A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Pastor John Randall challenges dads to step up and lead as God would have you.

John Randall: Danger, fathers, listen. That's one of the big problems we have in the United States right now. Fatherless homes. Dads not involved. And they're not in the homes and and and there's nobody raising them and and so they're gravitating toward everything else that's there. They don't have that kind of leadership and that support and that love and that discipleship. Guys, this is our job. This is what we need to be doing as fathers in the home. Not to depart, not to run from our responsibility. The mom's got it. She's got it.

Guest (Male): We are glad you're with us as we present a daily walk with Pastor John Randall. Being betrayed by someone you love is a tough pill to swallow, but when it's your own family, it's even more devastating. As our study of Genesis continues, we resume the story of Joseph and his brothers selling him into slavery for 20 pieces of silver. While this was certainly a low point for Joseph, God would use it all of it for good. Let's join Pastor John in Genesis chapter 37.

John Randall: Genesis chapter 37. So we study God's word together. So great. I just tell you, I'm like blown away to see how many people here to study God's word on a Wednesday night. Thank you, Jesus. You know, looking at the life of Jacob, we have seen many ups and downs along his journey. We've observed the consequences of bad decisions and the byproduct of living in a a fallen world. And along the journey, Jacob had suffered some very painful experiences in his life. Maybe you've suffered some painful experiences in your own life. But Jacob for one thing was crippled.

He was awaiting the reunion with his estranged brother Esau and he was left alone that night and he was confronted by an angel and there he wrestled throughout the night until daybreak, at which point the messenger actually crippled Jacob in his hip and it disabled him and he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. He was never the same after that encounter. Jacob was supposed to return home then, but instead he disobeyed and he settled in an area called Shechem. And while dwelling there in chapter 34, we read of the tragedy and horrific crime of his only daughter Dinah being defiled.

It was so sad to see what had happened as a result. Then in chapter 35, once again Jacob was commanded to take his family now go back to Bethel. So they set out on their journey, but along the way, his wife's nurse Deborah died. They had a memorial and still on the journey Jacob was going and then later on his wife Rachel, not long after that his wife that he loved, that he labored 14 years for ultimately, she died in giving birth to her second son who he named Benjamin and they buried her along the road.

Then Jacob's oldest son Reuben had a relationship with one of his wives. Just sad, just wrong. And if that weren't painful enough, finally Jacob's father passed away. To say that it was a difficult stretch for Jacob would would really be an understatement. It was downright agonizing. And yet, God still had a plan for his life and for his descendants which now brings us to the life of Joseph, probably one of my favorite characters in the Bible, Joseph. Joseph quickly became the favored son of his father. Being that he was the first born of his deceased wife, you remember that he had a special place in Jacob's heart, the son of his youth or his old age, I should say rather.

And and Joseph was elevated above his brothers and he was given a coat, a special garment that set him apart, that represented his status in the family. Not that there was everybody get a coat. No, just Joseph. He's the only one. The rest of you guys get your own coat. They didn't get one. The coat that was given to Joseph was this vestment that was normally worn by a chieftain in the family. The coat was given to the eldest son who was to be the father's heir, but Reuben was the eldest son, but Reuben had blown it.

His status, he went way down in in because of his sins and so forth. So the eldest son was now seen to be Joseph and being that the heir, he would gain the majority of the property. He would oversee his father's possessions and be the eventual leader within his home and all of the brothers could see he was being groomed to take their father's place. He's got the coat. He's telling us what to do and dad's not holding them accountable. Not only that, if that wasn't bad enough, he keeps having dreams. They they hated the fact that that Joseph was treated differently.

His siblings the the really they just despised them because of the dreams that he had because in the dreams that he shared openly. In the dreams he was ruling over all of them. Hey guys, I had a dream and uh you guys all bowed down to me. It was great. You Did you want to hear about it? Uh No, we don't want to hear about it. He had another dream. Hey family, gather around. Hey, I had you're not going to believe this. I had another dream. And everybody was bowed down to me. Even mom and dad were all they were just I I want to tear that coat right off you.

I mean they were so angry with Joseph. And so the brothers probably just needed to get away from this guy and so they did. They go out into the fields in obedience to their father to feed the flocks and and they had some pretty good distance between them and Joseph and Jacob and the rest of the family. And that brings us to verse 12 of chapter 37. Then his brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, are are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.

And so he said to him, here I am. Then he said to him, please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks and bring back word to me. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron and he went to Shechem. Now a certain man found him and there he was wandering in the field and the man asked him saying, what are you seeking? And he said, I'm seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks. And the man said, well they departed from here and I heard them say, let us go to Dothan.

