Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Thanks, guys for coming.
Before we get started with this here, I wanted to just tell you in Slack, basically the entire, like, outline manuscript that I'm gonna go off of should be on your phone. So feel free to follow along. I hesitated to give that to you initially. So I was like, you know, should they just be along the journey kind of situation? But I think. I think it could be a helpful tool. Just.
I mean, just for the sake of time.
Historical narrative is about 60% of the Bible.
And so when Taylor asked me to teach on this, it was like, okay, you're going to have me. Give me the responsibility to teach our people how to potentially read and interpret 60% of the Bible. Okay.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: All right.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Tall task.
We're going to do our best.
So I've got three goals that hopefully we'll achieve. Okay, so goal one.
Goal one.
Goal one is just answering the question, what is hermeneutics?
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Right.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: So piggybacking off what two weeks ago, Taylor taught on, which is hermeneutics.
Piggyback off there. This is way too big. Let me get this smaller.
Goal one.
Nope, try again.
Goal one.
I'm just going to call it Herm.
Okay, goal two, which is historical narrative.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Rachel was telling me that it's a skill to learn how to write on a dry erase board. It's not one that I've gained so far.
And then goal three, significance.
Okay, so this, I think goal number three is probably, I would say, the most important with, like, just the entire teaching time. Okay, so, like, we can learn how to, like, read stories.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Right?
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Historical narrative. It's a story, Right. We get told stories all the time. We instinctively ask questions to understand stories. Well, if we're listening to them and we'll talk a little bit about that. But really, I think the biggest goal for this is how to understand significance as it relates to historical narrative.
That I think is probably the most challenging thing is when we take really large stories, how do we ask the question as accurately as possible, what does this mean for me?
That, I think, is the challenge that's in front of us. So I'm going to give some tools. And you've got paper on the desk as well, too. Of just like, kind of just some tools of like, how do we discern significance as it relates to Jesus?
We'll get to that a little bit later on also. That should be on your sheet too. Is going to be this guy.
This is a story map. Who knows what a story map is?
All right, Just a few of us.
So typically, I remember when I was in elementary school. The typical story map that I was used to, which is like the roller coaster, you go up, you know, rising, action, climax, falling, action, resolution.
This is a little bit different, but it's kind of the same.
I'll introduce this about half our time. So first piece for about 10, 15 minutes is going to be Hermanuics.
Second piece for about 20, 30 minutes is actually going to be a group activity time that you guys will work pretty independently with your tables using this sheet.
And then the third time is going to be talking about significance.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: All right, that's where we're headed first.
What is hermeneutics? Don't look at it.
What is hermeneutics?
Yeah, Dan, what's hermeneutics?
Basically?
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Art and science of interpreting the Bible.
How does art relate to interpreting the Bible?
Style.
Style.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: All right.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Maybe somebody described like what an artist does.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: If an artist is going to paint something.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Like how might that relate to how we interpret the Bible?
Not everyone does it the same. Not everybody might do it the same.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: Yep.
Dan.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: We each have our own unique picture of what is going on.
Like we picture it in our heads and that affects how we interpret.
Sure, yeah.
Anything else?
So a word that comes to mind for me is skill.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: The more that we go about interpreting the Bible, the greater we're going to be at doing it.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: So progression is the hope.
If we only pick up our Bible once in every six months, are probably not going to be very good at interpreting it.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: But if we kind of devote ourselves. Right. To a. To a practiced ability.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Which is what equipped class is like in a practiced ability to interpret the Bible accurately, we're going to. OR one, we're going to get better at it over time.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Art, skill.
What about science? How do you think science kind of goes with interpreting the Bible?
Nikki? There's a method that we follow. Yeah. Process is the word that I was kind of thinking of. Method or process.
Yeah.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Because in order.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Like especially with like massive genres, you know, there's. I'm not sure how many different genres in the Bible. There's a lot, but there must be a kind of method process that we can use to then apply to each one of these genres.
So the way that we'll go in and read historical narrative, like we'll do. By the way, the narrative we're going to read is Joseph's story, which is going to be Genesis 37 to 50.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: We're not all going to read 13 chapters that was part of the challenge, it was like, okay, big story, how do we do this?
