Genesis 35 & 36

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Genesis 35:9-29

“And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padam-Aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; 12 and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. 13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel. 16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. 17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. 18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. 19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day. 21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. 22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in the land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: 23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: 24 the sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: 25 and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: 26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padam-Aram. 27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah [Kirjath-Arba], which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. 28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. 29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”

Introduction

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED538]

“Genesis chapter 35, we have followed Jacob back to Bethel, to the place that he should have come to long ago. And there of course, not just coming back to Bethel, but he confesses, he calls the name of the place El-Bethel, not just coming back to the house of God but coming to the God of the house. And again, many times, we can simply come to the house of God and never come to the God of the house. Now he has this revelation from the God of Bethel, of the house of God. And it says, it’s interesting to note that Deborah dies, who had been Rebekah’s nurse, who had raised him. So there’s some interesting chemistry that we’re going to see in this chapter as God is finally breaking this man down to indeed be Israel.

God Re-Promises The Abrahamic Covenant, The Birthright & It’s Blessings To Jacob--And Expands It In A Mysterious Way

Verse 9 tells us “And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padam-Aram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.” (verses 9-10) God hadn’t recognized him as having returned from Padam-Aram until he got to Bethel, that was the place God told him in a dream that he would deal with him. He appeared to him in a dream, but now evidently Jacob’s conscious, his eyes are open, for the first time we’re going to read this, God appears to him here, and reveals himself as El-Shaddai, God Almighty, the God that had revealed himself to Abraham as it were. [Now Pastor Joe for some unexplained reason, skips over verse 11, which states, “And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;” Now this, along with verse 12, is part of the Abrahamic Covenant that God had made to Abraham, and then handed down to Isaac, and is now being passed on to Jacob or Israel. But a significant modifier is being added to the promise, which will appear again in Genesis 48, as Jacob is passing the birthright promises onto Josephs two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh--and that is that God was promising that the two tribes of Israel who would inherit the promises of national greatness, the birthright, would become “a nation, one great nation,” and “a company of nations.” We know those two sons of Joseph, who would go on to become the tribes of Ephraim & Manasseh, would become the birthright inheritors, whereas the tribe of Judah would receive the promise of kingship, a line of kings, which would be the line the Messiah would come from. This is clearly stated in 1^st Chronicles 5:1-2, “Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him come the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s:)” What we see here, and we’ll see it more clearly when we get to Genesis 48, is that the promises contained in the birthright, the promise of kingship, a line of kings leading to the Messiah, would be given to Judah, i.e. the line of kings leading to the Messiah would come out of the tribe of Judah. But the birthright promise of national blessings and greatness would be passed on to the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim & Manasseh (see Genesis 48). And from Genesis 35:9-12, we see that this promise of national greatness, blessings of the field, oil, wine, etc. would be passed onto “a nation,” one great nation, and “a company of nations.” For some strange reason, Pastor Joe just glossed over this, not even mentioning verse 11 of Genesis 35.] Then it says “and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.” (verse 12) [verse 12 is mentioning that the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, would be given to the twelve tribes of Israel, it’s part of the birthright promise.] And it just says “And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.” (verse 13) That’s got to be quite an experience, God is talking with him, and all of a sudden, ascends, just goes up from this meeting, his presence. “And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.” (verse 14) now no doubt consecrating the place. It’s the first time in the Bible where we have a drink offering, long before it’s mentioned in Numbers, it’s not really mentioned in Leviticus, but here’s the first drink offering we have in the Bible, poured out here at Bethel upon this pillar of stone that he sets up. [Again, some rabbis feel, along with a few other Scriptures in Genesis about Abraham, that somehow they had knowledge of the Law of God before it was codified in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. We’ll have to wait till the Wedding Feast of the Lamb to find out.] “And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.” (verse 15) Abraham had met God there also.

