1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,520 Welcome to the Love and Context podcast of Unscripted Conversation with Ben and Spence. 2 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:09,840 We're so glad that you could join us today, whether that's from your car, office, home, 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:16,960 church, or wherever you're at. We did have a few sound quality issues with our first few episodes. 4 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:20,880 Those have been resolved. So if you do notice that the sound is funny in the first couple 5 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:26,080 episodes, we do apologize for that. If you want to contact us, you can email us at 6 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:32,320 loveandcontext at gmail.com. Also follow us on Instagram at loveandcontext. 7 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:40,480 All right, man. So it is time for us to jump into the next one. The last episode, I don't know, 8 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:45,760 with your editing, we had like an hour and 15 minutes worth of stuff. So, and I don't know 9 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:50,720 what the episode ended up being because obviously you haven't edited yet. 46 minutes and 22 seconds. 10 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:56,080 Yeah, I don't think that's going to be true, but good luck with that. So if you're listening to 11 00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:00,960 that episode and you're like, Ben talked a lot, it's because Ben talked a lot. I did talk a lot, 12 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:07,200 so I apologize for that. All right. So this episode, we're going to talk about Isaac, Jacob, 13 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:12,640 and Joseph, because we really want to try to just step through the rest of Genesis and start talking 14 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:21,200 about the Exodus. So Isaac is an interesting character, right? One of the passages in the 15 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:26,560 New Testament where I see Jesus actually referencing Isaac is in the story about the grain that falls 16 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:33,520 and dies, right? And it yields in 50 and a hundred times. So there's references to all those intervals 17 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:39,600 of growth, except there's only one place that it talks about a hundred. That's actually in the story 18 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:44,720 of Isaac. So once again, if you haven't checked it out and I don't know why you'd still be listening 19 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:48,880 to us and not checked out the Baymaw podcast and the Bible project, right? They've got great videos 20 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:53,520 on YouTube. You can check them out. Baymaw has some great content here. They're going to have some 21 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:58,800 really cool stuff on Rebecca and Isaac. I'm going to jump right into something later that I think is 22 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:08,640 really cool that we see in the life of Isaac. In a time of famine, right? Isaac goes and sows seed. 23 00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:18,880 He sows food and he reaps a hundred fold. So he trusts in God and he goes and sows and famine 24 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:26,960 and reaps a hundred times what he sowed. That's cool. Like let's talk about the church, right? 25 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:32,960 Let's talk about our Christian lives. How often do we think, oh, everything is going wrong. It's 26 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:40,480 time to actually dig in. But that's exactly what we're supposed to do, right? So like, okay, I'm 27 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:44,000 already talking way too much, but let's talk about the stock market. Okay. This is something I was 28 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,960 thinking about the other day. Now people who know the adage, they say, buy low, sell high, right? 29 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:53,920 Except what do people actually do? They buy high, sell low and lose a lot of money. All the time, 30 00:02:53,920 --> 00:02:58,880 right? Because they're covered by their emotions. But when everything is crashing, they're like, 31 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:03,680 I gotta sell. When everything's crashing is actually the time you go and buy because things 32 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:10,720 that are valuable are cheap, right? It's kind of like, if I want to buy a house, I'd love to buy 33 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:14,720 it in a housing crisis when everything's crashing. Yeah. Right. Cause then I can buy a much nicer 34 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:21,360 house for less money. All right. So if that's true about economics, what about your spiritual life? 35 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:28,000 Right. Now people are, I'm going to get us emails because people would be like, are you saying that 36 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,440 you need to sell out on Jesus when you're on the mountain top? No, I'm not saying that. And you need 37 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:39,280 to listen to what the analogy, all analogies fall apart, right? What is this temptation when things 38 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:46,640 aren't going our way to give up? Like how often are we just shy of breakthrough because we don't go 39 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:52,080 and put seed in the ground during the middle of a famine? Yeah. Yeah. And take it, take your stock 40 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:58,320 market example. When, when you're at your low point, you're supposed to dig in more and when 41 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:07,040 you're doing well and everything is going great, you're supposed to celebrate. Yeah. Yeah. Like 42 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:13,920 at least when I look at my portfolio, when it's up, I'm like, this is awesome. Right? And when it's 43 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:18,320 down, I have a few moments where I'm like, oh crap, this is, I'm losing so much money. I have those 44 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,320 moments, but then I remind myself, I'm like, no, this is why I'm supposed to dig in. Right. And then 45 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:28,080 when I dig in, I'm so thankful because I just end up in such a better spot when I'm back on the 46 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:33,760 mountain top. Right. So there's two things. And we're going to carry this analogy into our faith 47 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:38,720 filled lives, right? One thing is the church doesn't know how to celebrate. And we're going to talk 48 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:44,160 about this in Leviticus. When we get to Leviticus, we don't know how to party. And yes, there's 49 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:48,880 celebration on Leviticus. And yes, the church should be the place where people know how to party. 50 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:55,920 Yeah. This is going to be wildly unpopular with some people. Yeah. The most carefree celebratory 51 00:04:55,920 --> 00:05:03,440 people should be the church. Yeah. Knowing how to rejoice and revel in a good God. Yes. But when 52 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:10,400 everything around you is crashing, we go, oh man, it is our time to invest. Uh-huh. So it's always 53 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:15,360 interesting to me. Let's talk about like just global economic news. Yeah. People talk about, 54 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:21,840 they're like, we've been praying for revival for America for a long time. And then things start to 55 00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:32,000 get really bad in some capacity. Right. And we go, oh no, why is this here? And I'm like, guys, 56 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:38,000 what do you think happens in famine? Abundance from God happens. Yeah. Like this is the time 57 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:42,720 where the church gets to be the church. Yeah. We are made for this. Uh-huh. 58 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:54,560 Isaac. Yeah, right. And I just, I love that Isaac goes and sows in a time of famine. 