Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Jeff:
Well, hello, I’m Jeff Forester. I’m one of The Bible Guys, and Chris is off this week. And so I have as my co-host, the sensational Wesley Woods.

Wesley:
I got sensational.

Jeff:
Yes, sensational. That’s it. Everybody’s cheering now. The crowd goes wild. They go wild. So man, Wesley, thank you for joining us. And we have a really fun segment today to kind of kick things off. So Desiree gave us a list and she likes to do these one must goes. So where we have to choose one thing that we’d prefer to keep forever and one thing that disappears forever. And so the first one is, and this is near and dear to your heart, Right. The first one is classic pepperoni pizza or gourmet truffle pizza. One you keep forever. One has to go forever.

Wesley:
I’m not a fancy pizza guy. I’m a purist. So it’s just brick oven, cheese, maybe pepperoni. So all the truffle and pineapples and all of that stuff you can keep.

Jeff:
Well, OK. So you’re saying classic pepperoni. That’s the one I’m keeping. And truffle gourmet truffle pizza. Yeah. You can toss that one. Although I’m gonna admit to you, I love truffle. I love truffle oil. I love truffle, anything that has truffle on it. But I think if I had to choose one for the rest of my life, I would probably choose that. Basic. Yeah. That’s it. Okay, so as a comfort food, here’s your second one. One you choose, one has to vanish forever. As a comfort food, French fries or ice cream?

Wesley:
This might shock a lot of people. I would toss ice cream. Really? I would toss ice cream. I’m not a big ice cream person. I could only eat it a couple times a year and I’m happy. Now cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, that’s a whole other discussion.

Jeff:
That’s a whole other thing. So you’d choose fries? I’d choose fries. So would I. So we’re two for two, man. Yeah, hey, you know what we should kick out that other guy that does this And just have it be me and you we’re in alignment here, okay? Here’s one you get to keep one forever, and then you have to get rid of one forever, okay the Macarena or the electric slide I would say just because I knew it better keep the electric slide me too Dude, we’re three for three on this. Okay, well now we’re getting down to it. And I know Zarbaw’s answer would be on this one. So on number four, Monopoly or the Game of Life?

Wesley:
Monopoly or Game of Life? If we’re talking forever, I gotta go with Monopoly. It’s the classic that I would keep. Me too. I would keep Monopoly. Me too.

Jeff:
We’re four for four. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Zarbon’s job is on the line here, I think, on this one. Okay, well, this might be the make it or break it. Okay. Bagpipes or the kazoo? Ooh, this is tough. You get rid of one forever.

Wesley:
Kazoos are fun, but bagpipes are kind of cool. I was just at a ceremony where a guy was playing it and he’s got all the pipes and he’s doing it. I would say keep the bagpipes.

Jeff:
Me too. We’re five for five today. I bet you Desiree didn’t think that that was going to happen today. I actually I play music in my office a lot of times just for quiet because you know it can be loud in the rest of space and I’ll use YouTube channels that play You know that show really pretty background settings and then play music in the background. Yeah, and yesterday I was playing one in my office of Scotland okay, and about every third song yeah, you gotta have bagpipes So played well, you know now by themselves. They’re horrific. Yeah when they’re played well, and They have other things going it’s pretty nice. So you don’t recommend the four-year-old trying to play. No. No. No, it’s it’s rough It is rough. Well, there we go. We are five for five. Yeah, and

Wesley:
We gotta rub it in when we see Zarba. That’s right.

