BibleProject - Power Grabs and Patriarchs – Firstborn E4

Episode Date: January 23, 2023

Early in the story of the Bible, God chooses the family of Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob as his chosen representatives to bless other peoples. But these families are full of the same rivalry, envy, and division present in any other family. What is God doing with these less-than-ideal candidates? Join Tim and Jon as they trace the theme of the firstborn in the narratives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (00:00-11:35)Part two (11:35-26:44)Part three (26:44-40:08)Part four (40:08-53:40)Part five (53:40-1:09:20)Referenced ResourcesInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience the literary themes and movements we’re tracing on the podcast in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS"Chilling at Last" by Emapea"Beautifully So" by less.people"Bloc" by KVSound design by contributorShow produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder. Lead Editor Dan Gummel. Edited by Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza. Mixed by Tyler Bailey. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by Hannah Woo.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

We are tracing the biblical theme that we're calling the first horn. It's a theme about messy family dynamics and power plays. It's a theme about how God's vert's typical power structures by choosing the least expected to have power. If you've been following along, you've seen how this theme works out in the stories of Adam and Eve, pain and able, and know its three sons. Today, we get to Abraham, and his relationship with his nephew Lot. Abraham has the first born status with Lot,

but he doesn't use his status as a means to gain more power instead, he lets Lot decide which portion of land to settle in first. Which makes us wonder why is Abraham able to act with such generosity? The deep assumption is that God said he's gonna bless me. I don't own any land yet, but if you choose land, God said he blessed me so I know there'll be some for me too.

From Abraham, we move on to the stories of the three generations that come after him. And in these stories, the theme of sibling rivalry gets turned up. God has a blessing for everybody, but he's going to bring it through one family. That family is constantly in all these cycles of rivalry, hurting each other, to get the thing God wants to give to all of them. And God will actually turn that rivalry into the vehicle through which he brings the unity that will restore the blessing to everybody. These stories are full of deceptions and deceptions within deceptions. These stories are full of people who don't trust in God's generosity.

These stories are also full of God acting in surprising ways. And it keeps us wondering, why does this have to be so messy? Following the God revealed in this story, more than likely is going to set a person up for many rounds of this tension of waiting for exaltation that doesn't seem to materialize. But the part of what it means to have one's heart and desire shaped by God. Today Tim Mackey and I look at the theme of the first born in the family of Abraham. I'm John Collins and you're listening to Bible Project Podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Here we go. So we're in the middle of a conversation on the theme of the first porn. We're in the middle of our conversations, but we're at the very beginning of the Bible. looking at a theme about status and power and how God disperses his generosity and how he elevates people. And we're calling the theme of the first born because in the ancient world, you're a state, you're power and influence, a father Father. Or a king or a prince or a duke or a Earl. They're Earl's. No. Well, probably some equivalent. In real time, the Queen of England just died. Yes. That's right. And I actually that made me wonder. I don't know how she became. She's been queen for a long

time. Yeah. That's right. Many decades. Yeah. But usually it's kings. And now it's a king again. And it makes me wonder, would it, how that happened? But anyways, I don't know how it works. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But how it works is the logic of the first born. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, there's a logic of succession that can be tweaked and adapted, but it is still a logic of succession. Yeah. Who's first? The norm. And that doesn't create any problems. Some people love the drama of the royal, the royals. Got some family members that are so, so into the British royal family. Yeah. It's fascinating. Well, it is fascinating to me how fascinating they are with that.

I would be obsessed with it if we had it here in America. I've got a royal family. Totally. Yeah, I hear that. All right, so the first born, how does your power and influence the status get transferred on? And then who gets to be in charge? Who gets to be the one calling the shots?

And in the biblical story, it's not just who's in charge who calls it shots, but also there's this theme of the snake crusher, where God wants to deal with the source of evil and destroy it. And so he actually says, from the seed of the woman, a child from humanity will come someone who will crush the snake. Yeah, while being crushed or struck by it, it's like simultaneous wounded victor type of thing. And so, not only is the biblical narrative interested in who gets to have the power in any given family, it's more interested in where is this lineage

of the snake crush you're gonna come from? Yeah, and as you go throughout, especially of Genesis, but then the rest of the Hebrew Bible, that lineage is really what drives the impulse for what characters are on the stage at what time. And this is the theme of God choosing, continuing to choose one out of the many. And it's about the continuation of this lineage of the lineage of a future deliverer from the snake. Election.

As? Yeah, yep, election. Yep. As we talk, as we call it. And that theme of election is closely bound up with how God chooses or who God chooses. And this is where it connects to the first born. Because the most obvious thing for God to do

is to choose the first born, to be the vehicle of His blessing, where the snake rush will come from. And because that's the assumed cultural backdrop. It's going to be the ancient, near least amount of waves. And it's the cultural backdrop in terms of ancient Israelite culture. So when we drop into the biblical story, that's the default assumption that that's how people operate. Therefore, that's how God would operate. And the twist and the surprise of the biblical story of the theme of the first born is it is a surprise because of that assumed background.

And the reason why God wants to crush the snake is for everyone for all humanity. So by choosing one lineage, it's too blessed. Yeah. All of humanity. So by choosing one lineage, it's too blessed, all of humanity. And this brings us back to this theme of God's generosity. It's wide and deep enough for everyone. And so the problem becomes, do I trust in God's method in timing for how He will dispers his generosity. Yeah, that's right. And so we looked at how those ideas are implicit in the Garden of Eden's story with the snake and the anatomy. And the anatomy. And then we looked how they become explicit in the first story of sibling rivalry of Cain and Abel, Genesis 4. And then we looked at how this theme is really uniting all of Genesis 1 through 11 together, showing how the whole human family is trapped in this spiral of family feuds,

and sibling rivalries that keep spinning off lineages that lead to violence and greater ruin in the human family. Because people don't trust that God will provide for them status, blessing, honor. They don't think that it's going to come to them, and so they take matters into their own hands, which is what Cain does. Yeah, and it's usually out of envy. Yeah, and it's well. Either it's envy because you deserve it. You think you deserve it. And God's giving it to someone else.

So this is Cain being envious of his brother Abel. Yeah. Or it's envy and that you actually are the second or third born. So ham, who's the third born in Mila? Yeah. Who thinks man, I want to be in charge. Yeah. And I can maybe make that happen.