The Death Of Rachel Giving Birth To Benjamin

Now, we have a question, and I don’t have the answer. It feels like it took him so long to get to Bethel, I don’t know why he’s leaving Bethel now, did God give him leave? Should he have remained at Bethel, we’re not told. It just says “And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.” (verse 16) The question would be “why?” Now Ephrath is the ancient name for Bethlehem. Jacob is 105, which means that she he was 104 when she got pregnant, should he have remained at Bethel? She’s on no doubt the back of a camel or a donkey, she’s in hard labour, she’s going to die in this place, on the way to Bethlehem. Is Jacob for the rest of his life going to carry that in his heart? ‘If I’d have stayed at Bethel, I took my wife in the 3^rd trimester, right at the end, I loaded her up on the camel again, and I journeyed, wasn’t the right thing to do.’ These are the kind of things that people spend the rest of their lives second-guessing themselves about. Sadly, we’re that way. Sometimes I believe we have to leave those things in the hands of God, but people will second-guess themselves for their whole lives. Here, he made a decision evidently to travel, Rachel goes into hard labour, she travails, she has hard labour, “And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.” (verse 17) So no doubt she’s hemorrhaging, there’s no medical help involved, there’s no OBGYN doctor, she doesn’t have an IV, she has a midwife here with her telling her not to fear, that the boy’s going to live, the child will be born. “And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.” (verse 18) this is an unimaginable scene, these are real human beings, this is history, in life…the one that all of your affections are set upon, how he deeply loved Rachel, is dying in front of him, dying on the side of the road. “Benoni” the son of my sorrow. But his father, Jacob now, called his name Benjamin, “son of my right hand,” interesting picture. She’s dying, no doubt Jacob let her have her own way a thousand times, and in this one circumstance, as she’s bleeding out her last, she says his name is Benoni, and Jacob will say to her as she’s departing, ‘No, 12^th son, his name is going to be Benjamin, the son of my right hand.’ “And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.” (verses 19-20) and as you travel from Jerusalem down to Bethlehem, Rachel’s tomb is still memorialized there along the way. Isn’t it interesting, it says “Israel journeyed,” look at verse 21, “And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.” Jacob set up a pillar, Israel journeyed. At the end of this chapter Isaac’s going to die. Four burials, three funerals, they buried all of their idols, finally putting that behind them, buried Deborah, the woman who took care of him from the time he was a little boy. Buried Rachel, he beloved wife, he’s going to bury Isaac before the chapter’s over, his father. And for any of you here who have gone through that, a favoured spouse, a parent, you know, you can hear about those things, and you can have compassion on someone who has gone through that, but it’s one of those passages until you go through it yourself, to watch a parent take their last breath, and you say what it’s all about is on the other side of that breath. All of a sudden, nothing in this life matters. When that happens it ends all of this insanity, and where you are on the other side of that breath is all that matters. A parent goes on, and all of a sudden you’re next in line. And somehow it becomes part of God’s seminary, in his school. Somehow it becomes part of the process of cutting the attractions of earth, and causing us whether we like it or not, to loosen our grip on this world and to look more towards heaven. Jacob had wrestled with God, calling to God, God looked down at him and said ‘What’s your name?’ no doubt in my mind at least he was holding onto the LORD’s heal when God asked him that, and he said ‘Heal-catcher, same as when I was born.’ And then God took that, didn’t humiliate him, didn’t do it in front of others, and God will do that with us. And still, Jacob travels, and struggles and makes his mistakes, then finally coming to Bethel, finally being broken, and now being broken beyond human description, being broken in human experience, his beloved wife gone, his father going in this chapter, Deborah, one of the sweetest bridges to his mother Rebekah, gone, and it says Jacob sets up the pillar, but Israel journeyed. He is now a pilgrim, he is not holding onto anything else in this world. Everything that had for years had been important weren’t anything to him. Deborah’s gone, sweet, sweet Rachel is gone, his father gone in Israel, one whose governed by God, now he journeys. And he will be a remarkable pilgrim for the rest of this book when we encounter him, a broken man, not holding to this world. His sons, human lives being the most important thing to him, from this point on. Who, when someone that you love, goes on before us, it shouldn’t defeat us. Sometimes we see people who get so defeated, it looks like they have a ball and a chain, they never get it behind them, they constantly mourn, constantly mourn. What it should do, is it should spur us onward. It should put fuel in our spiritual tank, it should make us realize the things of earth, you know they grow strangely dim. It should cause us to set our affection on things above, in the truest sense, Jesus said lay not up treasures on earth where moth and rust doth corrode, and thieves break in and steal, but we have treasure in heaven, where moth and rust doth not corrupt and thieves don’t break in and steal, because where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be also. And when you let someone you love slip out of time into eternity, and you know at that point there’s a reunion, that they’re in the Lord’s presence, you have laid up treasure in heaven, and where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be also. And Jacob is a broken, changed man, he is truly Israel now, journeying. Now, you will take note, as you go through the Old Testament, the name Jacob and the name Israel interchanges, when Israel as a nation or the man is walking before the LORD it’s Israel, where it’s struggle and rebellion it is Jacob. But here it says “And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.” (verse 21) “Edar” which is a little south of Bethlehem, it means “the tower of the flock.”