Get to that here in a second. But we want to be able to have some kind of method or process, to be able to work through different types of genres accurately.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: So the hope is to give that to you as well.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: All right.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: So something to piggyback off of from Taylor's lesson two weeks ago is do you remember we had.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: We had three primary kind of like subjects almost.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: We had author, text reader.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Author being what, who wrote it?
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: So does anyone know who wrote the book of Genesis?
It's true, there's some debate to it, but most scholars would say Moses, right. Wrote the book of Genesis.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Okay, right.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: So text, book of Genesis.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Who would be the original readers?
Right. The Israelites.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: The people who the law was given are going to be the original readers.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: So these are the foundations here.
Meaning.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Where typically is meaning located?
You remember from Taylor's class.
Okay, Dan.
Okay, sure.
Is it the intersection of the author and the reader?
Not quite.
Author in the text. That's right. The intersection between the author and the text.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: So, Dan, the. The reader doesn't necessarily like it. The reader itself, like we help determine the meaning, like we find it, but the meaning comes from the author and the text themselves.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Apart from us.
Like if, if you read it or if somebody in a third world country read it, potentially the meaning is going to be the same.
The significance might change and we'll get to that here in a second, but the meaning is going to be the same.
It's important because when we read, typically read the Bible, especially historical narrative or really any genre, we have our own presuppositions to the text that we want to bring it to.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: If we're reformed.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: We're going to want to potentially read specifically Reformed theology all throughout the text, maybe even if the text isn't necessarily talking about it.
Does that make sense?
Even though I'm a reformed person. But it's important.
It's important to understand that, like, significance is different than meaning is kind of my point here. Does that make sense with everybody? Alright, so author, text, right there and then what about significance?
How would you guys describe how significance is found?
It's located between the text and the reader.
How would you guys describe where significance is found? Dan, I'm gonna give somebody else the chance here.
I will come back to you though here in a second.
Where will we find significance or how would we go about maybe defining it?
Nikki?
Yeah.
Yes.
So intersection between the text and the reader. The meaning's influencing it for sure.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So significance, right? This is kind of like the answer to the question, hey, what does this mean for us?
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: So when I read like the story of Joseph, how does the story of Joseph relate to us? How does it relate to me? Right now?
It's difficult to find because it can mean many different things for different people.
I think typically, at least before.
For sure. Before seminary into my upbringing, I kind of got these two things confused.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: Because I think it's important, whenever we're reading historical narrative, we don't immediately jump to significance immediately.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: It's important for us to understand where this is, like what's happening here, what Moses specifically is intending to say to the original readers and how that then relates to us here.
Does that make sense?
All right, so, right, this is the trainer thought this way.
Significance here, here.
All right, cool.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: All right.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: That's the first part.
So if we're reading historical narrative, this is where we want to go. We want to ask who the author is, obviously the text, where it's located, kind of what the major theme is here.
Who the original readers were, find the meaning of what, the whole point of the text, the whole point of the story that's being told. What am I supposed to receive from it? And then what does it mean for me?
Does that make sense?
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Alright.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: So a really helpful book.
Ever looking for resources. And I can post this in Slack too.
It's great. Taylor. I feel like there's like a bunch out there. I thought this was like one of the only ones. For whatever reason, this is the book that we've used in seminary. 40 questions about interpreting the Bible quite literally. Plumber goes through again, 40 questions all about different genres.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: So like, what's the. What is hermeneutics? How do we deal with hermeneutics? And then how do we deal with different genres in the Bible?
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Great book.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: There's a chapter over historical narrative and I just think he puts it really well in layman's terms.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: So good book. A lot of the material we'll talk about historical narrative is going to come from Plummer.
Quick question. Who is your favorite storyteller?
And then what makes someone a good storyteller?
Okay, what do you like about J.R.R. tolkien?
Okay. All right. He's a great author.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: All right.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: My favorite author is C.S. lewis.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: I think. Anyone else want to give who their favorite storyteller is? Patrick J.K. rowling. That's great.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Taylor Locke, great storyteller.
Yeah, I think Matt Allen is a great storyteller also. I think Matt's a great storyteller.
I'm a good storyteller. Thanks.
She's talking about my sound effects is what she's talking about. Yeah, thanks, that's sweet. Thanks.