59 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:59,360 Mm-hmm. We should learn from that. Yeah. Now I think that it's really easy for people to build 60 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:04,400 a theology off of one statement, so please don't run with that too far. Right. But something about 61 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:12,240 Isaac, he sees that God will provide and he does what nobody else is anticipating and he goes and 62 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:17,280 sows in famine. Yeah. By the way, this is just after he went and dug a bunch of holes for wells 63 00:06:17,280 --> 00:06:23,040 and the people are like, yeah, you can't have that. That's ours. Okay. So he moves on, digs another 64 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:28,320 hole for a well and they're like, yeah, you can't have that. Move on. Then finally finds another 65 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:32,240 place and they're like, nobody says anything. So he's like, okay, well, I'm going to be here. 66 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:38,800 Right. Now Isaac is far from perfect. He has the same issue with Abimelech. Yeah, he does. 67 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:44,160 Where he says that now Rebecca is his sister. Uh-huh. And once again, we've talked about 68 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:50,160 mistakes, sin, those types of things tend to be generational. Like father like son, man. 69 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:54,160 He is, he's learning and Isaac actually starts to push the envelope forward. Yeah. 70 00:06:54,160 --> 00:07:05,200 But Isaac has two kids, two wildly different kids. Yes. Ben's understating this. Like go read the 71 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:11,680 text. You will see just how different his kids, Jacob and Esau are. They're so different. They're 72 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:17,600 so different. Right. You got Esau who's like, I'm going to be outside. I'm going to go hunt, 73 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:24,000 kill my own food. I'm going to be a meaty, fat, fat, fat, fat, fat, fat, fat, fat, fat, fat, fat, 74 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:32,160 man's man. And he's also like a wooly mammoth. Yeah. He's a hairy dude. And so much so that they 75 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:39,680 literally put like goat skins on his arm. And Isaac is like, oh yeah, that feels right. Yeah. Right. 76 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:48,000 That's how hairy this guy is. And then you have Jacob who for lack of a better term, he's a mama's 77 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:54,160 boy. Like he's, he's the stay at home, going to please mom, hang out with mom all the time. 78 00:07:55,040 --> 00:08:01,040 He's definitely going to be the guy who wins wars with his words. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So you got the 79 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:08,160 macho manly man who has such hairy arms that you can put goat skin on there and it'd be similar. 80 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:15,440 Then you got the smooth talker mama's boy. Two very different kids, two very different kids. 81 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:19,600 And one of the things that I want to point out that comes up a lot in Genesis, and it's going to 82 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:22,800 be throughout the Bible, but it happens a lot in Genesis and cause it's going to happen in the life 83 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:30,720 of Jacob and there's prominence also with Abraham and Abram names are important. Yes. Right. So 84 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:36,080 Esau is born, they call him red because he comes out red, right? Esau meaning red. Jacob comes out 85 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:40,240 and they call him Jacob because he's grasping the heel. It means heel grasper. By the way, 86 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:44,240 stop saying Jacob means liar. That's not what it means. Okay. It means heel grasper. You're 87 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:52,480 surfer. I maybe foolishly named my child James, right? My first born, I named him James. And so 88 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:57,360 if you don't know, James is the English equivalent of Jacob. In fact, if you look at the book of 89 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:05,680 James in the Bible, it could just as easily be the book of Jacob. Right. James has a definite 90 00:09:05,680 --> 00:09:11,120 personality that I'm okay. He's a Wheeler and dealer. Okay. Oh, the wheel ends. He is so well 91 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:15,040 Wheeler. Yeah, he is. And so one of the things that I've been telling him as he's been growing 92 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:19,600 up, I've talked to him about what his name actually means. And I asked him, I said, the thing is, 93 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:25,760 are you going to usurp or assume authority or step into these roles? Are you going to do it for 94 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:31,760 yourself or are you going to do it on behalf of others? Are you going to serve yourself? Are you 95 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:39,680 going to serve God in your identity? Yeah. Now, can we pause? Because I'm not sure if I'm going 96 00:09:39,680 --> 00:09:43,920 to serve myself because I said that to my son. But then right after I said it, I was like, 97 00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:50,960 what about me? Yeah. You had that moment where you're like, oh, I said this to my son and then 98 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:56,560 God's like, hey, Ben, I got something for you. Yeah. I, as the father said it to my son and then 99 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:01,680 my father, I'm Dan. It was like, hey, did you just hear yourself? Yeah. Do you hear yourself? I'd like 100 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:06,640 to give you a playback on what you just said. Yeah. Right. But that's the thing is like, 101 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:11,040 we all have these things that God's called into our identity and you have talents and you have 102 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:16,000 gifts and all these different things. Like Jacob has talents. East all has talents. Yeah. The 103 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,440 question is, are you going to use them for yourself? Are you going to use them for the glory of God? 104 00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:24,480 Yeah. Like if there's one thing you can take away from Genesis is identity and what are you going 105 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:29,680 to do with it? Yeah, absolutely. You know, you're going to be given pieces of favor, blessing, 106 00:10:29,680 --> 00:10:33,040 all these different things. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to serve yourself 107 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:39,120 or serve others? By the way, there's a right answer. Well, I actually should say there is a 108 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:43,840 kingdom answer and then there is a way that leads to destruction. Yeah. It's been prominent all 109 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:49,920 throughout Genesis. Is God holding out on you or are you going to be a part of his kingdom solution? 