Bible Reading Made Different

  At the end of two full years  (after the restoration of the chief butler to his position),  Pharaoh had a dream in which he was standing by the river. Suddenly seven fine looking and fat cows came up out of the river and they ate in the meadow. Then seven ugly and very thin cows came up behind the first group of cows and stood beside them on the bank of the river. The ugly thin cows ate up the fine looking fat cows. Then Pharaoh awoke. He went back to sleep and had a second dream. In this dream, seven heads of plump and good grains came up on one stalk suddenly. Then seven thin heads, badly deteriorated by the east wind, sprang up after them.The seven thin heads devoured the plump, full heads. Then Pharoah awoke from this very disturbing dream. The next morning, Pharaoh's spirit was very troubled.  Can you recall any extremely troubling dreams you've had?  Pharaoh summoned all of the magicians and wise men and told them his dreams. None of them were able to in...

  While Joseph was in the king's prison, the chief butler and the chief baker of the Egyptian king offended him. Due to Pharaoh's anger, he had them thrown into the prison where Joseph was. The captain of the guard put them under Joseph's responsibility. Some Bible versions say that Joseph served them, others say that he attended to them; he took care of them; or even stated that he became their personal attendant. It all sounds like Joseph became their servant.  First of all, I wonder what the butler and the baker did to make the king throw them into prison. Secondly, it must have been nice to go to prison and to be given a servant. This sounds like prestige in prison.  They all were in prison for a good while. One night, both the butler and the baker had troubling dreams. Each of the dreams had its own interpretation. The next morning, Joseph noticed that they were sad. So, he asked them, "Why do you look so sad today?" So they told him that they both had dreams...

  Joseph was taken down to Egypt. The Ishmaelites sold him to an Egyptian officer of Pharoah, who was the captain of the guard, by the name of Potiphar. The Lord made Joseph successful in the house of his Egyptian master. Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph and made him very prosperous in all that he did.  Do   people see God's favor in your life? Can you see God's favor in the lives of others?  Joseph found so much favor in Potiphar's sight that he made Joseph the overseer of his house. All that he had, Potiphar put it under Joseph's authority. So, of course, Joseph served him faithfully. Under Joseph's authority as overseer of Potiphar's house, God blessed his house tremendously for Joseph's sake. All that Potiphar had in the house was blessed and all that he had in the field was blessed too. Potiphar trusted Joseph so much that he did not know all that he had except for the food he ate.  I imagine that Potiphar was aware of all of his "assets...

  At one point, Judah left his brothers to visit his friend, Hirah, an Adullamite. While there, he met Shua's (a Canaanite) daughter. He married her and consummated the marriage. She conceived and gave birth to a son, which was named Er. She conceived again and had another son and named him Onan. Judah's wife conceived a third time and had another son and named him Shelah. They were in Chezib when Shelah was born. Judah got a wife for Er whose name was Tamar. Er was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord killed him.  Wow! A person has to be extremely wicked for the Lord, Himself to kill them.  Judah told Onan to marry Tamar and have a child to raise up as an heir to his brother.  A couple of scriptures that address this practice are Deuteronomy 25:5-10 and Matthew 22:23-28.  Onan knew that the heir would not be his. So, when he was intimate with Tamar, rather than emitting the sperm inside her, he emitted on the ground so he wouldn't give an heir to his br...

  Jacob lived in Canaan where his father,  Isaac , was a stranger.  Verse 2 states,  "This is the history of Jacob",  then it proceeds to talk about Joseph.  One day when Joseph was 17 years old, he was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives.  These are Rachel and Leah's maidservants that they gave to Jacob when they were having the "baby wars" in Genesis 30. So, that means Joseph was with Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.  Joseph gave his father a bad report about his brothers.  That makes me wonder, what did they do? Joseph seems to be a snitch. As the saying goes, "Snitches get stitches". Israel  (Jacob)  loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age.  Parents having favorites among their children is asking for nothing but trouble and strife among siblings.  Israel also made Joseph a tunic of many colors. When his brothers saw that ...

  Below is the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom. Esau married two Canaanite women - Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite and Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite. His third wife was Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth.  In Genesis 26:34, it states that the first two wives' names were Judith (daughter of Beeri the Hittite) and Basemath (daughter of Elon the Hittite). In Genesis 28:9, the third wife was Mahalath (Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth). So because of the different names of Esau's wives from Genesis 26, Genesis 28 and now Genesis 36, I googled. Of course, there are different commentaries regarding Esau's wives - from the number of wives to the women being the same, but are being referred to by different names. The site that said Esau had four wives indicated that Judith is not mentioned in Genesis 36 because she did not have any children for Esau and Genesis 36 is Esau's genealogy. I'm guessing that w...