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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists? Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry. We are in the same boat. And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit. Not mine either. And that's probably the last thing on your mind. And that's why we chose to partner with Church Candy Marketing for our church Plant the garden. We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without your eye having to stress over ads or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads. And it works. It's super effective. I can tell you from firsthand experience. So if you're tired of being your city's best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down and show you how to start seeing new faces at your church this Sunday. I'm in the trenches with you trying to grow the church. And how about we just start a whole campaign? No more empty churches. So let's partner with Church Candy and get our churches full. The glory of Jesus. Let's go. We got a tear jerker today, guys. All right, like, it's gonna get, it's gonna get emotional. Joseph is going to reveal himself to his brothers. They are actually going to to reconcile. Like, I mean, there's a tear jerker today. So if you haven't done the reading, if you have not read Genesis chapters 44, 45, 46, then go ahead, stop the video, pause the audio, go do the reading. It's really, really, really, really good reading. Um, and don't just read it like as information. I want you to hear the tone of the conversation. These brothers have been estranged for 20 odd years. Two decades have gone by. There's a lot of emotion here. And I'm going to try my best to kind of get into all of the emotion of what's going on. So the first thing, context clues. Then we'll get into our dirty nugget. And I actually got two timeless truths for us today. Context, clue, first things first, Judas speech really dominates this section. It starts at Genesis chapter 44, goes all the way to verse 18, and then goes all the way from Genesis, Genesis 44, verse 18 to Genesis 44, verse 34. And we'll kind of talk about why Judas speech is kind of the most important thing happening in this section. So, so here's an overview. Joseph has told his brothers on their first trip, hey, you gotta come back with your youngest brother Benjamin. The brothers make it known like, oh, our dad is not gonna let us come back here with our younger brother Benjamin. The severity of the situation grows. It is pretty much like a non negotiable. They're either gonna die in the middle of this famine or Jacob is gonna actually allow them to, to go back to Egypt with their younger brother Benjamin. Now remember, Joseph and Benjamin are actually fully biological brothers. And there's a dynamic within this family with where Leah's boys do not see Rachel's boys as their brothers. They don't even see each other as half brothers. They just, they see, it's almost like that's the other side of the family. So for Joseph, he needs to know whether or not Leah's son's hearts have actually changed. So they come back with Benjamin, they come back with Joseph's full biological brother. And of course, Joseph gets a cup used for divination and he puts it in the sack inside of the of Benjamin's bag. So they go off and of course it's found out that they've stolen from Joseph's house. They're brought back and immediately, you know, the brothers start saying things like, hey, like, we'll all serve you as slaves. Just like, let our brother Benjamin go. Which is already proof that their hearts have changed. Because remember, they were willing to sell Joseph to The Ishmaelites for 30 pieces of silver. Now they're willing to protect Benjamin with their own lives. And so now we get into Judah's redemption story. Okay, Judah's speech is gonna start in verse 18, says this. Then Judah went to Joseph and said, pardon your servant, my Lord. Let me speak a word to my Lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servants, do you have a father or a brother? And we answered, we have an aged father and there's a young son born of him in his old age. His brother is dead. You see how it's his brother. It's Benjamin's brother. They're talking about Joseph, okay? His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's sons left, and his father loves him. Then you said, joseph, you said to us, bring him down to me so I can see him for myself. So we said to my lord, the boy cannot leave his father. If he leaves him, his father will die. But you told your servants, unless the youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again. When we went back to your servant, my father, we told him what you had said, verse 25. Then our Father said, go back and buy a little more food. But we said, we cannot go down only if our youngest brother goes down. Your servant my father, said to us, you know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went away from me. And I said, he is surely torn to pieces. That is an important detail, okay? He is surely torn to pieces, and I have not seen him since. If you take this one from me, too, and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery. So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant, my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with Benjamin's life, sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. Your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father. I said, if I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life. Now then, please let your servant remain here. As my Lord said, slave. So now Judah is willing to be a slave. You see the reversal? Judah is the one that convinced his brothers that they should sell Joseph into slavery. And now Judah is willing to be a slave in Egypt in place of the boy and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No. Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father. And that's the end of chapter 44, chapter 45. Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, have everyone leave my presence. So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him. And Pharaoh's household heard about it. Now, obviously it's emotional because he's reconciling with his brothers. Told you to remember that one phrase from chapter 44, verse 28. Judah actually confirms something. Says one of them went away from me. And I said, he has surely been torn to pieces. This is Jacob. Judah is talking about Jacob to Joseph. And Jacob is saying that my son Joseph has been torn to pieces. Now if you're Joseph, remember Joseph doesn't have the benefit of knowing the whole story like we do. The story of Joseph is a lot like the story of Job and the story of Job. We as the readers, we all know that Satan was in the throne room of God. That there's actually like a bet going on between God and Satan and that Job is being tested. But Job doesn't know any of that information that we as the readers know in the same way we know that Jacob was tested, thinks that Joseph has been torn to pieces. But imagine being Joseph. Imagine wondering, why has my father never come to look for me? Why has my father never come to find out what happened to his long lost son? Even worse, did my father get my brothers to do this to me? Was it my father's plan to have my brother sell me into slavery your whole life? And now I, I've got this new surrogate father, this new spiritual father. His name's Pharaoh. He's given me a ring and he's given me a gold chain and he gave me a chariot and he gave me a name and he gave me a wife and he's placed me in second person in all in command in all of Egypt. You can imagine the struggle in Joseph's mind as he's wondered why is my dad never come looking for me? Why does, does my dad know what my brothers did? And this is the first time in the story that Joseph really knows beyond a shadow of a doubt, two things. Number one, the heart of his brothers has actually changed. Judah is willing to protect Benjamin. Judah, who is Leah's son, is willing to protect Benjamin, who is Rachel's son. The heart of these boys has actually been transformed. Decades of life has allowed real repentance and remorse to take place in Judah. Specifically. The second thing that Joseph knows unequivocally, factually, is that my, my father has believed that I was dead this entire time. The reason that there was no search in rescue mission, the reason that he never came to see about me, the reason, the reason that I've, I have not seen my dad for two decades is not because he was behind this. It's not that he was, he knew and didn't care. No, my brothers lied to him. They told him that I'd been torn to animals. That's the lie. This is the first time that Joseph knows. All my brothers lied to my father about my whereabouts and about what had happened to me. Imagine, just like all of the emotion of knowing, yo, my dad actually does love me. Imagine the wrestle this man has been in prison. He's been a slave. His life has been been a roller coaster ride. Imagine knowing for certain, oh, I don't have to entertain all those negative thoughts about my dad, about why he didn't come see about me or this or that. Like, we've gotta humanize the biblical characters. And the biggest way to humanize Joseph is to realize that for Joseph, he does not know what we as the readers have known. And this is the moment that he finally figures out the truth that his father had not abandoned him, but that his father 100% loves him and is under the influence of false information. Bible department family, it's Dr. Manny Arango. And first thing I want to say is that I'm proud of you for completing the New Testament. You did it. And now that we're in the Old Testament, I hope that looking at Genesis and Exodus from an ancient perspective and worldview has kind of like opened your eyes. Well, I got news for you. If you've enjoyed some of the interpretations that I've brought to the table from Genesis, then that's just the tip of the iceberg. This entire book, Crushing Chaos, was written from an ancient hermeneutic. I'm looking at stories like the Flood, Adam and Eve from the perspective of an ancient person. And we've got an event coming up on April 26th where I'll take a lot of the content from this book and I'll turn that content into live lectures. You don't want to miss it. You can actually register for that event right now. The link is in the description. And more than content, I think what you'll find as we gather together in Nashville are like minded believers and friends and a community of people that you don't just watch content with online that you can get to know in person. I'd love to see you in Nashville. I'd love to hug you. High five you. And I'd love to nerd out together for one day as we come together in Nashville to learn about how to crush chaos. I'll see you in Nashville. Peace. Here's the nerdy nugget that Joseph puts in their cup. Sorry. In their sacks. A. A divination cup. And then when they come back, he says, don't you know, someone like me could have figured this out via divination. In the Egyptian world, only people of high ranking status Used divination. And here's the interesting thing. Joseph is using a form of divination. He's trying to figure out are my brothers actually changed. But it's not demonic divination. He's just using this cup of divination to create a test. There's nothing occult happening. There's nothing magical happening. But it's an ironic thing. A he's flexing a little bit. He's saying, like, don't you know I'm rich? Like, don't you know I'm wealthy? And don't you know that like any saying something very Jewish, but saying it in an Egyptian way, that's just like our nerdy nugget for the day that he tells them that he could be using divination, but the reality is that he's using a form of divination. Like, it's not demonic divination. It's definitely ascertaining information in a way that's a little underhanded, you know. And here's a timeless truth. We actually have two for today. The first comes from Genesis, chapter 46, verse 3. Jacob is gonna go down to Egypt. And it says this. I am God, the God of your father. He said, do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will make you into a great nation there. I love that God gives vision but doesn't tell us how things are going to happen. God says, I'll make you into a great nation. What God leaves out is that the making into a great nation is going to involve 400 years of slavery. What God leaves out that this is going to be incredibly painful and that this process of slavery is going to multiply God's people in a way that no process could have. When we get into the book of Exodus, we're going to see this almost like this boomerang effect that every time Pharaoh tries to oppress the people of God, it backfires on him. It just the boomerang hits Pharaoh right in the face. And so God makes Jacob a promise. Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation. It's going to be something that you would not have chosen for yourself, but I will make you into a great nation. And so what we see here is that about 70 people are going to go down from the land of Canaan into Egypt, and Egypt is now going to become an incubator for the nation of Israel. They're going to go down into Egypt as about 70 people. And we're going to get a bit of a genealogy here to show us who exactly goes down into Egypt. And estimations estimates would say that there's probably a couple hundred thousand Israelites that. That get freed from slavery in the book of Exodus. So Exodus 14, when they cross the Red Sea and they finally come out. So 400 years is going to multiply this 70 people and turn them into a full fledged nation. And the thing that's gonna do that is this smeltering pot called Egyptian bondage and Egyptian slavery. Okay, second Thomas, Truth of the day is that Joseph begins to give his story or his narrative for why he's not angry with his brothers. He's going to say, hey, like God knew that I would need to be. It says this verse 5 of chapter 45. And now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now, there has been famine in the land. And for the next five years, there'll be no plowing or reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you. It's interesting that he doesn't say for us, he says for you. I think Joseph identifies as an Egyptian. I don't know if he identifies still as a Israelite, as a Hebrew. To preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. This is Joseph's narrative. This is not God speaking through Joseph. This is not God talking. This is Joseph talking. This is his narrative. And to be honest, the most effective story is the one that you tell yourself. This is kind of like the backbone of my book. Brainwashed. It's funny. I was listening to this interview with Shaquille O'Neal. It's funny like when the Lakers were. I think they were trying to defeat the spurs, or maybe it was the Orlando Magic, I can't remember. Shaquille O'Neal had to go toe to toe with David Robinson. And of course, David Robinson's years older than Shaquille O'Neal. And Shaq was telling the story of, like, you know, he was a young kid, he was like in middle school, and his dad took him to a game and he asked for one of David Robinson's autographs. And David Robinson wouldn't give him the autograph. And that's the grudge that he's holding. And because Dave Robinson wouldn't give him an autograph, he was just gonna kill him in the playoffs, kill him in the finals. And years went by, and Shaq finally admitted that that story never happened. But it was the narrative that he needed to tell himself in order to get his mind in the right mental place so that he could play the game, so he could actually be victorious in this basketball, in this arena, you know, of basketball. And so a lot of times I tell people, well, what's the narrative that you've told yourself? I'm just never going to tell myself a narrative where I'm the victim. I'm never going to tell myself a narrative that. The narrative that I tell myself a lot of times matters more than the facts. The facts were that doctors said me and my wife would never get pregnant. That's just not the narrative I was going to tell myself. Because if I had accepted those facts, then I would tell myself a narrative, and then I would find myself in the narrative that I told myself. It's funny how narratives work. We have the power to create them, but then we live in them. And you have to tell yourself a narrative. There are all kinds of facts, like statistical facts, especially around race. And sometimes people want to argue with me about race. And I always say, yeah, I get that those are facts. I know the facts around being a black male in America. I know the stats. I know the facts. But I never told myself that story. And the reason that I don't tell myself that story is because I don't want those facts to be true about me. My dad took me to a crack house when I was 5. My mom was pregnant at the age of 12. In a lot of ways, I fit those statistics. But the reason I'm the first Arango to graduate from college with a master's degree with a doctorate. Entrepreneur, homeowner, you know, filled with the Holy Spirit in ministry. The reason I'm the first Orango to do those things, because I adopted a narrative that was not the stereotypical statistic narrative. I didn't. I didn't adopt that narrative to be mine. I adopted a narrative that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I don't choose to live by these narratives. Now there, those. Those narratives are based in facts. Those are facts. Those are simply facts I've chosen to ignore because they don't help me. They don't actually help me to be the anomaly that I need to be to operate at a level of excellence that I need to operate at. Narratives are. Are very, very helpful. Narratives will either keep you stuck or narratives will set you free. And the beauty is that you get to choose the narrative. And Joseph doesn't choose the narrative of my brothers did me wrong. I'm a victim, you know, I'm angry with them. That's not the narrative. Those are facts. Those. Those things factually happen. But Joseph has chosen a narrative that allows him to be faithful in prison, to be. To steward everything that he has as a slave. He choose a narrative that allows him to be resilient, that allows him to be more than a conqueror, an overcomer, a high achiever. And you win battles up here in your mind before you ever win them, like with life or with your hands. So the hard question that we gotta ask is that this, this narrative that Joseph adopts, where does he get this narrative from and what allows him to adopt this narrative? I would say that the narrative you tell yourself, one of the ways that you take back control of your life and take back the power that is yours to have and wield in your own life is to tell yourself a narrative. My desire is that the narrative, my. My dream for anyone watching this or listening is that you would choose a narrative that fits with what God has declared about you and that resonates with the identity that God has already spoken about you. So, all right, I gave you some context clues. I gave you a nerdy nugget. I gave you two timeless truths. Today, man, we are almost at the end of Genesis. I think we only have one day left. And tomorrow we'll close out the book of Genesis and then we'll get into Exodus. If you're on a streak, don't break it. You'll be right here tomorrow. If you are not on the streak, how about you start one? Meet me right here tomorrow as we close out the book of Genesis. Day 95 was one for the one for the books. Day 96 is gonna be awesome. I'll see you right here tomorrow. I love you. I'm proud of you. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram @thebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and wanna dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.