Section 1 - Jacob and Joseph - The Patriach and the Prime Minister
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CHAPTER 1 - JACOB IS CARRIED INTO EGYPT
CHAPTER 2 - THE GREAT REUNION
CHAPTER 3 - JACOB’S MEETING WITH PHARAOH
CHAPTER 4 - JOSEPH - A POWERFUL AND MIGHTY RULER
CHAPTER 5 - ISRAEL CLOSE TO DEATH
CHAPTER 6 - PREPARATION FOR THE GREAT TREK OUT OF ISRAEL
CHAPTER 7 - THE BLESSINGS OF JACOB ON HIS SONS
CHAPTER 8 - DEATH
CHAPTER 9 - FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND THE FUNERAL
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Jacob and Joseph are at last reunited in Egypt, but the family is far away from the Land of Promise. They will remain here for 215 years. Joseph introduces his family to Jacob and the joy for these two is immense, and that covers all the sorrow. God has blessed it all.
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CHAPTER 1
JACOB IS CARRIED INTO EGYPT
“... 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”, Genesis 46:5.
FOCUS:
The family tomb of Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebekah, had been bought by Abraham at the death of Sarah, and was the only piece of real estate that Jacob owned - a field and a cave, and perhaps some land at Shechem. He would leave that and also his dearly loved Rachel in the earth near Ephrath for what - the tombs of Egypt, the Land of Tombs, Genesis 46:1-27.
1. WHY EGYPT?
Ringing in Jacob’s ears, as they packed up, would be the old slavery promise to Abraham of Genesis 15:13. It seems unreasonable to Jacob to go to Egypt, if that is how they were going to end up, but he had the evidence of the wagons, and the call of his son beckoning. There were sacred places here in Canaan that Jacob would mourn, but with much consideration and anguish of soul, Jacob made the decision to go to his son in Egypt, if that is indeed what God now wanted him to do. So with the seventy souls, he turned his back, Genesis 46, and went down into the Land of Mud.
2. THE WONDROUS PROCESSION BEGINS
The venerable Jacob may have been carried in an Egyptian litter, used for solemn service (like the upper classes in Egypt). They had a woven reed back rest, the sides were adorned with fine markings and rich hangings with bronze carrying poles. It could be carried by boys, or on the backs of animals with cross poles. The words “take your father”, or “get your father”, may imply that Jacob was to be carried to Egypt. The Egyptian wagons (used in the flat country in Egypt) may not have been comfortable transport in Canaan. However, in Genesis 45:5 Jacob is “carried” by his sons into Egypt in the wagons.
This procession impressed, as Pharaoh surely meant it to, all the people of Canaan, especially the families of those left behinds who mourned the loss of their daughters and grandchildren. Still who would deny such a grand opportunity, and with tears and crying they waved away their loved ones into the Land of Mud.
3. WHERE IS GOD IN ALL THIS?
Jacob determines to consult God before finally taking such an important step, and travels to Beersheba, to speak with Him. He has already packed up and the caravan is on the road. He has already agreed to go to Egypt, but there was still time to change his mind. It appears to Jacob, forcibly now, that it would be unthinkable to go without consulting God, for it might seem that he was weary of waiting for God to fulfil His promises, or that he was weary of his discouragements. He, now like Abraham in the matter of son dispossession, would have rather died without seeing Joseph, than see him without the warrant of God, whom he loved more than anyone, or anything. A good conscience towards God was too important to him now.
Here Abraham had planted a grove and called on God (Genesis 33). From here it was that Jacob had left the family to go to Haran (Genesis 28:10). Here the King of Gerar, and his captain, confessed that Isaac was blessed of the Lord and felt that it would be dangerous to be an enemy of one so favoured by God (Genesis 26: 26-31).
This significant spot lay on the route from Hebron to Egypt, and Jacob did not take his family there because they had left Hebron, but because he wanted them to witness the solemn service that he would perform to God. He was now a seasoned old man, and wisdom now lay embedded in his character. He wanted his family to see the Godly drive he had. They could have gone on ahead, but he wanted them to see that he was not ashamed, nor afraid that his religion was different from what went on round about the family. It was not to show his good works, not boasting, but to shine his light, to witness to YHWH’s almighty name and purpose and glory. It was truly a mission statement, for there were Egyptians there to help with the wagons, and the people who lived round about curiously watching this great procession, and as well his own family who needed so urgently to remember the mission mandate. He was now emboldened about God, he had learned some very hard lessons, but now he was ready to walk with God.
It was now imperative for Jacob to know if God would go with him to Egypt, so he waited for God to speak. And He did speak once more to Jacob “in visions in the night”. It is also imperative for us “to know” that God is with us in the big decisions in our lives. Not only do we accept the big decisions that God helps us make, for comfort or ease, but because God is there, as well. It is all of no use if God is not there.
The journey seemed such an easy thing to accomplish, with the transport standing ready, and all the packing done, but with cool deliberation, Jacob needed reassurance from God as to the legality of the journey, for the safety of the journey, and for the allegiance to the great King, of whom they had always been afraid. His independent princely Canaan status would not hold a candle to anyone in Egypt. He could not expect to be a lord down there. It was such a dominant international power, with great learning. Maybe he would not have the independence there that God required for the establishment of His people. There was the matter of Israel’s monotheistic lifestyle adapting to an environment of a polytheistic lifestyle, with all the temptations that would bring. It has latterly been noted by scholars that Egypt did develop a religion based on the worship of YHWH, from Shem and Ham. How far along the track that was at the time of Joseph, is a matter still of conjecture. We know of their worship of animals, and how that developed from leaving sacrifices to YHWH, which the animals devoured, and so those animals became substituted for YHWH. The City of Cats, per Bastet, comes to mind with this line of thought.
It is a matter of interest that in the third century AD Christianity was the major religion in Egypt.
1. Well, if Jacob goes with his family there will be no Israelites left in the Promised Land.
2. And him an old man making such a move, so far, at his age.
3. But perhaps he was not now so old, as he had been. Perhaps his attitude was quite different. His pessimism and his cynicism and his depression seem to have lifted,
4. And no wonder, for God had spoken.
It seems as if he, Jacob, is to be the instrument to lead the family,
out of the promised land,
into this land of affliction,
not for a visit to see his son,
but a migration for hundreds of years.
It was a pilgrimage,
that he had no desire for,
it was required of him, but he went
because of Joseph’s status with Pharaoh,
and God wanted him to go.
“Didn’t He?. “Didn’t He?”.
And Jacob still has a sliver of uncertainty.
So Jacob, who has not had a (recorded) word from God for many years, throughout all his troubles, came to Beersheba, with all his family, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father, Isaac. Some may think it strange that God sometimes withholds contact, or at other times consoles without measure. We cannot use our measuring stick of equality, and it would be unwise to suppose that the ways of God are unequal. We do know that
- God’s people are not always equally fit for receiving comfort, nor do they equally need His care in the day of tribulation, nor are they equally entitled to it.
- He has good reasons for distributing His compassion how He wills.
- He is not bound to tell us how He makes His decisions, nor does He often see fit to do so.
4. THE NAMES - JACOB/ISRAEL
God calls Jacob by two names in the one verse, “Israel”, to remind him of his destiny, and “Jacob” to remind him of his roots. God speaks expressively and kindly, like when he called “Samuel, Samuel”, “there is something important to be said”. But Samuel was listening, “Here am I”. “Speak Lord for Thy servant heareth”. And here in Beersheba, God said, “Jacob, Jacob”, and Jacob said, “Here am I”.
Jacob, Abraham-like now, would have sacrificed the reunion with his son, if God had asked. Together with a good conscience towards God, self denial was more pleasant now to Jacob, than disobedience. God was his father’s Friend and his God, and Jacob would not forsake Him. God knew that, and prefaced His permission with that known honour and trust and fidelity, (verse 3).
And God called to him “Jacob, Jacob” and identified Himself. This is the last recorded revelation to Jacob and the last recorded revelation to anyone until the “burning bush” to Moses.
Jacob is told to have no fear, and is promised, in Genesis 46:3,4,
- Peace in Egypt, with great prosperity.
- A numerous family,
- A return to the Promised Land after a long stay.
(There is nothing here about the pain they will suffer, only reassurance for Jacob)
However, Jacob must have been remembering that frightening prophecy, of Genesis 15:13, when Abram was told by God, “Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them: and they shall afflict them (as slaves) four hundred years”. Jacob knew now that if one “went down into the pit of Egypt”, one had “to come back out of the pit of Egypt”, to be truly the child of God and serve Him. So Jacob will only feel at ease, if he can ensure his bones, and those of his sons, are brought back to be buried in this land.
Probably until now, the patriarchs had thought that the seed would multiply in Canaan, but God can diminish, even extinguish, or increase nations at His pleasure, where ever He desires. A famine, or a flood, or an earthquake, or a fireball, He can use anything to diminish peoples. Perhaps Jacob felt Canaan was so wicked, and after all, perhaps Egypt might be a better place for God’s people to grow, and it was so, for a time. The more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and grew. But there was the promise of a return. He knew God could accomplish that, and in the meantime here was a promise of the right hand of fellowship with God to hold them in safety.
It was the duty of the nearest blood relative (Gentiles and Jews) to close the eyes of the deceased and so Jacob is also promised that Joseph will be at his side to close his eyes at his death. The rest he would leave with God to accomplish.
The fear figure, that had flown in and out of the window, and whose place by the hearth was ever warm in Joseph’s absence, flew out again like a departing arrow never to return, ever, ever again, to sit with Jacob. Need and hunger had been removed from his table and his cupboard, and God had at last blessed him in bread and basket and with spiritual peace, and Jacob was at last, in Abigail’s words, “bound in the bundle of life with the Lord”, 1 Samuel 25:29.
Comment:
Only those of us who grow into the twilight years and who are beginning to consider their own death, would appreciate, as Jacob did, such a comforting promise from God. It means that God understands our fear of the unknown in death, when to Him it is only a process. Yet the manner of our lives and our deaths are important to Him. He has reminded us that He notices even the falling of every winged creature, for He wants to emphasis how important we are to him.
So Jacob was comforted. It is an implication that Joseph and he would always now be together. In no less way are we supported in the trials of life. This momentous promise for Jacob, is ours too, if we will but see it so. The knowledge of salvation, and the promise of His care, the fellowship of the Father and the Son, is all joy to fill our cups, as well. The darkness of solitude, affliction, fear or temptation is all diminished by the light of His promise, but it’s often hard for us to see the light, for we are in such darkness. When Jacob saw his son’s blood stained coat, he hastily concluded that his son was dead. He did not resign himself to God’s providential care to work out the situation for him. He resigned himself to grief, and said “I will go down to my grave mourning for my son”. That didn’t happen. Abraham, himself, would have killed his son for God, believing that God would provide a way. Jacob, at that time, never thought that God could save him from his son’s death.
When the consolations of God seem small, or we think them insignificant or insufficient, or not even existing, it may be that God withdraws His undervalued blessing. Then, by withdrawn or diffused blessings, we can see them as valuable after all. We would not wish to be in that situation, for it may have been the situation for Jacob - that is, under valued blessings withdrawn, for a time.
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It is not here suggested that a withdrawn blessing was the underlying factor in the “death” of Joseph - it could just have been an accompanying factor.
Consider:
* Was the God loved, developing Joseph the consolation for Jacob at Rachel’s death?
* Did Jacob treasure it for its true intrinsic value?
* Is this withdrawn consolation, now restored to Jacob?
* How is this new Joseph now a multi blessing for Jacob?
* How would Jacob now feel about his doubt, and inward looking grief at Joseph “death”?
The new discovery of God’s grace would be overwhelming.
* How would this affect Jacob and the family?
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Jacob was learning, as we do, that God leaves clues for us all. Life is like a big treasure hunt, it is not easy, but then it is not without its joys. The joys need searching for, but then, he did not think that any of the maps had pointed to Egypt. He had forgotten the clue of Genesis 15:13 that had pointed to a “land of affliction”, though he would have carried with him the trunk that contained the historical toldoths, where it would have been noted.
5. WHAT GOODS DID JACOB TAKE WITH HIM?
Jacob, certainly would have some treasures that he had brought from Haran, God’s covenants “written” down, those records of God’s dealings with Abraham and Isaac, and records of divine interventions in his own life, the family history of them all, Lot, Ishmael, Esau, written down, toldoths they were called. In with these, would have been the priestly garment, handy for his planned pause at Beersheba. Jacob would have felt anxious about this trunk and would have kept it near, and supervised it himself, much as we do our precious documents when we travel.
Jacob had needed support for his heart’s desire at this time. He had with him not only his family, but his family treasures, and the toldoths, perhaps some that Abraham had brought from Ur. He may also have had the history clay tablets that had been passed down from Noah to Shem, carefully wrapped in precious silk, and the “dialogue” deed document for the Cave of Machpelah, and something to indicate his claim on the piece of land in Shechem, that he later gave to Joseph, so that Joseph could be buried there. Esau had not needed land at the death of his father, Isaac, having bought and established other compounds of his own far away, so the land deeds had remained with Jacob. Esau had probably taken goods as his inheritance. These purchased lands had not been the inheritance that God had promised Abraham and Isaac, for they were only small parcels of inheritances for Jacob and his sons.
Jacob left his worldly goods, the unnecessary possessions in Canaan. However he did take his cattle, which would have included his sheep. He may not have had many animals left, considering the drought, although the careful Laban husbandry, that Jacob had learned from his father, and in Haran, from his father in law, would have served him well, and been used for the maximum benefit, as they were already two years into the famine.
Pharaoh had sent a message that Jacob did not need to bring any of his stuff, but Jacob chose to bring some cattle and goods. Perhaps like Abraham, with the King of Sodom, Genesis 14:23, he did not want the King of Egypt to make him rich, so that he may not have too much obligation to him.
It is a wise course, that we be not too independent and mean spirited, nor to snatch everything that is offered, but a provident care of what is our own, may keep us from temptation into contemptible behaviour, either one way or the other. We need to be diligent and careful so as not to be a burden, and share with those who, of necessity, need to be so. It is easier to be creative, and generous if your attitude to having little is not one of resentment. So perhaps Jacob wanted a little independence, so that he could be generous as well, if the need arose.
6. THE FAMILY FIRM - NOW QUITE NUMEROUS
The inspired Stephen in Acts 7:14, quotes the Septuagint, with seventy five kindred souls coming down into Egypt, rather than the Hebrew text of seventy of Genesis 46.
We have two possibilities,
- The Hebrew text has an “error of transcription”, somewhere between the Septuagint translation of “75”, about the first century BC, and Jerome’s inclusion of “70”, from the Hebrew text used for the Vulgate, in the 4th century AD (for our AV Bible). (Genesis 43:26, all the souls were 66, add Jacob and Joseph and his two sons, another 4, makes 70), and
- Some try to reconcile the difference by adding a son and a grandson of Manasseh, and two sons and a grandson of Ephraim, (from an editorial update in Numbers 26:37). This alternative is perhaps a tenuous way of reconciling minute difficulties, and Exodus 1:5 seems to obviate this.
The list of sons (with their sons, though Dan only had one), are listed in order of Jacob’s wives, Leah, then Zilpah (Leah’s handmaid), then Rachel, then Bilhah, (Rachel’s handmaid), not in birth order. Dinah is mentioned, as Leah’s daughter, and Serah, (or Sarah), Asher’s daughter. There are interesting commutations to be made if one counts up the family that would have gone down. Each son had a household, verse 18, 11 households, and Jacob’s household, that is, 12 altogether. Er and Onan, Judah’s sons had died in Canaan, as noted, and should not be counted. Ephraim and Manasseh were in Egypt with Joseph and should not be counted. Also, note, the women (wives, etc.) don’t come into the reckoning of numbers, yet would have to have been reckoned with for food, transport, etc. The Canaanite and purposeful Tamar with Pharez and Zarah, sons of Judah, would count as two of Judah’s contingent, because she was not counted. But Dinah was counted in, as Jacob’s daughter. Jewish tradition represents Shaul as being the son of Dinah by a Canaanitish father, Shechem, adopted by Simeon to save his sister’s honour, rather than Simeon’s son by a Canaanitish woman, verse 10. In either case he was of half Canaanitish blood. Reuben also married a Canaanite and had four sons. So leaving Canaan saved the family from the evil consequences of the growing Canaanitish influence of the grandchildren (no longer “children”) within the family group. It would be difficult to remove these children from their mothers’ cultural heritage, and other family relatives, who lived in Canaan, close by them. Abraham and Isaac had foreseen the grief of these consequences, and circumvented their sons from marrying into the Canaanites. Tamar and Dinah were probably friends, suffering the same deprived circumstance, unless they were bitter enemies, one despising the other, for the trick upon the family honour. Perhaps Tamar still suffered the murderess stigma, even in this family.
The genealogies are very precise (not in spelling) and being preserved would have been useful on the Israelites’ return to Canaan many years later. The discrepancies in Genesis 46, and Numbers 26 do not confound us, for they can be explained away as scribal additions for unknown reasons.
Ellicott’s commentary has a very interesting genealogical table of the Israelites to help sort out the numbers.
The numbers showed a slow start, with Abraham 160 and Isaac 60, when Jacob was born, but Jacob’s children had made up for that, and perhaps that is the valuable tithe that Jacob rendered to God, as he had promised, on his return from Haran. So even with all the terrible dysfunction, there was a meaningful purpose in the very extension of the family. Without the sojourn in Egypt, for nourishment and education, this huge family could never have grown as quickly, or as soundly as it did. It is remarkable that the population of the world has an equal number of men and women, and some point to that as a decisive proof that God rules the world.
The mention of Er and Onan, Judah’s lawfully begotten sons, show that even in youth it is not wise to flaunt God’s law, for time is not in one’s own hands, to do as one would wish. These two sons, then, were not acceptable tithes, or pledges, or blessings for God, and so God discarded them in death before this journey.
The next illegitimate twin sons of Judah have a valued place, which teaches us another lesson, right here, in the beginning of God’s loved people. God gives men, even young men, choices, and if they take the wrong path then He will find another way to build His purpose. Birth circumstances, in God’s plan, have no relevance, and only concerns the parents, and those who may think ill, or not.
The sons of Jacob, of Leah, where not born in Canaan, and they did not die in this promised land either. While they lived there they were not permanent, in the sense that they lived in tents. They had no claims, and really were itinerant, but still responsible workers, contributing to the economy of the land of Canaan through Jacob’s business. Leah herself must have felt a great blessing in the multitude of children of whom she was “mother”.
All of the sons of the bondwomen were valued as equals with the children of the two wives, and were not cast out, as Hagar and Ishmael were in Abraham’s family. It seems the wishes of God had changed on the matter of differences between bond and free peoples. They were valued peoples as were the wives of those sons who married out, and the mixture made these children of Israel a multicultural blend. Perhaps the ideals of separateness were not as important as the family multiplied and were more powerful.
Rachel became the mother of fourteen grand children, and of three tribes of Israel, Judah and then Ephraim and Manasseh, who both replaced Joseph. They were sons of her sorrow, for she never lived to see them. Her son Joseph is enumerated here with the Hebrew family, rather than the Egyptian House into which his two sons were born, which indicates Joseph’s predilection for his father’s house. Benjamin went down into Egypt with ten sons, still his father’s favourite.
It appears that only one daughter, Dinah, and one grand daughter, Serah, (or Sarah), were part of this family to be transported. The lack of females in this family would have tempted the males to find partners among the Canaanites, as some did, but others went to Esau’s family, or to the descendants of Abraham, by the children of the concubines. No one went back to Haran as the family had done for two previous generations.
7. THE JOURNEY IS NOW FULL OF HOPE
The land (cave and field and land) would be there on Jacob’s return (his bones) and the family’s return to dwell there many years hence. As well as the assorted Egyptian wagons, nine ox carts and carrying chariots, some would have preferred to walk as pilgrims did, and with them their animals. There were splay footed camels, bony mules, white and grey asses decorated with glass beads and embroidered saddle cloths. The men wore garments of woven wool - heavy desert cloaks with head cloths held in place by a felt ring on top.
The women wore their hair in black braids, their nails reddened with henna, silver and bronze bracelets on their wrists, their foreheads hung with coins, or ornaments, as some bejewelled eastern ladies do today. They, as well as their infants, were swaddled in soft wrappings, cloaks with braided borders, and with shawls over their heads. The detailed scenes depicted in tombs in Egypt, show the historical events of migration of Semitic peoples, (see the description in Speaker’s Commentary.)
The women and children were placed in wagons, and so this tiny comment, is seen as heartening, when Canaanitish women were not valued for their nurturing, and wifely roles, but were used for carrying and fetching. But Jacob was now at his best, as far as modelling the true patriarchal role. It will always be found that when true Christianity is best understood, women will be treated with true respect.
Maybe he was tough minded, but tender hearted in persuading all the families to go into Egypt. He had certainly learned that one should never give up on anybody, and so he may have had to do some bargaining to persuade them. His early modelling of the bad may have come into the question, with these grown sons of his said, “you never did so, when you were our age”. To admit it would have been generous, for he would rather them think of him as kind and caring and integrous, as he had been in the later part of his life. He was as “perfect” as he could be, as his name implied that he should be, but he had striven for excellence, which is a better way. That would be the path to follow. In any case his name was now changed, and the consequences far more reaching.
And we must presume that the sons came willingly with Jacob, to Egypt, with their families, 12 households, many with grown grandsons. The authority seems to be in Jacob’s hands, and they are willing to allow the venerable man, to hold the bond between them, and for them to take all the trouble of the great and complicated journey. So the firm was not split up, they just moved the whole firm of Jacob and Sons - Shepherds, Sheep and Sheep Products down into Egypt, except for the old equipment, for they would find better stuff down there. That firm, from being nomadic in its beginnings, then became quite sedentary.
And Jacob is not afraid, for God had spoken to him in the visions of the night and the old spiritual presence was with him again. Bethel, Peniel and now Beersheba were for him all places of eternal hope. Beersheba gave Jacob peace and transformed him from misery and told him of the ever abiding Presence. So it is now for Jacob till the end of his days. Jacob with his arthritic hip and his ever present limp from the old hip/angel injury to remind him of his nearness to God, moves on, en famille, over to the coast and across the desert to Egypt.
