The Righteous and the Wicked in Scripture

By Lee vanWesterborg

Have you ever wondered how does God determine individual righteousness or wickedness in the Bible? God's qualifications for righteousness are given throughout both the Old and New Testaments. This book will highlight many of the scriptures which can be used to prove or disprove Biblical righteousness and explain some of God's basis for judgment according to what is said in scripture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lee vanWesterborg
• Release date: Jun 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781370672264

Lee vanWesterborg

I have a podcast on Spotify (and Apple podcasts) that can be listened to here:https://anchor.fm/lee-vanwesterborg/episodes/The-Parable-of-the-Weeds-e139k2m

Book preview

The Righteous and the Wicked in Scripture

Lee van Westerborg

If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness

Matt 6:23

See to it then, that the light within you is not darkness

Luke 11:35

Cover image courtesy of Filemorgue.com, photo taken by Benjamin Hagh.

ISBN 9781370672264

Copyright Lee vanWesterborg 2021 Smashwords Edition. Thank you for downloading this e-book. This book is the copyright property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book please recommend your friends download a copy from their favorite retailer. Thank you for your support.

Other titles by Lee van Westerborg:

Corporate Logos: Consumerism and the Growth of Apostasy

Soul Taker

In the Old Testament

Genesis to Ruth

Samuel and the Kings

Job, Psalms and Proverbs

Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel

The Minor Prophets

Righteousness In the New Testament

In the Gospels

Acts to Revelation

Conclusion

The Bible provides accounts of many individual lives as examples for instruction and includes detailed information on the fates of the righteous and the wicked both in life and in eternity. In scripture, God repeatedly makes reference to separating the righteous and the wicked according to their actions, dispositions and preferences. This book is intended as a brief discussion and reference, so nothing will be examined to the smallest detail. It is recommended by the author that anyone who reads this do their own research through scripture’s teachings, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I offer innumerable thanks to David Rudel for inspiring this book, specifically his chapters which examine the scriptures for what makes one righteous according to Biblical standards.

What kind of morality does God expect from those who believe they are His children? What kind of morality does God expect from those who don’t believe? What do we imagine a Bible based morality to be? What kind of morality is exemplified in the doctrine of today’s evangelical churches? Is it actually in agreement with scriptural moral guidelines? Many of today’s mega churches and Christian subculture movements bring with them a Pharisaical religiosity because their leaders have been teaching for over a generation now that it doesn’t matter how we live once we’re saved. A true Biblical morality is obviously not a false appearance of righteousness or contrived perfection but a real effort to live by God’s principles and commandments, according to the teachings of both Testaments of scripture. David Rudel makes careful study of this issue in his book, Who Really Goes to Hell? The Gospel You’ve Never Heard… and it is recommended by this author as a must read for anyone who claims to be a Christian.

Some other questions we might ask are; can we really know if we are actually saved? Is there an objective standard throughout scripture to measure individual morality? If we search the scriptures we find in fact there is. Repeatedly we are told if we want to be considered righteous we must keep God’s commandments, and not just in the Old Testament. In all four gospels Jesus told his disciples to keep them, as did apostles Paul and John writing to the first century church. In fact we find that commandment keeping is the indicator of morality throughout scripture, those who love God are all identified throughout history by their obedience to His commandments. Indeed Jesus states later in the gospels that those who love Him keep His commandments (Matthew 19:17, John 14:21, 1 John 5:3) and this habitual action is biblical righteousness.

The most important thing to consider when studying Biblical doctrine is that in order to know what the Bible actually teaches we must read all the verses on a subject and compare them with each other to get a full understanding of scriptural principles. All of us who claim to follow the teachings of scripture need a topical index of the Bible to do proper research, for this is why it is so erroneous to pull one scripture from a random passage and make up a new context or interpretation for it without checking the other verses for agreement, although this is a popular way for the disinterested or casual reader to make the Bible agree with their opinions. There are many scriptures that will likely be missed in this brief study, the intention is to focus on the main ones where righteousness and wickedness are mentioned and encourage further individual study to determine the truth.

