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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