110 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:58,480 Yeah. And by the way, that doesn't change all the way into Jesus. Right? So true. These characters, 111 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:03,760 it's so funny. It just cracks me up because in the New Testament, they're like, okay, the God of our 112 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:11,600 ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And if you read through the stories of these guys, it's like, 113 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:18,320 dude, they did some weird things. Like they're not perfect individuals. I love that the Bible does not 114 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:23,760 edit them as like perfect individuals. No. Because it's not trying to give us a lofty standard that 115 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:29,120 we can't identify with. And we should learn from that. Yeah. Right. I mean, like how many times have 116 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:33,840 you heard some of it? Like how many times have you seen someone try to just maintain a perfect 117 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:43,920 reputation? Yeah. Like how well does that work? We have been putting pastors on pedestals. Uh-huh. 118 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:49,760 And we've been making those pedestals higher and higher. And then we're shocked when they fall. 119 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:59,200 Mm-hmm. Right? Like there'll be pastors who have like a slight hiccup. Right. Like not even something 120 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:03,600 that's going to be detrimental to their ministry, but just like a slight hiccup on something in 121 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:08,560 their lives. Like a little sin thing that reared its head, but forgiveness and restoration had 122 00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:14,400 taken place and they're good again. Right? And people have been like, whoa, they are unfit to 123 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:20,480 serve because they're imperfect. Well, so are you. And churches still ask you to serve. Yeah. We're 124 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:27,440 all imperfect. And so if we're looking for perfection for service, let's spoil alert, 125 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:34,000 nobody would be serving God. Yeah. No kidding. Well, and it's interesting because I want to 126 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:38,800 address two different things in that. Right? One is that none of us are perfect. And I guarantee you, 127 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:43,920 at some point I'm going to disappoint you. Mm-hmm. Right? I mean, that is a guarantee. One thing I 128 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:48,880 can guarantee you about myself at some point, I'm going to do something that disappoints you. 129 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:52,880 I disappoint Ben all the time. Like we record these episodes and like an hour later he's like, 130 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:59,840 are they edited? I have unrealistic expectations. Yeah. Unreal. Actually, while we're recording, 131 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:04,240 I'm like, have you finished editing? But then I want to address the other side of it is the 132 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:08,720 church is also really bad at dealing with people who have garbage in their life. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 133 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:14,240 Right? And let me explain this. So one of two things happens is we try to pretend like what 134 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:18,640 a pastor did is okay. Or they sweep it under the rug or they're like, hey, it wasn't that big of a 135 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:25,040 deal. No, it is a big deal. But we need to deal with it so that restoration, forgiveness, and 136 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:30,160 restoration can happen. I said restoration twice. I meant redemption. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? 137 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:37,440 Yeah. You're making it a big deal by hiding it. Yeah. Hey guys, what happened in the garden? 138 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:43,520 Adam and Eve hid from God. Mm-hmm. And he's like, where are you? You're not where I left you. 139 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:51,920 Right. And he wasn't mad. He wasn't mad. Yeah. But they needed to deal with what was going on there. 140 00:13:52,560 --> 00:13:58,800 Yeah. So if you're listening to this and you're like, man, I am an imperfect human. Great. Join 141 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:03,840 the club. Yeah. We're all trying to get better. We're all here. We're waiting for you. Jump on 142 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:09,280 in, man. Let's go. On the good side, if you've been waiting to get involved in the kingdom of God 143 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:13,440 until you get your act together, good news is jumping today. Yeah. Yeah. You're not going to 144 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,240 get your act together. None of us have our act together. Holy Spirit is moving through us and 145 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:20,640 making us into better versions of ourselves every day. I saw, I actually saw on Instagram, 146 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:24,560 Riele the other day, he was like playacting his conversation with himself. And he was like, 147 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:29,440 I'd like a refund on adulthood. Right. And the guy's like, oh, you can't do that. He's like, 148 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:32,960 well, okay, can I speak to your manager? And he's like, well, you're the manager. And he's like, 149 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:39,200 well, who put me in charge? I'm not qualified. Right. Like we're all figuring this out. Yeah. 150 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:44,640 Like, and when I watched that reel, I just laughed because I was like, I feel that way a lot of time 151 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:50,560 too. So let's, let's jump back in and into the ugly of character. Right. Yeah. So Jacob and Esau 152 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:55,760 is an interesting story, right? Because one Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. 153 00:14:55,760 --> 00:15:05,280 And I can't say that I've ever wanted lentil stew when I ever, ever. Right. I mean, I made lentil 154 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:09,840 stew all the time growing up and I hated it. I mean, you might, you might be able to like convince 155 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:14,640 me or like, at least like have a, have a chance if you're like, Oh, we have this really delicious 156 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:19,920 pepperoni and black olive pizza and also a bacon cheeseburger for you. Right. Like these are things 157 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:24,960 that might act, but even then I'm like, okay, well, why is that? Why would I want that over 158 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:29,120 my birthright? But it's clear that Esau doesn't care about the birthright and Jacob does, 159 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:35,600 except then later Esau does care about the birthright when it actually comes time to pay the 160 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:38,800 counting. Yeah. Have you made, have you ever made a bad deal and then when you got done with it, 161 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:45,120 you're like, I really wish I didn't do make that deal. Right. So, but then Jacob's mother, Rebecca, 162 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:50,160 like jumps in on this too. And she helps him deceive his father and steal a blessing, 163 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:55,600 which is a big deal in Hebrew culture. By the way, we should make that a big deal in our culture. 164 00:15:55,600 --> 00:16:00,880 Yes, we should blessing each other. Yes. Specifically your children. One of the things 165 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:04,560 I've been starting to try to do is I ask God, because I said, when I release my kids from my 166 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:10,400 household, like when they go in their adults, I've asked God to start putting a blessing in my heart. 