20251005_IWillNotLeaveThee

[0:00] Chapter 37, we begin with verse 12 here.! Joseph.

[0:38] He said, go check on him. Go check on him. Now, has anyone... By the way, it has nothing to do with this part of the lesson or this part of God's revelation.

[0:53] But later on, much later on, we're going to see someone else who gets sent to check out his brothers and to take them stuff.

[1:04] Now, they won't be feeding sheep. They'll be fighting a battle. That's going to be David, isn't it? Jesse's going to send David to check on his brothers. So, here, Jacob says, go check on your brothers, see how they're doing.

[1:25] Now, Joseph has been telling them these dreams, right? And he's already been the goody two-shoes of the family.

[1:38] He's been daddy's favorite. He gets the cool coat. So, he's going to check on his brothers.

[1:50] So, what happens? Well, let me ask you this. Where is he going to go? Shechem.

[2:04] Yeah, he's got... We can't get away from there, can we? They're pasturing over near Shechem. He's going to go there. Now, does he find them?

[2:19] Not there. Why? Yeah. Somebody found him and said... He said, hey, where are my brothers pasturing the sheep?

[2:32] He said, well, they left. I heard they were going to Dothan. Dothan? Dothan? Okay. Now.

[2:50] Joseph's brothers spy him from afar, it says. So, what do they say?

[3:01] At least one. Maybe, probably all of them, but one.

[3:16] At least the way it looks. So, his brothers say... Now. They say, here comes the dreamer. Here comes the dreamer.

[3:29] Now. Why are they going to slay him? Well, they're jealous. We infer that from what we've already read.

[3:44] He's the favored one. But they actually say something in there that gives you a big clue. We'll see what happens with these dreams now.

[3:59] Now. In this.

[4:11] In this. Situation. With Joseph coming to his brothers. They conspire to slay him. Because they intend to stop the dreams from happening.

[4:24] Right? Right? That. In this instance. That's a type of Christ, isn't it?

[4:36] Who conspired to slay Christ? And why did Satan conspire and move people in that direction?

[4:48] Because he didn't. He. He thought that the plan of God would be thwarted. If he did that. Because Peter's going to later on say.

[5:00] Had they known. Had he known. What. What was going to happen with Christ's death on the cross. He would not have.

[5:12] Killed the king. Of glory. So. In this case. It's kind of a reminder of what. Satan conspired to do to. To the Lord Jesus.

[5:23] To God's plan. We'll see what happens with God's plan. When this. When I do this. And I find some comfort. In the way God.

[5:34] Works this out. Because. What they don't know. In their. Conspiracy. Is.

[5:45] Well. We'll get to that in a minute. I. We'll get to that in a minute. Well. I'm jumping ahead. And it. It won't work very well. Okay.

[5:55] So. Reuben. Now. Remember Reuben. He's not the one that invented the sandwich.

[6:09] You knew that was coming. Didn't you. Or. I don't think he was. Reuben. But. Well.

[6:20] I'm. Reuben. Was the firstborn. But. Reuben's already done. A very. Wicked.

[6:32] Act. Remember. We don't need to rehearse it much. But. He's the one.

[6:43] That went to his father's. Wife. The. Yeah. She wasn't his blood mother.

[6:53] But. She was still his father's wife. Secondary wife. But. Still his wife. So. Anyway.

[7:07] Here. He makes a better decision. Doesn't he? What's Reuben's idea? Okay.

[7:23] What. Why does Reuben say. Let's not kill him. Let's just throw him here in this pit. What's. What's Reuben's statement? Oh.

[7:40] Well. I'm sorry. He said. We don't need to shed his blood. He is our kin. Right? Now.

[7:53] Was that Reuben's real plan. Just to avoid. Being the one that killed Jacob. What was Reuben's real plan? Reuben's plan.

