From Goshen to Glory (Gen. 47:1–48:23)

As he had promised in the previous chapter, Joseph arranged for his brothers to receive from Pharaoh suitable territory in the desirable area of Goshen. The permission would involve a meeting with the ruler because Pharaoh wanted to meet Jacob, so Joseph took his father to see him. When they met, Jacob blessed Pharaoh, which is perhaps a reminder that while Pharaoh could give some earthly possessions to Jacob, it was Jacob who could obtain greater blessings for the ruler from God. We are not told what Jacob said, but in previous years of his life he would never have expected to be given this opportunity. 

 

The fact that Jacob blessed Pharaoh on arriving and leaving the presence of the ruler looks as if the author is likening those blessings to bookends surrounding the visit. It looks as if Jacob did this automatically, which is a reminder that he was constantly aware of God. He spoke about God when the meeting began, and he spoke about God when the meeting ended. Clearly, he was not ashamed to speak about God even to the most important of people. 

 

Indeed he pronounced a blessing on a man who was also responsible for ensuring that there was a form of false religion taking place in his country. So we can see from this action by Jacob that it is appropriate for believers to wish some form of divine blessing on those who are not believers. Jacob had at least two valid reasons for doing so: Pharaoh had provided for Joseph and promoted him to a very prominent place and Pharaoh was now also providing for the needs of Jacob and all his family. There are numerous reasons why we can wish God’s blessing on secular rulers. I suppose the challenge is having the courage to say something personally when we meet them. 

 

Pharaoh was interested in the age of Jacob, perhaps because Joseph was only in his forties, which means that Jacob was in his eighties when Joseph was born. Jacob admits that his days were fewer than those of Abraham and Isaac. As he looked back, he saw that the days had been evil, some of it caused by himself and some caused by the sins of others. The evil would also include the hardships he had known, troubles like bereavements and disappointments. Still he admitted he was not living in this world. Rather he was a sojourner, a person traveling through to another world. He confessed that he was a stranger in the world.

 

Joseph enlarges the power of Pharaoh

Joseph served Pharaoh during the five remaining years of the national famine. His policy meant that the property of the land became the possession of Pharaoh and the people of the land became his servants in a way that they had not been before. They were pleased to do this, because they had seen the benefits that Joseph’s policies had brought. The government provided what the people needed, and out of their produce they could keep four fifths for themselves.

 

This looks like a form of state provision, which may have applications to the national situation we have at present in the pandemic. Egypt was going through a period of real national crisis, and the government stepped in and enabled the people to survive through it. There is no hint here that God disapproved of the methods adopted by Joseph. Nor did Joseph give preferential treatment to any group. He treated everyone the same. It is also possible that God used this method of giving such control to Pharaoh to prevent powerful groups in Egypt from objecting to the Israelites having the best of the land.

 

What about God’s people during the five years and subsequently? Despite it being a period of obvious difficulty we are told that they prospered in that ‘they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly.’ Obviously, the Lord in his providence was fulfilling his promise to Abraham about the number of his descendants. He had told Abraham that his seed would be as numerous as the stars and as the sand by the seashore. Here in Egypt, their growth was great.

 

Joseph is the heir 

We move on twelve years after the end of the famine to the time when Jacob came to die at the age if one hundred and forty-seven. He knew that he had to ensure what would happen to his body and he also knew that he would have to give his parting blessing to his sons.

 

The first occasion (47:29-31)

One question that arises is why Jacob asked Joseph to ensure that his body would be taken to Hebron for burial with his forefathers. Maybe he asked Joseph because he had the political authority to ensure that it would happen. Yet I suspect that here we have further confirmation that Joseph was the heir, because normally it would be the heir’s responsibility to look after the burial of his parent.

 

Another matter that arises is the question of identity. From one point of view, it does not matter where a person is buried because it will not hinder the resurrection of the body in any way. Yet Jacob wanted to make a public statement about where his heart was. His faith identified with those whose bodies were in the cave in Machpelah rather than with those who identified with the kingdom of Pharaoh. Although he was in Egypt for seventeen years, he never became an Egyptian. 

 

The second occasion (48:1-22)

Later on, Jacob’s health declined even further, and Joseph decided it was time to take his two sons to see their grandfather. The sons were born before Jacob came to Egypt, so they would be about twenty years old, if not older, when this meeting took place. It became clear that Jacob had a message for them that would mark them out from the other grandchildren.

