Day 025 (Genesis 38-40) - Year 7

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Yesterday, we ended with Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery, and he was subsequently sold to a man named Potiphar, who worked for the king of Egypt.

Joseph's brothers led his father Jacob to believe he was dead, and Jacob was crushed.

Today, we have a brief intermission from Joseph's story where we follow what's happening happening at that time in the life of his half-brother Judah, Leah's fourth son.

Judah finds a wife from among the Canaanites.

We've seen them a lot already.

We'll continue seeing them.

They're the cursed descendants of Noah's son Ham and grandson Canaan.

They're not worshipers of God, and they currently inhabit the land God promised to give to this family.

Judah and his new wife have three sons, and he eventually arranges a marriage between his oldest son Ur and a woman named Tamar.

But Ur was wicked, so God kills him, because he's God and he knows hearts.

God is both just and merciful.

In this instance, he leans into his justice.

So if you're feeling any kind of impulse to set yourself up as a judge over God because of this, I would just encourage you to remember that he's the one who gets to make those kinds of decisions.

We've all committed treason against God and his kingdom, and we all deserve death.

So no matter what Ur did or didn't do, he got what he deserved.

The rest of us are just living on mercy.

After Ur's death, Judah gives Tamar to his second son in marriage, because if she has neither a husband nor children, it is essentially a death sentence for her in that day.

There would be no one to care for her or provide for her.

It seems like Judah is really trying to take care of Tamar, but son number two isn't having it, so he gets sneaky about it to make sure she doesn't get pregnant.

God's protection of Tamar kicks in when this happens, and God kills son number two.

Son number three is still a child at that point, so Judah tells Tamar to stick around until he's old enough to marry.

But Judah doesn't seem keen on keeping his promises, and Tamar is fearful that she will never have kids.

So she takes matters into her own hands.

We've seen this kind of thing a few times before, and we're not even a month into this reading plan yet.

For the descendants of Abraham, children are the sign of God's blessing because that's what he promised Abraham.

So to not have children was shameful for one of Abraham's descendants.

One day, after Judah's wife dies, Tamar hears he's going on a trip.

She veils herself and positions herself on the road he'd be taking.

Some theologians think she intentionally dresses like a prostitute and plans this scenario all along.

But others believe she veils herself as a reminder to Judah that he is supposed to be helping her marry his son.

Either way, when he mistakes her for a prostitute, she goes along with the ruse.

He sleeps with her, and she cleverly asks for collateral until his payment, which is a goat, could arrive.

So he gives her his signet, which is like a form of ID.

He also gives her the cord it's on and his walking staff, which is probably also personalized and unique to him.

He sends the goat to her later, but surprise, she's nowhere to be found.

A few months later, word gets out that Tamar is pregnant, and Judah orders her to be burned.

She pulls the big reveal of all Judah's personal items that he gave her, and he's busted.

Through this process, Judah is deeply humbled, and Tamar's life is spared.

Then, she gives birth to twins.

Chapter 39 zooms back in on Joseph, who's still in captivity in Egypt.

One of the first things we learn about him is that he isn't alone.

This chapter tells us four times the Lord was with Joseph.

God's nearness to him and blessing on his life makes his master Potiphar take notice.

God is causing him to succeed, so Potiphar puts him in charge of more things in hopes that more things will be successful.

It doesn't seem like this is some kind of religious move on Potiphar's part.

It isn't like he saw the blessing on Joseph's life and said, I want to worship this God who blesses you.

It just sounds like this is more of a business decision.

Still, for Joseph's sake, God blesses this, and Potiphar trusts Joseph all the more.

This falls right in line with the promise God made to the patriarchs.

By the way, that's what we call the fathers of our faith who are from this particular family, patriarchs.

The word refers specifically to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God has promised to bless those who bless them and curse those who curse them.

And now he's continuing this with Jacob's son, Joseph.

Joseph is easy on the eyes, and Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him.

She launches a repeated campaign of temptation against him, but he remains honorable.

He knows it would be a sin not just against his master and her and himself, but primarily against God.

Since her efforts at seduction aren't working, she forces herself on him, but he runs away.

Rejection hits anyone hard, but this woman takes revenge to the next level.

She uses the clothes she's torn off of him to accuse him of trying to attack her.

