Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #2 in Genesis 39, and we will read Genesis 39:1-6:

And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither. And JEHOVAH was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that JEHOVAH was with him, and that JEHOVAH made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that JEHOVAH blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of JEHOVAH was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.

We are continuing to look at this introduction of chapter 39, and the beginning of Joseph’s stay in Egypt.  We know that Joseph will remain in Egypt for the rest of his life.  He will not come out of Egypt for good until the Exodus in the time of Moses.  After 430 years, the Israelites will come out of Egypt, and they will carry out Joseph’s bones.

Here, he is coming into a strange land.  The Ishmaelite traders had bought him from his own brothers, and they sold him to this great man in Egypt named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

The title “captain of the guard” is found quite a few times in the Bible.  For instance, let us go to Jeremiah 52 where we will read of  Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard under King Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians.  We read in Jeremiah 52:12-16:

Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, And burned the house of JEHOVAH, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire: And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen.

I will stop reading there.  If we continued, we would read of the “captain of the guard” four more times, for a total of eight times in Jeremiah 52.  When you look up Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard under Nebuchadnezzar, I believe you will find this title “captain of the guard” used 23 times, including a similar account in 2Kings 25 and some other references in the book of Jeremiah.  As far as my count is concerned, it totals 23.

Let us look at one other place in Jeremiah 40 where we will see the “captain of the guard” in a dialogue with Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 40:1-6:

The word that came to Jeremiah from JEHOVAH, after that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon. And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, JEHOVAH thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place. Now JEHOVAH hath brought it, and done according as he hath said: because ye have sinned against JEHOVAH, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you. And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee: but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before thee: whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go. Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go.   Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land.

We see this captain of the guard treated Jeremiah, in a very respectful, dignified, and honorable way.  It is a little amazing that this captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, said to Jeremiah, “JEHOVAH thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place. Now JEHOVAH hath brought it, and done according as he hath said: because ye have sinned against JEHOVAH, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you.”  This came from the mouth of Nebuzaradan. 

We know that Nebuchadnezzar was called God’s servant, and this captain of the guard was Nebuchadnezzar’s servant, so he would also be in a role of serving God by destroying Jerusalem and the land of Judah.  Remember that this captain of the guard is the one who burned the house of JEHOVAH.  We read that in Jeremiah 52:12-13:

Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, And burned the house of JEHOVAH, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire: And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.

That pictures the judgment of God upon the churches and congregations of the world at the time of the end, and Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, was the one who lit the fire to burn down the house of God, certainly fulfilling the will of God to bring judgment upon His people Israel, historically, which spiritually points to the judgment of God upon the professed people of God in the churches and congregations.

It is interesting how much Nebuzaradan understood regarding the reason behind Judah’s destruction and the reason why the Babylonians were able to conquer Judah and destroy Jerusalem.  It was because of the evil the Jews had committed by transgressing the Law of God.  So we are getting a little insight into what was in the minds of the rulers in Babylon as they carried this out.

Again, it says in Genesis 39:1:

And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him…

I want to say one more thing about “captain of the guard,” but keep in mind that the reference to him being an Egyptian can tie into Moses.  Moses was called an Egyptian in Exodus 2 after he delivered the daughters of Reuel from some herders, and it says in Exodus 2:19:

And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.

Moses was called “an Egyptian,” and he was raised as an Egyptian, but he was actually a Jew.  And it could be said of the Lord Jesus Christ that He was “as an Egyptian.”  When the Lord was born, he was taken for a time into Egypt in the Gospel account, and God said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”  So there is that “figure,” and it could be in view, and it is just something for us to keep in mind when we are looking at Potiphar.  He was an Egyptian, but do not allow that to rule out a possibility about who he may represent.

The Hebrew word translated as “guard” is Strong’s #2876, and it has the same consonants as Strong’s #2873.  As far as the vowel points, they are switched around as far as the placement of the two vowel points.  But, of course, that does not matter because the vowel points were inserted by the Masoretes, and it has nothing do with the inspired Word of God.  They are simply there for a practical purpose because the Masoretes were concerned about the proper pronunciation of the Hebrew language after the Jews had been scattered over the many centuries of the New Testament era.  So well after the Bible was completed, between the sixth and tenth century the Masoretes, who were scribes, took the original Hebrew text and they inserted vowel points because the Hebrew text would be spread around to the Jews in all the nations, and the Hebrew people would be helped in pronouncing the words.  That is the only importance of the vowel points because they can help to pronounce the words, but we are not interested in pronouncing the words, but we are interested in what the words mean spiritually.  And what we often find is that the vowel points actually hinder us in finding the spiritual meaning, so we set them aside.

Again, the word “guard,” which is Strong’s #2876, is identical to Strong’s #2873 when we set aside the vowel points.  And that is a little surprising because #2873 has to do with “killing.”  It is the word found in Exodus 22:1:

If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it…

It is the word translated as “guard.”  Or we can look at 1Samuel 25:11:

Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

The word “killed” is our word, and in these two cases it regards the killing of an animal.  By the way, this word translated as “guard” is also translated as “cook” twice.

It says in 1Samuel 9:23-24:

And Samuel said unto the cook, Bring the portion which I gave thee, of which I said unto thee, Set it by thee. And the cook took up the shoulder, and that which was upon it, and set it before Saul…

And this is not Strong’s #2873, but it is Strong’s #2876, which is the same number as the word “guard.”  So this “shoulder” was a portion of an animal, and we can see the relationship with cooking an animal.  In those days, they would go out back and kill an animal, and then bring it in and cook it, so there is a definite relationship here between killing an animal and cooking it.

In Proverbs 9:2 we see the word that is Strong’s #2873.  It is speaking of wisdom, and it says in Proverbs 9:2:

She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.

Also,  we read in Psalm 37:14:

The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.

Here, it is the word “slay.”

It is translated as “slaughter” in Jeremiah 25:34:

Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.

Also, it says in Jeremiah 51:40:

I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.

Now if we bring this understanding back to the word “guard,” then it would not be “captain of the guard,” but it would say that Potiphar was the “captain of the slaughter.”  That is because as  an officer of Pharaoh he especially had to deal with these powerful prisoners like the butler and the baker.  And what tends to happen to these types of prisoners?  Based on what we will read in chapter 40 after Joseph had interpreted the dreams of the butler and the baker, Pharaoh restored the butler to his position, but the baker was executed.  It says in Genesis 40:20-23:

And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.  And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand: But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

It could very well be that it was Potiphar who came that day, opened the cell, and signaled for the chief baker to come with him, and then they publicly hanged him, or executed him.  He killed him.  I think we can understand that it would have been part of Potiphar’s job description.