In The Old Testament

Using scripture as a reference, starting in Genesis chapter 3, immediately following the act of creation the central issue that arises is the knowledge of good and evil (morality), which is described in the fall of man. Initially following the account of creation in Genesis chapter 1, God looks upon His creation and declares that it is good (verse 1:31). Probably what is referred to in the verse is that creation is morally good, for evil had not appeared yet. This initial state of goodness however is not destined to last. God gave the humans one rule to follow, not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, otherwise there was no divine law. Satan appeared to Eve, tempting her to disobey God by breaking the single commandment they were to follow. He lied to Eve, but instead claimed God had lied to them. Satan told them they could become like God but instead they became like Satan, and all humanity has been in a broken relationship with God ever since. After the first instance of sin, in this case disobedience to God’s only command about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin and shame enters human consciousness and God curses the earth and expels the humans from His garden.

The moral issues described in Genesis are central to the theme of all scripture following after, and set the principles of morality throughout the rest of the bible. Adam’s sin has lasting and extreme consequences for all humans who follow after him, for through his sin all human nature is morally corrupted and by this act spiritual and physical death becomes common to humanity (Genesis 3:19). The discernment of good and evil now becomes an attribute used to categorize individuals, and at the final judgment we will be separated according to our preference for either one.

A superficial reading of the genesis story causes many of us to wonder what was so bad about what Adam and Eve had done. The real issue is that Satan convinced Eve that being like God would mean that they wouldn’t have to serve Him, but instead take His place. She believed that eating the fruit would make her equal to God, the same sin that caused Satan’s fall. When He confronted them, their responses to God suggest that they were filled with pride, for they both blamed someone else instead of accepting responsibility for their rebellion against God. Adam and Eve, like Satan before them, wanted to be God. Mankind seems to want to take God’s place, today we want to be the sole authority over our lives, and the many human philosophies such as evolution, moral relativism and humanism are all attempts to remove God’s authority from our lives. This is the same as Adam and Eve’s sin.

Adam and Eve began a long chain of sin and its consequences for humanity. Easton’s bible dictionary explains that sin is a transgression of the law of God (p.1090), an offense against a personal lawgiver and moral governor who vindicates his law with penalties, and that sin itself is vile and polluting and justly deserves punishment. John Gill in his commentary explains that after this everything that previously was a blessing is now turned into a curse, we see the proof of sin’s evil by this (Gill, p.63), and instead of gaining as Satan promised them, they actually lost, proving this is a true account of the consequences of sin. We will see from here on through the various passages of scripture that biblical definitions of moral character are most often determined by the moral state of the individual’s heart. According to the NT even the disposition or preference for sin is also sin (Romans 6:12-17, Galatians 5:17, James 1:14-15).

Adam’s sin causes him to become transgressor against God as well as all humans who follow after him. The same corrupted nature to rebel against God is descends to each generation. Adam is representative for all humanity, therefore making us all guilty, by his sin all are made transgressors. The bible suggests that sin is an influence upon human hearts to deeper corruption. Sin is universal; there is no one that doesn’t sin according to both testaments (1 Kings 8:46, Isaiah 53:6, Psalm 130:3, Romans 3:19,22,23, Galatians 3:22). In the beginning, as a consequence of sin, animal sacrifices must now be made, for in Gen 3:21 God makes animal skin clothing for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness, and the remainder of the animals’ bodies would have been sacrificed, meaning that from now on blood is required as a penalty for sin.

Smith’s Bible dictionary explains further that sin causes the need of expiation by sacrifice to renew the broken covenant between man and God, (p.701), and that the law was given to address inherent human sinfulness. Therefore because of the first sin, it has become a condition or continual state of humanity. This is what causes us to fall under God’s wrath. The first disobedience of God’s command causes shame and the need to make excuses, but far worse causes fear and separation from fellowship with God. At this time in scripture there is no law, only a requirement for sacrifice as a penalty for sin. All the descendants of Adam and Eve seem to understand this, though it is not explicitly stated but is implied by their actions.

