Old Testament in a Year: Genesis 32-39

Well, if you're brand new to the refuge, we are walking through the entire old testament during 2026, week by week, going through Scripture. And we've also got a corresponding Bible reading guide, and we're all reading through scripture together. I've had so many people tell me they're doing it as a family. Their kids are reading through scripture. They, as a family, are reading through the entire Bible together, which is so beautiful and so awesome.

If you want the first quarter reading guide, you can pick them up as you leave today. They're right there at the info desk. You can grab a copy of that. Every quarter, we'll put out a new reading guide so that we're all reading scripture together, following along, and it's corresponding with the messages that we're bringing each Sunday. And today we're talking About Genesis chapters 32 through 39.

Genesis 32, 39. And here's what we're focusing on today. Kind of the theme for the day is this blessing, breaking and building. Blessing, breaking and building. All the notes are there on the app.

There's. A number of years ago, there was a guy that attended the refuge. He's moved away now, but he was a Green Beret sniper. And I had the opportunity one day to go shooting with him, which was incredible. And so while we're there out in this field and he's showing me things about shooting and I'm watching him do his thing, I started asking him questions about the training to become a Green Beret.

And it was, as you could imagine, very rigorous. Like this unbelievably demanding process where they just take the elite of the elite to become a Green Beret. Kind of like the Navy seals and the Green Berets have something that's like hell week, like the Navy SEALs would have. And it's, you know, you barely sleep, you're barely eating. They're just pushing you to the limit.

And he said on the last day, where they just are completely exhausted, they had to put on a full field pack and they had to go on this hike that was like 50 miles, very demanding, very exhausting. And when they got to the end of the hike, they walked into this building and they can barely move. And men are just completely, completely at the end. And as they walk into that building, officers were waiting on them and they said, okay, now turn around and go all the way back. And most of the men dropped the their pack right then on the spot and quit.

But the few who walked out of the door to start making their way back after they walked out of the door and went just a few yards. Another officer met them and said, you're done, you're finished. It's over. You passed. We just wanted to see mentally if you were tough enough to keep going.

In other words, they had this rigorous process that would weed out everybody who they didn't think was tough enough. One of the greatest football coaches of all time, Nick Saban, the former coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Can I get a roll tie from anybody this morning? Thank you very much. He was known for drilling into the heads of his players that they had to trust the process.

That was a three word phrase they would hear over and over. Trust the process in order to become the best. Now, in these chapters that we're looking at in Genesis, chapters 32 through 39, we're going to see two men who had to go through a rigorous process of becoming great leaders. God was breaking them, blessing them, building them into these great leaders. And it wasn't overnight.

They had to endure some really difficult tests in order to become those that God intended for them to be. So take your Bible, if you will. We're going to start in Genesis, chapter 32, beginning in verse 22. Would you stand to honor the word of God, the greatest book on the planet? Can I get an amen?

Genesis, chapter 32, beginning in verse 22. We find this during the night. Jacob. And we're talking about Jacob and Joseph. Jacob got up and he took his two wives, his two servant wives.

He had four wives.

It's a television show.

They did things a little differently back then. Unless you live in Utah.

Sorry, I digress. Stick to scripture, Stick to your message. My wife is amening over here. He took his two wives, his two servant wives. I'm just reading what the word of God says.

It's just right there. Four wives and his 11 sons, and crossed the Jabbok river with them. And after taking them to the other side, he sent over all of his possessions. This left Jacob all alone in the camp. And a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break.

And when the man saw that he would not win the match, it's interesting. He touched Jacob's hip and he wrenched it out of its socket. And then the man said, let me go, for the dawn is breaking. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. So we see breaking, we see blessing.

What is your name? The man asked. We'll talk about this in a moment, he replied. Jacob, your name will no longer be Jacob. The man told Him.

From now on, you will be called Israel because you have fought with God and with men and have won. Please tell me your name. Jacob said, why do you want to know my name? The man replied. And then he blessed Jacob there.