Reuben Has Sex With Bilhah His Father’s Concubine, His Wife Through Rachel

And we’re going to watch this man break as we come to the end of this chapter, “And it came to pass, when Israel” that’s Jacob now changed, “dwelt in the land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:” (verse 22) and the one person that may have been able to comfort him is Bilhah, Bilhah was Rachel’s handmaid, Bilhah had more of a connection to Rachel than anyone besides Benjamin and Joseph, and somehow Reuben his oldest son now by Leah, goes in and has sex with Bilhah, his concubine, his wife through Rachel. Was she compliant, part of the process? Had she been envious for years, that Jacob loved Rachel so much more than he cared about her? I don’t know. But on top of the death of Deborah and Rachel, now his oldest son, in an unimaginable sin, goes in and sleeps with Bilhah, one of his father’s wives. And it says in verse 22, “and Israel heard it.” I have news for you, it was lucky for both of them that Jacob didn’t hear it. Because if Jacob heard it, probably Bilhah and Reuben would both be dead, because Jacob was a man, and a man’s man. But he’s so broken at this point, all it says to us, “and Israel heard it.” He would carry it in his heart for years. He’s about 120 years old now, when we find him at the end of his life, leaning on his staff, prophesying over his sons, it will come out there. No one commits sexual immorality and gets away with it. No one commits sin and gets away with it. You know, it’s interesting, it gives us in the Old Testament the things that were to be acted out if someone was caught in sin. There was the Law, when there was a breaking of the Law there was a responsibility, there was a penalty to be paid. But there’s great detail given in the end of Deuteronomy that says if somebody does these things, and they’re not caught, God will deal with them, no one gets away with it, and says there the things that he will do, and sometimes they’re smitten with the botch, and with emerods, no one gets away with it. And here it just says “and Israel heard it.” Now it gives us this relative to this sin, now here’s this commentary, Moses wants to make it clear, the Holy Spirit wants to make it clear that this was the oldest son that had committed this sin, “Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: the sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padam-Aram.” (verses 22c-26) “And Jacob came to Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah [Kiriath-Arba], which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.” (verse 27) We are not told what contact he had with his father before this, we’re not certain. But here we have Jacob, 120 years old, coming to Isaac when his father was 180, and Isaac has been blind for a long time. And we wonder what this was like. And he hears that his father was dying, and here’s a man now whose daughter Dinah has been raped, his sons, Simeon and Levi have slaughtered everyone in Shechem, Deborah has died in front of him, Rachel has died in front of him, his oldest son Reuben has slept with one of his wives, Bilhah possibly part of that, and now this broken traveler, holding little in regards to this world, the one who had deceived this old blind father to try to get hold of a blessing, now in of need no blessing, comes and sits next to his father, and his father’s blind, and whatever it was like, and says ‘Dad.’ And his father was listening, hoping maybe that no doubt that Jacob and Esau would come, and when his father said ‘Who is it?’ he didn’t say ‘Esau,’ he said ‘It’s Jacob, it’s Jacob.’ And again, these are human beings, these are human beings. Maybe you have sat by the deathbed in those last hours, talking to someone, waiting for them to come to the surface and answer and respond. Jacob came to Isaac his father, there in Hebron, “And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.” 180 years, “And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.” (verses 28-29) these 120-year-old paternal twins there now, bury their father. There’s something sweet about that, them being together, Esau and Jacob. Now, how many of you read ahead, by the way? What is it with you guys, need to be scolded or something? You’re supposed to be reading ahead, those of you who have read ahead and you read chapter 36, in fact maybe some of you who read 36 stayed home tonight, I don’t know. All Scripture is inspired, Paul says, that God has purpose in it, that it is for us, for instruction, correction.

Genesis 36:1-43

“Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom. 2 Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; 3 and Bashemath Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebajoth. 4 And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Bashemath bare Reuel; 5 and Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan. 6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob. 7 For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. 8 Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom. 9 And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir: 10 these are the names of Esau’s sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau. 11 And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz. 12 And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife. 13 And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau’s wife. 14 And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: and she bare to Esau Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. 15 These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, 16 duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah. 17 And these are the sons of Reuel Esau’s son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah: these are the dukes that came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Bashemath Esau’s wife. 18 And these are the sons of Aholibamah Esau’s wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah: these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife. 19 These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes. 20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah. 21 And Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan: these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. 22 And the children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna. 23 And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. 24 And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. 25 And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah. 26 And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. 27 The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. 28 The children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran. 29 These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah, 30 duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan: these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir. 31 And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. 32 And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah. 33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead. 34 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead. 35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith. 36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead. 37 And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead. 38 And Saul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead. 39 And Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab. 40 And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, 41 duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, 42 duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar, 43 duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites.”

Who Is Esau, Edom Historically?

