Dec. 2, 2025

Genealogy, Geography, and Culture Part 1

A favorite son in a torn household, a coat that screams status, and a caravan of cousins bound for Egypt—Joseph’s story doesn’t begin at the pit. We zoom out to the family system that shaped every choice: a father’s partial love, mothers locked in rivalry, sons born into names that sounded like futures, and an honor code that could both protect and destroy.

We walk the lineage from Abraham and Sarah to Jacob and his twelve sons to see why birth order mattered and how silence from a parent can reverberate for decades. Reuben’s half-measure rescue shows what guilt does under pressure. Simeon and Levi carry the burden of Dinah’s defilement and a father’s self-preserving rebuke. Judah’s plan to sell Joseph to Ishmaelites and Midianites—kin through Abraham—reveals a colder logic: wound the father, avoid the blood, and turn a profit. Along the way, the meanings of names like Reuben, Levi, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin open windows into the hopes and hurts of their mothers and the spiritual weather in the tent.

Rachel’s long-awaited joy in Joseph and her death bearing Benjamin harden Jacob’s favoritism into a survival response, leaving the rest of the sons to live in the shadow of one man’s grief. Seen through this lens, Genesis 37 stops being a simple tale of envy and becomes a study in how culture, family dynamics, and human frailty intersect with God’s larger purposes. Context doesn’t excuse betrayal; it reveals its roots—and makes redemption, when it comes, all the more stunning.

Listen for a grounded, story-rich journey that turns a familiar narrative into a vivid, lived world. If this conversation helped you read with fresh eyes, tap follow, share it with a friend who loves Scripture, and leave a review so others can find the show.

00:00 - Welcome And Season Focus

02:26 - Why Context Changes Everything

03:51 - Joseph’s Lineage At A Glance

05:15 - Reuben’s Lost Firstborn Status

07:41 - Simeon And Levi’s Honor And Fury

10:09 - Judah’s Calculation And The Sale

12:05 - Surrogates, Names, And Rival Wives

15:02 - Leah’s Later Sons And Hopes

17:28 - Rachel’s Joy, Death, And Aftermath

20:02 - Cousin Caravans To Egypt

20:22 - Outro And Listener Support

21:15 - Pause Here And What’s Next

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Welcome to the Rabbi Way, where we don't just read Scripture, we posture our hearts like the disciples to sit at the feet of Rabbi Jesus.

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Through this podcast, we will be stepping back in time and rediscovering the stories we thought we already knew.

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As we learn together, we will begin to see the details we missed, the stories we've forgotten, and the thread that ties the entire Bible together.

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I'm Vic Harman, and this season we are diving deep into the story of Joseph and his multicolored coat, exploring the history, the culture, the geography that surrounds his story.

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Our exploration will be slow, yes, but intentional.

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As we learn about Joseph and his life, we will begin to understand him better, see his purpose in the biblical narrative, and how his story still impacts us today.

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So grab your Bible, your curiosity, and maybe some sandals, and get ready to learn with us, the Rabbi Way.

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Now that we've clarified the story, we are ready to expand it.

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In this episode, we are asking the context questions that help us read scripture with depth and clarity.

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We will be examining three specific areas that will help us broaden the world around Joseph and his family.

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We are taking a closer look at Joseph's genealogy, the geography of the land of Canaan, and the cultural nuances of the story.

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You may be asking yourself, why do we need to spend time on genealogy, culture, and geography?

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Isn't the story enough?

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And that is a great question.

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Because though the story itself is great with plenty to discuss, it's the context that transforms how we read the story.

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With context, the story of Joseph moves from a black and white outline to a colorful picture.

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It's through the context that we become aware of their world and we are gifted the opportunity to understand this story the way the original audience would have understood it.

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In real time, in real space, with real people.

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Today I want us to look even closer at his family tree.

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Abraham and Sarah had a son named Isaac.

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Isaac married Rebekah, and they had twin boys, Jacob and Esau.

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Jacob means deceiver, and that's exactly who he becomes as he steals Esau's birthright and blessing.

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Jacob flees for his life, meets and marries Rachel and Leah, and together they have twelve sons Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Nephthal, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.

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Now there are a couple things I want us to be aware of as we dive into this next part.

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The first we have already talked about briefly, and that is birth order.

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The order in which children, but especially sons, were born determined the responsibility in the family, but more on that in a little bit.

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The second thing is that the names have meaning.

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Whatever a child's name was determined who they would become.

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So keep these two things in mind as we revisit the brothers.

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Let's start with Reuben.

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Reuben was the oldest son born to Jacob and Leah.

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On the surface, Reuben had the most reason for wanting Joseph dead.

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Reuben should have been receiving all of the perks and favoritism that Joseph received, because he was Jacob's firstborn son.

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In Genesis 29, it says, God saw that Leah was hated, and he opened up her womb, and she conceived and bore a son.

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She named him Reuben, which means behold, a son.

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Verse 32 tells us why she named him Reuben, because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband will love me.

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Leah was so excited to have a son because a son means a continued legacy.

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But the Bible never gives us Jacob's reaction to Reuben's birth.