So I think what makes storytellers really effective is their ability to transport you into that story, right?
So like J.K. rowling. I mean, like Harry Potter series.
I don't know. Debatable. Greatest movie series of all time. I don't know.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Whoa.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Maybe Lord of the Rings is a part of that.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: You're right.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Chronicles, Narnia is a part of that. But, like, these are like major authors, right? Like, with major authors who are really good storytellers, they typically make good movies, right. It's almost as if the movie is easier to come by because they just have to put, like, what was in writing visual.
So I think that's what makes a storyteller really good, is someone who transport you. Transports you into that world and gets you to ask certain questions.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Right?
[00:15:37] Speaker A: They help the reader or listener understand the setting, the author's perspective, the author's or character's experience, and the overall lesson learned.
I think it's typical, helpful to ask when hearing a story to ask really two questions.
What is this person trying to tell me? Like, what's their point of the story? What are they trying to tell me about their experience, what they learned those things? And then what do they want me to understand about it?
Because stories can be like these fictional things, like Harry Potter, or they can be how my day was yesterday.
Hey, how was your day at work yesterday? And now I'm telling a story about how my day was good or bad or what happened.
Where is historical narrative located in the Bible?
Okay, if you want to, you can take the. These sheets of paper are yours. So, like, you can take notes on them if you want to. If you want to take notes on your phone, that's fine.
In the Old Testament, historical narrative is primarily located in these areas.
It's located in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2.
Well, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.
In the New Testament, it's the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts.
Technically, the Gospels are considered historical biography.
They're a blend of historical narrative with a theological purpose in the telling of the Gospel.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Of Jesus and then the Book of Acts. It's a historical narrative of the early church and the main characters involved.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: So the Timeline for the book of Acts is the ascension of Jesus, early church, early apostles in Paul's missionary journey, primarily.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: So God working within the church, in the early church, in the building and rising of the many believers in that time.
Okay, here's a process to help us interpret historical narrative.
First, we want to consider context, context, context, context.
I have not. I wouldn't call it beef, but I have some beef a little bit with like certain, like Bible reading plans, right? Certain Bible reading plans where it will just give you a chapter to read, but that chapter might be like right in the middle of the story randomly, when we really should be reading a story, at least initially in full.
So if we like transport ourselves in the middle of a story and go, okay, you know, if I'm in, I don't know. First thing that comes to mind is at the end of Lord of the Rings, if they're going to go to Mountain Doom, why are they going to Mount Doom in the first place if they don't know that, like they need to destroy the ring and the significance and the power of the ring.
You don't really understand the significance of power of the ring if you don't read the first book. I never read the book, so I watched the movie. All right, but you get my point, get my point? Hey, I did think Mount Doom. I got it right in the ring, alright?
We're already winning. But you get my point, right? If we just put ourselves within the third, fourth chapter of the thing without actually understanding the full breadth of the story itself, are probably going to get lost somewhere.
When it comes to context, there are two things to keep in mind. There are things called blanks and gaps.
Blanks are information that the author does not include.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Right?
[00:19:40] Speaker A: So a good example of this is Moses doesn't care to tell us about what color Abraham's eyes are.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Right?
[00:19:49] Speaker A: Nowhere in Genesis does Abraham say, and Abraham had brown eyes or green eyes.
The reality is it's because Moses doesn't care and we really shouldn't care either.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Right?
[00:20:03] Speaker A: So information not included, that doesn't drive the whole overall point of the story.
That's a blank.
We shouldn't really read too much in detail about that.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Right?
[00:20:16] Speaker A: I think typically, at least for myself, if I'm not careful, the spot that I don't do this very well is when I try to make something out of nothing, right? That's a potential obstacle making something out of nothing, that's not said.
It's a blank.
There are things called gaps, which is information not included. But it's important.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: So the author might speak about the main idea generally, but only in a way of foreshadowing or referencing. But he doesn't give the full picture immediately.
He's just leading you to the point.
But there's some gaps in information that the author hasn't told you quite yet.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Alright.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: Another helpful tool is thematic statements.
Trying to look at my time here, see how I'm doing.
I think I got to get moving.
Thematic statements. So these are statements that the author may give in the beginning of a narrative to point the reader to its intended theme.