In the next chapter we see Cain and Abel separated by their natures, Abel’s for righteousness and Cain’s preference for wickedness. This is the very first time a differentiation is made between individuals (Genesis 4:6-7, 1 John 3:12) in regards to personal morality, and it certainly won’t be the last. God punished Cain for the first murder, but was merciful to him. Cain had no fear of God, but he did live the rest of his life in fear that someone would do to him as he had killed his brother. It also seems God never allowed Cain into His presence again. Matthew Henry suggests in his bible commentary that Cain’s son believed that he would be able to sin against God without being punished (Henry, p.13). Similar attitudes will later be described in scripture as pride and wickedness. Obviously this belief will be transferred across generations of families and societies to become a human culture of wickedness and perversity described throughout the rest of the Old Testament. This is basically the world culture of sin referred to in the NT in the book of Romans.

Genesis is not a book of doctrine or teaching, but a series of biographies that show what God did in individual lives. The descendents of Adam are listed in Gen 5:1-32. Notable standouts are father and son Enoch and Methuselah. Enoch is described here and even much later in the New Testament as a righteous man in Hebrews 11:5, and his son Methuselah has the distinction of being the oldest man ever listed in scripture. He lived an unbelievable 969 years. Under the Old Testament formula of blessings for righteousness, it appears he was a very godly man. Methuselah was the father of Lamech, and grandfather of Noah, and must have been outstanding in his personal character because he is allowed the longest life in human history.

The rest of human society however, was not growing closer to God but the opposite. Remember how at creation God pronounced everything that he saw good (Gen 1:31), now He laments that all man’s thoughts have become completely evil (Genesis 6:5). This de-evolution took a mere ten generations of human history. As evil continued to spread like cancer throughout God’s creation, Noah was considered righteous compared to the rest of his generation (Genesis 6:9). He was not perfect or sinless as we will see from reading Genesis 9:20, but again in comparison to those around him he appeared righteous or morally upstanding because he learned to obey God from his father and grandfather, and somehow remained uncontaminated from the societal corruption around him.

Compared to his peers Noah was the proverbial rose growing in the garbage dump. John Gill, in his commentary on Genesis, beautifully describes Noah was sincere and upright in heart and in life, lived an unblemished life and conversation, untainted with the gross corruptions of the age he lived in…he was throughout the course of his life a holy, good man, (Gill, p.114). John Gill’s commentaries on the Bible are highly respected and recommended by all serious Biblical scholars, which is why he has been quoted here. Matthew Henry, in his Concise Commentary on the Bible, adds further insight on Noah’s situation when he explains that, Noah did not find favor in the eyes of men, they hated and persecuted him, (Henry, p.16) adding later, When the rest of the world was wicked, Noah kept his integrity. Surely this is an example of a righteous man for us to follow.

Noah had probably one of the most difficult lives of any single person recorded in scripture, as Matthew Henry explains in his commentary. He lived an exceptionally long time and those who lived around Noah were all God’s enemies, so he probably faced extreme daily persecution because of his obedience to God. Noah’s family, especially his father (Lamech) and grandfather (Methuselah) were the only other individuals from human society of that time described as righteous by God (Genesis 6:9). Of this time, scripture makes some very depressing observations, Genesis 6:3 explains God drastically reduced human life spans because of the prevalence of evil (see Genesis 6:11-12). At that time human society was under the control of those who habitually exemplify and encourage others to imitate evil while living hundreds of years, imagine if Adolph Hitler or Charles Manson had lived 900 years is the kind of world we could picture to understand God’s frustration.

