Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

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. This is like our last couple of chapters of the book of Genesis. I'm so glad we got to do this together. I love the book of Genesis. It's a book of origins. I always tell people, if you can hold up eight fingers, you can understand the book of Genesis. It's just four events and four individuals. And those four events are creation, fall, Flood, Babel. And then those four people are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob, and Joseph. And we have chronicled through those four events and those four people. And that is the entire story of Genesis. It's a story of origins, right? Creation is the origin of the world. The fall is the origin of sin. The flood is the origin of covenant, and Babel, the origin of language. And then we get the origin of God's chosen family. This one man named Abraham becomes a family, which becomes a tribe which is going to become a nation. And so the book of Genesis is awesome, and we have made a fun trek through it. Hey, if you have not done today's reading, if you have not read Genesis chapters 47, 48, 49, 50, then pause this audio, stop this video, go do the reading for the day. Four chapters. It won't take you long. If you've done the reading for today, I'm proud of you. We are going to dive into some context clues, some nerdy nuggets, and a timeless truth, like always. First, let's start with context clues. Okay? What happens is that really, this is the end of Jacob's life. Okay? We're going to get the death of Jacob, which we're going to focus on for a good chunk of time immediately. Genesis, chapter 48, verse 5. Always got to get stuff in Logos before. Jacob is going to Bless all of 12 of his sons. We're going to get individual blessings for each son. He actually is going to bless Manasseh and Ephraim. These are Joseph's boys. So if you're wondering to yourself, why have I never heard of, like, the tribe of Joseph, right? You've heard of the tribe of Judah, you've heard of the tribe of Levi, you've heard of the tribe of Reuben and Simeon. As we continue with the story, especially if you get in a book like Numbers, the tribes are going to be a big, big deal. But you never get the tribe of Joseph because Joseph actually gets a double portion. Joseph is going to get two tribes. There is no tribe of Joseph, but you're going to get the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh. So Joseph's boys actually take the place of his one tribal allotment. So really, and I know a lot of people don't typically admit this, there's technically like 13 tribes of Israel, because you're gonna lose one. You're gonna go. You're gonna lose Joseph's tribe, which gets you down to 11. But you're gonna add two more. You're gonna add Ephraim and Manasseh. And a lot of people consider these half tribes. But anyway, that's getting into a lot of minutia that you don't need to get into. Chapter 48, verse 5 starts out with this. This is Jacob talking now. Then your sons, born to you in Egypt before I came to you here, will be reckoned as mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. So the NIV here is translating this a little interesting. It says, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. That's. That's not. That's not what Jacob's actually saying. What he's saying is, Ruby, Reuben and Simeon have royally screwed up. And so actually, I'm just going to take your boys. My grandsons are now going to take the place of my firstborn sons. Now, you can, like, really see this. When we skip all the way to chapter 49, we start reading in verse three. Reuben, you are my firstborn. My might, the first sign of my strength. Excelling in honor, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel. This is not a good blessing for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it. Remember, Reuben is going to have sex with Bilhah, which was Rachel's maidservant, which Jacob. Jacob had sexual relations with this woman and had children with this woman. And this is why Reuben, the firstborn, is not going to get the birthright or the blessing of the firstborn. So, Reuben, Reuben, you're out. Okay, next. Simeon, Levi, our brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council. Let me not join their assembly. For they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger so fierce and their fury so cruel. I will scatter them in Jacob and dispense them in Israel. So it's not. If we go back up to chapter 48, verse 5, it says it's not just. Just as Reuben and Simeon. Your mind, literally, he's saying, they are Reuben and Simeon to me. Ephraim and Manasseh. Your boys, Joseph, are the new Reuben and Simeon. To me, essentially, these boys ain't my boys. These sons have completely, you know, embarrassed me and embarrassed our family. And I'll just take Ephraim and Manasseh as replacements for these kids. The NIV softens the language, but culturally, what's actually happening is that Jacob wants to make sure that Ephraim and Manasseh receive a blessing. Because if you go down to chapter 49, Reuben, Simeon and Levi do not get blessed by their father, Jacob. I just read the full, you know, version of what gets said. These are not blessings. So now the first son to get blessed is Judah. Okay, here's what it says for Judah. Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons will bow down to you. You are a lion's cub, Judah, you return from the prey, my son, like a lion, he crouches and Lies down like a lioness who dares to rouse him. The scepter will not depart from Judah. That's a key line. That's a messianic line. That means that Jesus is going to come from the tribe of Judah. The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come. This is Jesus. And the obedience of the nations shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his called to the choice of bread, choices branch. He will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk. So the promise or the blessing that Judah gets is to Judah, but really it's a prophecy about the tribe of Judah and the fact that the tribe of Judah is going to be responsible for the birth of the Messiah. Okay? And this is going to be read messianically, especially through the prophets. Prophets are a hundred percent are going to believe that the Messiah is going to come from the line of