We have traversed this desert now six times since we went with Joseph from Dothan. His great grandfather, Abraham, had traversed it twice. Jacob traversed it once, some have travelled it five times now, and two have travelled it three times. For Jacob it was the first time and his coming out would be in death. The Egyptians called this ancient route between Canaan and Egypt, the Ways of Horus.
This was a desert of sorrow and happiness, disappointment and expectation, anxiety as well, but now, for Jacob, there was trust.
Besides forts the Egyptians provided cisterns and reservoirs for the much needed water along the way. It seems there might have been a canal, a precursor to the Suez Canal.
There were the signposts, and the desert springs, the spy towers, and the rest places, set up and kept in repair by the businessmen who made it their duty. There were payments to be made and safe crossings conducted until they reached the bronze gates of the fortress, Thel.
8. JACOB PASSES THE KINGS’ GATE
We are reassured that there were no hitches here at the stronghold, for not only was this large caravan ushered through, with great pomp, and circumstance, and much bowing, but they travelled in carts from the storehouse of Pharaoh. They had passes, and visas for a short stay, papers with official seals, and passports. It was as if the gates and walls and gratings and towers were invisible. They were invited in, invited to pasture and settle in this now Promised Land, and any difficulties were quickly dealt with. It was, for them, a land of hospitality and comfort and thoughtfulness.
Some may have laughed at the gipsy lot entering in. However, the jealousy thorns would have talked behind hand about the relatives of the upstart, who thought he knew how to mange everything, including the Pharaoh. “There will be trouble in the end, with this lot, mark our words!” But God was with them, and that was the important thing in the Land of Mud.
The Jacob people passed through,
across the drawbridge,
with their carts,
and wagons,
and luggage,
and driving their trotting flocks,
and crying babies,
and hungry children,
and scatty teenagers,
and mothers trying to control,
and fathers directing,
and great grandfather
seated upon the best wagon,
and everyone with their eyes
and ears
and noses
wide open at all
the new sights and sounds and smells,
- and they walked
onto the eastern bank of the Nile,
a little north of Memphe,
into the land of Goshen,
Kosen,
Kesem,
Gosem,
Gosen,
(any name is correct).
In Genesis 47:11 it was called the land of Rameses, (which it was later called, under the name of the then king), or Pihom, or Pithom (Exodus 1:11), the region of Zoan (Psalm 78:12 and 43), or Tanis. These latter names are editorial updates by Moses. It was a land of bulrushes, papyrus and shrubs.
CONCLUSION:
Just past the gates of Thel, Jacob was set down, and he sent Judah, now his elected son, leader, on ahead to ask for -
Joseph, “The Lord of all Egypt”, who spoke of “All my glory in Egypt”.
CHAPTER 2
THE GREAT REUNION
“… and they came into the land of Goshen”, Genesis 46:28.
FOCUS:
Joseph had become the most enthusiastic person he knew, for not only did he want Egypt to be the breadbasket of the world, but he wanted his family there to eat at the table. Thus he as so grateful and excited to hear from Judah that his father awaited him, Genesis 46:28-30.
1. JUDAH TELLS JOSEPH THAT HIS FATHER HAD ARRIVED IN GOSHEN
It was, no doubt, circumspect of Jacob, as he had learned to manage his affairs with discretion, to send his son Judah ahead, to alert the Egyptians of his near approach and arrival. Joseph no doubt was waiting in the vicinity for this great meeting with his father, with his entourage at the ready. He had quietly listened to God’s message to him, for the opportunity had knocked softly, amid the evil that befell him, over twenty years ago. Now here he was, listening with a pounding heart, for the news that signalled the end of the evil, and the fruition of the opportunity that God had given him. Now God is saying “yet” is “now”, when for so long Joseph had heard the little tune in his ear, “not yet” and “soon”.
So Joseph hurried, in his chariot, to meet his father, and “he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while”.
Consider:
* How often in this saga have we wept, too, and here it is again. If it brings tears to our eyes and makes a lump in our throats, how must it have been for Jacob and Joseph?
* The story of Jacob and Joseph can enrich our faith, when we consider the seemingly disconnected and perplexing areas of our lives. Is that helpful?
* Should we, at least, sleep in peace, each night as we close our day with God? With much effort, it is possible to wake speaking with God, as we left Him in the hour of falling asleep.
* Is it possible for us to be so contented with life that we can die in peace, and have the bitterness and misery of death swallowed up in gratitude and happiness?
* Does our firm and lasting hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, enable us to die not only without terror, but with joy and gladness?
* If it is possible, should we train ourselves in preparation for the moment of death so that we may die in peace?
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2. JACOB IS READY TO DIE
Jacob/Israel was now ready to die - the evidence of his eyes assured him that Joseph lived, Genesis 46:30, “Let me die in peace”, that is, on the spot. It was a wonderfully fitting thing to say. He knew from God’s promise that Joseph would close his eyes at his death, Genesis 46:4. So perhaps he thought it would be “now”. He did not know of the seventeen years of pause in Egypt.
Jacob saw Joseph’s eyes filled with tears, Rachel’s eyes, really, and the tears rolling down Rachel’s cheeks. Here she was again standing before him. It often is uncanny that some people look so like their relations, and we give a start to see a long lost loved one again, as Jacob did at this time. Jacob would have remembered with love and regret the eyes that he had last seen, just prior to the birth of Benjamin.
“This man is not my young son”, and Jacob would purse his lips and steel his head, trying to prevent the images that came flying into his brain. We always think of people, how they were when we last saw them, it is impossible to age a person in our mind’s eye, though a computer can do it. He must have felt that he could hardly trust himself, his eyes, his feelings, and his stopped heart, with his emotions all in his mouth. His own crumpled and tearful stare, was not lost on Joseph, whose heart had stopped also. The dried up juice of lost son and lost father was now hydrated again. This old and stately man comes to the cutting edge, not with cap in hand, asking for asylum from the coming famine, but answering a request from this son, “come, live with me here in Egypt”, with the son, the mighty oak, beneath whose branches lay the comforting and secure shade for the future famine. He it is who will provide a sort of asylum, but Jacob does not think of it that way, and wisely Joseph does not press the point.
So, both of them, on the edge of this new family saga, clasp one another, with tears rolling down their cheeks. These tears are the first splashes of joy for a very long time, and are mingling on the pressed cheeks. At last we can savour joy as well for them, and our tears well up in happiness.
This has been such a momentous reunion between father and lost son that it stands out as unique in Scripture. There are others that we can compare to this, like Jacob and Esau, or those who went back to rebuild the Temple under Nehemiah, the Prodigal Son, and others. But the greatest reunion of all will be the reunion of the saints when our Lord Jesus Christ returns to set up his Kingdom on earth, and those, who are resurrected, will recognise Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, tell us about the trump of God that will raise the dead, and together with them, we which are alive, will meet the Lord and will always be there with him - the great reunion.
It will not matter then, about the way we were, as we, Jacob like, remember and think about our deceits,
the twisted occasions,
and the evil thereof,
our failings,
and our faithlessness
and our distrustings,
but what will matter is the way we grew, and the way we are at the great reunion. Not where we have come from, but where we are now, and where we are now going.
3. BOWING AND INTRODUCTIONS ONCE MORE
But there was the family to be introduced and Jacob was anxious that the family would successfully blend into Egypt. So he and Joseph sat in the doorway of the beautiful refreshment tent that Joseph had prepared for them, and as the family passed by, Jacob introduced them all. He recollected another occasion when he had introduced his family. He was much younger then. He first introduced his family to his brother Esau - anxiety was present then too, and much bowing, seven times did Jacob bow to Esau. Jacob’s ten eldest sons had witnessed that reunion, and now it repeats itself, but their young sibling is the revered one. And it is another bowing down to Joseph occasion, this time many more than eleven sheaves. Now there were, as well, grandchildren from Shechem, Moab, Midian and all round about Canaan. But, of course, it was the sheaves, and the sun and the moon and the eleven stars, that did the bowing down, just as the double dream had said they would. The beautiful “Namaste”, or doubled handed clasp salutation greeting, that we still see in India today, would have been in use here - “Greetings of love and respect”.
Joseph, 39 years old now, of course, needed to introduce the daughter of the priest of On, his wife, and his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. These two sons are the oak seedlings struggling to flourish in the shadow of the mighty oak, and, as we hear so much of them later, we know that they did survive their introduction and integration into this family of Israelites. Jacob would be justly proud of these two previously unknown and bilingual grandchildren, related to Abraham.
Tamar, tall and dark, would have looked at the blessing dispenser, glittering in the sun, and thought behind her suppliant hands, “I am in the line of descent, no matter how much a friend of Pharaoh you are”.
Consider:
* Was Tamar anxious for Judah and her sons that this lost, now found son, and his two sons, would supplant her children?
* Would Judah now be in the shadows, when he only so recently had become the blessed prominent one, on whom Jacob relied and the one who had so recently redeemed his other brother from this Land of Mud ?
* Are there more shafts of pain for Tamar, or will she see some flashes of joy now as well?
********************
Jacob was content with this Joseph, “resurrected” sacrifice, Isaac like, son of his, and drew his eleven other sons about him to hear the instructions of Joseph, for their existence in Goshen.
Joseph was the indisputable leader now, he provided a mantle of safety for his family with the panoply of state, and they were all content.
4. THE GOSHEN HOME
Joseph explains about the life they will lead in Goshen and what they are to say to Pharaoh when they come before him.
He will ask questions about their trade and they are to say that they are “keepers of livestock” as the word “shepherd” was an abomination to the Egyptians - “for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians” is probably a narrator’s comment, Genesis 46:34.
Moses, in recording this story, would have thought that the Hyksos kings might have appreciated the shepherds, even sympathised with them. They might have even preferred them to the contentious Egyptians, who did not appreciate shepherds. The shepherds, unshaven and ill dressed peasants, looked after the Egyptian sheep herds and Goshen provided a buffer zone for marauders from the east. The shepherds were nomadic and not usually property owners. It was best to keep them and their wandering herds away from the landowners and agriculturalists in the south. Wanderers, and wandering animals, destroyed property, and the Egyptians disliked that. They were not thought of as scrupulous, but rather as rough and rude, and not educated.
Existing monuments indicate the southern Egyptian contempt for shepherds. They are depicted as wearing poor quality wool clothes. The Egyptians considered themselves noble born, and the shepherds as barbarous and despicable.
A big firm they were, Jacob and Sons - Shepherds, Sheep and Sheep Products, and certainly the land of Goshen suited that. In fact they became Jacob and Sons - Shepherds and Pastoralists, with sheep and cattle, as the firm grew and prospered and their life was more settled and they could develop pasture lands. Perhaps the firm was now Israel and Sons.
1. However, for the Israelites, Goshen, on the far north of Egypt was the very best place to be, for God had promised that they would increase in number, “with great substance”, Genesis 15:14. There was ample room here for expansion, and so they did, with the help of those they proselytised. They multiplied out of sight, out of mind, until they were too numerous to ignore, for they were no longer “out of sight” of the Egyptians, and became an itch on their minds.
2. If they continued the established practice of offering animal sacrifices, they would not here, so far north, offend the animal worshippers in Egypt. This sacrificing of animals must have been a continual source of complaint by the Egyptians.
3. The pastureland was good and became better, for it was “the abode of happiness”, the best of all the land under Rameses. They could build huts but Joseph exhorted them to live like they did in Canaan. They could easily trade at nearby per Sopd and per Bastet, whatever Jacob might think of the wicked city of cats.
4. But they could also trade with those coming down into Egypt from other lands.
5. Joseph knew that God wanted to keep his people isolated lest they lose their identity. A separate community was essential. Goshen suited that ideal.
6. For health reasons, for the sake of the continuation of Israel, isolation would also prove to be a good thing.
7. Joseph might also have been worried that a Pharaoh would arise who knew him not. They would therefore need to be in the very best place, for a quick escape back to Abraham’s Promised Land. Goshen suited that as well.
Also, it was an advantage that the Pharaoh who knew Joseph did not regard the Israelites and their possessions, as his own. We know from ample evidence, that a later Pharaoh did regard them all, and all that they had, as his own.
They were, until now, nomads, but with this settled existence for so long, they became agriculturalists, that is “diggers of the earth”, though still of tenuous existence in a land not their own, and of low estate, and despised by the upper classes of Egypt.
This was the beginning of the tenuous possession of land and property that has bedevilled the Jews over the centuries. They were to be God’s pilgrims until Abraham promises from God were fulfilled, when He would take them back to Canaan, that is not landowners, but tenuous.
5. THE ISRAELITES AS TENUOUS PILGRIMS IN THIS LAND
So they were to be as tenuous in Egypt as they were in Canaan.
Comment:
Even when they were forced out of Goshen and near to entering the Promised Land, Numbers 11:5, they hankered after the Egyptian “fish, the cucumbers, the melons and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick”, and from then on down in history their land tenure, or their business interests have caused them to avoid the hooks that were seeking their jaws. Those hooks did eventually drag them back to God’s Promised Land, where they remain still in their denial of Him, not a living witness, but a mute witness, to His glory and His name, and to His purpose. Even in their dispersions, all over the world, say in places like China, they could have witnessed to God’s purpose, and fulfilled the mission mandate given to Abraham, but they failed in that also, and so God later activated Christian missionaries to preach in His name. At first, these missionaries, under William Carey in the 18th century, suffered great cost, for of these, mainly college educated young people, one of every two died, of hundreds who went “out”, in these foreign parts, within two years. But still they persisted, so that today most of these outposts have now heard God’s Word. In two decades in 1775, 19 out of 20 missionaries who went into Africa did not survive more than two years. Now there are very few world languages remaining to be researched, so that a Bible can be produced in the indigenous tongue. God is using many of His faithful ones to mission mandate the whole world. Some believe that, when that target is reached, Matthew 28:19 and 20, our Lord Jesus Christ will, at last, return.
It is interesting to note that the missionaries found tiny pockets of faith, in places like India and China, where God had called men to His name, and they had responded without a preacher (as recorded by William Carey). How glad these faithful ones were to have a preacher, when they had felt alone for almost two millennia. Remember China and India had been populated from the time before Abraham.
“Why did you not come before”, the believers in China asked, when the missionaries arrived, “for it is 1700 years since you first found the Christ one?”
We, also, should be like wise and tenuous pilgrims, and cannot, should not, really own anything. It is all God’s treasure. His land is ours only to “rent”, and bad tenants we have been to so damage the earth. The Jews, like us, have found this principle hard to understand, but their continuous history, when their stability and security has been destroyed, and they have been uprooted and displaced, has not taught them to rely on God. They mostly find it difficult to understand that Israel is His land, until He gives it to those who recognise His son. So, in their unbelief they call it their own, and continue in their sinful disregard for Him, evicting others out of His land.
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6. JOSEPH’S RESPONSIBILITIES
This new situation was not without its difficulties, with one huge family setting up house in this new and different land. The responsibility for Joseph was enormous, for not only did he have the whole of the population of Egypt to feed, but, as well, the responsibility of his newly settling huge family. Joseph nourished them all, verse 12. There were disadvantages, but all in all, it was a wonderful provision. Ah, serendipity, Jacob’s joyful resignation, at last, a peaceful life.
So, Joseph arrayed in all his worldly splendour, with his neck ornaments like a rainbow, and his beautiful gown like the brightness of heaven, climbed into his chariot, pulled by prancing steeds in their feather decorated harness. With a glitter and flash, and a shimmer of colour, Joseph raced away with the runners in front and beside the chariot, “Abrek”, “Abrek”, and his fan bearers behind. He raced away to see Pharaoh to fix it all up for his family. Nepotism it was, for all to see, because everyone knew. Still he was in a good position to dispense favours. He need not have asked Pharaoh, but like the good employee that he was, he did.
CONCLUSION:
Jealousy - we hope it did not its head again, we hope it was equanimity all around. There may be some in this family who still feel disaffected, like Tamar. She is mindful of her ill gotten sons, and her expectations might have been dashed with the new family relationship with this favourite son, and obviously superior person, Joseph, and his family.
CHAPTER 3
JACOB’S MEETING WITH PHARAOH
“And Jacob blessed Pharaoh”, Genesis 47:10.
FOCUS:
Pharaoh, in the course of time, came down to where Joseph’s family were. This meeting is described in Genesis 46:31-34, 47:1-12.
1. JOSEPH INTRODUCES HIS FAMILY TO PHARAOH
The presence of Asiatics in Egypt has been well documented by archaeological work in the Nile Delta, especially in recent excavations at Tell el Maskhuta and Tell ed-Dab’a, where a 3,200 year old panel has been found. As usual, the people are all in profile. Some of these peoples may have chosen to join Jacob’s tribe here, and maybe accepting circumcision, if they were not already by their own rites, would have become proselytes and counted as true Israelites, thus swelling the numbers, to help a necessary revolt, later on in history.
The five brothers who were to meet Pharaoh, were probably chosen by Joseph, but we are left to wonder which ones, perhaps the five oldest, all of them Leah’s sons, though she bore him six sons altogether.
In order to heighten the festal presentation occasion, the five brethren were presented to Pharaoh before Jacob was. This would probably have been the first time any of them had appeared before such a personage.
The struggle for precedence is always present among groups of people, and power mostly rears its ugly head, but perhaps there was no strutting for prominence here, as they really felt that they were under Joseph’s authority in this place. For ceremonial occasions best is always last. Always the true honour goes to the last, who is best presented, so Jacob was willingly given best/last place.
Besides, Jacob’s sons had certain business matters to discuss and settle, while the presentation of Jacob was a graceful formality. So they went first. They had to ask for the land of Goshen. It was a courtesy, even though they knew it was theirs. Land in Egypt was hereditarily passed on, so it was fortuitous that Pharaoh owned Goshen.
Pharaoh was stumped for something to say to Jacob, yet the discussion with Jacob’s sons was easier, having been much better planned and with more sense, being arranged beforehand by Pharaoh’s minister, as is usual, even now, in matters of state.
2. JACOB’S SONS BEFORE PHARAOH
These sons of Jacob were ushered in before Pharaoh’s presence and before Joseph who stood beside him. They duly brought their foreheads into contact with the pavement of the hall - another bowing down - they must have known all the protocol by now, and were bowing down automatically. They mumbled an adulation that was appropriate, having been drilled by Joseph on what to say.
Our curiosity for this utterance is dulled by the fact it may be better, for us that we don’t know. In any case, it would be an introductory flourish in an unknown tongue, and Pharaoh would have answered, that he was glad to welcome before his throne, the relations of this (his) faithful man of gold who feeds the world.
“What is your occupation?” Sure enough, Pharaoh enquires of them, as Joseph had predicted.
They forgot what they had to say about “livestock keepers”, and they said that they were “shepherds”, verse 3. Jacob, standing by, yet flexible, allowed them their individuality. Maybe it didn’t matter too much after all, or perhaps this a trivial, or unreal point, and just a mix up in translation between Genesis 46:34 and 47:3. It is not mentioned in any of many consulted commentaries, but it is noted by Charles Swindoll, in “Joseph”. Not only were they explicit about their occupation, but they also said that they had only come temporarily, to “sojourn”, and they asked for a short stay.
Joseph had already asked them to speak carefully and in the face of Egypt’s race prejudice, Genesis 46:34, but they answered with dignity that they “were shepherds”. It is not clear whether there was a real abhorrence to shepherds, because of some historical circumstance, say with an invading army, or whether it was just a self perpetuating class distinction.
Not only were they shepherds, but as well their father was a Syrian Bedouin chief. They were brawny cattle dealers with no settled dwelling place. They lived in tents and would have been despised by the lofty Egyptians. Pharaoh would probably understand their discomfort at stating this, if he was not pure Egyptian himself - being one of the Hyksos. They added that their family had ever been occupied as animal pastoralists, and they understood every sort of cattle breeding. Jacob and Sons - Shepherds, Sheep and Sheep Products, a big family firm they had been, but they did not boast here, they had suffered enough humility in Egypt, not to know how to behave. They had come from Canaan where there was a famine because of the drought; there was no food for their flocks, or themselves. Their request was that they might dwell in the land of Goshen, where they had halted and pitched their tents. It was to be a sojourn, until the famine was over, not forever. Little did they know.
If they sensed any distaste that the Egyptians felt for them, they would have been pleased with the welcoming speech of Pharaoh, reinforced with a request that Pharaoh’s own flocks be cared for by any enterprising Israelite, if that could be arranged. This Pharaoh had broken the yoke of the petty sovereigns and so the lords, the priests, embalmers, and the magicians had reduced powers. With this circumstance Pharaoh’s own power had increased, as had Joseph’s power. They had brought large numbers of people near the food reserves, and the people waited patiently in servitude for the end of the famine to get Pharaoh’s seed for the next crop to be produced on Pharaoh’s land. So the tax would continue after the drought broke. It was a firm control measure for the Egyptian subjects. Ancient documents supporting these new arrangements are now available.
Some people are critical of Joseph, that he did not seek high office for his brothers, at least those who were capable, such as Judah, but surely this was the best way to keep them segregated, and established in their worship, away from the gods of Egypt.
It is interesting to note that Pharaoh did not give partial benefit to any of the sons, who he may have thought more able than others. For Joseph’s sake, he remained impartial, and sought no benefit for himself. A good Pharaoh, he was, under God’s hand, at this time.
3. JACOB’S PRESENTATION
Then it was time for the very old and feeble father to meet this young and grateful boy, appointed heir to this momentous crown, striving to distil justice and equity within a religious ambience. They were both dreamers of dreams - and Joseph too. Not the Martin Luther King sort of dream - “I have a dream” - in the sense of a great desire, but sleep dreams, all Heaven sent.
Their dreams were sent by God and needed interpretation. Jacob looked at the young man sitting beneath the brocaded baldachin and blessed him. He would have stretched out his right hand to Pharaoh (not both, as when he spoke to God) and Pharaoh would have been impressed with this wise, experienced and fatherly old man, who under God’s grace at this time, and in this position, was a worthy of old, and also worthy of his (Pharaoh’s) favour.
“May the Lord bless you, King over Egypt” - a blessing for Pharaoh from Jacob. This Hebrew salutation always conveyed a divine intent and prayer, but we need not be concerned, Jacob’s life was full with the Lord by this stage, and he would think nothing of blessing Pharaoh for caring for his son. In fact he blessed Pharaoh twice, also at the conclusion of his audience.
