his servants may not eaves dropping, but they certainly
remained in ear shod, in fact the whole house heard the matter, but now
Joseph was weeping and crying aloud.
And the Egyptians learn that
from his very youth God had orchestrated him to be the deliverer of
all in the known world, at least in those regions. And in vs 16 we
see the story spread across all of Egypt and became famous and so did
the family of Jacob. So much so that Pharaoh gets wind of it, and he
is pleased, as are his servants, and he brings gifts to the brothers,
whom Joseph sends back to get his father and tell him the news he is
alive and bring him into Egypt to survive the famine and prosper
rather than struggle. And he does this, by the very command of
Pharaoh, and they are told to go get the all their flocks and children
and living creatures and leave their stuff behind and Pharaoh promises
them all the good of Egypt to replace it, (45:20) And Joseph commands
them as Pharaoh had commanded him to command them, and gives them all
provisons for the journey, and wagons full of goods, and he gives
BENJAMIN, 5 times as much as his brothers and 300 pieced of silver
which they didn’t get at all.
And the brothers go home and share the news, and they got to tell on
themselves for their actions.
Interesting, Joseph seen to it that they would return to their Dad one more time, with hidden money in their possession, and return home without one of their brothers in their prior trip home without Simeon. Still as much as the parallel must have worn on the minds of all save Reuben, the kept the secret of their deeds!
I remember when I was a kid, I used to get whipped with a switch. I
made the dumb mistake once of bringing my mom a big thick stick, I was being a smart alec, and thinking doing such would emphasize my viewpoint of the situation and gain
Me some sympathy, at least a laugh. She laughed, but only a moment, and …oh I
never did that again, let’s just draw on yesterdays study and say “I feared losing my ass.” I felt that for a while. I had the mistake
prior of bringing her one of those really thin switches, which
naturally broke on me. There’s an old saying about getting a beating
and going “Round and round”…trust me when I tell you, there is truth
in such. Switch in one hand, my arm in the other, and round and round
we’d go. You bring back a switch that would break, and you were gonna
get more, you had go get another one. I remember getting mad one time
and saying, “WHAT IF JUST DON”T COME BACK…” She said…”That’s okay,
you take all the time you want, you got to come home sometime, and
when you do, it’s just gonna be a whole lot worse.”
Sooner or later your chickens come home to roost, and after 22 years,
The truth of Reuben’s Silence, of the others heinous act of selling their brother
into slavery is waiting to be addressed, owned up to, in the face of redemption, often
Shame.
Now we don’t see Jacobs Anger here against his sons, and note yet again, he considered Josephs dream, he “OBSERVED THE SAYING” even after rebuking him as a child and here upon being told again of the dream as Joseph had told his brothers, and seeing
all the presents of Egypt, he revives and says it’s enough Joseph is
alive, and he is ready to go see him before he dies.
Still, that must have been one long trip. You ever get out of a
whuppin, but still have to be around your parents afterwards. Even
when they don’t say anything, and that can be worse, that look in
their eyes just makes you feel like dirt, and you know you done a
sorry thing. Yeah, I bet that was one long trip, a lot of smiles, but
a lot head hanging.
So as we go into chapter 45, Israel, the man Born Jacob, goes to make
his first stop, a visit to HONOR YAH’, to offer sacrafices to God, the God of his father, and he stays the night. And God comes to him in a dream and tells him not to
fear going into Egypt, that he will be with him, and tells him “THERE
I WILL MAKE A GREAT NATION OF THEE” and we see a parallel to the same promise made to Jacob in Genesis chapter 35, and now, going to see in person, his son, made RULER of the KNOWN WORLD…YAH” delivers on his promise during Jacobs Lifetime so he could witness it, and he makes him a promise yet again in Genesis 45, that in EGYPT, “I WILL MAKE A GREAT NATION OF THEE”…and so Jacob, resting on The word of YAH’, by such Promise, through the eyes of faith, sees the fulfillment of that promise in his minds eye, generations beyond what he knew would be his own lifespan.
And we are now seeing how the Israelites ended up in Egypt, prior to the days of Moses.
