Joseph: Teaching Series Preview

• Understanding God's covenant with Abraham and the generations that follow provides the context for everything that happens in Joseph's life.
• The Bible honestly portrays family conflict, betrayal, and failure, showing that God accomplishes His purposes through deeply flawed individuals.
• Rather than rushing to moral lessons, we're invited to sit with the tension of the narrative and watch God's redemptive purposes unfold.

Joseph Series Webpage

Weekly Reading Plan

You have to suspend judgment and seek to understand, not assume that you know what's going on, not assume that you know what is right. You have to let it be what it is. And that's one of the things that is breathtaking to me, the honesty of the scriptures around that issue. Hey, welcome back to the Grace Church Podcast. We're here in the studio this afternoon and we are previewing an upcoming teaching series actually starting this weekend.

And so just wanted to give you guys some thoughts leading into the weekend and the series. I've got Jeff Inigenberg, who serves on our worship team, also has a role there at the Taylor's campus, and Bill White, who's on our teaching team, a familiar voice. And so welcome, gentlemen. Glad you guys are here. Thanks for having us.

Well, Bill, why don't you lead us, tell us what we're going to be doing and why? You know, when we get to the end of the teaching series and we're always talking and dialogue and thinking ahead and Jim Taylor's, he's in charge of the schedule. So he, he's always feel more pressure than the rest of us. And because we were having a conversation about where to go next, it seemed like moving back into an Old Testament narrative. We've been, of course, we've been doing really kind of some topical thinking on biblical wisdom, which has given us a lot of freedom.

And I think that that's been a good thing. We finished up a big expositional series of a New Testament letter and some real practical things coming out of that. And so there is something about grounding ourselves in these ancient stories that are from a different culture and seeing how that orients us. And it had been a while since we had surveyed Joseph. And I in particular really wanted to teach this section of Genesis. I think trying to teach through the whole book of Genesis and all the different questions that asked.

It's, it's a push, it's a lot. But taking a section and you have these cycles of narratives and Joseph narrative is so interesting because it is the maturing of the Abrahamic promises in many ways. It is preparing the way for the Exodus. It's getting people into Egypt and and you get to see the brokenness, how God's powerfully working with the brokenness of the people of God and how they started.

So there's all this humility. It is the furthest thing from a hero tale. It it shows just radical pettiness. And so it's, it really is a great way to see how God is at work doing amazing things in really broken places. And I think the idea that the mainstream of God's blessing in the world passes through this dysfunction of this one generation is pretty breathtaking.

And so I think it's helpful for us pastorally, is helpful for us to think about our own lives and the brokenness of our own lives. There's just a lot of immediate application, but it's also very troubling. You know, there's a lot of moral ambiguity. It requires a lot of us as readers, as listeners, and I think that's good for us.

But there is this gospel thread that runs through the middle of it that people are going to see as we work our way through and get to the end, that even in all the brokenness, other people may intend things to be harmful, but God intends it for good, for the saving of many. That's kind of the main thing that runs through here. And I think the idea of being able to get ourselves oriented to that would be helpful for us as a people in the midst of what legitimately is a turbulent time in our society.

And especially for people who are dealing with some broken, some generational brokenness in their own life. And they're living in a very unsettled political time. Right. And I just think this story is very comforting. Yeah. OK.

If you're in that kind of context. Yeah. And so, Jeff, you know, people think Joseph, they probably have a couple images, whether it's could have many colors or him interpreting dreams, there's a lot of lot of narrative there.

But what would be the best starting point? Where would we want people to start really, in their understanding of the story, Joseph. I think it's helpful to at least rewind back to the Abrahamic covenant, the promises God makes there. This is in response to what has happened earlier in Genesis with the rebellion of Adam and Eve bringing sin into the world.

And so how is God going to deal with the sin infecting this broken world? It's through the promises he's making to Abraham. He's promising Abraham to make him a great nation. And really it's through Abraham's descendants, this nation that he's going to build, that he's going to bring great blessing not only to Abraham's family, but to all families on earth.

