← Don't Miss This Study
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Hi there. Welcome to Don't Miss this, a scripture study podcast with Dave Butler and Grace Freeman.
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Each week we point out things in the scriptures that we love and think you don't want to miss.
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Thanks for listening. Hi, I'm Dave Butler.
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I'm Grace Freeman.
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Welcome to Don't Miss this.
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B
Oh, that was so exciting.
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It's a big one. We're so happy and excited that you are here. If it's your first time. We just go through the scriptures together, all of us, and we point out things that we've loved and things we think you don't want to miss and just a chance to talk about scripture, get into scripture, see what's so meaningful and hopeful and, and good about it. So hopefully this podcast ends with you feeling encouraged and full of hope and faith and. And loving God more than before you started. If so, we did our job right. That's our. Yeah, that's our. Our whole hope and job for this. And I felt like I was going to say something last time was I love, love, love. The lesson from last was long, but we had to. It was like full of stories. And today is a to be continued. And I like what Grace, you said last week where you just said, and we've said this before, that this is God's story. That's what's so great about it, is seeing these messy situations and God get involved in them and turn them storybook worthy, you know, it's just fantastic. And then to imagine that he's doing the same for all of us. So, all right, here is what you need for today's lesson. You need your journal because we're going to be opening to the page that's in this journal about the story of Joseph. So get that ready. You. We also have a tippin for this week, so get out your tippins and you're going to find this tippin in the back of the tippins. It's not in the right order. The four grandmothers of Jesus. How about that? That's hopefully getting you excited.
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I know that does make you excited. Why does that seem so true?
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The four grandmothers of Jesus are in the back of the tippins box. So go to. You're looking for Tamar and we're going to do her story in just a second. And then there's also a timeline piece to add on to the story. Let's just put that on right now. It's this coat of one color, but you're going to pretend it's many colors. But it is this coat that represents Joseph's coat of many colors and where he fits into the story. Okay. But we're going to introduce Joseph second in this story, and we're going to put that timeline on and show how he connects with Jacob. But we'll do that introduction for him later because we want to start with this chapter that seems kind of out of the blue. It just. We're. We're going to be in the story of Joseph, right? And then all of a sudden it just stops and we get this random feeling. Feels like random story in chapter 38 of Tamar. So this is the. The tip in that you want to put into chapter 38. We call her one of the grandmothers of Jesus because if you go to Matthew chapter one, there's a time, there's a. Not timeline. What do you call it? There's a genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter one. And it feels sort of boring is how you may have thought when you read Matthew chapter one, you would have said to Matthew, maybe you shouldn't start lists of names to start off the book. Like, you kind of want to start with a hook or something like that. Like, that's Marketing 101. But there's something interesting in this one as he starts telling the history, this genealogy of Jesus. When you get to verse three, you get to Tamar, the lady that we're going to talk about today. And what's interesting is in first century writing, you didn't. You never mentioned a woman in a genealogy. So to put a woman's name in that genealogy would have stopped people in their tracks already in verse three. It is a great hook and P S. I don't agree with this philosophy of writing. Right. I think you should put the ladies in the genealogy, but it's just what they did back then. Okay. And. And to have this woman show up in verse three, Tamar is like, whoa, surprising. So there are four women. Five, actually, if you include Mary, which we will. Five women that are mentioned in the genealog of Jesus. And these are all Old Testament women except for Mary. And so as we move through the Old Testament this year, we're going to stop and highlight each of these grandmothers of. Of Jesus. So verse three is where you find Tamar. If you want to highlight the others while you're in Matthew 1, you can. Verse 5 has Rahab. Verse 5 also has Ruth. And then verse 6, it says her that was the wife of Uriah, and that is Bathsheba. And you're gonna find out that at the end of this genealogy, it's gonna get to Jesus. So these actually are women in the genealogy line of Jesus. These are his grandmothers. One verse that I think you will love in this one is when is verse 21, Matthew 1, still 21. And it says, and she shall bring forth a son talking about Mary. And you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And when you read that and you read the phrase his people, you ask yourself, well, who's his people? And you would say, oh, we just listed them. These are his people. These are the stories he came to save. So with that introduction, let's go back to Genesis 38, and we're going to put Tamar in here. So Tamar is a daughter in law of Judah. So we meet Judah, who is a son of Jacob Israel. Remember he had that name change last week. So Jacob Israel is going to have this son whose name is Judah. He's the fourth son of Jacob. And he is going. He has. He has three kids. So he marries this Canaanite woman, which, remember this is somebody that grandpa and great grandpa have been saying, don't marry outside of this covenant family. But he does marries this woman and has three sons. And one of those, the oldest son, whose name is er, marries this woman whose name is Tamar. Okay, so marries her, but then er dies. You find out that he dies and was not a very good guy. Now this is going to sound crazy, the story sounds a little bit wild, but in at the time, the law of marriage at the time was if an oldest brother dies, it is then the responsibility of the next oldest unmarried son to marry that woman. Okay? This was the law of marriage back then. And the children they had together would grow up as kind of heirs of the oldest brother. It was the way of making sure the oldest brother's family line was honored. And if that brother dies, then the next brother also. And if that brother dies and there's no more brothers left, then it is the father in law who's meant to. That sounds wild in our day, but you have to know that that was the law of marriage back then. Okay, so the oldest brother dies, and then Tamar is then married to the second oldest brother who is not interested in having kids with her, and he actually dies also. And the scripture says, not a good dude. And then the youngest brother is kind of young. So the dad, Judah says, well, let's wait until he's a little bit older before you guys get married. And it says in here, in his mind, he's thinking, my other two sons died when they married her. And I don't want my third son to die.
