Genesis 47

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:49utc

This chapter is divided in three sections. Vs. 1-12 deals with the introduction of Joseph's brothers and of Jacob to Pharaoh and their settling in Goshen. Vs. 13-27 depicts the general condition of Egypt during the last years of the famine and Joseph's measures which changed to infra structure of the country and vs. 28-31, a section which actually belongs to the following chapter, deals with the end of Jacob's life.

Vs. 1-12: We are not told who were the five brothers that Joseph picked to have an audience with Pharaoh. It could be speculated that they were the five sons that Lea, Jacob's only legal wife, had born to Jacob, but we do not know. It seems logical that Joseph would have introduced Benjamin, his only full brother, to the king. It could be that court etiquette ruled out the appearance of large groups at audiences. Probably Joseph wanted to make the best impression possible upon the monarch.

Pharaoh's question: "What is your occupation?" seems to have been more than a polite inquiry. According to The Pulpit Commentary : "Pharaoh's inquiry was characteristically Egyptian, being rendered necessary by the strict distinction of casts that then prevailed. According to a law promulgated by Amsis, a monarch of the 26th dynasty, every Egyptian was obliged to give a yearly account to the monarch or State governor of how he lived, with the certification that if he failed to show that he possessed an honorable calling he should be put to death." No wonder Joseph was careful in whom he chose!

Pharaoh treats Joseph's relatives in a very generous way by making the best of the land available to them. We have to remember, though, that all the kindness Pharaoh bestows upon Joseph's brother is done for Joseph's sake, not for theirs. This is the way God treats us for Jesus' sake.

Jacob's audience with Pharaoh paints a beautiful picture of the meeting of two worlds. Pharaoh was the king of Egypt, probably the most powerful man in the world at that time. Divine qualities were attributed to him. Jacob was Israel, the prince of God, the man who had conquered in the spiritual world. Here the two meet, and Jacob blesses Pharaoh. We remember the words of the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews: "And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater." (Heb. 7:7). We also remember that Jacob's grandfather was expelled from Egypt in an ignominious way by the Pharaoh of that period with the words: "'Here is your wife. Take her and go!' Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had." (Ch. 12:19,20). That was almost 200 years before. If anybody had taken the trouble to look into the archives, they probably would not have had the liberty to mention the incident at this time. Jacob is a guest of honor and he represents a kingdom that is not of this world. Here is one of the rare occasions in the Bible where Heaven and earth are not in opposition with each other. The world of Egypt at that time was evidently not synonymous with the powers of darkness.

The impression we voiced earlier that Pharaoh may have been a young man, younger than Joseph, who said that he was a father to him, is reinforced by Pharaoh's question of Jacob's age. Jacob answers: "The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers." (vs. 9). The word "pilgrimage" is a good description of Jacob's life, or of the life of any child of God who intends to make Heaven his home. We turn again to Hebrews where the author says in 11:9,10 - "He [Abraham] lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." The positive content of this confession of Jacob, as the writer to the Hebrews interprets it, is offset by Jacob's tone of complaint and self-pity. He complains that life has been harder on him than on his ancestors and that it is shorter. The latter he could hardly know since he was still alive when he said this. As far as the difficulties is concerned, most of them were of his own making. Maybe Jacob's words are a kind of confession to himself. He certainly did not confess his sins to Pharaoh.

About the age of Jacob, The Pulpit Commentary says: "Since Joseph was now thirty-seven years of age (ch. xlv. 6), it is apparent that he was born in his father's ninety-first year; and since this event took place in the fourteenth year of Jacob's residence in Padan-aram (ch. xxx. 25), it is equally apparent that Jacob was seventy-seven years of age when he left Beersheba after surreptitiously securing the patriarchal blessing (ch. xxviii, 1)." It seems to me that the commentary is wrong on this point, since the hunger was in its second year and Joseph would consequently have been at least thirty-nine at this time. But I do not want to argue with the scholars who wrote The Pulpit Commentary .

We may presume that more was said during Jacob's audience with Pharaoh than is recorded. Jacob may have given a brief account of his difficult years, or, as the KJV calls them "evil." Pharaoh will have had little idea what a pilgrimage, such as Jacob's, was and he will have asked more questions. This king probably grew up in the protecting shell of the palace, while being groomed to become the ruler of the country. Hardship and hunger will have been foreign to him. Here he meets a man who has known all this and who has come out richer than the king. He, who had everything the world could offer, receives a blessing twice from a man who had lacked everything and who came because he was starving to death.

Jacob and his family settle in Goshen, which was the best part of Egypt. It was not dependent, as we have seen, on the flooding of the Nile since it received rain from the Red Sea. But it seems that even these rains failed, because Joseph has to provide Jacob with food, even in Goshen. Evidently, the land did not produce anything either during these seven years.

Vs. 13-27 show the condition of Egypt during the famine and the measures Joseph took, which changed the way the Egyptians lived for centuries to come. We should be careful not to judge Joseph's measures from a twentieth century perspective. What Joseph did was far from democratic; but then democracy was unheard off at that time. The world was developing from a series of small fiefdoms to larger confederacies and kingdoms and after that to super-powers. Egypt had been an important power for several centuries, but evidently Pharaoh was not an absolute monarch in the way Nebukadnezzar, Alexander or the Roman emperors reigned centuries later. Joseph uses the extreme conditions of the famine to consolidate Pharaoh's power, although the priest caste remained a strong independent influence, seen the fact that their grounds were not transferable to the crown.

