Genesis 47:1-12

Jacob and his clan arrived in Egypt, and in this next chapter Joseph first brought in five of his brothers to meet Pharaoh. Don’t you wonder which of the five he chose? I’m guessing that for sure Judah and Benjamin were among the five, and probably Reuben... but who were the other two?? Pharaoh made small talk with the brothers, asking what they did for a living.


“Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” They also said to him, “We have come to live here awhile, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.” (Genesis 47:3-4)

The brothers were working the family business: they were shepherds! Pharaoh agreed to let them settle in the best part of Egypt, the land of Goshen, where there was good pasture. It amazes me how God moves the hearts of men to grant favor to His people. Haven’t you had moments in your life when you have seen God move someone’s heart to do something of special favor to you? One of my coworkers called me yesterday to tell me that his daughter had received a scholarship offer from a Christian college for an enormous amount of money. I just kept saying over and and over, “It’s a miracle!” It was as if they had won the lottery in these tough financial times! Thank you , LORD!

Joseph then brought in his father to present him to Pharaoh:

Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”


And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence. (vs.7-10)

Jacob saw his life in terms of a pilgrimage - as a journey through this short life to his real home with God. Hebrews 11:16 says of the patriarchs, “. . .they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” This heavenly perspective is one that sustains Christians in our journey on earth. The realization that this is NOT our permanent dwelling gives us hope during the tough times. Apparently Jacob, too, was looking forward to being out of this world.

Pharaoh wondered what the secret to Jacob’s longevity was, but Jacob’s answer must have been surprising. At 130, he called his years “few and difficult.” Beth Moore conjectures here that possibly Jacob did not feel his years measured up to those of his grandfather, Abraham (who lived to be 175), or of his father, Isaac (who lived to be 180) - not only in years, but in the measure of their faith to his. Beth writes, “His years were marked by deception. His own. His uncle’s. His sons’. The disappointments brought on by his offspring must have added to Jacob’s sense of failure. No matter how many comforts he’d known, his eyes saw his life colored by the dark shades of difficulty.” (The Patriarchs, P. 225)

Where in your life have you felt that you did not or still don’t measure up? Have you failed to reach the bar you saw set by your parents or a sibling? Are you seeing the dark shades as more prominent than the blessings? Beth reminds us that God can turn those difficult times into blessing and beauty when we ask Him. She writes of how light overcomes the darkness - even in the life of a loser like the thief on the cross next to Jesus: “The blackness of a thief’s entire life was instantly changed by a single drop of faith in the One hanging on the next cross.” (The Patriarchs, P. 226)

Jacob had much to be grateful for: he had been blessed with many sons, including one brought back from “death,” grandchildren, plenty of wealth, and, finally, the best land in Egypt as a place of refuge from the famine! God had indeed been good to Jacob! Can we find His blessings, too?

 

Genesis 46:28-34

Finally, we get to witness the reunion of Joseph with his father after 20 years of separation.

Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. (Genesis 46:28-29)

I love that Judah is sent ahead “to get directions to Goshen.” No GPS or even Thomas Bros. Guide then! Jon Courson reminds us that Judah means praise, so the family would be lead by praise to this reunion. Beth Moore asks us to imagine the necks craning to see Joseph riding on his chariot in the distance, kicking up dust on his way to his father. Remember that Joseph was a 17 year old boy when his brothers sold him into slavery. There were a lot of physical changes to the man Joseph, who at this point in the story was completely “Egyptianized.” He would have had a clean shaven face, unlike his bearded brothers, and Beth Moore speculates that he may even have been “bare-chested and bedecked in brass and jewels. No beast-inflicted scars in sight.” Think Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments BEFORE the beard.

Now, this I find interesting. We have no record of the brothers explaining to their father how Joseph actually ended up in Egypt instead of in the stomach of a beast. Did Jacob wonder why there were no scars? Why is no one asking the obvious questions? The reality is that the reasons were a moot point once Joseph had his son back. The family was back together again, and Jacob had his precious Joseph in his arms. Joseph was so overcome with emotions, having stuffed them down for so many years, he “wept for a long time.”

