The Bible In Living Sound

The promised land is crumbling under the dry rot of a severe famine, and Jacob's lost-and-found son Joseph has invited the family to move down to Egypt, where there would be food and a place for them to wait it out.

Joseph's brothers return to Egypt to buy food a second time and are treated royally but when they leave Joseph's special cup ends up in the sack of Benjamin and they are hauled back to Egypt in great fear.

JOSEPH wants to know if his 10 older brothers are still mean and unkind. So he says: ‘You are spies. You have come to find where our country is weak.' ‘No, we are not,' they say. ‘We are honest men. We are all brothers. We were 12. But one brother is no more, and the youngest is home with our father.' Joseph pretends not to believe them. He keeps the brother named Simʹe·on in prison, and lets the others take food and go home. But he tells them: ‘When you come back, you must bring your youngest brother with you.'

In the midst of the crisis in Egypt, Joseph's brothers arrived from Canaan, seeking to buy food, as the famine severely affected their land also. They did not recognize Joseph, and he did not reveal himself to them.

After languishing in prison for several years Joseph is called upon to interpret Pharaoh's dreams and in doing so successfully is transformed from being a prisoner to becoming a prince of Egypt.

Despite being in prison, Joseph continues to honor God with his heart and actions. He doesn't respond with bitterness, but continues to work with integrity.

Potiphar, the General of Egypt buys Joseph from the slave market. Joseph quickly grows in his ranks because of his dedication and hard work. One day, when Potiphar was away for work, his wife called Joseph to her chambers!! What will happen next?

Jacob had twelve sons but his favourite was Joseph. Joseph's brothers were jealous so they conspired together and sold him as a slave to some traders heading for Egypt. They told their father that Joseph was dead.

Joseph had a dream. In his dream he was out in the field with his brothers and they were tying up bundles of grain. All of a sudden Joseph's bundle stood up tall while his brothers' bundles bowed down to it. But then he had a second dream, and in this dream Joseph saw the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowing down to him. What do you think these dreams meant?

In this bible story Joseph is undeniably Jacob's favorite son, receiving extra love, attention and presents, including a coat of many colors. Joseph is proud of his coat and shows it off in front of his brothers. They, in turn, get upset and jealous.

Listen to this amazing episode where Jacob wrestles with God, and earns the name 'Israel'.

After working for his uncle Laban for twenty years, Jacob decided that it was time for him to take his new family and go home.

After running away from Esau, Jacob ran to his uncle Laban's home. He stayed with Laban for a month and worked for him, taking care of his animals. Laban wanted to pay Jacob for his work, so he asked Jacob what he wanted. Jacob asked to marry Laban's younger daughter, Rachel. She was beautiful and Jacob loved her. Laban said that, if Jacob worked for him for seven years, he could marry Rachel. So Jacob worked for seven years, but they seemed like a few days because he loved Rachel so much.

On his way to his relative's house at Haran, Jacob lay down for the night near Luz. As he was dreaming, he had a vision of a ladder, or stairway, between heaven and earth. God's angels were on it, ascending and descending.

Jacob flees in fear of Esau, traveling to the house of his uncle Laban in upper Mesopotamia.

‘Esau Birthright Sold' is a Bible story from the Book of Genesis chapter 25. Esau returns from a hunt and sells his birthright to his brother, Jacob, for a bowl of stew.

As he approached, Rebekah saw him and asked the servant, “What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us?” The servant answered, “It is Isaac.” Rebekah quickly covered her face with a veil* jumped from the camel to greet Isaac. She was excited, for she was about to meet the man God had chosen to be her husband.

Abraham wanted his son to marry a woman who worships the “true and living God” so he sent a servant back to the land of his relatives to find a wife for Isaac. Rebekah and her family believed in God. She decided to leave her home and her family and travel back to Canaan to become Isaac's wife.

Abraham believed God. When God promised a son, Abraham believed in God's promise even when he was old and it seemed impossible. Abraham loved God and wanted to obey Him. God kept His promise and gave Abraham the promised son, named Isaac. Imagine Abraham's delight when he finally held his own baby boy after waiting so many years. Abraham loved Isaac. When he watched his baby boy grow into a young man, sometimes he would look at Isaac with so much love his heart felt like it would burst … but did Abraham love Isaac more than he loved God?

Abraham's wife Sarah had a maid named Hagar, an Egyptian woman, who ran away from her mistress, and saw an angel by a well, and afterward came back to Sarah. She, too, had a child and his name was Ishmael. So now there were two boys in Abraham's tent, the older boy, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, and the younger boy, Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah.

