Lot's Descendants

Levi's Genealogy

These 23 Men of Genesis

The birth years and death years are not years in BC or AD. I simply began at zero (0) and began adding. For example: Noah was born 1,056 years after creation. He lived a total of 950 years. Thus, he died 2,006 years after creation.

Why Egypt?

Have you ever wondered why God sent the Israelites to Egypt?

He could have sent them to any number of nations among the Canaanites. They were a lot closer which would have made for a much easier and more convenient walking distance since Israel and his family were already sojourning among them. So why Egypt?

What if I told you that the reason God sent them to be enslaved under the Egyptians was to protect their purity? You may be asking, "Would God really send His children into bondage and hard times in order to protect them from being led astray from the truth?"

Genesis 46:34 says...

"...for every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians."

 

I took a screenshot of the definition of loathsome from Google for your reference.

 

Question

 

Why do you think God would send a people of shepherds into a nation that loathes shepherds?

 

Answer

 

So they wouldn't intermarry. God is concerned with the purity of His people. He knows how weak we are and how easy it is for us to follow after other gods. Thus, He sent them to the one place in which they would never mix races.

 

Deuteronomy 7:3-4 says...

"Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods..."

Conclusion

Simeon had already had a son by a Canaanite woman (Genesis 46:11) and this would have become a characteristic of many if Israel would have remained sojourning among the Canaanites. Thus, God moved them to protect them.

They suffered hard persecution and were forced into slavery, but God protected their purity and kept them as a chosen race to be His nation of priests who would serve Him and only Him by being a light to the nations.

Has God ever sent you into hard times to protect your purity?

Descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt

If you are like me then you enjoy reading through the occasional genealogy. You might even fancy spending long hours of your day trying to find out what time period specific people lived in. Charts and numbers may be your greatest ally if you are a visual person, but sometimes you find things that really mess you up. Numbers that just don't add up.

One such instance is found in Genesis 46:8-27.

I read this passage at least thirty times. I went over it and under it. I made charts, blogs, underlined and circled every name in this passage of Scripture, but I still couldn't figure it out. What was I missing? What was I forgetting? Why were the numbers not adding up?


Verse twenty-six says...

"All the persons belonging to Jacob, who came to Egypt, his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob's sons, were sixty-six persons in all."

The problem that I was facing, however, is that when you add up the four numbers given for his descendants through each of his wives the number does not equal sixty-six.

Verse fifteen says... "all his sons and his daughters numbered 33." (Leah)

Verse eighteen says... "and she bore to Jacob these 16 persons." (Zilpah)

Verse twenty-two says... "there were 14 persons..." (Rachel)

Verse twenty-five says... "there were 7 persons..." (Bilhah)

 

A Little Bit of Math

33 + 16 + 14 + 7 = 70

Then we subtract three because Joseph and his two sons (Manasseh and Ephraim) were already in Egypt.

70 - 3 = 67

All Done With Math

Verse twenty-six says there were 66 descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt, yet when we add the four numbers up we end with 67. Thus, we have a problem...or do we?

Verses 8-15 are Jacob's descendants through Leah. In these few verses we find that 33 sons are named and two daughters. One daughter is Dinah and the other is unknown. Her name is not found in Scripture. If you would like to know how 33 sons + 2 daughters = 33 persons total, then click here to read a previous blog post outlining the specific details of this.

Somewhere in the genealogy of Jacob and Leah's descendants was born another girl. Both daughters are numbered in the first number (33) given in verse fifteen, but only one is numbered in the overall number (66) given in verse twenty-six.

It is likely that the other daughter was born to them in Paddan-aram, yet died sometime before their journey to Egypt. Hence, she is not named in Scripture, like David's first son by Bathsheba, who died in infancy, is not named.

This makes the most sense because verse fifteen is only telling us the number of Jacob and Leah's descendants before entering into Egypt, while verse twenty-six is telling us the specific grand total of all Jacob's descendants going into Egypt. Thus, Jacob and Leah had a total of 33 descendants before Egypt, yet only 32 entered into Egypt.

Some More Math

33 + 16 + 14 + 7 = 70

Then we subtract four: the unnamed daughter who died and the three descendants (Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim) who were already in Egypt.

70 - 4 = 66

Verse twenty-seven then gives us a grand total of 70 because it adds the three who were already in Egypt and their father Jacob. Thus, all the persons of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were 70.

Conclusion

I was struggling for a while trying to figure this out. Thankfully, I had amazing teachers at Bible School that I could email and they were all quick to help me in my time of need. If any of you are looking for a Bible School I highly recommend New Tribes Bible Institute. Click here for information.

Descendants of Jacob Through Bilhah

Descendants of Jacob Through Rachel

Descendants of Jacob Through Zilpah

Descendants of Jacob Through Leah

Genesis 46:15 says, "These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, with his daughter Dinah; all his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three."

If you add up all of the descendants you will actually find them numbering thirty-four.

Why the discrepancy?

At the beginning of the passage in verse eight, Moses writes, "Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt..."

There is no discrepancy here.

We add them all up and then subtract Er and Onan from the list because they died in Canaan. They never made it to Egypt. Subtracting these two makes the number thirty-two, and then we add one as an unnamed daughter because somewhere in the genealogy there is a girl unmentioned. We know this because verse fifteen says "daughters" plural.

