Joseph's Brothers Go to Egypt

Story: Joseph’s Brothers Go to Egypt

Passage: Genesis 42

Characters: Joseph, Simeon, Reuben, Benjamin, the rest of his brothers, Jacob

Summary: Jacob heard there was food in Egypt so he sent all of his sons except Benjamin to get some. They came to Joseph and bowed before him. They didn’t recognize him but he knew who they were. He treated them harshly and accused them of being spies. When they denied it he said they needed to send one man to fetch their youngest brother. He imprisoned them for three days. Then he said only one had to remain in Egypt. The brothers decided they were being punished for killing Joseph. Joseph understood everything they said. Joseph seized Simeon and sent the others on their way. They returned home and found their money was still in their sacks. They told their father what had happened and Jacob was very upset. He said he had lost Joseph and now Simeon and next would be Benjamin. Reuben stepped up and said that he would give up his own two sons if Benjamin was harmed. But Jacob refused to send Benjamin with them.

Notes: The brother’s literally looked at each other questioningly when they were told to go to Egypt. It is apparent they felt considerable guilt when Egypt was mentioned. It had been almost twenty years and they were still living with the guilt of what they had done! We see this also in their reaction to Joseph’s accusations. Jacob was a depressed and pessimistic man. He was unwilling to let Benjamin out of his sight because Joseph had “died” when he left. Now Jacob was overly protective of his favorite remaining son. The brothers bowed down to this Egyptian official. Instantly Joseph remembered his dreams. In trying to keep his dreams from coming true, Joseph’s brothers had actually enabled them to be fulfilled. God used their wickedness to further His own plan. I find it interesting that the brothers said that one was no more. They knew very well Joseph was most likely living a terrible life of slavery, but they had been living with the lie for so long, it might have become real to them. Joseph was not just messing with them. I think he wanted to know if they had changed. He was about to put their character to the test! We actually see throughout this story that Joseph was just a big softie. For example, he quickly changes his terms from imprisoning nine and sending one home to imprisoning one and sending nine home with the food. Joseph told them that he feared God before he named his terms. He wanted them to trust him and prove they were honest. I find it interesting that they automatically assumed that this trouble was the result of an unrelated sin from twenty years earlier. What they did to Joseph was obviously on their minds a lot! Joseph was overcome with emotion at this point and wept. It is obvious he still loved his brothers. I suspect he wanted to reveal himself to them but knew he wasn’t supposed to yet. He took Simeon. I don’t really know why he chose Simeon. Maybe Simeon volunteered? Maybe he was bad at Rock, Papyrus, Knife? I don’t really know. The brothers found the money in their sack and realized that now they looked like spies and thieves! They panicked. I am impressed by Reuben’s offer to give his sons up if Benjamin is harmed. It is obvious that the brothers have grown some. They blamed the money in their sacks on God. The idea of being punished was always on their minds. That must have been a terrible way to live! Jacob wasn’t much better! He said, “All this has come against me”. Jacob’s mindset was that the world was against him. Contrast that with Joseph, who went through some terrible situations, but never lost his focus. Joseph trusted God through the rough times. Jacob on the other hand appears to have lost much of that trust. Jacob also still shows incredible favoritism. The brothers must have been upset that their father would let Simeon rot in an Egyptian prison to keep their youngest brother safe. This inability to move on actually makes me think of Lord of the Rings. The Steward of Gondor could not move on from Boromirs death and let his family and kingdom go to shambles. Jacob was not a great leader, yet God chose his family out of anyone in the world to be His chosen people! This is so encouraging to me! Also in this story, I love the fact that the brothers spoke freely in Hebrew and had no idea that the guy standing with them understood everything they said!

Questions: How did the brothers react to the accusation of being spies? Was Joseph expecting to see his family? Why did Joseph not just reveal himself? Why was Simeon detained? Why was Jacob so stubborn?

Lessons: God can use a bad situation for good. God can just as easily use a messed up person for his will. We need to take comfort in that. Nothing we can do is so bad that God would refuse to want to use us. The more messed up we are, the more evident God is in our lives when we are changed. Another lesson from this passage is the negative results of guilt and grief. Jacob’s sons were messed up emotionally because of the guilt of what they did to their brother. Jacob himself was basically incapacitated because of his grief and his inability to move on. This was twenty years after he lost Joseph! We need to make sure we don’t focus on ourselves in hard times but rather focus on God!

The Defiling of Dinah

Story: The Defiling of Dinah

Passage: Genesis 34

Characters: Shechem, Hamor, Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Dinah

Summary: Dinah went to see the woman of the land. Shechem, the prince of the land saw her and slept with her. He loved her and spoke tenderly to her and wanted her as his wife. Hamor, his father went to negotiate with Jacob. Jacob’s sons were horrified. Hamor wanted to intermarry with Jacob’s family. Shechem asked what the bride price would be and Jacob’s sons said that the Hivites must circumcise themselves. They did just what Jacob’s sons asked. While they were still sore and weak, Simeon and Levi killed all the males in the city. Abraham was worried that they were now a stench to the inhabitants of the land. Simeon and Levi justified their actions by saying that their sister should not have been treated like a prostitute.