This is the second time Joseph has been wronged by someone who then uses his clothes to lie about him.

If I were Joseph, I might start to get a little paranoid about my clothes.

You may have noticed that she calls Joseph a Hebrew, so I wanted to explain that term briefly and why it's here in the text.

First of all, Abraham, Joseph's great-grandfather, was from Hebron, and there seems to be a close association with the people of that region generally being referred to as Hebrews.

The term Hebrew is often used interchangeably with the term Israelites, which refers to the descendants of Abraham via Jacob Israel.

So Hebrew is usually more of a geographic identifier of a person, and Israelite is often more a reference to lineage.

To further complicate this explanation, Hebrew is also the name of the language they speak.

So, when Potiphar's wife points out that Joseph is a Hebrew, she's trying to slander him.

She's leaning on the racial tension that exists between her people, the Egyptians, and Joseph's people, the Hebrews.

Despite Joseph's loyalty to Potiphar for more than a decade of service, he puts Joseph in prison.

There's not even a trial where he can defend himself because he's a Hebrew slave in Egypt, so he has no rights.

But guess what?

This is where we see two of the places that this chapter tells us the Lord, capital L-O-R-D, intimate, personal Yahweh, was with him.

We don't have any record of Joseph having personal conversations with God like his ancestors did, but God makes it clear that he's there with him.

And because God is with him, Joseph gains favor with the guards and continues to succeed even in prison.

After Joseph becomes the highest-ranking prisoner, two new prisoners show up, the king's cupbearer and chief baker.

Both of these guys have really important positions.

They have to be trustworthy because they have the responsibility of making sure the king isn't poisoned.

They're in charge of his food and beverages.

One night, they both have dreams that bum them out, and they want someone to interpret the dreams for them.

In ancient Near East culture, dreams are viewed as messages from God.

And there are lots of magicians who can try to interpret your dreams for you.

But there apparently aren't any magicians in prison.

So these two guys are stuck.

Joseph knows that only God can provide an accurate interpretation for any messages he sends via dreams.

And Joseph also knows that God is with him.

So he steps up in confidence.

He interprets the cupbearer's dream first, and it has a favorable outcome.

He'll be restored to his position in three days.

He's overjoyed.

And Joseph knows that the cupbearer's reinstatement could be the key to his own freedom as well.

So he asked the cupbearer to put in a good word for him.

Then the chief baker shares his dream, but the interpretation is not so awesome.

He's going to be killed in three days.

It's pretty clear from Joseph's interpretations that he isn't just trying to win friends by saying nice things.

The king's birthday is three days away, and everything happens just as God has said and Joseph has interpreted, both good and bad.

But the real letdown for Joseph is that the cupbearer forgets about him.

Where did you see God's character and attributes show up in today's reading?

My guide shot was in the story of Tamar and Judah and his sons.

This whole story is filled with sin from top to bottom, wickedness, fear, deception, manipulation, hypocrisy, prostitution, and or adultery.

But here's what I saw about God in this.

I saw his faithfulness.

Despite all the ways these people were unfaithful to him, he remained faithful to his promise to their family.

How do we know this?

Matthew 1 lists Judah, Tamar, and their son Perez in the lineage of Jesus.

While Scripture never endorses most of what happens in Genesis 38, God was working in all that mess to bring about the birth of the very one who would redeem us from sins like these.

That means Jesus comes from the line of Judah, which is why one of his names is the lion of Judah.

Judah was a broken man.

Tamar was a broken woman.

And we don't know a lot about their son Perez, but I'm sure he was no walk in the park either.

It all goes to show us that even though we will be unfaithful, he will continue to be faithful to every promise he has made.

He's a promise keeper, and he's where the joy is.

As you're reading and recapping the Bible with us this year, you're going to hit a lot of spots where you want to study the Bible, not just read it.

There's so much to learn, and D Group is a great spot to do that.

Here at TBR, we read through the Bible every year.

And D Group International, the D stands for Discipleship Group, is a ministry I started where we study through the Bible in a decade, one deep dive at a time.

It's an international network of men's and women's small groups that meet in churches, in homes, and even online.

We open sessions for new members every six weeks, so this is a great time to go online and learn more so you can register in time for our next session.

Find or start a D Group near you by visiting mydgroup.org or click the link in the show notes.