These questions are a guideline for your personal or small group study based on Sunday's sermon passage. Feel free to study and meditate on the passage more deeply. ​

1. What differences do you see between the lists of descendants of Jacob (Genesis 35:23-26) and Esau (Genesis 36)?  What was the difference in Jacob and Esau and their descendants?

2. Pastor Randy specifically pointed out verse 31 of Genesis 36, which reads, "These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites."  Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, was born over 150 years after these accounts took place.  Moses lived prior to any king ruling over the Israelites.  What do these facts show about the statement made here in this verse?

3. Genesis 37:1 "Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan."  Jacob was finally living in obedience.  Have you ever had a time of delayed obedience?  What eventually caused you to obey fully?

4. The story of Joseph begins in Genesis 37.  Joseph is one of the only characters in the Bible who has no sinful traits mentioned about him.  Who is the other?  What does this say about Joseph's character?

5. Warren Wiersbe writes, "Joseph is like Jesus in that he was beloved by his father and obedient to his will; hated and rejected by his own brethren and sold as a slave; falsely accused and unjustly punished; finally elevated from the place of suffering to a powerful throne, thus saving his people from death."  What differences are there between the two?

6. Genesis 37:2b "And Joseph brought a bad report of them (his brothers) to their father."  Have you ever had to deliver a bad report on someone?  Have you ever had a bad report delivered on you?  How did you feel in each one of these instances?  

7. Genesis 37:3 "Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age."  Pastor Randy asked, "Have you ever been hated because you were favored?"  How did you react to this hatred?

8.  2 Corinthians 2:14-16 "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of knowledge of him everywhere.  For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are persisting, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.  Who is sufficient for these things?"
How do you smell?  What do you need to do to change your smell?

9. Have you ever been given a dream or vision by God through His Holy Spirit?  How did you react?  What did you do with this dream/vision?
Joel 2:28 "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions."  

10. Genesis 37:10a "But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him..." and Genesis 37:11 "And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind."  Why do you think Joseph's father rebuked him (Genesis 37:10b)?  If Joseph's father rebuked him for wrongdoing, then why do you think he "kept the saying in mind"?  Having you ever wrongly corrected your children?  How did you respond?