And so as as this is the promise that God has set out, he is taking it upon himself, the way that he ratifies that covenant, that he's going to make sure that this happens no matter what Abraham's participation is in it or not, you know, he's going to make sure this happens. Going to be true to his word. That's right. That's right.

And so then we, as we're going through Genesis, getting to the point of Joseph, we're tracking with Abraham's family and seeing how these promises are passed from Abraham to Isaac, from Isaac to Jacob, and then from Jacob to his his sons. And it's just fascinating because these, this family, there are many moments of great faith of, of some great examples for us of, of how they respond the Lord and to his promises. But there are also a lot of times where they are taking matters in their own hands, trying to manufacture God's promises on their own.

They have all kinds of rivalry and strife within their family, a lot of contention. And, and all this is, is the context and climate into which Joseph appears on the scene in right in Genesis. And so that that is the backdrop and I, I think it starts to raise questions about how is God going to accomplish his promises and his purposes when this family is in oftentimes this kind of disarray. Yeah, and I'm sure this will be in the reading plan and we do encourage you to follow along with the reading plan each week.

But we could go back and we're talking Genesis 12 for Abrahamic covenant. That's right make your descendants is number as many as the stars in the sky. There's there's promises there of land and all kinds of good stuff.

So that's it. That's a great place. If, if you're if you're hearing that and you're like, I feel like I should know what Jeff talking about here. Just go just as 12. You can start there, do a little preview.

So then as we think about some of these characters, think about some of the, I think you both talked about kind of messiness and taking matters in their own hands. What, what kind of stories are we? Are we seeing? What kind of a preview for us? What, what that might be? You look alike.

Yeah, Even leading up to just, if you have, what's happened between Jacob and Esau, their rivalry, the way that Jacob's deception brought such hatred from Esau toward him. And so Jacob has to flee. You know, when you think about Jacob, he goes to his his uncle Laban and ends up marrying those daughters, Leah and Rachel. And there's a crazy story of deception there. And now you have Jacob's wives, Leah and Rachel. They are in contention and rival with each other, trying to win Jacob's love.

And so even the way that the brothers, Joseph and his brothers come about is through their competition to win Jacob's love by bearing Jacob's sons. So all kinds of a mess there. So, I mean, it presents a little bit of challenge because, you know, we're sitting here in our nice, you know, air conditioned homes at the, you know, middle of the summer reading, showing up at church with our Western mindset. Are we looking for heroes, Bill? I mean, you're going to be discouraged if you are.

And but the encouraging thing and all of that is if if you can suspend judgment. And I think this is one of the most difficult things about understanding any good literature, getting any story, even being in a healthy relationship, is you have to suspend judgment and seek to understand, not assume that you know what's going on, not assume that you know what is right, not assume that you know how much sin is in what someone else does, how much weakness plays into that. You just, you have to let it be what it is.

And that's one of the things that is breathtaking to me, the honesty of the scriptures around that issue. So yeah, I mean, you, you have this family that is torn by rivalry and strife. You have women who are competing with one another, who have a basically an arms race of children. You have women who are taking their handmaids and and using them.

So you know, you have men abusing women and treating them as sexual objects. You have women treating women as sexual objects in order to gain favor and layer leverage within a family because children will wealth in that culture, especially sons and and then you have men. I mean, the story of Judah is a great story right at the beginning of, of this cycle of narratives who start chapter 37. And then in chapter 38, we have this story about Judah. And you wonder why is this story in here at this point?

And it's a story about Judah and how ungodly his sons are, how ungodly Judah is. And in the middle of all of that, there's this woman Tamar, who gets victimized and she has to trick Judah in order to get justice that's due to her. I mean, and it's super, super complicated and shameful. And yet God works through that to accomplish all these great things and you're wanting like Judah is, is despicable, right? And what he deserves. Right.