Pharaoh could only ask,
“How old are you little grandfather?”
It may have been useful for Pharaoh to know Jacob’s age, or it may have been only a courtesy question, to allow Jacob to verify his veneration, with even the king. Jacob was 130 years old. Pharaoh was impressed, for the Egyptian limit was 120 years old.
This pastoral chieftain from another age and culture, solemnly and courageously replied, about his pilgrimage,
“One hundred and thirty years - few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the years of my fathers in the day of their pilgrimage”.
Pharaoh’s question had given Jacob a chance to answer solemnly, stating the positives/negatives, the verticals/horizontals, the blessings/cursings in a measured speech, like the prophet he was. He forth told of his days, and his heritage, and clothed himself with an awesome veneer, so that Pharaoh was melancholic, remembering his own father and his destiny, which predisposed him to die young. He’d probably sensitised himself to that.
So Jacob’s great age probably impressed Pharaoh. Jacob sees his life, not as brilliant and successfully victorious, but he sees his deceptions, to secure what he believed to be rightly his. He sees pilgrimage, where verdure is scarce, and desert sand hardships are aplenty - few and evil.
The Jews speak about the nine afflictions of Jacob:
1. Persecution by Esau,
2. Injustice of Laban,
3. Injury result of the wrestling incident,
4. Victimisation of Dinah,
5. Loss of Rachel,
6. Incest of Reuben,
7. Loss of Joseph,
8. Simeon’s imprisonment,
9. Benjamin in Egypt.
It was a speech of an old man
in the manner of the Hebrew poet
that he was,
and there was bound to be more added,
more of the blessings,
and more of the cursings,
more of the verticals,
and more of the horizontals,
more of those remaining,
and more of those rejected,
more of that which was left behind,
and more of those who were left behind,
more of those loved,
and those lost,
and those now found,
- even if not understood,
or audible to the king,
Jacob could hardly have contained himself, though Joseph stood by to prompt, or shush. Pharaoh, however, behaved with great reverence and compliance, even though an interpreter would have been necessary, and misunderstandings could easily have occurred. Jacob did not give ground to the regal presence, nor was he compromising his heritage at this majestic and formal occasion.
Consider:
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the concealing of it -
* So was Jacob speaking out like the elderly often do?
* The young and fearful need courage - not the old. Why?
* The young mostly have the knack of concealing fear, why do we need to conceal fear?
Jacob blessed Pharaoh again, and with his integrity intact walked out. His labouring arthritic gait would have reminded him of his angel’s presence for this great occasion as well (for he did not, physically, let go, on that other occasion either).
* Whose angel was present now, Jacob’s or Joseph’s?
* Maybe the angel was one and the same?
And so it was now, that God’s presence was with Jacob, and God cared for him in Egypt.
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So Goshen it was (it still is the most fertile and productive part of Egypt, and it still is the gateway from the north east/west). Here was the separation for Israel, and the room to multiply, which had hitherto been denied them. Canaan could not/did not give them enough room for their (God’s) needs. Interestingly, the updated name “Rameses” is in Genesis 47:11. Yet it was not Rameses till much later. This is an editorial update by Moses, not the place name that Jacob and Joseph knew. We don’t know Moses’ reason for doing this. Nor do we know what place name Jacob and Joseph and Pharaoh used.
4. JACOB’S AFFLICTIONS
The nine afflictions of Jacob are described here in more detail. He regarded them as woes, and felt he had more than his share. Perhaps he was right.
1. Jacob’s youth time with Isaac and Rebekah haunted him, as he remembered his disagreement with his twin Esau, and the ensuing murder intent. He felt persecuted then, and the persecutions of him would continue through his life.
2. If Jacob “gained wealth in Haran” it had been by great industry and personal toil, aggravated by Laban’s injustice.
3. On his return journey, there was the double terror of Laban’s pursuit behind, and Esau’s anticipated menacing attitude in front. God had reassured him from his terror, but as a consequence of meeting God “face to face” he lay ill at Succoth, for a time, a waiting time, until time healed his sprained hip injury, or at least until he could walk again.
4. His entry into the Promised Land had been made miserable by his victimised daughter, Dinah’s dishonour, and the fierce conduct of his sons
5. When his home was in sight he lost his beloved Rachel. Death’s sting was upon him now, as well as dishonour.
6. Reuben’s incest had insulted him - laying with his father’s concubine - and together with the dishonour and the sting and the suspected deceit, he felt mocked by all around him, despised and depressed and quite apart from God.
7 He was compelled to remain a distance from his father because Isaac was chief and paramount, but then the ten long years between Isaac’s death and the descent into Egypt had been years of mourning for Rachel, and then for Isaac, but particularly for Joseph, with a suspected deceit clothed, in another sting of death.
8. Then Simeon was not, sent to the Land of Mud for food, and kept there, imprisoned, a hostage, one of the sons of the promise, a hostage in Egypt, he was affronted that the integrity of his whole family, was so doubted by the Prince of Egypt.
9. and then Benjamin was not, taken to Egypt by his brothers for food and to release Simeon, all of them gone, nothing for him left, no sons of Leah, and none of Rachel, either.
Woe! Woe! Woe! Woe! Woe! Woe! Woe! Woe! Woe!
These are nine afflictions, or woes.
All this had made his days evil.
The days were few only in comparison with those of his father and grandfather.
“The continuity of faith at the end of his life did not bring chaos or uncertainly or insecurity, as his lack of it had done when he faltered. It now brought composure in truth and 17 years of good - (as far as we know)”. So Ellicott sums up Jacob’s evil days, and their far reaching effect on his relationship to God in faith.
5. JACOB’S BLESSINGS
“And mine has been the fate of those,
... To whom the good earth and air
... Are banned and barr’d
- forbidden fare”.
This Cain like depression that exists in the poem of Byron, “The Prisoner of Chillon”, directed elsewhere, would have been appropriate for Jacob till now, but for him, now in Egypt, it seemed he’d turned the corner and found, not forbidden fare, but blessings in abundance - in the land of Mud and Death.
“Dear mother earth, who day by day
Uunfoldest blessings on our way,
The flowers and fruit that in thee grow,
Let them His glory also show:
O praise Him, Alleluia”.
These are the words of a twelfth century hymn.
The hymn talks of all God’s blessings and the words repeat again the blessings that came to Joseph, and now to his father Jacob and family in this land of Goshen, even abundant material blessings as well, for the years of famine and consequential worry had taken their toll, but the famine effects were now a thing of the past.
The angels guarding Jacob and his family, whom he had seen infrequently in his life, had always been with him. Some, who deny our angelic access, might feel that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had an advantage over us with angelic communication and instruction. We really need not feel so deprived. We should think more about the angels who watch (over) us - God’s representatives, all seeing. Then the thought of our own individual “angel” might temper our behaviour.
The angels of the Lord had encamped around Jacob, for he did fear the Lord (Psalm 34:7). Guarding and guiding angels are not only for “little ones” as in Matthew 18:10, but for us all.
Those angels, that appeared
- Unto Abraham at the great tree of Moreh, and on the great plains of Mamre,
- To Isaac, to tell him not to go down into Egypt when he dwelt at Gerar,
- And to Jacob, at Bethel climbing up and down on the dream ladder, at the Jabbok, at Bethel again, and at Beersheba, had guarded him till now.
David’s Psalm 28 could have been Jacob’s cry for mercy and deliverance, for God did save and bless his people. “Be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I go down into the pit”. And none of us like the pit.
6. FOOD FOR ALL IN EGYPT
We are glad, that as Dan only had one child, the word “family” really means “household”. The Israelites were then apportioned food, not according to their offspring, but according to their dependents. Paintings in Egyptian tombs, from the second millennium BC, depict leeks and a cos like lettuce in irrigated gardens laid out in chequerboard design, their plants being watered from jars. Grapes and melons are trained over fences nearby. The Israelites missed the great abundance of this land of Egypt, when they left Egypt, and sinned in their longing for it all. But just now, it was all theirs.
It was a great generosity of Pharaoh to give them the fertile Goshen, for if he had given them a less fertile land, he would have received great taxes from this land from others, who he might have overcharged the normal rate, considering there was such abundance. Greater profit would have allowed him to better ingratiate himself with his people. The tax really was no hardship for Jacob and his sons, even with Pharaoh’s terms of a fifth part for the famine tax, after seed and cattle had been supplied by the state. Turkey successfully applied the same terms for Palestine, at the turn of the 20th century.
God did keep Israel safe and healthy in Goshen. There has been a small pox epidemic noted in the Hittites, in the 14th century BC. The isolated Israelites would have missed out on such plagues, which, decimated and weakened other nations - certainly such plagues would have weakened Canaan’s fighting spirit for the incoming Israelites, if God had so ordained it.
Joseph, so long ago, carefree and close by his family, went into the dark time, and then endured an underground period of enclosure. He was numbered among the dead, and unnamed. He now finds once more that he and his family are going ahead, that they are all out of the pit. He is not in Goshen with them, but they are close by again, at last.
This is the song of home - albeit in a strange land. Here is the old patriarchal life - they are all changed and worth knowing. Jacob, now, no longer needs to give special care to Joseph. The brothers had given up their jealousy, and Joseph had his rightful place.
CONCLUSION:
They flew from the famine in panic,
and met their yesterday.
And their yesterday,
became their saviour for to morrow.
Truly,
for their son and brother had made Egypt
the breadbasket of the world!
The arrow of fear flew out the window,
for it had regularly sat at the hearth.
And with fear,
in flew need,
that had silently eaten at the table with them.
Hunger withdrew from the cupboard,
and safety and security and peace came in,
for now they ate at the Egyptian table of plenty.
And at last,
the Canaan dysfunction began to heal.
CHAPTER 4
JOSEPH - A POWERFUL AND MIGHTY RULER
“And the famine was very sore”, Genesis 47:13.
FOCUS:
There are fourteen verses that deal with the circumstances of the rule of Joseph in Genesis 47:13-26, and we may here consider some of the Joseph critics.
1. JOSEPH JUSTIFIED, NOT AN EXPLOITER
It has been argued, that Joseph made hard bargains with the Egyptians. Only the priests had a portion of land to live on, and were allowed to live there with state assistance. The priests, fortuitously, were subject to the king, not to Joseph, though Joseph himself, may have been enrolled in their lists as also subject to Pharaoh. Joseph has been reproached for exploitation and harshness, and moral condemnation has been the accusation against him - a harsh judgment. Thomas Mann justifies Joseph’s position amongst his detractors, on page 188 of “Joseph and His Brothers, Joseph the Provider”.
Provider and Lord of Bread,
a sort of Nile Deity,
a preserver, and
a life giver
were his titles.
Joseph operated on two planes balancing between life and death and spheres of influence, betwixt and between the wealthy and the poor, for soon “there was no bread in the land, for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt, and all the land of Canaan, fainted”, is reported in Genesis 47:13. He coolly exploited the wealthy and fed the poor bringing them inside the cities where the grain distribution was keenly supervised. It was a fairness for all. He built up walls as thick as possible to shore up the population against the famine. The hoarded grain in the host of bins that had been built around the cities, was proof of his enlightenment and his wisdom and his foresight, and as Pharaoh’s treasury filled he demonstrated shrewdly his commitment and loyalty to Pharaoh. He needed loyalty in return from Pharaoh to succour his family, to “nourish” them, verse 12. The end justifying the means again, but there is no harm here, and Joseph is careful to measure out evenly and honestly, with God’s purpose in mind.
The case is built up. In Genesis 47:14, we see that in the course of the lean years, Joseph gathered up all the money in the country to the treasury, then he took the people’s cattle in pawn and their lands, finally driving them away from hearth and home, and sending them to work as servants of the state. Sounds harsh, but that’s how it is in many states. Famine would be worse, and towards the common good for so many Egyptians and surrounding countries, they needed to work hard, very hard, just to keep their head above the tide of hunger that threatened to engulf them.
In Genesis 47:17 “fed”, means “led”. “He led them with bread for all their cattle for that year”. Moses means here - “protect or pasture, gentle care of helpless creatures”. The word must have been deliberately chosen, for it is an odd expression to use. It cannot therefore mean that Joseph is an extortionary, as some would have it. Certainly the big land owners were brought to their knees and were bound by state laws to change their ways. To take their cattle as payment for food may have ensured that all of them were brought to their knees, even the rich, as well as the poor. And to remove them to the cities, removed them from what was once theirs, and so reduced their longing for what had been an easy lifestyle, of control of man and beast and land. It also made a ready made labour force for the development of the industries, arts, and any other activities, for which Egypt became famous after the famine. We cannot tell how the poor recovered their position, after the famine, but Joseph would have had that in mind, surely. He knew about the dignity of people, for he learned that in his prison/pit days. The traditional methods and uncompromising ways were thus changed (like the environmental laws change land and health practices today). There must have been some behind hand laughter among the poor, who had hitherto always seem helpless, as they got poorer, and the rich got richer. At least the irrigation methods of the landowners would have to improve.
Comment:
At Faiyyum, in Egypt there is an oasis. The fertility of this oasis, is a canal which carries water, from the River Nile into the oasis. The name of the canal is Bar Yosef, or Joseph’s Canal. It had its origin in the time of the 12th Dynasty or Middle Kingdom, before Christ. It may have been built by Joseph or it may have been named after him, because he was a great reformer. There was already a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea - the precursor to the Suez Canal, as we know it now.
Storage of water problems are ill managed today, in many areas. India is an appalling waster of water, where the poor have a necessity to steal the taps for their value, yet in the great cities, water may be turned on for only a few hours a day, and is, as well, of poor quality. The rich have bores of their own, the poor can hardly afford to buy their water needs, from the water trucks that roam the streets looking for customers. To see the huge population, with the inequity it breeds, is to understand that not much can be solved, without the coming of the Saviour.
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2. TAXES AND REFORM
At the end of the drought with these reforms in Egypt, this state owned land might have been better managed, with a more even distribution, with more responsible landowners.
Some of the landowners had great titles bestowed on them. They were proud and arrogant and ruthless and corrupt. They employed selfish, self interest and injurious land practices, and became thorns in the state crown. Joseph exploited the crisis situation with a ruthless policy of education and remodelling to preserve the land. In our own country, Australia, we see the government trying to introduce management reforms. They also appear, to some, harsh and ruthless, and cause some people anxiety. The huge fines for allowing waste into the drainage systems are now beginning to bite, and the manufacturers are much more careful. $100,000 fine for allowing a Pepsi spill into a drain is too much to contemplate, both in money and reputation, and so responsible waste management practices and care are employed.
“Joseph made it a law” - no doubt the law was made by the king, on the advice of his counsellors, but the honour of it goes to Joseph. What a grand story that shows power motivating great goodness. Great leaders provide innovation and mix it with creativity, and use their courage to put up a workable solution. They are often criticised, and in fact that is considered an inescapable by product of good leaders. But dealing with criticism is all part of the policy, and with everything else it leads in the end to the solution. Space to be creative is essential, free from suspicion, and Pharaoh gave Joseph just that.
Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and their households, but never took advantage of the position he held. He had come along way from his Potiphar days, but his integrity was still intact. Joseph had to live with Joseph, but he also had to live with God. He had character, and submitted to authority with loyal accountability. Integrity is tough stuff, it is demonstrated best when no one is about, when there is only you. It is fairness, and wholeness and completeness, nothing to hide, and therefore nothing to fear. It never tries to love God and the world, at the same time, it is never duplicitous. Some people do lose their integrity, and then they compound the loss, adding to God’s diminishing confidence, by thinking that no one knows. Integrous and spiritual people are gems in the crown of God.
There are grace killers, joy killers, and creativity killers, and there are thousands of other killer phrases they use. Innovative ideas, in say, worship, mean leaving the old familiar paths, without disturbing the message, and as hard as it sounds, it is possible. God’s creative plans for us included plenty of firsts. In return He wants us to grow past the comfortable rut. He wants us to be concerned with the big picture, not
- how do I make a living? But
- how do I make a life? Not
- how do I spend my time? But
- how will I spend eternity? Not
- how do I get on with this person or that? But
- how can I be a saint?
Joseph’s leadership model of integrity and creativity and innovation is there for us. May we follow.
3. A FIFTH PART OF EVERYTHING FOR TAX
Joseph continued the levy of a fifth part, the tax which had amassed the huge store of grain now available for the hungry. The tax was made permanent - however the people were no more slaves than we are. They were not free, as we are not free, and indeed Jesus asks us to pay (to the state what we owe).
To ask for twenty out of a hundred in tax, kept exploitation at bay. Four fifths remained their own, yet in the harsh famine they were kept alive by the state. “Thou hast saved our lives, let us find grace in the sight of the lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants” rings down through the centuries as a cry of gratitude, and a model of tax reform. Certainly Joseph’s own family in Goshen would have paid the tax, without hardship. Jacob would not have questioned the wise provision of a fifth, but may have criticised its direction when it kept the pagan priests and their temples in order. He would have recognised and understood though, Joseph’s allegiance to the state, and to Pharaoh.
To take the landowners off the land, into the cities to be fed, kept in their minds the fact that Pharaoh owned their land now. It had probably come about that the rich had bought, or overtaken all the lands of the poor, in their anxiety to shore up for themselves. When they returned, their inheritance rights and their ability to sell remained the same, but their advantage over the poor, would have been corrected. It would have been useless to give a present of corn to replant, if the lands of the poor no longer existed. It was a unique concept of property rights and one they had to get used to. Today, this method is used by the Grameen Bank, a bank for the poor, in Bangladesh. “Banking for the Poor”, “Co operative Banking”, non exploiting banks, non profit making banks are helping those in the huge third world poverty trap. Poor people, women mostly, must buy goods, perhaps on credit, with a small interest, and then pay back as their industry flourishes. Gifts, or donations are unacceptable to both sides, and this proves a much more acceptable method, (to escape the poverty trap).
The people of Egypt, under Joseph’s banking system, were pleased with this economic result. It was an astonishing mixture of socialisation and freehold occupancy by the individual.
The Hebrews, for over two centuries, were custodians of Goshen but gladly abandoned it when God beckoned. We need to be ready for the expected beckoning, to abandon all that we have. Surely we feel the same when we say it’s all God’s land, His treasure, and that we are only it’s custodians for the short time we spend on the earth.
4. JUSTIFIED - YES!
All this time, after the famine, and towards restructure and while the economy improved Joseph still governed. Jacob would have noted though that the reform did not extend to the landed possession of the temples. Verse 22 shows us the initiative of Pharaoh who, in expediency, allowed the priests to remain on the land. Joseph may have felt inclined to raise the temples in favour of his own God - but wisdom prevailed and he allowed the old to continue, rather than unsettle the people and antagonise them towards the inhabitants of Goshen. It’s hardly worth discussion that for all this “end, justified the means”. After all even with Joseph in government, they were visitors in the land - and Joseph wanted them welcomed. The gods and their priests had been discredited over the drought and subsequent famine, over the matter of Pharaoh’s dreams. They had not predicted the drought, nor prevented it, nor did they have any contingency plan. Neither had Joseph prevented it, but with his contingency wisdom, the wondrous Hebrew had been their saving grace. It would be foolhardy to further press discredit upon the priests in the people’s eyes.
All the main points, in the story of this chapter, Genesis 47, are confirmed by the ancient historians Herodotus, Diodorus, Stabo, and the monuments, for they “completely bare out the testimony of the author of Genesis, as to the condition of land tenure, and its origin in an exercise, of the sovereign’s authority”, Speaker’s Commentary.
There had been festering trouble in the south east, even to the torching of some of the Egyptian cities in that area, at this time. Pharaoh’s tendency for pacifism had not solved the difficulties with the Bedouins. Some of the eastern and northern provinces were in a state of ferment, because they had heard that Pharaoh had a new chief. The descriptions of the state of affairs had brought disrespect, and so defection, and betrayal were gaining ground. A drought, and its consequential famine, is a good sword to set the people on a different tack, as were property requisition and tax reforms. It all helped to set the gathering frenzy to rest, and that was just what Pharaoh needed and wanted.
5. GOD’S MIRACULOUS PROVISION
God has wondrous ways to subdue nations, that don’t call for us to lift a sword for Him. Contrary to some people’s expectations, we may never be called upon to “slash the enemies of the Lord” in His Name. Non violent He has taught us to be, and be that, we shall be, or displease Him. A lust for power, and confrontation, and violence, will do us no good.
To get grain from Egypt, the Canaanites had eventually to send their youths as hostages. That was a hardship, though better than Joseph’s hardship, for Asiatic princes were given care and pensions under Egypt during the famine. Of Milkili, king of the city of Ashdod it was hard that his wife and children were sent to Egypt, but it ensured his family and his progeny lived, and his (hitherto unreliable) love for Pharaoh. In the end they were returned. And that is just what happens even today when loved ones are wisely sent off in adverse times. Our own country, Australia, has been host to such people.
The expeditious plan of Joseph does not need justifying from any writer. All we need to do is to understand that Joseph was not cruel, but good, and shrewd and skilful and God guided. The people were pleased with the outcome, the justice and generosity and wisdom of Joseph, and the Pharaoh, in consenting and endorsing it all, must have been pleased as well.
What a wonderful Godly servant he was.
1. Among the flocks of the Hebrews were the flocks of Pharaoh.
2. That certainly would ensure good supplementary fodder was always at hand.
3. As well, these royal flocks would be of the best stock available in the world.
4. Clever breeding would ensure good (Israelite) stock. Jacob had taught his family the lessons he’d learned from Isaac, and then again what he had learned with bitter experience in Haran.
5. The shepherds of the royal flock would be well fed too, to carry on this royal work every day.
Interestingly, the Israelites measured time from sunset to sunset (and the Babylonians). The Egyptians measured time from dawn to dawn. We measure ours (with timepieces) from midnight to midnight.
CONCLUSION:
Joseph was a worthy servant of God, but he was also a just and valuable servant of Pharaoh. He fulfilled the promise he made to Pharaoh at the time of his gilding, when Pharaoh put the ring on his finger. He led the great Land of Mud away from the effects of the great drought, and in the great provision for the famine, they not only adequately fed themselves but they became great beneficiaries, and a mighty influence, to those nations round about them. For that they will have their reward, Isaiah 19:18-25.
