Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #4 in Genesis 37, and we will read Genesis 37:3-4:

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

I will stop reading there.  In our last study, we were discussing the reference at the end of verse 2 where Joseph was feeding the flock with his brethren, the sons of Zilpah and the sons of Bilhah.  It said at the end of the verse, “…and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.”  We went to Numbers 13 in our last study, and we saw that this is the word God used of the spies’ report when they came back from searching out the land.  And this word is also used in Numbers 14:35-37:

I JEHOVAH have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before JEHOVAH.

This word we are following is Strong’s #1681, and translated as “evil report,” but it is also translated as “slander” in verse 36.  They spoke wickedly, or evilly, concerning the land, and God identifies this as “slander.” 

If we turn to Psalm 31, we read in Psalm 31:11:

I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

Again, it is the word “slander” that is the word translated as “report,” as in “evil report.”  The word “evil” is the typical word for “evil,” but it is added emphasis to show that it is really wicked, but the word “report” itself is translated as “slander.”  It has its own negative connotation. 

We read in Proverbs 10:18:

He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.

Here, God is letting us know the spiritual condition of the person that “slanders.”  One who speaks evilly of his brethren, for example, or it could be the land.  That was the problem with the spies; they spoke evilly of the land.  God says that the person who utters “slander” is a fool, and in the Bible there are two kinds of people, the saved and the unsaved, and also typified as the “wise” and the “fool.”  The saved person is “wise,” and the unsaved person is a “fool.”  For the one who is unsaved, it will be characteristic of that person to speak evil of others, or maybe the things of God, the things that God has called “good.”  Remember what we read in Timothy where God points out that what he has cleansed is not to be called “common.”  If God says something is good, right, just, pure, or holy, then man is not to contradict it.  He is not to go against it. 

Let us also go to Jeremiah 20:7-10:

O JEHOVAH, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of JEHOVAH was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

Our word is defined as “defaming” here.  It was the defaming, or slander, of many.  Poor Jeremiah!  No, we should not say that of Jeremiah because he has his reward.  He has been with the Lord in heaven for quite a long time now, and he has the expectation of receiving his new resurrected body, and so forth.  Who can feel sorry for the child of God, no matter what temporal suffering he or she may have experience as the momentary afflictions of this life?  We should not feel sorry for Jeremiah.  We should thank God that he had opportunity to suffer for Christ’s sake, or for the Word’s sake.  The Old Testament saints that suffered for the Word’s sake did suffer for Christ’s sake because Christ is the Word.  This is often part of the affliction that God’s people experienced, and we will continue to experience it today until this world is gone.  That is, it is “defamation,” the slanderous accusations, charges, and judgments of the ungodly against us because we identify fully with the Word of God and the things the Bible teaches. 

The world does not like (to put it mildly) the Word of God or the things the Word of God teaches, especially on certain occasions like when God makes a change in His program, like when he went from the nation of Israel to the church age, and then from the church age to bringing the Gospel outside the churches during the Latter Rain.  That is what Jeremiah typifies, as the people of God shared that the judgment of God was upon the churches, and that it was time to leave the churches.   Historically, Jeremiah was telling people to leave Judah, and to go into captivity in Babylon, which pointed to coming out of the churches, and going out into the world, and to worship God there.  It was viewed as “unpatriotic,” and heretical to most of the New Testament members of the congregations, and we, like Jeremiah, became a reproach for the Word’s sake, and we were defamed and slandered.   “You are heretics!  You are Camping-ites!  You are following a man!  You do not know what you are talking about.  You are of the devil if you think that the church age is over.  This is God’s church, and who are you to speak against God’s church?”  There was defaming of many, and by God’s grace the people of God are able to withstand such slander because the Lord has equipped us with the armour of God, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit.  With the shield of faith (Christ), we are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and all of the slanderous charges and accusations that fly toward us like the arrow that flies by day, and the terror by night.  God’s elect, by the grace of God and through the power of the Spirit of God within us, are strengthened and encouraged, and we are able to stand through it, and grow stronger from it.

You know, when you first become a child of God, you are growing in grace and the knowledge of God, especially if you are coming from the world.  If you have been out in the world, then you know the world’s mindset, the world’s mannerisms, and what the world likes, or does not like, and how the world mocks, ridicules, and reviles.  And you are familiar with these things because you had done these things yourself, like the “rolling of the eyes,” and the condescension in the voice, and so forth,  And since you know these things, you are a little sensitive to them.  So when the darts start flying early in your Christian life, you wince, and it does sort of “hit the target.”  But, again, there is growth and maturing as you grow in the faith, and as you learn what is in man, and you learn that the things of the world are of Satan, the wicked one.  And you learn that there is no good in man, and there is no good in the world, so who are they to speak, and to cast aspersions, and act the way they do, as if they had a better plan instead of their chaotic madness? 