Let's make some declarations. And then I'm going to do my very best to to get through about an hour and a half sermon in about 30 minutes. Pray for me. Come on, let's make some declarations this morning. Everybody out loud.

Ready? Go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the Word.

And I am confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it. In Jesus name, Amen. You can be seated. Here we go. The last time that Jacob saw his brother Esau, Esau wanted to kill him.

In chapter 27, Jacob has deceived his own father into giving the blessing that was reserved for the firstborn to Jacob instead of to Esau. Here's what we read in chapter 27, verse 41. From that time on, Esau hated Jacob because their father had given Jacob the blessing. And Esau began to scheme. Watch.

I will soon be mourning my father's death. Then I will kill my brother Jacob. Jacob. That's the last time Jacob saw Esau. And Jacob, smart guy, flees for his life.

He runs. He knows his brother is really ticked off, so he leaves. He's going to go to his uncle Laban's house, and he's going to live there with Laban, and he's going to work for Laban. Now, on the way, he stops to sleep. And as he's sleeping, he has a dream.

And in the dream, he sees this supernatural ladder extending from heaven and touching the earth. And on that ladder going back and forth are angels descending to the earth, ascending back to heaven, going back and forth. Jacob wakes up in that moment, and he recognizes God is here, the presence of God is here. So he names the place Bethel, which means house of God. And we're going to talk about that again in a few moments because it reappears in these chapters.

It reappears in this story. Bethel does. And we'll talk about the significance of that. But it was a moment that really marked Jacob and really prepared him for what was ahead. Now, after many years, and you can go back and read.

Or maybe you've already read this. You should have if you're following the reading plan. But Jacob works for his uncle seven years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Rachel was one of Laban's daughters, and Rachel was super attractive. Jacob fell madly in love with her, worked seven years, and now he's finally earned the right to marry her.

But all of a sudden, Laban deceives the deceiver because Jacob, the name Jacob means deceiver. And that's what Jacob had done. He deceived his own dad and deceived his brother. And now the deceiver is being deceived. Why?

Because Laban recognizes that Rachel's sister Leah, who was.

Come on, y', all. You're trying to get me in trouble. You're baiting me right now, trying to get me in trouble. Okay, I'll say it. Leah was homely.

Leah was not as attractive as Rachel. And Laban's like this poor girl who's going to come along and marry her. So he deceives the deceiver and he gives Leah to Jacob. And Jacob doesn't realize it. It's all dark and she's got a veil on and all this kind of stuff.

He marries Leah, sleeps with her, and now he's been deceived. So he still is in love with Rachel, still wants to marry her. He works another seven years, and then he marries Rachel. He stays and builds up his livestock, starts having kids, and the rest is history. He decides.

Jacob decides. This is after 20 years. I'm going to go back home. I'm going to go back to my homeland. But he realizes it comes with great risk.

Why? Because Esau's going to hear that he's coming. Esau's going to know because Jacob has become very wealthy. He's got this massive caravan. He's got all of this livestock.

And Esau's going to know at some point. Jacob's on his way back. Word's going to spread. And Jacob knows, man, the last time I saw him, he wanted to take me out. So I've got to figure out something, Order.

To win my brother over. So he strategizes, he divides his camp. He sends gifts ahead. He calculates. Chapter 32.

Now, that's where we start. Verse 20. Jacob thought, I will try to appease him by sending gifts ahead of me. And when I see him in person, perhaps he will be friendly to me. Verse 22.

During the night, Jacob got up and he took his two wives, his two servant wives and his 11 sons. And. And he crossed the Jabbok river with him. Now, that's significant. The Jabbok river was a tributary of the Jordan.

River, and it was about 15 miles north of the Dead Sea. The jabbok. And the word jabbok in the Hebrew is a word that means to empty. It means to pour out. It's the word ba qa.

It means to literally be empty of yourself. And so, in order for Jacob to realize his destiny, because destiny was still in front of him, he had to cross the jabbok. In other words, he had to empty himself of all of those manipulative, deceptive ways that had gotten him through so many different sticky situations. How many of you understand and realize that in order for you and I to realize our destiny got to come to the place? And Jesus says this in Luke chapter nine.

