church we see that new believers were considered to have been “added” to the Lord not necessarily to any particular church. Notice Acts 5:14. As a result of the apostles preaching and working of miracles, “…more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” I need not remind you that Joseph’s saving the lives of his own family by providing food during the famine is a clear picture of Jesus who said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

1 David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 30:23–24.

2 Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis, vol. 2, The Biblical Illustrator (London: James Nisbet & Co., n.d.), 430.

3 Arthur Walkington Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 344.

Everyone loves the story of Joseph the finishes the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. Joseph teaches us many lessons. From Joseph’s life we can learn how to: Overcome envy, remain loyal to rightful authority, reject peer pressure, face adversity, handle prosperity, resist temptation, see the good even in the bad, plan for the future, forgive those who wrong us, trust God in every situation, care and provide for his family, handle power, live a holy life in a pagan environment, see God’s hand through all circumstances, overcome grief, handle rejection, and the list could go on. The most interesting thing about Joseph is that he saw God at work in his life even in his dreams. To Joseph, nothing was a coincidence. God’s hand, His presence, dominated every area of Joseph’s life. He knows that God is in control over everything. We need to remember that also. Max Lucado says: We need to hear that God is still in control. We need to hear that it’s not over until he says so. We need to hear that life’s mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. They are simply a reason to sit tight. Corrie ten Boom used to say, “When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not. You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through.” …Next time you’re disappointed, don’t panic. Don’t jump out. Don’t give up. Just be patient and let God remind you he’s still in control. It isn’t over till it’s over.” Joseph will help us remember that God is in control.

As encouraging as all this is, I don’t think that’s why the story of Joseph is in the Bible. Joseph, in so many ways, is the picture of the one Messiah that will be born in Bethlehem thousands of year later. Arthur Pink, in his “Gleanings in Genesis” makes the last five chapters about Joseph and how he’s the savior of his people and makes over 100 comparisons of Joseph’s life with Christ’s life. After my son, Chuck3, read these comparisons he wanted to do a series of message on them. I can’t mention them all here but the first 10 are:

1. The Meaning of his Name.
2. By Occupation Joseph was a Shepherd, “feeding the flock.”
3. His Opposition to Evil.
4. His Father’s Love.
5. His Relation to his father’s Age.
6. His Coat of Many Colors.
7. The Hatred of his brethren.
8. Joseph is hated because of his Words.
9. Joseph was to enjoy a remarkable future.
10. Joseph foretold his future Sovereignty.
11. Joseph was envied by his brethren.¹

All of the details of Joseph’s life make it clear that he is a “type” of Christ who will save his people also. A blogger on the internet (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/erik-raymond/wonderful-similarities-joseph-jesus/) writes, “When we collect the details of Joseph’s life we see a glorious reflection that closely mirrors another life we are so intimately familiar with. In fact, when you look at a list of the details, sometimes it’s hard to discern whether we are talking about Joseph or Jesus. This is not because Joseph was Jesus’s favorite Bible hero he wanted to emulate. It is because God is sovereign, and he has been laying the tracks for the glory of Christ throughout redemptive history.”

¹ Arthur Walkington Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 341.

Over the years I’ve found some passages in the Bible as extremely boring. You know them: Genesis 5, Genesis 10, the first ten chapters of the book of Numbers, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and even the opening of Matthew and Luke. They contain genealogical lists of names, many of which are too hard for us to pronounce like Oholibamah. It sounds like a former president! Anyway, it’s much easier just to acknowledge that they’re there and move on! But God didn’t make me that way, darn it! I have to ask why. Why? Why? God, what is the purpose of all these genealogies? Let me mention some things. First of all, the lists, especially those in the line of David have been verified as historically accurate. It supports the fact that these are real people who really lived as recorded in the Bible. It helps dispel the myth that the bible is just a myth. Furthermore, genealogies focus on the importance of the family. The stories in the Bible are about families, not so much individuals. Also, only those of certain genealogies could perform certain functions such as Aaron’s offspring were priests and Levi’s offspring’s were servants in the religious sense. Only through Judah could the ruling scepter be passed. Much more could be said but let me focus on the genealogy of Genesis 36.

Genesis chapter 36 lists the genealogy from Esau, Jacob’s brother. Why would we be interested in that?  It’s difficult to wade through all these names as they’re found in this chapter. By the way this is the longest chapter in the Bible!! What was God thinking? It’s hard enough for me to keep track of my own genealogy even with the technology and the help of the Danish Heritage Society I can’t trace my line back before about 1850 when Louis Larsen came from Copenhagen to the United States. Generally speaking, the listings of Esau’s and, to a greater extent, Ishmael’s descendants have nothing to do with the flow of covenant promises (after all, all these descendants were born to pagan wives). Yet, the author wanted to show bridges that tied the past to the future. The genealogy of Esau in Chapter 36 contains the 8 kings of Edom. Edom is Esau’s land and Esau’s descendants are the Edomites. As superfluous as these lists seem to me, I can’t help but notice that their names indicate the first fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham of kings ultimately coming from him (see 17:16), a promise subsequently given to Jacob (see 35:11). Also detailed in that promise was the fulfillment of the prophecy of “two nations” given to Rebekah (see 25:23–26).

Furthermore, the relationship between Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, and Jacob’s descendants the Israelites will be ongoing. When Moses Led Israel out of slavery, Esau’s descendants would not permit them to pass through their land. And from generation to generation the animosity between Esau’s descendants and Israel’s descendants continued. The reputation of the naming of all the successive kings in Edom is interesting because the historical hatred between these two finds its final expression in the confrontation of two Great kings. One was a descendant of Esau. His name was Herod Antipas. He was the son of Herod the Great who, as King of the Jews, slaughtered the infants in Bethlehem to protect his throne. The second king is Jesus Christ, the descendant of Jacob, who was born King of the Jews, and was called King of Kings. Two kings. One, the descendant of Esau, the representative of those who chose the temporal over the spiritual. The other, the descendant of Jacob, the one who ruled over a spiritual kingdom. When Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters, I wonder if this was in his mind. We all have the same choice. We can trade our spiritual heritage for a bowl of “red” stew. Don’t do it!