Judah's Five Sons

Descendants of Esau

Jacob's Immediate Family Tree

Esau's Six Wives

 

 

If you will also notice, not only did Esau marry two of Ishmael's daughters, but also two of Elon's (the Hittite) daughters: Basemath and Adah. In all, Esau had six wives.

Descendants of Ishmael

 

Abraham's Children



Abraham ended his life having a grand total of eight children.

Genealogy to Isaac and Rebekah

The War of Nine Kings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never-Ending Promises in an Ever Changing World

Has there ever been a time in the history of mankind when the symbol of God's covenantal promise has been more popular than it is now? God is getting a lot of publicity lately and as you can see in the picture below that even the White House is showing off the colors of God's covenant!

Now it is true that many people who are flashing these colors around believe that they are propagating a different message. They believe that they have successfully hijacked the rainbow of God and have used it to further their own agenda. However, in the same way that it is impossible for one to redefine the God-given definition of marriage, the same is true for the God-given meaning of the magnificent rainbow.

You see, Satan's goal from the very beginning has been to take everything that exemplifies God's glory and deface its true meaning. The sad thing for him, however, is that it can't be done. Yes, he can deface the symbol, but he cannot remove God's covenant that it represents.

God promised Noah and all of his descendants after him [which includes you and me] that every single time He sees His rainbow He will remember His covenant to never again flood the entire world and destroy mankind. Genesis chapter nine tells us that it is an everlasting covenant that should not bring us fear but rather fill us with praise to our God who is faithful and is forever reigning.


The enemy wants us as believers to fear these rainbow colors and perhaps even shun them, but I say we praise God all the more. Yes, the homosexual movement seems overwhelming and unstoppable but I promise that He has not left us. On the contrary, He is on the verge of glorifying Himself among the nations!

Millions of people today think they are waving a flag around boasting about their civil rights. They need to think again. These are God's colors and they can't be hijacked. In a world where sin is rampant and every intent of man's heart is evil from their youth, just as it was before the flood, God's glory is being revealed among the sons of men. God's promise is everywhere and He will uphold it. God will not be mocked and He will vindicate these hijacked images that are meant to bring glory to Himself.

Giving the Bible Functional Authority

The Bible is one of the most misquoted, misapplied, and misinterpreted pieces of literature out there. We live in a society that believes everything is up for debate. A world that takes the Word of God and rips out all of the pages they don't like or are not convenient for them at this time.

In this day and age you and I can make the Bible say whatever we want. It doesn't make it true, but how many times have you heard somebody use a Bible verse to prove their argument and then come to find out later that the verse in question doesn't even mean what that person said it did?

Example:

Judging

"Do not judge me. God alone is my Judge."

This statement comes from Matthew chapter seven. If we are to be honest, a good majority of the people who use this verse out of context would never be able to find it in Scripture apart from the help of the Google search engine.

Many people throughout history have just thrown this verse out to justify whatever sin they are committing. They don't want to feel judged by others even though they know what they are doing is wrong so they argue this point which is presented in Matthew 7:1-4. The problem they face, however, is that if they were to read the very next verse their whole argument would crumble because they would see that the Bible actually tells us that we are called to judge!

How Can We Avoid This?

If we want to avoid misinterpreting the Bible, then we are required to perform two actions when testing one of our beliefs:

1) We must find evidence in Scripture that supports our case. This is big. If we don't have this, then we need to be cautious as to what it is we actually believe about the area we are trying to prove because it may borderline between speculation and heresy.

2) While it is true that we must find evidence supporting our beliefs, we must also strive with all of our might to find anything that would possibly disprove our belief. This is bigger. Like I said previously, often you and I can make the Bible say whatever we want. That is why we need to see if the Bible ever speaks against our theology. If it seems to support a truth while simultaneously disproving it, then we must be very careful because there may be something bigger going on in its broader context.

Conclusion

No matter who we are or what we have done, we all come to Scripture with a bias. It is impossible not to. We have all walked through different circumstances and have lived different lives. We each have had our own triumphs and struggles and at this point in our lives we are bringing everything that we have ever experienced, whether good or bad, and we are using that as our lens through which we see Scripture.

I must admit that I have had certain beliefs in the past that I have had to learn to let go of because of one verse that disproved my theory. Logic and Scripture both seemed to support a couple of my ideas, but one simple Bible verse said otherwise and it forced me to let it go. I saw in those instances how easy it was to even want to ignore those passages so that I didn't have to let go of what I wanted to believe.

I actually have tried at times to force my theology into the Word. In my mind I knew there was that verse, but my theology made for a great blog. I have learned the note below the hard way.

NOTE: If your theology doesn't match Scripture, change your theology.

I heard a pastor once say that he was teaching through the book of Revelation through an Amillennialist's viewpoint and when he got into chapter twenty he changed his mind and became a Premillennialist. You can imagine that for several weeks he had to be in his office on his knees asking God not to do this to him. However, I congratulate this man for having the boldness to be real with his church and admitting that he is not any closer to God than the rest of us.

We each make mistakes. Thankfully God is bigger than our weaknesses. We must allow the truth of God's Word to have ultimate authority.