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1:00
[MUSIC]
1:20
This is Undaunted Life a Man's Podcast.
1:23
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:25
Let's get into it.
1:27
Welcome back to the forwarding table.
1:28
The mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that
1:31
forges.
1:32
Sorry.
1:33
I got.
1:34
I got no audio.
1:38
There we go.
1:39
You gotta push it in.
1:40
I had the time going and everything.
1:41
Time's going.
1:42
We'll keep that in.
1:43
We're just making calls.
1:44
You're just making calls.
1:45
Okay, Zach Morris.
1:46
We're just freezing.
1:47
We're just gonna time out.
1:48
Wait.
1:49
Unfreeze.
1:50
Okay, go.
1:51
Where was I?
1:52
What was the last thing I said?
1:53
This is the amount of life where you come to intro.
1:57
We'll come back to the forging table.
1:58
This is the mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that
2:01
forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
2:03
I'm Adam.
2:04
This is Kyle.
2:05
This is Caleb.
2:06
This is Russ.
2:07
You may want to ask.
2:08
You may want to read the rest of it, you know, because there's more there.
2:09
Oh, you'll see a group of regular guys.
2:11
You might want to start with the beginning of a sentence and I'll have a weirdo right
2:14
in the middle.
2:15
At the forging table.
2:16
There it is.
2:17
Why was the at important?
2:18
Are you just going to read it or you're going to question my colleagues.
2:20
At the forging table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience by digging
2:24
into God's word and we're welcoming all of you to come along with the journey of this.
2:28
That's Adam.
2:29
That's Kyle.
2:30
That's Caleb.
2:31
That's Russ.
2:32
All right guys.
2:33
Let's get into it.
2:34
Genesis 43.
2:35
So here's Genesis 43.
2:36
Why don't we start with Genesis 43, the return to Egypt.
2:40
Take it away Russ.
2:41
Let's read number one through 10.
2:43
All right.
2:44
Now the famine was severe in the land and when they had eaten the grain that they had
2:48
brought from Egypt, their father said to them, go again, buy us a little food.
2:53
But Judah said to them, said to him, the man solemnly warned us saying, you shall not
2:57
see my face unless your brother is with you.
3:00
If you will sin our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food.
3:05
But if you will not sin him, we will not go down for the man said to us, you shall not
3:09
see my face unless your brother is with you.
3:12
Israel said, why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you have another brother?
3:17
They replied, the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred saying, is
3:22
your father still alive?
3:23
Do you have another brother?
3:25
What we told him was an answer to these questions.
3:28
Could we in any way know that he would say, bring your brother down?
3:33
And Judah said to Israel as father, send the boy with me and I will arise and go that we
3:38
will live and not die both we and you and all of our little ones.
3:46
I will be a pledge of his safety.
3:49
From my hand, you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you as set and set
3:54
him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.
3:57
If we had not delayed, we would have now returned twice.
4:00
I think we should continue 15, do you agree?
4:02
I don't.
4:03
Okay, good.
4:04
So we're breaking it up. But hey, one through 10 was perfect, but then we're going to do
4:08
11 through 15. We're going to take a little pause here if that's okay with you.
4:10
Oh, I'll allow it.
4:11
Okay.
4:12
Just this time, just this one. But I got to be honest because I have no idea the answer
4:16
to this. Why was Ruben's offer rejected, but Judas was accepted. Do we have any hints?
4:22
I had the same question. I figured when y'all would be smarter.
4:26
Well, Ruben, so later on in Genesis, I believe Genesis 49, Jacob, whenever he's giving them
4:34
the blessings and he's talking about what each one of their families will do, he talks
4:39
to about Ruben, he calls them a word that means basically he is like water. He's wishy-washy.
4:46
He is unstable in the mind. And I don't know, maybe that plays into this, that he's seen
4:52
Ruben have some of the worst behavior, but best intentions. And so with Ruben there,
4:58
there is this idea that Ruben may really mean it at some point, like really, really
5:02
mean it. But since he slept with his father's wife at one point and since everything else
5:08
has happened, it just seems like Ruben has lost that first born leadership in this group.
5:15
And even whenever he was trying to save Joseph from the pit, he didn't just say, "Hey, I'm
5:20
the dude. We're not doing this." He had to come up with some scheme to throw him into
5:23
the pit and not to kill him. And then he was going to come back for him and all this back
5:29
and forth stuff. And so it really, to me, and even in that scene, you see Judas step up
5:33
as the leader and get all the brothers to do what he wanted them to do. And so there
5:39
is some of that that plays into this that you wonder if Ruben just has this mentality
5:43
or that his dad has this opinion that he is just, I can't trust him. Even if I think he's
5:50
telling me the truth of what he wants to do, I just don't have a lot of faith in him.
5:54
And earlier when we were speaking about Genesis 42, we had brought up was Genesis 38, where
5:59
there was the segue to Judah and Tamar chronologically. When did that happen? Well, I would argue
6:05
that that had to have happened before this because at the very end of that story, Judah
6:10
says Tamar is more righteous than me. And that's kind of an initial kernel of a switch
6:16
to him. And so now we're seeing Judah stepping up as a leader, as a leader of this group
6:21
of 10 idiots that are still making bad decisions and his father who's still showing favoritism.
