I WILL BE WITH YOU

Hi there, welcome to Don't Miss This, a scripture study podcast with Dave Butler and Grace Freeman. Each week, we point out things in the scriptures that we love and think you don't want to miss. Thanks for listening. Hi, I'm Dave Butler. I'm Grace Freeman. Welcome to Don't Miss This. Oh, that was so exciting. It's a big one. We're so happy and excited that you are here. If it's your first time, we just go through the scriptures together, all of us, and we point out things that we've loved and things we think you don't want to miss and just a chance to talk about scripture, get into scripture, see what's so meaningful and hopeful and good about it. So hopefully this podcast ends with you feeling encouraged and full of hope and faith and loving God more than before you started. If so, we did our job, right? Easy. Yeah, that's our whole hope and job for this. and I felt like I was going to say something last time was I love love love the lesson lesson was long but we had to it was like full of stories and today's a to be continued right of that story and I like what grace you said last week where you just said and we've said this before that that this is God's story that's what's so great about it is seeing that these messy situations and God get involved in them and turn them storybook worthy. You know, it's just fantastic. And then to imagine that he's doing the same for all of us. So, all right, here's what you need for today's lesson. You need your journal because we're going to be opening to the page that's in this journal about the story of Joseph. So get that ready. We also have a tip-in for this week. So get out your tip-ins and you're going to find this tip-in in the back. of the Tippins. It's not in the right order. The four grandmothers of Jesus. How about that? That's hopefully getting you excited. I know that does make you excited, buddy. That seems so cute. The four grandmothers of Jesus are in the back of the Tippins box. So go to, you're looking for Tamar and we're going to do her story in just a second. And then there's also a timeline piece to add on to the story. Let's just put that on right now. It's this coat of one color, but you're going to pretend it's many colors, but it is this coat that represents Joseph's coat of many colors and where he fits into the story. Okay. But we're going to introduce Joseph second in this story. And we're going to put that timeline on, um, and show how he connects with Jacob, but we'll do that introduction for him later, because we want to start with this chapter that seems kind of out of the blue. It just, we're, we're going to be in the story of Joseph, right? And then all of a sudden it just stops and we get this random feeling, feels like random story in chapter 38 of Tamar. So this is the, um, the tip in that you want to put into chapter 38. We call her one of the grandmothers of Jesus, because if you go to Matthew chapter one, there's a time, there's a, not a timeline. What do you call it? There's a genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter one. And it feels sort of, um, boring is how you may have thought when you read Matthew chapter one, you would have said to Matthew, maybe you shouldn't start with, um, lists of names to start off the book. Like you kind of want to start with a hook or something like that. Like that's marketing 101. But there's something interesting in this one. As he starts telling the history, this genealogy of Jesus, when you get to verse three, you get to Tamar, the lady that we're going to talk about today. And what's interesting is in first century writing, you never mentioned a woman in a genealogy. So to put a woman's name in that genealogy would have stopped people in their tracks already in verse three. It is a great hook. And P.S., I don't agree with this philosophy of writing, right? I think you should put the ladies in the genealogy, but it's just what they did back then, okay? And to have this woman show up in verse three, Tamar is like, whoa, surprising. So there are four women, five actually, if you include Mary, which we will, five women that are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus. And these are all Old Testament women except for Mary. And so as we move through the Old Testament this year, we're going to stop and highlight each of these grandmothers of Jesus. So verse three is where you find Tamar. If you want to highlight the others while you're in Matthew one, you can. Verse five has Rahab. Verse five also has Ruth. And then verse six, it says her that was the wife of Uriah, and that is Bathsheba. And you're going to find out that at the end of this genealogy, it's going to get to Jesus. So these actually are women in the genealogy line of Jesus. These are his grandmothers. One verse that I think you will love in this one is when is verse 21, Matthew 1, still 21. And it says, and she shall bring forth a son, talking about Mary, and you will call his named Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And when you read that and you read the phrase, his people, you ask yourself, well, who's his people? And you would say, oh, we just listed them. These are his people. These are the stories he came to save. So with that introduction, let's go back to Genesis 38 and we're going to put Tamar in here. So Tamar is a daughter-in-law of Judah. So we meet Judah, who is a son of Jacob slash Israel. Remember he had that name change last week. So Jacob Israel is going to have this son whose name is Judah. He's the fourth son of Jacob. And he has three kids. So he marries this Canaanite woman, which remember, this is somebody that grandpa and great grandpa have been saying, don't marry outside of this covenant family, but he does. Marries this woman and has three sons. And one of those, the oldest son, whose name is Ur, marries this woman whose name is Tamar. Okay. So marries her, but then Ur dies. You find out that he dies and was not a very good guy. Now this is going to sound crazy. The story sounds a little bit wild, but in, at the time, the law of marriage at the time was if an oldest brother dies, it is then the responsibility of the next oldest unmarried son to marry that woman. Okay, this