Welcome to the Word of the Lord Endures Forever with Pastor Will Whedon.

These trials that come upon us become the materials of our great victory in Christ,

because we do not overcome them by our own strength, but by His.

And the result is that we get to plunder the Raiders,

to steal souls away from Satan's kingdom,

and bring them with us into the kingdom of light

as we spread the good news, the gospel.

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever is a daily verse-by-verse Bible study with the church,

past and present.

Pastor Whedon is leading us in a study of the book of Genesis, chapters 37 to 50.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Amen.

Greetings, people, loved by God. So in our last study, we began digging into Genesis 49,

where dying Jacob summoned his sons in order to prophesy to them about the days to come,

about how things would turn out for their descendants.

He started naturally with his oldest Rubin, but he let him know right from the start that he'd forfeited his preeminence as firstborn when he had dared to violate Bilha,

his father's concubine, the maid of Rachel.

We noted this as a violation, not merely merely of the commandment regarding adultery,

but also of the commandment to honor one's father and mother.

Then Jacob turned to Simeon and Levi,

and another incident from the past overshadowed their future.

They ruthlessly slaughtered the Shekhamites after the rape of

...