[8:05] What's the idea of Reuben's plan? What's the idea of Reuben's plan? What's the idea of Reuben's plan? What's the idea of Reuben's plan? yep that's a pretty good guess since he said it explicitly right he said reuben's plan is i'm going to convince him to put him in this pit and then later on when i have an opportunity i'm going to go fetch him out and say get home he intends to restore him back to jacob okay well good for you reuben that's a that's a better idea now did that work out i'm sorry no what happened well they did put him in the pit fortunately there was no water in it they didn't drown him but okay what was judah's idea yeah what profit is it to us if we kill him let's i mean we're on this rampage anyway we may as well i know that he probably didn't consider it a rampage but we're we're on this plan anyway we may as well make a buck why did he say that well they see somebody who'd they see see they threw him in a pit and they sat down to eat now it doesn't mean instantaneously but they're they're joseph over here in this cistern what probably had been dug as a well but didn't produce so he's down in there that it can't be just a shallow dip it's not like our waterway is it because you could walk out of that he can't get out so they throw him in there sometime after that they sit they're sitting together eating and they see something what do they see i'm sorry yep that's what they're called they see a caravan moving through these are traders now they trade in spices in food and in people we're we're i'm an entrepreneur and i'll work at anything right but so they trade in people as well by the way the word of god does deal in the old testament the mosaic law deals with slavery and how people were to handle their slaves and god did not tell israel that they could not have slaves if they had slaves they had to but well they had to buy them or they had to capture them in battle they were part of a a spoil of war what were they not allowed to do in fact if i did it i was to be killed what were they not allowed to do

[12:08] no they could do that that that's covered in the jubilee business you could a man could sell his son or his daughter into servitude but will not go they they had to be released every seven years but the one thing they weren't allowed to do was to go slave hunting they were not allowed to raid specifically to get slaves that was that was a capital offense so god said yeah when you have slaves if you have slaves this is how you treat them if their slave is an israelite this is how this is when you let them go they have to be returned so their purchase price is dependent upon how many years to jubilee if you have a if then there were there were rules about it a person who gave himself lifelong for for his slavery he had to bore a hole in his ear um but beyond that they were told specifically you don't go raiding specifically to take slaves they it your scripture will call that at least king james calls it man stealing so that was prohibited so back to the ishmaelites so they see a caravan coming they recognize them as traitors why do they call them ishmaelites by the way they're descendants of ishmael and we know that they're of what what particular tribe from ishmael yeah they're they're of the tribe of midian they're midianites so that term is used interchangeably so the midianites were ishmaelites so why do you talk about

[14:41] Huh.

[15:01] So, in any case, these are traders, and they're heading south.

[15:13] What's south? Egypt. They're heading to Egypt. So, now, what's Judah's idea? Let's sell him.

[15:32] Let's make a buck. Oh, by the way, Judah's going to be the family from whom the kings come.

[15:44] David's going to come out of this tribe. They got a rocky start, didn't they? Okay. So, Judah says, let's sell him.

[15:57] The other guy said, hey, we'll go for that. Good idea. So, they do that. By the way, how much, I'm sorry. Yeah, Ruben, oh, did you say Ruben didn't know?

[16:13] Yeah, Ruben didn't know it. We'll get to that in a minute. Roger's trying to spoil your story. Okay. Okay. So, by the way, just as an aside, it doesn't really matter, but they sold him for how much?

[16:36] 20 shekels or 20 pieces of silver. All right. Now, by now we are, we're at verse 28, 29.

[16:52] We know, now you can say it, we know that Ruben wasn't there. He didn't know about it. How do we know that? He came back and did what?

[17:07] He went to the pit to pull him out. He's gone. So, what does Ruben do, by the way?

[17:22] A common in this culture to rend their clothes and wail, which is what he did.

[17:33] Why? He's sad. Why is he sad? His plan didn't work. He had intended to send him back, and he says, what?

[17:47] What's to become of me? You see that part? What? He's not here. Now what do I do? So, how are they going to conceal this or explain to Dad what happened?

[18:13] Okay. They're going to say, well, we're going to try to fool Dad.

[18:33] And rather than say, well, he never showed up, we're going to say, we don't know if this is his coat.