Likely for this reason we read that God drastically reduced human life spans from the maximum 969 years recorded for Methuselah (Noah’s grandfather) to a limit of around 120 years. At any rate this is a very depressing commentary on human nature and our willingness to love what is evil. Reducing life spans was not enough; God destroyed the earth because of the level of wickedness of human society. Immediately after the flood, when humans began to be numerous upon the earth again, society quickly turned against God as we see in the events of the tower of Babel (Gen chapter 11), this is another commentary on human nature, instead of worshipping God we try to compete with Him and build our own way to heaven. Obviously those after the flood were just as wicked as those who were before, and this introduces the main theme of scripture, what to do about the problem of human propensity for evil.

Scholar John Gill explains regarding the tower of Babel, the motivation of the builders was the first men that rose out of the earth, proud of their strength and largeness (of their bodies), and thinking themselves greater than the gods, erected a tower of vast height, near to heaven, where Babylon is now, (Gill, p.208), and later in the same passage suggests that it was used for observance of the stars, in other words astrology and divination, which are direct rejections of God. The simplest explanation of what they were doing was an attempt to get into heaven by bypassing God and His morality, and this is why it was wrong. God did to them exactly what they feared and were attempting to prevent, scattering them across the whole earth in punishment for idolatry and rebellion.

The patriarch Abraham should be a notable example for all Christian believers for his faith was credited to him as righteousness, and before the giving of the Mosaic Law. Gill makes careful observation of Genesis 15:6 that this is the first time in the bible we read of believing as justification (Gill, p.269) and in the final mention of Abraham’s righteousness in verses 26:4-5 where Isaac is reminded by God of his father’s obedience to the Lord. Abraham’s righteousness is only credited to him by virtue of his obedience and faith towards God and His promises, not because of his status or personal accomplishments (Genesis 22:18), for God cites the reason for Abraham’s abundant blessing is because you have obeyed me. Abraham should be an example to us because unlike many other exemplary persons in scripture, he didn’t act right away, he obeyed God but in most cases after many years where it is very likely God had to keep urging Abraham, just as He does with most of us. We see from the details of Abraham’s life that he was a real human with weaknesses who learned to trust God.

As in the description of Adam and Eve’s sin, again there is a sacrifice made as soon as Abraham makes agreement with God (Gen 15:9). He is told to offer several different types of animals, which Abraham cut into pieces. After a brief waiting period as a test which must have felt like eternity, at sundown the Lord passed between the pieces, and made a covenant with Abraham. The Hebrew word for covenant is beryith, which means to cut, and probably this word is used because from the earliest times animal sacrifice was required to make such binding agreement. It is suggested by the Old Testament from the time of the earliest humans it is understood that animal sacrifice is necessary (Gen 3:21, 4:4). In the instance of Abraham’s covenant it would be logical that both parties were to pass between the pieces in order to signify agreement, but only God passed between them, likely meaning He was to assume all responsibility in this case and that this was to be an unconditional covenant. In exchange for obedience God promises Abraham and his descendents provision and protection. Abraham is given the sign of circumcision that he has made agreement with God, though this occurs after he has already been given the promises by faith; later in the New Testament instead of physical circumcision the sign becomes spiritual circumcision through the blood of Christ. In both of these examples agreement is only made with God by means of blood; it has been required since Adam and Eve’s transgression.

Abraham’s nephew Lot was considered a righteous man by scriptural standards, again in comparison to the lifestyles of those around him, and when he is warned in advance of God’s plan to destroy Sodom; after Abraham’s pleading for the lives of the righteous within the city, God sends angels to rescue Lot and his family (Genesis 19:1-29). This is meant to give hope to us, proof that indeed God does not destroy the righteous with the wicked. While he spoke to God, Abraham pleaded for the lives of the righteous within Sodom. Matthew Henry states in his commentary that, righteousness can only be made a plea before God, (Henry, p.38-39).

In the previous chapter, God had promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if even ten righteous people could be found within it (Gen 18:32). Abraham may have assumed there were ten righteous people in Sodom because he did not continue to bargain with God about what He would do if there were less than ten within the city. Earlier in Genesis, Abraham refused to take a gift from the king of Sodom, for reasons not explained (Gen 14:21-24). Abraham did not refuse to accept when the king of Egypt gave him goods, he also did not refuse to buy and sell from the Canaanites, but he absolutely refused to accept any thing from the king of Sodom, implying that he thought anything that came from Sodom was defiled or corrupted.