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It's feeling unlucky.
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So he's thinking in his head, I'm actually never going to marry my youngest son to her, but I'm going to make her think that they are going to get married. And actually in the end of the day I'm not going to do it. So I just want you to think about this woman. Tamar, whose first husband dies, second husband before he dies, says, I actually don't want anything to do with you or my brother or helping out in the situation at all. And then he dies. She's a widow twice over. And now she can probably read between the lines when the dad says, the father in law says, oh, why don't you go, wait a minute and I'm just going to have this other kid. It probably doesn't take many years before she sees what's actually happening here. And she has just been pushed around and frankly there's not a lot of rights for women back in these times. So she is just getting the short end of the stick and has just been done really dirty. So you'll see on her paper we have, she's a widow, she's judged and she is neglected, okay? And that's kind of her story. So you look at this situation right here and you look at it and you think to yourself, I think that girl just dies. A sad lonely story. That is what is probably gonna happen at this point in her story. After two dead husbands and a father in law who doesn't care for her and your only chance, a younger brother who also isn't going to be interested. You just probably at this point think my story is irredeemable and unfixable and nothing good is going to come from it. And that might be where some people you know, or you yourself are at this point you're like, I have just had a streak of terrible luck and in fact I have evidence to show that God has probably neglected me or doesn't want good for my life. Like just look at the details of my story and that these are the details of her. Then it gets wild, if it's not already wild. That youngest brother grows up and she hears nothing from the family and so she's like, okay, I get what's happening and hears that her father in law is coming into her town. And so what she does is takes matters into her own hands and she dresses up in a veil and sits outside of a house. And as Judah passes by, sees her and he thinks she's a prostitute. So he employs her services and says, you know, come on into my house. And as payment for the services, he's going to bring her an animal. And she says, can you actually give me just like a promise, a token or a promise that says you're actually going to do that? And he says, yeah, and gives her her ring and his signet and stuff, you know, to make sure that, okay, this is collateral until you give me my payment. Then when he comes back with the payment, gets there and he says, hey, where's that girl? And they. Everyone's like, there is. There is no girl here. What are you talking about? And he's just like, well, oh, well, that's her loss. And so he leaves right now. In that encounter together with Judah, she has become pregnant. Okay, which is her right, by the way. I know the means are a little bit unconventional, right? But it was actually she was helping for him to fulfill his duty and his right. And I mean, what he. His responsibility, what he was supposed to be doing, right? And then he finds out that she is pregnant, and he actually says she should be burned, verse 24, okay, for adultery. Obviously, she's not married. She was supposed to marry my youngest son. She has been sleeping around, so she should be burned at the stake for her crimes. And that's what happens. And then she goes to him with the signet in the ring, and she says, this is actually from the man who is the father of the child. And he realizes, oh, whoops, that those are actually mine, and makes this comment in verse 26, she has been more righteous than I. It's interesting that the writer of this. We'll read it in 2020, whatever year it is, and say, this is scandalous and crazy and worse, wild. But the writers of this never condemn her because she actually, as Judah says, was more righteous than he. And then she will have these twins, and from these twins will continue on the line that eventually will come to Jesus. And I think what is just remarkable about this story, and I love that she is one of the mentioned grandmothers of Jesus, because her. She is neglected, irredeemable, unfixable story. And then in the end, everything is set right, which is the mission of Jesus. And it's beautiful that he will come from that line, that he will be in the line of those who were outsiders. Neglected, irredeemable stories, unconventional stories that were put back together and made right eventually in the end. And that is. That's her story. And I like that it's in the middle of Joseph's story. Because we're going to see something really similar with Joseph. We're going to be watching his story and we're going to get to. We're not. We're not going to finish the story today. Today's going to leave on a cliffhanger almost as if we'd stopped in the middle of tomorrow's story where the two husbands had died and she was neglected and shipped off. And you're kind of like, where is God in this story? Like, I don't see how anything good is going to come from this, but something eventually does. Spoiler for next time and spoiler for all our lives. Right? It's good to read stories that feel unfixable in the middle and then see the promise of not only what God can do, but that he may have been involved in it all along. Can I say one other thing about Tamar? And then we'll jump into Joseph's story. I think Jesus inherits qualities from his grandmothers and his mother and people in that line. It's fun to study their stories and think to yourself, I wonder what Jesus inherits from that one. And what I love about this story is this is a girl who was trying to help her family do what was right. She was trying to preserve Judah's family line and trying to preserve Judah's good name. And she will get blamed. She will be the wicked one in the story and lays down her life and her honor and her reputation in order to bring about good for someone else. And there is so much Jesus in that story. So that's Tamar, a hidden gem, the story that might not come up in Sunday school, but I just. We both thought it would just be awesome if you knew it. So slide that into 38, and then we're gonna back up to 37 to do Joseph's story, which is so fun.