CHAPTER 5
ISRAEL CLOSE TO DEATH
“And the time drew near that Israel must die; and he called his son Joseph”, Genesis 47:29.
FOCUS:
It is only death that can arrest the flow of time (apart from when a character is preserved in “amber” by the “left behinds”). So it is imperative to recognise in our story that, not only is Jacob getting older, but also his sons, Genesis 47:27-31.
1. WAXING AND WANING IN EGYPT
These sons are not perennially youthful as they sometimes seem to be. They live on unaware of the calamity that is to come upon their people. In the 7th century BC, the depressed prophet Jeremiah sees all the blessings brought to naught, and then only a remnant remains. So many of the prophets speak about the future deliverance from this land of mud into which they have so comfortably settled. Their own patriarchal fathers, the first prophets, including Joseph, knew, and had told them of the coming fruitfulness, in, what was now, the land of Canaan. But they settled in the mud, and were content, until the “rod of his wrath” had to be laid upon them, for they were “the little children” who kept not “themselves from idols”. 1 John 5:21 may have been among the last words written in our Bible, (for Biblical order is not determined by authorship date, but rather by book or letter size). If we think about it, we may find that we may not be much better.
“Without holiness no one will see the Lord”, Hebrews 12:14. They become the anti Christ, and refrain from holy deeds for His sake. We need to make time to be holy. We should recall the words of Jeremiah’s lamentation about bitter herbs, teeth broken on the gravel of grief, trampled in the dust, prosperity forgotten and souls downcast - if we avoid holiness - for that was the lot of the Jews who forgot to be holy.
2. JACOB GROWING OLD
Jacob lived another seventeen years nurtured, honoured and cherished by his family. The firm Jacob and Sons - Shepherds and Pastoralists prospered and grew. Joseph grew old too (56 now) though his Rachel eyes remained the same (as we know they would, for eyes don’t go grey). But the apples of his eyes, his two sons, are not curly headed children at the age of seven or eight at the scene of their blessing, by their ailing grandfather. It is seventeen years later.
The intervening years had not brought Joseph into the family fold. He was not part of the patriarchal family. His regime was rather kyriarchy - master/servant, lord/serfs, ruler/slave. That was the social structure of Egyptian life. For Joseph, now climbing the mountains, from his depth of despair (underground), the splashes of joy would be more commonplace, as he made his frequent visits down to Goshen.
Comment:
We cannot impart to our children more spirituality than we have ourselves, but sometimes life’s circumstances endow them with great spirituality. It was so for Joseph.
Conversely when our children take a detour and cause emotional injury (to parents) we must not be immobilised by guilt.
Self pity increases the misery, cursing the darkness. Churning, burning, yearning and suffering do not help us to adapt and change, to learn and turn.
The only way, is to light a little candle, and, as you adapt, it will burn brighter. You cannot change some things, but you can learn to adapt to them. That shaft of pain can bend a little with the wind and the bending will soon be acceptable. Then that tiny splash of joy becomes a light, and will change your life, and the lives of all those round you.
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Jacob might have provided a candle light for Joseph “to come home to”, and a place at the table, whenever he could come. Distance did grow between them but in continuing his work, set apart, lifted up and withdrawn, he was severed from the tribe. They carried on without him. Jacob knew it, and Joseph knew it at the beginning, when they met, each with a retinue behind them - seventy for Jacob (family), maybe seventy for Joseph (officials). There would be mutual reserve for one another’s roles, submission and acceptance by both of them. Again we are concerned whether distance encouraged distaste and jealousy to rear its ugly head again. There would be talk among the family, about their misdeed and, yes, they had prostrated themselves, as the dreamer had predicted they would. But that was a little price to pay - what wonderful security they now had.
There is a lesson here in sticking to one’s point of view, even when it has been shown to be untenable. It is a gracious act to recant from a wrong opinion, or point of view, to pursue a different path, saying that “we will never bow down to you” or “the world is flat”, or “we will never do it that way, while I have breath in my body”, or “I will never forgive him” or “I am right”, despite the evidence. It dispels bitterness and eventual isolation, for that is the path to which insistence can lead. Those who insist that they have never been wrong, can paint themselves into a corner, until there is only one person that they agree with, and their social contact and sharpening of wits is confined to the company of one. So, we really hope that the old equivocations never arose about the former opinions of these brothers.
Rachel was dead, Joseph could not live with the family, Benjamin was no threat, and consequently the blessings were now all inherited mostly by the rejected Leah family. Surely it was all worth this present life.
Indeed it was, for they all thought of their own skins. Their own skins now depended on them changing their opinions. Life is like that - our own point of view is paramount, but we will equivocate for our life’s sake.
3. THE CALL OF DEATH
However the call went out to Joseph. “If I have found favour in thy sight….” There is a distance between father and son. When Joseph came to Jacob, he put his hand under Jacob’s lame thigh, where the angel of the Lord had touched him, on that day so long ago, and swore to deal faithfully and truly with Jacob’s wish that his body might be taken to Machpelah to rest with his fathers. With Rachel’s eyes looking at him, Jacob would be again tempted to be carried to her tomb near Bethlehem. But he does not succumb, and so Machpelah remains the preferred burial place for Jacob.
The luxury of heart and emotion and remembrances (heart strings), gave way to the important destiny/duty of family matters - and Jacob asks for Machpelah. He knows that the angel of death is paused nearby. He now is so very close to God, he worships and waits. Here the translation of the verse, about bedhead or staff is confusing, for the two words are very similar, but for our purposes it is adequate to say that Joseph swore the oath, to keep to Jacob’s bequest, and bowed, indicating his intention, leaning upon his staff (of patriarchal authority used for solemn injunctions), and Israel bowed himself before the bedhead, sinking back in relief, content and happy in his son’s promise, and giving thanks to God for the peace of his approaching end.
CONCLUSION:
We have just witnessed another scene of pure pathos and great dignity, and for the record in front of us, we are grateful that we can enter into the poignant moment, with the Divine sanctity that surrounds it.
CHAPTER 6
PREPARATION FOR THE GREAT TREK OUT OF EGYPT
“It came to pass that one told Joseph, ‘Behold thy father is sick’”, Genesis 48:1.
FOCUS:
A little time later Jacob fell ill and Joseph was called to his bedside again, and consequently the blessings of Joseph, and his sons are recounted in Genesis 48.
1. JOSEPH’S SONS
Joseph took his sons Manasseh and Ephraim. These two boys were the products of the highest culture in the land - manicured, curled, perfumed, with mother of pearl toenails and corseted waists. Coloured ribbons flowed down from their aprons on both sides. They were twenty something, and consumed with melancholy, angst, rage, joy, impetuosity and all the mixed emotions that stand out today amongst our own young people - emotions don’t change, remembering how it was, is painful for many of us. They were different from their northerly cousins living in the low lands, yet their maturing emotions gave them trouble as well - like all teenagers down the centuries. It would be interesting to know how their descendants moved back amongst the Israelites in response to that candle light, and became part of the mixed multitude that moved out of Egypt so many years later. Among the best sellers are books that detail to us how people search for their (often unknown) roots and predictions, and are happy to denounce all other faiths to return to what has haunted them. Later on someone in this “Egyptian” family did feel a need to go back to their roots, for they came out of Egypt, with their relatives.
Well, these two boys stood behind their father in the bouncing car, steadying themselves as they drove the horses north. We can imagine what these immature boys were thinking, when they considered this tribe of relatives so far north - in Goshen. We know how immature unappreciative teenage children would tend to think of eccentric relations, with peculiar customs, who live in tenuous circumstances so far away. It may have been some time before they got to prefer them to their royal friends back in On, or No.
Jacob’s dim eyes could not see them at first and their presentation to him was solemn.
“Who are these?” he said, and immediately began to talk of his experiences at the old Luz, the older name for Bethel, (Genesis 28:19), and the blessings he received there. With the blessings of fruitfulness in mind Jacob turned to Manasseh and Ephraim stating that they were as much part of the blessings as Reuben and Simeon (Jacob elevating them a generation) although they were born in Egypt.
Generations are like steps, some up, some down, but all connected. Now Reuben and Simeon are replaced by Joseph and his sons, because of their sins and thus Joseph receives a double portion confirming his right to be the firstborn. However, we will see, that it is even more than that.
Jacob’s lapse into a syllogism about Rachel, indicates again his special love for her, and her grave near Bethlehem. It seems he still entertains the wistful longing for her, and her burial grave place, as we all do over our losses in death, but he still adheres in his mind, to the wisdom of his bones lying in Machpelah.
Perhaps he is anxious that these three, and Benjamin’s lot also, would make a little shrine in Bethlehem and he wouldn’t want that - he only wants memories of love lost, making his longing wistful, longing for what might have been. We know about “longing”. Every one of us would have experienced “longings”, wishings for someone, or something, or for some change in our circumstance. Wistfulness is not necessarily destructive, only if it becomes overwhelming. “If only” can be used positively to reinforce changes in behaviour. If we have “been unwise”, we can resolve to “be more wise”, and begin by asking God daily for the “wise and understanding heart”, which He gave to Solomon, 1 Kings 3:12, when he implored Him for discernment. Solomon placed the restriction “for judgement” on his wisdom, and it may be that the particular wisdom he received did not much extend to all areas of his life, whereas we can ask for a much broader gift of grace.
2. JACOB BLESSES HIS EGYPTIAN GRANDCHILDREN
So Manasseh and Ephraim are brought to him for hugs and kisses. Jacob then proceeds to bless them, and blesses them oppositely to the way Joseph had presented them. “What!” Here is another unexpected younger then older blessing. Jacob’s right hand did not stretch out to Manasseh, and his left hand stretch out to Ephraim, but he crossed his arms. Joseph tried to correct it, but Jacob insisted, and so blessed the younger Ephraim with his right hand, the first, with the double portion, birthright blessing. There is no howling here from the 56 year old Joseph, like the howling of Esau, at 77 years, when Isaac made the cross over blessing of Jacob. Joseph might have expected it, for Jacob continually uses the name Ephraim first. Ephraim being second born certainly was the one that made Joseph think he was “multiplying”, for Ephraim’s name means “double fruitfulness”. Joseph would not know the number of his children with only a first born child. One only begins to multiply with subsequent births.
“Not so, my father, for this Manasseh is the firstborn”,
“I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall grow and become a people and be great, but truly his younger brother shall be greater and his seed shall become a multitude of nations”.
And so it was - for the Ephraimites were the most powerful tribe in the north, and the title “Ephraim” was often used to refer to the northern kingdom as a whole. Ezekiel, in chapter 37:19, sees the two sticks Ephraim and Judah joined together, if only they will keep the covenant, but it did not work out as Ezekiel had hoped it would. Here Ezekiel uses the term, “the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim”. Later the name, Ephraim, is omitted from the Revelation 7 record of the sealing of the tribes, but Joseph is substituted instead, perhaps to emphasise Joseph’s worthiness, rather than Ephraim’s, who had defaulted and so provoked God. It is intriguing to consider what Asenath would feel about her sons’ inheritance and also how much the boys would understand this event. This intimate occasion between the three generations would give Joseph cause to explain to his sons the import of the blessing. It may have been the beginning of their fuller and more mature understanding.
The boys themselves may not have seen what had happened, as they were bowed, and sitting at Joseph’s knees, in the attitude symbolic of adoption. They would have heard Joseph’s exclamation though. It would not, in any case, seem too significant to them, for as is the way of youth, historical settings and momentous occasions mean so little, when there is so much they long for in the future. It is age that brings backward looking, and memory, and history to the fore. The cross blessing did mean a lot to Esau, because the twins were much older, and their lives and interests were so different from each other. The jealousy seed had long grown into a strong sapling there, and so flourished into a troublesome plant.
Comment:
The young are so busy with their lives, that there is little time, or inclination for contemplation. It is only the middle aged who looks back in wonder at the opportunities - some lost, some gained, and gaze with gratitude at the armfuls of unexpected life experiences granted to them. It is the old who look back and question, “Why didn’t I show more interest, and ask, and listen, (about my history)?” But impossible as it is to put wise, history searching heads on young shoulders, we have to be content with what we have got.
In the matter of the culture of the dying it might be more possible to involve the young, thus inuring them to such events as they did in Jacob’s death, instead of insulating them from such events, which is what we have been inclined to do.
We have already discussed how Jacob’s family history, or toldoth, was being preserved. These boys would have access to that, when they were ready, and so the history did not die with the forebear. To record the history, is a means of the old connecting with the young, even after death has brought about the separation.
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The lame old man, Jacob, twin brother of the hairy, older Esau, was repeating a pattern that his father Isaac had set. Both these blessing givers were blind and feeble, though Isaac lived on much longer. But the later blessing giver could see with great clarity down into the future. The acceptance by Joseph of this act, for what he no doubt thought was God’s will, illustrates the fact that Joseph was willing to grant any soothing act of kindness to his father, unlike he had heard of Jacob, with his father.
Consider:
* Was the inspiration for the younger older blessing higher than Jacob’s (that is God’s) inspiration?
* Or was it an elderly person’s mistake?
* Did Jacob wish to carry on the family eccentricity?
* To change the traditional method shocked Esau, did it shock Joseph?
* Had Joseph heard of the previous instance?
* What lesson was in it for them?
* For us?
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Comment:
- We can only count our blessings while they are blessings, for they might pass from us, especially if we do not value them.
- Nothing can be sure in our mind until it has come to pass.
- It is challenging to accept God’s predilection, not ours.
- We propose, God disposes.
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With the double blessing it seemed Joseph was receiving an acknowledgment of memorable services to his family. This occasion is mentioned in Hebrews 11. It is this instance that the writer to the Hebrews recalled and recorded, about this man of faith - Jacob, “By Faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff”. The longer blessing speech is not mentioned, only this occasion, and it was a little before the death blessing incident. It should be noted that Joseph therefore received a triple blessing - one son doubly blessed more than the other. It is a moving acknowledgment also
- That no man can of himself shape his own life,
- That he can ask of God, but it is God who decides.
Jacob sought from God this blessing for Joseph’s sons - and God did grant this blessing. He formally received these two Egyptian boys into the family of Israel to share with them, the family blessings. Gentileness (that is, Egyptianness) was not a disqualification, as the Ephesians were later told when the mystery (of gentile acceptability) was explained. Also “Jesus went no more openly among the Jews but went thence ... to a city called Ephraim”, John 11: 54 - to be with his disciples, when the Jews (led by the high priest, Caiaphas) rejected him.
These two, blessed boys, passed their lives as Egyptian nobility, and they probably had no interest, at this time, in the fiction (to them), that they were the descendants of Jacob and Leah, inheriting the land of promise. Rachel was their grandmother, but somehow their inheritance was through Leah. They might have thought that was “crazy”, but then again, they might have thought it rather “cool”. Or maybe they never thought about it much at all, for at 20 something, who thought about all this - how long would it be before they could return to the gazelle hunting, or, ostrich hunting, from which Joseph had diverted them, might be more on their minds.
It would be more correctly their children, or even their grandchildren, (at least some of them), who would change from the Egyptian culture, to the Israelitish way of things, moving eventually to Canaan. This cultural change right now was impossible, when the family of Joseph lived so close to the King’s court. However, the blessing was for numerous offspring which would be a great nation, and that God would be with them and eventually take them back into the Land of Canaan. Jacob set Ephraim before Manasseh, for he would become more powerful,
Jacob also told Joseph, he would also return to Canaan, but there are no details about how or when this would happen. As Joseph died in Egypt, it is a prophesy about his bones returning to Canaan. Those bones, preserved as they were, may have been dead in their bound state and uprightly stored coffin, but they became a beacon to light the path back to Canaan, in the dark days that were yet unknown, and lay ahead for these children of Israel.
Now it was done,
a double blessing, (triple really),
and Joseph is assured of the birthright.
Honour indeed, but due honour.
Jacob must have puzzled over Joseph’s end, but would no doubt know now, that anything was possible with God in charge.
3. THE RECORD OF JACOB’S DYING REQUEST AND BLESSINGS
The use of writing appears to have been known before any of the books of Moses were written. We are highly entertained and edified by these stories of the venerable patriarchs, but they left us no recorded history. Perhaps Moses had been told the details of this story, or had the written records of what the patriarchs said, and what God had said to them, (as Job longed for, Job 19:23-24), for certainly this story, is mostly the words of Jacob. It is part of his toldoth, and if it was written down it would also have been wrapped in precious silk, and carried out of Egypt a long time in the future. This section of Genesis is called “The Book of the Prophecies of Jacob”. It was the latter days Jacob wished to speak about, relating latter days to the times when Israel went into the Promised Land. His blessings became the prophesied and true history of his children.
4. THE TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCH TEXTS
Comment:
In AD 1611, a Church Council decided which books would be included in our Authorised Version of the Bible. They included the section of books known as The Apocrypha, as well as what we have today. The Archbishop of Canterbury forbade the selling of Bibles without the Apocrypha on penalty of one year’s imprisonment, but by 1626 that had lapsed, and from 1644 that section was not to be included in the Church of England services, and was removed from the Protestant Bible. The section is still in The Jerusalem Bible and other Catholic Bibles to this day. There has been a considerable amount of discussion over the centuries, from the second century when men first began to make collections of what they took to be inspired books, and from then different collections were made. It has been a long and tortuous and argumentative path, and the cause of considerable angst, about what did actually maintain the authority of God’s Scripture alone. Suffice it to say that we trust that we have as our text that which adequately tells us what God requires for our salvation and His purpose for His saints. “The Canon of Scripture”, by F. F. Bruce, is a valuable book in the study of how we got our Bible, if we wish to make a detailed examination of the subject.
Now, in a recently published book, compiling the discarded “Lost Books of the Bible”, there is a section “The Forgotten books of Eden”, written in the second century BC. Amongst them is a chapter “The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs”, pages 224-266, books written by a rare and gifted Pharisee, recording the history of each of Jacob’s sons, as if each of the patriarchs was telling it himself. The stories are unvarnished and include brutally frank admissions of deeds of guilt, as well as goodness. This valuable research also indicates how fervent the Messianic hope and expectation was in the century before our Lord Jesus Christ. It is thought that many of the moral and ethical and spiritual questions that are discussed in the New Testament, have been influenced by the records in these books, and that the Sermon on the Mount, particularly, has borrowed phrases from these testaments, that is, saying, that the Lord Jesus Christ, or the gospel authors, may have known them well, and that God has allowed them to use the writings, in His inspired word. The influence upon Paul’s writing is so intense, that it is thought that he may have carried with him a copy of The Testaments. It would not be beyond Paul to quote The Testaments as he quotes from secular poetry in his writings.
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5. MOSES’ RECORD
It must be said, that Moses entered the prophecies of Jacob into the annals of Israelitish history, before those days were accomplished in the Promised Land, and before the prophecies were fulfilled, for he died before the entering in.
No matter how many handed down tales, or records were used in the Genesis composition, this is an amazing and excellent case, for the inspired record.
It also needs to be said, that these events happened as were foretold by Jacob, long after the deaths of the sons, to whom these prophesies were made.
This then also makes the compiler an inspired intermediary, between the prophetic hour, and the fulfilment, thus adding weight to that inspired work.
6. THE EXPECTATIONS OF JACOB’S SONS
Each son, however, would have been concerned about what was being prophesied about his children, and what was to happen to his descendants. We sometimes find it hard to understand prophesies about the future, but we are under as much obligation as these sons were, to listen and understand.
Jacob still held his life in his own hands and judged that it was time to hold his dying ceremony. He knew the limits of his strength. His dying words were for them all. His years of peaceful decay were at an end - he confronted his mortality.
He makes his final request - “Gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last (or latter) days” (Genesis 49:1-2). In the manner of emphasis of the Hebrew poets “Gather - hear ye sons of Jacob - hearken unto Israel your father”, that is, “To listen”, emphasising the listening, and as they had been commanded, they assembled. The servants’ cry was obeyed in haste, and they gathered in the curtained tent. The brothers greeted Joseph as a royal personage, except Benjamin who would have probably embraced him as a dearly loved brother. Joseph was now 56, and Benjamin was 39. Blended families in our day have no less trouble in making these relationships work. The ten here would be anxious. It wouldn’t be the first time Jacob had told them what he thought of them, but it would be the last. He did indeed make a very long speech, absolutely remarkable, for a man as old as he was. His fantastic memory helped God enrich this blessing scene.
And this is probably how it was.
They knew his sharp tongue, a tyrant he was over their past sins, he usually spared them nothing. They set their teeth to endure what would probably come, and felt awkward.
They were to sit on the chests around the room, and so they eyed the wall hangings in the antechamber, to calm themselves, as they filed into this crowded tent of death.
Tamar, with her twin sons, stood in the antechamber, her striking black cloaked figure outlined against the tapestries, with the flickering light from the lamps. She was anxious for her sons. She knew that Reuben, Simeon and Levi had all blotted their record, and she considered they had more blot than Judah had.
Tamar knew Jacob was partial to her and her sons. Judah’s sin with her would probably be mentioned, she expected that indignity, but the sin did bring her into the line of succession. These twins were as much part of Judah, as Judah’s two sons, who had died (her former husbands).
Tamar was anxious to find out, whether all this waiting and longing and wanting had been worth while. Her shadowed figure waited in the glow.
Perhaps the glow of blessings being given here now, would bring Tamar some splashes of joy as well.
Jacob’s tent has been described in the text about his life in Hebron, before Joseph went down into Egypt. It would not be much different here in Goshen, except that it would be more permanent, with perhaps some little mud brick reinforcement. Perhaps it was even the same bed, or bedhead, that Jacob had considered precious enough to bring with him, even though Pharaoh asked him to leave his things behind.
Jacob lay propped up on his cushions under a sheepskin rug. The waxed pallor of the skin on his cheeks, had a little glow from the charcoal burner in the basin nearby. The white band he often wore round his forehead, when he sacrificed or believed himself in the presence of God, was in place. He believed that God would help him with this immense task. His white locks ran down to his white patriarchal beard. He remained perfectly still, but sought his sons with his eyes, without turning his head, as they came near to his bedside. They were fearful for what they might hear. The sons bowed down their foreheads to the ground, and then settled on the chests around the tented room, and became silent. When the breath of clear, exalted prophecy from Jacob began, (for he was a prophet, as his fathers were before him), they opened their ears and fixed their eyes on his ashen lips.
