Part 20 Book of Genesis
So Israel sets out for Egypt and when he and family get to Beer-sheba where he had made sacrifice to God in the past, God comes to him in a vision. “Jacob! Jacob!” God calls. “Here!” he answered. God goes on to tell him not to be afraid to go to Egypt for there God is going to make him into a great nation. He will see Joseph and die in peace.
Jacob and family set out from Beer-Sheba to Egypt in the wagons Pharaoh has sent to transport them. They took all their wealth and livestock they had amassed in the land of Canaan. All of Jacob’s offspring came with him, his sons and grandsons, his daughters and grand-daughters--everyone.
A list of all of Jacob’s family who came to Egypt, including Joseph, his two sons and Jacob total seventy persons. The entire list of names is here in these verses.
In Jewish writings the nations of the world will come from these seventy people
Jacob sends Judah ahead to meet Joseph on the way to the land of Goshen. Joseph gets in his chariot and meets his father, Israel, at Goshen. They embrace each other and weep for joy. Then Israel says to Joseph that he can die in peace having seen his beloved son alive.
Joseph tells his family that he is going to tell Pharaoh the news that they are here. He is going to tell Pharaoh they are shepherds and breeders of livestock. When Pharaoh summons them to speak with them, Joseph tells them to tell Pharaoh this is what they do. This will allow them to stay in Goshen separate from the Egyptians because Egyptians find shepherds and breeders of livestock abhorrent.
Egyptians most likely looked down on shepherds as low class people.
47.1-6
Joseph brings his family before Pharaoh to introduce them. Pharaoh asks them what they do and they tell him they are shepherds. They explain how the famine has scorched the land of Canaan so there is no pasture for the flocks there. Pharaoh tells them they may have the choice land of Goshen to raise their flocks. He even asks them if they know any other capable men to recommend to be in charge of his own livestock.
Joseph finally introduces his father Jacob to Pharaoh and Pharaoh asks Jacob how old he is. Jacob tells him he is 130 years old and that they have been a difficult 130 years! He also tells Pharaoh his fathers have lived much longer than he has. Jacob blesses Pharaoh after their meeting. The family settles in Goshen and Joseph see that everyone is well provided for.
The famine continues and is very severe. Joseph has received all the money the people have in exchange for food. When their money gave out the Egyptians came and told Joseph they needed bread or they will die. Joseph tells them he will take their livestock in exchange for food. The people bring their horses, sheep, cattle, and asses in exchange for food that entire year.
At the end of that year, the people came to Joseph and told him they had nothing left with which to buy food. Joseph. They tell Joseph they will give their land to Pharaoh and become his serfs in exchange for food. At this point they don’t care because if they do not eat they will perish. Joseph agrees, and takes all the farm land for Pharaoh. Now the people would work for Pharaoh. The only people who were not required to give up their land were the priests of Pharaoh. Everyone else became enslaved.
Joseph tells the people he will provide seed for them to grow crops and that they will have to give Pharaoh 1/5 of their annual crops to Pharaoh. They may keep the rest for themselves. The people are grateful and tell Joseph he has saved their lives and that they will be Pharaoh’s serfs. Joseph then wrote a law that would require all Egyptians to provide Pharaoh with 1/5 of their crops. Everyone had to obey except for Pharaoh’s priests.
Israel settled in Goshen and acquired holdings and increased greatly.
47.28-31 Jacob lived for seventeen more years so that his entire lifetime was 147 years. As his time to die approached, Jacob called for Joseph to make a pledge to him. Jacob asked Joseph to promise him that he would not be buried in Egypt, but rather taken back to be buried with Abraham and Isaac. Joseph swears to Jacob it will be done.
Jacob lived with Joseph for Joseph’s first 17 years of life and then spent the last 17 years of his life living with Joseph.
Jacob’s deathbed adoption of Joseph’s sons
Note: The following prophecies can be interpreted in many ways. The thoughts below are thought provoking and possible when searching the scriptures for what happened to the ancient 10 northern tribes of Israel in their dispersal. There is much circumstantial evidence to the veracity of these ideas. Having said that, these ideas have nothing to do with our salvation. That comes through Yeshua only! The following is possible--but not required as a fundamental belief.
48.1-2
Sometime later Joseph is told his father is ill and he takes his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to visit with him and have them blessed. Jacob is dying, but when he sees Joseph and his sons he receives some strength and sits up in bed.
48.3-7 Jacob tells Joseph that El Shaddai appeared to him in the land of Canaan, blessed him, and told him he would be fruitful and multiply and would make of him a multitude of people, in addition to giving his offspring the land for an everlasting possession. Then Jacob says he is going to adopt both Manasseh and Ephraim as his own sons. They will take the place of inheritance of Reuben and Simeon. He tells Joseph any other children he has will be classified under Manasseh and Ephraim.(Joseph had no more children.) He does this because of his beloved Rachel, Joseph’s mother, who died in child birth in the land of Canaan.
This important procedure of adoption by Jacob promotes Manasseh and Ephraim to the status of tribal founders and makes his favored wife their mother in place of the Egyptian priest’s daughter Asenath. They will also now become the senior or “birthright tribes” in place of Jacob’s first two sons by Leah, Reuben and Simeon. Just as Jacob had taken his brother Esau’s birthright place, now Jacob makes another important switch.
48.8-16 In a moment of confusion Jacob asks who the boys are. Joseph says, “My sons whom God has given me here.” Jacob tells Joseph to bring them closer so he can bless them. His eyes are dim, he cannot see well. So Joseph brings them closer and Israel kisses and embraces them. Jacob is very happy as he tells Joseph he thought he would never see him again much less his children.
Joseph bows to his father and took the two of them, Ephraim in his right hand--to Israel’s left--an Manasseh in his left to Israel’s right hand. But Israel stretched out his right hand and set it on Ephraim’s head and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, thus switching the order of blessing from oldest to youngest. Then he blessed Joseph saying, “God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
Jacob is putting “My name upon them” meaning he is adopting them and putting them ahead of Reuben and Simeon. He is also blessing them into a multitude of people in the earth. The whole earth--all nations.
48.17-20
Now Joseph sees his father is placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, who is the youngest, so he takes hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. “Not so father,” he says. Israel objected and says, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.” So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!’” And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
See: The lost tribes of Israel, this blog begining January 1, 2014
Briefly stated: These prophecies are for the last days as we see in the beginning of chapter 49. In the last days Ephraim is the nation of Great Britain and their commonwealth (a multitude of nations) and Manasseh represents the United States of America (he too shall be great). These two nations represent the lost tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel in the last days as the two great Christian (Israel) nations. The blessing of Joseph in Genesis 49.22-26 adds additional understanding to the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh.
The tribe of Judah is the state of Israel in modern times. (2Kings 16.5-6) The United States and Britain along with other western Christian nations are the “spiritual progeny”, for lack of a better term, of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Gen 22.17
Simply put Judah (the southern kingdom) is the “Jews” today, or the state of Israel. Israel (the northern kingdom) today are the U.S. and Britain, who are descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel.
Understanding the above opens up the Old Testament Prophets and provides greater understanding of the last days and the things that are currently happening in the world today as related to the financial, military, and political crises of our times. There is not enough space here to explain it all. We will, however, briefly touch on the Jacob’s blessing on each tribe.
Next: Part 21
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