The Bible story about the city of Sodom and Gomorrah is a terribly sad story that reminds us of just how much God hates sin.

God promised Abraham that he would have so many descendants that he would be the father of many nations. But, at an old age, Abraham and Sarah still did not have any children. God showed his power by making the unthinkable a reality.

The battle began! The men of Sodom had no idea that the pits where they made the mortar that held their bricks together would become their own death traps. As the invading armies chased them, the king of Sodom and many of his men fell into their own slime pits. The ones who were left fled to the mountain, trying to escape from the enemy. Chedorlaomer (ked-or-lay-oh' mer) and his armies pushed on, capturing the men of Sodom and stealing everything they owned, including their wives and their children. One soldier who fled to the mountains was able to escape and carry the bad news to Abram. Weary from the battle and out of breath from the journey, the soldier finally reached Abram's tent. Abram sat him down and gave him a cool drink of water. "I am so sorry to tell you, but the enemy has taken your nephew Lot prisoner," the soldier blurted out between breaths. "They also took his wife and his children captive and have stolen everything he owned."

So Abram left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev, along with his wife and Lot and all that they owned….Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and many tents. But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds living so close together.

A famine persuaded Abraham and his family to leave the land of Canaan and continue their journey into Egypt.

For reasons not stated in the Bible, Terah took his son Abraham (then called Abram), his grandson Lot whose father died earlier in their homeland, and Abraham's wife Sarah from Ur of the Chaldeans (traditionally modern day Tell al-Muqayyar, Iraq) to Canaan. Instead of continuing to Canaan, they stopped and settled in Haran where Terah died at the age of 205. Abraham's departure from Haran was around 2004 BC.

A very long time ago, God decided to have a very special talk with Abram, one of His chosen people. All heaven stood still and listened as God spoke these words to Abram: "I want you to leave your country, your family, and your father's house, and I want you to go into a land that I will show you." Now they didn't have big moving trucks back in those days. Besides, God didn't even mention the NAME of the place! This would be a big step of FAITH for Abram and his wife Sarai. God wanted them to leave EVERYTHING, and EVERYBODY that they knew, and start over in a NEW land.

God created man in His image in order that man might represent Him here on earth. By Abraham's time, humanity had turned completely away from God, been destroyed by a flood (except for eight people), and were once again turning away from God, as evidenced by the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).

Do any of you know that, at one point in time, everyone on the earth spoke the same language? It was many years after the big flood. People once again began to populate the earth. God had commanded the people to be fruitful and increase in number and to fill the earth, and they did. In our story today, we will see that people during this time decided to do what they wanted and did not listen to what God asked them to do.

Altogether, Noah and his family and the animals lived on the ark for 1 year, 1 month, and 27 days! It was now time for all the creatures and Noah's family to move off the ark. Noah and his family and the animals needed to start life over again. After everyone left the ark, Noah prayed to God to thank Him for keeping them safe. Suddenly a bright rainbow filled the sky. This was God's promise that He would never flood the earth again.

God told Noah to build an ark - a big boat. So Noah followed God's plan and built a boat that was one-and-a-half football fields long. That's a huge boat! Noah's neighbors laughed at him because there wasn't any water in the desert where they lived. But God told Noah that a great flood was coming. Noah tried to warn the people to change their ways so that they could hear God too. But they wouldn't listen. They just kept on with their selfish lives.

God told Noah to preach to the people saying: ‘God is going to send a great flood of water and destroy the whole world. Everyone not in the ark will die.' But the people just laughed.

God asked Noah to collect two of all the creatures of the earth and bring them into the ark. He also told the animals to find Noah - so it wasn't hard for Noah to gather them together. Pairs of each kind of animal were put safely inside the ark before it began to rain. Noah's wife, and his three sons, and their wives were also safe on the boat. When everyone was aboard, God shut the door.

As time went by, people became more and more evil. Only Noah was obedient and pleased God. God commanded Noah to build a huge ark to exact specifications. Noah worked on the ark for one hundred and twenty years (preaching and trying to teach others about God while he was working).

When Enoch was 65 years old, he had a son named Methuselah. After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God 300 years more. So Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked with God. One day Enoch could not be found, because God took him. Methuselah lived 782 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters. So Methuselah lived a total of 969 years. Then he died. He is considered the oldest man in history.