So in the story of Joseph, right, this is Genesis 37, 3, 4 says, now Israel loves Joseph more than any of his other sons because Joseph was born to him in his old age and he made a robe of many colors for him.
When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: So this is setting up the theme of the book of Joseph or the story of Joseph, not the book Joseph, story of Joseph.
Another helpful tip for historical narrative is repetition.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: Right?
[00:21:58] Speaker A: So these are phrases or words that are repeated often to suggest the author's overall main idea.
So if you read a story, the overall point might be emphasized over and over and over again.
It's a pretty helpful clue about, okay, what's the whole point that this author's trying to drive across?
There are also trustworthy characters which are, whether directly or indirectly, the author might clue the reader as to which characters are to be believed or imitated.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: All right.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: And so I think a helpful, just a really practical question to ask when reading a big story is just to ask what is the main idea of this story or section and how does this verse or phrase relate to it?
So what's the main idea that the author's trying to give across?
Because typically in big stories we might have micro stories right in the middle that contribute to the whole main idea.
And so just think a helpful question to ask is, so what's the point of this minor story and how does it relate to the big picture here?
So I think a really helpful example to that is the initial gospel message given in Genesis chapter three.
How does that gospel message, the promise of Jesus that's going to come from the seed of Eve, how does that gospel message relate all the way to Jesus now in the Gospels, right? A thousand plus years later?
And then here's some potential obstacles for us to look out for.
I think length can be a potential obstacle.
We just get tired with Big stories like man, I just need to take a break.
So length can be many chapters long.
Author, we can't really ask the author what he meant.
And then complications with words. A different time period and a different culture.
So some words used in the Old Testament for us, we have a really difficult time understanding them because they were written directly to a different people than us.
So they might understand a word differently than the we will.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Right?
[00:24:23] Speaker A: For instance, like in the Old Testament, especially in like Middle Eastern culture.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: They have a much more communal kind of culture, right. Where a whole family is involved with the belief system.
In Western culture, we're very individualistic. My walk, my Jesus, my salvation, my church, my job, my, my family. And everybody is distinct from us, which is just distant from the culture that was in the Old Testament.
Like in the New Testament, for instance, when the Bible says and his whole house believed.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: If the father's believing something, it drives the whole family environment.
That should happen as well with us today. But it's much more of a challenge because it's not typically normal with their culture.
All right, so here's some practical steps to interpret a narrative.
Sometimes it's helpful to ignore.
So like in the original manuscripts, right? Like the original manuscripts, the original scribes don't put verses down.
Like there's not commas there.
Sometimes it's not even vowel points, it's just letters.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Chapters aren't there.
Chapters and verses came later. The spots like this where it says Joseph's dreams.
So this is just editorial things here.
And they're not wrong. Obviously they're supposed to be tools and resources for us to eat use.
But I think sometimes it's important that if we're going to read historical narrative well, we need to understand that sometimes chapter 37 goes with chapter 36 and there's not this breaking point. Like it's a continued, continued line of thought that the author is trying to drive.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Alright.
[00:26:21] Speaker A: So sometimes it's helpful to just ignore them and continue reading.
I'm not sure if you guys have ever seeing those like reader readers, Bibles, where quite literally it's just like story. It's like opening up a book and you're just reading a story. I think those are really helpful sometimes too.
I had an old mentor. Say another. The second tip is I had a mentor. Tell me, Mason, just keep the main thing, the main thing.
Keep the main thing, the main thing, right? So we find the main thing here.
Let's just keep it there and understand it. Let's not try to read something into Something that's not there.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: All right.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: And I think, again, a helpful question to ask is, what is the author trying to convey by what he sank?
Also think reading the story multiple times is helpful.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: So when possible, read the story before doing a deeper. Like a deeper Bible study over a story. Read it multiple times, get a really good understanding of what's kind of going on in the story.
Also think not jumping to commentaries prematurely, like, quickly.
So it can be tempting when reading a story and going, man, I don't understand what this means.
Google, what is the meaning of the story?
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: And then we just read the first thing that comes up on Google and go, okay, that must be the meaning of good.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Right?
[00:27:57] Speaker A: The point is, when we don't understand, it's okay for us to struggle.
Like, we should embrace the struggle.