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. Jacob's family business and occupation was that of being shepherds. Jacob's sons had taken the sheep out to graze and they went from Hebron to Shechem. It's about 50 miles away. And so Jacob thinking about the fact that they went back to Shechem, you remember what happened last time they were in Shechem? They got into some real trouble. Two of the sons ended up well annihilating all the males. It was it was a real mess. And so now they're back in Shechem, probably not a good place to take the flock in light of the history that you have with that city.

So Jacob is concerned and he says, hey Joseph, I need you to go and I want you to check on your brothers. I want to check on the flocks. I heard they're in Shechem. And so I love Joseph's response when his dad calls him and his dad seeks to give him a job to do. He just says these words, here I am. Here I am. Minister to me today. I wonder if that 's our response when our father says, hey I I want I want you to do something. Here I am. I want you to travel 50 miles to Shechem.

Sorry, I can't. I can't do that. I might get my coat dirty. No, he steps right up and just says I'll I'll do it. Dad, whatever you want me to do, I'll be faithful to it. And so now he makes his way down and when he's looking for his brothers, it's probably a 5 days journey. Eventually gets there, but now it says they went on to Dothan. That's another 12 miles. And Joseph being faithful to the request of his father keeps traveling and goes and he discovers his brothers there in the north of Samaria in this place called Dothan.

But then verse 18 tells us that as soon as Joseph's brothers saw him, their resentment and hatred for him was ignited. Look at verse 18. Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him and they said to one another, look, this dreamer is coming. Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit where we shall say some wild beast has devoured him and we shall see what becomes of his dreams. But Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him.

And Reuben said to them, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and do not lay a hand on him that he might deliver him out of their hand and bring him back to his father. So it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him, cast him into a pit and the pit was empty and there was no water in it and they sat down to eat a meal.

Their hatred and resentment and envy and jealousy and spite was so dark that they were willing to murder their brother, to put him to death. That that shows you what was in their heart. Remember Jesus talked about a person who's a murderer. He has hatred in his heart toward his brother and the fact that they murder somebody only shows that they were already a murderer in their heart. This was something that was coming out of them. Let's kill him. Let's put him to death and then let's see what happens. His dreams are We're not going to let his dreams come to pass.

I am never bowing down to that little guy. There's no way. We're going to throw him into a pit. It is interesting because when you get a little bit further in the book of Genesis, there is a commentary really in the form of a confession when his brothers eventually stand before him in Egypt. This is Genesis 42 21 and this is what it says. It says they said we are truly guilty concerning our brother for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded us and we would not hear him. Therefore this distress has come upon us.

When they threw him down in that pit and actually there are pits that have been discovered that have bones inside of them that apparently that was one way that you just put somebody to death. Just leave them in a pit. There's no water. Eventually they will die. And that's what they were going to do with Joseph. Put them in that pit. There's no water. He's by himself. And what did they do? They just sat down to have a sandwich and whatever. Who cares? I mean just the the hatred that filled their heart to do these things.

They felt that by killing him and throwing him into a pit, his dreams would never come to pass in an effort that they just they tried to get rid of him and they even came up with a plan. Now Reuben as bad as he was sought to protect his brother and sought to perhaps get back in the good graces of his father. I don't know, but he realized this was dangerous and so he told his brothers to just let's just put him in a pit. Don't kill him. But then in verse 25, then they lifted up their eyes and looked and there was a company of Ishmaelites.

Remember Ishmaelites, they were the uh sons of the descendants that came from Ishmael who was the son of Hagar and Abraham. Now they have grown and populated nomadic people crossing the desert and they were coming from Gilead with their camels. They were bearing spices of balm and myrrh and on their way to carry them down to Egypt. So here comes this caravan of nomadic bedouins and while they're crossing, Judah said to his brothers, Judah comes up with the idea, what profit is there if we kill our brothers? It's not like we're going to get anything out of it basically is what he's saying and conceal his blood.

I got an idea. What should we do? Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him. He's our brother in our flesh. And his brothers listened and the Midianite traders passed by so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver and they took Joseph to Egypt. They betrayed him for pieces of silver. Sounds like somebody else, doesn't it? Sounds like Jesus betrayed by his family as it were for a few pieces of silver, 30 pieces of silver.

Here Joseph for 20. But imagine they were so hate They just We're just going to get rid of the problem. Here's how we're going to do with it. What we're going to do is we're going to Well, we're going to traffic you. Human trafficking right here. Sell him as a slave and imagine Joseph his his own kin, his own brothers selling him, exchanging the money and Joseph being dragged away and him screaming and pleading for them not to do it and it was too late and the brothers just turned their back on him and left him for dead and he was taken down to Egypt.

As far as they were concerned, that was probably the last time they would ever see him. But verse 29 it says then Reuben returned to the pit and Joseph wasn't in the pit and he tore his clothes and he returned to his brothers and he said, the lad is no more and I where shall I go? Interesting how Reuben thinks it was all about him. Uh it's not about you. What about Joseph? Not about you. But Reuben is unstable as he was turned it upon himself. The lad is no more. Where shall I go? So what they did, verse 31, they took Joseph's tunic.