“There are no doubt some things to be seen in Esau’s line, that’s where we are here in chapter 36, the Holy Spirit gives us a quick overview of Esau, then moves on to Joseph for 13 chapters, and continues with Jacob’s family. But we have this quick overview of Esau, who becomes Edom, and the Edomites, and gives us the origin of the Amalekites, and we have some interesting things to take note of here, because these become perennial enemies of their own brother, of Israel, Jacob and Esau wrestling in the womb that would go on for thousands of years. “Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom. 2 Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;” (verses 1-2) now if you go back a few chapters it gives you the first few names of Esau’s wives, you’ll notice they’re different there, no doubt Esau must have said ‘Adah, I can’t go back home with you, you’re a Canaanite anyhow,’ that was Lamech’s wife before the Flood who was an enemy of God, and Isaac and Rebekah were grieved anyhow that he took heathen pagan wives, idolatrous wives, so now evidently we get their image with their proper names as we go through this, so “Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;” (verse 2) “Aholibamah” sounds like she should be the wife politician, doesn’t it? What a remarkable name. Who has a little girl and says ‘Honey, what do you think we should call her? I love this Aholibamah name,’ ‘I was thinking the same thing.’ Now we find out in verse 20, “these are the sons of Seir the Horite who inhabited the land; Lotan and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah.” We find out that she is of Horite lineage, they were tied to the Anakim, so Aholibamah has named into her lineage this demonic perversion that is hard for us to understand sometimes, she is of the Horites. So Aholibamah, her name means “tent of the high place,” most scholars feel that she was a temple prostitute, that Esau encountered her there, they had part of the lineage of the giants in her genes, she must have been a big, attractive women. And we’re going to find out she had more sons than his other two wives, she must have been his favourite, but she has Horite lineage. And no doubt through Aholibamah he ends up back on the other side of the Jordan River in the area of Petra. It is very interesting because when we read this, Esau bares all of his sons in Canaan, and then takes them to the other side and inhabits Petra, where we’re told in Deuteronomy chapter 2, verses 12 and 20 to 22 that Esau wipes out the whole Horims and the Horites and the giants, the Zamzummims, that he wipes them out and takes over that area. So he has all his sons in Canaan and moves them out of the land. Jacob has all of his sons except Benjamin outside the land, and moves them all back into the land. It’s interesting to watch these men and their differences. “The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the LORD gave unto them.” (Deuteronomy 2:12) But it says he married “Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and Bashemath Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebajoth.” (verses 2c-3) So you remember they saw that Esau, that Isaac and Rebekah were pleased because Jacob had left to go back to Padam-Aram, and seeing that, he went and took a daughter of Ishmael thinking ‘Well she’s in the family, my parents will be happy,’ and he marries Bashemath. “And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Bashemath bare Reuel; and Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan.” (verses 4-5) not the Eliphaz from the Book of Job. They each have one son, but Aholibamah bare Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah. Ah, I’m not going to punish you all the way through this, so stick with me. “And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob. For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.” (verses 6-7) So both of them so extremely wealthy and so extremely prospered, that Esau no doubt, with the encouragement of Aholibamah goes across the Jordan and goes to the area of Mount Seir, which is Petra, where her father was part of the royal line that was there, and he gets involved in that family, and finally ends up wiping them all out and himself being the leading figure. It tells us in verse 8 “Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.” Then it tells us clearly “Esau is Edom.” So what we find out here in the beginning of this chapter, the Edomite race is comprised of Canaanites, Horites and Ishmaelites, it’s the union of those three that produce the Edomites. [I did some research into who Esau and the Edomites became, and it is quite fascinating, as six or seven of the Edomite kings, called dukes, made up the ancient Persian royal line, they’re listed as the first kings of ancient Persia, showing that Esau, or the Edomites started a migration, even from Petra to what was and is the land of Persia. But they didn’t remain there, as they were both warlike and nomadic. This study brings us to the beginning of our secular historic trail. Two names stand out here in the king list, Husham and the grand-daughter of another king whose name was Mezahab (Me Zahab). Why? Because they are found on the ancient list of kings for ancient Persia [Persia and the Elamites before Cyrus]. From here on out we’re going to walk through secular history to trace where the Edomites traveled to in a swath of conquering destruction on horseback. Now that king list we just read gives us the foundation from which we will be able to trace the race which descended from Esau, which conquered halfway across the globe at various times in history. This is the history of the Turkic people, as well as a branch called the Idumeans, which tended to stay around Edom and Judea in the times of the kings of Judah and Judea under the Maccabees. We will trace through all of this to the best of my ability and others who have sleuthed this out, taking us right up to now with the Israeli-Palestinian problems of today. For this research study, see: https://unityinchrist.com/prophets/edom/Edom%20in%20Prophecy%201.html and, https://unityinchrist.com/prophets/edom/Edom%20in%20Prophecy%202.html] “And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir:” (verse 9) it goes down the list, these are the names of Esau’s sons, then it tells us Eliphaz. Down in verse 12 it tells us about Timna, “And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife.” (verse 12) So Amalek, the grandson of Esau, Amalek Moses takes note of here, become a perennial enemy of Israel. Those of you who saw ‘One Night With the King’ the story of Esther, you know there was a problem there with Amalek, because Saul when he had opportunity did not wipe them out, that was the Amalekites. “And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau’s wife.” (verse 13) Ah, verse 14, “And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: and she bare to Esau Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah.” Now, verse 15, these are the Dukes of Hazard, take notice here, “These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah. And these are the sons of Reuel Esau’s son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah: these are the dukes that came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Bashemath Esau’s wife. And these are the sons of Aholibamah Esau’s wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah: these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife. These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes.” (verses 15-19) I like duke Zepho, there should be duke Groucho. It tells us again, the dukes, the royal lines that came from the family. “These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah. And Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan: these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. And the children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna. And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah. And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. The children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran. These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah, duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan: these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir. And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.” (verses 20-31) Ah, points of interest, verse 31, and by the way when you do read through this on your own, and I know you will, I know you’re a little perturbed with me when I’m passing over so much territory. You’ll notice that there’s at least two female dukes in here. And then there’s some matriarchal tribes that were ruled by women, powerful as you go through this too. “And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.” (verse 31) It’s telling us that they had kings before Israel had kings, “And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah. And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead. And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead. And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith. And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead. And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead. And Saul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead. And Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab. And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar, duke Magdiel, duke Iram:” (verses 32-42) and down to verse 43 it finally tells us now “these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitation in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites.” (verse 43) Now Herod of course, Herod the Great that slaughtered the innocents, claimed to be the last of the Edomite line, ah, taking us through this, then we’re done with it, we run into them in history, the Edomites, the Amalekites and so forth, but this gives us the basis for it. [but we know this isn’t true, Herod was not the last Edomite by a longshot, because you have the prophecy of Obediah, who was an Edomite Minor Prophet whose prophecies include Edom all the way to the 2^nd Coming of Jesus Christ, and Edom and the Edomites, whoever they are (see those two links I gave above) has played a lot into world history, and current events in the Middle East. Edomites make up a large portion of Siberia, all of Turkey, and even Palestinians. So be sure to log onto that study and read it, it’s fascinating.]