Jeff:
So, okay. Well, hey, we are in the book of Genesis and we’ve been moving along and we’ve come to a new character and we’ve dealt with Adam and Noah and Abraham and all those. And then finally we come to the story of Joseph in Genesis chapter 37. This is a very interesting story. Yeah, Joseph runs from this point to the end of the Book of Genesis, so he’s quite a significant figure in the Book of Genesis. And so we’re just gonna read the entire chapter, I think, of Genesis chapter 37, aren’t we? Yeah. Yeah. So hang on, buckle up. Here we go. So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan where his father had lived as a foreigner. And this is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was 17 years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half-brothers, the sons of his father’s wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing. Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day, Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph, a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him. One night Joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. Listen to this dream, he said. We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine. His brothers responded, so you think you’ll be our king, do you? Do you actually think you’ll reign over us? And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. Listen, I have had another dream, he said. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me. This time he told the dream to his father as well as his brothers, but his father scolded him. What kind of dream is that, he asked? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you? But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant. Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers went to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. When they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, your brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready and I’ll send you to them. I’m ready to go, Joseph replied. Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along, Jacob said. Then come back and report to me. So Jacob sent them on his way and Joseph traveled to Shechem from their home in the valley of Hebron. When he arrived there, a man from the area noticed him wandering around the countryside. What are you looking for, he asked. I’m looking for my brothers, Joseph replied. Do you know where they are pasturing their sheep? Yes, the man told them. They’ve moved on from here, but I heard them say, let’s go on to Dothan. So Joseph followed his brothers to Dothan and found them there. When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. Here comes the dreamer, they said. Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father that a wild animal has eaten him, and then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams. But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. Let’s not kill him, he said. Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness and then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him. Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty, there was no water in it. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he’s our brother, our own flesh and blood. And his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by Joseph’s brothers, pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for 20 pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. Sometime later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the cistern, and when he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief. Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, the boy is gone, what will I do now? Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood. They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message, look at what we found, doesn’t this robe belong to your son? Their father recognized it immediately, yes, he said, it is my son’s robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces. And Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself in burlap. He mourned deeply for his son for a long time. His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. I will go to my grave mourning for my son, he would say, and then he would weep. Meanwhile, the Midianite traders arrived in Egypt where they sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard. Wow, a lot happened in that passage. Yeah, man alive. Sometimes people say, oh, the Bible’s kind of boring, but this had every twist and turn that you could imagine. Sibling rivalry, you know, plotting murder, selling their brother. This is crazy.

Wesley:
One of the first things. that comes to mind is verse 5 when you were going through this where it says, one night Joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers about it they hated him more than ever. The first thing that came to mind with that is that just a very practical level that I think a lot of our listeners will be able to relate to is Everyone can’t handle your dreams. That’s true. The thing that God gave you, the thing that He put on the inside of you, it may resonate with you. It may excite you. But you share that thing with someone else. It could be a business idea, what have you. You share it with someone else and they’re just kind of ho-hum like, oh, yeah, I don’t know if that’ll work. Do you really think? No, maybe you shouldn’t do that. Maybe you don’t go back to school. Maybe you just, you know, continue doing what you’re doing. Everyone can’t handle the thing that God put on the inside of you. Right. Yeah.

Jeff:
Yeah. You know, I’m a verbal processor. So a lot of times if I’m thinking about a thing, I talk it out. Right. So I’ll have it going in my head. Sometimes I find that my thoughts disentangle themselves through the lips and the fingertips. So sometimes I’ll sit down and just start typing and things will start to come out that way, right, in order. But a lot of times I’m just driving and talking and I can start to see around me people, their eyes start rolling back in their head, you know, and I’m just dreaming about the future. And yeah, a lot of people just can’t accept or Non-visionaries, a lot of times, can’t see the vision. A lot of times it just sounds like words or bragging or pie-in-the-sky kind of thinking.

Wesley:
Or other people will try to put their limitations on you. So because they couldn’t do X, Y, and Z, they try to transfer that on to you. This is why you shouldn’t do that. Well, I’m not you. God gave me different talents and skills and gifts.

Jeff:
There’s, I think, a temptation sometimes to want to hold others back, especially these guys that are struggling with jealousy. So jealousy just eats you alive and it has an impact on others around you, especially if you have influence. So, you know, one of the things Joseph here as a young man, probably a teenage boy at this point, doesn’t have a lot of discernment. He doesn’t realize that his brothers aren’t his allies. Right. And, you know, I think it’s important to figure out who are your allies that are going to not just affirm your vision. You don’t need somebody just to blanketly affirm your vision. Just a bunch of yes people around you. But what you need is you need allies that can see the vision, maybe help you refine the vision and then make it happen. And, you know, it’s less about what you know now and it’s way more about who you know that can help you move your vision forward.

Wesley:
I could see the brothers when Joseph is telling this story and they’re looking at each other like, so we’re gonna bow down to you?

Jeff:
And then he has the audacity to go tell his dad, hey, you’re gonna bow down to me too.

Wesley:
I don’t know if I would have told my dad and mom that.

