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And we observe, therefore, that at the heading of each of the major parts of this final movement, the heading introduces us to Jacob. And Jacob dwelt in the land, says chapter thirty seven verse one. Then, starting the second movement, Jacob saw there was corn in Egypt and sent his sons to get it, chapter forty two verse one. uh comma. And then, after the great climax, discovered that his son Joseph was still alive, there begins section three, and Israel took his journey, chapter forty six, verse one. And finally, uh, section four, chapter forty seven, verse twenty eight following, and Jacob lived in Egypt around seventeen years. There he died and was taken back to Canaan. And at the end of last session, I was suggesting that we all went home and did some homework in the course of the week, and I'm all ears to hear the results of that homework this evening. And in particular, we were told ourselves we were going to look at these early stories here, uh, particularly this curious story about Judah, to ask ourselves whether, in fact, uh, there was some point for us in this story. We notice, uh, superficially the, uh, similarities between them. In story A here, Joseph his soul, and the brothers dip his coat in the blood of an animal and bring it back to their father, and they ask their father to, to examine it and to know from the evidence if it is really his son's Joseph coat. And the poor old boy sees the coat and sees the blood and comes to his conclusion on what we, of course, know is quite false evidence and the false conclusion, but he decides Joseph, his son, is torn in pieces. Then we noted superficially that in the second story, Judah goes down, and eventually he, uh, Tamar asks of Judah a pledge and takes the pledge from him consisting of his staff and his signet. And when subsequently he orders that she shall be brought out and be burnt, she sends the signet and the staff to Jo- Judah and says, discern now. So once more we have the question of evidence, don't we? Discern now Whose whose are are staff. soft and of his sin. And then finally, we noticed last week in story C here, very much a question of evidence, isn't there? Potiphar's wife seizes Joseph's coat. She lays it up by her and first of all inculcates into the servants what they want him enough, what they weren't bright enough, perhaps, uh, to see through. Who knows, perhaps they were. But she told her story to them first so that they could corroborate it when the master came home. She showed them Joseph's coat and and wisely nodded her head and told them what deduction to make from his coat. And when her husband came, uh, home, of course, she showed him Joseph's coat and pitched her yarn to him, and he, whether he believed it or not, may doubt he did. And Joseph found himself in prison. So very much the question of evidence. And we noticed again last week how this story here with Joseph contrasts with this final story here, story C at the bottom, when we come to the real climax. Here is Joseph, uh, is Jacob with Joseph's coat, coming to the conclusion from the planted false evidence that Joseph is torn in pieces. But now here at the climax, when he sees the wagons that Pharaoh has sent to bring him down to Egypt, good, solid, four-wheeled wagons. Plus the bullets to draw them. He sees the evidence, and his heart revives, and he cries with tremendous joy. Joseph, my son, is still alive. I shall go and see him before I die. Question of evidence. So, having noticed those superficial things, we promised ourselves that we should do some homework this week and come ready tonight to tell each other what we have found, and in particular about this story of Judah. But while you're making up your minds exactly how you're going to phrase yourselves, let me just, uh, sum up a little bit more what we have found so far, so that we can put our observations into context. This part of Genesis, then, is the story of Jacob. That won't rob us of the fact that it tells us a lot about Joseph, the one whom we love so much. But strictly speaking, it's the story of Jacob, and the story of Jacob and his son. Or if you like, Israel, for Jacob is Israel now, Israel and his sons, the Israelites. And we noticed last week that with the beginning of this part of Genesis, there comes a change. Here's a tool in the talking of the patriarchs, the story has told us that Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, but Ishmael had to be turned away, and the line went through Isaac. And Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob, and Esau had to be rejected, and the line went through Jacob. But you won't get that here. It's no longer a question of the patriarch Jacob having two sons, and one has to be rejected, and the line goes through the other. We're finished with that. Now all Jacob's sons are to be retained. They form, of course, the basis of this infant nation. Now the nation begins that is to bear the name, not Jacobites, but Israelites. So it's the story of Jacob and comes the beginning