Sometimes I think the times where I feel closest with the Lord and I learn the most is when I just. I initially don't ask anyone a question about what I'm dealing with in the story, and I just deal with it as much as I can. And then once I find a stopping point of like, okay, all right, I might need. I'm just curious now what you think to see kind of where we are. I think that's when community is really helpful.
The type of commentary, I think is. Is good, too, to use, which are called expositional commentaries.
Okay, so expositional commentaries are helpful to use when wanting to interpret historical narrative, because typically it is going to give you the story, and then it's going to kind of give you just kind of like in layman's terms, points that the text is trying to make.
All right, expositional commentaries.
And then, Sean, I think you'll appreciate this. Learning the original language, if you so dare.
Right, right. So the original readers read that original language. It means something to them.
So understanding the words and phrases and how the original reader may have understood it and the author wrote it can be really helpful.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: All right.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: And then just find the story's main significance.
Find the story's main significance.
All right, any questions? That's historical narrative. A little bit of a nutshell.
We could spend, like, six weeks talking about this, right?
In a nutshell. Any questions there?
Cool. All right, so second part of the activity is going to be the story maps that are in front of you. All right, I'm going to kind of explain how this works. Hopefully there should be one for each. For each person at your table. How many tables do we have? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Tino. Hey, will you communicate with Tino? Come sit with you guys, by chance.
Cool, James. Yes. And James, we'll have James sit with you guys also. I think that'd be good.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: All right.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: All right, so, hey, like a preface before we're going to go through the story of Joseph for our activity time, the thought process is instead of us all reading 13 chapters at a time, right. We're just going to break up one or two chapters at each table.
All right, so we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
I plan for six, but we're going to make it work.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: All right.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: So on your sheet, if you have a pen, I'm going to go ahead and give you some of the material that's on the story map here already.
And this is going to be important because when we get to the event boxes here in the event boxes, what I want you to do is when you're reading the story, I want you to point out specific verses or phrases that relate to the main idea.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: Right?
[00:31:29] Speaker A: So each one of these chapters might be a micro story in the larger theme of the story of Joseph. And so there's going to be specific verses and phrases within each of these that's going to help relate to the whole main idea.
[00:31:42] Speaker B: All right.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: First, setting.
So the story of Joseph begins in Genesis, chapter 37.
And this is verse, verse one.
It says Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: So the setting is the land of Canaan.
Joseph's life, why Joseph is important and why he's important with Jacob is actually found in two chapters before this, which is in Genesis, chapter 35, verse 24.
If you remember, Jacob is married to Rachel. She passes away, she dies.
But Rachel and Jacob, they have two sons.
They have Benjamin and Joseph.
That's a very, very, very important detail.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: All right.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: Yes, yes, it should.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: If you'll fill those in, that'd be good. If you want to. There's supposed to be an 8. You don't have to fill them in. I'm not gonna. I don't know. I don't know.
I'm at right now. I'm at setting.
So setting. Land of Canaan, comma, which is Genesis, chapter 37, verse 1.
And then Joseph's life is Genesis 35, verse 24, which is the two main sons here. The big pivotal two sons at play here are going to be Benjamin and Joseph.
And then obviously our location is Egypt.
All right, Major characters involved in our story are going to be Joseph, Jacob, Joseph's brothers, primarily Reuben, the oldest, Judah, and Benjamin, Potiphar and Pharaoh.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: All right?
[00:34:05] Speaker A: And by the way, again, these notes are in slack, so if I'm running through these, you'll see them there. All right, I am running. I'm running through them on purpose.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: All right.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: Minor characters are Potiphar's wife, the other brothers at play.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: Right?
[00:34:23] Speaker A: There's 12 brothers total, right? So I only mentioned three of them.
So there's another nine.
The Midianite traders and the Ishmaelites, Pharaoh's cupbearers and their chief baker and the Egyptian officials and servants.
Okay, again, notes. That's why I gave you the note. I was like, this is gonna be way too much to give in like two minutes.
All right, our plot and problem.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Right?
[00:34:58] Speaker A: Who can. In just general out of curiosity, who can tell me plot and problem of the story of Joseph.
[00:35:07] Speaker B: Randall.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: Thrown, Betrayed by his brothers. Yep. Thrown into a pit. Imprisonment, pit. Sold to slavery. Yep.