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I. Okay, I've been. I've been thinking about Joseph's story a lot, and this is so funny. But like, the other night, it was like the first night in so long that, like, me and my fiance, we had no plans and it was just like we were like, oh, what should we do?
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And we were like, grace, that's also just lets everyone just enjoy that line that you just said to me and my fiance, by the way.
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And something about me is that I love movies and I love shows, and something about my fiance is that he, in fact, cannot sit through a show for one second without wanting to go and play a game or do anything else. He gets so bored if he's sitting down for too long. And so we've never. We've only ever watched one movie together, and it was with. In the movie theater. Other than that, we've just, like, never done that. And I was like, please, please, can we just watch my show? Because I have, like, one episode. It was like, the season finale. And I was like, I just want to watch my show so bad, please. And he was like, okay, but I've never seen it. And I was like, it's not that big of a deal. You're gonna be fine. Just watch it. Like, it's like, it's gonna be good. You're gonna like it. And so we, like, sat down and we were on the couch, and we started the show. And I was, like, 100% captivated, invested. Like, I was, like, dying. Like, I was shocked. I was excited. Like, I was, like, loving the show. And then, like, at the. The show ended, and my sweet fiance was, like, trying to, like, care so much about it, and I was like, what did you think? And I was, like, ready to unpack the whole entire show. And he was like, I do have a few questions. And I was like, okay. And then he, like, proceeded to ask, like, the most simple questions. And I was like, wait, I can't. Like, it's not even gonna work out because, like, you don't know the whole story. Like, you're missing all the story. And you're not gonna, like, season five, episode 15, because you never saw season two, episode three, and you never saw season four, episode eight. Like, you're. It just, like, it all built. And I fell in love with the characters and all of the storyline and all the plot, and you don't get it. And the thing about God and us is I think our stories are the same way that it's so easy for us to be like, I just want to be on season five, episode 15. I just want season five, episode 15. I know it's going to be good. I know it's going to be good. But if you go to season five, episode 15 without season one, three and four, you're actually not gonna understand it. It's not gonna mean anything to you. It's gonna be worthless without all the other seasons, all the other episodes. And that is the truth about Joseph's story, is we're gonna jump into this story of this boy. And we are not just gonna get season five, episode 15. We are going to get season one, season two, season three, season four, season five. And the only reason we Love. Joseph's story is because we get a glimpse of into every single season. And chapter 37 is the beginning. It's season one for Joseph. And what happens is he grows up in Israel's family, and sweet, sweet Joseph is very clearly the favorite child. I'm not even making that up. The scriptures say in verse number three, it's me and my family. Just kidding. None of my other siblings have a podcast, so they can't claim favorite child. So I get to. And 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 colors. Joseph got to be the favorite. Okay? He. Not only was it, like, it just worked out like the birth order made him the favorite child. It's like the youngest in the family, they, like, just, like, are given the gift of being the favorite child. But not only that, he knew how to work the system. Okay? Joseph was gonna put in work. Like, he knew what to do. He was gonna be the favorite kid. He knew how to manage. He knew how to stay that. Okay. He knew to clean the dishes when he. When the mom was stressed. He knew to bring home the dad's favorite treat from Chick Fil A. When he went there. He knew that. He planned it. Okay? He was good. He was the favorite, which obviously meant that all of his siblings hated him. They had to. You all have to hate the favorite child. And it did just work. And what started happening is Joseph starts having these dreams, and that's going to be the key. Okay? You need to know about the dreams. And Joseph has these dreams. And something about Joseph that I think is really interesting is I think from the very beginning of his life, God knew how to speak to him, and he used dreams for that. But I also think it's really smart. And, like, this is like, kind of like just like a side note. But I was just, like, realizing this when I read is that Joseph had a dream from the very beginning in season one. He knew, like, this is the beginning of his story, and he did dream. And what's gonna happen is that's gonna be a pattern for Joseph throughout his entire life. And God was gonna speak to him in a similar way and show him this similar pattern. And what I think is cool is that God. God didn't wait to, like. I don't even know if I'm saying this in a way that makes sense, but it's been really cool for me to think about it is like, God started from the very beginning of his story, saying, this is how I'm gonna enter in and speak to you, and this is gonna be something you need to understand. Dreams are important. You need to know that. Season one. So I'm gonna give you a dream. But throughout the rest of the seasons of Joseph's life, those are still gonna be relevant. And it made me wanna pause and. And think, what has God done in my past that's gonna be important to my future? How has God spoken to me in my past? How has God showed up in my past that's gonna be relevant to my future? And honestly, this is so silly, but it made me think. I wanna