Genesis
41:46 ¶ And Joseph was thirty years old
when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the
presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. 47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth
brought forth by handfuls. 48 And he
gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt,
and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round
about every city, laid he up in the same. 49
And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he
left numbering; for it was without number. 50
And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came,
which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. 51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn
Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s
house. 52 And the name of the second
called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my
affliction. 53 And the seven years of
plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended. 54 And the seven years of dearth began to come,
according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the
land of Egypt there was bread. 55 And
when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread:
and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you,
do. 56 And the famine was over all the
face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the
Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. 57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for
to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
Note
that Joseph is thirty years old when he stood before the Pharaoh. Young Hebrew
Levite men began their service to God at thirty years of age (Numbers 4:3).
David was thirty years old when he began to reign (see 2Samuel 5:4). Jesus
Christ began His ministry on earth at that age, as well when He, the Holy
Ghost, and God the Father were all three present together at His baptism (Luke
3:21-23).
Joseph
toured Egypt as Pharaoh’s representative, carrying with him the power of
Pharaoh over the Egyptians. For seven years harvests were plentiful and there
was no end to the amount that Joseph could store up for the coming dearth.
Obviously, all the food doesn’t mean
he left the Egyptians with no food, now, does it but that he gathered all of
the food from the 20% of the land that the government took. Countries in
crisis, like England in WWII, did things similar to this in their control of
food output for war purposes. His wife, Asenath, gave him two sons, Manasseh
and Ephraim, the meaning of their names found in the text with Manasseh having
to do with forgetting and Ephraim being fruitful. The seven years of famine
came and in Egypt there was plenty of bread. Finally, when Egyptians began to
feel the bite of the dearth they sought for help from the government. Wisely,
Pharaoh directed them to Joseph.
This
brings us to an important point about reading the Bible. The modern
fundamentalist reads it like the owner’s manual for his car and sees And the famine was over all the face of the
earth and says there was famine in South America, in the Pacific islands,
and in China then, too. But, that is not what this means. The earth, in many places in the Bible, has only to do with the
area under concern, the lands of the Near East, what we call the Middle East
unless explanatory descriptions like uttermost
part of the earth or the four corners
of the earth are referring to the entire earth as we know it. This
modernistic view of the Bible where we make it mean what we want it to mean and
leave no room for question has caused much confusion over the past century, at
least. Just remember that when the Bible says;
Luke
2:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a
decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
…it most certainly does not mean that a Roman Emperor had
the power to tax the Kalahari bushman of southern Africa or the Olmec kingdom
of Mexico. Use some common sense. When you say, “I want everyone to come to my
party,” you most certainly don’t mean the entire world without exception.
Thanks to God’s use of Joseph Egypt is now the source of
food for the countries around it. All are drawn to it for food as all were
supposed to be drawn to Israel for the food that is the word of God had they
been obedient. The Old Testament model for evangelism was Israel as a place
where men were drawn to know about God as it shall be in the millennial reign
of Christ.
Zechariah 8:23 Thus saith the
LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take
hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of
him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is
with you.
While under the New Testament model for the Christian the
role of evangelism is to go out in the world as we have no abiding earthly
country. Jesus told the early Jewish Christians so. Notice in the following how
the meaning is to go beyond the boundaries of what the Jew considered his
homeland and the command is to go to the
uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth.
Genesis,
chapter 42
Genesis 42:1 ¶
Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his
sons, Why do ye look one upon another? 2
And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you
down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die. 3 And Joseph’s ten brethren went down to buy
corn in Egypt. 4 But Benjamin, Joseph’s
brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure
mischief befall him. 5 And the sons of
Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine was in the land
of Canaan. 6 And Joseph was the governor
over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and
Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces
to the earth.
Here
is an interesting idiomatic expression. “What are you looking at each other
for? Get down to Egypt and get some grain!” I remember a boss at a job down in
Georgia saying to me when they wanted me to do something right away, “Don’t
look at me like a cow looks at a new gate! Get moving.” Or, if you’re more
uppity and want to quote Shakespeare you might respond to a blank stare with,
“There is a tide,” from Julius Caesar, to
stop someone from spinning their wheels, to take action.
Jacob
wants his sons to take action so they don’t just sit there and starve to death.
All of them except for Jacob’s favorite, his baby boy Benjamin, go down to
Egypt to buy grain. Just in case something bad happens Benjamin will be safe.
This doesn’t say much for Jacob’s concern for the rest, does it.
Bowing
oneself to the earth is one of the postures of reverence and worship.
Sometimes
people bow their head to worship God.
Genesis
24:26 And the man bowed down his head,
and worshipped the LORD.
Sometimes
to the earth.
