Welcome to Genesis – Week 4
This week we will add a new verse to the Endurance section. As you memorize the new verse, don’t forget to keep reviewing the first verse.
This week’s verse is from 2 Timothy 2:22 (NASB) Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
1 Peter 3:5-6 This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They trusted God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do.
Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Genesis 4:7 “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
Each week there will be Daily Reading from the Bible to help you with your Flexibility. With that there will be a Daily Thinking point to help you with your Strength. Each day will end with a prayer to help you in your Cardio training. Enjoy your time with God.
Day 22 – Taking it to the Mats with Jacob
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 32
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
Now that Laban was no longer a constant source of struggle, he remembered what he left behind. The match with Laban was just a warmup. Now he faced the main event – the match against Esau. Last time we saw Esau, he was threatening to kill Jacob for stealing his blessing. Had his anger cooled in 20 years? Or did Esau decide that revenge is a dish best served cold?
In the beginning of the chapter, we find Jacob setting up a series of appeasements for his brother. Then we see an unexpected attack.
Jacob had worried about a confrontation with his brother, but he found himself in a face to face confrontation with God. Not only that, but in a knock-down-drag-out all-night-long fight. Perhaps he began in prayer only to find that, ready or not, God was there to pound on him. And Jacob was tenacious and would not let go until God blessed him – and God’s blessing came with the new name of Israel. After throwing down with God, the meeting with Esau was almost anti-climactic. The bribes/gifts had worked. Or perhaps God had been working on Esau’s heart as well.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, I tend to be a worrier like Jacob, fearing the worst will happen. In Psalm 55:22 and I Peter 5:7 you told me to cast all my burdens, all my anxieties on You. You care for me and keep me going. Help me remember that my best weapon in my battles is the Sword of the Spirit, which is Your Word (Ephesians 6:17). Help me commit it to my memory so that I can remember that You are with me always (Matthew 28:20).
Day 23 – When Bad Things Happen
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 34
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
This is one of the saddest times in the life of Jacob. He goes from one tragedy to another in very short succession. But bad things happen to us all; and they happen because we live in a fallen world. People make choices to be selfish and take what they want regardless of the consequences to themselves and others. People make choices to repay evil with even worse evil because “no one does that to me!” “An eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth!” But as one of my favorite musicals said, “that leaves the world blind and toothless.” But there is another way to respond.
Jacob, for all his failures as a husband and father, trusted in God to bring resolution to the bad things that happened to him. These are all the horrible things that happened in a short span of time in chapters 34 and 35. Look at Jacob’s responses to each event and see how he trusted in God through them all.
- Daughter raped: He did not respond with immediate anger, as did his sons. He “held his peace” for a while and then made decisions.
- Second and third sons kill all the men of the town, then plunder it: He told his family, give me all your idols and things related to idolatry, purify yourselves, and let’s build an altar to the true God as we leave this place and trust Him to protect us.
- Favorite wife dies in childbirth: She names their son “child of my sorrows.” He renamed him “child of my joy.”
- Son commits adultery with step-mother: He took away that son’s position as “eldest” son, along with the leadership of the family, and trained his younger more obedient son to one day be the leader of the family. But, his eldest son was still his son, still part of the covenant people, and he treated him that way. He was forgiven, even if no longer trusted.
- Father dies: He buries him at peace with his brother, Esau.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, You are in control of all things. Often I don’t understand how some of these bad things happen to me and somehow result in good. Help me continue to trust in You, even when I don’t understand. Lord, I am not righteous in my own right, but only through the blood of Jesus, because of His sacrifice on the cross. But because I wear His righteousness, I call out to You as David did. Hear my cries and deliver me from my troubles. Through Your Son I ask this.
Day 24 – Dreams, and Coats, and Murder (Oh My!)
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 37
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
Joseph had a pretty sweet life going. He was trusted by his father to watch over the sheep with his brothers. When he brought concerns about the way his brothers tended the sheep, his father listened. His father had also made it clear that he was considered the future leader of the family. For a 17 year old, being chosen over his much older brothers, that must have been frightening and amazing all at the same time. Then to be given a coat that would make that leadership clear to all, yes, life was pretty sweet for Joseph.
Not for his older brothers. They had really screwed up with Shechem. And Reuben had really screwed up with Bilhah. And evidently, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah had also screwed up with the herds. And now their younger brother was being promoted at the head of the family. All their lives they had lived with the knowledge that their mothers were not the favored wife. They must have felt a second-class member of the family. that whole things with Uncle Esau – who got put out in the front just in case Esau wanted to kill anyone? Not Joseph. He was safe in the back.
That coat must have been a great slap in the face to them.
Then came the dreams.
Dreams are curious things. Do they mean anything? Can we learn something from them? When they come from God, as did Joseph’s dreams, absolutely. Sheaves of grain and stars in the sky bowing down before him – this must have either troubled him or made him wonder at the meaning. But Joseph was old enough to know that his brothers hated him because of their father’s obvious favor toward him. And yet he told them his dreams.
