Genesis
46:1 ¶ And Israel took his journey with
all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of
his father Isaac. 2 And God spake unto
Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here
am I. 3 And he said, I am God, the God
of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a
great nation: 4 I will go down with thee
into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put
his hand upon thine eyes.
There,
at Beersheba, the scene of encounters between these patriarchs and God in the
past, Jacob, Israel, honored God as did Abraham and Isaac.
Genesis
21:33 And Abraham planted a grove in
Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
Genesis
26:25 And he builded an altar there, and
called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s
servants digged a well.
These
were animal sacrifices. We have a different sacrifice in this dispensation. If
you want to honor God, as a Christian, this is the prescription from Paul.
Romans
12:1 ¶ I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
No
amount of ritual or animal sacrifice today does the worship of God justice nor
is it what He requires. Even under the Law God made it ever so clear what He
really wants from man.
Micah
6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with
thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my
firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is
good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
God
calms Jacob’s heart about going down into Egypt comforting him with the promise
that God will be with him. He then promises to bring Jacob back from Egypt
although there are two clear meanings there as we know today. One, Jacob will
be returned for burial as God, in stating that Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes as a euphemism for death
where someone covers the eyes of the dead person, tells him he will die there,
and, two, his descendants will be brought back into the land that is promised.
Jacob’s
response to God, Here am I, is used
by people answering that they are ready to hear and obey God, most notably in
1Samuel 3 for the child, Samuel.
God
reminds Jacob that it is promised that he will make of him a great nation. The
word nation in the Bible is a
reference to a people, not a modern nation-state, the likes of which did not
really exist like we know it today beyond 500 years ago.
Genesis
46:5 ¶ And Jacob rose up from Beersheba:
and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and
their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6 And they took their cattle, and their goods,
which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and
all his seed with him: 7 His sons, and
his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and all his
seed brought he with him into Egypt. 8
And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into
Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn. 9 And the sons of Reuben; Hanoch, and Phallu,
and Hezron, and Carmi. 10 And the sons
of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the
son of a Canaanitish woman. 11 And the
sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 12
And the sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zerah:
but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron
and Hamul. 13 And the sons of Issachar;
Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron. 14
And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. 15 These be the sons of Leah, which she bare
unto Jacob in Padanaram, with his daughter Dinah: all the souls of his sons and
his daughters were thirty and three. 16
And the sons of Gad; Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and
Arodi, and Areli. 17 And the sons of
Asher; Jimnah, and Ishuah, and Isui, and Beriah, and Serah their sister: and
the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel. 18
These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and
these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls. 19 The sons of Rachel Jacob’s wife; Joseph, and
Benjamin. 20 And unto Joseph in the land
of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of
Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. 21
And the sons of Benjamin were Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and
Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard. 22 These are the sons of Rachel, which were born
to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen. 23
And the sons of Dan; Hushim. 24
And the sons of Naphtali; Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem.
25 These are the sons of Bilhah, which
Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and she bare these unto Jacob: all the
souls were seven. 26 All the souls that
came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’
wives, all the souls were threescore and six; 27 And the sons of Joseph, which were born him
in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into
Egypt, were threescore and ten.
Verse
15 tells us for that either Dinah wasn’t Jacob’s only daughter or, as said
earlier, the daughters could logically include daughters-in-law. Arguing about
the count becomes nonsensical when we know everyone wasn’t included in the
count of those that mattered to God’s ministry of reconciliation. There are
obviously servants to consider, as well, which are not mentioned.
We
also come to differences in the count given for different reasons at different
times.
Exodus
1:5 And all the souls that came out of
the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
Deuteronomy
10:22 Thy fathers went down into Egypt
with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the
stars of heaven for multitude.
Acts
7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his
father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Some
argue about these differences with fundamentalists trying to gloss over what
they fear naggingly in the back of their minds is an error in the text. However,
the problem is with the modern reader who is infected with a mental problem I
call modernism. You read the Bible like you would read the owner’s manual for
your car rather than as you would read a letter sent to you from afar, in this
case a distant time, a personal account of something dear to the writer. The
Holy Ghost, through the wisdom and understanding, the meaning of Biblical
inspiration which is not word-for-word dictation, given to Moses, refers to
events from the perspective of their importance to the point He is trying to
get across (see Job 32:8; 2Peter 3:15). In one reference He may include wives
who are not included in another or He may be referring to an event from another
angle and only include specific others. The modern fundamentalist who claims to
believe the Bible literally, which they don’t really, in their attempts to
explain by juggling numbers what the Bible says, is really expressing their own
disbelief and lack of faith by trying to explain a contradiction that isn’t
there.
I
went over this kind of thinking when I was discussing years, back in my
comments on 15:12-16, regarding the length of years that the Hebrews were to be
persecuted. The point is all of the number references are correct and any
differences can be explained by the Holy Ghost counting people in one who are
not counted in another. We will find this again in the numbers who will die in
a plague later in another book. Verses 26 and 27 warn us that our calculations
may not be based on God’s calculations which will keep the doubter or the
skeptic spinning his or her wheels trying to find an equation that will make
him or her feel better.