was the law of marriage back then. And the children they had together would grow up as kind of heirs of the oldest brother. It was the way of making sure the oldest brother's family line was honored. And if that brother dies, then the next brother also. And if that brother dies and there's no more brothers left, then it is the father-in-law who's meant to. That sounds wild in our day, but you have to know that that was the law of marriage back then, okay? So the oldest brother dies, and then Tamar is then married to the second oldest brother who is not interested in having kids with her, and he actually dies also. and the scripture says not a good dude. And then the youngest brother is kind of young. So the dad, Judah says, well, let's wait until he's a little bit older before you guys get married. And it says in here in his mind, he's thinking my other two sons died when they married her and I don't want my third son to die. It's feeling unlucky. So he's thinking in his head, I'm actually never gonna marry my youngest son to her, but I'm gonna make her think that they are going to get married. And actually in the end of the day, I'm not going to do it. So I just want you to think about this woman, Tamar, whose first husband dies. Second husband, before he dies, says, I actually don't want anything to do with you or my brother or helping out in the situation at all. And then he dies. She's a widow twice over. And now she can probably read between the lines when the dad says, the father-in-law says, oh, why don't you go wait a minute and I'm just going to have this other kid. It probably doesn't take many years before she sees what's actually happening here. And she has just been pushed around. And frankly, there's not a lot of rights for women back in these times. So she is just getting the short end of the stick and has just been done really dirty. So you'll see on her paper, we have, she's a widow, she's judged and she is neglected. Okay. And that's kind of her story. So you look at this situation right here and you look at it and you think to yourself, I think that girl just dies a sad, lonely story. That is what is probably going to happen at this point in her story, after two dead husbands and a father-in-law who doesn't care for her and your only chance, a younger brother who also isn't going to be interested, you just probably at this point think my story is irredeemable and unfixable and nothing good is going to come from it. And that might be where some people you know, or you yourself are at this point. You're like, I have just had a streak of terrible luck. And in fact, I have evidence to show that God has probably neglected me or doesn't want good for my life. Like just look at the details of my story. And that these are the details of her. Then it gets wild. If it's not already wild, that youngest brother grows up and she hears nothing from the family. And so she's like, okay, I get what's happening. And here's that her father-in-law is coming into her town. And so what she does is takes matters into her own hands and she dresses up in a veil and sits outside of a house. And as Judah passes by her, he sees her and he thinks she's a prostitute. So he employs her services and says, you know, come on into my house. And as payment for the services, he's going to bring her an animal. and she says, can you actually give me just like a promise, a token or a promise that says you're actually going to do that? And he says, yeah. And gives her her ring and his signet and stuff, you know, to make sure that, okay, this is collateral until you give me my payment. Then when he comes back with the payment, gets there and he says, Hey, where's that girl? And they, everyone's like, there has, there is no girl here. What are you talking about? And he's just like, well, oh, well, that's her loss. And so he leaves right now in that encounter together with Judah, she has become pregnant. Okay. Which is her right, by the way, I know the means are a little bit unconventional, right? But it was actually, she was helping to for him to fulfill his duty and his right. And I mean, what he, his responsibility, what he was supposed to be doing. Right. And then he finds out that she is pregnant and he actually says, she should be burned verse 24. Okay. For adultery. Obviously she's not married. She was supposed to marry my youngest son. She has been sleeping around. So she should be burned at the stake for her crimes. And that's what happens. And then she goes to him with the signet in the ring. And she says, this is actually from the man who is the father of the child. And he realizes, oh, whoops, that those are actually mine and makes this comment in verse 26. She has been more righteous than I. It's interesting that the writer of this, we'll read it in 2020, whatever year it is and say, This is scandalous and crazy and wild, but the writers of this never condemn her because she actually, as Judah says, was more righteous than he. And then she will have these twins and from these twins will continue on the line that eventually will come to Jesus. And I think what is just remarkable about this story, and I love that she is one of the mentioned grandmothers of Jesus because she is neglected, irredeemable, unfixable story. And then in the end, everything is set right, which is the mission of Jesus. And it's beautiful that he will come from that line, that he will be in the line of those who were outsiders, neglected, irredeemable stories, unconventional stories that were put back together and made right eventually in the end. And that's her story. And I like that it's in the middle of Joseph's story because we're going to see something really similar with Joseph. We're going to be watching his story and we going to get to we not going to finish the story today today going to leave on a cliffhanger Almost as if we stopped in the middle of tomorrow story where the two husbands had died and she was neglected and shipped off. And you're kind of like, where is God in this story? Like, I don't see how anything good is going to come from this, but something eventually does spoiler for next time and spoiler for all our lives, right? It's good to read stories