[18:47] Is this his coat? Well, that's what they say here. In fact, verse 32, what do they say?

[19:00] Yeah. Yeah. We don't know. Is this Joseph's coat?

[19:11] We found this. It's got blood all over it. What is Jacob? What's Jacob's reaction? He said, it is Joseph's.

[19:26] What else? Yeah. Now, let's just imagine that they actually got caught right here.

[19:40] Now, you've never done this, especially as a child. But, well, I didn't actually say that he was killed, did I?

[19:55] You said that. I didn't say that. But it was obviously their intention for that, wasn't it? Once again, if I tell even a partial truth or leave out some of the truth in order to deceive you, that's as much a lie as no truth.

[20:21] Because the intention is the same thing. The intention is to mislead. We're not used to that on ads or anything anymore, are we?

[20:33] So, I think he was in the dark until after he didn't find him, but eventually he knew.

[20:52] I think he probably did. Well, it doesn't say that they told him.

[21:03] It just seems reasonable that eventually they did because he, well, that's speculation, so I'm going to stop with it.

[21:20] So, the coat is the key. Yeah, that's the, okay, now, if, by the way, Israel says, an evil beast has devoured him, I'm going to, I'm going to mourn him, I'm going to die mourning my son.

[21:54] But, when we get to chapter, providing the Lord doesn't intervene or something doesn't happen between now and then, when we get to chapter 42, it's only, what, five chapters away now.

[22:11] When we get to chapter 42, I began to wonder, did he really, believe, that's the real story.

[22:24] I'll, the hint, it has to do with calling, for Benjamin to come. So, back to, back to where we really are.

[22:35] What, what became of Joseph? Joseph. Joseph. Joseph. Okay, they sold him to Potiphar.

[22:47] Potiphar's a high-ranking officer in Pharaoh's court. He's the, he is the, he is in charge, basically, he's in charge of the royal court in Egypt, as far as the military part of it is concerned.

[23:08] So, Potiphar's high-ranking, he's the chief of the guard. And now, we take, we drop Joseph, and we go, back to Judah, and a, part of the scripture, that frankly, I was taught, for years, as a child, about Joseph, and his brothers, and being sold into Egypt, and the code of many colors, all of, I was told, lots about that.

[23:49] We didn't teach this chapter 38 much. There's a reason for it, of course. So, here we go. Here we go.

[24:02] you're in chapter 38. Judah marries a Canaanite. Now, by the way, the rest of Genesis is going to hold Joseph as the central figure.

[24:18] Now, you might accept chapter 49, possibly, but, the rest, remainder of Genesis is going to hold Joseph as the central figure.

[24:34] We take a departure here. What, we go to Judah now. What happens while Judah goes to visit?

[24:45] All right. How did, it says that Joseph went down and found a certain Adulamite.

[24:58] Now, it seems like he discovered him, but this guy's his friend. Hiram is his friend. We'll see that later. But, Hira is his name.

[25:11] And Judah saw there the daughter of another guy. So, what does Judah do?

[25:23] He marries her. He likes, he likes, she appeals to him. He marries her. Shua is her father's name.

[25:37] So, verse 3. She has a son. What's his name? Ur.

[25:51] Ur. Ur. Ur. Okay. He's first born. What else? She has another son.

[26:03] His name? Onan. Verse 4. And then, she has a third son.

[26:17] What's his name? Sheila. Shula. Isn't it? Ur. Shua? Sheila. Huh? Is that what the New American Standard says?

[26:31] I like it. I'm going to go with King. Okay. So, now there are three sons of Judah. So, we progress.

[26:49] Judah's first born. Who does he marry? Tamar. Tamar. Now, this is the first Tamar.

[27:03] There will be another Tamar much later in your time machine in Israel and she will be a daughter of David. But, that's way down the line and we're not going there today.

[27:17] So, Ur marries Tamar. And, what happens? I won't get into it right away, but were there no other evil people in the sight of the Lord?