of the nation. We shall notice how that theme goes through. Of course, Joseph is mentioned, but so is Judah, but so are the others, Simeon and Reuben. When we come finally, whenever that will be, next December, so come perhaps, uh, to story B here in the last division, we shall of course read of the blessings and the prophecies related to all the sons sons that go out to make the whole nation. The sons of Jacob. What we're primarily interested in then is Jacob Israel and his sons, the beginning of the infant nation and its development in the immediate, and then in the shorter term future, and then perhaps, as these things send their prophetic light along the centuries, foreshadowings of the long distance future. You say, what do you mean? Well, look here again, Jacob and his sons. It's an interesting story here. This is the story in the i- i- i- of Judah and his sons. And coming down to story three here, it's the story of Joseph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And when we come over to story A here, the fourth division, Jacob has Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, introduced to him. And grandfather says, who are these, Joseph? And he says, they're the boys you know. And then Israel does a very significant thing. He says, very good, Joseph, they're your sons, I know, but I'm now telling you they're going to cease to be your sons and they're going to count as my sons. They're going to be raised, so to speak, one generation higher than they really are. So that Ephraim and Manasseh are going hither- hereafter to count as Jacob's sons and not Joseph's sons. That is, they shall become heads on the third tribe. And we know, of course, in subsequent history that was so. You read subsequent history of the tribes of Israel, you will read of Reuben, of course, and Judah, and Simeon, and Levi, and uh, uh, Benjamin. But you will among the twelve read Ephraim and Manasseh. They weren't really sons of Jacob. They were sons of Joseph. But they were raised up to become, uh, heads of two of the tribes in Israel. Notice that significant thing. And notice next how interesting this early history is. You can't help finding it interesting, of course, because you know so much about subsequent history, don't? When Israel came to be settled in the land, it was often to be found in two major divisions, wasn't it? They were called Judah and Ephraim. Judah was the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. They occupied the south. Ephraim was a name you put not only over the tribe of Ephraim, but you put it over all the ten tribes. That was the two divisions in the nation, Ephraim and Judah. So that this Ephraim, who was really Joseph's son, not Jacob, elevated to be a head of the tribe, becomes in subsequent history elevated still further. He becomes the chief tribe among the ten tribes who are subsequently called after his name, Ephraim and uh, Judah. I have to tell you, you won't spread it abroad, I know, because you have a family of your own, but the... in Jacob's family, the sons didn't always get on very well with each other. From time to time, they fell out. Later on in the Book of Chronicles, they came to fisticuffs and worse, fought each other. Ooh. And then there was a colossal great split. You remember that, don't you? Ephraim was split off from Judah. Sounds very familiar. And, uh, ha. It led to a lot of sorrow. Ephraim was eventually carted off by the Assyrians and went to Assyria. Judah, by contrast, was taken by the Babylonians and went to the Babylonians. One of the prophets was given subsequently in later years to envisage what the millennium would be like. What would you take, Ivan, if I were to ask you to now, your concept of the millennium? You said it's a time of peace and lovely things and so on, and plenty, yes, I think. Would you like to single out anything particular above all others that would mark the millennium? You surely know that the millennium had come now, if this is true. Well, I leave you to that. But this particular prophet I had in mind when he came to characterize the, the, uh, millennium to be, he said, you know what? When those years come, Ephraim will no longer vex Judah, and Judah will no longer vex Ephraim that was next ahead of him. And eventually they learned to live in peace, and the potter got his staff that was broken in two between Ephraim and Judah, and the staff was to be joined together again, Ephraim and Judah. Well, I say it's interesting because here we have the beginnings of it, but what to make out of it all, and why dear old Jacob went and crossed his hands and blessed Ephraim rather than Manasseh, and what the point was in it, that please don't tell us tonight, tell us later on, uh, next week. But while we are at that, uh, let's notice another significant thing. We found in our earlier studies that it is true of the whole of Genesis, it is true of this last section, that you can read its lessons at various levels. The practical level, moral and spiritual lessons. For instance, how to meet temptation and how to escape it