They killed a kid of the goats and dipped the tunic in blood. Then they sent the tunic of many colors and they brought it to their father and said, we found this. Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not? And he recognized it as his son. He said that is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces and then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist and he mourned for his son many days and all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted for he said, I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.

Thus his father wept for him. Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, of the captain of the guard. To put this plan forward, they they had to make their dad believe that Joseph was no more and so they took his cloak, that coat that he had been given, tore it apart, put blood on it, sent it back to their dad in advance and the dad put two and two together and thought, he's dead. I mean just think of the bereavement that that Jacob has gone through. His mother's dead.

His wife is dead. His son is dead. His father is dead. That's a lot of grief for one person. That's a lot of pain to experience. And so the family comes around him trying to comfort him and you can only imagine how Jacob must have felt at this moment. Maybe you felt that sense of grief and loss in your own life. He was at the lowest possible place he could ever be. This son and and and he felt himself to blame. He was the one that sent him out. It's my fault. I did this and he he bears the guilt of it.

It's an extreme tragedy and Jacob thinking if only I hadn't sent him out or or questioning asking God, how about this? How how could you allow this to happen? Another death. Many questions, confusion, condemnation, guilt. And nobody could comfort him. But imagine all the sons knowing what's happening and watching what it did to their their father. I don't think they thought how how it would affect other people, what what they had done, how it would affect their dad, the grief that it would bring on him, the the shame that the all all that he would experience because of the decision they made.

You know, when we sin, we don't think it's going to affect anybody else. We really don't. You know, it's going to affect me. Uh it's not going to affect anybody else. However, we see here that it didn't just affect it it affected everybody. And once again Jacob is grieving over the loss of his son and he sold the Potiphar's house and you think, well, that's the end of the story. Actually it's not. There's more to the story of Joseph. But then you come to chapter 38 and I will say I will quote J. Vernon McGee on this one.

He said in his commentary on Genesis 38 that it was about as necessary as a fifth leg on a cow. My beloved probably add to that like what This is just an unnecessary chapter because the chapter does seem out of place. Joseph's been sold into slavery and you like forget about him, but it it's like it goes to another scene. Like there's another there's another story going on. Like you're watching some show and then suddenly it breaks from this one and breaks off to this other scenario that's going on at the same time and then they break back.

That's kind of what happens here and it 's an ugly story really. I mean it's just there's nothing good about it, but we leave temporarily the narrative of Joseph and we focus upon his elder brother Judah whose name means praise. You know that Jesus would come from the lion He's a lion of the tribe of Judah. Well, here's Jesus's uh Well, his relatives, his family tree. And it wasn't it wasn't the best tree out there, but Judah Look at what Look what happens. He's the one that came up with the idea to sell him to begin with, Joseph in a slavery.

But now he ends up departing from his family. Notice what it says in verse one. It came to pass at that time that Judah departed from his brothers and he visited a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shuah and he married her and went into her and she conceived and bore a son and called his name Er. And she conceived again and bore a son and called his name Onan. And she conceived again and bore a son and called his name Shelah. He was at Chezib when she bore him.

Judah leaves home. He leaves home. Why? Probably because he himself feels guilty. He knows that he is the cause of somebody else's pain and rather than confess it and bring it forward and bring it into the light, he chooses to withdraw and go into shadows into the darkness. In fact, he goes and aligns himself with the Canaanites whom were cursed. He leaves his family because he feels guilty. He goes into the darkness. You know, people do that all the time. Rather than get right and confess, you you just you run. You run from the truth.

You run into darkness and you think, I'll just get away from it. If I just get away from it, I'll never experience it. He goes down, hangs out with this Adullamite whose name was Hirah and he hooks up with an this ungodly acquaintance and then he becomes his associate and eventually his accomplice. Bad company corrupts good morals. He's hanging around the wrong people. In a spiritual sense, there is always that great danger of departing from your spiritual family in the Lord, to depart from accountability, to depart from fellowship and and because before you know it, no one's holding you accountable.

Nobody's talking to you and you're just out there, you're doing your own thing and nobody knows. And you don't want anybody to know and then you stop coming to church. Why you stop coming to church? Uh you know, I just wasn't getting fed. Oh you really? Is it you weren't getting fed or is it because you were getting fed somewhere else with the flesh perhaps? I don't know, but you bailed. And you don't anybody know what's going on so you kind of run from it and then then you run into people and you feel awkward and you see them somewhere and you want to move to another city or go to another church.

