Day 16: Genesis 47-50

(The previous post covered Joseph revealing his identity to his brothers and the family's subsequent move to Egypt.)

Genesis 47
¹ Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen.
² And from among his brethren he took five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

(The land of Goshen was in northern Egypt. Joseph only presented five of his brothers to Pharaoh.)

³ And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers.
⁴ And they said unto Pharaoh, To sojourn in the land are we come; for there is no pasture for thy servants' flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

(Their answer to Pharaoh was that they came "To sojourn in the land." This meant that they came to only dwell for a time, which may have put Pharaoh's mind at ease.)

⁵ And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee:
⁶ the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any able men among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.
⁷ And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

(Jacob blessed Pharaoh.)

⁸ And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How many are the days of the years of thy life?
⁹ And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

(Jacob stated he had only lived 130 years, not as many as his fathers. Abraham lived 175 years. Isaac lived 180 years.)

¹⁰ And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
¹¹ And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
¹² And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families.
¹³ And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

(People continued to look to Joseph for food, including his family.)

¹⁴ And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.
¹⁵ And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for our money faileth.

(Pharaoh got all the money because of the famine.)

¹⁶ And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
¹⁷ And they brought their cattle unto Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread in exchange for all their cattle for that year.

(Pharaoh owned all of the livestock because of the famine.)

¹⁸ And when that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide from my lord, how that our money is all spent; and the herds of cattle are my lord's; there is nought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:
¹⁹ wherefore should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land be not desolate.
²⁰ So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was sore upon them: and the land became Pharaoh's.

(Pharaoh owned all the land and people because of the famine. Pharaoh, like Isaac (Genesis 26), became rich during the bad times because of Joseph's strategy.)

²¹ And as for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end thereof.
²² Only the land of the priests bought he not: for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; wherefore they sold not their land.
²³ Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
²⁴ And it shall come to pass at the ingatherings, that ye shall give a fifth unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.
²⁵ And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.

(The people told Joseph that he saved their lives.)

²⁶ And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests alone became not Pharaoh's.

(Pharaoh had a flat tax of 20%.)

²⁷ And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they gat them possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.
²⁸ And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred forty and seven years.

(Jacob lived 147 years.)

²⁹ And the time drew near that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found favor in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me: bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt;

(Israel had Joseph put his hand under his thigh during this request just as Abraham did with his servant before sending him out to find a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24).)

³⁰ but when I sleep with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.
³¹ And he said, Swear unto me: and he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head.

(Jacob wanted to be buried in the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23:9).)




Genesis 48
¹ And it came to pass after these things, that one said to Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

(Joseph went to see Jacob and brought both of his sons. This chapter and the next chapter were referenced in Hebrews 11:21 as proof that Jacob was an example of faith to us.)

² And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.
³ And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
⁴ and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a company of peoples, and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.

(Jacob told Joseph the story of when God appeared to him and God's promise to make him profitable.)

⁵ And now thy two sons, who were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, shall be mine.

(Israel claimed Joseph's two sons as equal to his own sons, as equal to Joseph, and in place of Joseph. This gave Rachel "three sons of the tribe of Israel." Later in the Bible, we will see Ephraim and Manasseh were mentioned in place of Joseph even though they were half-Egyptian.)

⁶ And thy issue, that thou begettest after them, shall be thine; they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
⁷ And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem).
⁸ And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?

(Was Jacob/Israel blind or did he not recognize them?)

⁹ And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me here. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.
¹⁰ Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.
¹¹ And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath let me see thy seed also.

(It seemed as if Israel could see them but his sight was "dim for age." Israel was grateful for not only being able to see Joseph before he died but also Joseph's sons.)

¹² And Joseph brought them out from between his knees; and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
¹³ And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
¹⁴ And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the first-born.

(Israel was intentional about which hand he placed on Manasseh's and Ephraim's heads.)

¹⁵ And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who hath fed me all my life long unto this day,

(Joseph got the blessing and the birthright from Jacob, however Judah was the next son in line that did not lose the birthright through sin:
1 Chronicles 5:1-2:
"1 And the sons of Reuben the first-born of Israel (for he was the first-born; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. 2 For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the prince; but the birthright was Joseph's:)")

¹⁶ the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
¹⁷ And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
¹⁸ And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father; for this is the first-born; put thy right hand upon his head.
¹⁹ And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: howbeit his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.

(This was similar to Jacob being blessed before his older brother Esau. However, Jacob did it intentionally while Isaac was deceived. Notice, Isaac was blessed even though Ishmael, his half-brother, was older. Jacob was blessed even though Esau was older. Joseph was blessed even though he was the second youngest. Now, Ephraim was blessed even though Manasseh was older.)

²⁰ And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee will Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

(Remember this because Ephraim played a pivotal role once Israel occupied the Promised Land.)

²¹ And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God will be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.
²² Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.




Genesis 49
¹ And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.

(This chapter was prophecy.)

² Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father.
³ Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
⁴ Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

(Reuben forfeited his "pre-eminence" because he defiled his father's bed according to Genesis 35:22.)

⁵ Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords.

(Simeon and Levi lied to Shechem according to Genesis 34.)

⁶ O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hocked an ox.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.

(The tribe of Levi was divided in Jacob (Israel). The Levites did not get their own land but were allotted cities throughout Israel. The Simeonites were "scattered.")

⁸ Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee.

(Judah got the position of the birthright: Chief Ruler; re: 1 Chronicles 5:1)

⁹ Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up: He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
¹⁰ The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come: And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.

