From Eden to Egypt

Introduction
The Start
Abraham and Sarah
The Joseph Story

Introduction

For many people, the Old Testament is very confusing. They know some of the stories and they know there is some poetry and prophecy, but how it all fits together is a huge mystery. I want to help take some of the confusion and mystery away.

To begin, I am going to cover some very basic information about the Old Testament. First, I want to explain how the Old Testament is organized. The 39 books in the Old Testament are organized topically, not chronologically. They are grouped in three different categories.

The first 17 books are historical and contain the entire storyline of the Old Testament. The next 5 books are the poetical and the final 17 books are prophetical, written by the prophets of Israel.

The first 17 books will be the focus of this post and I will fit the poetry and the prophetical writings into the historical time line as I get to them.

Second, I want to show you where the story of the Old Testament happened geographically. If you look at the map you will see where in the world the Old Testament story took place. It took place in the modern day countries of Iraq, Turkey Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Egypt. I will be referring to this map as we move along in the story.

The Start

The ‘first leg’ of the journey is through the book of Genesis. Chapters 1-2 contain the story of creation.

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

The first comment in the Bible states that this place we call the universe was initiated by God. Some of us think he did it in 6 literal days and some of us think he took a little longer, but the common ground every Christ-follower has is that God was the “Intelligence” behind the design.

Life got off to a great start; in fact it was a perfect start, but it didn’t last long. Genesis 3 is the story of “The fall”. It happened in the Garden of Eden when Satan tempted Adam and Eve to commit sin. We actually know the general location of the Garden of Eden. According to Genesis 2 there were four rivers in the Garden and two of them are the Tigris and the other the Euphrates, two rivers that are located in modern-day Iraq. Genesis 3:6-7 says, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” This is the event that plunged the human race into all of the pain and misery we experience today and separation from God.

In the following centuries, evil ran wild, so God decided to ‘start over’ and he did so through Noah and his family…Chapter 6-9 is the story of Noah and the flood.

Genesis 6:5-8, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”

Following the flood, the earth was repopulated. Many hundreds of years passed and God began to work in one couple to form a nation that he would work specifically with and through. The couple was Abraham and Sarah and the nation was Israel. They lived in the land of Ur – in modern-day Iraq. And it is with this couple that I want to begin the journey of the storyline of the Old Testament.

Abraham and Sarah

Their story begins in Genesis 11:27, “This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sara…Now Sara was barren; she had no children. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran. The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sara, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.”

Canaan is also called “The Promised Land” in the Bible as well as Israel.

The reason they didn’t travel ‘as the crow flies’ is because that was about 600 miles of desert! They followed what is known as “The Fertile Crescent”, where there was food and water and the only way a person could make it and survive the trip.

2 observations about Abraham and Sarah:

First: They were childless.

Second: They were old! Abraham was 75 and we know from other parts of the story that Sarah was 65. Their child-bearing years were over.

But God had said he would make them into a ‘great nation’ and in chapter 15 God said that their offspring would be like the stars in the sky! And 25 years after they arrived in the Promised Land, when Abraham was 100 and Sara was 90 they had their first baby! They named him Isaac. I guess the moral of the story is, never quit trying!

Abraham and Sarah’s ‘Family Tree’ is pretty complicated and messy.

Isaac grew up and married a woman by the name of Rebecca. They had twins; Jacob and Esau. Esau was the first-born, but God chose to work through Jacob and in his adult life; God changed his name to Israel. The story of this man is a “soap opera”! Jacob stole his brother’s birthright for a bowl of soup. And later he tricked his father into giving him the family blessing As a result, his twin-brother planned to kill him, so he fled to Haran to live with his uncle Laban. Jacob fell in love with one of his daughters, Rachel. He worked 7 years for no pay in order to be able to marry Rachel but Laban tricked him and gave him his oldest and less attractive daughter, Leah. He worked another 7 years for Rachael. Over the years, there was a “baby competition” between these 2 sisters, so much so that they each gave their husband their personal servants to make babies with; Zilpah and Bilhah. So from this one man through his 2 wives and their 2 servants, he produced 12 boys and 1 girl. The 12 sons are known as the “12 sons of Israel” and became the names of the 12 Tribes of Israel.