Lot had been comfortable living among the immorality of the city of Sodom because he had become wealthy, Abraham in contrast avoided even things touched by the inhabitants of Sodom. However, even though Lot lived among the Sodomites and accepted money from them, he did not learn their ways, he was disgusted by their sin and even tried to protect strangers who came to town from the locals. Even the angels who came to destroy the city explained it was because so many people who were disgusted by its immorality had asked God to destroy the city that He did (Genesis 19:13). In his bible commentary Gill explains that Abraham made intercession for even the wicked people of Sodom (p.320), and that it is unbecoming of God’s nature to slay the righteous with the wicked, in the case of eternal punishment but not in the case of temporal calamities. We must assume that if God is perfect in righteousness that He can’t indiscriminately punish the innocent with the guilty, and indeed scripture holds this to be true. Later in Ezekiel 16:49 Sodom is described by God as being arrogant and did not help their poor and needy, this is not different from the post modern world its culture. It was not just sexual sin, which caused God to completely destroy the city.

Only Lot’s family was led out of Sodom by angels, amounting to less than ten people. Again, they were considered righteous by God despite the fact that immediately following their escape from disaster, they made a mistake; Lot’s daughters practiced incest because they believed all the unmarried young men had been destroyed in the fire that had rained down on the city of Sodom and surrounding area. Interestingly these children of incest are noted as the patriarchs of the Moabite nation. God did not punish them for the mistake of their ancestors, but only for their own wickedness. Previously in Genesis 18:16-20 Abraham had pleaded with God not to destroy the city if He could find ten righteous men in Sodom, but the incident shows that indeed God watches over and protects the lives of those He considers righteous.

In the next chapter of Genesis, Abraham has moved to Gerar, which Gill explains is in the country of the Philistines. Whenever he traveled to a new place, it seems Abraham relied on deception because he feared he would be killed so another could take his beautiful wife, so he would say she was only his sister. As soon as the king of Gerar saw Sara he decided to take her to become one of his wives. Immediately after he does so, God confronts the king, Abimelech, for taking a married woman from her husband, and promises him he will die if he does not return Abraham’s wife to him. Here the king declares his innocence, and in fact he was in this matter because Abraham and Sarah had both lied to him (Genesis 20:5-6). Abimelech appealed to an objective standard of morality when he claimed his innocence, once confronted and God seemed to accept this before He tells Abimelech to return Sarah to her husband or die. Abimelech’s response seems to refer to the previous chapter’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, that he feared God would wipe out his entire nation on account of him. As God knew of Abimelech’s innocence in this situation He explains that He kept Abimelech from sinning against Him by taking the already married woman as his wife. God explains that He knew the details of the situation and tells Abimelech that all sin is ultimately against Him, which is why scripture will later explain that we all owe God an accounting for our sin.

Finally He tells Abimelech to restore Abraham’s wife to him as proof of his own integrity (Genesis 20:6-7) and once he did so Abraham would pray for him. Abimelech confronts Abraham before he gives Sarah back to him, and the patriarch explains that he lied because he saw that the respect for God wasn’t among the Canaanites, and possibly as much as thirty years before Abraham and Sarah had agreed to use the deception that they were merely brother and sister as protection. Satisfied by his explanation, Abimelech invites Abraham to live within his kingdom, and gives him gifts, which Abraham accepted, and then prayed for Abimelech’s women to be healed and be able to give birth. In conclusion from this incident we can see God carefully notes our individual accountability to him for our actions.

