Category: faith

Genesis 41, Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph’s interpretation and rise to power.

Here let me interject a story from my childhood. In Sweden at that time we had Christianity as a subject first thing in the morning every day in the lower grades. My younger brother was in first grade, the teacher always started with Genesis, and had come to this passage in the Bible. I was in middle school in town, and his elementary school was local. Anyhow, upon hearing the story he exclaimed “It is the same with my big brother, he eats and eats and is never getting any fatter” The story spread from our village to town, and I got yet another nickname.

It was an early dream of Climate change.

Climate Change is “best” solved by taxation of the abundance, but unlike today that abundance was not to be spent immediately, but be put in storage for the lean, dry years.

The famine is recorded in hieroglyphs, like in the tablet below.

Genesis 40, the dreams of the cup bearer and baker, Joseph’s interpretation and their fate.

Joseph is in prison.

Dreams are prominent in the Old Testament.

 

 

 

In the New Testament the importance of dreams did go away. The reference in Acts is from Joel 2:38 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”  

The reference in Jude is a warning not to trust in dreams: Jude 8: In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.

The importance of visions continues through the New testament.

Trances are mentioned three times, all in Acts.

 

 

 

Genesis 38, Judah and Tamar, Onan’s sin, the scarlet thread.

Not the most inviting country setting.

The sin of Onan was not that he spilled his seed on the ground, but that he disobeyed God. It has often been misunderstood.

The scarlet thread is meaningful through the Bible. Another time it was used as a signal was in Joshua 2:21 “Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.”So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

Probably the best known Bible passage  is found is Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

And the color worn by Roman Catholic Cardinals is scarlet).

Genesis 36, Esau’s descendants and the rulers of Edom.

Edom, the hill country of Seir, is Southwest of the Dead sea, a dry near desert like land, but with winter rains and occasional rain at other times.

The descendants of Esau are well documented from Egyptian sources that corroborate the biblical account.

 

 

Genesis 35, The birth of Benjamin and Rachel’s death, Altar at Bethel, Jacob’s sons.

1 John 5:21  Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

 

From Wikipedia:  After an attack on Joseph’s Tomb and its subsequent takeover by Arabs ceded to the Palestinian Authority after the Oslo accord, hundreds of residents of Bethlehem and the Aida refugee camp, led by the Palestinian Authority-appointed governor of Bethlehem, Muhammad Rashad al-Jabari, attacked Rachel’s Tomb. They set the scaffolding that had been erected around it on fire and tried to break in. The IDF dispersed the mob with gunfire and stun grenades, and dozens were wounded. In the following years, the Israeli-controlled site became a flashpoint between young Palestinians who hurled stones, bottles and firebombs and IDF troops, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

At the end of 2000, when the second intifada broke out, the tomb came under attack for 41 days. Fatah operatives and members of the Palestinian security services who were responsible for curbing militant activity against Israelis actively participated in it. In May 2001, fifty Jews found themselves trapped inside by a firefight between the IDF and Palestinian Authority gunmen. In March 2002 the IDF returned to Bethlehem as part of Operation Defensive Shield and remained there for an extended period of time. In September 2002, the tomb was incorporated on the Israeli side of the West Bank barrier and surrounded by a concrete wall and watchtowers.

 

Paul’s letter to Philemon, slavery and redemption.

The Apostle Paul wrote this short letter to Philemon in A.D. 60. Philemon was a slave owner and Onesimus  was a runaway slave. Paul was in prison in Rome, and somehow Onesimus had a conversion to Christianity after running away.

Paul is sending this letter to Philemon together with the letter to the church of Colossi using Tychius and Onesimus as the letter carriers!

Colossians 4:7 Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. 9 He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.

Senders are Paul and Timothy!

Philemon had the right to punish Onesimus and recapture him as a slave, but because of Paul’s faith in the redemptive powers of Christ he is sending him anyway.

Paul promises to pay back the money Onesimus stole from Philemon when he ran away. This is how business between Christians should be conducted!

This is just a short letter from one man to another. So why is it in the Bible? Paul had written many other letters to individuals and none of them made it into the Bible. (Paul’s letter to Titus was really for the church in Crete which was being formed and for universal use on qualifications for leadership in churches.)

It is my belief this short letter is included in the Bible is because of slavery. Paul’s co-writer Timothy writes in 1 Timothy 1:7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. 8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

If Philemon had recaptured Onesimus he would have been a slave trader, and this letter is in the Bible to affirm that slave trading is out of bounds to Christians.

On the other hand Muhammad, the prophet of Islam Owned, bought and sold slaves, making him a slave trader, and slave trading has been the tradition of Muslims through the ages. Saudi Arabia abolished slavery in the 1950’s, and Mauritius abolished it in 2007. As of now there is no country that has slavery as an official policy, but world-wide human trafficking is on the rebound.

What we need is a revival among followers of Christ and an awakening among people to turn to true Christian values