The way Joseph carries out the transition from relative independence to complete dependence upon Pharaoh is admirable. He does it in such a positive way that the people are grateful. God had endowed him with wisdom and foresight which he used to save people's lives. The things that happened in Egypt illustrate the spiritual principle that salvation and independence are incompatible. We are saved by becoming God's property. Insisting upon our independence means death, as it would have meant death for the Egyptians.

Joseph first brings the money of the Egyptians into Pharaoh's palace. We could say that what he did was the equivalent of centralizing the banking system. It does not seem that currency was used yet. Payment was probably exclusively made with precious metals, the value of which was established by weight. The next step was the livestock of the Egyptians. This may have meant the animals used to plow the land, but we are not told. The third stage is the transfer of land. The crown gets the title for all real estate, but the people keep on using it with the obligation to pay a tax of 20% on each harvest. If we compare Joseph's measures with the infrastructure of our modern society we have to say that what he did was a complete overhaul carried out with several strokes of genius. And the people loved him for it. So did Pharaoh!

Vs. 27-31 start the report of the end of Jacob's life. As we said before, it should have been included in chapter 48. Vs. 27 mentions that Jacob's family settled in Goshen and that they gained possessions there. Whether this means that they were exempt from paying taxes to Pharaoh and were elevated to the same status as the priests were, we do not know. Their separate status as well as the fact that they increased rapidly became factors that made the Egyptians turn against them four centuries later, as is recounted in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus. At this point we have moved out of the years of famine into the last years of Jacob's life.

Vs. 28 starts out be saying that Jacob spent seventeen more years in Egypt, that is five years during the famine and twelve after the situation had gone back to normal. Jacob had talked about his approaching death, but it turned out to be more elusive than he thought. He kept on living. He wasn't as persistent as his father, Isaac, though who lived for over thirty years after giving his deathbed blessing to his sons.

When Jacob feels his end is approaching he makes Joseph swear that he be buried in Canaan and not in Egypt. This last wish must have been a matter of faith for Jacob. He knew that Canaan was the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and to him and his children. His grandfather had purchased the cave where Sarah was buried first, the cave in the field of Machpelah.

As we have seen before, Jacob had purchased a field from Hamor at Sechem, and according to Stephen, when he gives his defense speech in Acts 7, "Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money." (Acts 7:16). Stephen combines the purchases of Abraham and Jacob and gives, so to speak a telescoping rendering of the two incidents. Adam Clarke supposes that the bodies of Jacob's sons were buried at Sechem, but that Jacob himself was placed in the tomb where Sarah, Abraham and Isaac were buried.

The point, however, is the promise of the land and Jacob's faith that God would in fact give it to his descendants. Joseph would demonstrate the same faith at the end of his life, when he made arrangements for his body to be taken back to Canaan. (See ch. 50:24,25). The author of the Hebrew epistle emphasizes this faith factor, when he says: "By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones." (Heb. 11:22). Jacob's demand that he be buried in Canaan was a demonstration of faith in the promise of God, but it was also a confession that, in spite of the affluence of Egypt, Egypt was not the place of God's promise. Again, in the light of Heb. 11, Jacob's last wish was a confession that this earth is not our final destination and that death is not the last word.

When Joseph confirms his father's wish with an oath, Jacob worships, leaning "on top of his staff," or as the KJV has it "upon the bed's head." The use of these two different words is an interesting example of difficulties in Hebrew translation. The word "bed" and "staff" are identical in Hebrew in that they are both written with five consonants (HMTTH), and since originally the vowels were not inserted in writing, there is no way to tell them apart out of context. The LXX translates HMTTH with staff. It does make perfect sense, however, that Jacob would lie back down on his bed, after talking to Jacob.

The staff adds a spiritual dimension to the sentence. The NIV says: "Israel worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff." As the KJV put it, Jacob just lay back down after wearing himself out. "And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head." The act of worship gives a beautiful touch to the scene. If Jacob would only be reclining on his bed, there would have been no need to even mention this.

Worship is a rare entity, even in the Bible. We very rarely read that people are so overcome by the realization of what God has done in their lives, that they fall down before Him.

Eliezer bowed down and worshipped the LORD when he realized that God had guided him to Rebecca. (Gen 24:26) In Ex. 12:27 at the first Passover, we read: "Then the people bowed down and worshipped." When Moses sees God's glory, we read: "Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshipped." (Ex. 34:8) Judges 7:15 - "When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped God." At the dedication of the temple: "When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, 'He is good; his love endures forever.'"(II Chr.7:3). "Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, 'Amen! Amen!' Then they bowed down and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground." (Neh. 8:6) The Magi in Matt. 2:11 "saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him." And the apotheosis of all worship we find in heaven. We read in Rev 5:14. "The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshipped."

Worship is always connected with a glimpse of reality. It is when people see through the veil and smog of their lives and realize who God really is and what He has really done, that they bow down in awe and praise before Him. For Jacob it was the realization that in all the evil and sorrow he had gone through God had blessed him beyond his wildest imagination. He bargained and cheated and cut corner to obtain a blessing which ultimately God had poured out upon him in such an overwhelming measure that he could not contain it. Leaning on his staff he pours it out before the Lord.