We begin to understand these things because God causes us to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might, so we think, “Ok, the world thinks I am crazy,” but then we look around at the world, and this is the world that does not know what bathroom to use.  And this is the world that says men can have babies, and a world that cannot define a woman.  This is a world where we find all kinds of madness.   Utter madness has overtaken the world, and they do not have a grasp on the simplest issues of right and wrong.  They call that which is right wrong, and they call that which is wicked and evil to be that which is right.  “So am I going to have hurt feelings and a bruised ego because of people who are obviously walking in darkness and in the ignorance of their minds?  They think I am an oddball! I am sorry you feel that way, and that you do not like me, but what you really do not like is my identity with God.”  And we realize that they are not rejecting us, but they are rejecting God and the Word of God, so their slander lacks power or force, and it is like “water off a duck’s back.”

When we go the New Testament, we find a series of words that match up with our word translated as “evil report,” “slander,” and “defame.”  In the New Testament we find a Greek word that is Strong’s #987, and it is translated the same way.  It says in 1Corinthians 4:10:13:

We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

It is to be expected.  It is normal in the world to have tribulation and affliction.  And in the world you will be defamed if you truly live as a Christian.  And the problem is that many Christians do not live like real Christians, but many are still defamed for wearing the name of Christ.

In Romans 3, this word is translated as “slanderously reported.”  It says in Romans 3:8:

And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

So to be defamed, and to be slanderously reported matches with what we read in the Old Testament.  It is the equivalent word in the New Testament.  And this is a word that is often translated as “blaspheme.”  Again, it is Strong’s #987, and it is the word used in Mark 3:28-30:

Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.

To blaspheme the Holy Spirit means “to speak evil of,” and we can see that also in 1Peter 4.  And this is the way I think it should be translated whenever this word is used because it is very accurate in its description of what this word means.  It says in 1Peter 4:1:

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

You see, they are speaking evil; they are blaspheming, or defaming.  Then it says in 1Peter 4:5:

Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

That is, the proper response when people speak evil of you is, “So what? You are not my judge.  As a matter of fact, it is a very small thing that I am judged of you, or any man.”  It is a very small thing in this world.  It is most miniscule in comparison to the One who judges the quick and the dead, Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Also it says in 1Peter 4:14-16:

If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.   Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

You see, when people speak evil of us for the Word’s sake (for Christ’s sake) and for that which is true to the Bible, then we are suffering as a Christian.  We are suffering as is our duty.  It is our obligation to do the things we do, and suffering comes with it, and this glorifies God.

Then notice what it goes on to say in 1Peter 4:17:

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

And here we see the “two tribulations,” the Great Tribulation when judgment began at the house of God, and the second tribulation of Judgment Day for those that obey not the Gospel of God, which is the tribulation (judgment) on the world.  And God was forewarning us to be prepared to be “evil spoken of,” and to be slandered, and to be defamed, as people call us whatever dirty, rotten thing they can think of because they do not like the teachings that are revealed at the time of the end.  They are going to despise them, and they will not understand.  And the Bible does tell us in 2Peter 2:1-2:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

The way of truth is Christ.  Christ is the way.  He is the Truth.  He is the true Gospel., and the true Gospel will be “evil spoken of,” and it will be blasphemed, and that is what happened at the time of the end by the churches and congregations.  They spoke evil of the true Gospel of God as the Holy Spirit revealed it at the time of the end.  Then notice what it says in 2Peter 2:10:

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

Then it says in 2Peter 2:12:

But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Remember what the Bible tells us about evil men not understanding?  It is in Proverbs 28:5:

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek JEHOVAH understand all things.

The evil men, including the unsaved, professed Christians, are natural-minded individuals, and they cannot understand the things of God because these things are spiritually discerned.  And because he is incapable of understanding, he will speak evil of it, and he will downgrade it, diminish it, and try everything he can to say it is not the truth.  And yet it is the truth, and it is proven by the Bible itself. 

Of course the people of God are just to endure these charges and accusations that are brought against us.  Let us look at one last Scripture in Romans 8:32-33:

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

That is why man’s judgment is such a little thing.  He cannot do anything to God’s elect.  It is God Himself who has justified His elect people.