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And his silence should be a red flag for us.

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We get this feeling like Jacob tossed him aside, like he was not good enough because he was the son of Leah instead of the son of Rachel.

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It's important for us to note that Reuben was roughly 16 years old when Joseph was born, which means that for his entire growing up life, he felt the tension that he was not good enough, that his father was always longing for a different son.

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And now after years of being pushed aside, he sees his father have a reaction to Joseph being born.

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So by the time Joseph is seventeen years old, Reuben has every right to be furious.

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But instead, he is the one telling his brothers, Don't kill him, let's just throw him in the cistern.

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Why would Reuben do this?

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The answer is a couple chapters earlier in Genesis 35.

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When Reuben slept with Bilha, his step aunt, Rachel's maidservant, and Jacob's concubine, fracturing what was left of their relationship.

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Jacob's trust in him was completely dissipated.

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Reuben is the firstborn in name, but not in function.

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So in Genesis 37, when Reuben sees an opportunity to get back on his father's good graces by rescuing the favorite son from certain death, Reuben takes it.

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He tells his brothers, let's not kill him, let's just throw him into the cistern.

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This was Reuben's rescue plan.

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The problem, though, was he was operating out of guilt, not out of courage.

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Now Simeon and Levi had similar stories to Reuben.

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They too were born with no reaction from Jacob.

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Simeon means the Lord hears, and Leah named him that because the Lord heard that she was afflicted and has given me this son also.

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Levi means attached or joined, and Leah said, At last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.

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But Jacob remained silent.

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Simeon and Levi were likely fifteen and fourteen when Joseph was born.

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Similar to Reuben, they had spent their formative years believing they were not good enough because their father always longed for another.

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This made them angry.

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Remember, these are the impulsive, violent, and dangerous brothers.

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Back in Genesis thirty four they showed just how dangerous they could be when they wiped out an entire city of Shechem out of revenge for their younger sister Dina, who had been defiled.

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Dina was the daughter of Jacob and Leah.

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Now, wiping out an entire city sounds violent to our western ears.

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But to them this is what was known as an honor killing, meaning when someone does something so shameful, like defiling a young woman, the honorable thing to do is to destroy them.

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But what I want us to catch about the story is how Jacob responds to their actions.

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Simeon and Levi return home from wiping out Shechem, the honorable thing to do.

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And Jacob's first words to them are, How could you?

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You have made me a target to the inhabitants of this land.

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We are few in number.

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If the Canaanites and the Prezerites banded together and attack us, they would destroy me and our whole family.

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The brothers, a little taken aback by their father's response, Simeon and Levi ask, Should we have let him treat our sister like a prostitute?

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And again, we don't get Jacob's response.

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I kind of picture him storming off though, leaving Simeon and Levi staring at each other, thinking this was the right thing to do.

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We had to avenge our sister.

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So Simeon and Levi, when presented with the opportunity to hurt their father Jacob by killing their brother Joseph, they were on board immediately.

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In their mind, if Jacob doesn't care about honor, neither do we.

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Judah, like his older brothers, had a similar relationship with his father.

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However, by the time Judah was born, Leah had changed her heart posture.

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Judah means to praise.

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And Leah said, I will praise Yahweh.

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Leah now has four sons, but is no closer to a real relationship with Jacob.

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So instead of trying to have more sons to entice Jacob into loving her, she praises Yahweh for the goodness he has brought on her and these four boys.

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But still, Judah grew up the same as Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, with a father who didn't want him and a mother who was trying to accept that she would never be loved.

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By the time Joseph walks out into the fields in his multicolored coat, Judah also wants to hurt Jacob.

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Upon hearing the caravan passing by, Judah gets a brilliant idea.

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Why should we kill him when we could sell him?

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As we talked last time, Judah was just looking out for himself.

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He suggested to sell their brother instead of killing him because there would be no blood on his hands.

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So Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah are born like doorsteps to Leah and Jacob.

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Rachel sees this and is furious.

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After four years of watching her sister pregnancy after pregnancy and her unable to become pregnant herself, she comes to Jacob and says, Give me sons or I will die.

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Jacob becomes angry, or probably more likely defensive, and says, Am I in the place of God?

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He has withheld offspring from you.

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Basically saying, Don't blame me because God hasn't given you children.

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We have tried, and clearly it's not me.

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Completely defeated, Rachel offers her maidservant Bilha to Jacob to act as a surrogate in order for her to have a son.

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Jacob marries Bilhah and they conceive and have a son, in which Rachel names him Dan, which means to judge, because God has vindicated me.

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Yes, he has heard me and given me a son.

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Bilha conceives again, and this time Rachel named the boy Nephtali, which means my struggle, because she said, In my struggle with God, I have struggled with my sister and one.

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Now, I don't know about you, but these are not great names.

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Judge and struggle, life is not going to be well for these boys.

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Also, we see Rachel's aggression toward God and toward Leah because she herself cannot have kids.

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And even though technically these are her kids through surrogacy, she does not have any of her own.

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And again, these are Jacob's kids, but he doesn't really see them because they're still not from Rachel.