Put into a slave's position. Yeah. Falsely accused, imprisoned, Put into a place of official status with the pharaoh.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Right?
[00:35:26] Speaker A: That's right. Absolutely right. So plot and problem.
Joseph.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Is thrown into a pit. Sloan thrown into slavery.
And there's a great famine, Joseph, slavery, great famine in the land.
If there's famine, what does it mean?
There's scarcity of resources.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: If there's scarcity of resources, that mean people, people might pass away if they don't have enough to eat, Right. It's a big problem.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Right?
[00:36:05] Speaker A: So Joseph's story is riddled with slavery and rise to power.
And the other side of this is famine.
What is the ultimate outcome?
Right, so this is the bottom of the page. What's the ultimate outcome? What's the main idea that the outcome is trying to drive the outcome is that there's a survival of many people.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: Right?
[00:36:36] Speaker A: So Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20, right. Joseph tells his brothers what you meant for evil, God meant for good, for the survival of many people.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: Right?
[00:36:48] Speaker A: Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20.
What you meant for evil, God meant for good, for the survival of many people.
Right? So the outcome of the story is the. Is the Israelites encamp in Egypt, protected and are fed and provided for by God, even though a lot of evil happened to Joseph.
All right, does that make sense? Okay, group one is going to be. You guys.
You guys are going to do chapter 37, okay? And remember, the way you're going to operate in these chapters is that you're just going to find specific verses and phrases within each of these chapters and how they relate to the main idea. Okay?
Chapter 37.
Taylor Yalls Group. I'm Going to have you guys do chapter 39. We're going to skip chapter 38. Okay. So chapter 39.
Randall Yalls group, you guys are going to do chapters 40 through 41.
Patrick, I'm going to have yalls group do chapter 42 through 43.
Okay.
And again, my notes are in slack. All right, My notes are in slack here.
Group five, it's going to be Rachel's group, it's going to be Genesis 44 through 45.
And, Ricky, you guys have a monster chapter list here. It's 46 through 50.
However, don't read all four chapters.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:38:51] Speaker A: Don't read all four chapters.
There's sections. And I'll come in, kind of walk with you guys as well. There's a big portion 43, 46, 350 that are just kind of like. Kind of almost like side info for future purposes.
They relate to the story, but not in a huge way. But I'll kind of sit with you guys through it. So 46 through 50 is you guys.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: All right?
[00:39:16] Speaker A: And again, the thought is we want to find. In the event boxes, we want to find one or two verses or phrases that might relate to the full main story as it relates to Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20, the outcome. That's right. Does that make sense? Y' all with me?
Any questions?
What I'm going to do now is we're just going to go through each layer of the story.
Hopefully, by this amount of time, we've been able to find some, like, major verses and phrases that relate to the main idea.
So, group one, what is one or two verses that you thought relate to the main idea?
Yeah. Yeah. Say them.
Okay.
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Right.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: So now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a born. Was a son born to him in his old age. He made a robe of many colors for him. When his brother saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers. They hated him, could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him. And then the section, right, where they actually throw him into a pit, and then he gets sold to slavery. Right, Taylor?
Yes. We said event one was that God was with Joseph. He became successful, prospered.
Then he's falsely accused of something he did not do, and then he ends up finding favor in prison. Yeah.
Did you read my notes on my slack? No, dude, that's exactly what I had. We did later. Yeah. Good, good.
Austin, Carey, Randall Yalls group.
Yeah, Yeah.
I feel like we had a hard time in 40, like, determining.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:41:27] Speaker A: Is every event not, like, leading into. Sure. Yeah.
Because There's a lot of. A lot of stuff that happens, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What did y'.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: All.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: What did y' all find? The big ideas, we would say is like four and five.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Like, the.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: The cup bearer and the baker have to be put in prison. Yes. Have to be put with Joseph. Yes. And then have the dream. And then Joseph has to interpret the dream. Yep. The events of the dream. Yeah. To occur. Yep.
So. Yep. And I thought the last one I had. I had the. Those two as well. The last one I had was that he's appointed ruler over Egypt to manage all resources.
Okay, That's y'.
[00:42:08] Speaker B: All.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: That's y'. All Sweet. Okay.
Nice. Amazing. Amazing.