We've got to come to the place that we empty ourselves of anything that's contrary to the nature of God. We've got to be willing to die to ourselves. That's what Jesus says. Luke, chapter 9, verse 24. Whoever wants to save their life must what?

Must lose it. You got to empty yourself. Whoever wants to keep your life. Whoever wants to lose. Whoever loses their life will keep it for my sake, he says.

Jacob wrestles all through the night with a man, and most theologians agree it was God himself. And it's here that God renames him after all these years of being called deceiver.

God cannot rename him, though, until Jacob is willing to admit who he is. That's why God asked him, what is your name? You think God asked him that because God had a mental block and he forgot Jacob's name? Absolutely not. No.

The reason God asked him his name was because he knew that in order for transformation to take place, Jacob had to admit, this is who I am. I'm a deceiver. I'm a manipulator. I'm a liar. This is my nature.

So he says, what's your name?

He had to put it out there. He had to say, I'm Jacob. I'm the deceiver. I'm the manipulator. I'm the liar.

And once he acknowledged the ugliness of his own life, God said, I can work with that. Like, I can do something with that. How many of you know if we get real in the presence of God and say, God, I'm immoral God, I'm prideful God, I'm lustful God, I'm. Whatever it might be, God says, I can work with that. God doesn't say, oh, I didn't realize there was all that going on with you.

I don't know if I can do anything. With you or not? No. It's when we get real that we feel the embrace of God. And he says, now we can get somewhere.

Now we can work with something. And it was in that moment that God changed his name. He said, no longer will you be called the deceiver, but I'm changing your name to Israel, the one who will rule as God. Jacob had always manipulated his way forward. He deceived Esau, he deceived Isaac.

He negotiated with Laban. But now he cannot scheme his way out of this moment where he's wrestling with God himself. Now, listen, sometimes God lets us wrestle until we realize we cannot win in our own strength.

I think there comes a point in the lives of people who really want to become like Jesus. There comes a wrestling moment. There comes a point that we have to admit. I cannot deceive my way out of this. I cannot manipulate my way out of this.

And for some people, that's their default setting. Some of you are great manipulators because you had to manipulate in order to survive. Like, you grew up in circumstances where that's how you got by. But that doesn't mean God's okay with you continuing that way. Like, there comes a point.

God says, I can help you with that. I can change you. You don't have to keep living that way. And Jacob realizes, I cannot win this wrestling match in my own strength. Now, all of us know God could have won anytime he wanted.

Like, he could have snapped his fingers, Boom, it was all over. But he wrestled all night. Why he wrestled all night with Jacob? Because God. Watch.

God wasn't trying to defeat Jacob. God was trying to transform Jacob. If the goal was to defeat him, he could have done it anytime he wanted. But he wrestled all night with him because he was trying to transform Jacob. He wanted Jacob to get to the point.

I cannot do this in my own strength. I cannot do this in the way that I've always done it before. And then Jacob says, I'm not going to let go unless you bless me. Now, the blessing came, but it came with a limp.

Sometimes the greatest evidence of you having an encounter with God, the greatest evidence of you being transformed by God, isn't your strength, it's your limp.

Listen, I'm just going to tell you, as a pastor, I love to hire people on our staff that walk with a limp.

I would much rather hire somebody that walks with a limp than somebody who seems like they've got it all together.

Somebody who thinks they've got all the answers. God's blessings often Come with humility attached. Watch. Genesis 35. God tells Jacob to go back to Bethel.

Over 20 years have passed, and he tells him, go back to the place that he had marked him in his presence. A big part of us becoming the people that God intends for us to be, the big part of us becoming the leaders that God's called us to be, becoming those who represent him well in the earth in the last days, is that we are intentional. Listen, about constantly going back to the place of encounter, going back to the place of prayer, going back to the place of surrender, going back to the place of worship, going back to the place of simple obedience. Again, Bethel means house of. Of God.

