May 28, 2017 – Genesis and John (Gospel and Revelation) – Believing or Stumbling

Believing or Stumbling

Genesis 40:12-23 – New International Version (NIV)

¹² “This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. ¹³ Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. ¹⁴ But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. ¹⁵ I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.”

¹⁶ When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread. ¹⁷ In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”

¹⁸ “This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. ¹⁹ Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh.”

²⁰ Now the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: ²¹ He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand— ²² but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation.

²³ The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

What are the three branches (verse 12)?

Who will lift up the head and restore the position of the cupbearer (verse 13)?

How does Joseph ask the cupbearer to show kindness (verse 14)?

What had Joseph done to deserve “being put in a dungeon” (verse 15)?

In your opinion, why did the chief baker think the cupbearer’s interpretation was favorable (verse 16)?

What were the birds doing in the chief baker’s dream (verse 17)?

What did each basket mean in the chief baker’s dream (verse 18)?

What will the Pharaoh do to the chief baker (verse 19)?

Why did the Pharaoh give a feast for all his officials (verse 20)?

What did the chief cupbearer do “once again” (verse 21)?

How was the chief baker treated (verse 22)?

Did the chief cupbearer remember the kindness that Joseph requested (verse 23)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

John 12:37-42 - New International Version (NIV)

³⁷ Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. ³⁸ This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

“Lord, who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

³⁹ For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

⁴⁰ “He has blinded their eyes
    and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
    nor understand with their hearts,
    nor turn—and I would heal them.”

⁴¹ Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

⁴² Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him.

What had Jesus done “in their presence” (verse 37)?

What would they not do (verse 37)?

Who had ask “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed” (verse 38)?

In your opinion, who has “blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts” (verse 40)?

What could not happen because they cannot see with their eyes or understand with their hearts (verse 40)?

Why did Isaiah say this (verse 41)?

What happened at the same time that the Jews would not believe (verse 42)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how are the chief cupbearer’s reaction to Joseph’s correct interpretation in Genesis 40:12-23 and the Jews reaction to the signs that Jesus had done in their presence in John 12:37-42 similar?

Romans 9:22-33 - New International Version (NIV)

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
    and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

²⁶ and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,
    ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
    only the remnant will be saved.
²⁸ For the Lord will carry out
    his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

²⁹ It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty
    had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
    we would have been like Gomorrah.”

³⁰ What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. ³² Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall,
    and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

What has God borne “with great patience” (verse 22)?

Who has God “prepared in advance for glory” (verse 23)?

In your opinion, who are the ones God called “‘my people’ who are not my people” (verse 25)?

What will the ones who were told “you are not my people” be called (verse 26)?

How many of the Israelites who are like “sand by the sea” will be saved (verse 27)?

What will the Lord carry out “with speed and finality” (verse 28)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to become like Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 29)?

What have the Gentiles obtained by faith (verse 30)?

What have the people of Israel who pursued “the law as the way of righteousness” not attained (verse 31)?

How did the people of Israel pursue the righteousness they did not obtain (verse 32)?

In your opinion, why is Jesus called “a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall” (verse 33)?

Who will never be put to shame (verse 33)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how does Paul’s explanation of how the Jews pursued righteousness through the law and stumbled over Jesus in Romans 9:22-33 help us understand why the Jews in John 12:37-42 could see all the signs that Jesus did and still not believe in Him?

In your opinion, how does the forgetfulness of the chief cupbearer to the sign that God had given him through Joseph interpreting the dream in Genesis 40:12-23 help us understand why God needs “great patience” in dealing with people according to Paul in Romans 9:22-33?

Revelation 9:13-21 – New International Version (NIV)

¹³ The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. ¹⁴ It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵ And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

¹⁷ The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. ¹⁸ A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

²⁰ The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Where did the voice come from after the sixth angel sounded his trumpet (verse 13)?

Who is to release the “four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates” (verse 14)?

What were the four angels released to do (verse 15)?

How many is “twice ten thousand times ten thousand” (verse 16)?

What came out of the mouths of the heads of horses that resembled lions heads (verse 17)?

Who was killed by the “three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur” (verse 18)?

Where was the power of the horses (verse 19)?

What did the “rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues” do (verse 20)?

What could not “see or hear or walk” (verse 20)?

In your opinion, why did the remaining people not repent “of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts” (verse 21)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how does Paul’s discussion about the “stone that causes people to stumble” in Romans 9:22-33 help us understand the decisions that the “rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues” made in Revelation 9:13-21?

In your opinion, how does the fact that in John 12:37-42 “many even among the leaders believed in him” even though most did not give us hope for those among the “rest of mankind who were not killed by the plagues” in Revelation 9:13-21?

In your opinion, how does the fact that Joseph was able to correctly interpret two dreams in Genesis 40:12-23 effect our view of the vision Jesus gave John in Revelation 9:13-21?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Genesis, John, Romans and Revelation teach us about God’s authority, power and patience?

In your opinion, how can these passages help us avoid stumbling over Jesus but instead to believe in Him and “never be put to shame”?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)