Hey, Patrick, I know I gave you guys a lot. It's okay that you didn't finish. That's okay. That's okay. That's okay.
Oh, okay. We just got through. Yeah.
That's the biggest one. That's the biggest one, right? Is that, like, there's famine and they refused to.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: They gave them food, but they had to bring back the youngest son.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: That's exactly right.
[00:42:36] Speaker B: Slavery.
[00:42:37] Speaker A: That's right. And then. And then Joseph reveals himself.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:42:41] Speaker A: To his brothers.
[00:42:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Right?
[00:42:43] Speaker A: So Joseph frames Benjamin by putting his cup. His cup in his bag without telling them sins servant to go get him.
Judah offers himself in sacrifice of Benjamin.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Which is Genesis 44. 18:34. And then Joseph reveals himself later, which is Genesis 45.
And then our group, we had.
[00:43:09] Speaker B: We had.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: God promises to establish Israel in Egypt. Jacob settles his family there.
You should. That's good.
Jacob prophesies over the tribes, highlighting Judah's destiny.
[00:43:29] Speaker B: And then Jacob dies.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: Joseph forgives his brothers and later dies restoring them.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: So, right. What we just did, I just want to give everybody, you know, hey, come on.
All right, that's 13 chapters in, like, what, 25 minutes, right? Good job, team. Well done.
But you see, like, if we just read chapter 37 without reading everything in between and just got to chapter 50, we have no idea what chapter 50, verse 20 means.
We don't understand, like, the significance of, like, what happens with Benjamin.
[00:44:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: So we can't get here. Like, we can't see the significance with Benjamin because we haven't fully understood this guy yet.
All right, so let's talk about significance. How do we find significance?
[00:44:28] Speaker B: Right?
[00:44:29] Speaker A: So I think significance, right. It's just kind of, how do I understand this in light of Jesus work?
How do I understand this in God's master plan?
How do I understand this in 2025? I'm a Christian. I love Jesus, what do I get? Like, how do I understand it?
Some helpful tools again in Slack.
Redemptive historical progression. How does this story develop redemptive history in a way that ultimately culminates in Christ?
Promise fulfillment. Is there a promise in the text fulfilled by Christ typology, which is, is there a divinely orchestrated pattern of events or an institution that prophetically foreshadows the person and work of Christ? In this section, it's Judah, right?
Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah, Right. In that particular section, it says that the scepter will stay in the house of Judah with his family.
The scepter is Jesus.
[00:45:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: Sometimes there's analogy. Do parallels exist between laws, promises, or situations found in the story?
New Testament references. Is the passage quoted anywhere in the New Testament? And then contrast.
How does Jesus come in contrast with the text itself?
[00:45:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: So also, hopefully on your tables. Thanks, Kendall, for grabbing those, if I didn't already get those. Thanks.
Also on your table, there's gonna be some questions to kind of work through.
Feel free.
To the first section. There's like four of them. Honestly, just if you want to. If you just want to practice time at home, you can just take those home. I think the remainder of time, it's probably best spent with the second page, which is deep theological ideas.
Deep theological ideas, Right. So the story of Joseph to James, your question, your question was, man, how does this mean for me?
[00:46:44] Speaker B: Right?
[00:46:45] Speaker A: I get, like, this stuff's happened with Joseph. Like, what does it mean for me now that is the significance question.
So the story of Joseph is ultimately about God's providence, right? So we see that echoed in Genesis 45, 7 through 8. And we see it echoed in Genesis 50, verse 20.
So the main questions I get and the stuff that I wrestle with, this is stuff that we were dealing with this morning, right, in our sermon is how can God be provident over all events, good and bad?
Yes.
God's providence. God's providence is God being sovereign over all things.
Right. So is God's hand being involved in all events?
I think it's a pretty good definition on the spot.
And then how do we reconcile this? And there's two specific verses for us to understand, New Testament wise.
It's 1st John 1:5 and Romans 8, 28.
That's gonna be for you guys to wrestle with right at your table.
And I think you can do this as a group discussion if you want to. Doesn't matter to me, but I think I had a plan for you guys to work it on your table.
So how Can God be sovereign over all events in the story of Joseph.