and come through unscathed, and lessons on forgiveness, one of the other. Lessons on faithfulness in stewardship. That is the way forward to advancement and harm. Practical moral lessons we can read immediately for us. And then we mentioned that you can read also, if you want to, prototypical lessons. Here in these early days of the history of the nation, things happen, and you can't help seeing in them foreshadowings of events that are to come. And notable, of course, is the story of Joseph, how he was sold by his brethren to the Gentiles, falsely accused, put in a dungeon, but at last was brought out to a position of great eminence. And when he was virtually under Pharaoh, Lord of the earth, his brethren came to him in their distress and were eventually reconciled to him. When his brethren were reconciled to him and bound to his lordship, Joseph brought Jew and Gentile together under the one rule in Egypt. And you say, what a lovely picture that is, the prototype of Jesus Christ. Yeah. Let me just, by way of provoking your interest, point out another prototypical feature of these four. The story of Jacob, I keep on telling you that, don't I? Well, that's what the Bible says. The story of Jacob and his son. And we noticed last week what a poignant story it is, because in the course of these chapters, Jacob loses some of his sons. He loses Joseph. And he says that will bring down my whole hair in sorrow to the grave, an irreparable loss. Joseph is gone. How tremendously increased his sorrow would have been if he had known the truth of how Joseph was gone. But here you see at the end of at here at the climax of the story, the brothers come back to Jacob, their father, and they say, you know that man down in Egypt, they didn't know who he was, that man down in Egypt has kept Simeon behind as a plague, and he's told us straightly that it's no use of coming down to Egypt again for food unless we bring Benjamin with us. And poor old Jacob is exasperated and not a little ragged. Why did you tell him that you've got a younger brother, Paul? The man, the man straightly asked us. And could we know he was going to imprison him anyway and ask for him to be come, to be taken down? And poor old Jacob is already lost Joseph, and now Simeon is down in prison in Egypt, and in his bitterness he cries out, Joseph is not, Simeon is not. You're going to take Benjamin? That's three sons out of twelve, isn't it? And you may decide that twelve is a big family. But to lose three sons out of twelve, is a quarter of the family. Poor old Jacob. Ah, but that wasn't the last time poor old Israel has known that. Not the last time, what? If you've got twenty four million in the nation of Israel, and somebody goes and gases six million, that's a quarter of the nation too, isn't it? Oh, what sorrow Israel has known over its children. To put it another way, Rachel mourns her children, and they are not. They buried a man who had been responsible for the gassing of something like four hundred thousand Jews in his mobile gas tank. What a story Israel has been through. It started right back here. What's the meaning of Israel's suffering? The loss of her children. You say this is God's favored nation. This is the man upon whom God's blessing rests. The man and the nation, you say, to whom God promised that in thee and in all, uh, shall all the nations of the world be blessed, and everybody, when they look upon Israel and Israel's sons, shall say, yes, God made me like them. They are the obvious blessing of the Lord. I'd like to be like them, would you? In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed, for what you hear now is the song of a broken-hearted father over his son's armor. And if we get the story there, that would be a funny story, wouldn't it? But what the charm of the story, not merely that Joseph was eventually, uh, elevated to power and glory, that's a wonderful bit of the story. But isn't this cool? I'll go and see him, when he says, Joseph, when he discovers he's still alive. I'll go and see him before I die. So off he goes, and eventually he gets settled in the land. And now he's a real old boy, you'd be at the term, I don't know how much, as he calls Jacob and makes him swear an oath that he won't leave him forever in Egypt, he'll take him back, uh, to Canaan and bury him there. And then Joseph brings his sons. Can you picture it? The lads come to see grandpapa, and grandpapas were grandpapas in those days, they were, even if they were a bit old. He was. And, uh, as Joseph brings out the little fellows from between his knees, it says, Jacob says to him, or perhaps you ought to read it into. You see, Jacob, this is chapter forty eight, and just say, Israel beheld Joseph's sons and said, who are these? And Joseph said unto his father, they are my sons, and God has given me here. And he said, bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see, and he brought them near unto him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I have not thought to see thy face, and lo, God hath let me see thy seed