Joseph follows his father’s wishes and takes him to be buried in the cave at Machpelah. Proof of Joseph’s status in Egypt can be found in the embalming of Jacob (this alone took forty days!), the seventy days of mourning for him, and in the large entourage of Egyptians accompanying Joseph to the burial site. After the burial, Joseph’s brothers began to worry that he would take revenge on them now that their father was dead. To ensure that this wouldn’t happen, they concocted a story about Jacob giving them a message for Joseph instructing him to forgive his brothers. Joseph weeps when he hears the message and proceeds to remind his brothers that what they intended for harm, God intended for good. He also assures them that he will look after them and their families. It’s my opinion that Joseph didn’t necessarily believe the story his brothers told him, but that he had forgiven them long ago, and he knew that his place was God’s doing. Joseph lived to be 110 years old, which was long enough to see several generations of children and grandchildren. Before his death, he reminded his brothers of the oath that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give them land back in Canaan, assuring them that God would look out for them after Joseph’s death. Joseph then dies, and so ends the book of Genesis…
Posts Tagged ‘Genesis
Genesis 50
Genesis 49
As he is now laying on his deathbed, Jacob calls together his sons so he may bless them. He goes through each of his twelve sons, commenting on their futures, which in some cases were influenced by their pasts. Jacob’s firstborn son Reuben, loses his rights as the firstborn because of the incident in 35:22 (which is referenced here in v 4). Next in line would be Simeon and Levi, but the violence they displayed in chapter 34 counts them out as well. Interestingly, these twelve sons are the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, and some of these blessings make reference to the land that they will inherit; Jacob tells Simeon and Levi that they will be spread out throughout the land. In Simeon’s case, Joshua 19:9 tells us that his land was all within Judah’s land; and in Levi’s case, his people became the priests of Israel, and therefore had no land of their own, but had areas within each of the other territories. This leads us to Judah, who is now the crown jewel of Israel. Jacob is quite effusive in his praise of Judah, and his people would become the royal tribe of Israel. The blessings of the rest of the sons are fairly brief, until Jacob arrives at Joseph. What is most notable about Joseph’s blessing is the repeated use of the word “blessing” in vv 25-26; Jacob envisions good things for Joseph and his family as a result of his readiness and faithfulness (vv 23-24). Benjamin is the last son to be blessed, and in this short blessing, Benjamin is seen to be victorious over his enemies.
The chapter ends with Jacob giving instructions for his burial in the cave at Machpelah, where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob’s wife Leah were buried.
Genesis 48
This chapter starts with Joseph going to visit his father, Jacob, who is quite ill and near death. Jacob takes this time to tell Joseph of the promises that God had made to him. He then “adopts” Joseph’s two children into his family, and the wording in the original Hebrew makes it seem as though they were taking Reuben’s and Simeon’s places in the hierarchy of Jacob’s family; this would be important as Jacob was soon to die, and inheritance becomes an issue. Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh (Joseph’s sons), although he does so in the wrong order according to their birth order. When Joseph tries to correct this, Jacob tells him that he knows what he is doing, and that while both boy’s descendants will become great nations, the “younger brother will be greater than” the older (v 19). That sounds familiar, sort of like Jacob and Esau…
Genesis 47
This chapter picks up with Joseph presenting his brothers to Pharaoh, and them answering his questions as Joseph instructed them to. Pharaoh has Joseph set up his family in Goshen, which was not a big area of Egypt, but one of the best for agriculture and livestock. Joseph also made sure that his family had food. At this point, the famine was quite severe, and all the people of Egypt and Canaan had used up all of their money buying food from Pharaoh. Joseph then offered to sell them food in exchange for their livestock. Over the course of the year, all of their livestock then belonged to Pharaoh. After trading their livestock, the only things left to trade where themselves and their land. So, all the land in Egypt eventually belonged to Pharaoh. Then Joseph set the people up with seed so they could plant crops, with the agreement that 1/5 of what they grew would be given to Pharaoh; the rest was for them. The chapter ends with Jacob asking Joseph to promise to bury him with his fathers, not in Egypt. And after the weird hand-under-thigh version of the pinky-swear, Joseph agrees.
Genesis 46
This chapter starts out with Jacob and all of his family heading to Egypt to live. Along the way, they stop in Beersheba where God appears to Jacob in a vision, and tells him to “not be afraid to go down to Egypt” (v 3), that God would take care of him. The next part of the chapter details the members of Jacob’s household, including wives, children, and grandchildren; 66 people traveling to Egypt, 70 if you count Joseph and his family. Joseph meets Jacob in the region of Goshen, where Jacob says to his son: “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive” (v 30). The chapter ends with Joseph giving his brothers instruction as to how to answer Pharaoh when he asks about their occupations; shepherds were not well-liked by the Egyptians, but these shepherds are related to Joseph!