Jeff:
Yeah, so the brothers are like what the heck this kid man, and so then they come up with this scheme Yeah, yeah, they just said hey, we’re gonna kill him. Let’s let’s get rid of him and So they’re out there in so just for Geographical reference you know there they started off they had left their father where their father was what didn’t they said that they were like staying near, near the Hebron Valley. Isn’t that what I read is where Jacob was. Jacob was staying near the Hebron Valley. Um, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they traveled to Shechem from the Hebron Valley. So Hebron is just south of Jerusalem. This is where David for a while set up his kingdom, right? Yeah. It’s just south of Jerusalem. It’s in the hilly area. And then Shechem is quite a ways to north, almost halfway between Jerusalem and Galilee is where Shechem was. So it’s a good couple of days walk. And so they’re up to the north and then they go, okay, now we’re going to move on. That’s still hilly. And depending on what time of the year, depending on the rain, it might not have been great for grazing. And then they cut out into one of the plain areas. Dothan is kind of in a plain area. It’s very green. It’s kind of a low area. There’s a lot of water there. And so that’s where they go. So you got to remember, it’s a very agrarian society and very much about following their animals. And I think a lot about that with different tribes that we work with, you know, at Heritage Church, the church that you and I both work at. And there’s a tribe, the Pocot tribe, and they follow their cows and their goats, the men do. So often the women will stay home in the village or wherever the camp is for sometimes months at a time. And the men will go out and follow the animals to wherever there’s grazing. And it’s because back then there was way less money being used, and the animals were worth… Yeah, that was your currency. Yeah, that was your currency. And so basically they were tending their bank accounts. Yeah. Right? Moving it from here to there. Yeah, so the brothers were trustworthy enough that the dad trusted them to go take care of these animals and do this thing. And so I don’t think that anybody really saw this coming. Like, oh man, you know, hey, we gotta be careful. If I send Joseph to go around his brothers, you’re probably gonna kill him. And so it’s amazing to me how jealousy sometimes can be so under the surface that, you know, other people don’t even notice it. And I think sometimes even the people who are jealous don’t realize It’s jealousy that’s driving them, because it’s so easy to justify our jealousy.

Wesley:
The interesting thing about this, just the fact that it’s family, to have family jealous against you, and some of our listeners may have even dealt with that before, where you’ve had other family members jealous, and you’re thinking, I don’t even have anything to be jealous over. Like, why are you jealous about me? So, yeah, I think this is definitely something that a lot of people can relate to.

Jeff:
Well, that’s that sibling rivalry. The basis of sibling rivalry is jealousy. You know, oh, mom treats you better, you get more favors, whatever. You know, you think you’re better than me.

Wesley:
And in most cases, parents love all the children equally. Now, in this story, it does mention that the father, he did love Jacob, it says, you know, more than the other.

Jeff:
He loved Joseph more than, that’s a bad move. Shouldn’t say that one out loud. So we were doing this story when the kids were younger. And so they were all asking me, you love me more, don’t you? I said, no, no, you guys never have to worry about me loving one of you more than the other. I don’t love any of you.

Wesley:
That just settles it right there. They’re like, what?

Jeff:
That’s pretty good. But yeah, so, you know, that’s another, I think, learning moment for parents in general, that sometimes the one that’s behaving better or the one that has a more pleasant attitude or whatever, sometimes they just naturally get more favors from you. And so making sure that you’re consciously balancing things out as much as possible for the kids would help because Not only did Jacob not attempt to balance things out, he very clearly gave tremendous favor to Joseph. He even gave him this fancy robe, all this kind of stuff.

Wesley:
In verse 21, something else that stood out, it says, but when Reuben heard of this scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. And I think about that in the context of, thank God there was someone around who made the right decision against the grain. Yeah. Now, Ruben could have just went along with everybody else and said, OK, I mean, that he did say that. And this does sound like a good way to get rid of him. And he could have went along with it. But Ruben made the decision to go against what everyone else is doing. And I think about that practically in our lives. What if you work at a business and everyone is fudging the numbers a little bit? Everyone is doing something that’s, it’s bumping right up against illegal. It could be just unethical or immoral and everyone’s doing it. Will you be the one to go against the grain and do the right thing or will you blend in with everyone else?

