And what I was trying to share last time was that too often what we do is read a passage... it's natural, we read it through the lens of our own experience and the questions that we would have and we start looking at the passage like this, and we say, "Gee, what a terrible dad Jacob was." Because look at the favoritism he showed.
But that is imposing on the text something that we are eisegeting. We are reading into the passage something the text is not inviting us to look at. In fact, reading the text carefully, the opposite is the case. This is in no way an indictment of Jacob in this passage. Now, that is not to say... it's not to say that this is a prescription for how to be a parent either. What it's saying is... it's not talking about that. It's an incidental part of the story. It's not the main point.
The point of the passage is... what we want to learn to do is major on the majors, right? And not get distracted by the minors.
This is what the passage is going to say. The passage is going to say, "Look at the love and the Godliness of Jacob. Even more than that, look at the Godliness of Joseph... God's anointed. And look at the horrible rebellion of these other brothers.
That's the contrast that's being painted in the passage. That's the focus.
The point is, what God is trying to show us is He has set apart Joseph and He has placed Joseph in the unique position because of His own Divine Election.
It's about God's freedom to do as He pleases... and our response to that.
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