write those down and I wanna be aware of them because I might be in season one, but I have no idea what's coming Season five. So what is God doing right now in my life that's gonna prepare me for what's to come? That's chapter 37. He has this dream and then all of a sudden, this begins the story that we know. All his brothers hate him. They're so angry at him. And all of a sudden they come up with this plan and they're like, you know what? Let's throw him in this pit and let's leave him to die. Like, let's get rid of our brother. Dad loves him the most. We might as well get rid of him. And then sweet, sweet Reuben, okay, He's my favorite in the family, and I'm gonna say it, okay? He's so sweet. In verse 21, you get a brother that sees another way. You get a brother that says, wait, why are we trying to kill our brother? This doesn't make sense. This is so bad. All the brothers are like, we'll just pretend like some evil beast ate him. And then, like, it's not going to be our problem. It's not going to be our fault. And then sweet Reuben says, wait, what if we just don't kill him? Okay? Like, what if we just don't kill him? And Reuben starts making this plan, I don't want to shed any blood, but let's just throw him into this pit. It's in the middle of the wood wilderness. We're not going to lay any of our hands on him. We're not going to kill him. And we're just going to let whatever happens happens. And then all of a sudden, all the brothers are like, okay, that's great. That's going to be fine. And in verse 23, it comes to passage, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, they stripped him of his coat of many colors that was on him. And they took him and they threw him into the pit. And the pit was empty and there was no water in it. That's it. There was nothing. There was no hope for survival. It should have been the end of Joseph's story. And what I think is so interesting is that line, there was no water in there. And obviously that's like survival instincts. It's like, okay, there was no water. He was gonna die. Like that was just like gonna be the truth of the situation. There was nothing there to help him survive. But that word water to me in scripture always makes me think of the living water, Jesus Christ. And instantly I just thought, oh. So Joseph had found himself in a pit in a place where it seemed like Jesus wasn't. There was no water there. There was no living water. All of a sudden he sat there in a pit all alone. The worst possible scenario. His brothers were going to leave him. It was going to be the end for him. And there was no water. And I just thought of all those moments in all the seasons of my life when I have felt the same way. When I've been thrown away and sat in a situation and thought, where is Jesus now? He's not here. I've been thrown into a place, into a situation, into a position that there is no way that Jesus could show up.
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And I think it's Even like verse 25, the brothers are up above and they have sat down. It says to eat bread, which is another symbol for Jesus throughout scripture. And I think Joseph, it just made it worse for him to sit down in that pit that was empty and to look up at his brothers. They had his coat and they had bread like they to. Sometimes it feels like why does everybody else's story working out and mine isn't? And I think that's just one other layer of feeling like he's been tossed aside in this story.
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And so there he is in the bottom of the pit and all his brothers are sitting there. And then Judah says to his brothers, it's not even gonna help us if we kill him. Like, what's that doing for us? It's giving us nothing. And he says, why would we not sell him? Why would we not get something for him? He's down there in the pit. We could just. We might as well get a benefit from this. And so his brethren were content with that. And then in verse 28, they're passed by the merchantmen and they drew and they lifted Joseph out of the pit and they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites. And. And now all of A sudden the seasons of Joseph's life are going to change.
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Yeah. And okay, so this is what we want to do because open up your journal to this page in this chapter. And here's the question at the top of it. Where and how was the Lord with Joseph in the pit, the palace and the prison? And that's what we're going to look at. So Joseph is in the pit, and he is says, this is a place where it's empty. There's no Jesus in this place. And we might find ourselves in similar situations, but it might be worth saying, but is he, Was he actually in the story? And looking back, it's going to be way easier to find Jesus in the story, to not be in the pit with Joseph. We're probably going to be able to do that a little bit easier. But I love that this little page is going to help train our hearts and train our eyes to. To look for him in places where we may have said was empty or in places where we said he wasn't. So let's think about the pit for just a second. What you might write on. On your paper. Number one, the pit actually ends up saving him at the end of the story. If there was no pit, there would have been no wait in time for them to like, come up with a new plan. So he's down in this pit without realizing, hey, you being in here is actually saving your life. What he sees as a curse from God might actually be the blessing in the story. Right? What else? What else do you want to say? Okay, what about Reuben? What are you talking? Like, where did that idea come from? Yeah, how about. Why can we not attribute that to God? That God gave Reuben and then Judah? These two different ideas from the rest of the family. When has ever anybody ever gone against, right, 11 to 1 or 10 to 1, however many there are, right. 9 to 1. I feel like I have to just get it right.