167 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:16,960 Yeah. That I speak over them when they go. Right. Something that's from him that is imparted through 168 00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:22,320 the mouth of the father, their father to them. Yeah. They actually go and I want to speak into 169 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:28,480 their identity. Yeah. It's powerful. Oh, it's so powerful. Right. And, and understand I'm not 170 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:32,240 getting all like, I'm not getting, it's like super mystic here, but at the same time I'm getting kind 171 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:38,640 of mystic because God does crazy things through spoken word. Right. He does. When you hear the 172 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:43,920 voice of the father and you repeat what he's saying in heaven on earth, you'd be shocked at 173 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:47,680 the things that happen because it's not your authority. It says authority flowing through you. 174 00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:53,360 Yeah. And, and let's, can we simplify this down a little bit? So like you hear us talk about 175 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:58,000 blessing and like there is legitimate, when you're talking, when you're blessing people, 176 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,960 blessing people in the name of Jesus, like things happen in their lives and you should be a person 177 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:07,280 of blessing anyways, because apparently when Jesus told his disciples, he's like, you say a blessing 178 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:10,880 with those people. If they don't receive it, it's coming back on you. Yeah. Like, man, that sounds 179 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:15,200 like a great deal to me. Go bless everybody you can. Yeah. If they don't want it. Sure. It's going 180 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:22,480 to come back to you. Great. Right. And so just taking this like a step further, one of the things 181 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:27,920 I try to do in my life, and I, and I don't do this perfectly, but I try to is I'm like, I want the 182 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:32,800 things to come out of my mouth. I want the positive things to far outweigh the negative things. 183 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:38,480 Now there's issues you gotta deal with in life, right? But if you just complain about everything, 184 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:44,720 how are you being a blessing to those around you? Yeah. Right. Like instead there might be 185 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:48,560 situations that you're like, oh, this isn't going the way I want. This isn't what it should look 186 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:52,720 like, but I'm going to find the good and I'm going to find, I'm going to find the people in 187 00:17:52,720 --> 00:18:00,240 a situation that I can bless. Yeah. I like that a lot. So Jacob comes in and he steals Esau's 188 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:06,400 blessing and Esau is not shockingly upset and he's like, well, I'm going to kill this guy. And so 189 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:11,040 Jacob takes off and he, and he gets a taste of his own medicine with this guy. That's his uncle named 190 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:17,440 Laban. Not a very nice guy, by the way. No, he's very similar to Jacob though. Yeah. Right. I have 191 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:22,560 issues with Jacob is like, I know he's a founding father of the faith, but like he's not a terribly 192 00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:26,560 awesome dude because okay, so he's at Bethel and he has this dream about Jacob's ladder with angels 193 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:31,280 ascending and descending, which by the way, you should catch the reference when Jesus is talking 194 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:36,080 in the new Testament about angels ascending and descending on the son of man. Yeah. Right. He goes, 195 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:40,400 he's like, okay, God, well, if you bless me and you do this and you do that and I increase in wealth, 196 00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:48,080 I'm going to give you a 10th of everything I get. What? So he cheated his brother out of blessing 197 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:54,080 and then he's trying to wheel a jiggly God out of what God already owns. Yeah. So I read those 198 00:18:54,080 --> 00:19:00,560 story of Jacob and sometimes I'm like, okay, I got to get ahead of this with James. Right. So now I 199 00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:06,240 want to just tell you my boy is a sweetheart. He is a sweetest kid, but he is a wheeler and dealer 200 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:10,640 and that's why calling it in is going to be important because he's going to have a tendency, 201 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:16,320 especially as he gets older, to buy into that side. And it's our job as parents to steward them well. 202 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:22,160 Yeah. Right. So Jacob is just this really questionable character. He runs into Laban. 203 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:27,200 Laban is also a very questionable character and he's got two daughters, Leah and Rachel. 204 00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:32,720 Mm hmm. Right. And he's like, okay, well, if you work for me for seven years, you can have 205 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:37,680 my daughter, you know, Rachel. And there's some slight of hand he gives her Leah because, you know, 206 00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:43,600 the first daughter has to get married first. And then there's that conversation and he works 207 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:46,960 for another seven years for Laban. But here's the disappointing thing. I don't know if he actually 208 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:54,000 picked this up in the text. He actually marries Rachel a week later or however long the honeymoon 209 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:59,440 period would be. Right. Yeah. Leah actually only gets her husband to herself for very little time. 210 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,800 Yeah. He doesn't work for another seven years and then another seven years marry Rachel. 211 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:09,200 He immediately marries Rachel. Yeah. This is actually one of the times in scripture where 212 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:15,200 Jacob actually honors his work. He immediately marries Rachel, but then he honors his word and 213 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:21,280 then still works for Laban for another seven years. Right. But I want to talk about Leah 214 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:27,520 because I think God comes in and really, is this Leah or Leah? I'm going to say use both. Okay. 215 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:33,760 Let's say Leah. Okay. I've always heard Leah. Yeah. I mean, I think you could say Leah. Okay. 216 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:39,200 But I mean, Leah might confuse people who watch Star Wars, right? And they'll be like, they'll 217 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:44,480 be like, well, where's Luke? So when Anakin Skywalker, just kidding, just kidding. So, 218 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:52,080 but I think God, in the very similar way that we saw Hagar and Sarai, God sees Leah. Yeah. And he 219 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:58,720 meets her where she's at and she has tons of kids. So there's 12 tribes of Israel. Yes. Which is what 220 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:04,960 Jacob's name eventually gets changed into. 10 of those tribes are from Leah. Are from Leah. Yeah. 221 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:14,160 Yeah. And the other two are from Rachel. That's a lot of tribes that come from Leah. 222 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:21,040 Leah. Mm-hmm. La-li-dee-ah. If you ever want a chapter in the Bible where you're like, 223 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:29,120 what is happening here? Just go read the story of Leah and Rachel trying to have kids for Jacob. 224 00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:34,080 Yeah. It's real interesting. It's very interesting. We'll just, we're not going to dive into that. 225 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:39,280 We'll just leave it at that. Go do Genesis 30, I believe. Go do your reading and then you'll be 226 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:44,560 like, why'd you recommend that to me? No, this section of scripture is very interesting, right? 