I have to admit: I’ve always been kind of afraid of the OT because I didn’t really know how to read it. On the one hand I was taught that I could interpret its stories to understand how God works today. This struck lots of fear in me as I was always afraid of His punishment for everything I did wrong. On the other hand I was taught that it was irrelevant and just a collection of historic stories about God, so I largely ignored it and stuck with my NT. However, one day I learned the truth. I learned that Jesus Christ is seen throughout the entire bible and when you embrace the OT with the right perspective, you will see the picture of God’s grace and redemption that was later fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so it goes with today’s reading.

So far we’ve seen a  lot of deception from Jacob and his kids in their attempts to take justice in their own hands. Jacob deceives Laban for justice. Levi and Simeon deceive the Shechemites for justice for Dinah. The brothers deceive one of their own, Joseph….but not for justice–for jealousy! Interestingly though, when we look at Joesph’s story in today’s reading, he had plenty times to take justice in his own hands (because he was truly innocent), yet he waives his rights in order to honor the Lord God and to serve others. (Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife, the prisoners, the cupbearer, and the baker). Doesn’t that remind you of Someone we know?

Jesus Christ was innocent, yet he waived his rights in order to serve others and to ultimately redeem us, his family/co-heirs. Joseph has suffered greatly in his own innocence, and in the next few chapters of Genesis, we will see that Joseph also redeems his family through his own suffering. What an amazing precursor to the ultimate of redemption!

Speaking of family…when we lean over into our NT reading, Jesus is very clear and deliberate about defining what family means in the kingdom of God. It is marked by:

• being a follower of Him (Matt. 10:37-39)
• unity (Matt. 12:25-30)
• treasuring the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:30-32)
• bearing good fruit (Matt. 12:33-37)
• forsaking all other former ideas of family for His own. (Matt. 12:46-50)

In the OT, everything rests on the biological lineage of a family. Posterity, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, mothers, fathers–all of that is majorly important. Jesus comes in and smashes that. Only those who are willing to follow Him can be considered His family.

Archetypes, Family, Genesis, Matthew