DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR SATURDAY JANUARY 13:
DAILY BIBLE READING
Genesis 37-39The Message (MSG)
37 Meanwhile Jacob had settled down where his father had lived, the land of
Canaan.
Joseph and His Brothers
2 This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen
years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These
were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and
Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.
3-4 Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the
child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. When
his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew
to hate him-they wouldn't even speak to him.
5-7 Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even
more. He said, "Listen to this dream I had. We were all out in the field
gathering bundles of wheat. All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and
your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine."
8 His brothers said, "So! You're going to rule us? You're going to boss us
around?" And they hated him more than ever because of his dreams and the way
he talked.
9 He had another dream and told this one also to his brothers: "I dreamed
another dream-the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me!"
10-11 When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded
him: "What's with all this dreaming? Am I and your mother and your brothers
all supposed to bow down to you?" Now his brothers were really jealous; but
his father brooded over the whole business.
12-13 His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their
father's flocks. Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers are with flocks in
Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them."
Joseph said, "I'm ready."
14 He said, "Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring
me back a report." He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem.
15 A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, "What
are you looking for?"
16 "I'm trying to find my brothers. Do you have any idea where they are
grazing their flocks?"
17 The man said, "They've left here, but I overheard them say, 'Let's go to
Dothan.'" So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in
Dothan.
18-20 They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they
had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying, "Here comes that
dreamer. Let's kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can
say that a vicious animal ate him up. We'll see what his dreams amount to."
21-22 Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him, "We're
not going to kill him. No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this cistern out
here in the wild, but don't hurt him." Reuben planned to go back later and
get him out and take him back to his father.
23-24 When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat he
was wearing, grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry;
there wasn't any water in it.
25-27 Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan
of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices,
ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt. Judah said, "Brothers, what are we
going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence? Let's
sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let's not kill him-he is, after all, our
brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.
28 By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled
Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the
Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt.
29-30 Later Reuben came back and went to the cistern-no Joseph! He ripped
his clothes in despair. Beside himself, he went to his brothers. "The boy's
gone! What am I going to do!"
31-32 They took Joseph's coat, butchered a goat, and dipped the coat in the
blood. They took the fancy coat back to their father and said, "We found
this. Look it over-do you think this is your son's coat?"
33 He recognized it at once. "My son's coat-a wild animal has eaten him.
Joseph torn limb from limb!"
34-35 Jacob tore his clothes in grief, dressed in rough burlap, and mourned
his son a long, long time. His sons and daughters tried to comfort him but
he refused their comfort. "I'll go to the grave mourning my son." Oh, how
his father wept for him.
36 In Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's
officials, manager of his household affairs.
38 1-5 About that time, Judah separated from his brothers and hooked up with
a man in Adullam named Hirah. While there, Judah met the daughter of a
Canaanite named Shua. He married her, they went to bed, she became pregnant
and had a son named Er. She got pregnant again and had a son named Onan. She
had still another son; she named this one Shelah. They were living at Kezib
when she had him.
6-7 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn. Her name was Tamar. But Judah's
firstborn, Er, grievously offended God and God took his life.
8-10 So Judah told Onan, "Go and sleep with your brother's widow; it's the
duty of a brother-in-law to keep your brother's line alive." But Onan knew
that the child wouldn't be his, so whenever he slept with his brother's
widow he spilled his semen on the ground so he wouldn't produce a child for
his brother. God was much offended by what he did and also took his life.
11 So Judah stepped in and told his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow
at home with your father until my son Shelah grows up." He was worried that
Shelah would also end up dead, just like his brothers. So Tamar went to live
with her father.
12 Time passed. Judah's wife, Shua's daughter, died. When the time of
mourning was over, Judah with his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah for
the sheep shearing.
13-14 Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law has gone to Timnah to shear his
sheep." She took off her widow's clothes, put on a veil to disguise herself,
and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the road to Timnah. She
realized by now that even though Shelah was grown up, she wasn't going to be
married to him.
15 Judah saw her and assumed she was a prostitute since she had veiled her
face. He left the road and went over to her. He said, "Let me sleep with
you." He had no idea that she was his daughter-in-law.
