OFF TO EGYPT

BOOK OF GENESIS

CHAPTER 46 & 47:1-13

            Glad you’re back to share another story at Daily Bread.  Today we join Israel as he takes his entire family to Egypt to live, where he has just learned that Joseph is still alive and rules over Egypt for Pharaoh.  Israel stopped on the way in Beersheba, the place where he grew up, where he received his blessing from his father Isaac, and where God had spoken to both Abraham and Isaac before.  He offered sacrifices to God there and God spoke to him in a vision of the night.

            God said to Israel, I am God, the God of your father.  Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt, I will make you a great nation there.  I will go with you and I will bring you back again and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.

            If you remember from the end of our last story, Israel wants to see Joseph before he dies.  When God said that Joseph will put his hand on your eyes, He was assuring Israel that he would see Joseph again before he died. (Joseph would be the one to close Israel’s eyes when he dies.)

            So Israel left Beersheba and his sons took him and their children and their wives in wagons that Pharaoh had sent to bring them.  All the people who came from Israel who were in Egypt were 70 souls.  Israel sent Judah ahead of them to get directions to Goshen, where Joseph said they would live and he met them there.

            When Joseph saw Israel, you can imagine it was quite a reunion.  Joseph embraced Israel and cried for a long time.  Israel said, Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive. 

            Now Joseph knew that the Egyptians didn’t like shepherds. He told his brothers that he would go and tell the Pharaoh that all his fathers family had arrived in Egypt, that they’re shepherds and that they’ve brought all their herds and flocks and everything that they own with them.  He told them that when the Pharaoh asks them what their occupation is, they should say, Your servants trade has been about cattle from our childhood until now, both us, and our fathers.

            Pharaoh didn’t seem to mind that they were shepherds.  In fact, when they told him their occupation and that they didn’t have any pasture for their flocks because the famine was so bad in Canaan, Pharaoh told Joseph to let them live in the best of the land, in the land of Goshen, and if any of them were good enough, to make them rulers over his own cattle.

            Joseph gave them the land of Goshen, which is in the land of Rameses, the best of the land, as Pharaoh ordered.  He made sure they were all comfortable and fed, even though the famine was starting to affect Egypt. 

            How will Joseph manage things now?  He has just brought his entire family down to Egypt and settled them into the best of the land, but the food that he had the Egyptians store during the seven years of plenty is running out now.  You’ll have to come back and see next time, in your Daily Bread.

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