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Genesis 47
September 14, 2004
Reading through the
Bible in one Year: Amos 1-4
Weekly Memory Verse: 2 Timothy 2:15
Good Evening Brothers
and Sisters,
Daily Reminder, pray
for the "Forty days of purpose" that is coming up on September 25th at 9pm
each evening. Be sure to email me and let me know if you want to be a
member of the study group that meets. I will be emailing out times that I
will be at Starbucks and where, once we start the program.
Genesis 47:1-6 (NASB95)
1 Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and
my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have
come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.”
2 He took five men from among his brothers and presented them to
Pharaoh. 3 Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your
occupation?” So they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we
and our fathers.” 4 They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to
sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for
the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your
servants live in the land of Goshen.” 5 Then Pharaoh said to
Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6 “The
land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers in
the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know
any capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock.”
[1]
Considering these
verses, Joseph's brothers obviously followed his instructions in gaining the
land of Goshen. It is also interesting that Pharaoh put them in charge of
his livestock. Consider though his stand, animals were offensive to
Egyptians, so they were not as likely to do as good of a job. Secondly,
Joseph had already demonstrated that he had integrity, and a good business
sense that exceeded anyone in his kingdom, why would his brothers be any
different?
Think about that for a
moment, today we have many businesses that are ran by "Christians". They
display the fish, put scripture verses on their business cards, and openly
profess thier Christianity. Unfortunately that is not always a mark of a
good place to do business, in some cases, it may be wise to steer clear of
these businesses. I have often wondered why Christians are so difficult to
do business with. Where is our integrity, and our customer service? Why is
it that we as Christians cannot be trusted to be faithful in our
businesses? There is a certain group of believes that honestly use their
businesses as witnesses where they stand behind their service and go the
extra mile to make sure that their customers have high quality service.
They use their businesses to serve both the Christian community and as an
outreach to the world for Jesus. On the flip side, there is a group of
businessmen who display the fish, and are slimy, greasy low-lifes who are
out to pad their pockets and to fleece the family of God. I don't know
whether to consider them Christians or wolves in disguise. The only way I
know to tell the difference is by standing reputations, such as in the case
of Joseph, and by careful discernment. The point of this is simple,
Christian if you are a businessman, put your money where your mouth is,
build your business on the extra mile, and glorify God in every aspect of
it. Yes, your business costs will be higher, but God will bless you and
make up the difference. On with the study.
Genesis 47:7-12 (NASB95)
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to
Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How
many years have you lived?” 9 So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The
years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have
been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers
lived during the days of their sojourning.” 10 And Jacob blessed
Pharaoh, and went out from his presence. 11 So Joseph settled his
father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in
the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered.
12 Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s
household with food, according to their little ones.
[2]
Not only did Joseph's
family have an instant good reputation in the light of Joseph's service,
Jacob was considered wise enough to bless Pharaoh, ruler of the kingdom.
Remember the position of Joseph for a moment, he was a slave that was thrown
in prison, and freed by a whim of Pharaoh who had a dream interpreted by
him. Joseph did not come from the pedigree of fine family standing in
Egypt. He came from the lowest of positions and attained the highest
position in the land. In Pharaoh's eyes, Joseph was a man of God, a prophet
or a seer who had inside information that could only come from the one
supreme God that is above all others. Considering that, Joseph's father
must have also been a man of God, or should have been.
Jacob answered
Pharaoh's questions honestly, when you consider his life, it was certainly
laced with one problem after another. In the early years of his life, he
had trouble because of his crafty manipulations of his brother Esau. Then
later, he was manipulated and troubled by Laban, his father in law.
Following that, he had serious conflicts and almost literal wars going on
right in his own family household. Finishing with years of thinking his
favorite son was dead due to a deception by the rest of his sons. One
bright light in his life was the move to the land of Egypt where he finally
lives in peace.
As I reflect on
Jacob's response, I am reminded that he never really demonstrated a
willingness to submit to the will of God. He made a few trips and was
approached by God, but if you study his life, he had a habit of doing it
himself by whatever means he had possible. I wonder how often that we do
that, we acknowledge God, but continue on the path that we feel is right.
How many of the troubles in his life could have been avoided if he had not
had the propensity to master in deception and self direction? God spent a
lifetime trying to get his attention and his submissiveness, it was during
his old age that he finally seems to give in to God.