The Joseph Story

The final story in the book of Genesis focuses on one of those sons…Israel’s favorite: Joseph. Joseph was the son of his favorite wife, Rachel and it showed in a 1,000 ways, including making a special coat for him and his brothers hated him for it.

Genesis 37:1-4, “Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.”

One day, they got their chance to get back at Joseph. The brothers were tending sheep about 50 miles north and Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers…

Genesis 37:17-20, “So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

They did not follow through with the plan to kill him, but they did sell Joseph to some businessmen who were going past them on their way to Egypt. So the favorite son of Jacob was sold into slavery in Egypt.

In my view, this is one of the most amazing stories in the Old Testament. It covers the final 14 chapters of the book of Genesis.

He was 17 when he was betrayed by his brothers and sold as a slave in Egypt.
As a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian official, he was thrown into prison because Potiphar’s wife wanted to have sex with him and he ran from her. she lied about the incident, saying Joseph tried to rape her and as a result he ended up in prison!
For 13 years, Joseph was either a slave or a prisoner. He lost his entire 20-Something season of life.
While in prison, he interpreted some dreams for Pharaoh and as a result was elevated to second in command in Egypt!
Because of a famine, Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy food.
Joseph recognized them and eventually revealed himself to them.
He had the family, along with his father, move to Egypt in order to survive the famine.

There are so many lessons from the story of Joseph, but let me give just three:

#1 Forgiveness is a choice and it is always possible to forgive.

After their father Jacob died, the brothers were left alone without any ‘parental buffer’ between them and Joseph and that terrified the brothers. What would he do to them now?

Genesis 50:15-21, “When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.”

He obviously had already forgiven his brothers. He had also obviously forgiven Potiphar’s wife for lying about him and even Potiphar for throwing him in prison. He forgave everyone who had treated him so badly.

The New Testament verse that comes to mind is Colossians 3:13, “Forgive as Christ forgave you.”

If you are having difficulty forgiving someone, you should read the story of Joseph!

#2 God is at work in the darkest and most confusing times of our lives.

Joseph told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” (Genesis 50:20)

Joseph clearly viewed his years as a slave and then in the dungeon as part of God’s purposes for good.

He now understood that God had positioned him in Egypt in order to save his family from starvation. I also believe it was a time when God worked on Joseph’s pride.

The story of Joseph is an Old Testament example of Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

So many times things happen that don’t make a lot of sense to us and we don’t especially like them either.

The economy takes a nosedive.
The wrong guy gets elected president.
You lose your job or get cut back in hours.
Your retirement fund is cut in half.
You face a health problem.
A problem develops in your marriage or with one of your children.

Even then, God is at work and he does have a plan. None of it is random or without purpose!

Every year at Christmas time I buy a jigsaw puzzle for me and my family to put together. When we first start the table is filled with pieces. It is a huge mess and it sure doesn’t make any sense. But slowly over the days and weeks we put the pieces together and it actually does begin to make sense!

That is how we need to view this life and God’s plans. In this life we will see some of the pieces put together; in heaven we will see the entire picture.

#3 God is with us in the darkest and most confusing times of our lives.

We are almost always tempted to think that in the lowest points of our lives is when God has abandoned us.

Joseph’s life tells us just the opposite. If you were to graph Joseph’s life, charting the high points and the low points, the 3 deepest points would be when he was a slave in Egypt, when he was a prisoner in Egypt and when his father died.

There are 3 times in the story of Joseph where the phrase, “the Lord was with him” is included; when he was a slave in Egypt (39:2-3); when he was a prisoner in Egypt (39:20-2); and just before his father died (48:21).

Does that mean that the Lord was NOT with him the rest of the time? No, it just means that it’s in the low points, the scary times, and the dangerous times he need to be reminded of it!

As I end, let challenge you that if you haven’t read the story of Joseph for a while or if you have never read it, spend some time in Genesis 37-50 reading about this amazing man’s story.