Although there is none, we could compose an excellent introduction to the blessing speech, with the help of Thomas Mann, noting the following points:
1. Welcome to the bed of death - sons, hosts, sand, stars.
2. There is wisdom, truth, judgement, forthtelling at the last hour for you all.
3. Praise for readiness.
4. Commendation to my ring of sons.
5. For everyone a blessing.
6. Blessed altogether, and one by one.
7. Blessed be my strength, my death, my eternity.
CONCLUSION:
And so the culmination and high pinnacle of Jacob’s life has now been reached. We hold ourselves erect and still, in the presence of this great patriarch, for whom we feel enormous reverence. He has now reached the perfectness described in his name, and we want this, his last family function, to be well, and a great blessing. We know that God will be with him as the great prophecies for the children of Israel, fall from his lips. We praise God for His perseverance with Jacob and petition that He may persevere also with us.
CHAPTER 7
THE BLESSINGS OF JACOB ON HIS SONS
“Hear ye sons of Jacob: and hearken unto Israel your father”, Genesis 49:2.
FOCUS:
God must have guided Jacob’s decisions on how he would manage his last words to his sons, for he wants to function well. The dysfunction that has threatened God’s family, and the discipline that Jacob has given them, is now spelled out and recorded for us all. It is a long presentation in one chapter by Jacob to his sons, on his death bed, in Genesis 49.
1. THE BLESSING CONTEXT
The blessings do not come to the sons in birth order, perhaps it was as they were gathered round the bed. The later blessings on the tribes, (with the notable exception of Simeon), by Moses, is pronounced in a different order again, Deuteronomy 33, and certainly a different order in Revelation 7:5-8.
Jacob’s blessings begin with his four eldest sons, by Leah. It may be that there was some merit in the order of the first four, by seniority. The first blessing is the one most grievous, the one that pains Jacob most grievously. It is set against his personal and emotional self. The other sinful sons did not so offend. Perhaps to begin with the eldest son, Reuben, not only deals with the birthright problem and removes that, but deals with his own personal problem first as well. The grief that the firstborn of his sons is not so well blessed, and others more blessed, and differently blessed, must have been on his mind, and in his thoughts for years and years. The least spoken of receive their blessing last. Perhaps God helped Jacob in the order he spoke, as well as the blessings themselves.
We are drawn into a settling of the family dysfunction, in an intimate setting. The tapestry of life with its unrelated and perplexing events, was nevertheless God’s purpose for this family, and that purpose endured for so long, misunderstood by them all. Here it is, at last, drawn together, and they are enlightened. There is the whip lash for some, and with that a shaft of pain, but the joy splash for others.
2. MOSES’ RECORD OF THE BLESSINGS
For the privilege of this record we are indebted to Moses, whose faithful and inspired recording has come down to us over the millennia. The very fact that the predictions of Jacob about his sons and their families, did fall true, is a testament to that recording, as faithful and inspired.
(We will ignore those who claim that the recording was not made by Moses, but at a much later date, when it was easy to record the history, rather than the prophecy).
And Jacob’s recorded speech begins with Reuben.
The paraphrasing of the blessings is assisted by Thomas Mann, in “Joseph and His Brothers, Joseph the Provider”, pages 427 to 439, and by the various commentators like Speaker’s, Ellicott, Matthew Henry, Companion Bible, NIV Study Bible.
3. REUBEN IS NAMED FIRST IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Reuben knelt at the bed, and bowed himself over it. He wondered how it would be said of him, though he knew what would be said.
Thus begins verse 2-27, the longest poem in Genesis, a spirit influenced prophetic hymn - see the NIV Study Bible setting for form and structure.
“Eldest son,
beginning of strength,
product of my manhood,
right of the firstborn,
pre eminent, nearest of all
to the sacrificing and kingship.
Dignity and power could have been yours”.
Then Jacob would remember, how Reuben was begotten, alas, by a trick, begotten with the wrong one on a night of veiled secrets where there was no love or affection, only lust. We are drawn right back to the horrible disappointment of the conception night, begotten in delusion. Ah, for the sadness of that wedding night so long ago. But, he remembers, not only the delusion, but his shame over Reuben’s lust for Bilhah, as well.
“Alas, you shalt not be the head,
you shalt have no pre eminence,
for you went up,
and defiled your father’s bed,
or bared and mocked your father’s shame,
and committed lust, and sin,
with one of your mother’s servants,
my concubine.
Unstable as water you are”.
Indeed Reuben’s descendants were characterised by indecision. There will be no right, no priesthood and no kingly leadership. The curse is within the blessing.
“Beyond the salt sea you will live,
near the land of Moab
- polluted, polluter, desecrator.
You were my strength and manhood.
Farewell Reuben”.
The Law of Moses later forbad the disinheriting of the firstborn, Deuteronomy 31:15-17, for reasons of favouritism. We are not sure when this disinheritance have been considered unlawful, but it does not apply in this case.
The disinheriting of Reuben, brings to Jacob’s mind his own heritage of the birthright from Esau. Jacob’s purchase of it was unjustified, but his earnest desire for it, was a sign of wisdom, that Esau did not possess. Reuben’s forfeit of the dignity and power of the birthright came about through his most abominable lust. He had not enjoyed the privilege of the birthright, or been assured of the right to possess it, and easily gave it up, unthinkingly. But Esau seemed more certain of its possession, and willingly gave it away. Manasseh did not forfeit the birthright, for it was given to Ephraim.
It is not clear whether it is the instability, or the impetuosity of water, that is meant here. Water in small quantities is unstable, like men who walk after their own lusts, and follow the impulses of their own mind, “weak as water”. Water that has been walled up, and let go, is like unrestrained licentiousness, a great force for corruption. It matters not really, for Reuben. His wickedness was a weakness that had a great power to corrupt. He never saw in the moment of pleasure, the lasting disgrace for his father. The privileges and honour annexed to the birthright were not for him. We may consider that the injuries done to Jacob over his lifetime, by these sons of his, some redeemable, some justified, are not as great as this one.
Some of the men of Reuben did find favour with God, 1 Chronicles 5, but none of them ever attained glory, and it seems that there was ever a reminder about the forfeited birthright, verse 1. It does not mean that Jacob loved him less, it means that unlike Eli, he had to punish his child, Reuben, and this was the consequence for that moment of pleasure. Perhaps Reuben accepted his punishment, glad that it was not more severe, perhaps he magnified the mercy, which punished him less than his iniquities deserved. He may have been banished, like Ishmael was, for the accident of his birth, but Jacob saved him from that. He tried to do a kindness to Joseph, when the others acted otherwise, but that was not accepted as atonement for the sin. Some of us may even think, that we also can compensate for vices by presenting virtues. Not so.
We cannot consider that Jacob, (that is, God, no less), in these blessings, is unjust in the treatment of Reuben. We need to consider and understand the disgrace that fleshly impurities can bring upon the members of our Lord’s body, for, contrary to some people’s protestations, what we do, how we act, does have an implication for others.
4. SIMEON AND LEVI ARE NAMED SECOND AND THIRD IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
These two bent and bowed before the death bed together.
“Your anger was fierce,
and your wrath was cruel,
I will divide you in Jacob
and scatter you in Israel.
I love it not that you have been
instruments of cruelty.
With anger you have slain men,
and digged down their walls.
Harsh and inhuman you were
with the Shechemites,
and with Joseph”.
(both incidents condemned them in Jacob’s eyes)
“We are not united with such as you,
neither my soul, nor my honour
wish to be assembled with you.
You will be accursed too,
within the blessing.
You will be divided and scattered,
so that you cannot commit evil again.
Farewell Simeon and Levi”.
These next two sons of Jacob were guilty of a greater sin than Reuben’s sin against his father. These sins did not wound Jacob in a vulnerable part of his emotion, like Reuben’s did, but they gave him no less pain, and exposed him to greater mischief from his neighbours. His merciful Father protected him, and the family was preserved from the enraged Canaanites. God did scatter them, but not amongst the nations around them, who knew not God. These men may have thought that this was indeed a blessing, for they expected worse. God did not overlook the sins in that preservation, but He did preserve them for the greater purpose. Once again Jacob , brought the consequences of sin to the fore in the minds of his sinful sons - these brethren in wickedness - but there is no evidence that he did not love them - it does not mean that paternal love for them ceased.
They listened not to the voice of God that had been the family guide - yet they were circumcised in the flesh, to remind them of the family commitment, and the mandate to mission to those peoples around about. Forsaking all that, they worked together to promote the greater evil.
Adam was no less guilty than Eve of being persuaded by her to eat of the tree, than she was in her eating. Indeed the seducer is encouraged in sin by the seduced, and so they must take equal share in the sin. Evil men make one another worse, and so their instruments of cruelty and iniquity, multiply the effect that would have been if they had acted singly. In not forgiving the offence for which they sought retribution, they themselves cannot have their trespasses forgiven. Whether we believe that the Shechem prince could repair the damage that he had done, or not, on face value, his offer to try to put things right, was rejected, and trickery prevailed.
The fifth petition about forgiveness, in the Lord’s Prayer did not have as much integrity in this household of Jacob, as it did in our Lord’s time.
Jacob recognised that his glory or “honour” was at stake, if he did not punish his children, and this is the last consequence that he lays upon them for their sin. It was so, for God, when He at last punished in full, the Jewish nation for their sins against Him. His “honour” had to be assuaged among the surrounding nations. Forgiveness was no longer possible, and He rejected them as His living witness, as His prophets, like Ezekiel, realised. In the discipline of children this example of punishment and consequences is remarkable. We may view it as a useful tool, if we so wish.
We complain that Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, and associated us with that guilt, but we do not complain of his guilt in the sin of his son Cain, for Adam disassociated himself from that sin. Jacob is no less venerable for his discipline of his offending children, unlike Eli, who was condemned for allowing the sins of his sons to continue in their wickedness. On the contrary Jacob deserves praise for his indignation and discipline, tempered with his paternal love. He did not cease from proclaiming his detestation of the incident, and left the world a dying testimony of how he felt until the end of his days. Their deceit against the men of Shechem, burned in Jacob’s mind for all these years, and the fact that they killed so many innocent men, women and little ones, shows us all, the danger of allowing ourselves to act under the impulse of rage, for at that time we are really not our own master, we are out of control. Whatever control is left to one in anger, only serves to make more mischief.
This is not the anger of Moses for YHWH, over the idolatrous rejection of the Israelites, nor of Jesus Christ at the moneychangers’ table, or Phinehas piercing the hearts of Zimri and Cosbi, but more like Moses’ anger at the waters of Meribah, for which “sin” he was debarred from the pleasant land. If Moses’ anger sin merited this, how much more, Simeon’s and Levi’s anger sin. They viewed it as righteous anger, which it was not, it was rather a punishment they meted out, vengeance, which alone belongs to God. God did not accept it as righteous anger, as He did not accept Moses’ Meribah outburst, and after all He knows. It is better to empty our heart of vengeance, for it takes up space better suited to higher things belonging to righteousness.
Simeon and Levi might have been grateful that Jacob did not curse their persons, only their execrable anger, so that they could continue with their remorse, imploring mercy from their Heavenly Father, to the bitter end. This ensured that they could have no pride in their deed, and that they needed to consider their ill tempers, for the rest of their days.
The insufficient land that was given to the tribe of Simeon, and the troubles that pursued them, with the migrations away from family support, to gain residence and subsistence in far off settlements, would have been a reminder to all the generations of the danger of bad temper, see 1 Chronicles 4. But yet again, maybe they never saw the lesson, let alone heeded it.
Simeon’s record is erased in Scripture - no brave act or deed, not one judge, prophet or leader is recorded, only inglorious silence passed over these people. The fruits of victory (at Shechem) had turned to ashes in their mouths. God was not there at Shechem.
(See end chapter note for Digression)
Simeon’s descendants were later absorbed into the territory of Judah (Joshua 19:1) and Levi’s descendants were dispersed through the land living in 48 towns and in the surrounding pastures (Joshua 14:4). However, later Levi’s curse turned to blessing, because of their loyalty to Moses (Exodus 32:26-28). It was from this tribe that God had already chosen Moses and Aaron to lead the people out of Egypt. So God, through Moses, appointed the Levites to attend to His worship. This then turned to the highest praise, as the Levites cared for the spiritual needs of the people. Of course, much later again, the spiritual leaders failed to turn the people from their idolatrous ways, and the tribe of Levi was once more cursed. The blessings that they enjoyed as priests, may have made them feel their blessing was a happy one, but they were dependent on the justice and generosity and stability of the other tribes, and when they were in revolt against God, and punished for their wickedness, the security of the Levites tottered in uncertainty.
The Levites were then exposed to great danger
- Of losing what had been bequeathed to them, and what they had contracted with God to provide.
- Of being drawn along into the courses of defection, which would have cost the Levites their living, if they wished to expose the other tribes.
- Or cost the Levites their living, if they entered into the other tribal wickednesses.
The other tribes, in their wickedness, failed in the very worship ceremonies that kept the Levites in contract with God.
“Condemned if they did, condemned if they didn’t” - there were great dilemmas for the Levites, always aggravated by the times of uncertainty. But God did look after them in the later times of the dispersion, when they were stripped of their privileges, and they found a welcome in the territory of Benjamin and Judah, however the Simeonites at this time went with the rest of Israel, and not the tribe of Judah.
Levi, at this time, would have seen the uncertainties for his race, but he would not have seen the glories that they would bestow on the Israelites, in keeping them close to their Creator, in their worshipful ceremonies. This whole tribe was devoted to the services of religion by the time the Israelites came out of Egypt. God made the dispersion of the Levites a blessing, so that they could say, “The Lord is the portion of our inheritance and of our cup, he maintaineth our lot”, Psalm 16:5.
It remains to speak of the honesty of the recording of Moses who exposed the sin and punishment and consequence of the fathers of his tribe, to the reproach of the rest of the world. This is evidence indeed that Moses was inspired by God in his recording of this great family history. There would be no little excuse in this particular story, (so close a relation), for a blur, or a concealment, but Moses records no remorse on the part of these two relations of his, particularly Levi, who he leaves now, with a severe censure by Jacob. Moses’ own blessings on the tribes, in Deuteronomy 33 makes no mention of Simeon - the only brother not mentioned. However he appears in the Revelation 7 record of the tribes of the children of Israel. For Moses however, the children of that father, seem to have been too like their father. However, his benediction on Levi, is quite different. “They have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant ... they shall teach Israel the law …”, Deuteronomy 33:8, 9, and he leaves them with the Urim and the Thummim. So they might feel, “it is better to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord”, and to seek atonement for the sins of their brothers.
5. JUDAH IS NAMED FOURTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Judah had always been called a lion, and now Jacob’s dying words played on the lion like epithet, and showed him up explicitly, as lion like. He, it was, who received the sceptre and became the lawgiver and to him the people will gather together.
“Donkey tethered to a vine,
Colt tethered to the choice branches,
Washed garments in wine,
Robes in the blood of grapes
Teeth whiter than milk”,
verses 11 and 12.
“You are the one, Judah!”
This means that after all, Judah is to have the main blessing, which is, excluding the Joseph blessings and birthright. The great decision has troubled Jacob for so long, since the Shechem and Bilhah incident. The blessing and birthright decision had been easier since the “resurrection” of Joseph, who was always Jacob’s choice, but Jacob still wanted, or was compelled by God, to make a preferential blessing on Judah. Some commentators assume that Judah has the birthright in this blessing also, see the Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott commentaries.
Judah is certainly blessed with leadership and dominion over his brothers, but not over Joseph. His descendants, however, historically, are strengthened over Joseph’s descendants, the Ephraim and Manasseh tribes. However, towards the end of the history of Israel, the “sticks” that Ezekiel wants to join and strengthen in a renewal of the covenant, are Ephraim and Judah, but then it is Judah who prevails to the time of the New Testament.
Tamar, Tamar, where is Tamar,
Oh Tamar we hope you heard, you were hiding in the tent folds, we hope you were still listening. We can see her. She screws up her face, and clenches her whole body, and moves her fists in unison, and heaves out great sighs, and thanks to God who made it all possible for her.
“Yes. Yes. My twins will be blessed at last - indeed, I am fulfilled”.
Aha, a blinding flash of joy for Tamar.
Leah almost prophesied this when she gave this son of hers this name, Judah. It signifies “praise”, and in that name she expressed praise to God for His mercies. So Jacob makes use of the name meaning, in his blessing, in the opening salutation.
Judah’s fornication had been a great source of aggravation to Jacob, but unlike Reuben, there is mercy. It must have been Judah’s attitude to his sin, which had diluted Jacob’s aggravation, when he exposed his shameful impure incest, to the scrutiny of others. If his partner had not been a relation, but a socially acceptable prostitute, he would have exposed the preserving bloodline. Our equivocation can project Judah into an act of family protection, which is an unnecessary path to take. Judah himself did not equivocate over his sin, and perhaps that is why Jacob is generous about it.
Judah was the tortured one, ever lusting, and expecting that he is unworthy in his own mind. Lust, we know, lasts until the last breath, but Judah conscious of the sin in him, struggled against it. He never went into Tamar again after the incest incident, and perhaps he willed himself to become chaste. “Chaste” means “free from sexual activity”, whereas in the 11th century celibacy was the Catholic ruling for priests. “Celibacy” means “free from the marriage tie”, (so that inheritance laws would not affect the property of the church).
Here, in this great blessing, Jacob recognises the sinner but not the sin - he knows the sin had bowed Judah, and he knows the struggle that held Judah aloft from the sin. Jacob had himself sinned in the beginning, but he knows with struggle that a life can end noble, and full of self sacrifice - a blessed life.
So we conclude
- That this is no excuse for incest, rather a reason that God “allowed” it, or “turned His face away”,
- That is, that God had to accommodate himself to the sin of Judah, or “covered it”, so that His purpose could continue,
- And that the Lord will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.
- We will not accuse God of partiality (for He does not lay on any man more than is just, nor take away opportunity for reform),
- But God will give to some men more than they can expect.
The oil of promise poured over Judah’s head and onto his shoulders. Jacob expended himself into a roar in blessing Judah, and perhaps Jacob himself wondered if he had the energy left for all of those sons still left.
This was no hasty mention as the blessings of some of the sons were. We are left to wonder, why the lion metaphor, and the blood lust that the lion has for his prey, is praised here, and yet cruelty in Simeon and Levi is admonished. Perhaps there are missing circumstances, or unknown aspects to consider. Perhaps Judah’s attitude, or intensity for God’s purpose and wanting to be part of God’s will, with a knowledge and confidence in the future, are all bound up in this bundle of metaphors, rather than actual blood lust. So that it was not blood lust that made him a mighty warrior.
For
“Judah will be/was a whelp from lions,
a king of beasts.
He ravened, he purred, he mewed,
he roared, he withdrew and crouched
and stretched.
No one will dare to rouse him!
The symbol of sovereignty, strength and courage”.
Comment:
We are reminded of the prediction of those who follow the Muslim faith that, in Paradise, the Jew will have his right hand stuck to the left side of his neck - a complete indignity, whereas verse 8, says “thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies”, The tribe of Judah and that of Ephraim (reckoned as the elder son of Joseph) became by far the most important, and conspired in the future history of the nation and contributed above all other tribes to render the seed of Jacob the wonderful nation they became. It is a great pity that these descendants did not keep covenant with God, who found it necessary to retreat from bestowing His blessing on them.
It is interesting to note, in 1 Chronicles 4:17-18, that a descendant of Judah, Mered, married a daughter of Pharaoh, thus linking the royal line of Egypt with Israel.
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“Seed” (Genesis 3:15),
“Shiloh” (49:10),
“Sceptre” (49:10),
“Shepherd” (49:24),
“Stone” (49:24) and
“Star” (Numbers 24:17).
All six, are Pentateuch titles of the coming Messiah, Companion Bible.
Four of them are contained in Judah’s blessing and indicate to him, and to us, the great import that Jacob, and God places on him.
Tamar would have thrilled to hear the reference to Shiloh - that from Judah would come the great Shiloh king with the sceptre (fulfilled first in David, and then in our Lord Jesus Christ). She heard, with great pride, that Judah would not have favour pass from him, that he would not die, till he was old with greatness and with immense promise. From him should come one, on whom all people will depend, and he will bring peace. And so it was that One did come with a donkey/colt into the city, lovely above all mankind, and he washed his garments in wine. So it is with gratitude that she realises that she herself is the forebear of the promised Saviour, Matthew 1:13, and in Ruth 4:12 she is acknowledged with Pharez in the house of the Godly. She is remembered, for she treasured God’s mercy and the Hope that she had in Him. She is comforted in the rejection that Judah has had for her, over the years, in her Leah like isolation, which in atoning for his sin, atones for her as well.
“Judah you are the one,
the leader of us all,
your hand will kill your enemies,
we will praise you,
for you are our anointed one”.
Judah’s reputation among the Canaanites, was one of admiration for their intrepid bravery, and this renown endured through succeeding generations, from the men like the brave Caleb, who withstood the giants in the land, to the exploits of King David, who raised the Kingdom of Israel to great power and glory, that made his name in distant lands. Valiant exploits, as well as acts of great charity, are remembered of him to this day. Although their bravery and confidence, was like that of a lion, it was God who saw fit to bless their endeavours, on behalf of the Children of Israel. Not only so, but through Judah, through David, the Lord Jesus Christ will make the full accomplishment in the future, as he performs marvellous things in God’s Name, Isaiah 31:4, 5. Judah was to have the distinguishing glory and honour of giving a saviour to the world, and of spreading the light of the Gentiles through that saviour. Indeed the garments of those who also did so, were washed in the wine of God’s provision. So, we can make here a connection with those who were related to the Son of Judah, by baptism, in the blood of his sacrifice, and who regularly partake of the wine in remembrance of that.
God made the covenant of royalty with David (a covenant, or contract of integrity, a ceremony performed with salt, 2 Chronicles 13:5), and gave David a light to shine in Jerusalem. In the blessing for Judah from Moses, Deuteronomy 33:7, he prays to the Lord, “and be thou an help to him from his enemies”, and so it was. It is this throne that the YHWH gave to the Lord Jesus Christ, “that he may rule over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end”.