Genesis
46:28 ¶ And he sent Judah before him
unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of
Goshen. 29 And Joseph made ready his
chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented
himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let
me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive. 31 And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto
his father’s house, I will go up, and shew Pharaoh, and say unto him, My
brethren, and my father’s house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come
unto me; 32 And the men are shepherds,
for their trade hath been to feed cattle; and they have brought their flocks,
and their herds, and all that they have. 33
And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say,
What is your occupation? 34 That ye
shall say, Thy servants’ trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until
now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen;
for every shepherd is an abomination unto the
Egyptians.
Chapter
45, verse 10 told us that Goshen was close to where Joseph ruled from. It is
commonly understood that the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, the period of
the Egyptian Empire was from around the 16th century BC to the 11th
century BC. This marked the peak of Egypt’s power. It includes the time that
Egypt had hegemony over the land of Canaan which is important to understanding
Numbers 14:9 and various extra-Biblical documents from Canaan pleading for help
from the Egyptians. It was preceded by the Hyksos invasion and rule. I believe
that Joseph’s Pharaoh was from this time, that he was a Hyksos, and that is why
he was favorable to Joseph and his family. This is called Egypt’s Second
Intermediate Period. Of course, much of this is educated guesswork as the
Egyptians did not refer to any of their eras the way we refer to them and no
one ever called themselves, “the Hyksos.” These are all made-up terms by
scholars.
In
any event, Judah went first to meet Joseph and Jacob and the rest followed.
Christ is the first to rise from the dead never to physically die again, to be
resurrected. Judah is Christ’s physical ancestor. Here is more typology that is
great subject material for sermons. Joseph prepared himself to greet his father
in Goshen.
Joseph
promised to introduce them to Pharaoh. Here is more evidence for my view that
the Pharaoh of Joseph’s time was a Hyksos, of the so-called Shepherd-kings. To
the leadership Joseph’s family of herders would be welcome but to the Egyptians
they were an abomination. The land of Goshen separates their living from the rest
of Egypt.
The
word cattle includes all herd animals
not just beef cows as we use the word today.
Genesis
13:7 And there was a strife between the
herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite
and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
Genesis
30:32 I will pass through all thy flock
to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the
brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and
of such shall be my hire.
Genesis,
chapter 47
Genesis
47:1 ¶ Then Joseph came and told
Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their
herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold,
they are in the land of Goshen. 2 And he
took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.
3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What
is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds,
both we, and also our fathers. 4 They
said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy
servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land
of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of
Goshen. 5 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph,
saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: 6 The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best
of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let
them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them
rulers over my cattle. 7 And Joseph
brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old
art thou? 9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh,
The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and
evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the
days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went
out from before Pharaoh. 11 And Joseph
placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of
Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had
commanded. 12 And Joseph nourished his
father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according
to their families.
Remember,
every shepherd is an abomination unto the
Egyptians but this Pharaoh was very welcoming and confirmed Joseph’s grant
to his family to dwell in the land of Goshen. Note in this passage how evil is defined in the context of a
long, wearisome and difficult life. Jacob laments that not only have his days
been full of trouble but that he has not lived as long as his father and
grandfather.
Here,
we also see, by way of comparison between verses 6 and 11 with the land of
Goshen and the land of Rameses being linked synonymously. Scholars locate these
areas, as well as the Hyksos capital of Egypt, in the northeastern part of
Egypt and the new capital of the Egyptian so-named 19th dynasty (by
us, not them), what is called Lower Egypt in the area of the eastern Nile
delta. Again, whether this is correct or not we will never know in this life
most likely. But it is an educated guess based on what evidence has been found.
This will become more important in our study of Exodus and the actual location
of the crossing of the Red Sea. If scholars are correct then the branch of the
Red Sea that the Hebrews are near to would be what we call today the Gulf of
Suez.
Joseph
supplied his family with the means they would need to survive and the Pharaoh
made whomever Joseph thought competent, made them herdsmen over his own cattle.
In
verse 9 I like the use of the word pilgrimage
to describe our sojourn on the earth in a physical body. Physical life
since the fall of man is relatively short and contains an inordinate amount of
pain especially, for people who don’t die suddenly, when we die. Although that
is not always the case it certainly is in many cases. Our life here is a
pilgrimage and we must not forget that. It is a journey with a beginning and an
end, then, if the person believes the testimony of Jesus Christ, there is a
spiritual life with God that goes on for eternity.
The
Greek poet Homer used Aeon to refer to a life or a lifespan. This is unlike
Plato who used it to refer to the spiritual world behind the one we see. In
some cases, like in Matthew 12:32 aeon is used to refer to the world as it is
set up today, the world or period of time or age between the fall of man and
eternity. But, here, in this passage the Hebrew word mawgur is used for pilgrimage whereas elsewhere it is used for a
dwelling place or to sojourn or to be a stranger.
We
are strangers here, passing through. Our lifetimes are an age, a period of
time, and a journey. It is something to think about.
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