Yep. In my own, devious ways. Yeah. So that was our last discussion. It was at that strange story of Ham and his father and the nakedness in the tent. I think if you read closely, follow the hyperlinks, it's a story of the youngest son trying

to exalt themselves to family, alpha, male position. And what God does is choose the middle child, Shem, to be the vehicle of this blessing, taking the story forward. So we were talking about this theme in, I think, use the word two streams. I don't know if that's helpful. But the core idea of power and responsibility and status

and how God wants to elevate everyone, but in his own timing and his own way. Yeah, well I think first of all the God depicted in Genesis 1 is a God that wants to share all that stuff with human, with his power and say this. Yes, with his images, his image-bearing humans. And why does it go awry? Why can't that just be the end of the story? God shares it, we receive it, we share it with others, and there's a garden and it's good. That's right. What happens, at least in the Canaanable story, is God shows favor to a second born son who offers a really, really special gift as a sacrifice. And what it leaves

as a older brother, Cain, wondering, and the choice that God says you have is, if you do the right thing here, you will also be lifted up and exalted. But it's you got a choice now, buddy. And the way it doesn't say, buddy, that's what I say to my kids, when I'm trying to have a serious conversation. But that's it. It's Kane is left in this moment of wondering, is there exaltation and honor for me too? Have you ever accidentally called your wife buddy?

Yes. It's like, it's the worst thing to do. Well, it's usually when you're having conversations like with one son, then another son, then we just go back to another son and you end up calling, hey bud. and then we look at each other and say, yeah, yeah, sorry. You're not going to call me that. I just call you bud. Anyway, yeah, it's a lack of trusting God's generosity that's that the root of Cain's insecurity. And implicitly, that something like that that's underneath the hands, the move that hand makes too. Right, and so I think what's interesting to

state here because we're going to see this played out in both ways, I think, in the generations after Abraham is that the problem is twofold. One is that the first born gets envious that God will choose the second born or the late-comer. But also the conflict comes when the second born feels like I got a raw deal that I'm the second born. Sure. And then tries to figure out a way to get power on their own terms. To create or acquire, get that honor status blessing on their own terms.

The pattern of cane, the pattern of ham. Yeah, the sec, yeah, yeah, well said, well it's good. It's good clarity. It's like you're good at understanding and explaining. I like that. Yeah, there's the cane pattern and the ham pattern. Okay, let's test that out here. Okay. out here. Okay, so starting, let's go back real quick just to get big picture starting with Adam and Eve. There was a genealogy that after Cain killed his brother Abel, God provided a third

board and son to Adam and Eve Seth. And in Genesis 5, we get a genealogy that goes from 10 generations, from Adam to Noah, and it ends with Noah and his three sons. Then you get the story of the increase of human violence in the Nephilim, God purifies the land with the flood. Then you get another genealogy of Noah and his three sons when they get off the ark, and they have 70 descendants that are 70 nations. That's Genesis chapter 10. And God chooses one of those three lines. It's the line of Shem. Ten generations that become 70 nations.

Yep, the ten generations from Adam to Noah know as three sons produce the 70 nations. Oh, no, it's three sons. No, it's three sons that produce, it's three sons. They produce the Seventy Nations. That's right. And God chooses the middle child, Shem, of those three sons. And then what you get,

then the story of Babylon and the scattering of Babylon, which is like the flood. A new type of flood. Yeah, new type of God, de-creating what humans have made good in their own eyes. And then out of that scattering, God preserves that line of shem, and you come back to it, and in Genesis 11, you get another genealogy that takes you now

from 10 generations from shem to a guy named Tarach with three sons. So it's just like from Adam to Noah, Noah had three sons. Now we're going from Noah's son, Shem, to a guy named Terah, who had three sons. And those three sons are named Nachor, Chharan, and Abram, later known as Abraham. So it's just kind of cool, like,

there's a cycling and a design cycling happening with the generations, so that the 10 generations from Adam to Noah and his three sons become parallel to the 10 generations from Shem, leading to the three sons, the include Abram. And just as God chose Shem from among those three sons, now God's going to choose Abram from among those three sons. So a lot more to explore there, but it's just kind of, once you go kind of macro level for how Genesis

is put together, you're like, dang, man, that's so, a lot of attention. So much intentionality in the sequencing of the stories. And I guess maybe that's just good to point out because when you're actually just reading through the stories of Genesis, it can feel difficult to follow some kind of logic or overall pattern, but it really is there. You just got

no to look for. So when you get to Genesis 11, what you're just told is that this guy Teraach had three sons, and the name of the sons are Avram, Nakhor, and Havran. So what is interesting here is that the name order is usually that order, Abram, Nahor, Iran. And what we don't know is if the name order indicates birth order because it hasn't always. Yeah, that's far. It didn't when we learned of Noah's sons. Correct. Yeah, their name, Sham, Ham, and Yafat, but the birth order is actually J-Fath, Sham, and Ham.

So all we know is that Abram is the son chosen of these three to become the vehicle of the blessing because at the beginning of Genesis 12, God the Lord said to Abram. So I think that's significant in that for some reason, even though Abram is one of these three, the narrator doesn't want to... Oh, so we don't know his birth order.

Yeah, the story doesn't make it clear. We know that Abram's brother, Haran, becomes the father of a son named Lot, and then Haran dies. And then Abraham and his brother, Nahor, they get married, and then they move with their dad halfway to the land of Canaan. They move from where the Caldians and they move to a town named Haran and they settle there. He and his brother. And then he leaves Abram is the one that God calls to go to Canaan, but his brother Nahor stays there, where he was. And this is where Abrams is gonna send a servant

to find a woman who's in the family for his son to marry. This is where Jacob goes when he's exiled, is to these relatives right here. I think what's just interesting is you have the stuff about one song chosen among the three, but the narrative doesn't focus on their birth order. It's really interesting because it's been really important until now. Exactly.