And a part of God's design is that we consistently come to the house of God to encounter him.

I talk to people, I've heard it. I've been doing this over 40 years. And people say, well, you know, I don't really need church, or I don't want to go to church. There's too many hypocrites or there's too much dysfunction. And listen, we're seeing it.

We're seeing it like never before. All the stuff that's being exposed, all the stuff that's going on in the body of Christ, and the goal of the enemy is to cause you to just write his bride off. Like, write the church off and say, well, so and so felt so and so did this, so and so lied about this, so and so slept with so and so. Whatever all this mess that's going on, you got to understand the goal of the enemy is to cause you to divorce yourself from the body of Christ.

That's what he wants, and that's what a lot of people are doing. Unfortunately, I think it's more important right now than ever that we are consistently going to the house of God. As imperfect as the bride of Christ is, and we know there are stains on the wedding dress of the bride of Christ, but it's still his bride, it's still his wife. And he's called us to be committed and faithful and loyal to his bride.

Does it come with risk? Of course it does. But I know this, that the blessings of being in community far outweigh the risk.

And I'm going to say it again, I've said it probably hundreds of times, that my greatest hurts have come from the church, but my greatest healing has also come from the church.

All of us have been hurt by the church. But you can find healing in community. Stay in community. Don't let the enemy cause you to isolate yourself or Separate yourself from community. Go back to Bethel.

Go back to your place of prayer, back to the places that you encountered him. Jacob has many children through these two wives. Four wives. Two wives Rachel and Leah, through their two maidservants. So he has four wives, Zilpah and Bilah.

But his favorite son of all was a son that was born to him from Rachel, the woman that he loved the most, the one that he wanted to marry. And she has this son whose name is Joseph. And now Joseph begins going through this rigorous process, just like Jacob had done his father. Jacob had to go through a process where his. His transformation took place so that he could be entrusted as a great leader.

Now Joseph is in the same place. Genesis 37. And God begins taking Joseph through this. Let's read beginning in verse three. Y' all still with me?

It says, beginning in verse 3. Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. And so one day, Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph. You know the story. A beautiful robe, the many colored robe.

But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn't say a kind word to him, so their hatred just grows by the day. And it is compounded when Jacob gives Joseph this long, ornate robe of many colors. Because there was a message with that robe. And the message was, you don't have to work like all my other sons, because you would never wear a long robe out into the field.

You wore tunic. It was a short robe. It was a robe that you could work in. And when he gave Joseph that robe, he was saying, you're different. You're special.

I love you more than I love them. And. And it just caused the hatred to build even more in his brothers. And then it gets worse. Watch.

One night, Joseph had a dream. And when he told his brothers about it, theologians think Joseph might have been around the age of 17. When he told the brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. Listen to this dream, he said. We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain.

Suddenly my bundle stood up and. And your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine. Can everybody just say stupid, right? You know your brothers hate your guts, so why in the world would you think it was a good idea to say, oh, guys, hey, listen, come here. You're going to love this man?

I had this incredible dream, and guess what? In the dream, all of you were bowing down to me. How awesome is that?

Stupid, right? Youth without wisdom. Youth with zeal but no wisdom. So they hated him even more. Watch, his brothers responded.

So you think he will be our king? Do you? Do you actually think he will reign over us? And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. And soon, Joseph had another dream, didn't learn his lesson.

And again, he told his brothers about it. Listen, you're going to be so excited about this. You love the first dream. I know, boy. I could tell, man, you love that first dream.

You're going to really love this one. I had another dream, he said. The sun, moon and 11 stars bowed down low before me. This time, he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers. But his father scolded him.

What kind of dream is that? He asked. Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground or bow to the ground before you? And just like God did with Jacob, God now begins taking Joseph through this process. Trust the process, building him into a great leader.