6:27
And now, yeah, your right Rubens was not accepted, but now here's Judah stepping up as a leader.
6:32
It doesn't make chronological sense in my mind for him to have had two positive things
6:36
possibly. And then now he's going to go live with a Canaanite woman. So it seems to me
6:41
like it would connect the dots that that's already been done. Now he's back with his
6:45
brothers somehow. We don't know how, but he's back with his brothers and he's starting
6:49
to lead the group.
6:50
If you would have mentioned his sons, we could have maybe understood because obviously by
6:55
this time he's, he's down to sons only has one, but he doesn't throw in his sons as good
7:02
point. You know, as, as, uh, what's where I'm looking for payment? Yeah, as payment for
7:07
this or a collateral. Yeah. He doesn't throw his sons as collateral, which maybe, maybe
7:13
this is does point again to the fact that he doesn't have two of them anymore. He may
7:17
not be willing to do that, but he's willing to say, Hey, I'll take the blame, which is
7:21
crazy because the blame on him is actually the, the blame on him from the original.
7:27
Yeah, he's already got it. He's already got the blame. So it's just saying, you don't
7:30
already have, I'll take the blame, uh, because it's already owed to me. But just now, now
7:35
it's out in the open. So now that now it's for another brother, I mean, Ruben's offer
7:38
too is like, you know, so if I, if I go one of your sons and don't bring back the other
7:43
son, then I want you to kill two of your grandsons.
7:46
That's kind of a ridiculous offer, you know, like maybe a little to your point, like not
7:52
a very mature offer eating. It's kind of like a bit sought off. Like they're just guys
7:56
in your life. They're a little bit sawed off to where you love them, but you win trust
8:00
them with a potato gun. It's just like one of those things where it's like, no, you
8:04
don't, you don't basically threaten your two boys, right? Cause I have two sons and it's
8:08
like, I don't know a scenario where I'm like, I swear on the lives of my two boys and not
8:12
just for hyperbolic effect, but I mean it. If I don't follow through on this task, you
8:16
can have my boys and kill them. It's like, are you out of your mind?
8:19
Yeah, right. You just disqualified yourself from me thinking you can lead this party.
8:23
You know, that that's a disqualifier. And we've got to give him a little bit of leniency
8:29
again. He was, he was one of the first born, not to Rachel. And he was one of the ones
8:35
set up in the front of the pack, you know, to, to basically again, say, I have favorites.
8:43
You're not one of them. You're somewhere in that list, but you, he should have been,
8:47
I mean, he's the first born. He should have been high in that list, but he just wasn't.
8:51
One thing that I think is also interesting as we continue to see this story unravel is
8:55
like probably like a lot of us possibly at this table and definitely other friends that
8:59
we know a lot of people have rough family lives. Families are broken. Families are messed up.
9:06
This is a problem. That's a problem. Real issues, but probably not as bad as this one
9:11
did for relatively. So this is a broken family severely fractured. A lot of negativity, a
9:18
lot of problems, favoritism from father to the children. Like that's just, that's not
9:22
good. Brothers have a one brother sold into slavery, throw him down into a well. But at
9:29
the end of the day, no family is too broken for God's redemption. At some point, it can
9:33
still come back together. And so you can feel lost. You can feel hopeless. You can feel
9:37
like my family's just too messed up. We can't come back from this. You can come back from
9:41
it.
9:42
Right. And I think it's okay as well because a lot of people, like no, I don't think many
9:45
people know they're the crazy one. They don't know they're the crazy uncle or that becomes
9:49
their whole identity is I'm the crazy aunt. I'm the crazy uncle, that type of thing. But
9:53
in a situation like this, I think there are people that they're self-awareness is so low.
9:57
I mean, I think about how these brothers have operated the entire time. I think about how
10:01
the apostles operated the entire time. And it's easy to float above the scriptures and
10:05
be like, Oh, gosh, these idiots. I'm like, no, no, I would have been one of those idiots.
10:10
Oh, show. I would have been a Peter level. Yeah, like Peter would have been like, I I've
10:15
never found a situation that didn't need not my opinion. Right. So tell me that's not Peter.
10:19
And so but yeah, the redemptive process is fairly substantial here. And you make a good
10:24
point because I would assume just because of the quality of man at this table that y'all
10:29
are either seen as patriarchs in your extended family or patriarchs and waiting. And so I'm
10:34
in a situation where, you know, we've lost over the last four or five years, we've lost
10:38
some family, we've lost some very important men, some great grandparents, grandparents.
10:43
And it's like when you see your family kind of talking to you as if, Hey, you're next
10:47
in line, there's no ceremony, there's no whatever, but you feel the weight transfer from your
10:53
family onto your shoulders. And I love what Joby said whenever he got to early part of
10:58
his ministry, whenever you decide he wanted to do vocational ministry, he said, I did not
11:01
pray for God to light my load. I prayed for him to broaden my shoulders. And I think that
11:06
we have a, you know, we talked, I forget who brought up, but I wrote a note. One of my
11:09
dominion pillars is standards over goals. Goals are fine. Standards are just way better.
11:15
Right. So if you have a physical standard that you should be able to wake up and do the
11:18
Murph any day, like of the week, you have to have like, that's way better than a goal.