When Abimelech is mentioned again near the end of chapter 21, he again deals both honestly and favorably with Abraham. Unlike later kings of the Philistines Abimelech appears to be basically honest and trustworthy, or at least afraid enough of God’s retribution to keep his word. Abraham entered into a covenant with Abimelech and they acted in mutual friendship and good will toward each other. Even after Abraham’s death, Abimelech acted favorably toward Abraham’s son Isaac, even issuing a command that anyone who molested either him or his wife Rebekah would be put to death (Gen 26:11). He had not forgotten that God intervened personally in the events involving himself and Abraham.

In chapter 22, God again appears to Abraham and asks him to sacrifice his son. This raises the inevitable question not of Abraham’s righteousness but of God’s. Bible scholar John Gill explains that had Abraham killed his son, the blame would not be on him but on God, who asked him to do it (Gill, p.365). Matthew Henry explains that it was not God’s will that Isaac be sacrificed, because before this event God had already planned to sacrifice His own son instead. The purpose of the three day journey was to test Abraham’s love for God and to show him that a sacrifice must be made, though not by him. Indeed God kept Abraham in suspense for 3 days, but ultimately planned to pay the required price for him, and for all of us. Is God righteous? Most certainly He is, for he did not allow Abraham to do something unnecessary and which would not be adequate to atone for human sin.

The next ten chapters of genesis focus on Jacob, who seems from birth to be dishonest. His name means literally grabber or taker and deceiver, in Hebrew. Though in the world system we envy and admire people who push others out of their way and take as much as they can for themselves, the bible does not esteem such actions, though it does record them. The consequences of deception and manipulation are always presented later. As a teenager he steals his brother’s entitlements as firstborn, and out of fear of revenge has to run away to live with his uncle, who was as scheming and dishonest as Jacob himself and in essence repaid Jacob for what he had done to his brother. Interestingly Jacob had learned deceit from Rebekah, the younger sister of his crooked uncle.

We can see from these passages that unwanted consequences come from acts of manipulation motivated by greed and self-promotion. God eventually repaid Jacob’s dishonest uncle Laban however, according to Gen 31:7-9, though Laban planned for Jacob to work for him for nothing, God caused the opposite to happen, so that Jacob returned to his father’s land with all Laban’s livestock. Laban was an extremely dishonest and greedy man, for he learns through the use of divination that God had blessed him because of Jacob, so he planned to keep Jacob working for him for free. Here it is the thief who gets robbed by his intended victim. Really it is only fair when God turns the plans of the wicked against them, and instances such as this make it impossible to say that God doesn’t correct injustice Himself. Not all in Abraham’s family are faithful to God and since the first humans sin has continued to spread through creation like cancer.

Genesis chapter 34 explains the story of Jacob’s daughter Dinah and Shechem. In this incident we have to consider that no one is innocent, except for Dinah herself. Shechem rapes Dinah, then later decided he loved her. His family, the Hamorites had evil intentions toward the sons of Jacob; they planned to eventually take all their possessions. This time however, it was not God who administered justice. Matthew Henry describes Simeon and Levi as the most wicked for using their religion as an excuse to slaughter the entire family of Shechem, when they insisted that all the males be circumcised so they would be weaker from blood loss and therefore easier to kill. The other sons of Jacob stripped the dead after the slaughter and took everything that Hamor and his sons had owned. The entire incident reads like one street gang killing another, in which it is hard to find compassion for anyone besides Dinah. Only Jacob disapproved of his sons’ actions, this is quite a change from the Jacob of the previous chapters who would take for himself by any means he thought necessary. When he confronted his sons they accused him of having no regard for the honor of his daughter. Jacob, however was worried that the surrounding nations would wipe out his own family in repayment of what his sons had done, and probably thought God would have avenged the situation in a different way.

Genesis 37 is the introduction of Joseph, who many bible commentators describe as a type of Christ. The behavior of Joseph’s brothers toward him shows the further spread of iniquity since the fall of man. This is a dysfunctional family worthy of today’s daytime talk shows. Jacob was not careful enough to hide his preference for his first son of Rachel; Joseph was the favorite of his father, which angered his brothers. Joseph himself was probably slightly prideful or eager to assume power over his brothers. Whatever the case he should have kept his dreams of greatness to himself. God’s plans for Joseph, given to him in dreams also angered his brothers, and ultimately proved to be the cause of his brothers plotting against him and removal from his family. None of this stopped the events in the dream from happening, and Joseph’s dreams prove to be true.