You don't want people know about all your baggage. So that's what happens to Judah. He runs and then he then he marries a pagan woman. Big mistake. And this pagan woman, she basically he has three children with her and she names the kids Er or Er, however you want to pronounce it, E R means the watcher. No doubt he watched his father's lack of interest in spiritual things and his mother's pagan lifestyle and it ended up shaping his ungodly future. Er was You'll see. And then there was Onan. His name means strength. This is what she called him.

The father's not even naming the sons by the way. He's got no He's just let just let her do it. This is What do you want to name Er? That sounds good. That's easy to remember. I'm just going to call her. No involvement. The father's not even involved. It's like he's he's not even there. He's not even a part of it. Danger, fathers, listen. That's one of the big problems we have in the United States right now. Fatherless homes. Dads not involved. And they're not in the homes and and and there's nobody raising them and and so they're gravitating toward everything else that's there.

They don't have that kind of leadership and that support and that love and that discipleship. Guys, this is our job. This is what we need to be doing as fathers in the home. Not to depart, not to run from our responsibility. The mom's got it. She's got it. She probably does. Shelah. He that breaks is what that name means. And again she named the boy Judah left the raising of the sons completely to her and and what what resulted? Well, look at what it says. He's not involved. Verse six, then Judah took a wife for Er, his first born.

Her name was Tamar. And Er, Judah's first born, was well, he was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord killed him. Okay. That didn't go well. That's serious. And Judah said to Onan, go into your brother's wife and marry her and raise up an heir to your to your brother. But Onan knew that the heir would not be his and it came to pass when he went into his brother's wife that he emitted on the ground lest he should give an heir to his brother. And this thing displeased the Lord. Therefore he killed him also.

This is a messed up family. I mean Er first of all marries Tamar and he was wicked. What what kind of wickedness he was involved with, we don't know, but it was wicked enough that God allowed him to die. I don't know what he was involved with, but it was something severe, something bad. And in culturally speaking, the brother was then to raise up an offspring in honor of his deceased brother. But Onan knowing that if he raised up someone in his brother's place, then the inheritance wouldn't be his and so he decided not to.

As it says, he did what he did here in this place and so God took care of that too. It's interesting. Just a side note here, just make a note of this. Look it up in your own time. It's rather interesting, but in Deuteronomy chapter 25 verses 5 through 10, there is an interesting Well, you know what? You got to see it. Just turn there. Turn turn to the right. Deuteronomy 25. This whole thing about raising up This is again an old Testament thing, not a new Testament thing. I just find this interesting. So one of these things you could read over and forget about it, but uh I I want you to see it.

Notice what it says in Deuteronomy 25 verse five. Now if brothers dwell together and one of them dies, all right, has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family. Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of the husband's brother to her. And it shall be that the first born son which she bears will succeed to the name of the dead brother that his name might not be blotted out of Israel. Okay. So this was this was what God did under the old covenant, old Testament.

This was something that happened. But verse seven, here's where it gets interesting. If the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate of the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Okay. Verse eight, then the elders of the city shall call him, speak to him, but if he stands firm and says, I don't want to take her, then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face and say, so shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house and his name shall be called in Israel the house of him who had his sandal removed.

It's in the Bible. Give me your sandal. No, give it to me. Spit in his face. Okay. I think twice about that and so I don't care. I'm still not going to take her that. I'm not going to You know, anyhow just mark that.

Guest (Male): That is a wrap for today's a daily walk with Pastor John Randall. Visit our website to listen to today's message again or share it with someone who might benefit by hearing it. We're at adailywalk.org. And while you're there, check out Pastor John's daily devotional. It's a video devo released each weekday morning just for you. It takes only eight minutes to watch and it's a good way to start your day or watch on your break at work. We're now able to send them to you by text if you wish. Simply text the word a daily walk to 877 242 0828 and be encouraged each morning with Pastor John.

Again 877 242 0828. Today we'd like to get an excellent resource into your hands from Pastor Charles Stanley who is now with the Lord. It's titled how to listen to God. His voice waits to be heard. You know, there are so many voices coming at us each day in the world coupled with the daily routine of life. It can sometimes leave us confused and frustrated. How do you distinguish between God's voice and all the others? And how should you respond to it? Allow Charles Stanley to help using personal experiences from his life and ministry. And of course the word of God too.

We're making it available to our a daily walk listeners for the cost of just $12 at adailywalk.org or call us 877 242 0828. That's 877 242 0828 and adailywalk.org. Here at a daily walk, we look to the Lord to provide and very often he does so through our listeners. We are very grateful for that. We know these are difficult and challenging financial times for many of you, but if God has blessed you with a little extra this month, we'd very much appreciate your support. This would be a wonderful time to hear from you. We try to make it easy to make a donation online at adailywalk.org or call 877 242 0828.

And then join us next time when Pastor John Randall picks up where we left off in our through the Bible study with another stop in Genesis here on a daily walk. This program is made possible through your generosity and brought to you by Calvary South Oceans.