[27:46] Okay. Just, just a question in my mind. So, God killed him. we aren't explained, we aren't told how, why he was evil in the sight of the Lord.

[28:04] We're just told that he was and God took his life. Alright? Now, what does Judah say? Okay.

[28:22] He tells the second son, you need to marry her, specifically for what? Well, yeah, to produce children for whom?

[28:34] For your brother. So, here's where it begins to get kind of ugly, doesn't it? This is, now, by the way, Leverite marriage is going to be ordered by God in Israel under the Mosaic law.

[28:56] It will be disbanded sometime there, but, or, disbanded, that was the wrong word for that, but, it will be dropped, but, early on, Leverite marriage, which is the, okay, he died, had no children.

[29:23] Therefore, the next son is to go in and take her to wife and raise up children, and those children are going to bear the lineage of the dead, of the dead man, and they will carry on the line, and by the way, just in this, I'm not saying this is the reason that this guy is going to act this way, he does know that these children are not going to be his, doesn't he?

[29:57] Does he not know that? It says specifically he knows that. So, what's his name again? Onan. So, Onan knows that they're not going to be his, but, who was the first born?

[30:19] Er. So, who's going to get the double portions of the grandchildren's heritage? Whoever, any of the children from this union, are going to inherit the big part?

[30:42] Now, I'm not saying that he said that in his mind, he just knows that the children are not going to be his. so, instead of consummating the marriage, he spills his seed upon the earth, is what he says.

[31:07] So, he doesn't really, he doesn't consummate it. Because he doesn't want children by her. so, what then happens?

[31:29] That displeased the Lord, and he killed it. I am glad I live in the day of grace. grace. Now, even then though, just one question that does come up in our minds.

[31:51] Well, not yours, but it winds up in mine. How did God choose to minister justice here? Because there were other wicked people.

[32:04] In the days of Noah, he killed everybody except Noah's family, right? He killed all the animals, except the ones that he put in the ark.

[32:22] But he doesn't do that again. In fact, he says, I'm not going to do it again. So, here, he ministers justice quickly.

[32:36] But he doesn't always. Just a couple of incidents. In Leviticus chapter 10, you don't have to turn there necessarily, I think you'll remember it.

[32:51] In Leviticus chapter 10, in the first verses, Aaron has been called to the priesthood. The anointing oil of the Lord is upon Aaron.

[33:01] Aaron, he is in the tabernacle, in the holy place. Aaron's sons are serving as priests, his two sons.

[33:14] They put what the scripture calls strange fire in their censers. That means God in the Mosaic Law, God had given them specific instructions instructions about what the incense that they burned in those censers was supposed to be.

[33:33] And he gave them specific instructions that no one else is to make that. Why?

[33:45] He says specifically, because I'm holy, and you're going to treat me as holy. Because Israel's supposed to show to the world that God is not like men.

[34:01] Later on, later on, God's going to say, by the way, to the wicked, and he's speaking through the prophets to Judah and to Israel as a whole specifically, but he said, you thought that I was altogether like you.

[34:19] That's not true. He's nothing like me, and you can be grateful. And that's not just a joke. We can be very thankful that we have a God who is eternal and holy and omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent because only that God can redeem us from our sin.

[34:47] He's the only one. Jesus was the only one because he was God incarnate, he was the only one that could pay. The flesh had to pay, but no one else's flesh would suffice.

[35:04] It had to be God. And I'm equally thankful, or at the same moment thankful, that it wasn't God's plan C.

[35:16] God's God. This one failed, I'm going to go this way. This one failed, I'm going to go this way. We are told in the scripture by the apostle Paul, this was eternally in the mind of God from the beginning.

[35:32] It was hid, it's the mystery, but it was always in God's mind. Before creation, he knew he was going to redeem a fallen world.

[35:42] I'm thankful for that. It gives me, helps me rest. Because I never have to know, or worry, is God's plan going to be upset?

[36:00] Is somebody going to stop it? Okay, but, so, Nabab and Abihu are serving, they put strange fire in their censors.