Genesis
24:52 And it came to pass, that, when
Abraham’s servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to
the earth.
Even
falling down and grabbing the feet of the person worshipped.
Matthew
28:9 And as they went to tell his
disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him
by the feet, and worshipped him.
Sometimes
they kneeled.
Psalm
95:6 O come, let us worship and bow
down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
So,
it is that there are different postures of acknowledging someone as superior.
We Americans are taught to bow to no one as superior so we have a hard time
acknowledging God’s power over our lives in a real, tangible way. Americans
lack the awe for anything other than something like a fireworks display or a
huge bomb going off. Our shallowness of culture does get in the way of our
understanding of who God is and of His power over our lives. The weakness of
other cultures was that for centuries they acknowledged a king, tsar, or
emperor as being God’s agent on earth and were in fear and awe of him but still
not seeing, because of the propaganda their government controlled them with,
that it was God who controlled every heartbeat and breath and God, not their
king, who could save or destroy in an instant. Only God is worthy of our awe
and reverence, our worship.
Psalm
33:8 Let all the earth fear the LORD:
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
Hebrews
12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear:
The
brothers come to this Egyptian official, mightiest in the land under the
Pharaoh himself, to plead for food to buy. They are showing their inferior
position and his power over their lives. This is a beautiful image of how we
should come to Christ. Let Him lift us up.
James
4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of
the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
1Peter
5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth
for you.
Genesis
42:7 ¶ And Joseph saw his brethren, and
he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them;
and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan
to buy food. 8 And Joseph knew his
brethren, but they knew not him. 9 And
Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye
are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. 10 And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to
buy food are thy servants come. 11 We
are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies. 12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the
nakedness of the land ye are come. 13
And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in
the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and
one is not. 14 And Joseph said unto
them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies: 15 Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of
Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
16 Send one of you, and let him fetch
your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved,
whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are
spies. 17 And he put them all together
into ward three days. 18 And Joseph said
unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God: 19 If ye be true men, let one of your brethren
be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your
houses: 20 But bring your youngest
brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And
they did so.
Joseph
puts on a good show for his brothers. He probably has spoken to several envoys
from suffering lands around him and has his speech set by repeated usage.
“Where are you from?” is the first thing he wants to know. There are probably
countries that Egypt would be concerned about possibly sending spies in
preparation for an attempted invasion to seize Egypt’s supplies. Joseph
probably was normally wary. But he knows his brothers. He is successful in
keeping them from knowing who he is.
As
he speaks roughly to them he remembers the dreams he had where his family all
bow to him.
Genesis
37:5 ¶ And Joseph dreamed a dream, and
he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. 6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this
dream which I have dreamed: 7 For,
behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also
stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance
to my sheaf. 8 And his brethren said to
him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over
us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. 9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it
his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the
sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to his father, and to his
brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream
that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to
bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11
And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
Joseph
realizes the fulfillment of these prophetic dreams. Now, notice the prophetic
similarity regarding the Jews and Christ at the end of human history in the
following verse.
Revelation
12:1 ¶ And there appeared a great wonder
in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon
her head a crown of twelve stars:
We
can see how the Holy Spirit imparting wisdom to Moses to write this account of
early history uses a metaphor to describe the tribes of Israel. We can then
have a better understanding of prophetic verses in later parts of the Bible.
In
this passage there is then an exchange where the brothers declare that they
came to buy food but Joseph accuses them of being spies, come to check out the
land. The brothers declare their innocence of this. When they admit that they
have a brother that was left behind with their father Joseph demands that, to
prove who that they are speaking the truth, they bring that brother to him. One
of them is to go fetch Benjamin and the rest are to be hostages. He locks them
up for three days, again symbolizing the bondage that death represents for
God’s people until He releases them. Here, in this passage we see the
synonymous comparison between ward and
prison.
On
the third day Joseph changes his order and demands that only one of them be a
hostage and, in his mercy, the rest can take food back to their families. But,
the younger brother must be brought to him. There are some interesting
prophetic ideas here regarding Israel’s relationship with Christ, the Messiah
whom they rejected and demanded that Rome murder. Who does Benjamin represent
in this relationship? Whatever we think we must remember that this is regarding
the Jews rather than Gentiles.
Joseph
wants so badly to see his little brother.
Genesis
42:21 ¶ And they said one to another, We
are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his
soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress
come upon us. 22 And Reuben answered
them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and
ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required. 23 And they knew not that Joseph understood
them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter. 24 And he turned himself about from them, and
wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them
Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. 25
Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every
man’s money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did
he unto them. 26 And they laded their
asses with the corn, and departed thence. 27
And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn,
he espied his money; for, behold, it was in his sack’s mouth. 28 And he said unto his brethren, My money is
restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they
were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?