[00:48:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:48:10] Speaker A: His brothers throwing into the pit and the famine to exist in the land and just all the minor things, all the things happening and then ultimately the salvation of the Israelites at the end.
And how do we reconcile these events with First John 1:5 and Romans 8:28. Okay, so if you want to chat amongst yourself or your tables.
[00:48:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:48:41] Speaker A: I think it's just a good discussion. And at the end, I'll come back up and kind of wrap us up there.
[00:48:45] Speaker B: All right.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: You'll also see I put a commentary from John Calvin which is over Genesis 50:20. I just think this is a really good framework and how we might be able to help kind of maybe understand these things.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: All right.
[00:49:05] Speaker A: All right, guys, I'm going to wrap up our conversation just a little bit here.
And then.
Hey, I'm curious, though.
I'm just curious. One or two people. What are y' all thinking? What'd y' all think about the commentary? What you think about the question?
[00:49:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:27] Speaker A: Curious what Yalls conversations were.
Yeah. Here, I'll go ahead and read it. Yeah, right. So this is John Calvin's commentary over Genesis. So this is over specifically chapter 50, verse 20.
So he says the selling of Joseph was a crime detestable for its cruelty and perfidy. All right, so Old English, I think that's how you say the word.
[00:50:00] Speaker B: All right, bear with me.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: Yet he was not sold except by the decree of heaven. For neither did God merely remain at rest, and by confining for a time, let loose the reins of human malice, order that he afterward might make use of this occasion.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:50:17] Speaker A: This is the. An element of God stopping, being in charge and then resuming after the event.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:50:22] Speaker A: That's not something God does.
But at his own will he appointed the order of acting which he intended to be fixed and certain.
Thus we may say with truth and propriety that Joseph was sold by the wicked consent of his brethren and by the secret providence of God. God and I underlined this.
Yet it was not a work common to both in such a sense that God sanctioned anything connected with or relating to their wicked cupidity.
Because while they were contriving the destruction of their brother, God is affecting their deliverance from on high.
Once also, we conclude that there are various methods of governing the world.
This truly must be generally agreed that nothing is done without his will, because he both governs the counsels of men and sways their wills and turns their efforts at his pleasure, and regulates all events.
I just thought this was extremely helpful.
I thought it was really helpful just considering, like, just the past week, like, I texted Taylor, I think, on like, Thursday and was like, hey, dude, should we just push back the equip class a week?
I appreciate you just saying no, you know, we shouldn't do that.
He gave more than no, but he said no, let's keep doing it, right?
Because I think it gives us an opportunity to think about God's sovereignty in a much bigger way than just kind of what we want to make it right.
A few verses that come to mind that really help me. And a lot of the ones are exactly what Brad shared this morning, right? Which is like, all authority has been given to Jesus. All authority.
John 16:33.
Do not be afraid, for I've overcome the world.
John 1:5, right? There is no darkness in him. This is displaying God's omni benevolence, right? That he's all good.
That nothing, nothing, nothing evil comes from God, but he still governs over it.
Romans 8:28, right? God works all things for our good.
I just think it's really difficult for us, right, to recognize or to reconcile really difficult events and go, man, where is God in this?
And I think there's obviously an element of. Of grief that I think I experienced for like, a good 72 hours of just like, oh, my gosh, like, this is insane.
And my wrestling internally of how. How do I understand God's role in this?
But if we look at our text, it's consistent throughout the entire Bible.
All right, another One is Acts 2.
I'll leave us with this one.
This is Acts 2.
Acts 2, 23, right? Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him, right?
So God planned the crucifixion, right, of Jesus to save us from beginning of time to the end.
So it wasn't just God reacting to sin. This was something God was providentially over throughout the entire course of the Bible.
And Joseph's story gives us a picture of it, right? What you meant for evil, God meant for good.
And we see the thread of God's goodness and kindness throughout Joseph's life. Multiple verses of God was near Joseph. God was with Joseph. The Lord was kind to Joseph, right?
And even to. Even to his brother's shame, Joseph eventually brought kindness to him. Guys, don't be downcast.
God ultimately meant this for the survival of our people, right? And then our survival.
So thanks, guys, for the time I think we're over.
Yeah. But thanks, guys. Thanks for coming.
[00:54:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:52] Speaker A: I hope it's helpful. Yes.