(The lineage of Christ came through Judah. Judah's line included Tamar: Genesis 38.)

¹¹ Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; He hath washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes:
¹² His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk.
¹³ Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; And he shall be for a haven of ships; And his border shall be upon Sidon.

(The tribe of Zebulun received its inheritance on the seacoast.)

¹⁴ Issachar is a strong ass, Couching down between the sheepfolds:
¹⁵ And he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under taskwork.

(The tribe of Issachar received good land. However, they settled in the midst of the Canaanites and became servants to them.)

¹⁶ Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷ Dan shall be a serpent in the way, An adder in the path, That biteth the horse's heels, So that his rider falleth backward.
¹⁸ I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah.

(Dan shall be a serpent. Israel immediately spoke to Jehovah about salvation. Some people believe the Antichrist is a Jew from the tribe of Dan.)

¹⁹ Gad, a troop shall press upon him; But he shall press upon their heel.

(Gad was attacked often by the powers near their borders.)

²⁰ Out of the Asher his bread shall be fat, And he shall yield royal dainties.

(The tribe of Asher's inheritance was, like Zebulun, along the seacoast. It was a fertile land.)

²¹ Naphtali is a hind let loose: He giveth goodly words.

(A common thought here was that because of Naphtali's fertile inheritance that this tribe would widely spread out.)

²² Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a fountain; His branches run over the wall.

("A fruitful bough" was concerning the amazing increase that became of the two tribes that came from Joseph: Ephraim and Manasseh.)

²³ The archers have sorely grieved him, And shot at him, and persecute him:
²⁴ But his bow abode in strength, And the arms of his hands were made strong, By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),
²⁵ Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
²⁶ The blessings of thy father Have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

(Joseph was blessed above everyone, like his dream.)

²⁷ Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth: In the morning she shall devour the prey, And at even he shall divide the spoil.

(The tribe of Benjamin spent much of its early history in warfare in which this tribe was almost made extinct.)

²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
²⁹ And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
³⁰ in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.

(Abraham bought this field in Genesis 23.)

³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah:
³² the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.
³³ And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.




Genesis 50
¹ And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
² And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
³ And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming: and the Egyptians wept for him three-score and ten days.

(The Egyptians mourned for Jacob for seventy days. They also embalmed him according to Egyptian techniques.)

⁴ And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
⁵ My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
⁶ And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.

(Joseph used an "if/then" statement to get Pharaoh's permission.)

⁷ And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
⁸ and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
⁹ And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
¹⁰ And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
¹¹ And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

(Abel-mizraim meant "meadow of Egypt.")

¹² And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
¹³ for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.

(Jacob was buried in the same place as his father (Isaac) and grandfather (Abraham).)

¹⁴ And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
¹⁵ And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

(The ten brothers still felt guilty for what they did to Joseph. Did they repent? The only way to remove guilt is to confess and repent.)

¹⁶ And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
¹⁷ So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for that they did unto thee evil. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.

(They confessed they did evil to Joseph.)

¹⁸ And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we are thy servants.
¹⁹ And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
²⁰ And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

(The evil that was done to Joseph ended up being good. Evil destroys in the long term. Good creates in the long term. However, to create in the long term, there must be the ability to destroy in the short term.)

²¹ Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
²² And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.

(Joseph lived 110 years, sixty-six years after the famine. Life expectancy had consistently decreased since the Flood.)

²³ And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were born upon Joseph's knees.

(The following verse was referenced in Hebrews 11:22 as proof that Joseph was an example of faith to us.)

²⁴ And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
²⁵ And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
²⁶ So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

(This concluded the Book of Genesis. This book covered four dispensations: Eden, Pre-Flood, Post-Flood, Abraham. The rest of the Old Testament covered the next dispensation: The Law. Paul stated the reason God gave the Law was because people did not know what sin was. Notice, there were no policemen and no courts in the Book of Genesis. When we realize people were living in an essentially lawless society, the events of the Book of Genesis begin to make more sense. Abraham lied about Sarah not being his wife because he lived among people who did not know it was wrong to take her from him. Laban changed Jacob's wages ten times. Why did Jacob not sue Laban? or call the police? Abraham, himself, had to raise an army to rescue Lot. One way to view the people of the Book of Genesis is to assume everyone was evil and doing whatever they wanted in the moment...and only the lines from Enoch to Noah, and Abraham to Joseph demonstrated the ability to (sometimes) act apart from the desire to live in the moment. It was almost as if the Book of Genesis documented how people handled conflict in the absence of commonly accessible guidance that looked long term. We have seen the fundamental human response.)

(Another perspective of this first book of the Bible is to realize the rest of the Bible was covered in the Book of Genesis. What we have seen was every possible community (interaction between three or more people) involving husbands, wives, kings, handmaids, fathers-in-law, good sons, bad sons, sons-in-law, angels, etc. The only profitable community was at Babel and God broke them up because they focused on the physical. Every other time three or more people interacted in the Book of Genesis, it resulted in destruction. As we look at the rest of the Bible, we will contrast the event with the story in the Book of Genesis that presented the fundamental human response. However, the Book of Genesis was written by Moses hundreds of years after these events and was the first of five books that made up the first section of the Old Testament known as "The Torah." The Book of Genesis documented God's blessings/provision and man's rejection. We have seen the 4th Dispensation also failed to cause people to pursue God. The next book documented the circumstances that led to the end of the 4th Dispensation and the beginning of the 5th Dispensation.)

Day 17