It's the first cycle where it's not highlighted that it causes some conflict or... It's conspicuous by its absence. Yeah, there's no conflict here. God just chooses one, Abram, and says, come here, and he leaves his family and he goes. But there's no sign of hostility or anything like that. But you have flagged that the story of Lot and Abraham, the stories of them, yes, are riffing off of a hostility. Yeah. And Lot is a nephew, so he's not a brother. Yeah, but he comes to be like a stand-in for his brother, especially when it comes of who gets the first choice of the land, which is interesting.

Okay, all right, so let's think about that real quick. So first of all, what God said is, leave your land, leave your relatives, leave your father's house, and go to the land I will show you. And you read, and Abram went forth as the Lord spoke to him, and Lot went with him. And like, wait a minute, oh, and interesting, Abram went as the Lord spoke to him, like sweet. God said, do this, he did that. And then you get this little short sense at the end, and Lot went with him. So it was like, a lot with them. Yeah, totally. And that little deviation from the word of God is going to cause a lot of tension in the family in the next.

Because a lot is relative and he's supposed to leave his relative. Yeah, yeah. And it's implied that you would leave. Now you could say a lot is an orphan because a stad, right? Abrams brother died. So a lot of Stad is dead. So is this a noble act, but it causes trouble in the story. So let's talk about that trouble. So in chapter 13, Abram and the whole crew come back from Egypt because they went down there in the famine and that's a whole thing. But when they get back, it turns out that Lot and him, sometimes past, and they've both built up big flocks.

They both have lots of possessions. And the land was not able to sustain their migrating with their herds in the same land. Like it's just not enough grass. Yeah, they're just bumping into each other too much. Yeah, and their shepherds don't get along. There was strife. There was hostility between the shepherds of Abraham and the shepherds of Lot. And so what Lot says is, listen,

Abram said to Lot, listen, let there be no hostility between you and me, your shepherds and my shepherds. Look, we're brothers. He calls it brothers, isn't it? Yeah, totally. Which in a traditional culture where your extended family is weighed a tighter web,

social web, it's very common to call your uncle or your nephew, your cousin, your brother. But it's certainly ironic in this sense, because Abram's actual brother is dad, died, and a lot becomes like his brother, Herod. Yeah, the stand-in. So what Abram does is he's generous.

He says, listen, isn't the whole land in front of you? Listen, if you separate from me, if you go to the left, I'll go right. You go right, I'll go left. And so Lot lifted up his eyes and he looked. And he's- Here, that's really interesting riffing on this theme of trusting God's generosity. Yes, right.

Thank you. For sure, that's what this is. Abraham or Abram here is just like, there's enough. Oh, thank you. Thanks. You do attention to that. Like, I don't have to try to fight for what I think I need. Yeah. Like, make the first move. There's going to be enough. attention like I don't have to try to fight for yeah what I think I need yeah like

make the first move there's gonna be enough yeah that's exactly what's happened this is really important this is a this is a baller move this is a generous super generous move yeah the deep assumption is that God said he's gonna bless me yeah and I don't own any land yet but But if you choose land, God said he bless me, so I know there'll be some for me too. It's just kind of like the first narrative we have of, I mean, it's ambiguous whether he is the first born. Right, right.

Yeah, but he is the older, Abram's the older one. Between him and Lon. Yeah, because he's the one with the blessing. So he's like the first born in the story, and it's a story of the first born saying, I don't need to have a power play here. There's enough. So good, John. That's exactly what's happening. That's cool. Yep. So he becomes the first year. Abraham for all his thoughts. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right. And yeah, you do, you do

pretend to do his faults. I do because so does the story But the story also highlights his moments of trust and this is one of them Yeah, his leaving is family in the first place Sure, and this becomes he's on a good start. He's great start. He's on a role totally Yeah, and this is after he lied and deceived the king of Egypt. That's right. We skipped that story Yeah, so I think he's also maybe kind of, you know, tailed between his legs. He learned a little lesson.

He learned a lesson. I forgot about it. So don't try and create my own blessing. Okay. And future like I did down in Egypt. Yeah. So this is the next story. So listen, we're brothers.

God said he blessed me. He's gonna bless you. Choose your land and I'll go find what God has for me. So look at lots, this little characterization here, a lot lifted up his eyes and he looked, and he saw all the valley of the Jordan, just streams of water everywhere. Oh, this is before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

That doesn't happen for seven more chapters. That's what the narrator says. Then the story goes back in. You know what it looked like? It looked like the Garden of Yahweh. You know, it looked like Eden. Yeah. He looked and he saw a well-watered Eden Garden

and he looked at the fruit of that land. You know, that land is like Egypt too. because Egypt is going to be another garden of Eden by the end of the scroll. Fertil valleys of Egypt. So a lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan and he journeyed to the east. And so the brothers separate. So last time somebody looked and saw the garden by the water and chose for themselves, it didn't work out.

What are you referring to? I'm referring to Adam and Eve at the tree. They're in the garden. In the garden. They see what's good. Yeah, totally. They take it and they have to go east. Yeah, I think the narrator is describing lots choice here as

echoing the poor choice. Okay, and because this choice is gonna put him in Sin City. Yeah. Yeah, that's gonna end up being a really bad situation for him and his kids and his daughters. So this decision ends poorly and it begins with him lifting his eyes and looking at the garden fruit land that he chooses for himself. Now Abram, on the other hand, he just stayed put in the land of Canaan, which is where God said, just go there and I'm going to hook you up, but you got to wait. Okay. So he stayed put. Yeah, he stays.

So a lot was like, I'm going over there and then you're like, okay, I'll just stay right here. Exactly. He moves his tents far away. Now, the Lord said to Abram after a lot separated, now you lift up your eyes. A lot lifted his eyes where he saw what was good. Now God says, you lift up your eyes and look from the place just right here where you are. Look north, look south, look east, look west.

All this land, I will give it to you and your seed. You know, you and your seeds, I will make like the dust of the land. The Adama. Yeah. Yeah, the dust of the land. Oh, it's the afar. The oh, but the dust of the earth. Yes, exactly right. Yeah. So this is exactly what God made a dumb out of in Genesis 2. So I think it's a little echo of this phrase from Genesis 2. Like, you're the seed of the new Adam that I'm going to birth through the seed of the woman. So your lineage is the seed of this new dust of the earth. If anyone can count the dust of the earth, then you can be numbered.