Genesis 45
Joseph finally breaks down and tells his brothers who he is. This revelation scares them, but Joseph tries to put them at ease by saying to them: “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you” (v5). He then tells them about the remaining five years of famine, and how he will provide for them and their entire family, including their father, Jacob. Then there was some hugging, some kissing, some crying, and then the brothers were able to talk with Joseph. When Pharaoh heard about Joseph’s brothers, he assured them (as Joseph had) that their entire family would have a place to stay in Egypt, and that they would be well taken care of. Pharaoh and Joseph send them off to get the rest of the family with food and gifts; it is interesting that Joseph gives his “real” brother more than the others. When they arrived in Canaan, it took some convincing, but Jacob realizes that Joseph is alive. The chapter ends with Jacob declaring: “I will go and see him before I die” (v 28).
Genesis 44
Joseph is proving to be quite the tricky fellow: first he has his brother’s money put back in their grain sacks (without their knowledge), and during their second visit he does the same, only this time he has his personal cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack. The cup is discovered, and the penalty is that Benjamin was to be Joseph’s slave. Judah recounts to Joseph the struggle it was to get Jacob to agree to allow Benjamin to travel to Egypt, and how it would kill Jacob for the brothers to return without Benjamin. He then offers himself as a slave instead.
The point of Joseph’s trickery seems to be that he is trying to elicit an admission of guilt from his brothers for selling him into slavery. Joseph seems to bear them no ill will, as during both visits he has given them the food they came for, and their money back. But this constant good haunts the brothers, and the echoes of what they did to Joseph are getting louder. If they are not actually guilty of taking Joseph’s money or his cup, then the guilt of what they did to him (and remember that they still don’t know it’s him) is starting to get to them, as evidenced in v 16 when Judah says: “God has uncovered your servants’ guilt.” They are figuring that God is causing them to be guilty of other things in payment for what they did to Joseph. But all will be revealed soon…
Genesis 43
As Simeon continues to sit in an Egyptian jail, the brothers cannot convince Jacob to send them back to Egypt with Benjamin. But then the food runs out. To be safe, Jacob sends them back with Benjamin, but also with many gifts for Joseph (although they still don’t know it’s him), including a double portion of silver so that they can return the silver from their last trip. When they arrived in Egypt, Joseph has them sent to his house, where he has instructed his steward to prepare a meal for them. Being sent to Joseph’s house scared the brothers, as they thought Joseph was taking them captive. They explained the situation with the silver to Joseph’s steward, who then assures them that their God was looking out for them, and that they were not in trouble. He then brought out Simeon. When Joseph arrived, they presented their gifts to him. He then asked about their father, before seeing his brother, Benjamin. At the sight of Benjamin, Joseph begins to weep and has to leave the room to compose himself. The meal is served and the brothers are surprised that Benjamin’s portion is “five times as much as anyone else’s” (v 34).
Genesis 42
The famine talked about in chapter 41 reaches Caanan, the land of Jacob and his family. Hearing that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he sends ten of his sons there to buy food. Notice that it is Benjamin, the other son of Rachel and the brother of Joseph, that he doesn’t send. Say what you want about them all being Jacob’s sons; he preferred the two he had with Rachel. When the brothers arrive in Egypt, Joseph recognizes them but pretends not to know them. He treats them as if they are spies and devises a plan to make them prove otherwise: they will stay in Egypt until their youngest brother comes to meet them. After a few days, Joseph changes the plan and allows all but one brother, Simeon, to go back and get Benjamin. In addition, Joseph has his servants give them the grain they came for, but return the money they used to pay for it by hiding it in their sacks of grain. Even though he has every reason to be angry, Joseph still cares about his family. When the brothers discovered the returned money, they weren’t quite sure what to make of it, thinking that God might be punishing them (a sense of guilt is beginning to creep in) They explain to Jacob that they have to bring Benjamin back to Egypt, but he refuses to let him go, even after Reuben swears on his own two sons that they will bring Benjamin back. So for now, Simeon sits in an Egyptian jail…
Genesis 41
This is quite a turnaround for Joseph! He’s sold into slavery by his brothers and sold to the captain of the Egyptian guard. Then he is put in charge of the captain’s household, before being falsely accused by the captain’s wife and being thrown in jail. He helps out Pharaoh’s cupbearer, who then forgets to return the favor. Now two years later, Pharaoh is having strange dreams, and cannot find anyone who can interpret them. This jogs the memory of the cupbearer, who suggests to Pharaoh that Joseph might be able to interpret the dreams. After first telling Pharaoh that it will be God, not him, that interprets the dreams, Joseph tells Pharaoh what they mean. The dreams are a warning that for seven years, Egypt will be overly prosperous, but during the following seven years there will be a terrible famine. He suggests to Pharaoh that someone be appointed to watch over the seven prosperous years, in order to prepare for the seven years of famine. Pharaoh recognizes that this person would need to have God’s favor, and so he appoints Joseph to a position over all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. Joseph marries, has two sons, and oversees the storing of food for the famine. When the famine comes, it effects what was then the known world, and Egypt is so well prepared that people begin coming from other countries to buy grain from Pharaoh. This sets the stage for the next part of Joseph’s story…