Notes: This is another ridiculous story. First of all, Dinah was visiting the women of the land. It is possible she was developing relationships with the native women. This might have been unwise of her, but she could not have seen the results coming. The Hivites did not follow God and thus their morals were not very good. Shechem saw someone he wanted, so he took her before worrying about the formalities of marriage. Hamor wanted to intermarry because he wanted to absorb Israel. If they intermarried, they would become one people and Israel’s possessions would be his. Hamor was motivated by greed, but it appears that Shechem was madly in love with Dinah. Jacob’s sons were deceitful and honestly cruel! Their plan for revenge was awful! They claimed they wanted the Hivites to be circumcised and set themselves apart like them. Shechem gladly obliged and he and his people went through this painful process. They basically temporarily disabled every man in the city for a few days. Simeon and Levi were sons of Leah and thus sisters of Dinah and I suspect they were the masterminds of this plan. They went in and killed every male in the city. God wanted the gentiles cleared from the land eventually, but that was not the motivation on Simeon and Levi. They did not kill the Hivites to keep from mixing with them. They killed them out of hatred for what was done to their sister. They plundered the city of Shechem taking everything, including their wives. This makes me wonder if they did intermarry after all. Either way, Jacob was well aware that the people in the land were not going to be very friendly anymore. But the brothers had a fierce devotion to their sister and they felt like their actions were justified.

Questions: Why was Dinah visiting the women of the land? Did Shechem truly love Dinah or was he just attracted to her? Was the only motivation of Simeon and Levi revenge for their sister? What did the other people in the land think of this incident? How did Leah react to this?

Lessons: We can learn from Simeon and Levi’s devotiong to their sister. While their reaction was way too much, we see how important their sister’s honor was and they were obviously willing to fight for her. Any males out there need to have this attitude for their sisters. In Song of Solomon we see that the beloved’s brothers were responsible for protecting their sister’s honor and purity. Women are treasures belonging to God. God entrusts them to their father and brothers for the beginning of her life and then entrusts the treasure to their husbands. Ultimately though they belong to God and as a male, our job is to keep that treasure safe for God. While this does not mean slaughtering a city for your sister, it does mean being active in her life and willing to fight for her.

Jacob's Children

Story: Jacob’s children

Passage: Genesis 29:31-30:24

Characters: Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph

Summary: The Lord saw that Leah was hated and opened her womb. Meanwhile, Rachel was barren. Leah had four sons. Rachel gave her servant to Jacob as a wife and she had two sons. Leah gave her servant to Jacob and she had two sons as well. Leah had mandrakes but gave them to Rachel in exchange for getting to spend the night with Jacob. She had another son. She ended up having one more son and then a daughter. God listened to Rachel and gave her a son.

Notes: This is basically terrible. First off, Joseph apparently hates Leah. God does not hate her however and gives her children. Her names for her children reveal the purpose behind all these kids though. It was a giant competition. Reuben was first, and his name means “See, a son”. Next was Simeon, which means “Heard”. This was because she said that the Lord had heard that she was hated. Next, she had Levi, which means, “attached” because she hoped Jacob would now be attached to her. Finally she had Judah, which means “Praise” because now she would praise the Lord. I wonder if this implies that Jacob now was noticing and caring for Leah. Rachel envied her sister. She told Jacob, “Give me children or I will die!” This was drastic, but it shows how much she envied her sister. Leah envied the love of Jacob which Rachel had and Rachel envied the kids Leah had. Both were too busy looking at their sister to notice what God had blessed them with. Jacob knew that God was the reason Rachel had no children and got mad at Rachel for blaming him. Rachel gave him her servant Bilhah. The deal was that any kids she had would count as Rachel’s. Sure enough Bilhah gave birth to Dan which means “Judge” because God had judged Rachel and heard her voice. She actually believed God was on her side in this dispute. Next Bilhah gave birth to Naphtali which means “Wrestle”. She wasn’t hiding it anymore, she knew she was wrestling with her sister and she literally named her son wrestle! I feel bad for that kid growing up when he explained his name to people! I also find it funny that Rachel decided she had prevailed! Her servant had two sons in contrast to Leah’s four! Anyway, Leah saw that Bilhah was having sons and they counted for Rachel so she gave Jacob her servant Zilpah. Zilpah gave birth to Gad which means “good fortune”. Next Zilpah gave birth to Asher which means “happy”. Leah was happy that she had more sons. She didn’t care about these kids, just that she was better than her sister. All of these sons were brought into the world as the after effects of a heated competition. Now we see a story involving mandrakes. Reuben had given Leah his mother some mandrakes, which were believed to increase fertility. Apparently Leah was even using her sons to help in this battle with her sister. Rachel asked for the mandrakes. The theory was that Jacob would be more likely to go to the sister with the mandrakes. Leah knew Rachel was basically asking to be more desirable to Jacob. So she set up a deal where Rachel could have the mandrakes as long as Leah still got Jacob. Poor Jacob had no part in this deal. When Jacob got home he was informed by Leah that he had been hired with Reuben’s mandrakes. Leah indeed got pregnant again and had Issachar which means “wages”. Leah believed that this was her reward for giving Jacob her servant. Leah had another son named Zebulun which means “honor” because she assumed that now Jacob would honor her. Leah then had a daughter named Dinah. God finally at this point allowed Rachel to bear a son named Joseph which means “May He add” and it sounds like “take away” because god took away her reproach and she wanted Him to add to her another son. Overall, this mess was totally the result of jealousy as a result of favoritism. Neither sister could look at her own blessings but rather looked at her sister’s blessings. As a result, Jacob ended up with eleven sons at this point and one daughter. There is a reason God set marriage up to be between a single woman and a single man. Later He also forbids marrying sisters. This is a perfect example of why that law makes total sense!

Questions: What did Jacob think of all this? How did the children feel when they realized they were the result of a big competition? Did Laban feel guilty that he had made Jacob marry both of his daughters?

Lessons: An important lesson I see here is to avoid jealousy and covetousness. If Rachel or Leah had focused on the ways God had blessed them and not wanted their sister’s blessing as well, this conflict would not have happened. Leah would have been happy having sons and raising them and Rachel would have been happy with the love she was receiving from Jacob. In the same way, if we are wanting to be blessed like someone else we know is, we need to stop and look at all the ways God has already blessed us.