that feel unfixable in the middle and then see the promise of not only what God can do, but that he may have been involved in it all along. Can I say one other thing about Tamar? And then we'll jump into Joseph's story. I think Jesus inherits qualities from his grandmothers and his mother and people in that line. It's fun to study their stories and think to yourself, I wonder what Jesus inherits from that one. And what I love about this story is this is a girl who was trying to help her family do what was right. She was trying to preserve Judah's family line and trying to preserve Judah's good name. And she will get blamed. She will be the wicked one in the story and lays down her life and her honor and her reputation in order to bring about good for someone else. And there are so much Jesus in that story. So that's Tamar, a hidden gem. The story that might not come up in Sunday school, but I just, we both thought it would just be awesome if you knew it. So slide that into 38 and then we're going to back up to 37 to do Joseph's story. Which is so fun. I, okay. I've been, I've been thinking about Joseph's story a lot and this is so funny, but like the other night, it was like the first night in so long to like me and my fiance, we had no plans. And it was just like, we were like, oh, what should we do? And we were like, we have nothing. Grace, that's also just, let's everyone just enjoy that line that you just said to me and my fiance, by the way. And something about me is that I love movies and I love shows. And something about my fiance is that he in fact cannot sit through a show for one second without wanting to go and play a game or do anything else. He gets so bored if he's sitting down for too long. And so we've never, the only we've only ever watched one movie together and it was wicked in the movie theater other than that we've just like never done that and I was like please please can we just watch my show because I have like one episode it was like the season finale and I was like I just want to watch my show so bad please and he was like okay but I've never seen it and I was like it's not that big of a deal you're gonna be fine just watch it like it's like it's gonna be good you're gonna like it and so we like sat down we were like on the couch we like started the show and I was like 100% captivated and invested like I was like dying like I was shocked I was excited like I was like loving the show and then like at the the show ended and my sweet fiance was like trying to like care so much about it and I was like what did you think and I was like ready to unpack the whole entire show and he was like I do have a few questions and I was like okay and then he like proceeded to ask like the most simple questions and I was like wait I can't like it's not even going to work out because like you don't know the whole story like you're missing all the story and you're not going to like season five episode 15 because you never saw season two episode three and you never saw season four episode eight like you're it just like it all built and I fell in love with the characters and all of the storyline and all the plot and you don't get it and the thing about um god and us is I think our stories are the same way that it's so easy for us to be like I just want to be on season five, episode 15. I just want season five, episode 15. I know it's going to be good. I know it's going to be good. But if you go to season five, episode 15 without season one, two, three, and four, you're actually not going to understand it. It's not going to mean anything to you. It's going to be worthless without all the other seasons, all the other episodes. And that is the truth about Joseph's story is we're going to jump into this story of this boy. And we are not just going to get season five, episode 15. We are going to get season one, season two, season three, season four, season five. And the only reason we love Joseph's story is because we get a glimpse into every single season. And chapter 37 is the beginning. It's season one for Joseph. And what happens is he grows up in Israel's family and sweet, sweet Joseph is very clearly the favorite child. I'm not even making that up. The scriptures say in verse number three. It's me and my family. Just kidding. None of my other siblings have a podcast that they can't claim favorite child. So I get to, um, and Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors. Joseph got to be the favorite. Okay. He not only was it like, it just worked out like the birth order made him the favorite child. It's like the youngest in the family. They like, just like are given the gift of being the favorite child. But not only that, he knew how to work the system. Okay. He, Joseph was going to put in work, like he knew what to do. He was going to be the favorite kid. He knew how to manage. He knew how to stay that. Okay. He knew to clean the dishes when the mom was stressed. He knew to bring home the dad's favorite treat from Chick-fil-A when he went there. He knew that he planned it. Okay. He was good. He was the favorite, which obviously meant that all of his siblings hated him. They had to, you all have to hate the favorite child. And it did just work. And, um, what started happening is, um, Joseph starts having these dreams and, um, that's going to be the key. Okay. You need to know about the dreams and Joseph has these dreams. And something about Joseph that I think is really interesting is I think from the very beginning of his life, God knew how to speak to him and he used dreams for that. But I also think it's really smart. and like, this is like kind of like, just like a side note, but I was just like realizing this when I read is that Joseph had a dream from the very beginning in season one. He knew like, this is the beginning of his story and he did dream. And what's going to happen is that's going to be a pattern for Joseph throughout his entire life. And God was going to speak to him in a similar way and show him the similar pattern. And what I think is cool is that God didn't wait to like, I don't even know if I'm saying this in a way that makes sense, but it's been really cool for me to think about it is like God started