Yeah, Judah. No, Judah wants to burn her, which even in that context back then, you know, and then Judah finds out because his his daughter-in-law who he had dishonored is pregnant and people had said she's played the whore. And so then he goes and says, bring her out and burn her. And she says, well, the man by whom I'm pregnant is the owner of these and it's his signet ring, his staff, the symbols of his person and his authority. And he says she's more righteous than I am.

And so he don't burn her. And it's through that line that God brings blessing and authority is through that moment of shame that was, I mean, it's just and we'll, you know, as you get to the end, we'll talk about how all of that plays out because it's through Judah. Judah is the one through whom ultimately the Messiah comes. And in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew calls out Tamar by name and this event by name and says it came through one of the sons of Tamar, which is a child that she conceived by pretending to be a prostitute and seducing Judah because Judah wouldn't do what he should do and give his son to her and his next son in marriage.

It's a crazy, crazy story. And so it's inserted right at the beginning of all beginning of all of this. And so I think this idea that in all this difficulty and in all this shame, as Jeff has said, the messiness of all this brokenness in this family, God is moving towards a place of redemption. That's a really amazing thing that God's doing what he's doing.

And so, yeah, if you go here looking for heroes, you aren't going to like it. Yeah. Yeah, you got to be looking for the story behind the story. That's right. And I like the fact that you brought us into the context of everyday living.

But because we why do we not go to our relationships with that kind of curiosity, you think? I just think it takes a bunch of humility to suspend judgement and live and the discomfort that provide. Right. Yeah. I mean, this story makes you uncomfortable and now Judah has this wonderful redemption story later and where he offers himself. Right.

For Benjamin to protect Benjamin. We'll see that. I think it's in chapter 44. And but I just think that's one of the things that reading these Old Testament narratives will force you to do is it'll force you to suspend judgment, to live within that tension, right? And even to believe that God could be working in this. Because we like, we like guarantees, like certainty.

We like promises. We like being right. Yeah. And when you are living in relationship with folks, you're playing the long game, you're living in tension. It's what dependence on God looks like.

And so, yeah, I mean, it's in some ways, if engaging this Old Testament narrative over the fall draws out some of that curiosity and empathy and suspending judgement, then that that will be a huge spiritual formation goal. So Jeff, what are you thinking about? And I. I feel like it is so helpful as you read to just put yourself in some of the place of the characters, you know, to imagine some of the things that they're experiencing, to think about what it felt like for Joseph to be betrayed by his brothers and what kind of weight that was on his life.

And how it seems like, you know, time and time again, the worst thing that could happen to him happens to him, you know, and you would imagine that he would be discouraged, that he would be embittered by that. And yet God works in his life in a way that allows him to be ready to reconcile with his brothers, you know, And so it it holds open some some redemptive possibility for us as we look at what he suffered and went through. And yet how the Lord worked in his life to bring him to a place of redemption in the end.

Do you have personally, do you have a favorite story in the narrative of Joseph? Oh man, that's a good question. I think just having read through it recently, what really struck me was the moment where he and his brothers reconcile. I, I think there's something so powerful about that. It's, it's easy for us in our day and age to write people off, to say, this person has hurt me this much. I don't ever want to go back to them.

And something powerful about the way that Joseph was willing to to go back to those brothers that had betrayed him so deeply and yet to experience reconciliation. Yeah, Yeah. When he gets to the point where he could, could, could conceal his identity no longer. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, and it is cool in that there's that's probably the most poignant moment. And it's, it's interesting how Joseph and Judah, the, the arc of their stories come together there because Joseph is being scheming and whether it's legitimate or not legitimate, whether it's petty or whether it's wise, it's difficult.

It's difficult to understand. It's really difficult to say. Again, to your point about suspending judgment. That's right.