God saw things in Joseph. It was pretty obvious that he knew if we don't extract those things out of Joseph's life, he'll never be able to fulfill the destiny that I've inscribed his life. But the process for him, for Joseph, involved breaking. It involved betrayal, it involved blessings. And it involved a total rebuilding of who he was.

Now we pick up the story in verse 17 of chapter 37. So Joseph went after his brothers, and he found them near Dothan. He's doing this because his dad said. Jacob said, hey, I need you to go find your brothers. They're out.

They're grazing the sheep. I need you to go find him. But they saw him in the distance. And before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. Here comes that dreamer.

They said to each other, Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. And say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams. And when Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. Let's not take his life, he said.

Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern, this well here in the wilderness. But don't lay a hand on him. Reuben said this. Don't lay a hand on him.

Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. And so when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the ornate robe that he was wearing, the robe that they hated. And they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern Was empty, no water in it. And as they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up, saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead.

Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt to sell them in Egypt. Judas said to his brothers, what will we gain if we kill our brother? Cover up his blood, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, not lay our hands on him. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood. And his brothers agreed.

So we see the betrayal now. The betrayal. So God's about to take Joseph through this breaking process, this grueling process, probably somewhere around 12 years. He has these dreams, and that's the frustrating part. We talked about this last week, the promises of God.

If you missed it, go back and watch or listen to the message. The promises of God. Often, oftentimes we derail when the promise is given until the fulfillment of the promise, because we think it's going to happen in weeks, months at the most. And when it doesn't happen, we begin to question God or question ourselves or question the promise that was given to us. And we derail oftentimes and think, well, I must have missed God, or God changed his mind, whatever the case may be.

So God's about to take Joseph through this process of somewhere between 12 and 14 years to weed out of him all of the stuff that's going to stand as a barrier for Joseph being the leader that God called him to be. Now here's the interesting thing. If you read, you might have noticed that chapter 38 just seems like a total detour from the story that we're reading. Because chapter 38 is all about his half brother Judah, Joseph's half brother. But it never even mentions Joseph.

It's kind of like a cliffhanger. Like all this stuff starts to happen, they sell him into slavery, and then you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, wait, where's the rest of the story? What's coming? It picks back up in chapter 39, but chapter 38 is this intricate plot that involves a lot of sexual misconduct. It involves a moral failure, it involves lying, and it just involves all this stuff.

And I'm not going to go into all the details of the story, but what happens here is that Judah's wife dies and Judah's daughter in law is a young widow and she has no children. Judah promises that he's going to have his son Omar marry her so that she can have kids. But when he Goes to Omar and he says, I need you to marry her. He says, no way, Jose, like I'm not going to marry her. And he refuses to do it.

And so then Judah says to his daughter in law, I'm going to have Shelah, my son, when he gets old enough because he's too young right now. But when he grows up, I'll make sure he marries you. Well, he lies about it. And when Shelah grows up, he doesn't have her marry his daughter in law. Well, the daughter in law decides.

My father in law told me he was going to do this twice. He hasn't done it, so I'll come up with my own plan. So she dresses rather seductively, puts a veil over her face and sits at the entrance to the city where she knows her father in law is going, disguises herself and he thinks she's a temple prostitute, but he doesn't recognize her, he doesn't know who she is. His wife has died and so he decides he's going to have sex with her. So he has sex with this lady who he thinks is a temple prostitute, but he doesn't know who she is, he doesn't recognize her.

She becomes pregnant and then she reveals the father of her baby. And all of a sudden Judah is caught up in this whole scandal, this whole moral failure. And you think, why this detour? Now here's what happens when she gives birth. She gives birth to twins.

And the first baby born she names Perez, which means to break out. Now here's the beauty of this. Perez, later in life would have a son and he would name him David. And then from the lineage of David would come the Messiah, Jesus. So here's this detour in Genesis, chapter 38.

Why would God put that there? Why is it so important that this story is there? Because God intentionally wants to remind us through this story of scandal and moral failure, that he can make beauty out of ashes like nobody else. Now listen to me. Why do we fight for the unborn?