from the very beginning of his story saying, this is how I'm going to enter in and speak to you. And this is going to be something you need to understand. Dreams are important. You need to know that season one. So I'm going to give you a dream, but throughout the rest of the seasons of Joseph's life, those are still going to be relevant. And it made me want to pause and think, what has God done in my past that's going to be important to my future? How has God spoken to me in my past? How has God showed up in my past that's going to be relevant to my future? And honestly, this is so silly, but it made me think I want to write those down and I want to be aware of them because I might be in season one, but I have no idea what's coming season five. So what is God doing right now in my life that's going to prepare me for what's to come? That's chapter 37. He has this dream. And then all of a sudden, this begins the story that we know. All his brothers hate him. They're so angry at him. And all of a sudden, they come up with this plan. And they're like, you know what? Let's throw him in this pit and let's leave him to die. Like, let's get rid of our brother. Dad loves him the most. We might as well get rid of him. And then sweet, sweet Reuben, okay? He's my favorite in the family. And I'm going to say it, okay? He's so sweet. In verse 21, you get a brother that sees another way. You get a brother that says, wait, why are we trying to kill our brother? This doesn't make sense. This is so bad. All the brothers are like, we'll just pretend like some evil beast ate him. And then like, it's not going to be our problem. It's not going to be our fault. And then sweet Reuben says, wait, um, what if we just don't kill him? Okay. Like what if we just don't kill him? And Reuben starts making this plan. I don't want to shed any blood, but let's just throw him into this pit. It's in the middle of the wilderness. We're not going to lay any of our hands on him. We're not going to kill him. And we're just going to let whatever happens, happens. And then all of a sudden, all the brothers are like, okay, that's great. That's going to be fine. And in verse 23, it comes to passages. When Joseph was come unto his brethren, they stripped him of his coat of many colors that was on him. And they took him and they threw him into the pit and the pit was empty and there was no water in it. That's it. It was nothing. There was no hope for survival. It should have been the end of Joseph's story. And what I think is so interesting is that line, there was no water in there. And obviously that's like survival instincts. It's like, okay, there's no water. He was going to die. Like that was just like going to be the truth of the situation. There was nothing there to help him survive. But that word water to me in scripture always makes me think of the living water, Jesus Christ. And instantly I just thought, oh, Joseph had found himself in a pit, in a place where it seemed like Jesus wasn't. There was no water. there. There was no living water. All of a sudden he sat there in a pit all alone. The worst possible scenario, his brothers were going to leave him. It was going to be the end for him. And there was no water. And I just thought of all those moments in all the seasons of my life when I have felt the same way, when I've been thrown away and sat in a situation and thought, where is Jesus now? He's not here. I've been thrown into a place, into a situation, into a position that there is no way that Jesus could show up. And I think it's even like verse 25, the brothers are up above and they have sat down. It says to eat bread, which is another symbol for Jesus, you know, throughout scripture. And I think Joseph, it just made it worse for him to sit down in that pit that was empty and to look up at his brothers. They had his coat and they had bread. Sometimes it feels like, why does everybody else's story working out and mine isn't? And I think that's just one other layer of feeling like he's been tossed aside in this story. And so there he is in the bottom of the pit and all his brothers are sitting there. And then Judah says to his brothers, it's not even going to help us if we kill him. Like, what's that doing for us? It's giving us nothing. And he says, why would we not sell him? Why would we not get something for him? He's down there in the pit. We could just, we might as well get a benefit from this. And so his brethren were content with that. And then in verse 28, they're passed by the merchant men and they drew and they lifted Joseph out of the pit and they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites. And now all of a sudden the seasons of Joseph's life are going to change. Yeah. Okay, so this is what we want to do, because open up your journal to this page in this chapter, and here's the question at the top of it. Where and how was the Lord with Joseph in the pit, the palace, and the prison? And that's what we're going to look at. So Joseph is in the pit, and he says, this is a place where it's empty. There's no Jesus in this place. And we might find ourselves in similar situations. But it might be worth saying, but is he? was he actually in the story and looking back it's going to be way easier to find jesus in the story to not be in the pit with joseph we're probably going to be able to do that a little bit easier but i love that this little page is going to help train our hearts and train our eyes to look for him in places where we may have said was empty or in places where we said he wasn't so let's think about the pit for just a second, what you might write on your paper. Number one, the pit actually ends up saving him. At the end of the story, if there was no pit, there would have been no wait in time for them to come up with a new plan. So he's down in this pit without realizing, hey, you being in here is actually saving your life. What he sees as a curse from God might actually be the blessing in the story. Right. What else? What else do you want to say? Okay. What about Reuben? Where did that idea come from? Yeah. How about that? Why can we not attribute that to God? That God gave Reuben and then Judah, these two different ideas from the rest of the family. When has ever anybody ever gone against, right? 