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Everybody changing it every day.
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It's nine to one because little Benji doesn't seem to be there. But where did this idea come from that feels like harsh, but actually ends up being the saving grace. What about the fact that a caravan just happens to pass by on their way to Egypt, which, by the way, is the country we need to get Joseph into right at the time because of all the other pieces that God is moving ahead, you know, in that path? I don't know. Did I do all of them? It'd be fun to just, you know, think through what else there. There might be. Oh, I wrote this down. How about the fact that they know their dad's going to have a broken heart. That's what kind of seems to inspire Judah. Right. So just the thought of his dad that, you know, and the relationship that they had with his dad is something that, you know, it's been 17 years in the making. And the thought of that led Judah to this new idea. So initially, it looks like a place where God isn't at all. But what about all these things that just happen to occur that are going to end up not only saving Joseph, but saving the whole family?
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B
And it just is such beautiful storytelling. And I love when God's a good storyteller, because I love a good story because I just think to, like, all the things that I cared about in that dumb, like, silly show that I was watching that was like, oh, this matters to me. And this matters to me. And this matters to me that my fiance had no idea even mattered because he missed all of the episodes. And what I think is true is that there are moments and seasons of our life that we will sit there in the pit like Joseph and say, there's no water here. I'm gonna be left for dead. When in all reality, one day we will go back and we will say, oh, no, no, no, wait. I actually can see why all of those things mattered. I can see why all of those things were important. I actually can see how God did show up in my story, because now I'm not living it. And I think that's the. That's. To me, the message of the pit is that in the moment, it seemed like a godless place, when in all reality, it was the exact place he needed to be.
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A
Yeah. And Joseph, I can imagine, is down in that pit, and he's praying for rescue, and he's praying for deliverance. And he says, why isn't God listening to me? And why isn't he doing anything about this? In one way, we would say, well, a caravan just happened to pass by, Right? That would be an answer. But there is a bigger deliverance, and there is a bigger rescue story at play. And Joseph just doesn't see it yet. So then he's sold by chance to the richest guy in town, the captain of the Pharaoh's guard. So this is going to actually connect him for the first time into Pharaoh's story. And we don't get enough details to know, but it just seems to me that of all the people that are going to buy this Hebrew servant, it's the captain of the Pharaoh's guard, like the one that's going to be closest that seems to have the best connections. And you start reading in 39, and this is so interesting because he is a slave in somebody's house. And verse two says, and the Lord was with Joseph. That's a line you're going to keep seeing throughout this, like whatever the circumstances are. The Lord was with Joseph. Look at again in verse three, his master even saw the Lord is with him. And the Lord made all that he did to prosper in the land. And Joseph found grace. I love just that line in verse four. And in this place that nobody would want to be in, it says, Joseph found grace. And because of what the master of the house could see, he was made overseer of the entire place and he put him in charge of everything. And look at verse five. The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. It's so interesting because can't you just see Joseph saying like, okay, that's great, you're blessing his house. What about me? And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and all in that field. And Joseph, it says in verse six, was well favored and a goodly person. So you can see this is why I'd be filling in in that box that's next to the palace. All of these things that he seems to be finding grace and prospering and everybody is being blessed for him being there. Then Delilah comes, That's not her name, but you know, this woman comes, the head of the house whose name is Potiphar. His wife sees that Joseph is a good looking boy and she starts to pursue him. And it says in verse 10, day by day he hearkened not to her, right? And then eventually she is going to try and accost him and he is going to run out of there and leave his coat when he runs out. Poor guy keeps losing his coat. Okay, in every single story, he keeps losing the coat.
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B
True, so true. And can I say this really fast is I love his refusal so much because Joseph has been a good servant. He really has been a good servant. And he really does respect his master so much. You see it in verse number nine. There is none greater in this house than I. Neither had he kept back anything from me. But you, my, I have done everything I can to be a good servant. And your husband has treated me so well. He has not kept back a single thing in this house except for you, because you are his wife. And then you would expect to him, based on that sentence, you would expect Joseph's reply To be this. So I will not disrespect your husband. I will not go against your husband. I love your husband too much to do this. But instead, this is what he says. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And what I love about the heart of Joseph is that he respected Potiphar. He respected his boss, but God had his heart. That answer right there, he said, I respect him too much. But I'm not going to do this. Not because of just Potiphar, but because God has my heart. Someone has already won my heart, and I know what I will do and what I will not do. And it is because God has my heart.