Reuben, however, the oldest son and the one who had the most to lose was the most righteous of his brothers for he sought to save Joseph’s life. First they planned to kill him, but later decided to sell him as a slave. The rest of his brothers had no remorse for their sin. In order to cover up what they had done, it was necessary to deceive Jacob, and it seems his sons only pretended to comfort him, (Henry, p.66). Abraham’s descendents have strayed a long way from his example of obedience to God. In the telling of this story the bible does not attempt to hide what people of the past had done, if the bible had been written purely by man, and specifically by those involved in the events described these examples of sin would not appear or would have been changed to make the guilty appear righteous.

Later, in Genesis 38:7, however, we see an ancestor of David, (and Jesus) singled out for their wickedness. Judah’s firstborn son was described as wicked in the Lord’s sight, so He put him to death. His wife Tamar wanted children, however, he was only concerned with her losing her beauty due to childbearing, and an ancient Arabic writer even suggested that he sodomized his wife to keep her from becoming pregnant. Under the Hebrew custom of the time, it then became his brother’s duty to marry her and provide offspring (see Deut 25:5-10 for explanation). Judah’s second son was also put to death for likely a similar reason, except this time scripture explains it was because he spilled his seed on the ground so Tamar would not become pregnant, and most scriptures about Judah himself suggest he was not a moral man, he did not do what was right in more than one situation that Moses, the author of Genesis, records. So we would not be incorrect to say that the sons had learned disobedience to God from their father. In this instance, Judah’s daughter in law Tamar was owed children under Jewish laws of the time, and Judah had no intention of keeping his promise to her. Tamar however, is listed in the genealogy of Christ, and we should note in this passage that God does not condemn her but only Judah and his sons.

The next chapter of Genesis completely focuses on an incident in the life of the next generation of descendants of Abraham. His great grandson Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, and found himself in Egypt as the manager of a very rich man’s house. The rich man’s wife wanted a sexual relationship with the handsome young Hebrew, but Joseph refused, because it would be an offense against God if he did. He also expressed concern over the betraying of his master, but the main reason he refuses to sleep with the mistress is because it is an offence to God. Joseph was indeed a righteous man, he was careful not to sin against God. This is very early in the Old Testament, being only the second instance where immoral actions are directly spoken of as being against God and divine law. Even though as we read the rest of this story Joseph was falsely accused and then thrown into prison, because of his continual obedience to God he was later made the prime minister of Egypt. Matthew Henry states that the prosperity of the wicked is for the sake of the godly, (Henry, p.102) and that a wicked family (Potiphar’s) had previously been blessed on account of one righteous man who was their slave. God rewards obedience to Him, He brings Joseph to the king of Egypt. Joseph’s favor by the king of Egypt causes all the Hebrews to live in the country until God decided it was time for them to leave.

Later in genesis, by chapter 46 all accounts of Jacob, now called Israel, are of him as obedient to God. The old Jacob is no longer described as someone who takes whatever he can for himself. God promises to go with him to Egypt and greatly multiply his family. Joseph has by now risen from slave to prime minister of Egypt. Even after his father’s death, he did not seek revenge against his brothers for the evil they had done to him. Very few people would be as forgiving as Joseph, even in pages of scripture. He seemed to understand where God had acted in his life to bring seeming impossible circumstances to reality. Throughout his life, his faith never left him, and he resisted many temptations to do evil. Far more devoted to God than his brothers, Joseph is described as a suffering servant and a savior of his people, probably the earliest of a series of leaders that will typify Christ, building up to the real messiah’s appearance in the New Testament. Joseph was a foreshadowing of Christ, for he was rejected by his brothers and became first the savior of the