So get up. You know, let's walk about the land that I'm going to give to you. And so Abram walks about. So this is cool scene where it's a chance where Abram could pull rank on his nephew and choose the plot of land. Now he doesn't know where and what exactly. But he just knows that God said, I'm going to give this land and he's super open-handed and he lets us nephew go first. Yeah, because the narrative could have been Abraham's like, you choose and then I'll go and then lots like over there looks really nice. Yeah, and Abraham looks up over there too and goes, well you're right.

Actually, you know what? Change my mind. I'm going to go over there. Totally. You stay put. And I can change my mind because I can because I'm your uncle. Because I'm, yeah, I'm the older. Yep. I'm the older. I'm gonna go over there. Totally. You stay put. And I can change my mind because I can't, because I'm your uncle. Because I'm, yeah, I'm the older. Yep. I've got the power. Yep. Yeah.

But instead, he's just like, great, you chose that beautiful land over there. You're right. That does look beautiful. Yeah. I'm gonna stay put. Yep. So, that's this story. Cool.

So, it's an interesting story about, it's the theme of a first born or sibling rivalry, even though it goes well. It's about, though it goes well. But it goes well because of Abraham's generosity, and it's about a uncle and nephew, not an older and younger brother. We're working the same theme, which is cool. So, yeah, let's just pause and meditate on how powerful of a story this is on what is possible when humans are open-handed with the much that they have been given. That's what this story is about. And we saw the opposite of this in the stories of Cain and Ham.

And that's important to hear those tragic stories, but this is really a beautiful portrait of what happens when you really truly believe there's enough for me and for my siblings. Okay, so Abram's story also involves not just the promise of a land for his future family, but of a future family, of like many descendants, that they would be fruitful and multiply, just like the Eden blessing for Adam and Eve. So a big theme here, the obstacle to this is the fact that Sarah, his wife, is unable to have children. And so in Genesis chapter 16 is a story that we've reflected on many times over

the years. So I just want to summarize it, but it's a story of how both of them become impatient with God's timing. And so they do to one of their slave, an Egyptian slave, what is good in their eyes. And the language used in the story here also echoes the language of Adam and Eve at the tree. So it's a failure story. And what Abram does is he marries and then he impregnates this Egyptian slave. And she gives birth to Abram's firstborn son, Guineham Yishmail. And right from the get-go Sarah sees this slave wife as a rival. And so in a way she becomes like a firstborn. But of these women, she's the first wife. And now there's a late-comer wife. And God gives to this Egyptian slave what he has not given to Sarah yet. And that becomes the source of division and conflict at

this part of the story. Those are creative way the story is developing and exploring that's from many angles. Yeah, I see it. So what happens is Sarah oppresses the Egyptian, so that the Egyptian and her son flee. Oh no, excuse me, watch, she's still pregnant, she flees. And what happens is the angel of the Lord comes to Hegar and provides a little garden of Eden for her, a little spring of water by a tree in the wilderness. So he provides Eden blessing, also for that late-comer who has been oppressed by the first born so just all of a sudden Sarah becomes like the cane figure and Hegar becomes the able Seth figure that God gives the blessing to Even though hegar and youchmail will not be the chosen line

We don't know this right now. Well, you don't know this yet. So, well, okay, so story so far is God provides a little Eden bless. But actually, we should assume it because doesn't God, does he say explicitly, like, I will give you a son through Sarah? He does after this. After this. That's right. Okay.

So after Heagar goes into the wilderness, God provides a little Eden stream and tree out there and says, Hey, like, go back, I'm going to make you fruitful and multiply. And you're going to get the blessing, but your son is going to live and conflict with those around him. And so she goes back in chapter 17, right after that. God says, Hey, remember, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna bless you and you'll be fruitful and multiply Yep, to Abraham and changes his name. This is where it is from Abraham to Abraham and So when God says you're gonna be fruitful and multiply then he specifies and he said listen

You pulled this move with Hegar trying to produce a descent on your own, but it's through Sarah that a royal lineage a King like lineage will come from her and You're like, oh, yeah, that snake crushing see the woman and Abraham falls on his face and he laughs and he says yeah, right Like you know Sarah being his old. She is kind of a child and then when he says I already have a firstborn He says oh let Ishmael be the one who lives before you being as old as she is kind of a child. And then when he says, I already have a firstborn. He says, Oh, let Ishmael be the one who lives before you. I already have one. And how's that going to work with Sarah? So it's a lack of trust moment. And God says, Nope, it's through Sarah. I think the logic here is Ishmael is the product of the un of a rivalry between the two wives. And in that rivalry, Sarah was like the impressive first wife.

And the mistrust that Abraham has for God's blessing. Yeah. It's the product of a rivalry and a mistrust. Correct. Yes, right. Our mistrust that turns into a rivalry. That turns into a rivalry. So what God says is, I'm going to provide a sun through Sarah, and he will be the second born. And it's that second born that will carry the line

of the royal lineage of the snake crusher and the blessing. So it's like the wives. Sarah is kind of the first come wife, but she'll give birth to the second born son. And it's the first born son through the second, the late comeer, why, anyway, it's a really clever inversion of it. But we're just kind of turning the theme over from all these angles. But it's the same basic idea. But what God also makes really clear is just like, Yishmails the first born, and I'm going to give the blessing to the second born through Sarah, but God says, I will bless Yishmail too. He will be fruitful and multiply.

And this goes to member Cain. Cain's that, if my brother is exalted, that's it. There's no blessing for me. And God's like, listen, just because I choose one doesn't mean I don't choose the other. It means I'm working in historical sequence and you two, your schmale, will get the blessing. So that's how this team works out in Abraham's generation. And so when Sarah finally has a son.

