We will discover in our journey through Genesis that God has chosen for the scepter to never depart from Judah, yet at this point in history, Judah has no clue about this prophecy. He has not demonstrated Godly leadership thus far in his life.

 

We see in Genesis 38:2 that Judah takes for himself a Canaanite woman. We know from Genesis 9:25 that the Canaanite is cursed. We also know from Genesis 27:46–28:1 that Rebekah was not pleased with Esau’s Canaanite wives and that Isaac and Jacob were commanded by their father not to take a Canaanite wife. I believe this runs much deeper than just personal preference. I believe this had to do with the promised seed.

 

This Canaanite woman boreJudahthree sons. When he was of age,Judahchose for his firstborn, Er, a wife; her name was Tamar. Now Tamar was not a Canaanite woman. Er did evil and died without a son, soJudahgave Tamar, as was the custom, to his next born, Onan. Onan also did evil, and he died without a son.

 

Judahsent Tamar to live with her family as a widow until his third son would be of age for her. However,Judahhad no intentions of giving her to his third son, for he thought Tamar was the curse.

 

He did not see the evil in his sons.

 

Judahdid not keep his word and did not give Tamar to his third son. Tamar knew she had been dishonored as a woman, and so she took matters into her own hands. She had heard thatJudah’s wife had died and that he was visiting in her home town, so she portrayed herself as a prostitute, andJudahwent into her.

 

 Tamar conceived.

 

When word came toJudahthat Tamar was pregnant, he was ready to have her stoned, yet Tamar was not an ignorant woman. She had askedJudahto leave her a pledge for his promised coming payment—his staff, his seal, and his cord—which he did. These items at this point and time in history were as good as DNA testing, so when Tamar laid these items at Judah’s feet in his answer as to whom she had conceived by, he knew she was more righteous than he.

 

 

ThroughJudahwould come Christ, but not through a Canaanite wife; through Tamar.

 

What I love about this twisted story is how it somehow retains its goodness in the fact that Judahnever laid with Tamar again. He took her in as his family, as an independent woman, and cared for her and his sons. He did not sin against God or Tamar again, but confessed his sin and repented and walked in righteousness before God and before her. I believe that it was at this point that God began an awesome work in the life of Judah, the son of Jacob.

 

 

 

 

Joseph’s brothers decided not to kill him. Instead they sold him, sending him toEgyptand going home and cruelly telling their father that all they found of him was his bloody tunic.

 

Joseph was sold by his brothers for twenty shekels.
Their brother’s life was only worth twenty shekels split between ten brothers.

 

Jesus was also sold: “Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?’ And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him” (Matthew 26:14–15).

 

How much harder the betrayal falls when it comes from those we thought loved us. Jesus, of course, knew his betrayal was coming, for the Scriptures would be fulfilled. In Zechariah 11:12–13 we read, “So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.’” Of course, knowing doesn’t make it any easier, nor does it make the actual act of the betrayal easier to bear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How cruel can brothers be to brothers? How cruel can man be to man? These ten grown men grab their seventeen-year-old little brother and strip him of his tunic and hurl him into a pit. They did so and then sat down to eat, as though they had done nothing wrong.

 

I am reminded of the cross when Jesus was also stripped of His garment: “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments” (John 19:23). Just as the brothers sat down to eat as though they had done nothing wrong, so these soldiers sat at the foot of the cross of Christ and gambled for His garment as though they had done nothing wrong.

 

We read this part of Joseph’s life, and this part of the life of Christ on this earth, and it is so evident how desperately we need a Savior. We read in Ecclesiastes 7:20 that “indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.”

 

We all need a Savior.

 

I finally understood the full depravity of man when I was in Poland. I walked through the gates of Auschwitzand Majdonek and stood in the court of the Warsaw Ghetto while hearing from the lips of Holocaust survivors what they had experienced in these places. What shocked me the most was not just what they experienced by the hands of the Nazis, but what they experienced from those whom they had once called friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I read this scripture and I am reminded of John 3:35: “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.” Joseph’s brothers knew that their father loved him more than he did them, and they hated Joseph for it.

 

Joseph was a picture of the coming Christ. Of course he was to be hated, “for everyone who does evil hates the Light” ( John 3:20). Joseph’s brothers hated him so much they could not even speak to him on friendly terms.

 

When we read this chapter of Genesis, we discover that Joseph was a man whom God spoke to through his dreams. Joseph has two dreams that are very similar in nature. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers were in a field binding sheaves. Joseph’s sheave stood erect, and then his brothers’ sheaves bowed down before it. In the second dream, the sun, moon, and eleven stars all bowed down to Joseph.

 

It amazes me that Joseph even felt comfortable enough to share his dreams with these men who hated him. Perhaps he was actually this naive; perhaps he truly had no clue what these dreams meant and was seeking help. Maybe he saw these dreams as an opportunity to say to his brothers that it really didn’t matter if they hated him because one day they would bow down to him. The Scriptures do not give us insight into the motive behind Joseph sharing his dreams with his brothers; we just know he did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We now begin the story of Joseph—the firstborn of Rachel, Jacob’s most favored son from his most loved wife. There is so much to learn from the life of Joseph. He is the most accurate picture of Christ in the Old Testament; the similarities and the foreshadowing are eye opening.