Why do we stand so strongly? Why do we partner with love life? Why do we go once or twice a year to what is now, I've just been told, the busiest abortion clinic in America, right here in Charlotte, where we will be on March 14 as a church, worshiping and praying? Why do we do that? Why did I, as a 60 year old man, ride a bicycle 3135 miles across America and raise over a million dollars to try to stop the tragedy of abortion in America?

Here's why. Because we believe that every single child Born regardless of the circumstances of conception is valuable to go.

I want to say that again. We believe life is precious regardless of the circumstances of conception. Life is precious. Those babies are worth fighting for. And there have been many babies that somebody wanted to abort that have grown up to become great leaders for the kingdom of God.

Great testimonies and great stories because somebody fought for that child. And I believe Genesis 38 is a reminder to us.

Listen, maybe. Maybe there's somebody watching. Maybe there's somebody here. You find yourself in an unplanned pregnancy. Let me tell you what we've done for years.

We will never shame you. We will walk with you. We'll help resource you. We'll help provide for you. We'll celebrate with you when that baby comes.

And if you find yourself in that situation, you're in a safe place. You can talk to us about that. Don't let the enemy convince you that abortion is the best way for you. And if you've been through an abortion, or maybe you're a man and you encouraged an abortion, we want to help you with that as well. We want to help you overcome the trauma of that abortion.

All right, Genesis 39. Let's pick it back up. The story picks up. The Midianite traders who bought Joseph from his brothers, sell him into slavery to a guy by the name of Potiphar. He's an officer of Pharaoh.

And then in chapter 39, verse 2 and 3, it says this. The Lord was with Joseph. So he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar noticed this, and he realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything that he did. Now, not only did Potiphar notice Joseph, but Potiphar's wife also noticed Joseph because he was very handsome.

And she takes notice of him, and she starts finding herself attracted to him. And she begins to try to seduce him, begging him to sleep with her, and he refuses. He's a godly man. He's going through this process of becoming a great leader for the sake of the Lord. But one day, when nobody else is around, she grabs Joseph, pleads with him, begs him, sleep with me, and he refuses.

He tears himself away from the grip of Potiphar's wife, and he runs. He does what all of us should do when temptation comes knocking on our door, run the opposite direction. But when he does, he leaves his robe in her hands. So she starts yelling, help. Somebody help me.

This Hebrew slave that you brought into our house tried to rape me. And here's his robe. And she frames him. She has him thrown into prison. More betrayal, more of the breaking.

More the process of becoming a man of God. We read in chapter 39, verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. And the warden had no more worries because Joseph took care of everything.

The Lord was with him, caused everything that he did to succeed. Four times in this chapter we read, the Lord was with Joseph. He was with him in slavery. He was with him in temptation. He was with him when he was falsely accused.

He was with him when he was in prison. Notice this. God's presence did not prevent hardship, but it sustained him through it.

I know all of you have been through hardship. Some people get angry with the Lord, but it was God who sustained you through the hardship. It's why you're still here. That's why you still love him. And to fully realize the blessings and the beauty of walking in your destiny, you have to trust the process enough that you're willing to endure some breaking.

You're willing to endure some betrayal. We see Jacob limped into his destiny. Joseph was falsely accused into his destiny. If you go on to read, and we'll talk about this next week as we pick up in Genesis chapter 40 through chapter 50, we're going to see Joseph becomes the prime minister. Egypt.

God elevates him to an incredible position in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible, where Joseph now, after all of these years of betrayal, these years of breaking, and then the blessing of God and God elevating him to this position of great responsibility and great authority, and Joseph finally realizes why it all had happened. It was worth it for him because he preserved the Israelite people through the position that he held. He preserved them. And we're going to talk about that next week. Listen, you might be in a wrestling match.

You might be in some family mess. You might be in a pit, a well. Somebody's thrown you into a well. You might be in a prison season. Whatever the case, here's what I want you to know.

I'll leave you with this. If the Lord is with you, the promise is still alive.