227 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:52,320 It's super interesting. There's a lot that's going on moving on into the life of Jacob as he has kids. 228 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:58,720 There's a teaching by Rabbi David Foreman called Coats and Goats, which is fascinating. I'm not 229 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:03,840 going to get into it. Go check it out, alfbeta.com org. It's great. He's got some really interesting 230 00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:08,320 things that are happening with coats and goats. One of the things that I, well, I'm going to stop, 231 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:13,200 I'm going to stop saying one of these things, one of the things, okay? Ben says one of the things, 232 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,640 and you got to know that that's that thought for that moment. For that moment. And then he 233 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,240 gets on to the next moment. He's like, one of the things, that's the next thought for that moment, 234 00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:24,560 but they're all one of the things. Yeah. Two of the things. Two of the things. They're saying that. 235 00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:29,920 Because if you start a county now, we'd have a lot of the things. Yeah. So trending throughout 236 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:39,120 Genesis is this though, Abraham and Sarah, they are where the promised line comes through. Yes. Isaac 237 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:47,760 and Rebecca are where the promise comes through. Now, Isaac is the second born of Abraham. Jacob, 238 00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:56,320 who the line continues through, is the second born of Isaac. Joseph, who ends up actually going into 239 00:22:56,320 --> 00:23:03,840 Egypt, is going to be the first born of the second wife. Right? So I don't know if you guys are 240 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:08,000 starting to notice a trend here, right? God is not working through the first born, but for the 241 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:13,120 second born. Right? Just keep your finger on that, because we'll come back to that at some point. 242 00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:19,440 Some people are going to be like, when? Eventually. It's like 10 years from now, people will be like, 243 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:24,320 you never addressed this. And I'll be like, you know what? You're right. You're right. We're going 244 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:31,280 to get to it next week. Next week, we'll be 20 years from now. Yeah. So Jacob has all these kids. 245 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:36,560 He's got 10 kids on the side of Leah. He's got two kids on the side of Rachel, though one is born 246 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:43,920 initially and the other one's born much later. So he has this kid named Joseph, and I always love it 247 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,480 when they have the Joseph and the technicolor dream coat, you know what I'm talking about? 248 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,440 One of the things that's going on in Hebrew, and it does say multicolor, that's one of the ways 249 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:59,600 that they translate it. But the bigger deal about Jacob giving Joseph the coat is it's a second coat. 250 00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:06,080 Now, if you know anything about legacies and families in that time period, you know that the 251 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:10,720 first born is the one who is supposed to get the double portion. Yeah. Because it's the first born's 252 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:17,360 responsibility to take care of the family after dad dies. And what Jacob says is he says, I know 253 00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:24,320 that my first born is Reuben and also a delicious sandwich. Apparently he was famous for making 254 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:28,560 these sandwiches. That's not in the Bible. Sorry. I'm just totally aware of that sandwich. 255 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:33,360 I guess that's totally where that sandwich comes from. But Jacob says, hey, I know that you're my 256 00:24:33,360 --> 00:24:38,960 first born, but I really wish it was Joseph. So I mean, I understand why his brothers don't like him. 257 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:46,240 And then Joseph doesn't exactly do himself any favors. Right? No, he doesn't. He's like, 258 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,840 let me tell you about this dream about when you all bowed down to me because I was the coolest 259 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:57,120 person ever. I mean, sounds like a youngest child to me. Like, you're not wrong. No, I mean, 260 00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:05,200 but yeah, Joseph doesn't do himself any favors in this moment. And Jacob, he's doing a couple 261 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:11,200 things by giving the coat to Joseph. Is like, one, he is saying, okay, Rachel's my favorite wife 262 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:18,320 because I'm honoring her first born. Right? And then two, he's saying Reuben, your youngest sibling 263 00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:25,600 is more important to me than you are. It's a hard thing here. Right? Imagine, I mean, just imagine 264 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:32,160 your parent or guardian coming up to you and being like, hey, this right here, this one right here 265 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:40,800 is my favorite sibling. Right. That's hard. That's hard. So like, I can understand the hurt from his 266 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:44,800 brothers. I mean, I maybe don't understand it to the point where they're like, hey, let's toss him 267 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:49,600 in a pit and pretend like he got murdered and sell them off into slavery. But there's a lot going on 268 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:54,320 there and I'm not going to get into it. But I mean, like, they have a pretty severe reaction to that. 269 00:25:54,320 --> 00:26:00,320 Yeah. Right. So Joseph does get sold into slavery. He ends up in Egypt. And so remember what we said 270 00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:07,520 about Isaac. He sells them time of famine. Right? What does Joseph do? He's in Potiphar's house as a 271 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:15,040 slave. Right? Yep. And yet he becomes so prominent in his slavery because he's so good at what he 272 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:22,160 does. He becomes the head of Potiphar's household. He basically runs everything. Yep. He is a slave 273 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:31,040 in his master's household. And yet he just serves so well in the worst circumstance that he gets 274 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:36,880 put in charge of everything. Okay. Well, then of course, there's a situation where Potiphar's wife 275 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:42,000 wants to sleep with Joseph. He's like, yeah, I'm not going to do that. And so she lies and says that 276 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:47,200 he tried to rape her and he gets thrown into jail. And once again, he's even a worse situation. 277 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:54,560 And he just serves and rises to prominent and basically runs the jail for the guy at that point. 278 00:26:55,520 --> 00:27:03,120 Right? Yep. Again, he sows in famine and God meets him there. Right? He doesn't take him out of jail. 279 00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:09,280 Yeah. He's still in jail. And then he gives these prophetic words about a baker and a cup bear, 280 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:15,760 one that ends very, very well and one that ends not so well. If you go and check out the one that 281 00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:19,840 says like his eyes are going to get plucked out by birds or something like that, it's really gruesome. 282 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:25,840 Yeah. And then he gets forgotten until Pharaoh has a dream that he can't interpret. 283 00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:31,920 And all of his people are like, yeah, we don't got anything. And then this guy remembers, he says, 284 00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:37,520 oh wait, there was a guy in the jail who told me all these things and he was a pretty cool dude. 285 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:43,520 Maybe he can help you. And Joseph is brought forward and he has like this moment where he 286 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:49,440 is able to step into his identity that he's had the whole time. Yep. Now he's put onto a platform 287 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:58,720 where he's actually able to step into it. Yeah. And he goes and he interprets the dream. And I 288 00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:02,560 and I love the conversation about like, how does he interpret the dream? Actually, Baymaw has a great 289 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:06,800 conversation about that. If you haven't caught the theme, we're referencing them a lot because 290 00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:09,680 they've got great stuff and we're not going to trot over that ground again. Yeah. Okay. 291 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:16,560 But Joseph basically is able to see the famine that's coming. I think that's interesting. 