Genesis 37 and Matthew 21: pursuing order notwithstanding earth’s chaos

Genesis 1 Update

My query to Search Assist (): What is the chief message in Genesis 1:26?

Answer: God created humanity in His own image and likeness, granting them authority over all living things on Earth. This verse emphasizes the special status of humans in creation and their responsibility to govern the world.

Conclusion: accepting that God is a metaphor for a mystery --- whatever constrains the consequences of human choices, I feel I have affirmation of my opinion: I have the opportunity to limit chaos in my way of living.

Highlights this study:

1.       Joseph’s is a story of cunning and hate among three ethnicities descended from 3 mates of Abram: Arabs from Hagar, Jews from Sarah, and a dispersed culture from Keturah.

2.       People who do not accept Genesis 1:26 power, authority, and responsibility to pursue order in earth’s chaos will not enjoy their journey in life.

1Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan.

2These are the generations of Jacob: when Joseph was seventeen years old, being a shepherd, he was with his brothers with the flocks, and he was a lad, [and was] with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought evil tales about them to their father.

3And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was a son of his old age; and he made him a fine woolen coat.

4And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, so they hated him, and they could not speak with him peacefully.

5And Joseph dreamed a dream and told his brothers, and they continued to hate him.

6And he said to them, "Listen now to this dream, which I have dreamed:

7Behold, we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves encircled [it] and prostrated themselves to my sheaf."

8So his brothers said to him, "Will you reign over us, or will you govern us?" And they continued further to hate him on account of his dreams and on account of his words.

9And he again dreamed another dream, and he related it to his brothers, and he said, "Behold, I have dreamed another dream, and behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were prostrating themselves to me."

10And he told [it] to his father and to his brothers, and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will we come I, your mother, and your brothers to prostrate ourselves to you to the ground?"

11So his brothers envied him, but his father awaited the matter.

12And his brothers went to pasture their father's flocks in Shechem.

13And Israel said to Joseph, "Are your brothers not pasturing in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them." And he said to him, "Here I am."

14So he said to him, "Go now and see to your brothers' welfare and the welfare of the flocks, and bring me back word." So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

15Then a man found him, and behold, he was straying in the field, and the man asked him, saying, "What are you looking for?"

16And he said, "I am looking for my brothers. Tell me now, where are they pasturing?"

17And the man said, "They have traveled away from here, for I overheard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.' " So Joseph went after his brothers, and he found them in Dothan.

18And they saw him from afar, and when he had not yet drawn near to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.

19So they said one to the other, "Behold, that dreamer is coming.

20So now, let us kill him, and we will cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him,' and we will see what will become of his dreams."

21But Reuben heard, and he saved him from their hand[s], and he said, "Let us not deal him a deadly blow."

22And Reuben said to them, "Do not shed blood! Cast him into this pit, which is in the desert, but do not lay a hand upon him," in order to save him from their hand[s], to return him to his father.

23Now it came to pass when Joseph came to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his shirt, of the fine woolen coat which was upon him.

24And they took him and cast him into the pit; now the pit was empty there was no water in it.

25And they sat down to eat a meal, and they lifted their eyes and saw, and behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites [Arabs] was coming from Gilead, and their camels were carrying spices, balm, and lotus, going to take [it] down to Egypt.

26And Judah said to his brothers, "What is the gain if we slay our brother and cover up his blood?

27Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but our hand shall not be upon him, for he is our brother, our flesh." And his brothers hearkened.

28Then Midianite [descendants of Keturah and thus not Israelites] men, merchants, passed by, and they pulled and lifted Joseph from the pit, and they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty silver [pieces], and they brought Joseph to Egypt.

29And Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he rent his garments.

30And he returned to his brothers and said, "The boy is gone! And I where will I go?"

31And they took Joseph's coat, and they slaughtered a goat, and they dipped the coat in the blood.

32And they sent the fine woolen coat, and they brought [it] to their father, and they said, "We have found this; now recognize whether it is your son's coat or not."

33He recognized it, and he said, "[It is] my son's coat; a wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn up."

34And Jacob rent his garments, and he put sackcloth on his loins, and he mourned for his son many days.

35And all his sons and all his daughters arose to console him, but he refused to be consoled, for he said, "Because I will descend on account of my son as a mourner to the grave"; and his father wept for him.

36And the Midianites sold him to Egypt, to Potiphar, Pharaoh's chamberlain, chief of the slaughterers.

Matthew 21

New King James Version

The Triumphal Entry

21 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to ^[a]Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. ³ And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

^4 [b]All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

⁵ “Tell the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”

⁶ So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, ^[c]and set Him on them. ⁸ And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Hosanna in the highest!”

¹⁰ And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”

¹¹ So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹² Then Jesus went into the temple ^[d]of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³ And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

¹⁴ Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were ^[e]indignant ¹⁶ and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?”

And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read,

‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have perfected praise’?”

¹⁷ Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

The Fig Tree Withered

¹⁸ Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. ¹⁹ And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

The Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree

²⁰ And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”

²¹ So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. ²² And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Jesus’ Authority Questioned

²³ Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”

²⁴ But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: ²⁵ The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?”

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” ²⁷ So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.”

And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

The Parable of the Two Sons

²⁸ “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ ²⁹ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. ³⁰ Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. ³¹ Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said to Him, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. ³² For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward ^[f]relent and believe him.

The Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers

³³ “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. ³⁴ Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. ³⁵ And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. ³⁷ Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ ³⁹ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

⁴⁰ “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”

⁴¹ They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will ^[g]render to him the fruits in their seasons.” [This is a metaphor for accepting Genesis 1:26 – accepting the world’s chaos and pursuing order.]

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³ “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. [If you do not accept Genesis 1:26, you will not benefit from your life.] ⁴⁴ And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

⁴⁵ Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they ^[h]perceived that He was speaking of them. ⁴⁶ But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.

Footnotes

1. Matthew 21:1 M Bethsphage
2. Matthew 21:4 NU omits All
3. Matthew 21:7 NU and He sat
4. Matthew 21:12 NU omits of God
5. Matthew 21:15 angry
6. Matthew 21:32 regret it
7. Matthew 21:41 give
8. Matthew 21:45 knew