After the horrible series of events that happened in yesterday’s reading, it feels like we should be due for a happy story. The story of Joseph’s “coat of many colors” is a happy children’s story, right? But the Bible tells life as it really is.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Thank You, Father, that You are with us, even as You were with Joseph as he was taken to Egypt. Thank You that when those around us fail us, or betray us, that what they mean for evil You can bring around for good. Help us trust in You in our times of great need. Help us confess to You those times that we blow it and bring evil to others. Grant us hearts that truly love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to share love and joy with those in our lives instead of selfishness and pain.
Day 25 – Bad Choices Lead to Desperate Choices
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 38
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
Before carrying on with Joseph’s story, we take a quick break to read a series of events from the life of Judah.
In today’s reading we read about a practice commonly found in the Bible. It is called the ‘levirate’ law [aka, the brother-in-law law]. If a man dies without an heir, his brother is supposed to marry the widow and have children. The first born male of that second marriage is considered the son and heir of the brother who died. If the second brother dies without producing an heir, the third brother must marry the widow of his two brothers to produce heirs for his brothers. It’s rather complicated, but the idea is to allow for the bloodlines and the inheritances to have clear lines. That lets us know some of the reasoning behind Judah’s choices.
Now on to Tamar’s choice. That was very desperate thing she did – to risk death for prostitution & adultery all for the possibility of a son. But as Judah finally recognized, though she did the wrong thing, she was right to desire an heir for her dead husband, and a support for herself in her old age. Tamar risked all and, as a result, became an important woman in the Bible. But most of all, God gave her two sons!
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Father, You are a good Father who cares for His people. You desire to give us good things. As we wait, help us continue in faith, believing You are good and will provide all our needs. Help us not move ahead of You as did Abraham and Sarah. But show us when we should take action, even as Tamar did. Help us act in faith.
Day 26 – Seduction
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 39
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
In this chapter of Genesis, we find how Joseph had matured. He had become a man of great faith and courage, working hard to honor his God. As a result, God blessed his work, and Potiphar promoted him to steward his entire household.
But while Potiphar was noticing the young man’s excellent work, Mrs. Potiphar was noticing his excellent body.
How did Joseph say no to the constant temptation that the wife of Potiphar constantly threw before him? Somewhere along the way, the teachings of his father, Jacob, became real to him. He knew that to have a sexual relationship with the wife of another man would be “a great wickedness and sin against God.” So when she grabbed him, he did what Paul advised Timothy – RUN! Run from lust and pursue righteousness.
Why do you think Potiphar didn’t have Joseph killed? He could have. He was certainly in a position to demand it. Why put him in prison, and then allow the prison guard to promote him to basically be the one in who ran the prison? Could he have believed Joseph was innocent and his wife a liar?
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Father, help me. It’s hard to move through the day without being assaulted by sexual images. Help me not be like Mrs. Potiphar, objectifying the people I see, making them into things to be used for my own gratification and lust. Forgive me for those times I have done just that. Help me desire You above all things, and when faced with temptation to lust, help me not dwell on it, but to turn that lust over to You. Then help me run like the wind, away from lust, and toward righteousness and peace.
Day 27 – Dreams
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 40-41
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
Remember those dreams that Joseph had as a boy, those dreams that ticked off his brother enough to sell him into slavery? Now we find out, God has also given Joseph the ability to interpret dreams. But as you read these two chapters of Genesis, pay attention to the way Joseph responds to those who ask if he can help them with their dreams. It is quite different from how he spoke as a child.
Even before Pharaoh, a polytheist who proclaimed himself the son of the Sun-god Ra, Joseph was quick to say, “I cannot interpret your dream, but God will give you your answer.” And immediately after hearing the dreams, he did have an answer from God. Quite a difference from the young man he was in his father’s house. In the book of Acts, Stephen says that God gave Joseph wisdom. Joseph used that wisdom to help him with every job he had been given along the way. And now with his promotion to second-in-command, he prepared Egypt for the devastating famine that was to come.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Father, help us to remember that, as Colossians 3:23 says, we work for with all our hearts, not for men, but for You. Help us remember this even when those around us fail to see our good and faithful work.
Day 28 – Meanwhile, Back in Canaan
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 1
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
In this portion of Genesis, it first seems that Joseph turned out to be a vengeful man after all. He treated his brothers roughly, even threw them in prison for three days before letting all but Simeon go. Why keep Simeon? If Joseph really was vindictive, Simeon might have been the one to suggest that they kill Joseph and this is a little payback. But what about all that humility Joseph showed in the previous chapters? What happened to all that wisdom?
That wisdom was still there. Joseph must have known that his brothers would eventually show up in Egypt. Perhaps that’s why he established himself as the one people had to come to for a withdrawal from the graineries. Being the excellent administrator he was, he must have already thought through how he would react, what he would do when they showed up.
When confronted with his brothers, even knowing his plan, it must have been difficult for him. His emotions ran over and he had to step back for a moment. In this moment we have a godly example of how to confront those who have abused us in the past. While he had forgiven them, he didn’t trust them; so, he tested them to see what sort of men they had bcome in the last twenty years. But in his tests, he continued to look to God.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, as I think through the story of Joseph, I am reminded of people who have wronged me as Joseph’s brothers did him. At times there is still a lot of anger that I feel towards them. And there are those I find it difficult to forgive. Father, help me put justice in Your hands. Help me forgive those who treated me so badly. And give me wisdom with those I still face on a regular basis. Help me forgive, but help me be wise.
Faith Gym 