So Abraham was pretty happy with Ishmael being his first born. It was Sarah who wasn't down. And then it was the fact that like he wasn't gonna have another kid. Yeah But then God said no, I'm gonna give you another job. That's right. And so later in Genesis in chapter 21 when Sarah finally does become pregnant she gives birth to Abraham's second son Isaac and Sarah is the one who once again becomes jealous of the

status or irritated with Yishmail and his slave mother, Hegar. And so when Sarah saw the son of Hegar, the Egyptian, doing something, here it says mocking is the new American standard Bible translation. Remember Isaac's name means laughter. Abram laughed, Sarah laughed, when they said, when they heard there is. And so God said, you'll name him laughter because you laughed. And then what Sarah sees is Ishmael, the first born, relating to laughter, her son laughter in some way, and the verb that describes what he's doing is causing laughter, which could mean making fun of something like that,

but she's ticked, so she exiles the slave woman and her son. So that rivalry becomes really tragic. And so what God does is, once again, Hegar and her son are out wandering in the wilderness. They think they're gonna die. And for a second time, God provides water and a tree in the wilderness. And promises that they'll have the blessing, even though they are not the chosen lineage of blessing for the snake crushing seed.

So, I think what we can meditate on here is that this is a story about Abraham and Sarah and their struggle to trust God's generosity and specifically just they struggle with his timing, which is similar to what Cain struggled with. And sometimes Abram gets it right. Other times he and Sarah really don't. And what God does is compensate for the pain and ruin they cause

by blessing the people who are hurt, by their lack of trusting God's blessing. But he also doesn't walk out on Abraham and Sarah, like he stays committed to them being the people that he's going to provide the seed through, even though it really feels like they don't deserve it by this point in the story. Interesting way of exploring this theme. Yeah. Because in some sense, Abraham, he made a good call with God's generosity with a lot. And then when it came to trusting in God's generosity for him in terms of an air, like it pushed him too far.

Yeah, he trusted God with the land, but he didn't trust God with the future of his family. Because I mean, he's just like, yeah, I could trust God, there's lots of land, I'm looking around, there's lots of land. Oh yeah, don't. And I'm also looking around, I'm getting rolled. And there's no children. My wife's getting really old.

Yeah, yeah. There's no kids. I got to take matters in my own hand. Now as soon as we're talking about seed and heirs, we're in the realm of this theme of the firstborn. And by taking another wife, having a firstborn child from that wife, it creates a rivalry between the wives, Abraham's down with the son, but then there's a rivalry with the wives.

And then becomes a rival, we rivalry with the wives. And... That then becomes a rival we also between the sons. Yeah. Division on both fronts. And I guess what I don't fully understand, maybe help this land more is, God could have just said, let's use Ishmael. And that would have been kind of a, you know, God using the second born wife,

or the second wife, the seed of the second wife. And that fits the theme of like, I'm gonna choose the late comer and elevate. Yeah. But instead it's like, no, let's invert again. Mm-hmm. And now I'm gonna actually choose the first wife to have the second son.

Second one, so. Yeah. Yeah. Because the second son feels in a way like should be the favored sun because it is of the first wife. And I've always thought of Isaac as the more important sun in a way. So in some way, he is the second born. But in some way, he is of the first wife. Yeah. No, I've asked the same question myself, the

most satisfactory kind of set of reflections that I've come to is even though Yishmail is the son of the oppressed Egyptian slave, Isaac is the son that truly is a gift of sheer God's creative, active grace and power, creating life out of non-life in the womb of Sarah. Whereas Yishmail is the son that they produced by doing what's good in their own eyes. And so my hunch is that it's the son that they could never point to and say, look at

what we did that. It's the son. What you said, look what I made with the alloy. Oh yeah, exactly. what we did that. It's the sun. Oh, what you said. Look what I made with the Yahweh. Oh, yeah, exactly. That's exactly right. Yeah, they can't look at Isaac and say, look what we made. Hmm, thank you. That's a good reflection.

Rather Isaac is the sun that they look at and say, ah, look what Yahweh did. Look what Yahweh did. Yeah. But what that means is this overlooking of Yashmaheul, but kind of, but God says I'm not going to overlook him. Yeah, he's going to, he gets the eating blessing too. Yeah. So I think that's probably.

It does show you there's enough generosity that it's hard to predict God's method. Yes, that is true. It is unpredictable. It forces every generation to stay live with God. Right. Oh, I get it. God's gonna always choose the second board, or the second, and here's the second wife. Okay, I get, oh wait a second. That's great. That's good. That's good. Each jet, yeah, you can't predict the particular way God will enact his purpose, but you can trust that the deep desire underneath God's

purpose is good. It's the bless everyone. But it will sometimes look like it's not good, and that's what puts all these characters in. It almost inevitably always looks like it's not good. Like in the stories, the next generation. So the next generation is the story of Isaac's two sons, Isaac and Rebecca, and this is the most famous

first born, second born rivalry, and the Bible, I think. Jacob and Esau. Yeah, and their twins. And they're, yeah, told it. And their rivalry is happening in the moment of birth itself. Yeah. Because Jacob is depicted as grabbing at his brother, like clinging for the position of his brother.

He's more in second, but he's holding on to the heel. He's grabbing the heel. 1,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5, So for a much longer meditation on the Jacob stories and really a lot of what we'll summarize right now We did all series of conversations on the Jacob story as we went through the Genesis scroll in our journey through the Torah before so It'll be hard. I just want to condense the theme right here. It's kind of so you have Isaac who's the second born son to Abraham. Yeah of his first wife and then he Marries Rebecca who's a relative or a daughter of Abrams

Family that he left back back in the day. Yeah So they can married and Rebecca gets pregnant. This is Genesis 25 and she can feel that there's like a wrestling match happening in her womb. Right? And she freaks out about it and she goes to pray to God about what's happening in her stomach. And what God says is two nations. This is Genesis 25 23 two nations are in your womb.

Two peoples will be separated from your body. One people will be stronger than the other and the older will become the servant of the younger. So from the beginning, God's stated purpose is this is not going to go the way you think. Though by this point in Genesis, you're kind of like, well, this is kind of what I thought would probably happen, but not for the characters in the story. So you know God's purpose from the beginning.

So what's really fascinating is the depiction of Jacob right after this is of swindling or scheming his way to get the right of the firstborn by his own plan. And this is Jacob is making stew one day and his brother comes in famous story. And he saw, I was like, wow, it's a hunger, I'm gonna die. Give me that red red. Give me that red red stew.

And Jacob says, I'm happy to give that to you along with the right of the firstborn. And he saw, I was like, what yeah, I'm about to die of hunger. What is it to me? And so he, and the Hebrew word for the right of the firstborn is called the bechorah. Word bechor is firstborn. So bechorah is the right of the firstborn.