11:24
My goal is to work out today. Like, no, that's stupid. Right. But if you have a standard,
11:28
this is just what I do. This is what Thompson's do. Smith's do. Ususes do. Martin's do. Like,
11:33
this is just kind of what we do. Having a standard is so much more valuable because imagine
11:39
if these boys had had a standard of excellence in their lives, like how would their decision-making
11:44
have changed? There would have never been like the jealousy and the rage and, you know,
11:49
the conniving and all those different things. And that's why that's such a big deal when
11:53
I do, you know, I taught that to our Sunday school. I went in there and now people are
11:57
catching themselves in class. They'll say, they have a goal. Wait, wait, wait, no, no.
12:00
I'm going to set a new standard here because you basically reverse engineer from the standard,
12:04
right? Some people are like, Hey, I want to be able to run a 5k on 30 seconds. No, right?
12:07
Okay. Well, if you haven't ran a mile in the last 10 years, well, we kind of can figure
12:12
out what direction you need to go and the things that you need to do. It seems like there weren't
12:16
a whole lot of standards being upheld here. And except for the, apparently the inner constitution
12:21
of Joseph, I mean, my goodness, like whether God gave it to him or whether he just was
12:26
blessed with this tremendous wisdom. It's just right there in front of him.
12:28
I think we sometimes forget that they didn't have the scriptures. So it's not like these
12:33
brothers or even Joseph that we can say, man, Joseph just stayed in the Word of God during
12:39
this time. Like the Word of God at that point was Joseph stayed in the story of his grandfather
12:45
and father. Like he knew the stories. And that's how that's how the tradition was passed
12:50
on was the oral tradition of the stories was passed on. But his commitment to stay devoted
12:56
to God, even whenever he talks to his brothers and says something about, you know, God, God
13:02
will do this. It's just remarkable that he really planted that as the root of his life.
13:09
And then it stayed there where you see all these other people. They know who their God
13:13
is. They know who their family's God is. But in every situation, they end up just swaying
13:18
to the other other side.
13:20
Well, that's one thing. So we were talking off air. We were talking about working out
13:24
in the mornings and like, you know, how, you know, that completely changed my life working
13:28
out in the morning. Because, you know, the ballgame may not until 10. But if you got
13:34
to wake up at 5 30 to lift, it better be a natty championship. It better be game seven
13:38
of the world series because staying up for, you know, a Cardinals pirates game in June
13:43
is not worth going to bed at 10 10 30 when you're used to going to bed at nine or nine
13:46
30 most people are like, Oh, what's the difference just an hour? It's a big dang difference.
13:50
I can feel it when I get seven hours of sleep versus eight hours of sleep. Because my entire
13:54
job is about quick recall and saying it, boom, boom, boom. And I feel like I'm incredibly
13:58
diminished. And so when you have like a standard and you said it, you again, you reverse engineer
14:03
and figure out what you have to do. You're not going to stay up late eating Doritos and
14:07
ding dongs. Like if you know, you got to wake up in seven hours and like get after it. Like
14:11
the last thing you want to do is to, you know, oop, you do up all over your gym floor, I'm
14:15
going to disagree with you hardly here because what happens when you go to bed when you go
14:19
to bed at 10 30 and the thunder are up by 14 points deep in the third quarter and then
14:24
you wake up the next morning and you realize that they blew a lead with seven point lead
14:30
with one minute to go. What the heck was that? So again, this is, I mean, at this point,
14:35
the NBA champion has already been decided, right? This comes out like three months from
14:39
now. Okay. So this, this is going to be kind of interesting, but this is what I do because
14:43
I don't have the emotional maturity to watch sports of teams that I care about whether
14:47
or not they win. That's part of the reason why I love college football. I'll have favorite
14:50
team. Like, I'll, you know, I'll pick a team. Oh, it's Bama. I'll shoot. I kind of like
14:53
that guy on Bama. I'll root for Bama this time, right? I just don't really care ultimately.
14:57
So this is what I have to do because I can't live and die with every pitch with every
15:00
possession with every, everything I put my phone down. I put it on silent. I go to bed.
15:06
I wake up and I look and I say, Oh, Cardinals one. All right, cool. Getting on with my day.