11 to one or 10 to one, however many there are. Right. Nine to one. I feel like I have to just get it right. Everybody. Changing it every time. It's nine to one because little Benji doesn't seem to be there. But where did this idea come from? That feels like harsh, but actually ends up being the saving grace. What about the fact that a caravan just happens to pass by on their way to Egypt, which by the way, is the country we need to get Joseph into, right? at the time because of all the other pieces that God is moving ahead in that path I don know Did I do all of them It be fun to just you know think through what else there might be Oh, I wrote this down. How about the fact that they know their dad's going to have a broken heart? That's what kind of seems to inspire Judah, right? So just the thought of his dad that, you know, And the relationship that they had with his dad is something that, you know, it's been 17 years in the making. And the thought of that led Judah to this new idea. So initially, it looks like a place where God isn't at all. But what about all these things that just happen to occur that are going to end up not only saving Joseph, but saving the whole family? And it just is such beautiful storytelling. and I love when God's a good storyteller because I love a good story. Because I just think to like all the things that I cared about in that dumb, like silly show that I was watching that was like, oh, this matters to me and this matters to me and this matters to me. That my fiance had no idea even mattered because he missed all of the episodes before. And what I think is true is that there are moments and seasons of our life that we will sit there in the pit like Joseph and say, there's no water here. I'm going to be left for dead. When in all reality, one day we will go back and we will say, oh, no, no, no, wait. I actually can see why all of those things mattered. I can see why all of those things were important. I actually can see how God did show up in my story because now I'm not living it. And I think that's the, that's to me, the message of the pit is that in the moment, it seems like a godless place when in all reality, it was the exact place he needed to be. Yeah. Yeah. And Joseph, I can imagine is down in that pit and he's praying for rescue and he's praying for deliverance. And he says, why isn't God listening to me? And why isn't he doing anything about this? In one way we would say, well, a caravan just happened to pass by, right? That would be an answer, but there is a bigger deliverance and there is a bigger rescue story at play. And Joseph just doesn't see it yet. So then he's sold by chance to the richest guy in town, the captain of the Pharaoh's guard. So this is going to actually connect him for the first time into Pharaoh's story. And we don't get enough details to know, but it just seems to me that of all the people that are going to buy this Hebrew servant, it's the captain of the Pharaoh's guard, like the one that's going to be closest, that seems to have the best connections. And you start reading in 39, and this is so interesting because he is a slave in somebody's house. And verse two says, and the Lord was with Joseph. That's a line you're going to keep seeing throughout this. Like whatever the circumstances are, the Lord was with Joseph. Look at again in verse three, his master even saw the Lord is with him and the Lord made all that he did to prosper in the land. And Joseph found grace. I love just that line in verse four. And in this place that nobody would want to be in, it says Joseph found grace. And because of what the master of the house could see, he was made overseer of the entire place and he put him in charge of everything. And look at verse five, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. It's so interesting because can't you just see Joseph saying like, okay, that's great that you're blessing his house. What about me? And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and all in that field. And Joseph, it says in verse six, was well-favored and a goodly person. So you can see, this is what I'd be filling in in that box that's next to the palace, all of these things that he seems to be finding grace and prospering and everybody is being blessed for him being there. Then Delilah comes, that's not her name, but you know, So this woman comes, the head of the house, whose name is Potiphar. His wife sees that Joseph is a good looking boy and she starts to pursue him. And it says in verse 10, day by day, he hearkened not to her. Right. And then eventually she is going to try and accost him and he is going to run out of there and leave his coat when he runs out. Poor guy keeps losing his coat. Okay. In every single story, he keeps losing the coat. It's true. It's so true. and can I say this really fast is I love his refusal so much because Joseph has been a good servant. He really has been a good servant and he really does respect his master so much. You see it in verse number nine. There is none greater in this house than I, neither had they kept back anything from me, but you. My, I have done everything I can to be a good servant and your husband has treated me so well. He has not kept back a single thing in this house except for you because you are his wife. And then you would expect to him, based on that sentence, you would expect Joseph's reply to be this. So I will not disrespect your husband. I will not go against your husband. I love your husband too much to do this, but instead this is what he says. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And what I love about the heart of Joseph is that he respected Potiphar. He respected his boss, but God had his heart. That answer right there, he said, I respect him too much, but I'm not going to do this, not because of just Potiphar, but because God has my heart. Someone has already won my heart and I know what I will do and what I will not do. And it is because God has my heart. And that's so interesting because this can be a person that you would say at this point would say, well, God's turned his back on me. So I'm going to turn my back on him. So the fact that his faith was protected through all of this tragedy is evidence that God is with him in his story. I just imagine somebody going through a hard time and praying this prayer, Lord, protect my faith, protect my trust, help me to trust you, help me to love you, help me to follow you when everything in me wants to call you unfair and turn against you. And I love that his faith and trust in God and his respect and honor for God were preserved and protected here, even when his life was not because, well, actually, I'll take that back because one of the things I wrote in the box is Joseph does not get beheaded, right? This feels like a wild crime. If Potiphar comes back and says, you know, listen, if you stole some of my honey or like some of my coins or whatever, then you're going to jail. But if you tried to, the wife's accusation was that he attacked her. This should be a hanging is what it should be. I mean, the baker is going to get hung for getting the bread wrong in the next chapter or whatever. I don't know what he did, but it seems like this would be a crime punishable by death. And even though him getting put into jail feels like an abandonment, I actually think it is God in the story. So in verse 20, it just says, he was put into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound. And there he was in the prison. And I love verse 21. And I circled that first word, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy. It didn't seem like he was, but he actually was there with him and in the jail too. And so there you find sweet little Joseph in the jail. And he's there with the chief butler and the chief baker. And we don't know, he got the bread wrong. Potiphar's gluten-free. Got the wrong baker. Okay. And he's there with them. And both of them, each man in one night, they both have a dream. And they're like, both of them in the middle of the jail, the butler and the baker are having these dreams. And my favorite part that I just want to go back to that I think is so interesting is verse number eight, because all three of them are in the jail. And then they say unto Joseph, we have dreamed a dream and there is no interpreter of it. What are we going to do? We have this dream. We feel like there's meaning behind it. We're thinking about it nonstop. Like, and there's no one here in jail to help us. Like we're in the middle of nowhere. No one's going to be able to talk to us. There's no one here to help. And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God. Tell me them. I pray to you. I pray you. And in my head, this to me is, this is why I love it is because I love, first of all, that Joseph knew exactly where dreams came from. He knew that dreams belong to God because God had given Joseph a dream. Joseph already knew that God speaks in dream, in dreams. And then instantly when he heard that, he said, I've been prepared for this. I know what to do because God has already helped me understand dreams. And I just love, it feels like we know, like it's, it just feels like that same thing, like with David and Goliath, that like David killed the lion and he killed the bear and he knew how to use his slingshot. So when he saw Goliath, he knew he was ready because God had already prepared him. The same thing happens with Joseph. Joseph knew he could step in for the dreams because God had already prepared him. And that is a way that I see God in the pit and I see God in the prison is that God is preparing Joseph for the role and the jobs that Joseph has to do on earth. God says, I'm not just sending you in here empty handed. I have been preparing you your entire life for this moment. And so he sits down. And what are the odds that the spiritual gift he has is the interpretation of dreams? I don't know anyone with that spiritual gift. It's mentioned in scripture as if it's going to be common and maybe it is. I just have to have better conversations with people. But in the very place where dream interpretation is going to be most vital, not just once, but three times in this story. And it just so happens that Joseph has that particular spiritual gift. It's just that is something to love about God. Yeah. And so he goes through and the chief butler is going to go through and tell Joseph his whole dream. And he's like, okay, here's everything that's happening. There's grapes and Pharaoh's cup and all these things. And you can like interpret that dream however you want, but it's not my business. It's Joseph's. and Joseph says, okay, I've got it. I know exactly what's going to happen. The three branches are three days, and within three days, Pharaoh is going to lift up your head, and he's going to put you back into your place in his kingdom. You're going to go back, and you're going to be the chief again, and then it's almost as if Joseph has this moment that he's like, this is my chance, because you're going to be the chief butler. This is going to be a big moment for me. And he says, but think on me when it will be well with you and show kindness. I pray unto you and make mention of me unto Pharaoh because God helped me help you. So maybe this is my chance out. And I just think of how many moments we live in that same exact moment. Like that we have that same mindset of sweet little Joseph that he looks and he says, wait, God just showed up for me. God just helped me. God just gave me a way out. And then you look and you say, please, please help me. This is my chance. I know it is. I know this worked out because everything's happened and everything's gone wrong for me. And I've been in a pit and I've been sold and I've been misunderstood and I've been mistreated. And maybe this is my moment. Maybe this is my prayer. And that is Joseph's little moment. It just feels like this little prayer where he says, please, please remember me. And then of course the show goes on And it doesn't really work the way Joseph thought it was going to work. Yeah. And the end of 20, the end of chapter 40 says, but forgot him. And then the verse one of chapter 41, and it came to pass at the end of two full years, almost like there's an emphasis there. It wasn't just January to November, like a year-ish. No, the full two years, then Pharaoh