 

One thing that still amazes me is that God, in his sovereignty, chose for Christ to come through the line of Judah as opposed to the line of Joseph. At this point, by all human merit and reasoning, Judah is far from holiness and righteousness and justice. Yet God does not work according to human reasoning; His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8).

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entire chapter is dedicated to the descendants of Esau by his three wives. As we read through this list of genealogy, we see the names of so many nations that are enemies to the nation ofIsrael, from past history to present day. It never ceases to amaze me the weight that our choices have on our future and on the future of our children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Genesis 31:28 Jacob wrestled with the angel. When Jacob cried out for the blessing, the angel said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”

 

The Lord has given him this new name. This new name points us toward the nation that God said He would make through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We will see Jacob andIsraelinterchanged throughout the rest of the Scriptures.

 

Here in Genesis 35, God addresses Jacob asIsrael. God reminds him that a nation and a company of nations will come from him, and kings also shall come from him. And what we know today is that the King of kings shall come from him.

 

Israelis on his way home, to the land of his fathers. Rachel again conceives a child. Possibly, her pregnancy was one of the reasons that Jacob chose to set up camp at Shechem.

 

On the journey from Shechem toBethel, Rachel goes into labor. They have to stop at Ephrath, which today is calledBethlehem. Let that sink in for a moment. I believe it is no accident that Rachel goes into labor inBethlehem.

 

The Prophet Micah declared,

 

 

Rachel has trouble in her labor. The midwife tries to encourage her by telling her she has another son. Rachel, however, knows that she is dying; her last words are in the naming of her son. She names him Ben-oni, which means “the son of my sorrow.” Jacob, however, changes his name and calls him Benjamin, which means “the son of my right hand.”

 

There are no coincidences with God. In the birth of this son, God gives us a beautiful picture of the comings of Christ. When Jesus came to the earth the first time, he came as the son of sorrow. He came to bear our sin and the sins of the world on His shoulders. He came the first time to die a substitutional death on the cross.

 

Oh, but, precious one, rejoice because He also is Benjamin, the Son of God’s right hand. “When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). When Jesus comes again, He will come in all His glory.

 

 

 

Amen.

 

After the slaughter at Shechem, God comes to Jacob and tells him, once again, to go to Betheland live there. God also says to build there an altar, but first Jacob and his family have business to attend to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How dangerous it is for us to stop short of total obedience to God’s Word. We must never settle with “almost” and “close enough” when following the Lord. How careful we must be not to set up camp outside the umbrella of His will.

 

God does not hide from us the consequences of being outside His will. God does not hide the faults of His people. He does not sugarcoat the recording of the history of His people.

 

Jacob stopped short of where God called him to go, and now we are seeing the results. Dinah is raped, and things are about to get even worse. Shechem wants to marry Dinah, so he and his father come to Jacob to work out the arrangements. Dinah’s brothers speak deceitfully to Shechem and his father.

 

My friend, our children are watching us. Do you see the way of deception passing from generation to generation? Laban was a deceiver, as was his niece Rebekah, as was her son Jacob, and now we see, so were the sons of Jacob.

 

They devised a plan, claiming that Shechem and all the men of his land were to become like them and be circumcised, and then they would allow the marriage. Then they could all live peacefully together as one people.

 

When the men of the city complied with the circumcision (basically because they thought they would eventually end up with all that Jacob owned) and were in great pain, Simeon and Levi came in and attacked the city and killed every male, including Shechem and his father. They then took Dinah, along with all the wealth and possessions of the city, including all the women and children, and they returned to Jacob.

 

Jacob is not happy with his sons, and he scolds them for they have put the entire family in danger; yet Simeon and Levi show no remorse: “Should he treat our sister as a harlot?” (Genesis 34:31).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob has reconciled with Esau. He is supposed to be on his way home, for God’s command was to “return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives” (Genesis 31:3). Jacob stopped for a while in Succoth, and now he has made it to Shechem, where he has bought land and pitched his tent. Here he erects an altar and names it El-Elohe-Israel, or “God the God of Israel.”

 

We don’t know why Jacob chose to stop here and set up camp. Whatever his reason, we will soon see that he stopped too soon. Perhaps he thought that by erecting the altar he could compromise with God. Perhaps he thought he was making a wise decision, yet he does not consult his God.

 

Don’t we as the church, as individuals, sometimes just do what we want to and then expect God to bless it just because we say it is for Him and His kingdom? “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). How many “good” decisions made without seeking the counsel of God have brought bad consequences?

 

One of the hardest lessons in this journey through life is that what seems good is not always right. This is the privilege, the advantage; we have in following El Elyon, God Most High. Our God knows the beginning from the end, He knows the best path, and He will guide us if we will just listen. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” ( John 16:13).

 

The bright moment here is that God is no longer just the God of Abraham and Isaac, but Jacob now proclaims Him as his God, the God of Jacob. Jacob has learned a lot about the God of his fathers in the past years, but he still has a lot to learn.

Don’t we all?