292 00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:23,680 Famine, right? Given who his grandfather is. Yep. And Pharaoh says, oh, okay, well, I'm going to put 293 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:31,280 you in charge basically of Egypt and you're basically going to be underneath me and you'll 294 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:37,840 have all the authority to get ready for this. Right? So he wants again, so some famine. 295 00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:46,000 And then what Joseph does is very shrewd. He starts to accumulate a lot of reserves, 296 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:54,080 knowing the famine is coming. Okay. He accumulates in advance knowing the famine is coming. Yeah. 297 00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:59,760 And so then what ends up happening in a lot of the rise of prominence of Egypt can be attributed 298 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:03,680 to this is the fact that when famine comes and nobody has any food, including Egypt, 299 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:07,840 because they aren't growing new food, they only are living off their stores. They are now able 300 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:14,080 to sell their food to these people in exchange for sometimes land, sometimes animals, sometimes, 301 00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:19,120 you know, whatever the prophet would be. Now, I think the temptation is to say, well, yeah, 302 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,720 but this is going to lead to slavery. This is taking advantage. I was like, you do realize that 303 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:27,760 a whole region would have died if Egypt hadn't accumulated this food. Yeah. 304 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:36,960 Like, so God used the greed of men or maybe the self-preservation of men to actually save a whole 305 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:46,160 region. Like sit with that for a while. Yeah. God doesn't let anything go unwasted. 306 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:54,800 Like, and so hear me out on this. Okay. You might be like, well, there was this horrible moment in 307 00:29:54,800 --> 00:30:01,200 my life. Okay. God's not going to let that go unwasted. Now I'm not someone who's going to 308 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,760 come and say, God caused all that stuff to happen in your life. I don't necessarily believe that. I 309 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:11,120 believe there's consequences for our own actions. And I believe we have to accept some of that stuff. 310 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,560 There's also a reality of living in a fallen world. There's a reality of living in a fallen 311 00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:19,280 world. There's disease, there's brokenness, there's all these things, right? But God will use those 312 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:25,280 things to draw you closer to him. He will use that to draw you closer to him. I mean, with Joseph, 313 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:30,000 one of the things that kind of strikes me about the story is that every time Joseph was put in 314 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:38,080 a really bad situation, he leaned into who God is and God blesses that. Like every time, like he's 315 00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:44,080 thrown in a pit, sold into slavery. He leans into who God is, is faithful, God blesses it. 316 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:52,720 Right? He was thrown into jail. He leans into who God is, is faithful, God blesses it. Okay. He gets 317 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,720 brought before Pharaoh to interpret dream. He leans into who God is, God's faithful, he blesses it. 318 00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:03,520 Again, you see that again with the stores of food. Joseph is a very different character than his 319 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:10,640 father. Very different. Very different. And we need to see that because Jacob was a wheeler and 320 00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:17,360 dealer, kind of sly, good with his words type things. And Joseph is just a straight up faithful 321 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:24,080 guy, faithful to the Lord. Yeah. I mean, is there some squishiness in him? Of course. Of course. 322 00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:28,800 Absolutely. Because he's a person. Absolutely. Yeah. And there's also echoes of his father in 323 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:37,680 him as well. Right? But his father also is called Israel. Right? Yeah. Like the nation, Israel, 324 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:43,360 like that Jesus eventually comes from, that was from his father, Jacob. So the hunger gets, 325 00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:49,360 the family gets so big that his brothers actually have to come and get food from Egypt. And there's 326 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,920 a whole like dance that ends up happening where he reveals himself and doesn't reveal himself and 327 00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:58,080 throws one of them in jail and gets his father to come back to Egypt and all these different things 328 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:03,280 that happen. Right? Like, I'm not going to get into that, but you know what is the most beautiful 329 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:13,520 part of all of that? Joseph forgives his brothers. Yeah. He puts the hurt, he takes the hurt on 330 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:18,080 himself. And he said, he makes a statement. He says that what you meant for evil, God, you are 331 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:27,440 meant for evil. God purposed for good. And he's like, it's okay, guys. The best possible thing 332 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:34,000 came out of this. Doesn't make what you did. Okay. But I recognize the hand of God, even in your evil 333 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:42,160 and I choose to forgive. Boy, if we could talk about a more relevant thing in the church today, 334 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:50,720 right? And we're talking about people who were close to him, who hurt him. Right? Like we're not 335 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:55,520 talking about like, okay, somebody said a sly comment at the grocery store. The equivalent would 336 00:32:55,520 --> 00:33:00,880 be like, I mean, literally, if you had family members who just sold you out for some reason. 337 00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:05,200 Yeah. Like family that was close, like immediate family who sold you out, 338 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:10,080 you'd want nothing to do with them. But Joseph comes around and he's like, no, I forgive you. 339 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:16,640 Because you are my family and I love you. And I see the divine hand that moved behind you. 340 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:20,160 Yeah. Even in the midst of when you tried to do evil, God turned her for good. 341 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,640 I mean, because it is an evil guy. It's like they sold him into slavery. That's not cool. 342 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:31,520 It's not good at all. But what God ended up actually doing is putting Joseph in a position 343 00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:37,360 where he could save not only one nation, but all the nations in that area. Yeah. Egypt actually 344 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:43,600 becomes very powerful after this. Right? Now, of course, we're going to get into the Exodus 345 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:49,680 and this power, once it goes generation to generation to generation becomes a problem. 346 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:58,240 But I think the tendency is to maybe blame Joseph for creating Egypt into this powerhouse. 