15:10
Why can't you just watch a car like a normal person? Because I'm not a normal person. That's
15:13
why the amount of nights that I have ruined, do you want me to bring Kelsey up here and
15:17
have her give you like, because baseball 162 games, plus playoffs, plus off season, plus
15:24
trades, plus acquisitions and all that. And when you're living down, living and dying
15:28
with every ball and strike call, it's exhausting. Right. It's exhausting. And you can't have
15:33
any impact on what happens. And so I got to a point where I realized the closer I get
15:38
to teams like care about, which I don't watch the NBA really at all. Anyway, I think I've
15:41
watched 14 minutes in the NBA total this year, just because it was on in the background,
15:44
I couldn't turn it off just after all the COVID, you know, George Floyd and Black Lives Matter
15:48
stuff. I'm just not that interested in and the, it's just a terrible game to watch. Like
15:53
now it's just dribble drive, kick out three point or dribble drive. If you're an all star,
15:57
you get a foul call. Like it's just, it's just not a fun thing to watch. But like, when
16:01
I can start feeling myself really caring about the outcome, I turn it off immediately because
16:05
I've ruined way too many nights and I refuse to let either one of my boys see that when
16:10
I see adult males screaming because a 19 year old kid dropped a pass, right? Or missed
16:16
a free throw? Like no, like, and you're not bad at all. Like, you know, because you load
16:20
Baylor and all the things, but some of the people I've seen, I'm like, my boys can never
16:23
see that. So Kyle Thompson, January 2021, 10 ways to not be a crappy man. Number seven,
16:30
don't let sports run. I know. Yeah. So what are you going to do the next time the Cardinals
16:33
are in the world series? They've been in the world series since I made this decision, didn't
16:37
watch it. Not a single game. Do you want your boys to be Cardinals fans? I do. And part of
16:42
the thing is like, I can't, I put my boys to get it like, you watch it afterwards to
16:46
just see what happened. No, no, I just, I look at the score and I live with the result and
16:50
happy, sad, moving on. I got, I got the Bible study. I got an interview to prep. I got
16:55
boys to raise. And like, I want the boys to be into sports, but no one in my family
16:59
was into sports. Yeah. Like, I bought a 19 inch zenith television to have in my room. So
17:02
I go watch sports in her because that's when sports in her was frickin sports and you had
17:05
to walk to see if so, sir, McGuire hit a home run today, you know what I mean? But like,
17:09
like, I just, I want my boys to be fans, but we're not going to be the family that stays
17:12
up to all hours in the night either. And so a 705 start time, central time, that game's
17:17
not over until 10. Yeah. Like, wait, if they got to wake up at 530 or 6 the next morning
17:22
to get to school, like I'm not sending my kids to school for zombies. Now there's no
17:25
hitter going or something like that going on. I'm staying up, waking the kid up, we're
17:29
trying to make one of those core memories. I'm going to bust those kids out of school
17:32
in the middle of the day to go see, you know, an OKC comments game for whatever reason that's
17:35
their name. The triple A team for here in Oklahoma City. But yeah, I just, I want them
17:40
to be around sports. I want them to appreciate excellence. I want them to see all that. But
17:44
if dad cares about the team, nope, just can't do it. Yeah. So we went from the Dodgers
17:48
to the comets. Yeah. We're the comets now. When did they release that? Beginning of the
17:53
season, Mickey Manol, I guess, was that was one of his. Oh, yes. Yeah. Comment from
17:58
commerce. Yeah. Yeah. So it should be the 89ers. Well, there's 80 red Hawks was perfect.
18:05
Red Hawks was fine. The Red Hawks was great. Wouldn't there another one in there before
18:08
they became the Dodgers? 89ers, Red Hawks Dodgers. That's what's happened because they, they
18:14
switched. They went from Houston to Texas. Right. That's what triple A. And it is to Houston
18:19
now. I think they were running into problems because everyone hates the Dodgers. So when
18:22
you call your triple A team, just the Oklahoma City Dodgers, people like, I agree. I kind
18:26
of agree with that. Like, don't be the Dodgers because you're not Dodgers fans. You want
18:31
your local team to have like some pride in the name. You should be the 89ers still.
18:34
Hey, Niners would be fine. The Red Hawks will be fine. I said that he knows. Isn't that
18:38
who told the Tulsa Drillers became? Maybe. So I think maybe the Niners became the Tulsa
18:43
Drillers, which is the double A affiliate for, I think, the Dodgers as well. Oh, yeah.
18:47
So confusing. All right. We have, uh, anybody want to make a smooth? Hey, or they've done
18:52
transition. So you transition us back, Caleb, all the pressure is on. Speaking of people
18:58
that have name changes, uh, we were going to get to see what Israel thinks about this.
19:03
Yes. There we go. That was low. I was trying to go with like dodging things. Oh, okay. Well,
19:08
yeah, dodging responsibility, which hasn't even spoke. It hasn't even been referred to
19:11
as Jacob all the way until now. Right. Now it's been referred to as Israel. Well, a second
19:15
ago I was reading something and it went back and forth. It was Israel, Jacob. There's any
19:20
rhyme or reason to that. I was saying, I know his name is just kind of. Okay. 11 through
19:27
15. If you don't mind, sir. Yeah. Then their father, Israel said to them, if it must be
19:33
so, then do this, take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a
19:37
present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, mer pistachio nuts and
19:41
almonds. Take double the money with you, carry back with you the money that was returned
19:46
in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. Take also your brother and
19:50
arise. Go again to the man. May God almighty grant you mercy before the man and may he
19:55
send back your brother, your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved
20:00
of my children, I have bereaved in 15. So the men took this present and they took double
20:06
the money with them and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.
20:11
So I'm just kind of struck by Joe, Jacob or Israel's really lack of optimism here. Yeah.
20:18
Like again, we know the story he doesn't, but and he's living through this and he's talking
20:22
about sheal and his gray hairs and all the stuff. And so he's going through it. Right.