Then we flip it over in another story that's going to happen in Genesis 27, is Isaac, is hungry one day. And he brings in Issa and says, Issa. Make me a special stew. You make me a really special meal that I can take and eat. I'll give you the blessing, the Eden blessing that God passed on to me. Now, we're supposed to be thinking of these two things separately.

I know we've jammed on this and it never landed for me. Oh. The Bechora. Yep. Does that right? The right of the firstborn. Yep. The right of the firstborn.

And the blessing. The blessing which is spelled with the same letters, but flipped around the middle. Beracha. Beracha. Beracha.. Berracha, blessing. Bechora, the first born right. Yep. Can I make a clear distinction and relationship between the two?

Mm. Well, where are they synonyms? Oh, well, they're clearly related. They're related. By the paired swindling stories, swindling to get Jacob Swindles to get the Bechora, and he and his mom swindle to get the Beracha. Here's my assumption.

So maybe then you just tell him where I'm wrong. The Bechora, the right of the firstborn, the, it would be a cure inheritance, like the double portion that the firstborn son gets. Yeah. The Bechora, the other one, the blessing. Yeah. Yeah. Is this other theme that God is going to choose a family where the royal snake Christian

King is going to come from? That's right. But royal in terms of authority. So in other words, the blessing... So they should go together. Yeah. Yeah. But God blessed the human and said, be fruitful and multiply, rule the land. Yeah.

So authority, power, responsibility, and abundance are all packed into the blessing of Eden. Yeah. And so I think they are implied, abundanceundance and rule and responsibility, our package deal. I see. But it could be, you could, in the logic of this, you could give the abundance to one son where the blessing goes with another son, right?

So one son gets the double portion, but the blessing of the royal king, comes from another son. Well, does that ever happen? Well, fascinating is I think Isaac thinks that he can just like give the blessing away for food. So, which shows that his kind of like his son is within his image,

because he gives away his firstborn right for food. So, like father, like son. I think if anything, it's the Isaac, I think his portrait here is being flippant and he doesn't seem to value it because he'll just exchange it for food. But I think the real question is, so when Isaac says, I'll give a blessing,

why should God care what Isaac thinks and what Isaac does? That's what God gets blessing. Yeah, but God already said what his purpose was. Was it a rule? Rule and authority would go to the younger one. Okay. And Isaac is seen here as swording God's purpose. Got it.

And we know the one who's already been selected and it's the younger one. Okay. As Paul says before they do good or bad, God has made his mysterious choice. What is the clay to say to the potter? Why did you make me this way? But what the clay can't say to the potter is, I trust that you will make me into something beautiful too. There you go.

That's it. That's what this is about. So what happens is that Rebecca and Jacob come up with a plan to swindle. Wait, do you think that's actually what Paul's logic there is? Isn't the logic a little bit like, doesn't he say like God can just discard certain mugs? Well, he holds that open as a conditional possibility. What if God were to just choose one mug and discard another? What if God were to do that? And he never finishes that sentence.

And then he goes on a long trail to show that those whom God doesn't choose were always designed to be incorporated into the blessing given to the chosen one. Interesting. Which is Israel in the nations. Okay. So, an open into question that he doesn't answer and then you realize... Until he comes around to the very end when he says, therefore, God has assigned all to

disobedience so that he may have mercy on all and restore Israel and the nations through resurrection. I guess what's confusing is that whole thing comes out of how he dealt with Pharaoh too. Correct. Yeah, that's right. Which with Pharaoh, I mean, he does get destroyed. Yeah, that's right. The point is for Paul, the Jacob and Esau story isn't about choosing one at the exclusion.

It's about choosing one to become the vehicle of blessing for the many, which puts the nonchosen and a test that they have to choose. And here, Esau, when he realizes that his brother is swindled him, he responds just like Cain did. In fact, the language is exactly the same. He wants to harag his brother, which means murder, and that's what Kane did to his brother. He murdered him. So what's important here, and the clever twist here, is that the second born Jacob, you already know he's the one chosen from the beginning, chosen

from the beginning, but he consistently lives and behaves as if he's going to get the firstborn right or the blessing on his own terms. He's going to be by his own wisdom. Now, in the story, we don't know if he knows that he was chosen. No, it's true. All we know is that God said that to Rebecca. Yeah. So it could be that Isaac doesn't know.

Yeah. And he's just doing what is natural. That's a possibility. But Rebecca knows, and so she threw a counter deception, gets a scheme. If she knows, and she's the one that instigates the counter deception with Jacob. Yeah. But either way, Jacob is depicted as grabbing after the thing that God has destined him to receive. But he lives as if he is only going to get it if he does what it takes. Even if it means betraying your own family

members. And we're back to that theme, except now instead of like Cain, the firstborn, wondering, is there blessing for me? It's like the chosen secondborn acts and lives as if he wonders. It's the ham pattern of ham. It's the ham pattern, yeah. It's really interesting. So you can be the chosen one, but choose to live as if you're not and hurt people in order to get the thing

that God wanted to give you all along. And that is a perfect summary of the story of Jacob. So it's only the first time Jacob acts generously in his own life story. His way back, it's the night before he's about to remete Esau 20 years later. And he heard that Esau is coming with 400 men. And you're just... And he's on his own is coming with 400 men. And he's on his own at this point, right? He's got four wives and all their kids

and a bunch of animals. Okay, so I mean, yeah, yeah. And he's like, my brother's coming. Last I knew he wants to kill me. Yeah. And so, this is in Genesis 32. He lines up his family in groups. And he lines up his wives and all their respective

kids in the order of most disliked to his favored wife at the last. So he protects his Joseph and like a moat for him. Yeah, but basically he's offering up his wife and kids as a sister. Like if you're going to start killing people off in my family, start with this crew. That's right, and that's what he says in the story. He says, well, if you know, he strikes and kills me, oh my gosh. At least till strike a smaller group first.