Not only had Joseph changed, but Jacob was twenty years older, surely more frail, and showing the marks of grief on his face. He exclaims, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.” (vs. 30) Actually, Jacob lived another 17 years in Goshen, which Beth Moore points out gave him Joseph for 17 years before Joseph was sent to Egypt, and 17 years after the reunion, with 20 agonizing years in between. Anyway, Jacob declares he was ready to go home to God anytime now that he had his son back. I totally identify with Jacob here! After the weddings of my daughters, when I knew my girls had married men who loved the LORD and who would love and cherish them, I told God, “You can take me home any time now!” I had everything I’d ever dreamed of for my girls, and my job of raising them in Christ was competed! What joy! Everything else is the cherry on top!

I like that Jon Courson, in showing how Joseph was an example of Christ, asks us to visualize the reunion of the Father and the Son when Jesus returned to the right hand of His Father! Isn’t that a great image to ponder??? Then Courson points out that Joseph, like Jesus, became a mediator before Pharaoh for his family in the remaining verses of this chapter. He managed to get for his family the best land in all of Egypt! I like the idea of Jesus doing the same for me! As the ONLY mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), He’s my advocate before the Father and His desire for me is always what’s best!

While Joseph and Jacob could never get back those twenty years, I am certain that they made the most of the seventeen they had left! Some of us have had “lost years” that we wish we could reclaim: possibly years wasted in a bad relationship; years spent chasing the things of this world; years we weren’t the parents we wish we’d been, etc. And God actually has a promise for us about this kind of loss:

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten . . .” (Joel 2:25)

The LORD gave this verse to my mother years ago when she was mourning over the fact that she had not raised her four daughters in the LORD. She came to the LORD very late in life, as a result of my father being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s during his early 60’s, when my mother was only 53! Once she became a Christian, she was so saddened by her neglect to raise us in the faith. However, when she read this verse, she rejoiced that God would somehow redeem those years - and He truly did! In the same way, God redeemed this family from its dysfunction. We’ll see some of this in the next chapter.

 

Genesis 46:1-27

Before we hop into the moving van with Jacob, let’s look back once more at Genesis 45:27-28 to see the change that had happened to him when he finally decided to believe that Joseph was, indeed, alive:

But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”


Belief in the truth caused Jacob’s spirit to revive, and the father of the twelve tribes, Israel (note the name change), spoke out in faith. Jacob had been emotionally dead to his sons and was most likely feeling bone-dry in his relationship with God all of those years he believed there was no hope. Learning and believing the truth about Joseph positively breathed life back into this old man!

What in your life feels completely dead? Your marriage? Your relationship with your children? Your career? Your hopes for the future? What lie are you believing that is rotting your bones until they are all dried up? Beth Moore quotes Ezekial 37:3-6 in relation to this rebirth of Jacob and to the possibility of a revival of our own dead spirit:

He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”


I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”


Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”


These verses specifically were a prophecy to Israel that the LORD would one day restore the Jewish nation, which had been taken into captivity. This prophecy was fulfilled when the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity, but it also had another fulfillment when the current nation of Israel came to life in 1948. If God could breathe new life back into Jacob, if he could restore the nation of Israel, surely he can revive what you believe is dead. Believe that the God who raised Jesus can also raise whatever you see as dead!

Back to Jacob. I can’t even imagine the joy that must have surge through him as he began the journey south! We see that as he headed down to Egypt, he stopped to worship his God and experienced another encounter with Him:

So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.


And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”
   
“Here I am,” he replied.


“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.” (Gen 46:1-4)

Back in chapter 28, when Jacob was leaving home to find his wife and escape Esau, he had his first vision from God.  God had promised him that he would go with him everywhere he went. That would include Egypt. Jacob did not need to be anxious about this move. God was going on ahead of him! I love the promise that his beloved Joseph, himself, would close Jacob’s eyes in death!