20:25
He's up against it and he's thinking, Benjamin's not coming back. Like, and that's his new favorite
20:30
and his original favorite's gone. So not a whole lot of optimism here. Sounds like he's
20:34
still grieving. Well, for sure. There's no, there's no optimism, but there's still, there's
20:38
a carnal that he has relented to his fear and he has relented to the point where like,
20:45
I got to let Benjamin go. So it's, it's sort of is, it's maybe it's a small step, but it
20:50
is an initial step in the direction that he knows he has to go. Yeah, he definitely seems
20:56
like he's milling it in. I mean, he has to, he's got to be thinking about Joseph too.
21:02
You know, I mean, he's kind of living it again. Right. Right. So which, which he has been for,
21:08
which he has been for a while, continuing to think about it. And that's what's, that's
21:13
what's captured him. And that's what's made him feel like he can't move and he can't get
21:16
rid of Benjamin because he's holding on to that thought of Joseph.
21:19
You all think it's, I don't know if I'm reaching too much here, but the idea that his blessing
21:26
came from hunger. And now he is having to give something up for his own hunger. Like
21:33
he's, he's, he got his brother's birth right through his brother coming home hungry and
21:39
being like, I got to eat, I got to eat whatever you want. Yeah, sure. You want my birth right,
21:43
take it. Yeah. Whatever. The most, the most, the thing that should have been most important
21:47
to him. And then here we see him, you know, say, hey, we need some more food. And they
21:52
say, man, we can't go without Benjamin. He's like, absolutely not, absolutely not, absolutely
21:56
not. And then he's like, man, I'm really hungry. Okay. That's good boy. It's kind of strange
22:03
how this turns full circle for him.
22:05
Well, let's go in and get the rest of the narrative of Genesis 43. We will take a volunteer,
22:10
distribute to read 16th or the end of the chapter. I got it. When Joseph saw Benjamin
22:16
with them, he said to his house steward, bring the men into the house and slay an animal
22:20
and make ready for the men are to dying with me at noon. So the man did as Joseph said and
22:25
brought the men to Joseph's house. Now the men were afraid, but they were brought to Joseph's
22:29
house and they said, it is because of the money that was returned in our sacks. The first
22:33
time that we are being brought in, that he may seek occasion against us and fall upon
22:38
us and take us for slaves for our donkeys. So they came near to Joseph's house steward
22:43
and spoke to him at the entrance of the house and said, Oh, my Lord, we and did came down
22:47
indeed came down the first time to buy food. And it came about when we came to the lodging
22:52
place that we opened our sacks and behold, each man's money was in the mouth of his sack,
22:57
our money in full. So we have brought it back in our hand. We have also brought down other
23:01
money in our hand to buy food. We do not know what who put our money in our sacks. He said,
23:07
be it ease do not be afraid. You're God and the God of your father has given you treasure
23:11
in your sacks. I had your money. Then he brought Simeon out to them. Then the men brought then
23:18
the man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water and they washed their
23:21
feet and he gave their donkey fodder. So they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at
23:26
noon for they had heard that they were to eat a meal there. When Joseph came home, they
23:31
brought into the house to him the present, which was in their hand and bowed to the ground
23:35
before him. Then he asked them about their welfare and said, Is your old father well
23:40
of whom you spoke? Is he still alive? They said, You're serving our father as well. He
23:45
is still alive. They bowed down in homage. As he lifted his eyes and saw his brother
23:50
Benjamin, his mother's son, he said, Is your youngest brother of whom you spoke? Is this
23:55
your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me? And he said, May God be gracious to you,
24:00
my son. Joseph hurried out as he was deeply stirred over his brother, and he sought a
24:04
place to weep. He entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came
24:09
out and he controlled himself and said, Serve the meal. So they served him by himself and
24:14
then by themselves in the Egyptians who ate with them by themselves because the Egyptians
24:18
could not eat bread with the Hebrews. For that is loathsome to the Egyptians. Now they
24:23
were seated before him the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according
24:27
to his youth. And the men looked at one another in astonishment. He took portions to them from
24:32
his own table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. So they
24:38
feasted and drank freely with him. I mean, my goodness, it's just again, I never am ever
24:44
going to hold myself above what I see in scripture. Because if I look back on some of the dumbest
24:48
things that I've done, it's like, Oh my gosh, this was like stuff out of a bad scary movie,
24:52
some of the things that I've done. But he puts them in order and there's there's just no inkling
24:58
of who this man is. And again, you kind of understand 15 years, completely immersed in
25:04
I know we've said it a bunch, completely immersed in Egyptian culture. Like, I mean, what would
25:09
someone have to look like? What kind of features would they have to have for you to have absolutely
25:13
no recognition whatsoever? I think there's something to point out though that he's immersed
25:17
in it, but he is still separate from it. Like whenever this says,
25:21
he'll never be an actual Egyptian. Yeah, I think it says that the Egyptian didn't wouldn't
25:25
eat with him. So he had maintained some of his Hebrew ship. Is that a word? I don't know.