is going to dream this dream. And tell it to everybody. And I just think that's this one little part of chapter 41, verse one. But two years is a long time. Christian's only been on his mission like three months. And I feel like, you know, like at Thanksgiving, he said to us, hey guys, I just have one more Thanksgiving plus six months. And it was like Christian that actually sounds terrible Like two years is a really really long time to feel forgotten But I also like to think about what I wonder what preparation was happening in that two years that we don know about. Who was he becoming? What was he learning? What was, what was happening in his soul during those two years, which by the way, he was the boss of the whole prison. We don't actually know what that job means, but he was, he became the boss of the house that he was a slave. And now he's the boss of, of the prison. He's just like the warden's pet. Okay. Or whatever he is. And after the two years, Pharaoh has a dream and it's these seven corn and good corn and seven bad corn, and then seven good cows and seven bad cows. Uh, this story you, you probably know. And he's so upset because nobody can interpret his dreams. And then the butler says, the butler's the hero, y'all. The butler says in verse 12, oh my gosh, I'm remembering this guy. Remember when you put me in jail? Which by the way, thanks for putting me in jail because that's actually going to help be a part of this story. I just love that everything is going to work together for good in the end. And God is going, what's the scripture in Romans 8? What is that one? Well, let's come to that then. Don't let me forget because it's so awesome. There's so many parts of the story that you're like, well, what if that hadn't happened? Or what if that hadn't happened? And there's this Hebrew. There was this Hebrew and he was there helping us and he interpreted our dreams. And so Pharaoh was like, well, go get him. So he goes to get him. And I love Joseph in 16. after two full years of being forgotten, you can see that his faith and trust in God still has been protected. And Joseph answered Pharaoh and said, it is not in me. The answer is not in me, but God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. And he interprets the dream for him and tells him, this is what God says. It means there's gonna be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. So you need to find someone who is going to save up during those seven good years and be in charge of all of that because the seven bad years are going to be so bad, people are going to forget that there were even good years before that. Which there is something about this too, when I think about this, that Joseph in the end will be in the prison for I don't know how many years, right? It's going to be 20 years before his brothers come back. And I just like to think about the 17 years at home, you know, and 17 years of dreams and 17 years of prayers as a family that stored up enough faith in Joseph to get him through the pit years and the prison years. So his suggestion to the Pharaoh might be the very thing that he lived in his life. And so he says, you're just going to have to find someone who's going to be really smart and really good about this. And then Pharaoh says this in 37, the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all of his servants. And Pharaoh said unto his servants, could we find anyone else in whom the spirit of God is like this boy right here? There is none who is as smart and wise as you are. You will be the ruler over my house and you will be the boss and he gives him his ring right onto his hand. And I love this part in 42. And he, and he took off his ring and put it on Joseph's hand and he arrayed him in a coat of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. And I just love that Joseph got his coat back, that his story is starting to be redeemed right here. And like Tamar's story where in the pit, into prison, you would have said, this is irredeemable. This is unfixable. We don't know how it's going to happen. And you get to 41. It's not even the best part of the story because that's next week's lesson, but he has already been, his story is being redeemed. And I just love the symbol of that is the coat that the Pharaoh of all things gives him a coat that's going to kind of symbolize like the place. And I just love that this is a prisoner, right? Who was first a slave from a foreign land. And somehow the spirit of God is so rich in him that Pharaoh can see past all that. God gave Pharaoh eyes to see something so good in Joseph. And I think that is so beautiful and amazing. And our word for the week is what happens in each of those stories. It comes from 39.3, that when his master saw that the Lord was with him and the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And that word prosper could easily be mistaken to be a word that means all good things happening, lots of money, lots of time, lots of everything that everybody else once. So to say that Joseph was prospered in the pit and in the prison means that that word means something different. And I especially love that it's a word that shows up all throughout the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon. Here's what the Hebrew means, to push forward, to be good, to be meat, meaning like M-E-E-T, what is needed, to be profitable, to come mightily. And each of those things were happening in his story. The pit was a push forward. The prison was a push forward. They were good in the end and they were meat or they were needed in the end. And I think that this is so fantastic to be the lesson of the week to talk about, okay, we tried to look and see where God was prospering him in the pit and where he was prospering him in the prison to train our eyes and train our hearts to see that same thing. In the end of the story, Pharaoh can see what is good in Joseph. And Joseph all along has been trying to find what is to see God in his story, you know, also. And I would love, I love the thought of this, putting this up and just looking at it. And then this week, okay, okay. I might be in a pit. I might be in a prison. but where is God prospering me in those places? And I love so