[36:13] That is, the incense that they put in their censors to burn before the Lord in the holy place was not what was prescribed. And fire came out from the altar and killed them.

[36:28] And a couple of things about this holy God. He told Moses, you tell Aaron this, you are not to rend your clothes nor mourn your son.

[36:41] The anointing oil of the Lord is on you, and you're going to stay here, and you're not going to act like you're sorry about this, because God's holy and you represent God.

[36:55] You're the high priest. You're not going to defile yourself, even for your son. He said, we'll carry him out of the camp.

[37:07] Israel will mourn for them, but not you. That's big stuff, and it's immediate. Yet, Eli's sons were wicked.

[37:23] It wasn't just not burning right incense. It was taking too much of the sacrifice. It was taking sacrifice that did, I mean, the priests ate of the sacrifices, but they were taking it before the fat was burned, and they were taking too much.

[37:45] They had specific portions they were supposed to have, and they said, no, we're going to take it now. And they were committing fornication with women who served at the tent.

[38:00] I mean, this is big stuff, but God's not going to kill them right away. He's going to wait and kill them with the Philistines. But he, by the way, it doesn't mean he doesn't take recompense at all.

[38:20] It just means he didn't do it right away. And one other one, in Genesis you remember Sodom and Gomorrah and what was going on.

[38:35] God said, I'm going to destroy them. And God destroyed them. But much later on, in Judges, a very similar thing is going to happen in Judges 19.

[38:58] In Judges 19, a very similar thing happens with the Levite and his concubine and in a man's house.

[39:11] And it's going to be the tribe of Benjamin in this town that does this. And they're going to act the same way.

[39:24] And it's a very ugly story, but there it is. God doesn't destroy them right away. He uses the other tribes to reap his vengeance.

[39:42] So, just because God does not act the same way every time does not construe to mean, number one, that he won't act.

[39:56] And number two, it can't be used to say, well, obviously this is just mythology because if he did it here, he had to do it here.

[40:08] by the way, when... I don't know if they were told the prophecy Eli was.

[40:38] But I don't know if they were. I don't know the answer to that. But I do know this. Peter will later on say, look, in the end times, there are going to be people who say, where's the promise of his coming?

[40:54] Things have gone on this way for eons. It's not really going to happen. It's always been this way. He said, that's what they said.

[41:06] I'm paraphrasing it roughly now. But he said that's what they thought before the flood too. Just because God hasn't acted doesn't mean he won't act.

[41:17] And the apostle Paul in Athens, oh my, I'm sorry, the apostle Paul in Athens, when he's talking with the philosophers in the Areopagus, he's going to say, he's going to say, look, the God who created all this, that you don't know who he is, this God has set all the boundaries, he created everything, he set the boundaries of the nations, he told them when they were going to get up, when they were going to go down, and the limits of their habitations.

[41:54] This God has set the time when the world is going to be judged by the man Christ Jesus. Now, that's a rough paraphrase, and it's taking some other verses and putting them in there, but that's what he basically tells them.

[42:11] Just because it hadn't been judged doesn't mean it's not going to be judged. And I need to remember that. And I find great comfort in that, because there is an element where, like with Jeremiah, sometimes I say, why do the wicked prosper?

[42:34] I know you never think that, but sometimes I do. Why is wickedness proliferating? Unfortunately, when you read the rest of what God said to Jeremiah, he doesn't answer, this is why I let it proliferate.

[42:54] What he says to Jeremiah is, well, if your knees get weak running against men, wait till I send you against horses. Well, thanks, Lord.

[43:05] Lord, but we have great confidence because the God of creation has it under control. And the God of creation who counts himself holy because he can't deny himself.

[43:21] He cannot pretend that I'm as important as he is. That's impossible for God because he knows truth and God is purely truth. So pretending that the creature is equal to or important like the creator is unthinkable with God.

[43:42] He can't do that. He can't lie. So I find great comfort that this God has redeemed me through Jesus Christ. That is a great hope.

[43:55] Have a great day.