25:33
He brew it. He brew it. How about that? His Brunis. He remained some of his Brunis. But
25:40
so like, there is this idea that obviously shaved whenever he came over there, he looks
25:45
different, but he has maintained his identity enough to wear that the Egyptians around him
25:50
have not forgotten that he has a Hebrew. Just interesting. Yeah, I mean, there's three tables
25:57
set up here, right? I mean, he's by himself. Is he not Joseph's by himself? His brothers
26:03
were at a table and then you got whoever else was in the room, Egyptians, Egyptians, you
26:07
know, sitting at their own table. But you think too about, I mean, he was 15 years old. You
26:11
know, he's 15 years old and then he grows up. He's speaking a different language. He's
26:15
a man now like, I don't know why they would. I mean, the birth order thing, like you would
26:19
think they would start thinking like, this is weird. But why would they? You know, it's
26:24
basically a foreigner who looks totally different. I think of their wave of emotions. I mean,
26:29
they start off in 17. All they got, all that happened is they got brought to his house
26:33
and they were immediately afraid. Immediately fear is over them. And then they go from fear
26:40
to now the man is feeding us and he's feeding us well. It's like, okay, maybe everything's
26:45
going to be fine. Right. It reminds me somewhat of the parable of the of the prodigal son,
26:51
except for they are all the prodigal brothers and he is showing them the kingdom of God
26:56
here in the idea that they return back to him and he has them dying at this feast where
27:03
he is raising up the youngest, the smallest of them to the highest place. I mean, it's
27:09
a whole story is just poetic and the great part of it as you continues, he's not done
27:15
testing them. More testing is coming. So it's the same wave of emotion of fear, scared,
27:22
go back to father, come back, more fear. Now we're dining and everything seems like it's
27:26
going to be okay again. Well, there's another test at the end. Like he gives Benjamin the
27:31
known favorite five times the portion and like the refresh formation. So anybody will
27:36
say this, they're testing the brothers for jealousy. And it looks like they passed, right?
27:40
Yeah. I actually feel like that would that almost would stand out more than like if you
27:44
think of like if you sat down around a table with nine other guys, you're not necessarily
27:49
going to notice, we're in a certain order, right? You're just sitting down, you're kind
27:54
of in awe of the whole thing. But then they know Benjamin's their dad's favorite. How does
27:58
this guy know? And he just gave them you don't notice five times like you might not notice
28:03
like double just stir in the pot, right? Five times is like, right? I think like one brother
28:10
gets a chicken leg and then he gets to the entire frickin chicken. And it's like a rotisserie
28:14
chicken, all the whole thing. To go back just a little bit, because we didn't talk about
28:18
this, but there was a double period of time, probably more than double because the brother
28:24
at one point said Judah said if we would have already left, we could have returned twice.
28:28
And that was still whenever his dad had got him. So from from Joseph's perspective, this
28:34
had to be a nightmare for him too during part of this because he he sent them out. He really
28:39
wants to see this younger brother. He wants to get to the bottom of this. He sends them
28:43
out and they actually don't come back at first. And he's holding Simeon. Yeah. Simeon still
28:48
here. Well, these are the same guys that I left. These are the same guys. They'll they'll
28:52
just let Simeon rot in here. And they're just going to go and probably make up a story to
28:57
their dad and not tell him the truth, although he doesn't know what story they told told
29:02
him, although he's gotten a hint because he heard him talking. But you got to think that
29:06
he was so excited for this moment whenever he finally saw Benjamin to be like, yes, I
29:13
mean, I this is I was hoping that this would happen. I never would have dreamed that actually
29:17
would have brought him back. Do we know how long their journey was back and forth? I think
29:25
in later chapters, and as we were talking earlier about how old was Jacob, I think they
29:30
do directly address that later that he's he's very old and it's hard for him to make the
29:35
journey. Because there's a reason later on why he has to make the journey because Joseph
29:40
starts testing them again. And I think it does say it's it's a long arduous journey to get
29:45
there. Because you have to think like he didn't he didn't just give him like a week's worth
29:48
of food. You know what I mean? The first time. I mean, he gave him months, probably a food
29:53
right and they're rationing it and they're trying to make it go as long as they can.
29:57
You would think Jacob is even like to your point about we could have been there in back
30:01
twice. Like he may have just been waiting it out. Like we need this famine to end. You
30:06
know, we can start growing our own crops again, like all that. And then basically just saying,
30:11
Hey, if we ever see Simeon again, great, but if not, that's fine too. So I'll trade him
30:15
for Benjamin, right? Yeah. So just like a quick search, it looked like the distance would
30:20
have been from the land of Canaan to Egypt, 250 to 300 miles. So this would have been
30:26
a one to two week trip, right, depending on the pace, whether often they stopped, you
30:32
know, their own animals or something like that. So yeah, it's not a, yeah, it's an insignificant
30:36
amount of time.
30:37
Yeah. So I mean, there was obviously a lot of consternation from Jacob on, you know,
30:41
whether or not we're going to go back at all, I think. Right. Well, again, there's so much
30:51
testing going on, which kind of goes back to something you said on a previous week Caleb
30:54
to where it's like, do we think he's trying to like stick it to him like a little bit?
30:58
Like what's, what's kind of the motivation behind this whole thing? And he is just playing
31:03
his cards and you can tell it's killing him because he's, he's looking for places to weep.