- [32:27]
A
And that's so interesting because this can be a person that you would say at this point, would say, well, God's turned out his back on me, so I'm going to turn my back on him. So the fact that his faith was protected through all of this tragedy is evidence that God is with him in his story. I just imagine somebody going through a hard time and praying this prayer. Lord, protect my faith, protect my trust. Help me to trust you. Help me to love you. Help me to follow you when. When everything in me wants to. Wants to call you unfair and turn against you. And I love that his. His faith and trust in God and his respect and honor for God were preserved and protected here, even when his life was not. Because. Well, actually, I'll take that back because one of the things I wrote in the box is Joseph does not get beheaded, right? This feels like a wild crime. If. If Potiphar comes back and says, you know, listen, if you stole some of my honey or like some of my coins or whatever, then you're going to jail. But if. If you tried to. The wife's accusation was that he attacked her. This. This should be a hanging, is what it should be. I mean, the baker is going to get hung for getting the bread wrong in the next chapter or whatever. You know, I don't know what he did, but it seems like this would be a crime punishable by death. And even though him getting put into jail feels like an abandonment, I actually think it is. It is God in the story. So in verse 20, it just says he was put into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound, and there he was in the prison. And I love verse 21 and I circled that first word. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy. It didn't seem like he was, but he actually was there with him and in the jail too.
- [34:32]
B
And so there you find sweet little Joseph in the jail. And he's there with the chief butler and the chief baker. And we don't know he got the bread wrong.
- [34:41]
A
We don't know why, but if it
- [34:42]
B
was gluten free, he got, got the wrong baker, okay? And he's there with them. And both of them, each man in one night, they both have a dream. And they're like, both of them in the middle of the jail. The butler and the baker are having these dreams. And my favorite part that I just want to go back to, that I think is so interesting, is verse number eight, because all three of them are in the jail. And then they say unto Joseph, we have dreamed a dream. And there is no interpreter of it. What are we going to do? We have this dream, we feel like there's meaning behind it. We're thinking about it nonstop, like. And there's no one here in jail to help us. Like we're in the middle of nowhere. Like no one's going to be able to talk to us. There's no one here to help. And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them. I pray to you. I pray you. And in my head this to me is. This is why I love. It is because I love first of all that Joseph knew exactly where dreams came from. He knew that dreams belong to God because God had given Joseph a dream. Joseph already knew that God speaks in dreams. And then instantly when he heard that, he said, I've been prepared for this. I know what to do because God has already helped me understand dreams. And I just love. It feels like we know, like it's. It just feels like that same thing like with David and Goliath, that like David killed the lion and he killed the bear and he knew how to use his slingshot. So when he saw Goliath, he knew he was ready because God had already prepared him. The same thing happens with Joseph. Joseph knew he could step in for the dreams because God had already prepared him. And that is a way that I see God in the pit and I see God in the prison, is that God is preparing Joseph for the role and the jobs that Joseph has to do on earth. God says, I'm not just sending you in here empty handed. I have been preparing you your entire life for this moment. And so he sits down and what
- [36:43]
A
are the odds that the spiritual gift he has is the interpretation of dreams? I don't know anyone with that spiritual gift. It's mentioned in scripture as if it's going to be common. And maybe it is. I just have to have better conversations with people. But in the very place where dream interpretation is going to be most vital, not just once, but three times in this story. And it just so happens that Joseph has that particular spiritual gift.
- [37:08]
B
It's just that something to love about God.
- [37:10]
A
Yeah.
- [37:11]
B
And so he goes through, and the chief butler is going to go through and tell Joseph his whole dream. And he's like, okay, here's everything that's happening. There's grapes and Pharaoh's cup and all these things. And you can, like, interpret that dream however you want, but it's not my business. It's Joseph's. And Joseph says, okay, I've got it. I know exactly what's going to happen. The three branches are three days. And within three days, Pharaoh is going to lift up your head and he's going to put you back into your place in his kingdom. You're going to go back and you're going to be the chief again. And then it's almost as if Joseph has this moment that he's like, this is my chance because you're going to be the chief butler. This is going to be a big moment for me. And he says, but think on me when it will be well with you. And show kindness. I pray unto you and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, because God helped me help you. So maybe this is my chance out. And I just think of how many moments we live in that same exact mo like that we have that same mindset of sweet little Joseph that he looks and he says, wait, God just showed up for me. God just helped me. God just gave me a way out. And then you look and you say, please, please help me. This is my chance. I know it is. I know this worked out because everything's happened and everything's gone wrong for me. And I've been in a pit and I've been sold and I've been misunderstood and I've been mistreated. And maybe this is my moment. Maybe this is my prayer. And that is Joseph's little moment. It just feels like this little prayer where he says, please, please remember me. And then, of course, the show goes on and it doesn't really work the way Joseph thought it was going to work.