Jeff:
You know, Reuben has kind of a conflicted reputation a little bit, and we won’t read all the stories of Reuben here, but there is a note in the Life Application Study Bible, and we always like to highlight, we really like the Life Application Study Bible. And it talks about how he had a very fluid kind of a reputation. As a matter of fact, Jacob talking to Reuben at one point talks about how he’s as unruly as a flood. He’s talking about kind of, there’s this water, kind of a very adaptable kind of morality. It kind of goes wherever. That’s right. Other than when water is frozen, other than that, it goes around the thing rather than, you know. And so there’s a lot of power and a lot of force behind water sometimes. But with Reuben, He wouldn’t go directly. I didn’t go no and I’m gonna stand him and you have to kill me, too Yeah, he didn’t do that. Yeah, right instead. He kind of had this conniving strategy. Yeah He was able to influence. Yeah. Hey, let’s not let’s not kill him. Let’s just throw him in the well And then we don’t have to feel guilty about it. Yeah, and he appealed to that. There’s some strategy. Of course the strategy failed Yeah Later on, he winds up having an affair with one of his father’s wives. So he goes back and forth between a good guy and a bad guy. On the other hand, at the very end of the story, we’ll find he also helps save Benjamin’s life by offering his own sons as a deposit or whatever to protect Benjamin. So it’s kind of an interesting kind of a character that early in his life, it seems like he wants to be the guy to do the right thing. And so I think that if we would make more decisions like that to do the right thing, the difference is though, what he tried to do is split it in the middle. I’m going to do some of the right thing because I’m afraid to actually stand up to my brothers. And if he had really stood up to them rather than trying to connive Maybe maybe he would have eliminated the entire story. Yeah, but we know God uses this story.

Wesley:
Yes to save their lives So that’s another thing one of the last things was that I thought of was verse 31 and this is them trying to kind of cover up everything that they’ve done when it says the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood and So they’re trying to throw the father off and make the father think that some wild animal, you know, oh no dad Look what we found, but the point here to me is when you mess up Don’t cover it up. That’s right. Just tell the truth mess up Instead of instead of doing that they just doubled down on it we’re gonna really cover this thing up and that was totally the wrong thing to do right and

Jeff:
So one thing I forgot to mention, Reuben was the oldest brother and the oldest brothers had the most power. The oldest brothers represented the father. And so he was going to inherit most of the business, the whole nine yards. He could have stopped it directly on his own, but he shows back up later and then finds out, oh, hey, my scheming failed. And you can imagine the panic that he had. He goes to his other brothers and like, oh yeah, we sold him. And they knew it was very unlikely that Joseph would live very long as a slave either. And so it really was kind of a death sentence that they did. And then they try to cover it up with their dad. And can you imagine, the Bible says from that point on, basically for the rest of Jacob’s life, he was mourning deeply during this time. And every time they would try to comfort him, he would you know, say, no, I’ve lost my son and start weeping again. Yeah. This is going to be a regular occurrence for the rest of their lives. They’re going to see the consequences of their sin. Yeah. And they never did fess up. They never did. Right. Through this whole thing. So there’s a lot of, we’re free to make our choices, but we’re not free to choose the consequences. Yeah. That’s good. The fact that their choice, eliminating their brother this one time, caused all this family struggle and discord and depression and all these things is really, really difficult to watch in this part of the story. So do you have any last word on this, Wesley, as we wrap things up?

Wesley:
Yeah. I think I would go back to what you just said a second ago, that phrase, but you literally just said it a second ago.

Jeff:
We’re free to make our choices. We’re not free to choose the consequences.

Wesley:
Yeah, and I think that’s a major point that we all need to remember, that you’re free to do whatever you want to do. I mean, you can go out and do whatever, but you can’t complain about the consequence that’s connected to the very thing that you opted to do on your own. And you also can’t blame God for it, the choice that you freely made. A lot of people like to say, well, why didn’t God know? God had nothing to do with that choice you made. You made that choice.

Jeff:
Yeah, I also think it’s interesting. We didn’t cover this, but you know, Jacob’s reputation was that he was a deceiver when he was young. And now here his sons, all of them collectively deceive him to the point of depression. He doesn’t know that he’s being lied to at this point, but his sons are ruining his life. And it’s amazing how the seeds that we plant at one point in our life, we get a harvest of it back. So you got one liar and now he’s produced 12 liars or 11 liars here, right there. God is not mocked, whatever you sow, that’s what you will reap. So anyways, man, that was good. I’m looking forward to continuing because the story of Joseph is really an incredible story. So we’re looking forward to seeing you the next time on The Bible Guys.