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Leah sees Rachel's strategy of having a surrogate with her maidservant and decides she needs a surrogate too.

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So she gives Jacob Zilpa her maidservant.

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Jacob and Zilpah marry, conceive, and have a son named Gad, which means good fortune.

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Leah is ecstatic that her surrogate's child was born a son.

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Then Zilpa had another son and named him Asher, which means happy.

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And Leah said, I'm happy that the women call me happy.

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Dan, Neftali, Gad, and Asher are all roughly the same age, and they are put directly in the middle of their parents' issues.

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These boys didn't have a chance.

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They were born into a complicated family with a father who was distant, inattentive, and always longed for another.

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Then in Genesis 30, the story stops and takes a brief pause on listing the children and tells a quick story of Rachel getting what she wants by offering Leah what she wants most.

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A night with Jacob.

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Leah agrees and Jacob spends the night with her.

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They conceive and have another son whom she names Issachar, which means reward.

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She said, God has rewarded me for giving my slave to my husband.

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Then Leah conceives again and gives birth to her sixth son and names him Zebulun, which means honor.

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She says, God has given me a good gift.

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This time my husband will honor me because I have borne him six sons.

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By the ancient world standards, Leah had hit the jackpot.

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She has six biological sons and two surrogate sons.

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This should have skyrocketed her status in the family.

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But it didn't.

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See, Jacob always wanted to marry Rachel from the beginning.

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It was not his fault that Laban, his father-in-law, tricked him on his wedding night and gave him Leah instead.

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So Jacob was in a marriage he didn't want to be in, but was culturally obligated to provide only not only wealth and protection, but also children with her.

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Jacob was probably as disappointed as Rachel when they could not have children.

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Nevertheless, he struggles through three marriages in an attempt to ease the tension between Rachel and Leah.

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But as we all know, adding kids to a messy marriage just makes things messier.

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About eight years later, Rachel is finally able to conceive and she gives birth to a son named Joseph.

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Which means, may he increase.

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Because Rachel said, God has taken away my disgrace.

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May the Lord add another son to me.

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This child becomes Jacob's prized possession.

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He loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because this was the son he longed for.

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A son with Rachel.

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About twelve years passed, and Jacob is thinking, how can life get better than this?

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However, everything comes crashing down on him when Rachel goes into labor to deliver their second son.

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This labor is complicated, and Rachel dies during childbirth.

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Jacob names the child Benjamin, which means son of my right hand.

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Jacob is completely and totally shattered.

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The woman he loves is dead.

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He has two boys he has to raise on his own.

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Jacob clings to Joseph and Benjamin even more because they are all he has left of his beloved wife, Rachel.

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There is still five years between Rachel's death and Joseph's dreams.

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But can you imagine for a moment what every day was like for the other wives and sons?

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If you thought Jacob was a distant father before, now he is completely shut down.

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He feels like he has nothing.

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The woman he loved is dead, and he has to find a way to keep moving to raise Joseph and Benjamin.

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These are the dynamics of this dysfunctional family.

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There is tension building over decades of inadequacy, hurt, and anger.

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It was only a matter of time before emotions and impulse took over and somebody got hurt.

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There is one more group of people to note the Ishmaelites and Midianite traders.

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You may have asked, who are these people?

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And that is a great question.

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Let's start with the Ishmaelites.

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The Ishmaelites are descendants of Ishmael.

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And as you may recall, Ishmael was Abraham's firstborn son with Hagar.

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At this point, Ishmael and Isaac had separated and lived in different parts of the land.

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So Ishmael's grandchildren were traveling to Egypt and passed by their cousins in the fields.

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And the Minnites, as you may have guessed, were descendants of Midian.

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Midian is important to us because this also was a son of Abraham.

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Let me explain.

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Back in Genesis 25, after the death of Sarah, Abraham married a woman named Keturah, and she bore him six sons, one of which was Midian.

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Midian grew up and also lived in a different part of the land from Isaac.

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Midian's grandchildren were also traveling to Egypt, so they created a caravan with Ishmaelites and traveled together.

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This is the caravan that Joseph was sold to.

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Whether or not he knew them as his cousins, we don't know, because the ancient world did not have big extended family reunions.

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Nevertheless, his own cousins buy him from his brothers and sell him into slavery to Potiphar in Egypt.

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Okay.

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That was a lot.

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So we're actually going to pause here and take a break and split this episode up into two parts.

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Give us some time to process the family for a little bit before jumping back into the next thing.

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But I will have a bonus episode ready for you on Friday where we can discuss geography and culture.

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But until then, remember, every story in the Bible is intentional, every detail is significant, every person is critical.

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This is the greatest story ever told, and if we take the time to slow down and pay attention, we will experience God like never before.

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See you next time.

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This episode was written and produced by me, Vic Harmon.

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Music is historic cinematic adventure by Dimitri Tauris.

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If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and review the show.

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It really does help us out.

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For more details about the show, be sure to follow us on all social media at The Rabbi Way.

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You can email us questions to therebeyeway at gmail.com.

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See you next time.

Genealogy, Geography, and Culture Part 1

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