Judah, which is exactly what happens. This is why, like, genealogies are super important when you get into books like Luke and Matthew, because they're going to prove that Jesus comes from the line of Judah, from the line of David. David is going to get born from the tribe of Judah. If you think about this, like, God starts out with a big, huge people group, singles out Abraham, and then from Abraham, he creates a family, and he creates a tribe and he creates a nation. And now we have to figure out which tribe of the 12 tribes is the Messiah going to come from, which family is he going to come from? And on and on and on. All right, that's kind of just context for what's going on in these couple of chapters. Let me give you a nerdy nugget. Jacob makes Joseph swear. He actually makes him put his hand under his thigh. We probably talked about this before, but yes, that means touching his testicles. Okay, that is a biblical euphemism. Hand under the thigh means you are going to testify. And in order to testify, you need testicles. So he is bearing testimony. Okay, so what Joseph promises is that he will not bury his father Jacob in the land of Egypt, but he will check his body all the way back to Canaan. Now this is interesting because when Jacob dies, he's embalmed. It doesn't make sense to embalm somebody if you're going to then bury them. This is the most antithetical thing ever. Actually, this is totally ridiculous. It takes A lot of cultural awareness to see how cult like to just see how absolutely blatantly ridiculous this is. And I actually would contend that Joseph is in a pickle. Joseph is in a jam because he now has to ask Pharaoh for permission to take his father's body back to Canaan. I think that when Joseph initially makes the vow that he would take his dad's body back to Canaan, he done asked Pharaoh, and now he has to go ask Pharaoh after the fact. And here is a battle of the dads. Remember, Jacob is Joseph's biological father, but they've been in an estranged relationship. For all intents and purposes, Jacob has abandoned his son Joseph. Okay? Now, Pharaoh has come into Joseph's life and has given him a ring and a chain and a chariot and a wife and a name. For all intents and purposes, Pharaoh has become a surrogate father. And now you get this battle of the dads, this little microcosm here. You're gonna get that there's this battle going on. Jacob wants his son to take him out of Egypt into Canaan. Pharaoh is going to have to make a decision. Am I gonna see this act or am I gonna see this request as a rejection? Is Joseph rejecting our Egyptian customs? Is Joseph rejecting me and my role that I've played in his life? And this Pharaoh respects Jacob as a father. This Pharaoh respects Jacob's fatherly role and fatherly voice in Joseph's life. I want to see, like, when we get to Exodus, this is going to get played out because Yahweh is going to say again and again, hey, Pharaoh, give me my son. And this new Pharaoh in the Exodus story is not going to be as gracious as the Pharaoh here at the end of Genesis. Pharaoh is going to want to control Israel, which is the descendants of Jacob. Whereas the Pharaoh in Genesis respects Jacob's fatherly role in Joseph's life. The Pharaoh that we're going to have in the book of Exodus is going to want to exercise control over what he believes is his. And God is going to say, you're treating them like slaves, but they are my sons. So you're going to get another battle of the fathers. And we are getting a preview of, of that battle of the dads here at the end of Genesis. There is no need to embalm if you are taking him to Canaan. I think that he's allowing the embalming takes about 40 days. And I think he's allowing the process of embalming to happen because it's an awkward thing to Ask Pharaoh to take my dad all the way back to Canaan. I don't think we get the weight of how big of an ask this actually is, but this is a big, big deal. Last nerdy nugget. There's a lot of people who actually believe that Joseph actually gets the blessing and Judah gets the birthright. Remember in the, in the Jacob story how Esau first got robbed of his birthright, which is a double portion, but he also then later gets robbed or tricked, deceived. Well, he doesn't get robbed of his birthright. He sells his birthright. Okay, Jacob kind of got that one fair and square, not gonna lie. But the blessing, he deceives his father in order to get his brother's blessing. There's a lot of people who say, okay, Judah actually gets the birthright, which means the Messiah is gonna be born. From Judah's line. So if you look at Jacob's blessing of his, of his boys in verse eight of chapter 49, you get Judah's blessing is gonna start and it goes all the way down to, to verse 12. And it's very, very positive to this point. Simeon, Reuben and Levi's blessings are not even blessings. They're actually low key kind of curses. And then everybody else's blessing is kind of short, kind of. Some one liners like Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels. Asher's food will be rich. He will provide delicacy fit for a king. Naftali as a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns. Awesome. These are just kind of one liners. Then you get Joseph's blessing. There's a lot of scholars who say, yeah, Judah gets the birthright, but Joseph gets the blessing. Joseph is a fruitful vine. A fruitful vine near a spring whose branches climb over a wall with bitterness. Archers attacked him. They shot at him with hostility, but. But his bow remained steady, his strong arm stayed limber. Because of the hand of the mighty one, of Jacob, because of the shepherd, the rock of Israel, because your father's God who helps you, because the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the beast and womb of the breast and womb. Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. That's a massive blessing. Joseph is the character in the Bible that has the number one. And I mean it's not even close. The number one type and shadow connections with Jesus. All right, I'll give you all of the comparisons between Joseph and Jesus. Number one, his brothers don't believe him. Okay? Joseph's brothers do not believe him. They don't believe his dream. And Jesus brothers don't believe him. Number two, Hebrews chapter 4:15 says, Jesus is tempted in every way, but is without sin. Joseph was tempted and was without sin. Jesus is falsely accused. They have to find people to get false claims. The chief priests and the elders have to get liars. He was to bear false witness in the trial against Jesus. Joseph is falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. He goes to prison for no good reason. He's actually innocent. So his brothers don't believe he's innocent. He's tempted and he's falsely accused. Joseph is condemned with criminals, okay? He's specifically condemned with two criminals. One criminal is going to die and one criminal is going to be restored. Okay? The cup bearer and the baker. Jesus is condemned with two criminals. One who Jesus says, you'll be with me in paradise today. And the other who is going to die because he's mocking Jesus. Joseph is stripped. Stripped of his robe and sold for silver. Jesus is going to be stripped of his robe on the cross and sold for silver. How many pieces? Silver. 30 pieces of silver. By whom? Joseph is betrayed by Judah. Who? If you translate Judah into Greek, that word is Judas. Okay, so G. G is betrayed by Judas for 30 pieces of silver. And Judah negotiates 30 pieces of silver for his brother Joseph. Joseph is thrown into a pit, thrown to a cistern. And they come back the next day thinking that he's going to be dead, but he's not. He's actually alive. Jesus. Come on. I could preach that. Baby Jesus thrown into a pit. They come back after he is dead on sin Friday. They come back on Sunday, believe that he's going to be dead, but he has risen from the grave. And finally, by the end of Joseph's story, his brothers finally bow. They do. They. They come to him not knowing his real identity, but they bow In Philippians, chapter 2, verse 10 says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you're looking for an Old Testament character that actually has the most similarities in terms of types and shadows to Jesus, it is our brother Joseph. Bible nerds, I have an announcement. My brand new book Crushing Chaos releases May of 2025 in pre orders are officially open. When I began to learn Genesis in its proper context, I learned that the creation account is not primarily about God creating something out of nothing, but rather God bringing divine order to the chaos of of the cosmos. That one nugget was a game changer for me because I've been preaching to all the kids in my youth group that peace was a solution for their anxiety. But really, God's solution to chaos is never peace, but rather order. Peace isn't something that you stumble into. It's something that you intentionally step into, and that starts with aligning your life with God's order. I think that this book is a game changer. It's nerdy, it's practical, it provides a very contextual understanding of the Book of Genesis. And if you grab a copy, you'll learn why there's a huge dragon on the COVID Head to the link in the show notes to pre order, or head to crushingchaos.com to see the really dope trailer that we made for this book. I think it's time for you to crush the chaos in your life, and that starts with grabbing a copy of this book. Now back to the podcast. All right, let me give you our timeless truth for the day is actually comes from Genesis, chapter 49, verse 27, and it is the blessing of Benjamin. Genesis, chapter 49, verse 27 says, this Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning, he devours the prey. In the evening, he divides the plunder. Man, I have memorized that verse. Actually, I've committed it to memory. I've had that in my mind for years, in my memory bank for years. And here's what this means to me. This is the timeless truth for me. In the morning, he devours his prey. In the evening, he divides the plunder. That the first half of your life is for devouring prey. The second half of your life is for dividing plunder. I think we have a lot of people who want to diversify when they're young, but the time to diversify is when you're older. The time to commit yourself to devouring one thing and becoming excellent at one thing and mastering your craft. That time is when you're in your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, your. Your teenage years. I know a lot of millennials who. It's like they have 15 side hustles. They do like, four or five different things. And I always tell people, hey, devour your prey. Get known, like, as. As one thing. Do one thing, then divide, then diversify. Another way to think about this is there's a lot of people who want to divide, plunder, but They've never devoured prey. There's a lot of people want to enjoy vacations and vacations and they want to enjoy things that really is designed to be enjoyed in the second half of your life, but you haven't put in the work to even enjoy any of those things. And so there's a bunch of things that me and my wife are going to do. Man, I can't wait to take three months and just go explore Italy when we're in our 60s. That's going to be awesome. I'm going to be the cruise king. But that's not the time. It's not the time for that right now. Right now I'm in the studio. Right now I'm creating. Right now I'm producing something. I'm devouring my prey so that I can divide the plunder in the latter years of my life. This is a verse that's honestly become like a life verse for me. Benjamin, a ravenous wolf. In the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder. I also think about this as like, I can't expect God to give me public wins if I don't have private devotion. I just can't have mixed match expectations. There will be no plunder to divide if I don't first devour the pray. And I can't try to have my evening plunder if I haven't had my morning pray. I got a job to do in the morning so that I can enjoy the evening in that verse. Woo. I may get, I may get a wolf tattoo on me someday because I like, I like this verse a lot and how stark. Forever, baby. Anyway, all right. Hey, that's the end of Genesis, guys. I love you. Tomorrow we got day 97 and we're going to get into the book of Exodus, one of my favorite books of the Bible. If you're on a streak, don't break it. If you're not on a streak, it's a great time to start one. I love you guys. I'm so proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow for day 97. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram at the Bible Department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.