After Adam and Eve sinned, the Bible tells us in Genesis 4 that God gave Adam and Eve two sons. The first born, Cain, became a farmer. The second born, Abel, was a shepherd. Each son brought a sacrifice to the Lord. Cain brought some of his harvest, and Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. God saw the heart behind each offering, and God liked Abel's sacrifice (and heart) more.

When Adam and Eve sinned, it may have appeared that Jehovah's purpose to have an earthly paradise inhabited by perfect humans had been thwarted. But God immediately addressed the problem. He said: “I will put enmities between thee (the serpent) and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”

Adam and Eve heard God calling them. Without thinking, they dived into the bushes, but God knew where they were. When God asked them if they had eaten from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that He had told them not to touch, they blamed each other for their sins. God was sad that Adam and Eve had disobeyed them. He told them that they had to leave the Garden of Eden, "From now on you'll have to scratch a living from the soil. You'll need to make clothes and grow food. Nothing will come easily -- not even childbirth. And one day, you will die."

One day, while Adam and Eve were walking along the center of the garden, there was a beautiful apple hanging on the forbidden tree. A snake was also resting on that tree, and he said, “Why don't the two of you eat this apple? The snake tried to brush away their fears and worries by saying that they had nothing to worry about and encouraged them to take a bite. He even said that they would gain God's wisdom by eating fruits of this tree. Eve believed the snake's lies and looked at the juicy fruit. She plucked the fruit from the tree and took a bite. As the fruit was delicious, she insisted Adam take a bite. Initially, Adam refused to do so but when he was convinced that Eve did not die of eating that fruit, he took a bite too.

One day, Adam and Eve were gathering berries for dinner when she heard a silky voice behind her."Has God told you that you can eat the fruit from all the trees?" the voice asked softly. Eve turned around to see a snake talking to her. "God has told us we can eat all the fruit except for what grows on The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," Eve told the serpent. "Oh come now, that's silly! I hardly think such a lovely fruit would do you any harm," the serpent lied. "God knows that if you eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you'll become just like God, and will be able to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong." The woman looked at the fruit and thought how tasty it looked. She thought how wonderful it would be to be as wise and powerful as God. She believed the serpent's lie and ate the fruit.

God realized that Adam was lonely as he was only one of his kind. So he used one of Adam's ribs to create a wife for him, the first woman, whom he called Eve. Adam and Eve were very happy; they lived a beautiful life in the Garden of Eden.

God took some clay from the ground and made the shape of a man. Then He breathed gently into the shape. The man's eye's opened and he began to live. God called him Adam. The Lord made a beautiful garden for him to live in. The garden, called Eden, was full of many wonderful things. Beautiful flowers grew everywhere. Birds sang in the trees, streams flowed through the valley and animals roamed across the fields. God had made the man in His image to keep Him company and look after the world.

On the sixth day, God added creatures to the land. He made lions and tigers and bears. He made rabbits and sheep and cows. He added everything from ants to zebras to the land. But He still felt something was missing. So God added Mankind to enjoy and take care of all that He had created. God looked around and was happy with all He had made. After six days, the whole universe was completed.

On the fourth day, God looked around and thought, "The daylight still needs a bit more work and the night is just too dark." So, He made the sun to light the sky during the day and the moon and stars to add a bit of sparkle to the night. He hung them in the sky and stepped back to look at his work. "This is coming along very well," said God.  The next day, God turned his attention to the water he had collected in the oceans. "I want these waters teeming with life!" As soon as He said it, it was so. In no time, there were millions of small fish darting through the shallow water and huge fish swimming in the ocean. God made birds, too. He sent them soaring through the air. "Ahh, that IS good!" said God. The dusk fell over the water and the sky grew dark and that was the end of the fifth day.

On the second day, God made the earth and over it He carefully hung a vast blue sky. He stood back and admired His creation. "That's good too!" said God and the second day was over. The next morning God looked around and thought, "The earth needs to be a bit more organized." So, He put all the water in one place and all the dry land in another. When He had finished that, God made plants to cover the land. Dandelions and daffodils appeared. All sorts of trees and grasses began to grow. "It's looking great," said God and that was the end of the third day.

In the beginning there was no earth or sky or sea or animals. And then God spoke in the darkness: "Let there be light!" And right away there was light, scattering the darkness and showing the infinite space. "That's good!" said God. "From now on, when it's dark it will be 'night' and when it's light, it will be 'day'." The evening came and the night passed and then the light returned. That was the first day....