31:07
He's leaving conversations in order to go weep. But yeah, it's got to be that gosh just in
31:13
his ear, telling him and guiding him and saying, no, just be patient. Like don't, like don't
31:17
say anything. We need to see if this is true repentance. Because again, you know, people
31:21
talk about races and the part of people's problem, especially men is we, we're running
31:25
other people's races for them. Right. And so we think about this guy that just got a,
31:29
you know, promotion or this guy that just, you know, moved into something or this guy
31:32
that had some sort of accolade. And then you're comparing yourself to that guy. It's like,
31:35
why are you comparing yourself to him? You're not running his race. That's his race. Let
31:38
him run his race. You run your race. And so in this particular situation, the focus of
31:42
the narrator, right, which is ultimately God, but you know, whoever wrote this down, Moses
31:46
probably is on Joseph. Like Joseph is the main character of the story and all these
31:50
other people are kind of like, you know, they're, you're just helping out with the whole thing.
31:55
But this is for the brothers, right? This is for Israel, the father, right? And so I,
32:00
I think just watching his patients and seeing that again, especially after him spending
32:06
well over a decade in squalor and in injustice, like it's such an incredible example. Anything
32:14
else on 43? I mean, I was just kind of wondered too. I mean, they come back with however long
32:20
that time was, you know, six months or who knows a year. They come back with all that
32:26
money and more. I just was kind of like, I mean, that's, that's a lot of responsibility
32:32
to, I don't know why they would have thought that, you know, why they would have done that.
32:36
Why they would have come back with the original. Why they came back? But why would they even
32:40
keep it that whole time? Like you're in a time of famine. You would think that if someone
32:44
came through Canaan with a meal that they're willing to pay, you know, whatever, I probably
32:49
didn't come through Canaan with Israel. I mean, like, what good does money do you have? Nobody
32:56
has anything. Yeah, there's no food to buy. Yeah. Just struck me that they came back with
33:00
all that. It would only do good for the Egyptians because obviously they'll take the money because
33:05
they're going to use it in the future when because they're the only ones who have the
33:08
grain. So they're going to have everybody's money at the end of this. When people get desperate
33:13
in those times, you know, money kind of loses its value because you're just willing to inflate
33:18
prices to whatever you need anyway. So I don't even look at how the ending of the chapter
33:23
goes is like, so they're all together, right? All the brothers, even though only one of
33:27
them knows it, that it's all of them, you know, and they drank and they were married
33:31
with him. Like you got to think of this time, how many opportunities did you have to drink
33:35
and be married, right? Especially if your father's older, if you feel this tremendous
33:39
amount of guilt over, you know, killing or selling when you're, you know, when your brother's
33:44
in the slavery, the famine, like all these different things, like they're getting a reprieve,
33:49
right? And they don't even know where it's coming from. Just some random Egyptian that
33:54
they don't understand him when he speaks and if they're one furthest interpreter. And you
33:58
know, I just, this is one of those things where I hope there is like a room in heaven
34:01
where you can just go in there and like, all right, I want to go to Genesis 43, I want
34:05
to go to the table and I want to know what everyone was thinking. Was there one brother
34:08
that I was like, this Egyptian guy, he seems rather Jewish, right, seems rather Hebrewish.
34:15
And it's just like, I don't, there's something about, I just want to know, was there ever
34:18
like a crack on the facade? Like did somebody notice, you know what I mean? We did miss
34:23
verse 34, it starts off with, he took portions to them from his own table. I don't think
34:29
we've talked about that yet. That's significant. That's unique. Because again, it had just
34:33
said that it was detestable or what was the word that they said, detestable for Egyptians
34:38
to eat with Hebrews? I think it was below the sun. If it was a combination is what this
34:43
ESV says. So it was loathsome for them to eat together. So, you know, not only did they
34:47
get food, but the food came from Joseph's table, which I think what we said earlier,
34:52
it seemed like Joseph was eating by himself. Like the Egyptians weren't even with Joseph.
34:56
Right. Joseph was like in a place of power and a different table. He's taking it from
35:00
his table to his brothers. That's pretty interesting. I will say as well, I meant to
35:05
put it down. I just looked at a note. So when you mentioned the prodigal son story, Jay
35:09
Reisner, who's the executive pastor of faith Bible church in Edmond, Oklahoma, he preaches
35:14
from time to time throughout the year whenever Pastor Mark Hitchcock is not there. And he's
35:19
the one that literally got that story to sink in for me because I always was pro big brother.
35:25
I was like, yeah, man, because I'm highly conscientious. I'm like off the charts on
35:29
conscientiousness. And so it's like, yeah, you know, the brother does all the right stuff
35:32
and then his narrative well, turd of a brother. Like, you know, does all this terrible stuff
35:37
and the dad goes out there and gives him a robe and a fatted calf and the ring and all
35:40
that stuff. Like man, screw that little brother. He should have died with the damn pigs, right?
35:43
That's kind of where my mind goes. But he did a sermon probably, I don't know, a couple
35:46
of years ago where he's like, the older brother was just as lost as the younger brother. It
35:51
just looked different. It just felt different. And so if you're the narrative well guy, because
35:55
some people know their screw ups, like everything they've done their entire life, they were
35:58
always a screw up. They were always the kid that wasn't getting good grades, didn't get
36:01
to make the sports teams like all the stuff. You know, you're a screw up and you, you see
36:05
yourself in the prodigal and you're just so thankful that the father came out. Whereas
36:10
I was harboring like ill will towards someone that doesn't exist. It's not a real story.