Another thought along
this same line, have you ever considered why God placed the Jews in Egypt,
knowing that they would end up in 400 years of slavery? Perhaps they had
reached a point where God was not important in their lives, and God had to
work on the nation for 400 years in order to finally get its attention.
Even when that happens, they don't seem very responsive to God.
Genesis 47:13-31 (NASB95)
13 Now there was no food in all the land, because the famine was
very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished
because of the famine. 14 Joseph gathered 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
When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of
Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food, for why
should we die in your presence? For our money is gone.” 16
Then Joseph said, “Give up your livestock, and I will give you food
for your livestock, since your money is gone.” 17 So they
brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for
the horses and the flocks and the herds and the donkeys; and he fed them
with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. 18 When
that year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We
will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle are
my lord’s. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies and our
lands. 19 “Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our
land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to
Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land
may not be desolate.” 20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt
for Pharaoh, for every Egyptian sold his field, because the famine was
severe upon them. Thus the land became Pharaoh’s. 21 As for the
people, he removed them to the cities from one end of Egypt’s border to the
other. 22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the
priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment
which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore, they did not sell their land. 23
Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have today bought you and
your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you may sow the
land. 24 “At the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and
four-fifths shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food and
for those of your households and as food for your little ones.” 25
So they said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the
sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.” 26 Joseph
made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt valid to this day,
that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests did not
become Pharaoh’s. 27 Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in
Goshen, and they acquired property in it and were fruitful and became very
numerous. 28 Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; so
the length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years. 29
When the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph
and said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now
your hand under my thigh and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness.
Please do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but when I lie down with my
fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.”
And he said, “I will do as you have said.” 31 He said, “Swear to
me.” So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed in worship at the head of
the bed.[3]
Joseph was a shrewd
business man. Think about the situation for a moment, the grain was sold
back to the people who had given it up in taxes several years before.
During the years of plenty, they had retained 80 percent of their crops and
were taxed at a rate of twenty percent. Apparently none of them had the
foresight to put away for the future, and therefore were required to
purchase back from the government what they had been taxed on years
earlier. The citizens of Egypt who had put grain into the depository, were
charged to regain their grain for their own use. In our country we demand
relief from the government during times of famine and misfortune. The
difference here is that Joseph charged the citizens of the land, instead of
giving the relief for free.
The government did not
generate the grain that was stored in the depositories, the people of the
land did. Joseph wisely ruled over the grain of the Pharaoh, moved the
citizens of the country from being free landowners to being indentured
servants of the kingdom. The country was transformed from a free society to
a land of servants who lived on the kings land, and paid taxes to have the
right to remain on the land. He was slick enough to have the people of the
land to thank him for saving them from the famine, by returning the produce
they had originally given to guard against the famine for a price.
So many times we see
Joseph through eyes that only see the prophet side of him. We see the side
of Joseph where he was raised up from nothing to become something in the
land of Egypt. But we don't see the flip side of the coin, I wonder why...
God's people on the
other hand came into the land wealthy, and were taken care of by Joseph as
members of his family. They didn't have to worry about starving the
remainder of the five years during the famine. When you consider this, his
family only consisted of seventy people. They were probably considered to
be in the allotment of the priests since they were Joseph's family.
Therefore they lived and prospered in the land for free. They were taken
care of by God and preserved by God during that time coming out to be one of
the only people in the land to own land after the famine was over. They
entered the land of Egypt as guests, and at the end of the famine were
landowners. I wonder if Joseph didn't have just a little of his dads
qualities in him.
Jacob was concerned
that his bones were buried in the land of his fathers. He made Joseph
promise to move his bones when he died.
I covered a lot of
ground today, and gave a little different view than the traditional one on
this passage. It is open for discussion, if you wish to make comments,
please feel free to write in.
Questions for thought:
How would you describe
Joseph’s role in the land of Egypt?
Should he have charged
the citizens for the grain?
It took seven years
for Egypt to be completely restructured, what do you think about that?
Father, as we consider
Joseph today, I pray that those in our group who are business men will learn
from his example in proclaiming you in their lives. I also ask that you
will spark each one of us to live our lives with integrity, based upon Your
word in our lives.
In Him,
Joe Turner.
[1]
[2]
[3]
New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The
Lockman Foundation.
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