- [38:47]
A
Yeah. And the end of 20, the end of chapter 40 says, but forgot him. And then the verse one of chapter 41. And it came to pass at the end of two full years, almost like there's an emphasis. There wasn't just January to November, like a year Ish, you know, the full two years. Then Pharaoh is going to dream this dream and tell it to everybody. And I just think that's this one little part of chapter 41, verse 1. But two years is a long time. Christian's only been on his mission, like, three months. And I feel like, you know, like at Thanksgiving, he said to us, hey, guys, I just have one more Thanksgiving plus six. Six months. And it was like, Christian, that actually sounds terrible. Like, two years is a really, really long time to feel forgotten. But I also like to think about. I wonder what preparation was happening in that two years that we don't know about. Who was he becoming? What was he learning? What was. What was happening in his soul during those two years? Which, by the way, he was the boss of the. The whole prison. We don't actually know what that job means, but he was. He became the boss of the house that he was a slave, and now he's the boss of. Of the prison. He's just like the warden's pet, okay? Or whatever he is. And after the two years, Pharaoh has a dream. And it's these seven corn and good corn and seven bad corn, and then seven good cows and seven bad cows. This story you. You probably know. And he's so upset because nobody can interpret his dreams. And then the butler says, the butler's the hero, y'. All. The butler says in verse 12, oh, my gosh, I'm remembering this guy when I was. Remember when you put me in jail? You know, which, by the way, thanks for putting me in jail, because that's actually going to help be a part of this story. I just love that everything is going to work together for good. In the end, God is going, what's the scripture in Romans 8? That. What is that one? Well, let's come to that then. Don't let me forget, because it's so awesome. There's so many parts of the story that you're like, well, what if that hadn't happened? Or, what if that hadn't happened? And there's this Hebrew. There was this Hebrew, and he was there helping us, and he interpreted our dreams. And so Pharaoh's like, well, go get him. So he goes to get him. And I love Joseph. In 16, after two full years of being forgotten, you can see that his faith and trust in God still has been protected. And Joseph answered Pharaoh and said, it is not in me. The answer is not in me. But God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. And he interprets the dream for him and tells him, this is What God says it means there's going to be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. So you need to find someone who is going to save up during those seven good years and be in charge of all of that. Because the seven bad years are going to be so bad, people are going to forget that there were even good years before that. Which there is something about this, too, when I think about this, that Joseph, in the end, will be in the prison. Prison for I don't know how many years, right? It's going to be 20 years before his brothers come back. And I just like to think about those 17 years at home, you know, and 17 years of dreams and 17 years of prayers as a family that stored up enough faith in Joseph to get him through the pit years and the prison years. So his suggestion to the Pharaoh might be the very thing that he lived in his life. And so he says, you're just going to have to find someone who's going to be really smart and really good about this. And then Pharaoh says this in 37, the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all of his servants. And Pharaoh said unto his servants, could we find anyone else in whom the spirit of God is like this boy right here? There is none who is as smart and wise as you are. You will be the ruler over my house, and you will be the boss. And he gives him his ring right onto his hand. And I love this part in 42, and he took off his ring and put it on Joseph's hand, and he arrayed him in a coat of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. And I just love that Joseph got his coat back, that his story is starting to be redeemed right here. And like Tamar's story, where in the pit in the prison, you would have said, this is irredeemable, this is unfixable. We don't know how it's going to happen. And you get to 41. It's not even the best part of the story, because that's next week's lesson. But he has already been. His story's being redeemed. And I just love the symbol of that is the coat that the Pharaoh, of all things gives him, a coat that's going to kind of symbolize, like, the place. And I just love that this is a prisoner, right, who was first a slave from a foreign land. And somehow the spirit of God is so rich in him that Pharaoh can see past all that God gave Pharaoh eyes to see. Something so good in Joseph. And I think that is so beautiful and amazing. And our word for the week is what happens in each of those stories. It comes from 39,3 that when his master saw that the Lord was with him and the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And that word prosper could easily be mistaken to be a word that means all good things happening, lots of money, lots of time, lots of everything that everybody else wants. So to say that Joseph was prospered in the pit and in the prison means that that word means something different. And I especially love this, a word that shows up all throughout the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon. Here's what the Hebrew means to push forward, to be good, to be meat, meaning like M e e t, what is needed to be profitable, to come mightily. And each of those things were happening in his story. The pit was a push forward, the prison was a push forward. They were good in the end and they were meet or they were needed in in the end. And I think that this is so fantastic to be the lesson of the week to talk about, okay, we tried to look and see where God was prospering him in the pit and where he was prospering him in the prison to train our eyes and train our hearts to see that same thing in the end of the story, Pharaoh can see what is good in Joseph. And Joseph all along has been trying to find what is to see God in his story, you know, also, and I, and I would love, I love the thought of this, putting this up and just looking at it. And then this week, okay, okay, I might be in a pit, I might be in a prison, but where is God prospering me in those places?