much how chapter 41 ends because it's a couple of years before the famine happens. And it says that Joseph gets to have two sons and he names them. And in verse 51, you see that the firstborn, he calls Manasseh for God said, he has made me forget all of my toil and all my father's house. he says because finally I can forget all of the bad something good has happened and then in verse 52 he names his next boy Ephraim for God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction that I like want to highlight a million times over because God did not take that boy out of Egypt to give him a good life he was in the middle of the place that honestly had so much trauma had so much bad things, had so much terrible things had happened to him. And he stayed in that very place and God changed the story. God gave him a good ending. And just what you were saying, I think that fruitful in the affliction, right, is what that name of Ephraim means. And there's something so beautiful for me to be said that you get the end of the story and Joseph is happy and he escapes the pit and he escapes the palace and he escapes the prison and his life is good. But the thing about it is that this story ends happy because of the pit and because of the palace and because of the prison. There is no way for Joseph to have ended up where he ended up in a place that he could say all of the affliction had goodness. All of that was worth it. The only way he was in a place to be able to say that is because he experienced the pit because he experienced escaping the palace because he experienced the prison. He needed all of those for his ending to be good. He needed every single piece of it. And the problem is his story wouldn't have worked if in the pit, he said, I need to be at the prison. I need to be at the prison. I need to be at the prison. And if he was in the prison and he said, I wish I was, I just wish I was out of here. I just wish this needs to be over. This needs to be over. look, all my brothers are outside the pit and they're happy. But here I am in the pit and God looked and he said, no, no, no. You are forgetting that I am writing the story and you need the pit to get to the palace and you need to run away from the wife because you need to get to the prison and you need to get to the prison because I have something better for you. All along, God was writing the story, getting him exactly where he needed to be. And sometimes in the middle of the pit and in the middle of the palace and in the middle of the prison, we say, I don't want my story anymore. I don't want the pit and I don't want the palace and I don't want the prison. And it's rude that you're making me stay here and you're not writing the story I want to write. I want season five and I'm only in season two. I don't want this anymore. And what I love about Joseph's story is he did need the pit and he did need the palace and he did need the prison, but God did not leave him alone there. That in all of those places, God showed up over and over and over through this story, over and over through these chapters, you see that same line that God was with him. That over and over and over, no matter where he was, God showed up. And that's like, we have like this little sign behind us this year. And it just says, I will be with thee. and it's from Good News, Bryn. But what I love, I'm so excited to put this up in my house this year because this, the verse under it comes from Exodus three, but you could take that line from a million places in the Old Testament. And what I love about that line is it does not promise to eliminate the pits and the palaces and the prisons from our lives, but it does promise that God will be with us through it all. No matter what your story looks like, maybe it's Joseph's, maybe it's the Red Sea, maybe it is what we've read about the past and all of these stories are going to go through and there's going to be floods and there's going to be giants and there's going to be battles that seem impossible to win. And there's going to be pits and there's going to be palaces and there's going to be prisons. But the promise of scripture, the promise of the God we believe in is he will be with us through all of them. And I think, you know, when we're trying to look for the promises throughout this book, this is a book of promises. And I think it's fantastic that this is the most repeated promise throughout scripture, throughout the Old Testament, is I will be with you. If you were to sum up what is the promise to covenant Israel, it's I will be with you. And in the end, in the end, like Tamar's story, like Joseph's, the story will be redeemed. That's the promise. A double blessing is coming. Don't you love that it's twins? A double blessing is coming so good that you'll forget all the bad and you will see that you prospered in the affliction. But in the meantime, I found this this time reading and just a last thought. When Joseph gets thrown into the pit in chapter 37, verse 17, he's in a place called Dothan. And that shows up one other time in scripture. And it's the story when Elijah has to open up the eyes of his servants to see the, remember the armies, they're surrounded. That's in that same city. And I was like, oh, that is actually really cool that in that city, Elisha prays for his servant's eyes to be open, to see that they that be with us are more than they that be with them, that God is here in this place. And it's the same prayer Joseph needed in the pit and in the prison and in the palace. Open my eyes so I can see you with me, so I can see you prospering me in this place. And I just love that in the end, we get the double blessing. But in the meantime, we pray that God opens up our eyes to see him in our story. So good. This is only part one of the story of Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Part two is next time. And we're so excited. We'll see you then. If you want to follow along in everything we're doing, you can find us on Instagram at Don't Miss This Study, at This Week's Grace, and at Mr. Dave Butler. And if you want to subscribe to the app or get our weekly newsletter, All of the information can be found at don'tmissthisstudy.com. See you next week.