COME AS A CHILD LESSON 91 JOSEPH IS BETRAYED

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

So Jacob/Israel was living out his mature years in the land of Canaan where Isaac had lived before him.  Jacob/Israel had two sons by Rachel that he loved very much.  There was Benjamin whom she died giving birth to; he was the youngest son.  The oldest son was Joseph.  The name Joseph means "he will add."  Joseph was the eleventh and favored son of Israel.

When Joseph was seventeen he was tending the flocks with his brothers (the ones born to Leigh, Bilhah and Zilpah) and he brought their father a bad report of them.  Israel always listened to Joseph and Benjamin, his youngest two sons born in his old age from his beloved deceased wife Rachel.  Israel favored these two sons above all the others.  He was always giving them special gifts.  

One day Israel gave Joseph a very ornate robe that made the other brother’s envious.  They became so jealous of Israel’s love for Joseph that they hated Joseph and never had one kind word for him again. 

One day Joseph had a dream that they all were binding sheaves of grain out in the field.  Suddenly Joseph’s sheaves rose and stood upright and all the other’s sheaves bowed down to Joseph’s sheaves.  When Joseph told this dream to his brothers they hated him even more.  They scoffed at him and asked if he intended to rule over them? 

Then Joseph had another dream and again he told it to his brothers.  In this dream the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to Joseph.  The brothers hated him even more.  Joseph told the dream to his father and his father rebuked him this time.  Israel said to the young Joseph; “What is this dream you had?  Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”  Afterwards Israel wondered at the meaning of the dream. 

A few days later Joseph’s brothers went to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem.  Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well.”  Joseph replied.  So Israel said to Joseph; “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me.”  So Joseph left from the Valley of Hebron and headed toward Shechem.  When he arrived at Shechem a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him what he was looking for.  Joseph replied that he was looking for his brothers and asked the man if he could tell him where they were grazing their flocks.  The man answered Joseph that they had moved on from there.  He said he had heard them say “Let’s go to Dothan.” 

So Joseph went to Dothan and found them.  They saw him coming in the distance and before he reached them they plotted to kill Joseph.   They said “Here comes that dreamer!  Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him.  Then we will see what comes of his dreams.”

When the oldest brother, Ruben heard this, he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands.  “Let’s not take his life,” he said.  “Don’t shed any blood.  Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.”  Reuben was hopeful he could come back and rescue Joseph and take him back to their father.     

So as soon as Joseph approached they stripped him of his robe and they took him and threw him into the cistern.  The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. 

The brother’s then stopped to eat lunch and as they sat there eating they saw a caravan approaching.  The men in the caravan were Ishmaelites coming from Gilead.  Their camels were loaded down with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.   

Judah had an idea for his brothers to consider.  He said “What will we gain if we kill out brother and cover up his blood?  Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.”  The other brothers agreed with him.  So when the Midianite merchants came by , his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who then took Joseph to Egypt. 

Ruben had been away tending to something else when they sold Joseph.  He came back to the cistern hoping to save him and take him home.  When he saw that he was not there he was terribly upset.  He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there!  Where can I turn now?”    

Then they all got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.  They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this.  Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

Israel recognized the robe right away and exclaimed that it belonged to Joseph.  He thought some ferocious animal had devoured him and imagined that Joseph had been torn to pieces. 

Terribly upset, Israel tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and mourned for his son for many, many days.  All of his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.  “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.  So Joseph’s father wept for him. 

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials.  Potiphar was the Captain of The Guard.  

PEN ART - THE REFLECTION OF CHRIST IN NEHEMIAH - PART FOUR

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf) 

 The people of Nehemiah's day were in transition.  They probably thought the great days of God with their nation had passed, and that all of God's great deeds had been done.  They had lost any sense of mission, any sense of calling, any sense of challenge.  As a result, they almost missed their chance to see God act powerfully among them.  They almost missed the chance to experience His reclaiming them as His beloved people all over again. 

Isn't that much as our world is today? 

Where are the Nehemiahs of today?  The church must call them forth and put them in charge of the task of restoring the Kingdom of God to the earth. 