347 00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:03,440 And I don't think that the person who creates blessing, who creates functional things, 348 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:11,600 carries the blame for people who misuse it. Right? No, they do not. Right? And I think you need to 349 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:17,520 hear this because I think sometimes we have this tendency to blame Jesus for the people who follow 350 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:26,240 him. I made a statement to a person about an event that they were going to. They felt very 351 00:34:26,240 --> 00:34:32,080 convicted that they should go and participate in this event. Right? And I made a statement to 352 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:40,000 them. And I made a statement. I said, if people don't like you because of Jesus, that's expected. 353 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:50,080 Yeah. If people don't like Jesus because of you, that's sin. Make sure that the reason people don't 354 00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:56,240 like you is because of Jesus, not the other way around. Right? And I think that often in our 355 00:34:56,240 --> 00:35:00,720 churches, we get a lot of people who claim to represent Jesus and do everything except that. 356 00:35:00,720 --> 00:35:09,280 Right? I am very cognizant of my shortcomings. Same here. And I'm trying to live them out well, 357 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:14,240 but I also try to remind people, hey, I'm not Jesus. I'm becoming more like him. Yeah. 358 00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:20,560 But I also am going to live into my changed nature because my nature is no longer prone to sin, 359 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:26,160 it's prone to righteousness. The Holy Spirit is working inside of me to do good things in this 360 00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,800 world. And if I listen to him, he's going to direct me to better things rather than worse things. 361 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:39,120 Mm-hmm. Sometimes though, it's time to store up because famine's coming. Yeah. 362 00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:46,480 And having enough in the time of famine is not just about you. It's about all those that are 363 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:54,000 around you. There's a ton of things we can learn from these guys. I mean, we didn't even talk about 364 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:59,760 Jacob wrestling with God. We didn't even talk about the Jacob's letter. I briefly referenced it. 365 00:36:00,720 --> 00:36:07,360 We didn't talk about Esau forgiving his brother. Right? What I think is worth mentioning though, 366 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:12,240 is the two forgiveness moments we've mentioned, Esau forgiving his brother and Joseph forgiving 367 00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:18,720 his brothers. These are forgiveness moments pre-Jesus. Growing up, actually, the church that 368 00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:22,720 I grew up in, they kind of skimmed over that. They didn't really talk about that. And then when they 369 00:36:22,720 --> 00:36:27,280 got to Jesus, they're like, okay, this is when forgiveness happens. Yeah. But then you dive into 370 00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:31,600 this and you're like, wait, wait, wait. There's actually forgiveness that happens pre-Jesus. 371 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:38,480 Like you have Esau forgiving Jacob. You have Joseph forgiving his brothers. You have Moses 372 00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:44,720 forgiving the Israelites. And the story keeps going. Right? Right. And then some of you are like, 373 00:36:44,720 --> 00:36:50,160 well, what about Jesus? What's the work of Jesus have to do with anything? I'm so glad you asked. 374 00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:54,480 We're going to get to that soon. We are going to get to that soon. We promise. So stay tuned for 375 00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:59,120 that. If you want a spoiler alert, just go read the four gospels. Yeah. There's some good stuff 376 00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:03,920 in there about why that's important. This is what we can tell you about the work of Jesus. 377 00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:12,160 The work of Jesus is not about satisfying God's wrath. There's, I just said that and I guarantee 378 00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:17,360 you we get an angry. Oh yeah. We will. Okay. Cause I want to break this down for you. Okay. 379 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:26,240 Who is Jesus? He's God. It's not a trick question. Right? So if Jesus drinks the cup of God's holy 380 00:37:26,240 --> 00:37:34,320 wrath, so God drinks God's holy wrath. Jesus drinks the cup of God's holy wrath. Yep. Okay. 381 00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:39,200 This sounds like a God who walked both sides of the covenant. Yep. This sounds like the God who 382 00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:44,720 meets people in the middle of nowhere at a place called Bethel. This sounds like a God who gives a 383 00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:51,120 vision of abundance and scarcity so that a nation can protect an entire region. Yeah. This sounds 384 00:37:51,120 --> 00:38:00,080 like a God who remembers even in the midst of a cataclysmic flood. This sounds like a God who knows 385 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:07,360 when to say enough and realize that creation is ready to start blossoming. Yeah. It's almost like 386 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:13,360 the God in the new Testament is the God of the old Testament. Then it's always been a story about 387 00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:17,520 how God is getting his kids back home and that when he gets into the new Testament, he's still not 388 00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:26,000 angry. He's working through Jesus to bring about the redemption of the entire world. And yet we 389 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:31,920 still want to talk about an angry God. He created a new covenant just like he created with Abraham, 390 00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:36,960 where he created a new covenant where he's like, I am going to walk both sides. There's nothing you 391 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:48,000 have to do except come home. Yep. Guys, it is time to come home. It is time to stop living in this 392 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:55,280 reality of an angry God. That is what pagans do. Their gods are angry. Ours is not. Now there are 393 00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:59,520 times that God gets angry and we will talk about that because it shows up in the rest of Torah, 394 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:05,120 but it is not for the reasons you think. And we already saw in Sodom and Gomorrah, why was God 395 00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:10,640 angry with Sodom and Gomorrah? Why did he reach out and have to wipe them out? Because they were 396 00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:21,440 fat and overfed and they didn't care about anybody but themselves. Just a warning church. Maybe it's 397 00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:26,400 time to actually believe that God's not angry with you and go love other people. Go and actually 398 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:32,480 bring the kingdom wherever you go. Stop living in fear of God and go and be the church. So when you 399 00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:39,760 look at this story, one of the things with Joseph that is just very interesting to see is he relied 400 00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:46,080 on God 100%. He also took responsibility and stored up food. Yeah. Right. He took responsibility 401 00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:49,520 to store the food and because he did that, he took care of the whole region around him. 402 00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:57,600 Okay. We as a church should take note of that. I often hear people who are like, well, this church 403 00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:03,200 just isn't feeding me. The church is supposed to help build you up so you can be sent out, right? 404 00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:09,840 But you should be taking responsibility for getting your own spiritual food. Right. Right. 405 00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:15,760 Especially if you're here in America, man, you're two clicks away on Amazon from getting a Bible. 