Day 24: Genesis 35-37

Welcome to 5 -Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's January the 24th and we'll be looking at Genesis 35 through 37.

Now today's reading marks a major transition in the book of Genesis. Genesis 35 through 37 closes the story of Jacob as its central figure and opens up the story to his son

Joseph through whom God will carry his promises made to Abraham and to the next generation. Now these chapters remind us that God's plan does not always advance in ways that feel like progress.

Sometimes obedience is followed not by clarity or peace but by loss, confusion, and apparent setbacks.

Now we see this in the fact that Genesis 35 begins with God calling Jacob back to Bethel, the place where God first met him years earlier when he was afraid and alone and fleeing from his past.

There God renews his covenant promises and commands Jacob to lead his household in repentance and worship.

The foreign gods are buried, the family cleanses itself and returns to the Lord, yet almost immediately grief follows after their obedience.

Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin and Jacob buries the woman he loved most in the land that he was promised but does not yet possess.

Then soon after, Isaac his father dies as well, marking the passing of the older generation.

Now Genesis 36 briefly records the line of Esau showing that nations can grow strong and organized and prosperous even apart from God's covenant promises.

But as we will read through the rest of the Scriptures, it will be this very people from the line of Esau, known as the

Edomites, who will at times be the most bitter enemy of Israel, showing that old rivalries become generational and even national.

Then finally in Genesis 37 the story turns back to Joseph, Jacob's beloved son, who will receive the iconic coat of many colors.

Now as parental favoritism was in full swing and Joseph had become odious to the rest of his siblings, he received a dream from God suggesting that the entire family would one day come and bow down before him.

A dream that his family could not stomach and a dream that was the final straw for his brothers.

Now soon after this his brothers would grab him, strip him of his robe, and then throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery as an alternative to killing him.

And then the chapter ends with even more deception in the line of Jacob, intense mourning of a father, and a parent convinced that his favorite son is dead.

Now as you read the passage today, I want you to ask the following question, what do

I do when obedience seems to make life harder instead of easier? Jacob obeys

God and buries loved ones. Joseph receives revelation and is sold into slavery. Faithfulness doesn't feel like it's moving anything forward in this passage, it feels like it's nothing but loss.

And that's because the central pattern in Genesis 35 through 37 is apparent regression after obedience.

Jacob returns to worship and immediately experiences death. Joseph is favored by God and immediately rejected by his brothers.

From every visible angle the promise seems to stall out or even unravel the moment

God's people attempt to follow him. And this mirrors our own life as well, because many believers today expect relief when they follow

God, only to encounter greater griefs or more strained relationships, and maybe even sometimes more suffering.

Genesis 35 through 37 teaches us that obedience does not guarantee visible success.

Often God is positioning his people for future deliverance in ways that we cannot see. What feels like a setback today is almost always

God's preparation for what is coming tomorrow, if we only had eyes to see it. And this points unmistakably to Jesus Christ.

Joseph is the Beloved Son, clothed in favor, rejected by his brothers, stripped of his robe, and delivered into suffering though he was innocent.

And this is exactly what happens to Jesus. As the true Beloved Son, he was rejected by his own people, stripped of his seamless robe, and handed over to the pit of death.

And just as we will see in the story of Joseph, what looks like betrayal in the life of Christ actually becomes salvation for the ones who hated him.

What looks like a bitter defeat becomes God's greatest victory, and that's just how God works.

Genesis 35 through 37 teaches us that God often hides his greatest redemptive work beneath the most bitter toil and suffering, a truth that is revealed most fully at the cross.

Now as you read Genesis 35 through 37 today, I want you to notice how quickly obedience gives way to affliction.

Joseph's story is only the beginning, and the road ahead descends even further down before redemption will finally come into view.

Now tomorrow, the narrative will follow Joseph into Egypt, where God will continue working quietly, faithfully, and unseen.

But with that, I want you to read your Bible carefully, devotionally, and joyfully, and may the

Lord use his word to sanctify you completely, and we will continue our journey tomorrow.