 Thank God for Nehemiah pointing the way to Christ, and thank God if you can find a modern Nehemiah hiding in the culture where we currently live.  I pray that each and every one of them will receive their calling and come forth.

The Church has walls and gates to rebuild!  In an amazing period of just 52 days - under constant threat of attack - the walls of Jerusalem were raised.  It was a great miracle.  We need another such miracle with the walls around our church congregations today.  Time is drawing short.  The Bride must be ready.  We must begin to rebuild.  Our leaders, much like Nehemiah, must take a deep breath and start their tasks.

 

In congregations across the land you can hear the people of the church today groaning.   They groan and morn.  They sit and wait for things to change.  That certainly was not the case with Nehemiah.  Nehemiah was willing to DO something.  He makes the journey to Jerusalem himself, after convincing the king that he should be allowed to go.  He brings with him supplies and leadership. Nehemiah had clear vision.  He knew the walls were torn down and needed rebuilding. He realized there were no gates of protection.  The people themselves needed to be rebuilt.  He set about to change things. 

The walls became the metaphor for the broken people.  Nehemiah was not just mending a wall - he was mending a nation.  The nation of Israel was God’s tool for speaking to the world.  Their voice must be heard.  The Church is God’s voice today for speaking to the world.  The silence must end.  The entertaining and babysitting must stop.  The real work must begin.  We need strong walls and gates.  We need brave and courageous people.  We need to love one another and get along with one another and seek God's face together.  We need to be willing to listen to what God tells us collectively, as a nation.

With Nehemiah's Godly leadership, the people of God once again became great.  This happened because they were willing to work together under God's leadership to accomplish a common goal.  The unity of our faith must be restored.  All of God’s people must work together. 

 In Nehemiah’s time everyone pitched in to do the work.  That is; everyone but those who opposed the work that God had led Nehemiah to do.  There will always be opposition.  There were those who did everything they could to stop the rebuilding of the walls and gates of the city.  Opposition of the church is rampant in our culture today.  We can expect it, but our God is greater than the opposition.  We are to be overcomers.  We are to be builders.   This is not the time to stop - this is the time to go to work!

The Godly people of that day in which Nehemiah lived handled much adversity and opposition to obtain the restoration of their city.  God only promised us that the Kingdom will be good.  He never said it would be either easy or safe. We must hold on to our hope.  We must keep moving forward and looking up as Nehemiah did.  With Christ as our hope, the people of God are always moving forward, always seeking God’s Face and always helping and allowing His will to prevail in the earth. 

Because of Nehemiah's Godly leadership and the people's spirit of unity, a broken, disorganized, discouraged bunch of individuals who were alienated from God and from one another transitioned into a strong, well-organized, deeply committed and proud community.  They were rededicated to God, recommitted to each other, and when this happened they began to be respected by their enemies.

God's people haven’t changed much through time.  They still face similar dilemmas and they still ask the same hard questions.  They consistently have their periods of doubt and faith.  But true men and women of God keep looking toward a river whose streams shall make glad The City of God.  Like the few good men in the days of Nehemiah, they look to the future with the hope of a restored Kingdom, where God is in the midst, and they shall not be moved. 

May our hearts join in with Nehemiah’s once more and may the sound of Non Nobis Domine – “Not to us Lord, not to us but to Your Name give glory” ring across the churches in the land.

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 90 CATCHING UP WITH ESAU

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

While we have been busy studying the life of Jacob, a lot has been going on in the life of Esau. 

Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan.  He had three wives, Adah (the daughter of Elon the Hitite) and Oholibamah (the daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite), and Basemath (the daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.)  More than likely this WAS the same Ishmael who was the son of Hagar, since people lived to be very, very old in those days, it is conceivable that this could happen. 

Esau was also called Edom.  His wife Adah gave him a son named Eliphaz.  His wife Basemath gave him a son named Reuel.  His wife Oholibamah gave him three sons named Jeush, Jalam and Korah.  All of these, five sons were born to Esau in Canaan. 