And we witness in the story of Moses, roots of SEWING and REAPING even in the generations of Jacob as we see the cycle in that Joseph, while ruler in
the land, is a servant to Pharaoh, and a slave at root to Egypt,
possibly setting the stage for attitudes in later generations against
the Hebrews, guess we will see as we go, at any rate, Jacob is
fearful, not that he is going to Egypt, but that he will not make it
back to be buried in the land of his fathers, and God assures him he
will bring him back up again, as Egypt, is to the south. (46:4).
We then see the names of Israel’s children, and his generations, and
we see that the sons and daughters of his own, are counted as his as
well, as the patriarch, was the ONLY “FATHER” so to speak who was
supreme in the tribal unit. Those sons, were fathers as well, but
Jacobs word always superseded theirs and took precedent. Many
American Indian cultures share a similar hierarchy, such is tribal
life. In vs 30, underline the entire verse and we see Jacob upon
seeing his beloved son, say, “LET ME DIE A HAPPY MAN.” This after
such great a moment of happiness after a life of heartache.
And we see they go to Goshen, and Joseph knows they will be happy
there, and the land is still good for their flocks in a time of
famine, and Joseph gives them counsel to tell Pharaoh they are
Shepherds by trade, knowing Goshen is also a place for outcasts, and
Shepherds, and then underline the last sentence in the the last verse
of this chapter, 36:34, and we see Egyptians consider Shepherds to be
an abomination, and then go back to verse 32 of chapter 43, and if you
don’t already have the last sentence underlined, do so. And you will
understand Josephs concerns here a little more in detail, for surely
he understood the good standing of his family with the Egyptians, and
also the nature of the Egyptians, and wished to maintain both for the
better happiness of all. With a contemptable attitude of the
Egyptians towards the Hebrews, and such may likely go all the way back
to another Pharaoh and Abraham if you recall, the best place for the
Hebrew family, was in a locale where people would not later look down
upon them after the fame wore off.
Now in chapter 47, we see Joseph present his brothers to Pharaoh, at
least 5 of them after . He brings them to Pharaoh after telling him
his family has arrived in Egypt and are Goshen.
And in vs 3, we some things never change, the very thing Pharaoh asks
upon meeting them is, “What do you do for a living?” Guess it was not
always what you know but who you know even in those days.
But here, the reason may be different. We will see rulers conduct
themselves so later in scripture as well, such as Darius and Daniel.
Often when Rulers are presented with a people, here, or upon conquest,
they ask of the trade of the person, this aspect sees the persons as
Property, and to best assign them in service to the kingdom or
conquerors. So also in another aspect, Joseph has assured his family
will not be put into service, but will continue to live the simple
life they have lived and love. In Vs 6, underline the last sentence
and in the margin place “CR-GEN 47:34.”
We see Jacob meet Pharaoh, and underline the last sentence of vs 47:7.
And we are given clue here, that Pharaoh is not actually treating
these guys like property, he is just used to acting that way upon
those presented before him, and in vs 8 he goes to have a real
conversation with Jacob and ask how old he is.
Obviously, he thought he Jacob would much younger by the age of
Joseph, but Jacob explains that his years have been much shorter than
his fathers and grandfathers, that is, he has aged much more quickly
and his health start failing, and explains that he has endured much
heartache.
In vs 10 we see Jacob Bless Pharaoh again and take his leave. Now
this may have been an actual Spiritial Blessing, or it may have been a
“GOD SAVE THE KING” type salute, and act of etiquette, but I am told
of the Spirit that in vs 8, it was a spiritual impartment.
And in vs 12 and 13 we see Joseph feasting with his family, giving
them bread when no one in the land had any. In vs 14 we see that now
everone is living off the corn that has been stored up in the 7 years
of plenty, and times get tight. Joseph is no longer giving any food
away, or selling it to strangers only, everybody has to pay, and the
price starts going up. Anybody paying attention to those summer wheat
crops, and other staples, some bragging going on lately. Seems like
we saw such about February as well, this after we were pointed in
January to observe the month of March, and March saw that Bragging
change course, and in April on the very first day, we were pointed to
Mid April and to May, and sure enough those floods came to the very
regions noted, and what happened to all their boasts?
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