36:14
It's just a parable that Jesus was telling. But yeah, I mean, Jay really helped me kind
36:18
of understand that with his sermon being like, no, the brother is super lost. Like he's,
36:22
he's coming at this from a place of workspace righteousness. And he's, he's assuming the
36:28
seat of judgment over his brother, which is not his seat to assume. And so I just wanted
36:32
to give him a quick shout out. I can't remember the, the name of the sermon, but it would have
36:35
been a couple years back.
36:36
I just figured out something in addition, I've been sitting here trying to process. How did
36:41
the brothers not recognize Joseph? And I think I just figured it out. Joseph must have been
36:46
incredibly fat, incredibly fat because this was, it was from his table. So from his table,
36:53
his portion, it was enough to feed all of his brother's professor thing going on. Yeah.
36:59
So he had a shot at fat suit. You think that after this had to be after Potiphar's wife's
37:04
situation, yes, because he was attractive, attractive and form, but to ginger, we've
37:09
already established this point, he's getting all the money. And so he's just eating and
37:12
eating and eating. He's like, well, I mean, I've got all this food. So I might as well
37:17
give it to my nine brothers. This other brother, you can have five portions. And so I'll just
37:21
eat my whatever's left over in this table. So he was incredibly fat. So fat, they didn't
37:26
recognize it.
37:27
I'm giving like a heartfelt shout out to our pastor and you're just, you're sitting over
37:30
there like, come on, let me in. Let me in here. I just got to get you got to cut in right
37:32
here. Hey, I figured it out. It was good. But I can't say you're wrong. You never know.
37:37
It could be a fatty fat fat. Someone's going to listen to this because I keep talking about
37:41
how good I am casting and about coming up with these ideas. I'm going to be a writer for
37:46
the chosen is what's going to happen. They're going to they're going to ask. So which fatty
37:51
fat is going to play? Joseph, because I'm taking Jake Gyllenhaal with abs. But apparently
37:55
he turns into we could put a Frazier from the whale, but we can put on the fat suit. No,
38:01
Jake Gyllenha, he'll game 200 pounds for a role. No problem. No problem. We'll put 200
38:09
pounds on the concrete and not get that big. You never know. Give him a chance. Guys, I
38:14
have no idea where to take this, but we are winding to a close here. This is a little bit
38:18
of a quicker one, but does anybody have anything at all that could possibly topple? We just
38:21
heard. Oh, go ahead. No, you. Mine is the last one. My okay. Brussels is more meaningful.
38:27
Yeah, hopefully. Yeah. It's not like complete even thought on this, but just for some application
38:34
of where to where to take this is again, like you said, we don't want to put ourselves in
38:39
Joseph's shoes because most of the time we're not. Most of the time we're one or multiple
38:44
of these other characters, whether it is Jacob who is sewing some distrust in his family,
38:50
whether it's Ruben that is being wishy washy and not making good decisions or whether
38:55
it's Judah who is eager and quick to make decisions, but not with the right heart and
39:02
mind and the right influence. And we see in this story that the best place like where
39:08
he's trying to bring them and the best place that they can get to is the place of acknowledgement
39:14
of their pitifulness. And so they've now through all of this circumstance, they have
39:21
finally found themselves to where they are getting closer and closer to their acknowledgement
39:27
where they're truly at. And there's probably people listening that, you know, I know the
39:31
other day you were talking about you've had some guys reach out and been in really bad
39:34
spots. And if you can acknowledge that you're in that spot, you may be getting ready to
39:41
sit at the banquet to find out what God really had prepared to bring you back into his glory.
39:48
And so I don't know, I see, I see us as all probably different characters of the brothers
39:54
who have dealt with the guilt. They've held on to this stuff. They sometimes have people
39:59
that are giving them unnatural grace. They don't understand or the God is giving them
40:03
that. And if you would just accept that to sit at the table for long enough to hear out
40:09
what the plan is or to hear out where this goes, that's where you need to be. I don't
40:15
know that, and this is a serious comment, but I don't know that your goal for the forging
40:20
table is necessary to leave something at a cliffhanger. But I will encourage anybody,
40:24
maybe this is the first time you've heard this podcast. This is probably the best cliffhanger
40:28
of all time on the forging table, because trust me, the wheels are about to fall off
40:33
on Genesis 44. Genesis 44, the next book, it really gets intense. We're going through,
40:38
I've talked about peaks and valleys, ups and downs. Right now we're at a happy moment.
40:43
Genesis 44, the wheels fall off, and it's about to get really exciting. So this is your
40:48
first one. Listen to Genesis 44 next, because it's going to be great.
40:52
And the first, like lead caption for in the ESV is Joseph tests his brothers. And so
40:59
it's been tests after tests after tests. But yes, it does get after it. And they mean,
41:02
you get to the beginning of 45. I mean, guys, we're, we're, we're getting towards the end
41:06
of Genesis here. So we're going to be covering a lot of ground over the next several weeks.
41:09
But yeah, it's just, again, this is made for TV stuff. It is absolutely criminal that this
41:13
has not been a movie or a mini series or something like that. But anything else before we close
41:18
out fellas, it was an absolute pleasure doing this with you guys. But we're going to have
41:21
to leave it there again, guys, come back here next week where we're going to get into Genesis
41:24
44. But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost and a daunting
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