also. What I have been surprised before, for else did he take. Now, will you fasten on that question for a moment? Jacob surprised as he, is he sees these two boys. Who, who are these, he says. And I was going to say, you let alone your grandsons. And with your, the question ringing in your mind, who are these children that they expect to have them? Put your thumb in Genesis and read the prophecy with, with me, will you? It's found in Isaiah forty nine. And this is the Lord comforting Israel, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, that when all their disciplines have been accomplished, then there shall come restoration. Verse seventeen. Isaiah forty nine seventeen, thy children may taste thy destroyers, and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold, all these gather themselves together and come to thee. Verse uh nineteen. m For as thy waste and thy desolate places and thy land have been destroyed, surely now shalt thou be too straight for the inhabitants, and they that swallow thee up shall be far away. The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, the place is too straight for me, give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thy heart, who hath forgotten me thee? Seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, and in exile, and wandering to and fro, and who hath brought up thee? Behold, I was left alone. And these, where were they? Yes. So that like Jacob, uh, crying out there, who are these? When he thought himself the rest of a quarter of his children. Now can scarcely believe his eyes for the goodness of God that he sees. Joseph, and not only Joseph, but Joseph's children, born of an Egyptian girl, but now belonging to Jacob. Who are these? So in that coming day, Israel, after the gas chambers of Hitler, after the Inquisition of Spain, after the pogroms of Russia, after the persecutions of King John of England, Israel that has been decimated down the centuries, now yet find the vast multitude of children, for the very land is too narrow to contain, and she shall say, who are these who began? And what's more, says the prophet, you'll see the Lord God will lift up his hands to the nations, and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, and kings shall be thy nation fathers, and queens their nursing mothers. And they shall bring Israel back to the land. Shall the Gentiles. Well, how do you suppose Genesis ends? Well, it's got a few more verses after that that I've written on the board here. But Jacob's story ends with this. Says he to Joseph, you won't leave me here in Egypt, will you? You will take me back to Canaan. And Joseph prayers here. And presently Jacob dies in faith, and what happens? Well, Joseph says, well, I must take him back. I must ask permission from Pharaoh to leave the land with my sons and, uh, take my father back to Israel. So Joseph collects all the living Israelites to take them back to the father Jacob to to to Canaan. And the Egyptians say, yes, and what's more, we'll come with you. And hidden in the middle of that chapter fifty of Genesis is a most spectacular scene with the Egyptians, high-ranking officials of Egypt, colleagues of Joseph in the ministry of Victory and, uh, civil service and so forth and so on. Here they are joining with the Jews to take the Jews back. The land of Israel. Oh, you say, uh, well, Jacob's dead now, dead, dead as dust. Well, yes, yes, yes, you mustn't expect too much of Genesis. Goodness me, the resurrection hasn't happened yet. But I tell you, when at last Isaiah forty nine is fulfilled and the nations bring the Jews back again, then there shall be a resurrection, and they that sleep in the dust shall arrive. Old Testament history, and it was real history. Prototype of what should yet be. And I'm nearly at the end of myself, and here you start to work. For we notice that the story is Jacob's story, and it's about his son. And now let's begin to go a little bit deeper, superficial things have been added. Um, it's about Joseph, of course, but is it not about Judah? Where do you get the idea from that all the end of Genesis is about Joseph? It's about Joseph, of course. It's about Judah. Middle of this first thing is all about Judah. Here, the middle story here has for its center Judah. This says that Judah went before to lead Jacob to Joseph. And in the blessings of the sons, of course Joseph is mentioned and gets a very big write-up. But Judah gets an equally big write-up, and what is more, comes out on top in the end. Or says Jacob, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh come. Judah is the beginning and the head of the tribe that shall bring in the king, and the king Messiah comes from Judah and not Joseph. Oh. So the story's going to be about Joseph and Judah. And that's where we're going to begin tonight, isn't it? With this story about, um, Judah. Bearing in mind it's going to be very important. It says in this story here, and I just quote you the words again about Judah, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff. The scepter shall not depart, nor