Genesis 37:1-11

“And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. 5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. 6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: 7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. 8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. 9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11 And his brethren envied him: but his father observed the saying.”

Introduction

“Now we come to chapter 37, and we encounter Joseph. Joseph is the main character developed in the Book of Genesis. Not of the tribe of Judah, the Messianic line, but one of the other sons of Jacob [one of the two sons born to Jacob from Rachel]. One fourth of the Book of Genesis is dedicated to him, 13 chapters. And you look at that and think ‘I wonder if Jokebed,’ Jokebed was the mother of Moses, if you remember, and we’ll be reminded as we get to Exodus, she gave birth to this son, and the Egyptians had commanded the midwives to throw the babies, male children into the river and drawn them, and Jokebed put him in this little bed of reeds and pitched it, and put him out into the river, and Pharaoh’s daughter found him [Hatshepsut, see https://unityinchrist.com/lamb/exodus1.html], and named him Moses. We don’t know what his real name was [Mose’ in Egyptian means “son of” as in Thutmose, “son of Thut.” Since the Egyptians didn’t know what his name was, they simply called him Mose’], we only have the name the Pharaoh’s daughter gave to him [which was Mose’]. Pharaoh’s daughter gives him back to his mother Jokebed, to nurse as a midwife until he’s weaned, and then Pharaoh’s daughter is going to take him back into the palace in Egypt. And as we look at that we wonder if Joseph is the personality that over and over and over Jokebed talked to her son about, how he was in the palace in Egypt, how he was next to Pharaoh, how he stayed true to the Living God, how he didn’t let bitterness rule his life. Over and over and over she must have talked to little Moses before the Pharaoh’s daughter came for him, and instructed him over and over. Because as he writes this, and the Holy Spirit uses him to write this, it is this life of Joseph that is displayed and stretched out in front of us.