- [46:24]
B
And I love so much how chapter 41 ends because it's a couple years before the famine happens. And it says that Joseph gets have two sons and he names them. And in verse 51 you see that the firstborn he calls Manasseh. For God said he has made me forget all of my toil and all my father's house. He says, because finally I can forget all of the bad, something good has happened. And then in verse 52, he names his next boy Ephraim. For God has caused me to be free, fruitful in the land of my affliction that I like, want to highlight a million times over. Because God did not take that boy out of Egypt to give him a good life. He was in the middle of the place that honestly had so much trauma, had so much bad Things had. So much terrible things had happened to him, and he stayed in that very place. And God changed the story. God gave him a good ending. And.
- [47:27]
A
And just what you were saying, I think that fruitful in the affliction. Yes, right. Is what that name of Ephraim means.
- [47:34]
B
And there's something so beautiful for me to be said that you get the end of the story and Joseph is happy and he escapes the pit and he escapes the palace and he escapes the prison, and his life is good. But the thing about it is that this story ends happy because of the pit and because of the palace and because of the prison. There is no way for Joseph to have ended up where he ended up, in a place that he could say all of the affliction had goodness. All of that was worth it. The only way he was in a place to be able to say that is because he experienced the pit, because he experienced escaping the palace, because he experienced the prison. He needed a. All of those for his ending to be good. He needed every single piece of it. And the problem is his story wouldn't have worked if in the pit, he said, I need to be at the prison. I need to be at the prison. I need to be at the prison. And if he was in the prison and he said, I wish I was. I just wish I was out of here. I just wish this needs to be over. This needs to be over. Look, all my brothers are outside the pit and they're happy, but here I am in the pit, and God looked and he said, no, no, no, you are forgetting that I am writing the story. And you need the pit to get to the palace, and you need to run away from the wife because you need to get to the prison, and you need to get to the prison because I have something better for you. All along, God was writing the story, getting him exactly where he needed to be. And sometimes in the middle of the pit and in the middle of the palace and in the middle of the prison, we say, I don't want my story anymore. I don't want the pit and I don't want the palace and I don't want the prison. And it's rude that you're making me stay here and you're not writing the story. I want to write. I want season five, and I'm only in season two. I don't want this anymore. And what I love about Joseph's story is he did need the pit and he did need the palace and he did need the prison, but God did not leave him Alone there that in all of those places, God showed up. Over and over and over through this story, over and over through these chapters, you see that same line that God was with him, that over and over and over, no matter where he was, God showed up. And that's like we have like this little sign behind us this year, and it just says, I will be with thee. And it's from Good News Brain. But what I love, I'm so excited to put this up in my house house this year because this, the verse under it comes from Exodus 3. But you could take that line from a million places in the Old Testament. And what I love about that line is it does not promise to eliminate the pits and the palaces and the prisons from our lives, but it does promise that God will be with us through it all. No matter what your story looks like. Maybe it's Joseph's, maybe it's the Red Sea. Maybe it is what we've read about the past and all of the. These stories you're going to go through. And there's going to be floods and there's going to be giants and there's going to be battles that seem impossible to win, and there's going to be pits and there's going to be palaces and there's going to be prisons. But the promise of Scripture, the promise of the God we believe in, is he will be with us through all of them.
- [50:45]
A
And I think, you know, when we're trying to look for the promises throughout this book, this is a book of promises. And I think it's fantastic that this is the most repeated promise throughout Scripture throughout the Old Testament is I will be with you. If you were to sum up what is the promise to covenant Israel, it's I will be with you. And in the end, in the end, like Tamar's story, like Joseph's, the story will be redeemed. That's the promise. A double blessing is coming. Don't you love that? It's twins. A double blessing is coming so good that you'll forget all the bad and, and you will see that you prospered in. In the affliction. But in the meantime, I found this, this time reading. And just a last thought. When Joseph gets thrown into the pit in chapter 37, verse 17, he's in a place called Dothan. And that shows up one other time in Scripture. And it's the story when Elijah has to open up the eyes of his servants to see the remember the armies, they're surrounded. That's in that same city. And I was like, oh, that is actually really cool that in that city, Elisha prays for his servant's eyes to be open to see that they that be with us are more than they that be with them, that God is here in this place. And it's the same prayer Joseph needed in the pit and in the prison and in the palace. Open my eyes so I can see you with me, so I can see you prospering me in this place. And I just love that in the end we get the double blessing. But in the meantime, we pray that God opens up our eyes to see him in our story. So, so good. This is only part one of the story of Joseph and the Amazing Techniclord Dreamcoat. Part two is next time, and we're so excited. We'll see you then. If you want to follow along in everything we're doing, you can find us on Instagram at Don't miss this study at this week's Grace and @MrDaveButler.
- [52:47]
B
And if you want to subscribe to the app or get our weekly newsletter, all of the information can be found at don'tmissthisstudy.
- [52:52]
A
Com. See you next week.