 

Jacob on this occasion focussed on God’s promise to give the land of Canaan to his descendants. At that moment, they were all in the land of Egypt. But Jacob had learned to see life through the promises of God, and he recalled the promise that had been given to him at Luz that his descendants would be numerous and live in Canaan. How could that happen? Jacob knew that the Almighty God would bring it about. As he faced the king of terrors, he looked to the strength of the God who always keeps his promises. And he was not afraid to say so.  

 

Inevitably, one matter would be the extent of the inheritance that Joseph would have. Unlike the other sons of Jacob, who each had one area of land, the descendants of Joseph would have two, but the names of those two areas would not be Joseph but that of his two oldest sons. So Joseph was given a double inheritance as the one regarded as the firstborn. Even Joseph’s other children would identify with one of the two oldest. So once again God showed his sovereignty in stating that Joseph had been given special privileges by him.

 

An unusual event then happened when Jacob realised that Manasseh and Ephraim were present. It was not possible for Jacob to physically distinguish between them. Yet when Joseph placed his sons according to their age, Jacob reversed his hands, and put his right hand on Ephraim and his left hand on Manasseh. He then pronounced a blessing on Joseph that indicated that the younger son would be more prominent than the older. This was obviously a divine interruption. 

 

But Joseph initially thought his father had been confused. Indeed, he was angry about it, although he would have known that God had done this before with the sons of Abraham and Isaac, and even when he himself was given the place of honour in the family of Jacob. Maybe he was apprehensive about what would happen to Manasseh, but Jacob assured him that both sons would be blessed, and indeed would appear together in a blessing that the Israelites would use. 

 

No reason is given as to why God did this. At a basic level, it is a reminder that there are limitations to human power. Joseph was the second most powerful man in Egypt, but even he had to bow to the plans of God regarding the places that his two sons would have. 

 

The blessing of Jacob

The blessing of Jacob is a wonderful personal testimony. He affirms that the Lord is the covenant God in whose presence his grandfather and father had walked, which is another way of saying that wherever they placed their feet God was with them. From his own life, he testified that God had been his shepherd, the one who led and provided for him. He also knew that God would bless his descendants in line with the promises made to him along with Abraham and Isaac.

 

It is interesting that he speaks about God in three ways: there is the description of him as the companion of Abraham and Isaac, there is the description of him as the shepherd of Jacob,  and there is the description of him as the angel who redeemed him from all evil. The God who will bless the boys is identified in three ways, which does lead us to think about the Trinity. Whether Jacob realised this or not, we know that his reference to the Angel refers to the God he met at Peniel, who reminded Jacob that he would be with him on his journeys.

 

The Book of Hebrews tells us that Jacob worshipped as he blessed his grandchildren: ‘By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff’ (Heb. 11:21). Maybe he stood up, with his grandchildren kneeling before him. Yet, what marks his actions is his desire to worship. Joseph, as he looked on, would have seen the remarkable progress his father had made in personal devotion to his God. 

 

Jacob had one more detail to say to Joseph when he informed his son that he was giving to him a particular area of ground: ‘Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow’ (48:22). It is often suggested that this piece of ground is that referred to in John 4 in connection with the incident when Jesus spoke with the woman from the Samaritan village called Sychar: ‘So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour’ (John 4:5-6). Sychar is said to be the same place as Shechem, and it was near here that Joseph himself would be buried (Josh. 24:32). Could Jacob here, while referring to his own place of burial in Canaan, also have identified where Joseph himself would be buried later on? No one can say that he did. But we can wonder why Jacob should have referred to that area of ground at that time. The burial of Joseph is referred to by Jacob in the previous verse when he says to Joseph: ‘Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.’ 

 

Our outlook on the future

It is appropriate to look ahead. Even in a literal sense, if we don’t look ahead, we will get nowhere. There are many situations in life when it is necessary to look ahead and see what is coming. And even when life reaches its close, it is good to look ahead. Jacob looked ahead as well as back the way when he came to the end of life. Robert Candlish, in applying this aspect of Jacob’s outlook, commented with these words:

 

Is not his faith mine? And his hope? When the time draws near that I must die, – believing, I may commit my soul to God. And my body too. I need not, it is true, be so anxious as Jacob was about the place or manner of my body’s interment. I have not the same occasion. I am not called to teach the same prophetic lesson. I may sit very loose to the question where my lifeless frame is to lie, – in ocean’s deep bed, – or on earth’s wildest waste. But it is not because I hold the body cheap. No. It is because I know that he to whom it is still united will see to its safe keeping, wherever it may rest, – and will restore it to me soon, invested with his own glory, – and will bestow upon me, when it is restored to me, the promised everlasting inheritance in ‘the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.’

 

And we can ask, do these words describe us?