And so it's hard to know what's happening, but but in the process of all of that, their hearts are revealed. And Judah has his moment where Joseph had made it look like Benjamin had been called red handed and Benjamin was his biological brother by the preferred mother, you know, So I mean, you have to think about all these other all the other of the 10 tribes, they all felt like they were second class citizens because all all Jacob really wanted out of his relationship with Laban was Rachel. That's all he wanted it.

Leah got imposed on him and then he had to work to get Rachel. And then and everybody knows all of that. So they've been living in the shame of all of that. And Benjamin and and Joseph have been were treated like favored sons and everybody else was a set class citizen.

And so the tension in that moment and Judah, who's been trying to protect himself, like he was trying to protect his lineage from Tamar because he thought, well, she's cursed. And in reality, it was his sons that were cursed.

Judah has a moment where Joseph says, well, I'm going to keep Benjamin as my slave because he's the one who was called red handed. And Judah's like, you can't let, I can't do this to my father. And he offers himself as a slave. And that's the thing that makes Joseph just break apart. He couldn't stand it anymore.

But the even cooler part in some ways in that culture that's easy to miss is Joseph brother. Joseph's brothers thought in Chapter 50 that once their dad was dead, there was going to be a reckoning still that I'd respect for the dad. He's put up with all of this.

But then at the end of that, they come to him after their dad has died and they're like, look, we know we did you wrong. We're so sorry with that. And there's this reckoning. And that's where Joseph has his great line that's turned him into a hero in so many ways. Is that what you intended it for evil to harm me? God intended it for good, for the saving of many.

And already in that there's a little proto fulfillment of the promise to Abraham because the Egypt was saved by the gifting of Joseph. Right. The the 12 tribes were checked were saved by the gifting of Joseph in providing for everyone in a famine. His ability to interpret dreams and and Joseph has let all that go. He's like that's God's business. Whatever you got you guys swing you and God God's doing something.

I'm good with what God is doing and I and to just point it has become popular today for us to write people off. We we love or like rage, certain kinds of rage and in particular certain types of sins we love to write people off about and we love to write families off and people off is toxic. That's toxic. I have to get away from all of that. And I'm not saying that there aren't people that you need to separate yourself from, but I'm pretty sure that selling me into slavery, telling my dad, tearing up my clothes and telling my dad, putting ghost blood on and telling my dad that I'm dead, that that's toxic.

Yeah, he he didn't follow his therapist's advice. Exactly right. And yet in the center of all of that, like the humility to realize, yes, what you did was wrong, but that's also what God was doing. Like the freedom that that gives us as the people of God to not vilify one another, to not self protect. I don't have to self protect. God is protecting, God is doing good, and I'm just a I'm a part of what he's doing.

And yeah, that's what you intended, but it's not for me to judge what you intended. I mean, that that message of grace, I mean, that is a world transforming message. And that's a fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise where through all this vile stuff that was done by God's people, Egypt was saved, the 12 tribes were saved, other nations came to Egypt and got what they needed. And God's people are, are a source of blessing. I think that's a pretty, I mean, that's an amazing thing. And that's the ending of the book of Genesis.

So it runs a full art from where in the garden to now the garden is gone, but God is working through a group of people to be a source and a blessing. And he can do that even in the ways that they're imperfect and sinful and broken. That's amazing.

And so, you know, Jeff, we started with Abrahamic covenant and we are going to eventually wind up with the Messiah obviously and Matthew, Oliver, New Testament Gospels. So you would expect Joseph to be the key the key figure there, right? Yeah, I mean, in these chapters that we're looking at, he is the the most prominent character. You know, we could get more, more detail about him and his his story.

And so it seems like it would be natural for the promise that God has made there, Abraham to be passed from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph. Yeah.

But Genesis does a very Genesis thing. You know, you, you sees that it's not Abraham's first born through Hagar, Ishmael, that is the through the line of promise. It's to Isaac, not Esau, the first born of the twins. It's Jacob. And now it's not Joseph, the one who's feels most prominent in the story, but it's Judah. It's going to be Judah the the one who had all the shame through his his family circumstances with Tamar and with his sons and his Canaanite wife and everything.

