Now we are told, verse 27, It came
to pass in the time of her travail
that, behold, twins were in her womb.
It came to pass when she travail and
the one put out his hand, the midwife
took and bound upon his hand a scarlet
thread, saying, This came out first.
It came to pass as he drew back
his hand that, behold, his brother came out,
and she said, How hast thou broken forth?
This breach is upon thee.
Therefore his name was called Phares.
And afterward came out his brother that had
the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his
name was called Zerah.
Now here are these names that we've looked
at, and I'd like for you now to
go with me over to the first book
of the New Testament, and let's read here.
The first chapter, second verse, Abraham begat Isaac,
Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and
his brethren, and Judas begat Phares, and Zerah
of Tamar, and Phares begat Ezram, and Ezram
begat Aram, and on down, Salmon begat Boaz
of Rahab, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth,
and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David
the king, and if you just follow it
right on through, why, you find out here,
and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary
of whom was born Jesus, who's called Christ.
This is the line into which the Lord
Jesus came, by the way, and this is
an evidence of the fact that God must
now get His people down into the land
of Egypt.
All right, we'll return then to the story
of Joseph, because he's already down there.
He didn't go down willingly, but he's down
there.
He was taken down, and we saw at
the conclusion of chapter 37, the 36th verse,
the Midianites sold him, that is, Joseph, into
Egypt under Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's and
captain of the guard.
Now, we're going to find out that Joseph
is an altogether different kind of boy than
Judah was.
I always have felt that Joseph and Benjamin
did a great deal of teaching and instruction
and personal attention that the other ten boys
never did get.
These were the only two that Jacob seemed
to be interested in.
Now Joseph, because of the hatred and animosity
of his brothers, he's been sold down into
the land of Egypt in the house of
Potiphar, and he happens to be a very
important soldier.
He's in the military.
He had his office in the Pentagon of
that day, and he's part of the brass.
He's a prominent official, by the way.