406 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:22,880 There's tons of podcasts out there. There's Bible apps. There's so many resources to be able to get 407 00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:27,040 the spiritual food you need. There's two randos that are talking on a Love and Context podcast. 408 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:33,920 Right. Exactly. And so we should take note of this, of like Joseph took care of that for himself. 409 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:40,400 He made sure he was going to be fed. Yeah. Right. And then he used that to bless his whole region. 410 00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:44,400 Yeah. And believe me, if you're like, well, they paid for the food. I was like, it's still a blessing. 411 00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:49,840 Still a blessing. Because there's no other food around. Yeah. I want to share a quick story and 412 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:52,880 we'll probably end the podcast on this and people are going to be like, that's a really weird way to 413 00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:58,400 end it. Are you ready for that? We like weird. I had a pastor when I was in college and he made 414 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:01,760 a comment about, he's like, people come to the church and they're like, well, I'm just not being 415 00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:06,160 fed. I'm not getting, you know, I'm not getting what I need. I'm not being fed. And he's like, 416 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:19,440 you know, if you eat and eat and eat and eat and you never go, it's called constipation and you can 417 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:24,960 die from it. The church today is spiritually constipated because we're so busy eating that 418 00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:32,640 we never go and be. The church has been eating so much and eating and eating and eating and they 419 00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:39,280 never go and be the church. They're like, ah, I love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. 420 00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:47,440 And my neighbor is also there. No, it's time to actually put what you've been eating into use 421 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:54,800 and go and be the body of Christ. And the foods you've been eating is good. It's good. Like it is 422 00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:59,600 so good. Like if you're talking spiritual food, we're not talking the top ramen and spiritual food 423 00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:05,680 here. We're talking like high end steaks, the ice cream with the gold flakes on it. Like the 424 00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:10,560 restaurants that us poor people wish we could eat at, right? That's the spiritual food we're getting 425 00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:15,920 and we're being called to, hey, take that and share it. That's huge. Like take that spiritual 426 00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:21,680 food and share that. Like, so just to take this analogy a little bit further, if you, if you go 427 00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:28,400 to someone who has nothing, someone who needs food and you give them a Twinkie, they're probably 428 00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:34,080 going to be thankful and they're probably going to eat it. Right. You take that same person and 429 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:41,120 we're in Alaska and go get them some really good fish and chips. It's a totally different ball 430 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:48,240 game for them. Yeah. I'm going to change this analogy just slightly and say, Hey guys, maybe 431 00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:53,280 it's time for us to have a bigger table. Yeah. And to invite those people to that table. Mm hmm. 432 00:42:54,800 --> 00:43:00,240 I was, I was talking with a few people a while back and I was like, so often the church, what 433 00:43:00,240 --> 00:43:05,280 they do is they invite, they invite people out and they're like, Hey, why don't you come to coffee 434 00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:09,760 with me? And then what they do is they throw their crap all over every seat at the table they're 435 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:15,520 sitting at. And they're like, by the way, you need a stand. It's no wonder they leave. 436 00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:21,200 It's like, you gotta have room for them to sit down and feel welcomed. Yeah. 437 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:27,200 I don't know if you're familiar with God's table, but it's pretty big. There's a lot of spots in 438 00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:32,080 there. It's time for us to live like it's a bigger table and get some people here to eat. Yes. And 439 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:36,000 there's tons of food on it. Stop complaining about the fact that you got to eat, eat, eat, eat, 440 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:41,120 eat. It's time for you to go and invite and bring, bring that food out. We're mixing metaphors all 441 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:45,120 over the place, but you guys understand what we're saying. It's time to be the church. Yeah. Yeah. 442 00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:50,640 So that's Genesis. Like that's the invitation. Jacob is going to die and he's going to, but he's 443 00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:54,240 going to tell his kids that he wants to be buried back in his homeland, right? With his, with his 444 00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:59,680 ancestors. And Joseph is going to honor that, but then the Israelites are going to be in Egypt 445 00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:06,880 and that's going to be their home. Right. Now we know the story that's coming up next, right? We 446 00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:14,320 understand what's coming up in Exodus, but at this point, this is a good thing. The question is, 447 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:22,160 when you live in Egypt, do you now become Egypt or do you stay God's people? Yeah. And I think 448 00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:26,080 that's the question as we move into the Exodus that we actually have to start asking because Egypt 449 00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:32,240 gets so inside of the people that even when they're let out, they're still in Egypt. 450 00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:40,320 Boy, if there was only a relevant story for the church today. Yeah. So next time we're going to 451 00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:45,680 talk about that. If you have thoughts, comments, please email us at love and context at gmail.com. 452 00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:51,040 You can also follow us on Instagram at love and context. We want to hear from you. We also would 453 00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:56,960 love it if you like, share, or subscribe and send that out to people that you think might find this 454 00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:01,120 interesting. And some of you at this point are probably like, you just have Instagram and there's 455 00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:05,600 other social media platforms out there. We know. Don't worry. Instagram is where we're at right now. 456 00:45:06,240 --> 00:45:12,160 Yeah. Yeah. We're just shy of Boomer. Yep. Just shy of Boomer. That's not true. We're a lot 457 00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:16,240 else. Yeah. Thanks for listening guys. And until next time. 458 00:45:16,240 --> 00:45:21,840 Thank you so much for listening today. We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we hope that you got 459 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:29,200 something out of it. If you have any questions, please contact us at love and context at gmail.com. 460 00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:36,800 You can also follow us on Instagram and message us through there. Instagram is love and context. 461 00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:43,200 Again, love and context at gmail.com or Instagram are the two ways to get ahold of us. And we'll see 462 00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:50,560 you next time. Thank you. Once again, we really appreciate you being here. God bless.