And yet through God's Providence, he's deciding to work through through Judah. And we can do get a hint of that at the end of the of the book as Jacob is blessing his sons. He he gives a pretty strong blessing to to Judah to talk about the scepter not departing from his hand and how that that authority to rule will will carry on through his line. There's a there's a pretty special blessing to given to Joseph too.

But as we as we trace it out further in the scripture, we do see that that what God is doing to bring about Messiah comes through Judas line. Well, hopefully as we've teased this out, maybe you're thinking, wow, there's, there's stuff there that I don't remember in the past. Or maybe this is the first time you've you're, you're being introduced to Joseph in the story, particularly in its fullest form, going all the way back, as Bill mentioned, the garden, as Jeff mentioned, to the Abrahamic covenant.

And so I guess, you know, and just invite you along for the journey. I think it's going to be a, a great fall of study. And then let's not moralize these stories. Let's not take them and turn them into children's books or Veggie Tales for all of our Gen. Xers. Let's let them. Let them live and breathe and put yourself in their position and let them be.

And let's make sure that we see the God that's working behind the scenes, like you said. Bill. Any last thoughts for our audience before we get into it this weekend? I just want to encourage you to to read the stories. For some of you, if you've not read this story, then just go back and read the story several times. You, you can get it.

I mean, for me, I have to work to keep things fresh. The, the more I study, I, it's just a discipline that I've learned have to get new take. So I, I got on Audible a, a translation of a guy that I don't agree with about a lot of things, but I got a new translation of the Hebrew Bible. And, and I've already listened to this multiple times, you know, just as a, as a story. Yeah, and not trying to study it. It wasn't written to be studied inductively.

You know, I think it's where some of our Bible study methodology can get us. Yeah. Nobody was studying these stories. These stories were written to be read out loud to people, for these to be formational for you to find yourself in them. And children had them read to them as they are. Right.

OK, so children. So you made a statement about, you know, these are not just Bible stories for children like back in the day. They read these stories the way we read them, they read them, they read those stories to those children and that way they were identity forming. And I would encourage us to do the same thing. Let's not dumb them down. Let's not sanitize them.

Let's just read them. And so if you haven't read these, so these are amazing stories and instead of reading them and be all, what does this mean or what does that mean? Just read them. Hang with the story. It'll get clear like in Genesis chapter 50 where you see God's sovereign hand guiding all this like that is putting a bow on.

But you have to live with all the tension to get to that moment, right? That moment is the resolve of the tension. And so you, you got to feel all that tension and go through it and let yourself feel what the characters are feeling, you know, let yourself feel their woundedness rather than judging them and let them deal with them, feel their shame and then get to the end. And I think that would be the thing that I would say if you, if you would read the salty stories to become a part of our people because they're formational and just just read it.

And even now before you get there this weekend, you can easily read or listen to this story two or three times all the way through from chapter 37 all the way through to chapter 50. That does not take long. You know, get on the treadmill, you know, and, and just listen to it. Let's do it a couple of times and get in the flow of it. I think that'd be super helpful for you. And Genesis is written in a way that helps us with that. 100%.

Because it often gives us insight into what a character is thinking or feeling or what their motives are. It's telling us when they're afraid. It's showing us a peek behind the curtain when Joseph goes away from his brothers and he's weeping in his room over the weight of what he's facing, facing them.

And so I think if we pay attention to those, it really helps us enter into the story and see it the way the story's being told. I love it, I love it. So come this weekend with expectant heart prepared, you know where we're headed and we're just grateful for you guys listening and just giving us a just a little bit of your time and hopefully that's this has increased your own curiosity.

So we will see you Sunday at church. Thank you men for coming in. Welcome. Thank you. All right, see you soon.