And then after he makes that plan, is the strange story of God picking a fight with him in the middle of the night. And Jacob's like, give me the blessing to this stranger. And he's like, dude, you've been struggling with humans and God your whole life, buddy. And it ends tonight. And he just smashes him in the crotch. And it dislocates his hip. And you're like, what a weird. And then the stranger gives him a blessing. And you find out the stranger's God. And then the next morning, what Jacob does is he moves his little camp to the front so that he's the first one to meet his

brother. So there's some change of heart. The first time he actually acts, trusting God, to be generous and to save his life is the night after he gets smashed in the crotch by God. Isn't that what a wild story? Yeah. And how does this connect to, does it connect to this theme? I mean, because he asks for the blessing. He wrestles God and then asks, He still wants it.

He'll give me the blessing. Yeah. And God gives it to him, but it's precisely by wounding him that finally puts Jacob in a position to receive it legitimately from God. Yeah, in a way he's always had it. Yep, in a way he's always had it, but God doesn't let him know, you know, actually, it's not entirely true, but that takes us down a rabbit hole in the Jacob story and you can go listen earlier, podcast episodes. God has said, actually, appeared to him before in dreams that I'm gonna bless you, but Jacob consistently acts like he's gonna have to do it by his own power. So the night before he meets his first born brother is when all this happens. So Jacob walks up to his brother and he says,

he says, what are all of these animals? Why'd you send me like dozens of animals? And he says, I want to give you a blessing. I'm gonna give you back the blessing that I stole from you. And what Esau says, this is so rad, man. What Esau says is, I have enough brother. Like, I don't need your gift. I have much my brother. So Esau becomes the generous Abraham that's like,

Yeah. Listen. I can trust what I have. I'm good. I have enough. You can keep your blessing. You clearly wanted it really bad. So I keep your style that hip.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Man, this is so powerful. This is really, really powerful. Studies in human nature and psychology. Okay, we're in like flying high mode over Genesis, but I kind of like it. It's good. There's one more generation to go. One more generation, but maybe let's let the Jacob and ESA story sit,

because the story of Jacob's sons is about all of Jacob's own flaws, just like ratcheted up with the volume at 11, and multiplied by 12 sons this time. Okay, the last cycle of this first born rivalry God inverting the blessed one is the story of Joseph and his brothers who are the sons of Jacob. Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons and one daughter and in Genesis 37 begins the story of those children. So just to flag it, we dedicated many episodes of working through the Joseph story in our series where we went through the Torah and the

movements of Genesis and so on. So movement, three of Genesis or fourth movement of Genesis. So for deeper dive, feel free to go there. We just want to summarize briefly how the inversion of the first born happens in this story. And it's once again, it's a twist. It's always with a twist. Yeah. Well now there's 12 kiddos. Right. There's 12 kiddos.

And the first four sons that Jacob has are from a wife that he never really liked. Oh, so we're kind of jamming with the... Yep. The Sarah and Hagar. Yes, Sarah and Hagar, I think. Thing in Ishmael and Isaac. Yeah. So the first born is actually born to what turns out the Sarah and Hagar. Yes, Sarah and Hagar, thing. Thing in Ishmael and Isaac. Yes.

So the first born is actually born to what turns out to be Jacob's first wife, Leia. Which is his unfavorable wife. But it's the wife he doesn't love because he didn't want her to be his first wife. It's so creative, man. These stories are so creative. So what Joseph does is actually take one of his last sons, Joseph, who's the 11th son, and Joseph makes him the exalted favorite son by giving him the special coat, technical or dream coat. And then that's the son that has dreams about being exalted as the

ruler of his family and the ruler of the universe, with the stars. He becomes a dream about being exalted as the ruler of his family and the ruler of the universe. With the stars, he becomes a dream about being an exalted image of God ruling even over the stars, which is for sure. Genesis. Genesis one thing on the break. I know a snake that really wouldn't like that dream. I know some brothers who don't like that dream. So, I know some brothers who don't like that dream. And some brothers who give into the snake and who act like can who don't like that dream.

And so it's Joseph's older brothers that devise a scheme to first murder, and then they decide to just throw him in a pit and then sell him into slavery in Egypt. And so Joseph becomes the able-type figure. Yeah, but he survives the pit. He's not murdered, but his brothers lie like snakes and get Jacob to think that he's been murdered by showing him a bloody cloak, the dream coat, turn bloody.

And so this whole story becomes about how God preserves the life of the chosen son, chosen of his father. Paul's a man of the pit. Paul's a man of the pit. He goes further into a pit down in Egypt, you know, that he calls the prison. He ends up in prison in Egypt. And from there, the deep pit down in Egypt

God exalts the chosen son of the father. Precisely through his suffering, he meets people that become the way that he's elevated to become the second and place ruler over all of Egypt. And not only that, his wise rule is able to imagine a plan, to save Egypt and all the surrounding countries in the midst of a famine.

So it's precisely his suffering that leads him to his exaltation to a second in command place over Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. To the king. To the king. He's essentially a king. Yeah, that's exactly right. Now, what's fascinating then is that when the brothers finally come, Joseph is really suspicious.

They have to go to Egypt because there's a famine. And they're looking at it. That's another little rip. Yeah, yeah, totally. Going to Egypt because of a famine. Yeah, totally. Yeah. They go down, they run into Joseph who's now in charge.

They'll be hold, the sun that they abused. Not to kill. The brother. I'm sorry Not the brother. The brother. The brother, yeah. Son of Jacob. Ooh, they sell off into slavery. He's now the one with the power. Yep. So Joseph concocts a scheme to match their old scheme, where he lines it up so that the

brothers are put in prison and they're put in a position to betray one of their brothers and leave them in prison. Jacob wants to see if they'll still betray a brother. Joseph wants to see if they're going to do now what they did decades ago to him and they don't. They tell the truth. And so Joseph does another round of testing his brothers. Joseph gets the brothers to bring down his little brother, Benjamin.

And he puts Benjamin in position where the brothers could take money and run and leave. And leave a brother? His next, the very youngest son in prison. And what happens? Judah, the fourth born of Leia, the first wife of Jacob, he steps up and he says, listen. Take me instead. We did wrong to this kid's brother a long time ago, and that's coming back on our heads.