Salvation to all the men of the world was on offer, and it was to this end that this tribe and their descendants were preserved. Many times that special care had to come from God, for there was no other way out.
The reference to “red eyes” may be a reproach for how some will view, and disuse, their abundance, or perhaps it is a warning to use their wealth for the good of all men. Their teeth will be white with the milk of blessing that will flow to them. There will be blessings far greater than the wine and milk of Canaan for us all, if we will be His children.
We leave it to God to judge what portion of good things is fit for us, always remembering that wealth is a blessing often abused, and used for ill purpose. As Judah’s land was so fruitful, and other portions were not, there may be room for envy, or excuse, when failure to thrive is considered. God does allow for lesser talents or blessings, but not for the lesser strivings to improve the talent.
Judah must have felt that his repentance had born fruit, and Tamar must have felt great joy that the angst of her childlessness, and that her remedy for that childlessness, had found forgiveness at last. Her reason for her sin of prostitution was accepted, rather than that it was an accepted excuse. There is no doubt that this blessing was the distinguished, and most exceptional blessing. The mingling and melting of Judah’s blessing and the promise of Shiloh surprised them all.
Some things we need to remember
1. That it was not the birthright - Joseph had the double blessing, but they had dominion and leadership over the other tribes.
2. And that this tribe led the spearhead to crucify our Lord, when he came, and they were, at that time, like any sinners, “anti Christ”,
3. And that these were the people, (Judaizers), who made the life of the new Christ ones (Christians) so difficult,
4. And that so much of The New Testament is written against their teachings and their sayings, their attitudes, and way of life.
But not for now - there is great joy, all verticals. Judah himself must have felt “blessed out” and stepped back.
6. ZEBULUN IS NAMED FIFTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Zebulun came forward and put his head under the hand of Jacob. “Dwelling and habitation” was his name meaning, and that is what Jacob spoke of. He did
“dwell in the haven of the sea,
... for a haven of ships”.
Their trading ability led them to reach the sea, though they were land locked by Asher and Manasseh. In their land, they were only 15 kilometres from the sea, but their sea faring fared well, and the treasure of the ships, and the abundance of the sea led them in their business like ventures, and they did live from these blessings. Their descendants must have been disappointed when their whole northerly sea faring enterprise was overtaken by the Phoenicians.
These blessings especially for Zebulun and Asher, indicate, (roughly), where about their lots would be.
Consider:
* If the tribes of Israel received their lot by lot, how then could Jacob prophesy concerning the allotted lots?
* How would Moses know, when he committed this to writing, that it would be verified?
* If it is by faith, then why use lots to distribute the tribes?
* Could they have used another way?
* Who decided to use lots, their leaders, or God?
* If it was God’s supervising hand, would all the tribes have been satisfied with their lot?
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7. ISSACHAR IS NAMED SIXTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Issachar came next. He is the ninth son of Jacob, and the fifth of Leah. Not a word is said in Scripture about the individual, Issachar, after the mention of his birth.
Yes, he’d always been a beast of burden and was happy, lying in rest between the saddle bags, for work that was good and pleasant.
“A strong ass
crouching down between two burdens...
He bowed his shoulders to bear”.
He was happy to serve. He was strong and lent his bones as a beast of burden should. He preferred to pay tribute to the Canaanites than engage in a struggle to expel them.
He “suffered” blows in patience, but his love of peace did not extend the cause of our Lord, and their spiritual welfare “suffered” as well. Our Lord Jesus Christ asks us to “suffer” for his sake, turn the other cheek, but there is a difference between “suffering” for “Christ’s sake”, and sloth, for the sake of laziness. They were “immersed in sloth and folly” and few of them “stood ready, with joy”, to welcome God into their lives.
Perhaps devoting themselves to husbandry, Issachar did not see the temptations that some of the others endured. However there is the record of the Princes of Issachar, who behaved nobly in the war with Jabin, the King of Canaan, and stood with Barak and Deborah, Judges 5:15, to fight the battle for God, and of Israel. Some limited numbers had knowledge of the times, “to know what Israel ought to do” in the troublesome times of David, 1 Chronicles 12:32, and in this passage is a rare and precious compliment to, at least, two hundred of the tribe.
Consider:
* Did others feel it was prudent to do nothing to support David, thus declining to act?
* Or is this an example of their “anything for peace” attitude?
* Because this group was wiser, was more expected of them?
* Leaders, or people who act on ideas for the common good, are often targets of derision, so is it easier and better to be discreet and immobile?
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8. DAN IS NAMED SEVENTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Dan was next.
“He guided the scales,
and judged with wisdom”.
But Dan was subtle of mind and had a tongue, like a wise and biting adder. So they were the serpent tribe - hard to see in the sand, and the Dan tribe was quick as a knave to take advantage,
“to bite the horses’ heels so that
the rider fell backwards at his feet”.
Treachery became his byword, (Judges 18:26-27) and courage his facility (Judges 14:16) - Samson single handedly held back the Philistines. Dan had Judah’s courage, but not his confidence, and had to resort to “snaky” behaviour, serpent like, to achieve his mean. Sudden and unexpected attacks destroyed their enemies.
However, Dan was the tribe that was beguiled by idolatry and is omitted in the Revelation 7 list of tribes (Judges 18:30), although he is in Moses’ list of Deuteronomy 33.
Jacob plainly declares that this fifth son, and eldest son of the bondwoman, Bilhah, shall inherit, unlike Ishmael, who was sent away from Abraham’s house, with no covenantal inheritance.
It is not clear whose deliverance that Jacob prayed for in verse 18, either his own, or Dan’s deliverance. Perhaps it is a brief prayer - a turning to God - a pause in blessings. Jacob’s mind might have turned to Eden and sin in general. It could be a profession of faith by Jacob. It could also be a prediction of the need for salvation for Dan. It is unclear. Whatever it is, salvation never came for Dan, for he never sought it.
Dan stepped back and Gad moved into his position.
9. GAD WAS NAMED EIGHTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Gad heard of his overcoming by troops, but is buoyed to hear that he will eventually be sustained, and be successful.
“A troop shall overcome him,
but he will overcome at the last”.
The Gadites had rich pastures, for they were allotted the land that they really desired, on the side of the River Jordan, but they bordered on some of those nations that were deadly enemies of Israel. They and the Reubenites were vulnerable to the Ammonites, who practised child sacrifices to Moloch, and to the Moabites who taunted them. The NIV Study Bible, notes that a Moabitish Stone, Mesha Stele, 9th century BC has an inscription about the Moabites gaining control again of the Medeba area from the Israelites (2 Kings 1:1). The Ammonites and the Moabites were the descendants of the daughters of Lot, who had an incestuous relationship with their father, Genesis 19:30-38.
Too often they provoked God to sell them into the hands of their cruel enemies, “overcome by troops”. But when they turned from their evil ways, their enemies flew before them, “and they overcame”. These words must have been a great hope for them in their dire straits, when they groaned at the oppressions of their enemies. They could say, “Our father Jacob, inspired by God, promised us deliverance and victory, and nothing promised by the Lord shall fail”.
However He has not promised to turn a blind eye to continual backsliding, and can change His mind, or more precisely, the time of blessing, so that later on the warranted blessing can come. God is in anguish over the people of Gad, Jeremiah 49:1, and laments that the Ammonite king has taken over Gad. His prediction of Gad heirs in control again seems to have occurred much later on. So the “at last” is a long time coming.
That’s all for Gad.
10. ASHER WAS NAMED NINTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Asher moves forward to hear that he will plough the lowland where the waving golden corn in Canaan’s pleasant land will yield bread, oil, ointments and dainties for a king. Their land was so pleasant and fruitful, that he had little need of anything from his neighbours. It is not unfair, in God’s eyes, that some should have more than others, but it is the use to which they are put that God looks on.
“Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,
and he shall yield royal dainties”.
Bodily pleasures did enrich him as he languished beside the sea from Mount Carmel to Lebanon. Zebulun exploited their sea shore more than the Asherites themselves did. What a beautiful coastline they had, 200 kilometres. They didn’t really appreciate it, they were not seafaring people, and by the time of David, the Phoenicians had moved in, making Tyre such a successful maritime enterprise for themselves.
The Asher border came to Zidon and it was from here that the Princess Jezebel came, bringing her strange gods with her, which were the destruction of her husband’s house and many thousands in Israel. Zidon was often a snare to Israel, and Israel never taught her the ways of the Lord. Perhaps it was the very characteristic of languishing beside the sea that kept them from caring very much about proclaiming their heritage. Their mission mandate was never activated, and so they lost it.
11. NAPHTALI WAS NAMED TENTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Naphtali too, will tend the fields - of Gennesarith, for fruits. They bordered the Sea of Kinnereth - the north hill country of the Sea of Galilee, Joshua 19:32-38.
“Naphtali is a hind let loose,
he giveth goodly words”.
They would be like leaping goats - full of “glib words”, or “kind words”. The words are capable of either interpretation. Either way, they had a certain celebrity in action and movement, like a hind, and were able thereby to perform great feats - and be affable and courteous, and of a pleasing character. They had an independent spirit fostered by their remote position.
Another translation offers,
“Naphtali is a flourishing oak, (or turpentine tree), which produceth branches of glory”, meaning prosperous and stately, with spreading branches. That it could be referred to as “prosperous”, may refer to the fact that Naphtali came out of Egypt with fifty three thousand and four hundred people, from Naphtali and his four sons, who went down into Egypt with Jacob, 215 years before. They decreased considerably in the land, but the most luxuriant trees have winters as well as summers, and prosperous families, or nations, are not necessarily in continual expansion. Their visible prosperity was dashed by the Godly storms, when Israel revolted, but the tree will have a chance to flourish again in the time of His coming, when they may repent.
12. JOSEPH WAS NAMED ELEVENTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
Then Joseph’s turn comes. Here the poetic and symbolic words, of Genesis 49:22-26, fall like honey into the imagination, to be interpreted as best our imaginings will allow.
Jacob speaks about Joseph -
“Joseph is a fruitful bough,
even a fruitful bough by a well,
whose branches run over the wall”.
Joseph had the birthright, and the double blessing, and was the best loved of his father, and yet the father, in this blessing context, did not give Joseph the royal blessings - that fell to Judah. Yet Joseph is in the royal mode now, as Jacob views him. It seems that the Spirit of God is working so well in Jacob, that he does not give blessings as he would have preferred, nor entirely on his own predilection, as his heart would have led him.
Here are other important endorsing points
- That Jacob is pronouncing blessings under God’s hand.
- That Moses is giving an inspired account, because neither Jacob nor Moses would have naturally given Joseph a lesser blessing.
- That it is only that God sees into the future, and decides that Joseph’s family will not be capable of ultimately leading the people in His cause, and Moses faithfully records that.
In the previous chapter, Genesis 48:22, there is a blessing out of context with these blessings here. Perhaps this is the endorsement of the birthright for Joseph. It is a blessing “above thy brethren”, and follows the double portion blessing birthright, really a three times blessing for Joseph, when Jacob blesses Joseph’s two sons.
Joseph’s family, according to the blessing, was fruitful in Egypt and later in the Promised Land, Ephraim more so, than any other tribe, but Judah. In fact the blessing of land now extended from Lebanon to Egypt, and was theirs by the promise of God. It was a wonderful proof of affection for his sons, but especially for this favourite son, to whom he owed so much.
Some take these verses to point forward to the tribe’s success - the warlike Ephraimites fulfilled the blessing of womb and breast with fertility among men and animals. Joshua came from the tribe of Ephraim and they were supreme. Later, with dishonesty and deceit and idolatry, they provoked the prophets to decry them. The iniquity of all Israel is signified in Ephraim - the deceiver, Jacob. Hosea, chapters 11, 12 and 13 are sad epithets. Psalm 78 gives the history of it all, how they became a reproach to their neighbours, who heaped on them derision and scorn, and in the following Psalm 80:8, we can find reference to this vine and vineyard that God made, and how He led the vine out of Egypt, and the later destruction thereof - “quicken us, O Lord, and we will call upon your name, turn us again, O Lord God of hosts and we shall be saved”. It is probably the reason why John in the Revelation 7 naming of the tribes, (in no significant order) reverts to the name of a Joseph tribe, omitting Ephraim.
If Jeroboam, a descendant of Joseph, by Ephraim, had walked in the ways of the Lord, his house could have been as successful as the House of David. But it was not to be. God did not forget his promises, but Ephraim did, and provoked Him
May that time soon come, when the remnant, after the final holocaust, will turn back to the covenant.
The longing of Jacob for Rachel, lost,
the appreciation of Joseph, lost and gained,
the snatch and piercing by the archers.
The grief of father and son,
both for one another, unknowing,
at the parting.
The son, strong and straight,
cared for by God
with the everlasting hands,
are all shafts of pain, and flashes of joy in Jacob’s mind.
Comment:
None of us can forget, though we do forgive. In addition we wrestle with consequences for ever after. So often these bad memory signals, like shafts of pain, spoil the flashes of joy. It is impossible to forget the negative occasions. Those memories may cloud and dilute, but it seems that memory is our travel bag, as the wheels of life clickety clack away over the years, and only sometimes we can change the contents. It is like forgiveness. There is no forgetting, just an understanding of the sin, now that forgiveness has been asked for and granted. God remembers our sins, as well, for He recorded in Scripture the sins of those He forgave. The “remember no more”, is a metaphor for “not accounting” the sin anymore. This is how men can be deemed “perfect”, “righteous” and “just”.
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In the blessing here, Joseph receives the land that used to be Amorite land, which Jacob, sometime in his career had taken for himself, with his sword and his bow. Some commentators think this was the Shechem incident of Simeon and Levi. That land would hardly lie idle, while Jacob was away so long, when the history of its wresting was so bloody, but it may still have been considered Jacob’s land. The Hebron cave he owned by deed, and the cave was occupied. Wherever it is, this Amorite land, and whether it was gained by deed, or unsavoury means, Jacob promises its reversion to Joseph, as his heir. The portion of land for Joseph was not a lot, it was a gift of a grateful and loving father. “Art thou greater”, said the woman of Samaria to Jesus, “than our father Jacob who gave us this well, and drank thereof himself, and his children and his cattle?” The Israelites did set a high value on this land, as long as the Commonwealth of Israel existed. However, this particular blessing showed that Joseph was cherished, and so his pleasure was not diminished at the blessings being showered on his sons. The land was Joseph’s burying place, Exodus 13:9, Joshua 24:32.
Of course, Joseph’s vine, Ephraim, would extend (over the wall) and expand their territory but it had hung over the wall, and been snatched to Egypt once before.
In verses 25 and 26 there is a full and wonderful blessing on Joseph’s head. He had been blessed by God, and blessed by the people of Egypt. It’s hard to combine these two blessings, God and Egyptians, they hardly ever combine for praise, except of course in the prophesied end time (Isaiah 19:24) when Israel and Egypt together with Assyria will share equally in the blessing. Ezekiel 29, 30, 31, 32 are all prophecies against Egypt because of her inactivity over the Babylonian destruction of Israel. The strength and depth and width of this blessing (here in Genesis 49) is full, and rich, and in the name of God - who gave, and took, and gave (Joseph) again. High esteem here for Joseph from Jacob - all very understandable.
Consider:
* Has Joseph a tiny seed of discomfort, at Jacob’s mention of all this?
* Is he discontented with his connection with these brothers, especially as Jacob is dying?
* Or do the blessings of the ancient mountains and hills, and the heavens and the deep, seem rocklike and firm?
* Or do the others, the ten Cain heads as they used to be, have a nervousness that this well blessed one will take too much authority over them, and remove their secure tenure in Goshen, at their father’s death?
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The blessings of Jacob for Joseph would have held out to this prosperous Egyptian family, a beckoning light, to help them in what God saw as darkness, and what they themselves may have seen as brilliance. We may be sure that it would have given little pleasure to Joseph to have received an inheritance in Egypt, but maybe he was worried about his children, and would be grateful for this beacon. The everlasting hills or mountains, are not necessarily physical boundaries, but heights of glory with God. The patriarchs sometimes made their sacrifices on the hills, it was where they walked with God, they were asked to look to the hills, and to the Hill of Calvary, we look, and then beyond from “whence cometh our aid”. This verse is telling us that God is ruler of nature, as well as history, even of the deep, and of reproduction, verse 25. He is a successful rival of the gods in pagan myths. The “Mighty One” and the “Almighty” is used of God, in connection with His covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Genesis 17:1. These were the blessings to flow onto Joseph’s head. He became “the shepherd and stone” of the family. He did not return to his father’s house, his father’s house came to him in Egypt. Jacob never sought honour, but he must have been proud of the honour poured upon Joseph’s head, and had a delicious pleasure in it. He was a happy saint who sowed in tears, and reaped in joy. “Crowned” Joseph was, as verse 26 implies. The whole story of Joseph is a lesson in the fact that God does what He wants, and can find a way through all our perversity.
13. BENJAMIN WAS NAMED TWELFTH IN JACOB’S BLESSINGS
“Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf,
in the morning he shall devour the prey,
and in the night he shall divide the spoil”.
They sound like a wolf pack, carrying on the tradition of the Simeon and Levi pack, in the Shechemite incident.
They were landlocked and seemed to be like the ravenous wolf which comes at night, famished, and, out of necessity, ferociously, they look for prey. The spoils will be divided in the morning but evening once more inflames their courage, to encounter every danger, to supply their appetite, and food for their young. It is not probable that Jacob means to compare the Benjamites unfavourably with the others, or censure them in any way, any more than he did any of the others - beasts of the earth and serpents of the dust. Jacob probably had a very indistinct view of how any of these characters would work out, as he pronounced the spirit filled blessings on his sons.
Ehud, Saul and Jonathan are all notables from Benjamin. His stance with Judah, against the other tribes, is commended. Paul (as Saul) of Benjamin, devastated the early church. Indeed it is a fitting description of Paul’s work, before his conversion. Benjamin devours prey, divides up the spoil and indeed their succeeding history in Canaan, show them as so. Judges 19:16-30 has a story repulsive to us all. There’s no condemnation here, either, like Judah’s blessing, as there was for Simeon and Levi, but of course, the Benjamin tribal events were far off in the future. The son himself has no ill recorded of him in this family. It appears that Benjamin is almost dismissed as a ravenous wolf. The blessing seems like an after thought, coming as it did at the end of the exhausted and heartfelt blessing for Joseph. (Jacob’s blessings for Judah and Joseph had taken most of his strength.)
Benjamin never did rise to glorious heights. He was a tailender and there seems so little for him. He was never a deceiver, but he was motherless, of a father consumed with grief. We need to catch our tailenders, even though we may be old or/and tired, to give them equal share and experiences, and not overcompensation either. It is hard for them in some ways when all the family excitement has abated.
George Lawson’s, “The Life of Joseph”, has a large section on the blessings on the sons of Jacob, pages 479 to 549. He was a Scottish theologian of the last century, and well worth a read.
Consider:
* Did Benjamin ever find out the secret in those far off Hebron days, before Jacob did?
We hope that Benjamin in Jacob’s eyes, was immune from the deceitful charges of his other brothers.
* Then what is the meaning of this swift dismissal?
* Did Jacob’s thoughts turn too swiftly to Rachel, when this Rachel/like Benjamin head bowed before him - 39 years old now?
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14. THE POST BLESSING SCENE
Jacob never mentions any retribution upon his 10 sons, for their mistreatment and deceit over Joseph. Perhaps the family, once broken by jealousy, was now healed by love. Perhaps Jacob was still in anguish over his own deceit of Esau, and to bring up their deceit, was to invite dissent. Hebrews 5:13, 14. “Jacob was now acquainted with righteousness”.
Jacob must have felt immense joy and relief that he could pronounce these blessings. In Genesis 49:29, Jacob reminds them of the burial promise, but the reference to being gathered to the fathers, is a pleasant one and not only means “to the cave”, but means that he considers himself to be “at one with the faithful, awaiting the blessing of the coming One”. It is the blessing of Elijah, in his last prayer before the fire fell, which Malachi 4:6 refers to. It is the time when fathers and sons, and inferentially, mothers and daughters, will have their hearts turned, not to one another, as it is in Malachi, but as the Hebrew alternately renders it, back to God, as in 1 Kings 18:37.
Jacob expressly asked them all to bury him, and the explicit details, once more, show the importance of the place to him, the value of owning even such a tiny piece in the Promised Land. Jacob expected no opposition to his desire, for the deal with the sons of Heth was well known. He had lived for fifteen of his years with his grandfather, Abraham, and would lay down with him now, in death, and with his grandmother, Sarah, and as well his mother and father. But he knew he would live with the Saviour forever. There was now no horror of death for Jacob, no “sting” now for him, and the grave would be his “victory”, not the grave’s “victory”. The writer to the Hebrews could have equally said of Jacob, as he said of Joseph, “by faith he gave commandment concerning his bones”, Hebrews 11:22.
Jacob had delivered a remarkably long and excellent speech, at the very time of his death, for as he curled up to die, he must have remembered how God had constantly been with him in life, sending His angel, at crisis points in his life, and so it must be, that He would be with him in his death.
This story of the blessings is not quite finished, for we need to think of how the women in this household reacted.
It was Tamar, whose existence and place in the family was now ratified. Tamar’s wish to force the right of procreation had at last been justified. She had more than likely been barren with her two husbands. Perhaps God lifted that condition at the occasion of her intercourse with Judah. In any case God had planned that the line should be preserved, at that time, she could now justifiably argue.
It is useful to note that this law of lineage was in place at that time. How it came to be in place, in this family, or how it was enforced, or whether it was just usefully used, we cannot tell.
The Code of Hammurabi, introduced by the Babylonian King, 1792-1750 BC was in place at this time, and accounts for the events just described. The Lineage Law ceased with the introduction of the Gentiles, and the Law of Christ. There was no need to preserve the Jewish lineage, and now we have many brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and mothers. Fathers are never multiplied, making the point that our Father is only one, Mark 10:29-30
15. DINAH - NOT MENTIONED
Dinah, as expected, is not mentioned in the blessings. She has become a nobody, worthless, in the eyes of the Code of the day, to be cared for by family, if she had any - and, of course, we know that she did. She was dispossessed by gender, but her sins were no more or less greater than her brothers, and her cup of sorrow continued to be full. Leah’s cup and her cup were never less than full. “A child’s cup might be a thimble full, but an adult’s cup, (of sorrow), is a flagon”, and it is always full. We should be aware that some of our sisters might feel pessimistic like this.