We are told that the two brothers, Jacob and Esau, after resolving their issues with one another separated into two groups and Esau moved some distance away to a land further distanced from Jacob.  This was not because they did not get along, but because their possessions were too great for them to remain together.  There was not enough land to support both of their groups of livestock. 

Esau settled in the country of Sier where he became known as “Edom” and the father of the Edomites.  I find it interesting that Esau’s name also changed as he grew older.  It is not said that God changed his name, only that he became known by the same name as the land he inhabited.  Though the name itself changed, the meaning behind it did not.  You could think of this more as the frequent use of a nickname that became the known name.  Edom in Hebrew means "red."  He was called Edom because he was known for trading his birthright for a bowl of red soup.  How appropriate for the land of Edom that is known for its formations of red sandstone.

Esau and his family lived in the hill country.  While they were living there Esau’s son by his wife named Adar bore Esau and Adar grandchildren; Eliphaz, had five sons born to him; Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz.  These wore born to Eliphaz by his wife. 

Eliphaz also had a concubine named Timna.  He had a son by her named Amalek.  Pay attention to Amalek the son of Timna, we will hear much about him later.   

Esau and his wife Basemath also had grandsons named; Reuel, Nahath, Zerah, Shammath and Mizzah.

Esau’s sons were all very trained and mighty military chieftains.  They were heads over each of their own tribes.  They were great patriarchal sheikhs who were celebrated as heroes by their people.

It is impossible to trace the descendants of these tribes with any accuracy .  We do have knowledge of Eliphaz the Temanite being mentioned again in the book of Job   His grandson Teman was most known for his great wisdom and the city Teman was named after him. 

As mentioned earlier Amalek became the founder of the Amalekites who later attacked the Israelites on their exodus from Egypt to Sinai.  They did not just attack them, they targeted the weakest of the people and preyed upon their vulnerabilities.  These descendants of Amalek became a powerful and famous tribe.  Since Amalek was the son of a concubine, his brothers had little use for him, and Amalek became separated from the tribes of Esau early in life and formed his own band of men.    This one descendant of Esau has given the whole clan a very bad reputation.  As the saying goes "one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch." 

We will study more about the life of Amalek at a later date.  It seems that every generation since Esau has had its own form of Amalek.  It is not so much the form of Amalek that we must prepare to fight against, but the spirit of evil that lies behind and drives that form.  We must defeat that evil spirit so much so that it will never even be remembered again.      

The Horites were the original inhabitants of the land of Sier even before Esau came there, but it seems that Esau’s sons subdued them and the remnants of their tribes intermarried with the Edomites (descendants of Esau.)   The Horites and the tribes of Esau (Edom) were so intermingled that some of the Horites became a part of the mentioned genealogy of Esau.  There is a special note in the scriptures about one of them named Anah. 

While Anah pastured the mules of his father Zibeon it seems that he discovered some warm springs with medicinal qualities.  These are possibly the springs around the area of Callirhoe on the east of the Dead Sea in the Wadi, as these springs are famous for their medicinal qualities and their very hot temperatures.  Many think that Anah was the same person as Berri who became known as “the fountain man” or the “well finder”

The sons of Esau all had cities named after them, some of these cities still have their names today.  The scriptures tell us that Edom had kings reigning and in power long before the Israelite kings came into existence. 

The chiefs, or kings, or princes, or dukes from Esau (it has been translated many different ways, but they all imply royalty and rule) were Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel and Iram.  

Esau was known by all of these as The Father of the Edomites.

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 89 - A SON IS BORN AND A BELOVED WIFE AND FATHER PASS AWAY

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

I’m sorry if you looked for this lesson last Thursday!  I was away at The Feast of Tabernacles enjoying a joyous feast before The Lord, and I hope you were busy doing the same with your own family! 

We left Jacob back in Bethel, worshiping God at a holy altar and giving thanks for God’s deliverance and provision for his family and descendants.  After a very holy time, the people of Jacob settled down and made Bethel home for a little while.  It was like a refuge for them, a place to stay until their troubles in the land blew over and were forgotten by the other inhabitants. 

The day came when Jacob, now called Israel, felt it was safe to move on.  They walked toward the area of Ephrath (Bethlehem) slowly because Rachel was heavy with child, and it was close to time for her to deliver. 