Verses 8-27 of this chapter give the names of the direct descendants of Jacob who went with him down into Egypt. Tucked in verse 12 is the royal line of Judah, his son Perez (whose mother was Tamar), and Perez’s son Hezron, from whom the Messiah would come. The total in Egypt, including Joseph and his two sons, was seventy - NOT including the wives! Four hundred and thirty years later, when the Israelites left Egypt, their numbers had grown to 600,000 men, NOT counting the women and children! Yes, God kept His promise! Don’t you love it?

 

Genesis 45:25-28 Revisited

So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” (Gen 45:25-28)

Before we leave this chapter, I just wanted to revisit Jacob’s reaction to the news that his sons brought him. Like Thomas with the resurrected Jesus, Jacob would not believe the truth that Joseph was alive until he had seen tangible evidence. And even as he was doubting, the evidence was coming toward him in the wagons that Joseph had sent. Jon Courson, in his Application Commentary: Old Testament, has fun comparing these “wagons” with the ones God has provided with us. He writes:

“Like Jacob, many times we don’t believe the Word we heard. But the good news is that Jacob’s disbelief did not derail the wagon train Joseph had sent his way to pick him up and bring him to Goshen. You might be going through dry times right now in which you are spiritually famished. But I have good news for you: The wagon train has been sent your way. What wagon?” (Courson, P.197)

And then Courson lists the five wagons that God has provided for us: the lunch wagon; the station wagon; the welcome wagon; the bandwagon; and the covered wagon. The lunch wagon is the one that brings complete satisfaction for our spiritual hunger and thirst - for FREE!

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. (Isaiah 55:1)

Jesus affirmed that he is the bread of life, and that all who come to Him will never again be hungry or thirsty (John 6:35). Nothing satisfies like Jesus!

The station wagon is the promise that your family will carry both you and your family:

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

Courson writes, “Your kids may have wandered away, but even if you’re pessimistic or full of doubt about them God promised that He will keep that which is committed to Him (2 Timothy 1:12), and will finish the work He began (Philippians 1:6) “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and not only you, but your family will eventually be saved as well,” declared Paul (see Acts 11:!4). The promises of God are intact gang. And even if you don’t believe it, the station wagon is headed in your direction to scoop up you and your family.” (Courson, P. 198)

Courson describes the welcome wagon as the amazing promise of I Corinthians 2:9.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”


Add to that the promise of John 14:2 in which Jesus promises that He is preparing a place for you and will, in fact, come to take you there, and you get the idea that we will truly be welcomed to our heavenly home, and that home will be beyond anything we could ever imagine!

The final two wagons Courson mentions are the band wagon (the one that guarantees we will all have a place in the heavenly choir that will be forever praising the LORD), and the covered wagon, that promises that ALL of our sins, past, present, and future, have been completely covered by the blood of the Lamb (Romans 5:1,2; Romans 6:14, and Romans 8:1-3).

My pastor often says, “The truest thing about you is what GOD says about you!” Jacob had believed a lie for more than 20 years. What lies have you been believing about yourself? That you are not good enough for God? That He would never accept you? Or maybe you believe that you ARE good enough on your own merits; that you deserve to be loved by God because you are such a righteous person?? We need to study God’s Word to know what is true about us. It is that truth that sets us free! God understands our doubts, and it amazes me that He so accommodates us! He sends in the wagons, or He allows a doubter to touch Him - whatever it takes! I love Jesus’ response to Thomas: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) That’s us folks! We have not seen Him with our own eyes, but we have believed Him by faith.

Tomorrow we’ll see Jacob and his family load up the moving vans and head down to Egypt. Great stuff!

Genesis 45:16-28

Today’s passage demonstrates perfectly the difference between the faith of Joseph and that of his father, Jacob. The good news is that God loved them both and had His hand on both of their lives.

We were witnessing the reunion of Joseph and his brothers, after Joseph had finally revealed himself to them. When Pharaoh learned that Joseph’s brothers were in town, he was excited and made an extremely generous offer to Joseph:

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.’