Comment:
She had no inheritance, from her father, until “the daughters” of Manasseh, Zelophehad’s five daughters, forced the change in Numbers 27, in an act of great courage and conviction. They improved the lot for women thereafter, in the matter of the right of inheritance in the Jewish nation - the first suffragettes. Still that was only possible for them, by law, because they had no brothers. With a deed of gift a Jewish father could grant some property to his daughter. He could postpone the gift until after his death, but he had to give a deed to his daughter, as proof. She needed to keep these documents safely until his death. Women’s documents, marriage, deeds of gifts, renunciations of claims defined her relationship with men, husband, father, brother, and were very valuable for her social relationships, and existence. Men needed no such documents, to prove their identity. Theirs were impersonal learning contracts, studies, dialogue documents, land titles, toldoths about their personal family history. A man owned property by inheritance, and, of course, this affected his wife. Caleb, Judges 1:15, was another recorded, generous father, who dealt sympathetically with his daughters, and Job as well, Job 42:14, where the beautiful daughters are named, not the sons.
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And so here, the blessings of Jacob on his sons, affected the wives and children as well. Jacob, no doubt, had them in mind as he blessed. No mention of them, does not mean that they were unconsidered in God’s eyes, or ill considered. It just means that the culture of the time prevented the recording of their names. We are truly blessed from the days of our Lord, when he made all things new, and women and men were valued equally, where the Saviour’s way was better than the cultural way, and they could both make a covenant with God, through Christ (baptism, not circumcision), “for they are all one in Christ”, having been each made “in the image of God”, and from then, worked complementary roles in true worship.
CONCLUSION:
This long chapter of blessings on the sons of Jacob points us to the way in which God takes charge, where He will, and can soon make a little one to become a thousand, or a small one into a strong nation, both of which happened to Israel, in this unlikely Land of Mud and Death
Digression:
“God was not there”, says an Australian Army Chaplain, of the killing fields of Vietnam. Yet there were people who believed in God, killing in those fields. It is difficult to understand what turns men and women into such fiends. We don’t know, but, of course, we know it happens. They obviously turn away from God’s teaching and so say, “He was not there”.
When we know God is everywhere, we mean that God has abandoned man to his own way of anger, lust and power when we say “God was not there”. It is then time to stand up and bring God back into the reckoning. There are plenty of recorded historical times when men and women have done such things, and lost everything they had, including their lives. We praise them for their courage and persistence.
This argument of “God not being there” is the argument seized on by the unbeliever, against the believer. “There is so much sadness and wickedness in the earth, how can you say there is a God?” Yes, we know that unbelievers can lead a moral life, without a Moral Being. Goodness is not bestowed only on the Godly, as evil does not only fall only on the evil, or the anti Christ. So then, much more should we encourage believers into a moral life.
CHAPTER 8
DEATH!
“And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him and kissed him”, Genesis 50:1.
FOCUS:
Joseph’s grief, at his father’s death, is overwhelming, as we might expect, but he takes up the wishes of his father and takes him to Machpelah, to a far off land, where he cannot ever revisit his grave, Genesis 50:1-13.
1. JACOB’S LAST THOUGHTS
Jacob’s last thought, before his death, is for his burial place to which he had directed them many times before. He had persevered with faith, and now peers into the future. He is anxious that Canaan is so far from Egypt, and that perhaps they will not comply. Not for Jacob the pyramid and painted chambers of Egypt that we, in this age, know about, gold capped, full of religious writings, mansions of eternity, 20 million tons of rock at least - but a cell which his family had dug - a cave. But Joseph promised.
2. JACOB’S DEATH
Jacob made an end of commanding his sons and gathered his feet and sank deeper into his bed - and his life stood still. They took a feather to his mute lips, but it lay still on the parched skin. The eyes did not blink to the little blaze placed before it - they remained glazed. So now, Jacob was gathered to his fathers, in peace at last.
“Oh father, give us the birthright, give us the blessings of the mighty God of Israel as well”, we cry.
It was Judah who would have to make the pronouncement to the family, but it was Joseph who closed his father’s eyes as God had promised to Jacob that he would, all those years ago in Canaan, and he laid his forehead on his brow and kissed him and wept.
We do also, as well, for the tortured life that twisted and turned
- In Canaan,
- And Haran,
- And Canaan again,
- And Egypt.
Deceiver deceived,
faithful believer,
faithless often,
and full of fear.
He was then a beautiful glowing bowl,
full of light,
perfect at last.
The potter had finished His work, and Jacob was 147 years old.
The little grains of sand slipped through the neck of his life’s hourglass until the sand mound of faith and trust came perfectly together. The pebble in his shoe, the rock in his path, had caused him to pause and reconsider, and now the record was all that was left.
Consider:
* Did they “write” it all down, and wrap the slate or parchment in silk?
* Who kept the record?
* Did Tamar say, “Please give it to me, I will care for the treasure”, and kept it near, as near to her heart, as she could?
* And did Jacob’s wrestling angel’s whispered breath give him peace at the last,
* And was it that angel who took the account of the life of Jacob back to God for the Book of Life?
* Having died in faithful anticipation of inheriting the land, how long will it be before the promise to him is fulfilled?
* Considering there was no tangible link between the two family branches, did the angel stay with Joseph, or the brothers?
The only thing left to do now, was what happens to the dead, and that was extraordinary,
given the time and place in history.
3. EMBALMING - MOURNING - PROCESSION - FUNERAL
It was all made possible by the dignity and position of Joseph. It was an honorific expenditure of a unique kind. No king had ever been borne to the graveside as Jacob was, no man of years, or dignity, had ever had his husk carried so far (seventeen days journey), but God saw that it was so. The great embalming skills of the Egyptians, (it has been estimated that four hundred million bodies have been embalmed in Egypt) must have been employed to preserve and wrap this body, so that it could be carried so far. Joseph had said nothing about this. Jacob had never envisaged this lengthy embalming and funeral procession. The physicians may have embalmed on this occasion, but not usually so, verse 2.
Comment:
At Wadi Natrun, North West of Cairo, the Egyptians mined natron, a salty powder for preservation. This would have been used in the embalming, and there are now extensive descriptions of how this was done. Myrrh and aloe were also commonly used in embalming, as a strong perfume. It spared the deceased the indignity of fouling the air of the resting place with the stench of decomposing flesh.
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It took seventy days before the journey began, (seventy for Egyptian mourning, of which forty were taken for the embalming). It is remarkable that the mourning for a Pharaoh was seventy two days, and for the Jews, thirty days. Perhaps Joseph’s regard for his father is evident in this final event, or is this reflecting the regard Pharaoh and the Egyptians had for
Joseph. If it is the latter, then this ceremony throws more light on Joseph’s authority and prestige in Egypt. Whatever the reason for the lengthy mourning period, Machpelah eventually envelopes them all, where they await the greater King’s return to raise them from the dead.
4. JACOB - LOOKING BACK
When death came calling, and knocked on the heart of Jacob, it said “Get ready, old man”. It usually knocks, and we know not the hour of the knocking, but Jacob did know. Jacob knew of the great excitement that Joseph felt to see his father again, when he arrived in Egypt, and perhaps the nearness of Joseph had been his reason for staying put in Egypt, after the famine was over.
Consider:
* Perhaps Jacob felt it would appear ungrateful if he left again - to the Egyptians, or to Joseph, who, Jacob knew, could not leave Egypt to live in Canaan?
* or was it the expectation of retribution for the Shechemite incident, or the Amorite incident of Genesis 48:22?
* or perhaps God had told Jacob to stay in Egypt?
But now, Jacob, knowing death was at hand, has prepared Joseph. He had prepared him, with blessings and reassurances, for the coming parting. It is almost as if Jacob’s whole life had been a preparation for this death.
* Is it so for us?
Certainly it is, as one gets older.
* Should we look at death in this way?
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It is important not to wish away the days that God gives us, in a job we may not wish to do, or in employment, or even in approaching our death days. Pre death days must be the treasured of all days, preparing, in the giving of oneself to the will of God.
Joseph watched his father prepare for his death, dwindling, growing silent, curling up and turning away. It was as if he was watching himself looking out of his father’s face, for his “death” (Joseph’s) must have seemed like that to Jacob. We receive, so that we might give and the ultimate in giving is “letting go”, so that death may come. But “lossness” is not easily borne.
Deceit was the instrument of Jacob’s punishment and misery and shame, lasting most of his life.
Birthright,
goat skins,
blessings,
wives,
animals,
idols,
circumcisions,
blood stained striped coat,
low road, not high road,
son’s sexual mocking,
son’s prostitution,
sons going,
fewer returning
cups,
money.
Tricks all of them,
by him, and on him.
God’s approbation was not given to the means by which Jacob used to gain the promises, but to the fact that he really did value the promises of God. Though the promises brought little comfort to him in his life, he earnestly strove for them.
Comment:
Constitutional deceivers, like Jacob, find it difficult to accept the fact that by double dealing and deceiving they themselves are their own victims. Rebekah, his mother, had originally said, “Upon me be thy curse”, but it didn’t work out as easily as that. Jacob learned that God would not prosper him, or help him, when he lived deceitfully, but if he lived in righteousness, faithfully praying and building a holy character, he would be righteous, and so it was.
We often fail to appreciate the fellowship we have with Jacob’s weaknesses. We falsely declare him to be “righteous”, “perfect” all his life. We miss so much if we do. He came to be what his name meant, through his struggle with sin. If we concentrate on strengths, with devastatingly high expectations of one another, we miss out on learning the big lesson that Godly strength is made perfect in weakness. We need to acknowledge both Jacob’s, and our own weaknesses, and live in righteousness, so that we, too, can strive for excellence, and can be accounted, and so called “righteous” and “perfect”.
Jacob’s vision lay dormant,
and fell and revived in Haran,
fell and revived again in Canaan,
but it broke out radiantly in Egypt,
where,
rejoicing in the vast growth of his house,
he looked forward with faith,
self, wholly forgotten,
in a vision for the future.
He looked through the mist of his approaching death and prophesied, by God’s spirit, the glory of his nation in the Promised Land, Genesis 49:28. He was not the first prophet, but the blessing scene certainly fulfils the prophetic mode.
It was 70 years from Bethel, when Jacob was 77 years old - his lowest spiritual point. Plagued by the memory and guilt of his deceit, equivocation was high on his emotional response when God appeared to him, Hosea 12:3-4.
He had taken his brother by the heel,
he had held the angel
and the angel had put his thigh out of joint.
He had wept,
he had fallen into a deep depression,
and emptied himself in grief.
Eventually, there was a faint invitation,
and God came into that void.
Jacob found that God was with him,
and at last he was strengthened.
His dreams were exhausting (sometimes ours are too, and it takes us a few hours to recover from the stress). Jacob’s dreams, though, were real contests with God. He’d had our life allotted span up to the first deceit, and then another lifespan since that first deceit. He may have reasoned that as God had promised to be with him, he’d have no hitches, nothing to endure, no heavy clouds, he never thought that he’d ever say “everything is against me”. But God was with him. It is all true in the ultimate, in the end, but the process by which God causes a man to reach that state may result in unpleasant, and apparently untoward experiences. Man may not be able to shape his history, but he can work on the material handed to him.
The first half of the second 70 years were spent in dealing with decimated flocks, cheated wages, fear of Laban, fear of meeting Esau. The second half of the 70 years were spent in grief over the acts of his children - yet here they were all together, saved from certain death. The bad times had taught him lessons, though he found it difficult to be grateful. As Jacob emptied himself, God came in. The useless regretting embittered the new, and Jacob learned that emptying was a better way. Pray God will fill us, when we empty ourselves for Him.
In Job 33:28-30, Job’s soul was promised redemption from the pit, that he would be “enlightened with the light of the living”. So it was for Jacob also. Job tried to argue that suffering was a penalty or trial, but both Job and Jacob learned of its blessings. God foresaw that in Jacob.
5. JACOB - LOOKING FORWARD
Jacob looked forward, and lived by faith, never seeing the promises fulfilled in his lifetime. He appreciated God steadying him when his faith wavered, Genesis 49:15, for he knew God shepherded him, (he knew about shepherds), and that God “fed me all my life long”, also he took comfort from God’s visible encounters with him, “angels” in verse 16.
Comment:
It is important to enlarge our vision, and strengthen our faith, but when we have no visible Godly encounters, and we feel that His promises to us are not fulfilled, we need to be innovative in our relationship to God, so that we can also feel that we are shepherded, and that His will and purpose is at work in us. Sometimes the evil that befalls us can be a difficulty, through which we are made perfect in our weakness.
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Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph all died in faith, not having received the land inheritance promise and so provide us with examples of hope for the resurrection.
So this patriarchal era closes with hope, as it also opened with hope.
Jacob planned for the future and, against disappointment and difficulty, he ploughed on until he succeeded. He managed his history rather well, considering that he wrestled God most of his life. He could have managed his life differently. People may say that you cannot change the basis of character, but you can add new qualities and ensure that the damaging ones have little vent. The memory of the stormy years enhanced the later peaceful times and soothed his “few and evil days” outburst, of 17 years ago at Pharaoh’s court.
6. LOOKING BACK FOR SOME OF US AND SLIPPING AWAY
It is worth noting that right up to the end of his long life Jacob was lucid and able to prophesy. It is not so for all of us, and is dependant on how our dying will be. We cannot change it and must endure it. Perhaps towards the end, those about us have to endure it. It is the mother slipping away from, what the daughter perceives as reality, into memories. Jacob did not slip into total abandon of the present but would have had the sharpening of memories that we begin to experience as we grow older, which may have guided his blessings, apart from the obvious Spirit filled message.
This text, on the ageing process, is quoted in the Sarah’s Death section of “Kith and Kin”, Book 1. Here, in this book, we have another memorable death scene, where the discussion on ageing may be of some value.
Comment:
Perhaps because people know that the future is so short, they like to fill the space with memories. With little to look forward to, we look back. There is then “a commemorating imagination” which seems to come alive, flickering at first and then breaking into light. It begins to have a life of its own, something that we are powerless to avoid. Perhaps we don’t even want to avoid it. Even in our everyday life, the heightened encounters with memoria grow, as if it happened yesterday. The regurgitated memories of people and places, and instances and circumstances, which jump into our mind’s eye, uninvited and unannounced, are the foundation of the character of the old. They come like flat pages, not necessarily connected. They are things that happened, without the dimension of the course of time, and are without pattern and meaning, until we deal with them in our minds. The images that flash into our minds which demand attention, and our efforts to deal with them, make us chew and swallow. At night when we cannot sleep properly, the flashes of errors and misfortunes and misdeeds, sprinkled with the salt of remorse, keep us endlessly awake, and together with the worries of tomorrow, force us into fitful sleep, which is little use to us. The sleep deprivation matters not too much though, for our highly organised retirement days fade with age, and “sitting in the sun” might be our only possibility.
James Hillman’s recent research in “The Force of Character: A Study in the Meaning of Ageing”, leads us away from despair with what is happening, into something that is much more comforting. He thinks that a life unreviewed, or never chewed over and swallowed, is a life lost, and then there is no understanding of events of our life.
However, the patterns of life become more discernible as we age, and there is more understanding of our walk through, or review of, the failures and the successes of our lifetime experiences. When we are younger events happen, when we are older those events assume proportion and key onto the pattern that we set ourselves.
Hillman recommends that it is too difficult to extract from memories the lessons of life, before we are sixty years old. “Inflated subjectivity”, not character, has too much of a hold before then, we are too concerned with the “I”. For mature modesty, and reticence, and honesty, about the whole picture is what is necessary for character. We are “more eloquently and wisely equipped and empowered” to review our failures and successes and make conclusions, after we have reached the age of sixty. There is, then, a full litany of dates, and jobs, and trips, and illnesses, and family personages and things that made us cry, and things that made us smile. Up until then, we only enjoy a biography of empty life patterns, the timetables of life, filling up diaries and log books. That’s a reason, among others, why we call those senior years “prime time”.
“The pickling of the past”, as Hillman puts it, is what some people find so annoying and irritating in the old. Their rooms, (actual brick and mortar rooms, as well as their memory brain rooms) become “period museums”, and nothing, even endless persuasion and correcting can change them, and not even the determined moths can get at the long term memory, once it is set in concrete. It is as if comfort and warmth finds its way into the cold storage vaults of the mind.
In older age, the images become more pleasant. Arduous struggles, envious rivalries, even betrayals and the poisonous jealousy thorns that hurt us so much, come back within a new frame, and present with a new valence, and often a new context. They don’t hurt then so much. The musing about these memories may even make them amusing, and smiling and laughter after all is the best medicine. The long illness, the wrong marriage, the lost child, the soured friendship, the wrong career path, all those slings and arrows of outrage and anger and desperation and despair, lose their fire and forget their aim.
It seems that the dark and unhappy days of the past seem to lighten up and not matter so much, in our eventide recollections. Perhaps God is giving us a subtle hint that in letting go of the weights that we have been carrying, we can more easily let go, and let Him take our breath and character back to Himself, who first gave it. This is a premonition of death, as a place of rest until the call of the king to come to his Kingdom. It is as if there is a euphoric tone, something golden in these years, now coating many of our worst experiences, so that we feel that there is little left to forgive, and that, after all, we made too much of it all. At the end of the three score years and ten, in our seventies, those whom we have found most difficult to forgive, will not have their deed remembered, because in old age they do not need to be forgiven. Their deeds have simply been forgotten. May we be able to recognise that forgetting, that knack or skill of the old person’s mind, may actually be the truest form of forgiveness and a blessing for the aged.
In the chronicle of the long lived patriarchs we can assume that the ageing processes happened with the same pattern, so the relevance of the foregoing brings us an understanding of them as well as ourselves.
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Jacob died with his lucidity in tact, but with his memories filling the spaces that the future had left blank. It was God who helped him prophesy the end of his sons, and so it came to pass, as he said. And the forgiving was there, just as Hillman’s research says it is. Jacob being perfect, and having made peace, “leaves his breath” to return to God, accompanying as well, his full character record returning to God, in heaven, to that Book of Life. It is all in faith that he will live again to inherit that land, Hebrews 11. His steadfast faith rests in the knowledge that Joseph will bury his bones in the Land of Promise. The difficult forgivings have left Jacob’s character now, and that is where we would like to be, when our record returns heavenwards. We had our time, we did what we could. That’s what we offer in the end, ourselves, that is, the life force He gave us, and the character we built into it, that’s what we offer back to God. When we are just blood and bones and muscles and sinew and skin in the ground, the most important part of us has gone heavenwards.
It was the end of the old firm, Jacob and Sons - Shepherds and Pastoralists, or Israel and Sons, that had prospered well in Goshen. We crave also for an ideal and “perfect” life, striving always for excellence, and pray for that, always understanding that evils will befall us.
John Donne, a poet and preacher of seventeenth century England wrote about death -
“All mankinde is of one Author, and is one volume; when one Man dies, one Chapter is not torne out of the booke, but translated into a better language; and every Chapter must be translated. God emploies several translators: some peeces are translated by age, some by sicknesse, some by warre, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation: and his hand shall binde up all our scattered leaves againe, for that Libraries where every booke shall lie open to one another”.
So Jacob’s “peece” was “translated by age” into “a better language”, and embossed “by God’s hand” in gold, and He bound his “scattered leaves againe”, and stored them away in that library “where every booke lies open”, which God keeps for us all, at the end of our days, towards the time when His son will return and set up His kingdom. That will then be a place of blessing for all the “peeces”.
John Ellerton later composed a funeral hymn,
“Father, in thy gracious keeping,
We now leave thy servant sleeping”.
CONCLUSION:
And Jacob is indeed God’s servant, sleeping in His care.
CHAPTER 9
FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND THE FUNERAL
“And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father”, Genesis 50:14.
FOCUS:
It seems that from all the dysfunction in these patriarchal stories not very much was learned about family relationships. It began for Jacob’s family in Haran and continues in the Biblical record until after his death. For again the relationship falters, the brothers are anxious and Joseph weeps, Genesis 50:14-21.
1. FATHERS AND SONS
Jacob’s relationship with his sons falters from the moment he conceived Reuben with Leah, and bred as well as a little son, resentment into his relationship with the child’s mother. The relationship between fathers and sons has an enormous amount of significance in Jacob’s family and it was not often recorded that Jacob got it right.
(See end chapter note for Digression 1)
Relationships are meant to work well and especially godly ones. The nature of God’s relationship with Jacob should have meant that he was close to God, and welcomed God’s advice and help in maintaining a good relationship with his sons. Alas, that was not how it worked out for Jacob.
2. HEADSHIP - SOURCE
Leah was an emotionally abused wife, the headship she sought from Jacob, was not what she would have preferred, and she had to make the best of what she was offered. Her sons did not have a good role model, but we hope, as the life of Jacob improved, and he became closer to God, his sons would appreciate the wisdom that seemed now to rule his life.
Comment:
We need to carefully consider the role of headship for men within the family group, for after all that is the role that fathers will model to their sons. We all need that role to be well modelled, so that women and daughters are not victimised. It is not a Godly model to sanction victimisation dressed up in cloaks of male prime status and authority, over all women and children, in the guise of headship.
“Headship” does not mean “chief” or “rule”, “control, boss, authority and power” in the Greek, in the context of Paul’s letter, 1 Corinthians 11. Here the Greek word takes its meaning “source”, as we use the context to interpret the correct meaning. F. F. Bruce, one of the great Greek classical scholars of the twentieth century, in his exposition of “1 and 2 Corinthians” makes this clear in his expose of the passage, I Corinthians 11:2-16, pages 102-106.
It is speaking about “source”, saying that - God made woman from man in Eden, Genesis 2:22.
For later, continuing, in verse 12, Paul repeats the concept and adds another, still speaking of “source”.
# In Eden, woman did come from man, at the creation (that is, from Adam’s side), the first woman.
# And then antithetically, Paul takes up the contemporary point of view, that since Eden, man has come from woman (that is, in childbirth) that is, since Creation it is a reversed order, and all men come from woman.
So in this context the meaning implied by Paul, it must be allowed, is “source”.