16 She said, "What will you pay me?"
17 "I'll send you," he said, "a kid goat from the flock."
She said, "Not unless you give me a pledge until you send it."
18 "So what would you want in the way of a pledge?"
She said, "Your personal seal-and-cord and the staff you carry."
He handed them over to her and slept with her. And she got pregnant.
19 She then left and went home. She removed her veil and put her widow's
clothes back on.
20-21 Judah sent the kid goat by his friend from Adullam to recover the
pledge from the woman. But he couldn't find her. He asked the men of that
place, "Where's the prostitute that used to sit by the road here near
Enaim?"
They said, "There's never been a prostitute here."
22 He went back to Judah and said, "I couldn't find her. The men there said
there never has been a prostitute there."
23 Judah said, "Let her have it then. If we keep looking, everyone will be
poking fun at us. I kept my part of the bargain-I sent the kid goat but you
couldn't find her."
24 Three months or so later, Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law has been
playing the whore-and now she's a pregnant whore."
Judah yelled, "Get her out here. Burn her up!"
25 As they brought her out, she sent a message to her father-in-law, "I'm
pregnant by the man who owns these things. Identify them, please. Who's the
owner of the seal-and-cord and the staff?"
26 Judah saw they were his. He said, "She's in the right; I'm in the wrong-I
wouldn't let her marry my son Shelah." He never slept with her again.
27-30 When her time came to give birth, it turned out that there were twins
in her womb. As she was giving birth, one put his hand out; the midwife tied
a red thread on his hand, saying, "This one came first." But then he pulled
it back and his brother came out. She said, "Oh! A breakout!" So she named
him Perez (Breakout). Then his brother came out with the red thread on his
hand. They named him Zerah (Bright).
39 After Joseph had been taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelites, Potiphar an
Egyptian, one of Pharaoh's officials and the manager of his household,
bought him from them.
2-6 As it turned out, God was with Joseph and things went very well with
him. He ended up living in the home of his Egyptian master. His master
recognized that God was with him, saw that God was working for good in
everything he did. He became very fond of Joseph and made him his personal
aide. He put him in charge of all his personal affairs, turning everything
over to him. From that moment on, God blessed the home of the Egyptian-all
because of Joseph. The blessing of God spread over everything he owned, at
home and in the fields, and all Potiphar had to concern himself with was
eating three meals a day.
6-7 Joseph was a strikingly handsome man. As time went on, his master's wife
became infatuated with Joseph and one day said, "Sleep with me."
8-9 He wouldn't do it. He said to his master's wife, "Look, with me here, my
master doesn't give a second thought to anything that goes on here-he's put
me in charge of everything he owns. He treats me as an equal. The only thing
he hasn't turned over to me is you. You're his wife, after all! How could I
violate his trust and sin against God?"
10 She pestered him day after day after day, but he stood his ground. He
refused to go to bed with her.
11-15 On one of these days he came to the house to do his work and none of
the household servants happened to be there. She grabbed him by his cloak,
saying, "Sleep with me!" He left his coat in her hand and ran out of the
house. When she realized that he had left his coat in her hand and run
outside, she called to her house servants: "Look-this Hebrew shows up and
before you know it he's trying to seduce us. He tried to make love to me but
I yelled as loud as I could. With all my yelling and screaming, he left his
coat beside me here and ran outside."
16-18 She kept his coat right there until his master came home. She told him
the same story. She said, "The Hebrew slave, the one you brought to us, came
after me and tried to use me for his plaything. When I yelled and screamed,
he left his coat with me and ran outside."
19-23 When his master heard his wife's story, telling him, "These are the
things your slave did to me," he was furious. Joseph's master took him and
threw him into the jail where the king's prisoners were locked up. But there
in jail God was still with Joseph: He reached out in kindness to him; he put
him on good terms with the head jailer. The head jailer put Joseph in charge
of all the prisoners-he ended up managing the whole operation. The head
jailer gave Joseph free rein, never even checked on him, because God was
with him; whatever he did God made sure it worked out for the best.