the staff. Oh dear, doesn't it? In this story, Judah came across a lady sitting by the wayside. Oh, you'll have to give me a pledge, she said. What shall I give you? She said, your staff. I'm afraid the staff departed that day from Jesus, didn't they? Oh. I'm not asking you to expound all the gory details, of course not, of story B. I want to ask a few questions now, please will you answer? And answer in a good solid voice so the Lord may hear. This This woman woman, came Tamar, up. and Judah. They were bad. Were they? They acted bad. They acted bad. Dr. Chapman is of the opinion they acted bad. Dr. Chapman, sir. Judah shouldn't have gone down to the Gentiles. Agreed? Judah should not have gone down. He went down, it says, to the Canaanites. He went down to the Gentiles. And he begat three sons of a Gentile woman. That was bad, was it? Dr. Chapman says it was bad. Now let's hear some of the other heroes sitting around the place. It was bad. Was there any command at that stage? Uh, would you get the same thing with Joseph? Oh, my. Uh, did that not come later? So, well, the very next story tells us, doesn't it? The very next suite of stories, see here, that Joseph went down to Egypt, he married a Gentile girl as well. And of course, these famous boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, were sons of an Egyptian girl. So let's start with Joseph. Joseph was very bad for going and marrying a, a Gentile girl. No, Mr. Hamilton won't have it, I can tell you that. Anybody here want to say that Joseph was bad for marrying an Egyptian girl and producing sons by a Gentile? Chapter forty five says he meant that God meant it for good. So you're all going to maintain starkly that Joseph was absolutely right to marry a Gentile girl? No one else is good for it. No one was a good man. And to many of mine, that was settling. Right home, they say it was good. Well, then why would you say that Judas going down was bad? Judas going down was for his own pleasure, surely. For his own pleasure. Uh, Mr. Hamilton, sir. Um, let's say that Judah went down for his own irresponsible pleasure. Would it make any difference to your understanding of this whole message if instead of Judah it had been anybody else? Simeon, uh, Issachar, or Naphtali? Do you see any significance in the fact it was Judah went down? Judah was the princely line. Oh, Judah was the princely line. So if you didn't have this story, you would have no notion where Herias comes from in the, the like of the, the ten names that you get at the end of the book of Ruth, or the lineage, uh, several other places, including Matthew. Uh, well, that can't be true, because if you ain't man, the girl or woman didn't perish anyway. But, uh, yes, let's take up that hint. Uh, we are now being turned. Let's look at that, because we've got to all have to read the story, did we not, in the light of the rest of scripture. And one of the big passages of scripture that bears on it is the final chapter of the book of Ruth, isn't it? Somebody be so kind as to read us what it says. This is Ruth chapter four, Ruth chapter four verses eleven and twelve. Somebody give a sign just to read us. And all the people, same on the young men in her house, and all the people that were in the gate, and the elders said, we are witnesses. Lord, make the woman that has come into thy house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel. And do thy word of lay in Africa and be famous in Bethlehem. And let thy house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bear unto Judah, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee for this young bull. Thank you very much. And you see how that those verses are further underlined when you come to verse eighteen, where now we get the genealogy that is going to lead to David the king, and it begins like this. Now these are the generations of Perez. Here in the tribe of Judah. Our Lord comes of the tribe of Judah. David came of the tribe of Judah. This is the origin of that succession. Be careful what we say, eh? But anyway, come back to what, uh, Mr. Little has just read. I've heard myself, uh, I don't make too frequent, uh, habit of it, but I do go to weddings and, uh, wedding breakfasts afterwards and listen very interestedly to the speeches. I've heard all sorts of things said at wedding breakfast. Of course, so do you, I guess, eh? You can hear marvelous things. Some of them said on the spur of the moment, uh, there we are. I can't tell you about them. But it was a wedding breakfast, and one of the guests said, oh, the Lord make you like, uh, thy house be like the house of Perez, whom Tainar bear unto Judah. Would you have said something like that if you'd have been asked to make a speech of that way? Would you have said, foot, you mustn't, put that under the carpet too. Fancy dragging that up. But only when it did drag it up. So what do you think was the point of it, the Lord make your house like the house of Perez and Tamar, fair after Judah. What on earth was that all about in the book of Ruth? There is a vending too.