“You are also directed to tell them, ‘Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.’” (Gen 45:17-20)

Only God could have opened Pharaoh’s heart to pour out such blessing! They would have not just a prime plot, but the BEST of all Egypt! This reminds me of one of my life verses:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us... (Eph 3:20)

God is able to do so much more than our puny minds can imagine, and He desires to bless His children. Pharaoh didn’t just offer to squeeze them in someplace - he gave them the very best part of Egypt! So Joseph sent the brothers back to get Jacob and the rest of the clan with wagons loaded with provisions for the journey.

To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. (Gen 45:22)

This time, the other brothers apparently had no issues with Benjamin receiving so much more! They had more than enough and there was no need for competition anymore. However, when Joseph sends them off he gives them a final word, probably only half in jest, “Don’t quarrel on the way!” (vs. 24) In other words, “Don’t kill each other!” When they reached home, Jacob showed his pessimistic nature:

So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” (vs. 25-28)

Here Jacob displayed all of the faith of “doubting” Thomas. He had no trouble, years before, believing the bad lie that Joseph was dead, but here he can’t believe the good truth that Joseph is alive. It is not until he sees the carts filled to overflowing that he believes. And I think we can understand this - he had been believing the lie for about 20 years. And all during that time, that lie had affected his outlook on life, to the point that he was unable to enjoy the blessings of his others sons and his grandchildren.

Jacob was the ultimate pessimist, and Satan knew just how to keep his eyes off of God, by keeping him focused on what he lacked, rather than what he had all along. During that same period, Joseph, who had been denied his family and had languished in prison waiting for justice, was focused on God. He relied on God to sustain Him, and maintained his trust in God throughout. Don’t you know people like Jacob? Maybe you are one of those “half empty” kind of people, who is so wrapped up in what trials you have faced, that you cannot imagine God at work in any of it. And don’t you want to be a person like Joseph, who saw God’s hand in it all?

Again, the good news is that God loved them both. Jacob came around when he saw the wagons, and we will look at what Jon Courson has to say about that tomorrow! I’m just thankful that our gracious God is so patient with us when we show the doubts of Jacob!

 

Genesis 45:6-15

But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. (Gen 45:7)

This is such a big “Aha!” moment for Joseph! The God of the universe had carried out His plan in bringing Joseph down to Egypt for “such a time as this.” While Joseph refers to their deliverance here as being from the famine they were then experiencing, we know this was also prophetic of the “great deliverance” from Egypt, which itself was prophetic of our GREAT deliverance from sin! And, even now, we are waiting for our final deliverance when the LORD comes again in His glory. History is HIS STORY. Everything that happens is within His sovereign plan. And He uses even evil deeds to bring about His plan (Joseph’s being sold into slavery, the crucifixion of Jesus the persecution of the church, your divorce, your financial disaster, etc.). God can and does bring good out of evil as He moves us to the end of history.

The death of Gadhafi yesterday reminded me of what an amazing year this has been historically. So much has happened in 2011, we can barely take it all in! The fall of several dictators last spring and yesterday points to the void in leadership throughout the world. While it was exciting to see these bad leaders fall, so far no one has stepped in to their vacancies to bring order out of the chaos. Where are the leaders ANYWHERE on earth??? This dearth of leadership certainly makes me look up for the return of Christ, because the antichrist can’t be too far behind! There will be such a need for a strong leader, the world will welcome him as their deliverer. Interesting to watch - we live in exciting times!

Back to Joseph and the boys. . . Joseph told his brothers to hurry back to get Dad and the rest of the family and bring them down to Goshen, where Joseph would be able to provide for all of them.

Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him. (vs.14-15)

Here is the precious reunion we’ve been waiting for! Finally Joseph embraces Benjamin and weeps over him. Then he kisses the other brother and weeps over them. Notice that it says specifically that Benjamin embraced him back, but we don’t see that with the other ten. Beth Moore says, “Not everyone is at the same emotional place at the same time.” Joseph had had more time to digest the reunion with the brothers . The brothers were still stunned by the revelation. “Afterward his brothers talked with him.” Wouldn’t you love to hear that conversation??

There are many more great things to share about this reunion - but they will have to wait until next week! I’m off to work!