December 18, 2025
Having depleted the food they had bought from Joseph on their first trip to Egypt, Joseph's brothers returned to Egypt - this time bringing Joseph's younger brother Benjamin with them as Joseph had commanded. Joseph brought them all into his home and dined with them, but still didn't reveal to them who he was.December 17, 2025
The famine foretold in Pharaoh's dreams began to affect Jacob's family in Canaan. Hearing that grain was available in Egypt, Jacob sent his ten eldest sons there to buy food. Like all the Egyptians, Joseph's brothers had to deal with Joseph to obtain the grain. When they came to him, Joseph recognized them but they didn't recognize him. He provided them with the grain they needed, but told them they should not return unless they brought his younger brother Benjamin with them. Joseph sent them back to Canaan, but held Simeon as a hostage to secure their promise to return with Benjamin.
December 6, 2025
Genesis 41 brings us at last to the revelation of God's purpose in allowing Joseph to be sold into slavery - to put Joseph into a position in Egypt that allowed him to facilitate the rescue of Jacob's family out of starvation in a regional famine. Ultimately, God used this survival of Israel through the famine to bring about the birth of Jesus of Nazareth the promised Messiah who was to rescue all mankind out of death in our sins.
December 4, 2025
We return now to the story of Joseph's slavery in Egypt. While serving as the manager of his master Potiphar's household, Joseph resisted the temptation to sleep with Potiphar's wife and ran away. But she falsely accused Joseph of attempting to sexually assault her, and Potiphar threw him into prison. While there, Joseph (by God's power) correctly interpreted the dreams of two fellow prisoners. One was executed by Pharaoh. The other was returned to his place in Pharaoh's service, but forgot about Joseph whom he left behind in the prison.
December 3, 2025
Genesis 38 makes a brief departure from the story of Jacob's son Joseph's life in Egypt to relate the somewhat distasteful story of Jacob's son Judah's sexual encounter with his widowed daughter-in-law Tamar whom he mistook for a cult prostitute. Although this story may be revolting to our modern sensibilities, it allows us to explore the ancient Hebrew tradition of levirate marriage under which the eldest surviving brother of a man who died childless was required to take his brother's widow as wife and father offspring by her for his dead brother. More importantly, Perez - Tamar's son by Judah - became the forefather of Jesus' mother Mary and her husband Joseph in fulfillment of the prophecies about the coming Messiah and of God's eternal plan of salvation for all mankind.
November 4, 2025
Genesis 37 begins the final major section of the book of Genesis - the story of Jacob's second-youngest son Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers. Although the brothers had initially intended to kill Joseph, they decided to sell him as a slave instead. Despicable as the brothers' maltreatment of Joseph was, their jealousy was due to their father Jacob's favoritism of Joseph and his younger brother Benjamin - the sons of Jacob's favorite wife Rachel - over the elder sons of Jacobs other wives. This favoritism caused trouble in Jacob's family just as Jacob's mother Rebekah's favoritism of Jacob over his twin brother Esau had years before.Yet all of the players in this little drama were unknowingly acting in accordance with God's sovereign plan to use Joseph in Egypt to rescue the nation of Israel (Jacob) out of starvation in Canaan so that Jacob's son Judah could become the forebear of King David and ultimately Jesus of Nazareth through whom God fulfilled His promise to Jacob's grandfather Abraham that through his seed all the families of Earth would blessed.