The
brothers’ guilt in regard to Joseph is brought before their minds. They believe
that they are in trouble now, forced to pay, for what they did to him. Reuben
reminded them that he had pleaded with them to do no harm to Joseph. He views
this as cosmic justice for what they did to Joseph. It was acknowledged by
preachers such as Jonathan Edwards in his sermon entitled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God that sin carries with it the
burden of justice. We do awful things and awful things come back on us.
Heathens understand this in the Hindu concept of Karma and mostly in its
popular Western application of getting what you have coming to you. God has His
ways of dealing with people, sometimes slowly, and nations, sometimes slowly,
in regard to their wickedness and evil treatment of others but God repeatedly
warns people;
Genesis
4:10 And he said, What hast thou done?
the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Numbers
32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold,
ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
You
cannot escape the evil that you do to others. Do you beat-up your wife or
children? It will come back to you. Are you cruel to other people or to
animals? God sees all that you do. The fact that some people seem to get away
with much evil is no guarantee that you can walk in your wickedness with
impunity. Bible figures lamented what seemed like a lack of needed judgment at
times.
Jeremiah
12:1 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I
plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the
way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very
treacherously?
But,
judgment does come and God does visit those who act wickedly. The brothers see
this situation they are in as just payment for their mistreatment of Joseph.
Joseph
hears, of course, what they are saying but since Joseph feigned to be Egyptian
he spoke through an interpreter so they didn’t know he spoke their language. We
use the word interpreter today for a
person who translates languages, for instance, at the UN.
Joseph
can’t help but cry but he doesn’t want them to see him. He then bound Simeon
and sent the rest of them away filled with food and provisions for the journey
home but he also ordered their money to be returned to them.
When
they realize that they have their money back they are terrified and ask What is this that God hath done unto us? Clearly,
they believe that they are going to be in deep trouble with this Egyptian
government official. They have no idea that it is Joseph or what he is up to.
This
is important to add to the long list of things that indicate the Bible is
telling us that there is no such thing as blind chance, that God works through
our reality, through people and events, to accomplish something which we may
have no understanding of in our finite minds. Moderns would do well to ask this
question when things go awry or seem unexplainable. What is this that God hath done unto us?
Genesis
42:29 ¶ And they came unto Jacob their
father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them; saying,
30 The man, who is the lord of the land,
spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. 31 And we said unto him, We are true men; we are
no spies: 32 We be twelve brethren, sons
of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the
land of Canaan. 33 And the man, the lord
of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave
one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your
households, and be gone: 34 And bring
your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that
ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffick in
the land. 35 And it came to pass as they
emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack:
and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
36 And Jacob their father said unto
them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and
ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me. 37 And Reuben spake unto his father, saying,
Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I
will bring him to thee again. 38 And he
said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is
left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye
bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
The
brothers return to their father and report what happened to them. Jacob joins
in their fear. Reuben offers his own sons as hostage to Jacob if he does not
take Benjamin to Egypt and return him again. Their situation must be most
desperate. But Jacob refuses to let his precious youngest son, who may be a
young adult now, go. Losing him will be the death of Jacob he says.
The
earth has been drying out since the Flood. Land use studies of the Ancient Near
East show the climate was cooler before 1,000 BC. and better suited to crops
and forests. The Scriptures themselves give evidence to this wetter, cooler
climate so unlike the arid landscape we see today. It is likened to the Garden
of Eden.
Genesis
13:10 ¶ And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld
all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of
Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
Exodus
3:7 ¶ And the LORD said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry
by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land
and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Josephus,
chronicler of the war against the Romans, tells of the climate himself at
Christ’s time.
Its
nature is wonderful as well as its beauty; its soil is so fruitful that all
sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants accordingly plant all
sorts of trees there; for the temper of the air is so well mixed, that it agrees
very well with those several sorts, particularly walnuts, which require the
coldest air, flourish there in vast plenty; there are palm trees also, which
grow best in hot air; fig trees also and olives grow near them, which yet
require an air that is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of
nature, where it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one another
to agree together; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if every one of
them laid claim to this country; for it not only nourishes different sorts of
autumnal fruit beyond men’s expectation, but preserves them a great while; it
supplies men with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs continually,
during ten months of the year and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe
together through the whole year”
(The Jewish War, Book 3, Chapter 10:8).
So, no matter what you’ve been told
the testimony of Scripture and history shows that this area was once a fertile
place that was a great producer of food. The famine must have been a very great
shock and source of dismay to the inhabitants. Many people probably starved to
death. His status as the eldest son, this famine, and his brother’s hostage
state were great motivators to get Reuben to make his offer.
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