Now We Have Joseph, A Very Special Lad Presented To Us

Verse 1 says, “And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.” (verses 1-2) He came back and told his father about what they were doing wrong. We have this interesting picture. Here’s Joseph, 17-years-old, it says, verse 3, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.” and his brothers hated him because of that. Now look, son of his old age, what a remarkable thing. Joseph again, grows up under Israel more than under Jacob. And he must have sat and talked with his father, because Jacob’s over 120 years old here. I remember my grandfather, when I was little, 1957, 1958, 78 years old, we’d sit on the sofa in the living room and he’d talk with us. I remember his suspenders, his brown slippers, his brown cords, came across the North Atlantic in a sailboat to this country, an immigrant. He worked shoveling coal until he was 70 years old, I remember he was close to 80 he still had biceps and triceps. And he was just tickled, I would sit next to him and ask him every question, ‘What’s the biggest number in the world? How high is the sky? How much does the earth weigh?’ I mean, you know, I’m just a seven, eight year old, I’m just peppering him, and he would just laugh and talk with me, and I just loved him. He died in 1958, Thanksgiving morning I remember, as an 8-year-old watching them carry him out of the house, that was the first time I saw my father break down and weep. He had a picture of Jesus in his room, I remember that, and that Christmas, he died on Thanksgiving, he’d already bought presents. He was great, too, I remember they put him in the hospital with pneumonia, and he’s old school, he’s trying bum a cigarette from somebody and he’s in an oxygen tent, so the whole hospital is upset, they’re yelling at him, screaming at him, and they came in the room, there’s the IV, the oxygen tent was empty, he’s gone, they found him walking across the lawn of the hospital, with his hospital gown with the back open in the wind, and he just had it, he pulled out the IVs and walked out, you gotta love a guy like this. But I remember that Christmas when I was 8-years-old under the tree there was a present from Grandpa, and it was a Bible. What must it have been like for Joseph to be the son of his father’s old age. He must have said, ‘Tell me again, tell me about Grandpa, tell me about Abraham, tell me about your Dad. Tell me the story about the goat hair on your hands.’ He must have said ‘Son, I was so wrong, my brother hated my guts,’ ‘But there was a dream, it was a dream that changed the course of my life,’ he said ‘Tell me about the Ladder again,’ ‘Yes, it was that Ladder going up to heaven, and God spoke to me then, said that he would bless me, that he would keep me, that he would prosper me, and bring me back again, he was so gracious to me, I was such a knucklehead, I was a jerk. But that dream, it changed the course of my life, I worked for seven years for your mom, I loved her so deeply, and I woke up in the morning, there was your Aunt Leah next to me [laughter], and I worked for seven more years, and six more after that, twenty years later, God spoke to me, we moved out of there, blessed me,’ setting this young boy up. Through this chapter his life would be changed by a dream, Joseph, and again, hated by his brothers. He’d go to Potipher’s house and labour for years, and then be betrayed and thrown into prison, and of course finally brought out. It would replay Jacob’s life in so many ways, but it was Israel who was talking to him. And no doubt rather than complaining, Israel had been talking to him about the glory and the grace of God. Listen, this 17-year-old removes all of our excuses. We are drowning in a soup of psychobabble in the Church [greater Body of Christ] today. Here we have a kid whose born into a family of four wives, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah, talk about dysfunctional. They’re all competing, he is the eleventh son in the middle of all this, so he is younger than the rest of them. Next thing he knows, they’re loaded up on camels running from Uncle Laban whose gonna come and kill them, Mom stole the idols, Rachel stole her father’s teraphim, the idols, and Uncle Laban catches up with them and says ‘I’d kill ya, but God told me not to lay a hand on ya, where’s my idols?’ And he must know by the time Laban leaves ‘Mom had the idols, I saw her sitting on them, on the camel’s saddle,’ and as they come into the land Dad says ‘Well we got away from Uncle Laban, but the bad news is Uncle Hairy is here.’ What are the impressions on a little kid? They finally get past Esau, he must have been crying, his father sends him out into the night with the droves of sheep and cattle, finally that situation calms down, his father comes limping, saying ‘God wrestled with me.’ His older sister Dinah gets raped by the prince in Shechem, his two older brothers Simeon and Levi slaughter all of the men, murder all of the men in the town. They have to flee from there, his father’s angry, he’s yelling at the boys, ‘You made us stink in the nostrils of the Canaanites, what’s going to happen to us?’ He finally gets back to Bethel, watches his father, and no doubt these are the things that resonated in the heart of Joseph, he watched his father get rid of all of the idols, he watched his father come to the point where he stood up and said ‘That’s it! Get rid of all of the idols, cleanse yourselves, change your garments,’ and he watched his father worship at Bethel. And no doubt it resonated in his heart, things were planted there. He watched Deborah die, he watched his mother die on the side of the road, his oldest brother had sex with one of his father’s wives, he would be thrown in a pit, hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, into Potipher’s house. And when an opportunity comes to sin, where so many others would have said ‘Why not? I sleep with Potipher’s wife, I get a promotion, why should I trust God with everything that’s gone on in my life? look at the home I grew up in, I have all of these memories, all of this abuse took place, and all of this stuff. Why should I ever trust this God my father talked about, why should I ever do that? My life is filled with pain, I need to see a shrink, I need a mood-ring, I need to talk to somebody, I need medication, why shouldn’t I be with Potipher’s wife.’ This young guy says “Far be it from me that I should sin against God,” he’s 17-years-old. And you in this room who are 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 50, Joseph takes away all of our excuses. He doesn’t have a New Testament, it doesn’t ever tell us anywhere that God appears to him, he doesn’t have the Old Testament, he doesn’t have the Scripture to sit with every morning, he doesn’t have the freedom to lift his heart to heaven and say Abba, Father. And let me tell you something, when I look at this, I’m not impressed with the detail on the page, what blows my mind is that the God of heaven would stoop down and preserve this and hand it to us in our day, that Almighty God would care enough about young people that have been abused and injured and brought up in difficult home, and would take a life and hold it in front of us, and say ‘You can stand up against the tide of this world, and you can be sterling in your character, you can change the course of the world, one life, that God would care about to stoop down where there’s abuse and there’s trouble in the home, and there’s divorce, and when there’s all of these things, that he would care enough to stoop down, it’s the God of the details,’ and put these things in front of us. And he takes this young man, Joseph, 17 years old, and he’s going to give him a dream, a vision. Do you realize if you’re 16 or 17 years old here, or 30 or 50, God can intervene in your life in a supernatural way? He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. Joseph is 17 years old, his father loves him more than his brothers, no doubt that’s wrong. But there was something about this young man, no doubt, Israel, the Pilgrim, the one who had let go of this world, sees something in this young man he’s crazy about. And yet, he doesn’t say ‘You stay here in the tent with me, and let your older brothers work.’ He says ‘You go out there, you work, you learn to be a shepherd, you learn the trade, you get your hands dirty, you learn how to work, you learn how to do something.’ He’s not babying him in that sense, he’s not given special treatment. Not only that, he sends him out with the sons Zilpah and Bilhah, not even with the sons of Leah, sends him out with the sons of the handmaids, and at 17 years old those sons, older than him, are doing something they shouldn’t be doing. Now let me tell you something about peer pressure, this kid does not conform, he doesn’t go to a high school, he doesn’t have a whole boatload of friends that are smokin’ dope or watching MTV or huffing glue or something, he’s got these four older brothers, they’re his friends, those are his peers. No doubt their influence is great, anybody with older brothers knows that. And they’re doing something they shouldn’t be doing, and this young man, without the benefit of the Holy Spirit or without the benefit of the New Testament, without the benefit of the Old Testament, with every possible disadvantage that we could possibly imagine, because his heart is towards God, this young man says no. [Comment: there is nothing in Scripture to indicate that God is not filling Joseph with his Holy Spirit, that is a Calvary Chapel doctrinal interpretation that implies that the Holy Spirit never indwelt people in the Old Testament, whereas you have these examples, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, and all the Old Testament prophets that plainly exhibit the fruits of having the Holy Spirit indwelling them. I’d say Joseph had God’s Holy Spirit indwelling him. He’s exemplifying the fruits of God’s Holy Spirit.] He actually comes back to his father and reports to his father what’s wrong in their behavior and what they’re doing. To me that is a remarkable picture, a remarkable picture. You have no idea, you grandparents that are here, the influence you have sitting next to some little kid in your suspenders and answering all of their ridiculous questions, you have no idea how you might touch this world, grandparents, if you’ll take a stand, and you look into the eyes of those kids and you talk to them about Christ, and what’s right in this world, what’s eternal. Who knows what you might touch, what you might change. My aunt who died a year and a half ago, at 96 years old, three hours before she died she started to cry and tell me about the first day she went to school, she was five years old, and she came home and my uncle, my real uncle, who was on his second wife, Kate, and aunt Kate drove him crazy, she drove me crazy too, I was a little kid, and he was so mad at aunt Kate, that when my aunt Marie his daughter came home from school she came running in and said ‘Daddy!’ he turned away and walked away from her. 90 years later, three hours before she died on her deathbed, it was in the front of her mind. What we do with our kids, what we say to them, how we treat them, do we tell them every day that we love them? Do we take a stand with them? You know, I never told my kids ‘You can’t do that, I’m a pastor! What are people going to think of me or your mother if you do that!?’ We never did that to them. ‘You can’t do that, because this is the rule book.’ ‘If I was a carpenter, a baseball player or a heavyweight champion of the world, this would be the book that we live by, and one day I’m going to stand before God and give him an account, and that’s why you can’t do it.’ ‘Well everybody’s doing it.’ ‘Well everybody ain’t going to heaven.’ And this is why, there’s a standard, there’s eternity, the stakes here, unimaginable. The God we serve is glorious, and he’s gracious, and when we’re a bonehead and we make all kinds of mistakes, he comes to us and says ‘I’m gonna bless you, I’m gonna keep my hand on you, I’m gonna have my way with you, I am going to wear you down. I’m gonna win, because I love you.’ And Joseph had heard over and over, the son of Jacob’s old age, the nature and the character of the God that the family served, and had fallen in love with that God, no doubt. Love, a very powerful force. “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.” (verse 3) which is signifying that he was to be preeminent among his sons for the Blessing, Reuben could no longer inherit the Blessing [and Birthright] as the oldest son. It is significant of the fact that the father was leaning towards Joseph as being the one that would be preeminent among his sons. “And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.” (verse 4) It wasn’t his fault. Imagine ten older brothers that couldn’t say anything nice to you. We have all kinds of excuses, why we couldn’t walk with Jesus, why we couldn’t do this, why we couldn’t do that. This kid’s got every dysfunctional thing on the planet cooking in his life, his heart and his mind, and he still walks with God. He removes all of our excuses. This kid would have made a psychiatrist jump out the window, if he laid on his couch long enough. Who would try to straighten that out? But God is able. Look around the room. Here we are, what a crew, what a crew, the best dysfunctional family going, here we are.