The birth pains came in the middle of their journey and she was having great difficulty giving birth to this child.  The midwife was with her and trying to help her.  She said to Rachel “Don’t despair, for you have another son.”

It would be a son she would give her life for.  Rachael also knew she was dying.  In her last few breaths she named her son Ben-Oni. 

In Hebrew the word “Ben” means “son.”  The root of the Hebrew word for “son” implies a building being built.  When Sarah could not have children and she told Abraham to go into her maid and have a son by her she said “Perhaps I shall be BUILT UP by her.”  The implication was “to build up.” 

This use of the words brings to mind the statement made by Jesus at a much later date; “for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” (Matthew 3:9), and the implication of “raise up” is the same meaning as “build up;”  which makes the use of this word from the lips of Rachel seem so much more profound.  Some scholars have noted that the Hebrew for stone (‘eben) is also related to the verb for “son” (bana) meaning “to build.” 

Jesus also said “You will be sons of the Most High (Luke 6:35) and Peter later writes “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house.” (1 Peter 2:5)  The word “house” is frequently used to denote someone’s family but it is also used to denote any other clearly defined group, such as a guild, a castle order, or such similar organizations of people groups, such as when one speaks of “the sons of the prophets”  or “the sons of the troops,” or “the sons of exile.”

So yes, the word “ben” means son, but it also means a group of sons and a building block.  This seems to imply the building up of a nation!

The whole name given by Rachel in labor and pain to her son was Ben-Oni which many translators have traditionally translated to mean “Son of my Sorrow.”  Today many disagree with this interpretation.  Remember that until Joseph was born Rachel was childless for a very long time.   It seems highly unlikely that she would name her second son in a way that would be continuously reminding everyone that he was the cause of his mother’s death. 

We must also remember how much Jacob loved Rachel!  He spent 14 years of his life working in order to obtain her as his wife.  It is highly unlikely that he would not honor her dying wish and name their son something completely different than what she had called him, as most of us have been traditionally taught.    

Instead of accepting the traditional interpretation here, one would think that Rachel may have sought consolation that her son made it alive.  It could be that when Rachel heard the mid-wife say; “Do not fear, for now you have another son” that she chose the last part of the name to be “‘on.”

We cannot be sure how the ancient text was pronounced.  Historically, there are two ways to pronounce ‘on;  “awen” and “on.”  These two words have completely different meanings.  “Awen” means “sorrow” and “on” means “vigor.”  To be vigorous is to have strength.  It seems possible that Jacob/Israel did not rename the child after Rachel’s death; but he simply added amplification to the name she had already given.  Rachel’s meaning “this son is my progeny” (Ben-oni) becomes “This son is my strength” which translates to Benjamin.

So it was that Jacob had to bury Rachel, the love of his life.  He buried her on the way between Bethel and Bethlehem and he sat up a pillar for her tombstone.  The scriptures say that that pillar, marking Rachel’s tomb, is there to this day. 

Israel (Jacob) moved on again and set up a tent near Migdal Eder.  He now was the father of twelve sons. 

The sons of Leah were Ruben (the firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. 

The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

The sons of  Rachel’s servant, Bilhah, were Dan and Naphtali.

The sons of Leah’s servant, Ziplah, were Gad and Asher.

The first born son of Jacob did many rebellious things to break his father’s heart.  It was while they were in Migdal Eder that Ruben committed a great sin and slept with Bilhah, his mother’s servant, Jacob’s concubine, mother of his half-brothers.  Israel (Jacob) knew of this.  It was no secret and it was very shameful to him.

After all of these sorrowful events in Israel’s life, he finally came back to Mamre and reunited with his father, Isaac.  Isaac was old and blind when Israel had first left home as Jacob, and it was not thought at that time that Isaac would live much longer.  He had somehow recovered his strength and he lived to be one hundred and eighty years old.  He lived to see his two sons united again.  It must have brought him joy in his old age. 

When Isaac died, he was buried in the tombs of Abraham and Sarah.  He had lived a long and full life.  Together, Jacob and Esau buried their father.