Then Paul concludes about the real source, “but all things are of God”.
In the verses at issue, verse 3 and verse 12, “headship” should be understood as “source”. Godly headship, (Ephesians 5:23), in a marriage, with complementary roles, verse 11. In a family, mutually worked out “headship” is a beautiful concept, for it should be source of goodness, and Godly leadership, but only in the one family, each with its own head, and that head is not head in anyone else’s family. If men followed the Godly headship model then wives and daughters would never be victimised.
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(See end chapter note for Digression 2)
In the life of Jacob and his sons, the family dysfunction began with the deceit on his wedding night, and the consequences that followed in his multiplying wives and children, who lived in antagonistic rebellion to one another. However, family dysfunction is not confined to those with multiple partners and many children. It is endemic in “normal” or “ordinary” families, and “nuclear” or “extended” families. It is highly dependent on good headship within the family for which the father has prime responsibility, with submission still practised by both, as in Ephesians 5:21. True Godly principles are what are required and we all need to learn them.
3. JOSEPH WITHOUT HIS FATHER ONCE MORE
Joseph had now lost the joy of contact with his father, at his death, through whom he had the joy of knowing Isaac and Abraham. But the truths he had heard from his father’s lips, had long been engraved on his heart, so that his father, in this sense, continued to speak to him. His grief would be tinged with consolation for what had passed between them in the seventeen years. The grief of the other brothers may have been tinged with shame, for the painful and tormenting passions they had caused their father. Yet we would hope that their hearts were made better, for the satisfaction and pleasure from the sins, which lasted for a moment, cannot be compared to the lasting pain of natural consequences. Death is easier to contemplate, if it is not mingled with remorse, so we hope it was not so for those former ten Cain heads.
4. THE FUNERAL PROCESSION
“I will come again” promised Joseph to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh did wonder. It is clear Pharaoh’s suspicion is present, but whether he asked Joseph to promise, it is not clear. Perhaps Joseph understood Pharaoh’s anxiety, and was quick to relieve it. It is understandable that Joseph felt he had enough credibility with Pharaoh to ask him to let him go to Canaan to bury his father. He had to banish any suspicion of disloyalty, or disrespect to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and hope for their respect for his wish to perform this solemn oath that he made to his father.
But he would have also understood the Pharaoh’s anxiety, for Joseph was his right hand, the manager of his affairs, the Governor of Egypt. Pharaoh would have readily combined favour and foresight in providing a very large retinue to accompany the family.
It looked like an Egyptian escort, but it was also an insurance against the return of the irreplaceable. Pharaoh had lost one of his daughters (the second of six) at age nine, of anaemia. He was no stranger to fits of melancholy. Now Joseph was asking for leave for more than the seventy days of mourning - his right hand man, the apple of his eye. The journey would take at least another forty days. Joseph did not ask in person, being in mourning, unshaved, as was the mourning custom, and unsuited to the royal presence.
Pharaoh commanded that this procession should be one of the biggest that ever went out of Egypt and, in equal pomp, returned again. There had been another procession, when Jacob came down into Egypt, but this one was much more impressive. It was a great progress. But it had to have a highly Egyptian flavour so that the Egyptians themselves and all the nations on the way would realise the provider was on a journey (“to bury his father”) and would return, otherwise there might be unrest and disorder. The little children and women of Jacob’s family had to remain in Egypt, perhaps as a sort of hostage, or insurance, like Simeon had been. However, accompanying all the male relatives were the servants and elders of all the land of Egypt as well as a great retinue of soldiers. Insurance, indeed.
There was insurance on the other side also, for the people of the land of Canaan would not rise up against such an obviously treasured one from Egypt, no matter what they said privately behind their hands, for the burial place was not that far from the family’s Shechem disgrace, which the indigenous people had probably not forgotten. Criticism is either forgotten, or enlarged and exaggerated over time, so safety may have turned out to be of paramount concern for the family. So Pharaoh not only provided a return insurance for himself, but a safety insurance for the patriarchal family.
Some suggest that Joseph went to excess in this funeral procession, but the matter of Pharaoh’s insurances for safety and return, must have been of paramount concern, and so no expense was spared, for these reasons. And it was a melancholy Pharaoh who waited out those more than 41 days.
The procession of Jacob’s body and his family is not recorded for us in detail. However, we know from other sources what it was like. They were flanked, on all sides, by Egyptians, who were also out in front and behind (Genesis 50:7-9). Invitations were, of course, commands, sent out by runners from the privy councillor. It was a burdensome honour, for they would need to be away from their duties for at least 41 days. But still they came on the day appointed. It fell to a captain of the troops, a “charioteer of the king”, to organise the confusion of wagons and litters, riding animals, and beasts of burden.
A host of soldiers came first, with trumpeters and drummers, then Nubian bowmen, then Libyans, armed with sickle shaped swords, and Egyptian lance bearers. Then followed the pride of Pharaoh’s court - palace officials and privy councillors. These elegant servants formed the advance guard of the catafalque which was taken into the procession, together with the family, when they reached Goshen. It was a man shaped wooden coffin (for lightness) with gems and gold, and decorated with a gold mask and beard. It lay on a bier which rested on a gilded sledge and this was placed on a car with draped wheels, drawn by twelve oxen.
Behind the enveloped and appreciative family, came the administrative bureaucracy of all Egypt, of the Viziers of Upper and Lower Egypt, heads, inspectors, stewards, wardens and overseers. Military standards came next, followed by an enormous number of wagons with baggage, and luggage, and tents, and forage, and food, and utensils, all with mules and drivers.
What a large company it was, and how it startled those who watched its progress. They would stand and stare at such a sight, not comprehending the magnitude of this Godly journey, for great and majestic we know it really was, not because Pharaoh made it so.
The procession meandered the long way round, rather than on the military highway, to deflect anxiety. It was also an easier route for such a large company - not so steep. It was rather a silent procession, not like a crashing, loud, fearsome military procession. They camped in the Canaanitish land, Goren Atad, having passed through Moab and Ammon, where respect from Esau’s family would have been expected and, no doubt, forthcoming.
It had been only a threshing floor, but now it was a thriving market. The people were amazed to see and hear the wailing for seven days, renewed lamentation and mourning every day, shrill and bitter. The inhabitants were much impressed, which was the intention, of course. “Abel Mizraim” they called it, “a grievous mourning place” for the Egyptians - “The Wailing Meadow of Egypt”.
The procession crossed the Jordan River from this encampment and came to Kirjath Arba, in Hebron. The natural cave there had been enlarged by man to form several chambers. It probably had only one door and whether they entered by the cave door, or broke the enlarged masonry, we don’t know, of course. Each chamber would have had a stone slab closure. The brothers would have paled with fear and trepidation as they opened their revered burial cave. The Egyptians watching would have turned up their noses at such a paltry, homemade resting place. But all Israel went pale. It would be interesting to know how they laid the coffin, supine or upstanding, like in Egypt.
If bones could be surprised, these bones would have been shocked to see this newcomer in his foreign garb and coffin. They themselves were probably buried with no such pomp, and certainly no such preparation. They would have been placed in the crouched attitude, the foetal position - the burial custom of ancient Canaan. Egyptian influence accompanied Jacob’s body.
However, the bones in the cave were indifferent, having not been disturbed for 27 years, and Jacob was laid in an open chamber which was quickly sealed with stone and mortar. So his shell was left alone at last in peace. It was not disturbed again as far as we know, for many years, for Joseph’s body went to Shechem. There is a small chamber for the Tomb of Joseph at the Machpelah sight where the Arabs revere it, along with other cenotaphs in six rooms, to the three Patriarchs and their wives. But the Jews revere the Tomb of Joseph at the Shechem site, at Nablus, and that is the burial site according to Joshua 24:32.
The unbelievers would like to say of Machpelah, “it’s all a hoax”, but the grave/cave Machpelah is well known today, as part of a temple wall enclosure. In the Herodian period structures began to be erected over it, and that practice has persevered.
5. THE BROTHERS ANXIOUS AGAIN
In Genesis 50:15-21, the brothers said “our father commanded us before he died to ask you for forgiveness for the evil that we did to you”.
This may be a statement out of context, for it might have been after Jacob’s death, as it says, that is, before the funeral, when they sent a messenger to Joseph and asked him to keep on forgiving them, just as he had, when Jacob was alive. The context really does not matter.
However, if it was after the funeral, the funeral may have made a certain impression on them, and when they saw Jacob walled away, it encouraged them to be anxious, and they felt afraid once more. It was evident that Joseph was well above them in station, and his status, which they had seen in evidence on the funeral journey, might have caused them to feel he was remote. “Now the relationship will change”, they thought, without the link of the common father.
This is another clue, that the family was not well blended, but it must have been almost impossible to be well blended, with Joseph in such royal circumstances.
Of course, Joseph did forgive them, but the suggestion must have pained him, and he wept that they still did not understand the strength of God’s will in the matter.
Consider:
* Was this a strategy to save them from what they perceived as coming punishment, at last?
* Or did they just need reassurance?
* Why did Joseph weep?
* Is Joseph’s high minded answer appropriate in the circumstances?
* What can we learn from Joseph’s attitude to those who injured him?
* How did Joseph further demonstrate his loving care for his brothers?
* Did they believe him?
* Had he not been reassuring enough, that they thought his vengeance had just lain quiet all these years?
* Considering that it is convenient that the dead do not rise up to call us liars, is that worth considering also, that they deceitfully used their dead father’s endorsement for the question?
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Joseph’s reassurance contains the same words as in Genesis 30:2, when Jacob angrily reproached Rachel for her complaint about her barrenness. “Am in the place of God?” But here Joseph, understanding their anxiety, spoke kindly to these faltering brothers of his and promised to nourish them always, in a beautiful and reassuring manner, Genesis 50:21. Joseph wept again and reminded them, as he had earlier in Genesis 45:2, that they were all “players in the game” ordained by God to save the people from certain death. For this cause he’d lived 93 years in Egypt (he died at the ideal Egyptian age of 110 years). “You meant evil, but God brought good out of it”. He wants them to understand the onward march of events, all governed by God.
However, Joseph does not release them from the evil, but places them in God’s care for judgment. That does not mean that reparation does not have to be made, for later in The Law of Moses, the sin and the guilt offering specifically taught that. We can think of reparation that they could make to him, to this man who appeared to have everything. We hope they could respond in some way. He wanted them to believe him, that’s all. And in their believing. Joseph would have seen how their faith had worked “perfection” in them as well.
He gave them his full confidence later, at least those who still lived, and they must have loved him then in return, as well, for he gave them the charge to bury his bones in Canaan. He did not ask his sons or his grandsons to embalm him and keep his body until it was time for the march out of Egypt. He asked his brothers to embalm him, Genesis 50:24,25.
We know that God would have provided other Tamars who would care for his embalmed body all those years.
Well, these brothers prostrated themselves once more before him. It was the last recorded time. “Forgive us our trespasses”, they said.
Genesis 50:18 is the final bowing down, perhaps seven times now, like their father had bowed to Esau. It is a final fulfilment of the dream.
Consider:
* Does our forgiveness of people fade? (Joseph’s did not).
* Are people afraid of our retribution after they are forgiven?
* Is forgiving and forgetting all that is necessary, when repentance has been declared, or should we do more, say in reparation?
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It is not forgiveness if it waxes and wanes, even if we say that it is.
It is forgiveness if we accept apology and reparation, and when the memory will not fade, we can let the hurt go.
Left beside a dead child’s body at a World War 2 concentration camp, is a fitting prayer. Stephen’s last words and prayer, at his stoning death, is rather the same, Acts 7:60, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”.
“Oh Lord, remember not only the men and women of goodwill, but also those of ill will.
But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us.
Remember the fruits we have bought, thanks to this suffering.
Remember our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity and the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this.
And when they come to judgement let all the fruits which we have borne, be their forgiveness”.
Quoted in - “Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love” by Stephanie Dowrick
May we rise above our suffering (as Joseph did with his brothers), above those who have done us ill, and remember the Godly lessons we have learned, and the fruits that we have bought, during the ill that came upon us, and may those fruits be their forgiveness.
There is an interesting fable in the Talmud that weaves a story of Esau’s death at the burial of Jacob. Esau arrives at the cave with his sons, and challenges Joseph to the rights to use Machpelah. Esau claims ownership of the field, and Joseph denies that right, saying he has the documents of sale, whereon is Esau’s signature, for Esau sold it to Jacob, at Isaac’s death. Esau asks then to view the document. Joseph remembers that it is back in Egypt and sends his brother, Naphtali, to go quickly and bring back the deeds for the cave, and the deeds for the sold birthright. Meanwhile Esau stopped the funeral from proceeding. The next day, there was a fight between the two factions. Hushim, the dumb son of Dan, was guarding the coffin of his grandfather and did not understand what the conflict had been about. When he asked, by sign, to be told what was holding up the proceedings, he became very angry, and ran into the fray, and, with one blow, beheaded Esau. Joseph’s party, who had lost no men, then prevailed over the Esau party, who had suffered, as well, the loss of forty men. Then the defeated children of Esau witnessed the internment of Jacob over seven days. Then they carried Esau’s body to Mount Seir to be buried, but his head was buried in Hebron where he fell. There are many mythological, but intriguing stories in the Talmud.
6. BACK IN EGYPT
Now that the burial was over, the procession had to wind its way back to Egypt. Many hours there were, for thinking and sitting around campfires, and mulling over it all. The grace that Joseph had for them, the grace he lived by, loved by, was led by, shone through, and now in his finest hour, he is in charge of them all, and guards and guides them back to Egypt.
Right up to the end Joseph cares for them, and reminds them of all that is theirs. And suddenly his death now is upon us, verses 24 to 26 and in his last instructions Joseph made representation to the family about his burial, so that his future would be linked with that of Israel. The brothers embalmed Joseph’s body in Egypt so that when they left, under the Pharaoh who “knew not Joseph”, the Israelites took his body with them. He had promised them that, when the great trial came, God would care for them and show them a way of escape. He commanded them to take his body with them, and so it was.
He passes from life leaving rich memories with them all, those now grown children who had come down into grain filled Egypt, with their fathers and grandfather. They saw that Joseph believed that God was in everything, and that shored him up against bitterness or vengeance. He left them with a model of a life of pristine integrity and grace filled forgiveness that brought them all peace.
7. JOSEPH UNITES GENESIS AND EXODUS
The next chapter in the Scripture begins Exodus.
H. A. Whittaker calls Joseph “the Jesus of Genesis”, for he was “a forgiving saviour”. Genesis is fundamental to understanding the rest of the Bible. It is the life of Joseph that unites Genesis and Exodus together. It is Moses and Joshua who fulfil the request to take Joseph’s body with them to Canaan. In all that time (144 years) it stood upright, waiting, for they knew it had to go back to Canaan one day. It was a constant reminder that Egypt was not their home and that there was a better place prepared for them.
There are two ways in which a workman (or woman) regards his work - his own, or, his master’s. If it is his own, to leave it in his prime, is catastrophic. If it is his Master’s work, then putting up well worn tools, and acknowledging others can carry on, is a worthy thing. So it is with the will of God. Work is given (by God) not because the world needs it, but because the workmen need it. Men make work, but work makes men. An office, a workshop, a factory a kitchen, a home, a worshipful place is not a place for making work, but for making men for God’s sake.
God cares less for winning causes than for winning men. Men retire, not because the cause is won and the work is done, (this world is never perfect), but because there are other men to step into their shoes, to grow also in education, in discipline, unselfishness and grace. Each man needs to be called to the field. If one man did all the work then that would be the world’s loss. So it is that God withdraws men when their work is fullest and their work most ripe - to fill the vacancy with growing men. Thus many may be enriched with the loss of one. When our thoughts are heavy with questions of the mysterious ways of God, reason is kept from reeling out of order if we remember the loss of one, is opportunity for another.
So, it is hard for us to believe that there was no other “Joseph” after his death, who slipped into his shoes and “held the fort” until Moses was called some 104 years later (when he was 40 years old). At a time when the whole current of thought ran in a different direction, and men were vivifying the powers of nature, and turning them into gods, and there were many of those, it was essential that there was a witness to the notion of one great Ruler, to the Oneness of God, there in Goshen. If there were such faithful men then, they are not recorded here in Genesis or Exodus.
It was essential for the Jewish race to have the five great fathers of this story - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph and Judah, as a protest against the idolatry that had developed amongst the peoples of the earth, and to find in them the greatest possible encouragement, to all who should prove loyal to the God of these fathers. They were the Patriarchal Fathers, and with the exodus out of Egypt, the great Abrahamic Epoch, that is, the first of five, which make up the Old Testament 2,000 years, came to an end. It fulfilled the first great mission mandate, and through the testimony and witness of these special people of God, many were brought nigh to Him.
Would that their children had fulfilled the charge that God laid with the fathers, but the descendants of these patriarchs eventually corrupted the base that had been laid down, and lost their special relationship with God, and the last epoch ended in a dispersion and Diaspora.
Rabbi Brasch, retired Sydney rabbi, was heard to say, “The Jews are not God’s chosen people, they are a people chosen by God to teach God’s word”, January, 1999. Indeed. Well then, by their ungodly fruits they are not known as God’s teachers, but a silent or mute witness that He keeps His word. They do not fulfil the mission mandate. They “are not” His “sheep”, for they “do not hear” His “voice”, John 10:26-27.
CONCLUSION:
As we have had such a detailed and intimate connection with Jacob and his children, over this long section of their history, it pains us to hear of the forthcoming children’s rejection of God, and their rejection of His promises and the covenant that He had set up with them, His people, and to hear them say that the prophecies have all been fulfilled. If these five patriarchs of theirs, died without receiving the inheritance, believing that they would be resurrected, it is impossible for the present children to believe, as they proclaim, that there is nothing for them after death, and that this life is all God has promised. Yet they do believe as a secular nation that there is nothing for them after death. Certainly as dying unbelievers there is nothing for them.
Digression 1:
The importance of father/son relationships have not been researched, as far as we know, until fairly recently. They may have waxed and waned over these millenniums (it’s nearly 4 millenniums since Jacob). But we do know that fathers finally lost their treasured position in the family, when the Industrial Revolution came and they had to leave home to go to work. People had worked together in family groups, in the communities, up until then.
Most of our communities call for fathers to “leave home” and fulfil their duty of employment. Australian psychologist/author Steve Biddulph’s propositions and suggestions in “Raising Boys” encourage better father/son relationships, so that boys can see good models and so grow in strength to be better support in the family structure, when it is their time to head a family. Certainly we can see fathers taking better loving care in our worshipping families, and we are grateful for that - it does, in the end, make for more positive families, and that spills over into better overall management.
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Digression 2:
Some of us feel envy for what we missed out on. Some have looked at the example of headship in other families with envy for what they lost, when the headship in their own family was not Godly, like “I wish I had a family like yours”.
Some of us would like to erase the memory of the persistent stern look on the faces of our elders, who did not get the headship principle right. It is useless to deny the memories of many of the razor strap with its hard buckle, the rod, the cane, the clip on the ear, all of which were mistaken interpretations of the Proverbs “rods” which hurt, and did sometimes kill the child, and certainly often made children deaf, as well as other physical damage, when applied around the head. They are not the God recommended “rods of discipline”, which were care and comfort “shepherding rods”. We now know that, even in some outwardly worshipping families, it was unrelenting punishment, with no kind word or deed. The sinner was “unloved, even by God”, we heard.
But “headship” for some, means all male prime status and domination in worshipping and domestic relationships. This is then often expressed in a physical attitude of abuse to women and children. This is usually required to be reinforced by women, who are silent on the issue, or who say, “that is how it was for us, and that is how it should be now for you”, and so they reinforce the imbalance of men’s perceived control and power. Even sexual abuse, often accompanying the physical abuse, is often excused, for males are “less culpable than females, because they are made that way”. To proceed along this path is to sanction victimisation. It has been a church tradition, since the “pseudepigrapha” or “falsely inscribed” writings, not of Adam, Moses, Enoch, Ezra, Jeremiah, Solomon and others, as claimed. They are made up of apocalypses, histories, Psalters, and wisdom texts, and are a group of Jewish writings of the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD, which did not make it into the canonical Hebrew Bible. Two of these texts recount the lives of the first couple, and ascribe to Adam and Eve such things that are not in the Genesis text, and the story has been greatly altered. Eve is turned into a sexual temptress, the ancestress of witchery, the root of evil, and the cause of The Fall, all of which are false claims. Artists and images and considerations of women being first wicked, and therefore temptresses are not scripturally based, but they did form the traditions of the church, and secular culture and do, even to this very day. Rather than an inner temptation, sin is disguised as the devil, and in hand with Eve, manages to cause the downfall of man, “Eve”, Bible Review Magazine, August 1999. Fortunately “the devil” is now beginning to be interpreted as man’s “inner temptation”. “In Christ” women received a great bounty, but men of these traditions were very anxious to blame Eve, and consequently all women for their sins, and so women’s lives soon became untenable, yet again. It is a privilege to live in an age, when women are recognised with men as having complementary roles.
The physical punishment by husbands and fathers, believing headship means superior control, with unlimited power and physical strength, has been an anathema to many victims, (for the “sin” for which the punishment was delivered is forgotten). It only ceased, (for boys), when the punished grew more physically strong and therefore became a threat to the punisher. For some women it never ceased, until, and only if, they ever rebelled.
It is difficult to understand why the scriptural verses for discipline for children are taken so literally, when they are obviously figurative, and when that same figure is used for adults, and is not taken literally. It seems that headship (the “powerness”) of some men in the eyes of their peers was measured by their strength to deliver physical punishment (that is abuse) on their children, and, in some cases, on their wives. Even the punished accepted it, or did not question the parents’ (or teacher’s) right, because it was the norm at home (and at school). We are thankful that those days are mostly gone, and that better Godly discipline is being learned by parents.
Now we are encouraged that love is unconditional, it is the sin which God hates, not the sinner. There are enlightened new ways of dealing with unacceptable behaviour, and we need to learn about them. The suiciding, depressed sinner has become a too frequent occurrence, and we need to reassure, especially our young people, that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that God does love them, and is beckoning them to the safety of His loving care. It is too late for some, but the lessons to be learned from those who take their own lives, is powerful, and not to be ignored.
