There's 4 questions to ask of any OT passage that are extremely useful in any study - they are:
1. What does this passage tell us about God the Father?
2. What does this passage tell us about the people of God and society then?
3. What does this passage tell us about the people of God and society now?
4. What does this passage teach us about Jesus - His ministry, purpose and message? How does what is happening here shape the Gospel, where does it fit in bigger story?
then, some specifics to drill down into with the Joseph story:
1. Who is the story about and why? (NB, Joseph is the vehicle to tell the history of Israel, Genesis is split into a series of sections each starting with This is the record of the origins of .....)
2. What does this journey teach us practically about our life today with respect to:
- the gifts we hold
- the dreams we might have for life and how they might change dramatically (ie, what were Joseph's actual desires and dreams for life / vocation before he got dumped in a hole?
- How did he respond to this and what can we learn from his actions (both right and wrong)
3. What's the significance of the coat?
4. Where was Jacob dwelling, why?
5. Why was Joseph a favourite?
6. Why did Reuben go back for Joseph?
7. Why did Jacob say he would be with Joseph in sheol and what is this?
8. How long before Christ did this take place in history?
9. How does this story demonstrate redemption?
10. This is only the beginning of the salvation story from God to His people..... put yourself in their shoes/sandals, how do you trust when you feel like you've only got the first chapter but you need to know the end to get through?
11. What promises would the family know about God's purpose for their lives and how would this influence their actions? (Backtrack through the previous 40 chapters to find them). Now what promises do you know about God's purpose for your life?
12. How long did Joseph spend in jail?
13. How did Joseph live in a foreign land, with a priestess of an unholy god as a wife and retain his right standing with God... what evidence do we see later in the story that Joseph lived in right standing before God?
14. What can we learn from Joseph about living, working in - even purposefully prospering a nation - which is not holy?
15. Why is the story of Judah and Tamar inserted in chapter 38? Is it in the wrong place? If not, why, what's the point? What other book should we read to understand this and why?
16. When Joseph died, why did the family of Jacob embalm him and bury him in Egypt in a coffin? Surely this sounds like a worldview foreign of the ways of Jehovah?
17. Joseph had no evil written of him, who was the only other person in the OT to have nothing evil written about him? What does this say about serving in a foreign land?
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