We shouldn't have done that, and I give my life in place of my little brother. And at that moment Joseph knows, like these are these brothers have changed. And he reveals himself. So what's interesting is the whole conflict is resolved when the fourth born of Leia offers up his life as a sacrifice

in the place of the favored younger son. It's really interesting. And then as you go on to the end of the book of Genesis, what you learn is that for the rest of the history of this family, there's gonna be two prominent brothers in rivalry with each other for the rest of the Torah and the prophets. It's the line of Joseph and the line of Judah. And especially once you leave the Torah and go into Joshua Judges' Samuel Kings, most of the main leaders and kings and And especially once you leave the Torah and go into Joshua Judges, Samuel Kings,

most of the main leaders and kings and judges are all figures that come either from the line of Joseph and Judah, and they're often in competition with each other. And then later when the kingdom split after Solomon's rule, it's Joseph and Judah, all through the story of kings. Is that the Northern Kingdom? And the Northern Kingdom is Joseph.

The Southern Kingdom is Judah. So the rivalry of the two brothers who give up their lives for the blessing of the many brothers, they become the heads of clans that become rival brothers through the rest of the story of Torin, perhaps really interesting. But what God promises is that he's going to bless the line of Joseph, but he's going to bring the royal future coming king from the line of Judah. So the blessing of abundance gets put on Joseph, the blessing of the future rule. Does this what I was asking? Does everybody split up? Yeah, yeah. The Bechora and the...

Yeah, and in a way, it does. In the Bechora shop? Yeah, the Bechora for a sporn right, and the Behrachah, the blessing. Yeah. And yeah, it's split between Judah and the Buddha. Totally. And dude, this is so rad. And then the rest of the Torah and prophets is about how that split between Joseph and Judah

just goes right down through their history. They never get along and none of their descendants get along. And then Ezekiel has this weird dream where God tells them to pick up two sticks and to write Joseph on one and Judah on the other and then to make the two become one. And when God restores the new creation and replants Eden and restores Israel as the nucleus of a new humanity, he's going to reunite the brothers, the older brother and the younger brother Joseph will become one. So this is really interesting. So man, I just want to do the rest of the Hebrew Bible there.

So but it's another example of God's has a blessing for everybody. Yeah. But he's going to bring it through one family. That family is constantly in all these cycles of rivalry, hurting each other, to get the thing God wants to give to all of them. And God will actually turn that rivalry into the vehicle through which he brings the unity that will restore the blessing to everybody through those few rivals. Yeah. And so the theme of the first born and that God doesn't always choose the one

who you would think as they should have the authority and the status and the power. That's been cycling. When we get to the 12, it's like everything comes to this maturation where it's so sophisticated. There's 12 brothers. The very first, is it Ruben? Is the first? Yeah. I mean, he's off the map.

Yeah, he does what Ham did. He sleeps with his dad's wife. Oh my gosh. So that takes him out of the running. Yeah. So you've got the fourth and the fourth one. The fourth one of the first wife and then the 11th, yeah, of the last wife to bear children.

And so neither of them are the first born. Mm-hmm. And the blessings kind of split between them. When you think of them together, there is a first born, second born kind of split between them. When you think of them together, there is a first born, second born kind of rivalry between them, because one is older than the other, and one gets the royal line while the other doesn't. And so, man, so fascinating. It is. And it all comes down to, though, to land the plane. God wants to bless all of humanity. And if you do what is right, you will be exalted.

This is what he tells us to can. And what's the temptation is to go, man, I don't like the situation I'm in. I don't have what I need, what I deserve. It doesn't feel like exaltation to me. It doesn't feel like exaltation right now. That person has what they don't deserve. It doesn't feel like exaltation to me. It doesn't feel like exaltation right now. That person has what they don't deserve. Like what?

I need to do something. Yeah. And so we could call this theme like, you know. Coveting? The theme of coveting. Yeah. That will show I'm not covet. Well, I guess that's in the 10.

Yeah. It's important. Yeah. The I guess that's in the 10. Yeah. It's important. The woman saw that the tree was desirable for eating and desirable covetous. It's word covet. But it's coveting status and power and authority and abundance and abundance. And that's been given to somebody else

that I don't think deserves it. And that I think by cultural norm or practice, I ought to be the one who has that. Right. And if I say to someone else, hey, you choose and I'm gonna trust, that just feels so counterintuitive and scary and stupid. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, maybe there's not enough. That's right. Yeah, it's as strange as Jesus saying, blessed are those of low social status, the meek or the unimportant. They are the ones that will inherit the land. He says, although you own nothing,

you're the ones who inherit it all. It's yeah, following the God revealed in this story, more than likely is going to set a person up for many rounds of this tension of waiting for exaltation that doesn't seem to materialize. It's sort of like that's a part of what it means to have one's heart and desire shaped by this God. I guess like Jacob, there's stuff that needs to, we need to shed some, some

scales, some sneaky scales, so that we can truly receive the thing that God wants to give to everybody, but each and its own way and its own time and that's hard for us, isn't it? It's a powerful stuff, man. Okay, so next we're going to jump into the Exodus school and talk about this theme. Yeah, when it comes to two brothers named Moses and Aaron, then some brothers that come from Aaron, named Nadav and Avi Hube and Elazar, and then about our first born son that God calls Israel. He calls Israel his first son. My first born son, and he says that as a threat to the King of Egypt, who is enslaving and oppressing and murdering his firstborn son.

Okay. Thank you for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. Next week, we are diving into the Exodus scroll to continue the theme of the first born. Israel is God's firstborn, but they're not the ones in power anymore. In the opening pages of Exodus, the Pharaoh, who has blessed Joseph, is gone and a new Pharaoh has brutally enslaved them. And so this becomes a contrast, portrait of a governing leader who looks at an immigrant group. And all they see is liability and of potential conflict.

And so what the tragic irony is that his fear of conflict is actually what he goes on to create through his actions. Today's episode was produced by Cooper Peltz with the associate producer Lindsay Ponder, edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza, Hannah Wu provided the annotations for our annotated podcast and our app. Our project is crowdfunded nonprofit and we exist to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And everything that we make has already been paid for by thousands of people just like you.

Thank you so much for being a part of this with us. Hey, Nora. Finish eating your cookie. My name is Noah Baby and I'm from Battleground Washington. When did you first hear about the Bible project? Like so close to Eastwood. What's your favorite thing about the Bible project? There's a new one. That's what is the new one called. It says our humans are separated from our animals and then she just give them a little rope. What's your favorite part says all humans are separated from all the animals.

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