God Gives Joseph Two Prophetic Dreams, Which Only Makes His Brothers Hate Him More

“And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.” (verse 5) What a family, just happy a little family cooking here. “And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.” (verses 6-7) ‘Isn’t that a cool dream, guys?’ “And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.” (verse 8) Now it is sealing Joseph’s journey to Egypt. His dreams are important because there will be those years of famine in Egypt [and the entire Middle East], and they will indeed come during the time when Joseph is the only one of them with sheaves of grain, they will bow down in front of him. The second dream no doubt, even relative to us today, as we read Revelation chapter 12 it’s interesting, “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more;” and they probably said ‘Oh great,’ “and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” (verse 9) ‘they all bowed down in front of me,’ “And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?” (verse 10) Now Jacob understands the dream for some reason. ‘What are you talking about, Joseph? Are we going to come and bow down in front of you?’ “And his brethren envied him: but his father observed the saying.” (verse 11) His brothers envied him, be careful of envy. In Galatians chapter 5 when we read the acts of the flesh, you go through them, it’s easier from me to do it, I don’t have them memorized, it’s interesting you don’t have to have them memorized to do them. It says here “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings,” and “murders,” (Galatians 5:19-21a) Isn’t it interesting it connects strife and envy to murder, because that’s where it begins and murder is where it ends up, envy, jealousy. Don’t let it happen. It shouldn’t happen in your life. It shouldn’t happen in mine. My wife two years ago when we thought she had cancer, after the surgery, we thought she had ovarian cancer, we’re sitting at home watching a Hallmark movie in the living room, and I looked at her and said “You know what, I don’t want anything, I don’t want a bigger house, I don’t want a faster car, I don’t want more money, I don’t want any thing, and I don’t envy any man on this earth, God has blessed us so much, look at what he’s given to us and how he’s blessed us. Look at how he’s reached out to us.” Don’t let envy live in your heart…

In closing

If the Lord tarries, week after that [Thanksgiving], we’ll be back here with Joseph again, would you please read ahead, because it’s important, right in the middle it’s like a commercial break, we’re right there in the story, and right now we can’t continue, but it’s good for you to read ahead as we move into that. Pray for us this weekend, those of you who are not going to the Couple’s Retreat, those of you who are, pray for us. John and Jane had to fly back to California because his father had a valve replacement, and he’s 87 and there were some complications, they’re trying to get a flight to come back tomorrow. Pray for us this weekend, our spouses, really important time in this world as marriage is being denigrated, no one understands what it is, it’s not sacred anymore, how stupid. Pray that the relationships with our spouses would be strengthened. And Sunday we’ll be back in Matthew, Sunday evening Don McClure is going to come here with us, so I encourage you if you can, get here Sunday evening, a lot of fun…but let’s do this, let’s stand, let’s pray. I want to do several things, if you’re here and you don’t know Christ, you don’t know this God, do you believe that he doesn’t care about your really dysfunctional history, your pain, your abuse? You have no idea how wrong you are, not only that, what you’re unaware of is that he watched his own Son be abused, die on the cross to pay for your sins, when he could have stopped it all the while. He had the power to do it, and I am always filled with wonder when I think ‘What kind of love would God the Father have towards me to hear his own Son crying out and have him to remain silent?’ If a father who loved his son more than any father has ever loved his son, restrains himself, he had the means to stop the entire process, he let it continue, because you and I were at stake. That’s how much he loves us. If you don’t know that God this evening, I encourage you to make your way up after the service, we want to pray with you, we want to give you a Bible to read and some literature. If you’re here tonight, and you’re carrying this huge history of abuse and, and think God doesn’t take notice of this, or God doesn’t care, you are so wrong, you are so wrong. He would love to have you as a trophy on his mantle, a broken life made whole. He’s the mender of broken hearts. In fact Isaiah says ‘He bindeth up the broken hearted,’ and the Hebrew means that he himself applies the wrappings to the broken heart. Let him do that. As we lift our voices, as we sing this last song, I encourage you. You need to say ‘You know what God, I do not believe a word that screwball is saying, I do not believe that you care that much about me, I don’t believe that you can be a God of love and have allowed me to go through the things that I went through, so I put you on the spot right now. If you are there, and you care about me at all, and you know my heart and my life is broken, let’s see what you can do.’ Put him on the spot. I dare ya. I dare ya. Put him on the spot. Let’s pray, and let’s lift our voices…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Genesis 35:9-29, Genesis 36:1-43 and Genesis 37:1-11, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]