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GENESIS 46–48

Week 4, Day 1

When you see Jacob and his family setting out for Egypt, you are also laying the foundation for the book of Exodus. This move to Egypt is seen as a step in the making of “a great nation,” and Jacob is assured that his family will return in time (46:4).

But the seeds of eventual trouble are already present. This family of seventy will become to the Egyptians a threatening nation; they follow an occupation that the Egyptians despise (46:34); and because of Joseph they are given “the best part of the land” (47:11), which in time will anger the native peoples.

Joseph’s policies in 47:13-26 do not appeal to me, since they reduce the people to slavery, completely controlled by Pharaoh, but I am imposing the standards of another time; to the people of Joseph’s day, he was a savior from starvation. And, of course, the tax he imposed—20 percent—would seem hospitable today, especially since it really was nothing other than rent on the land.

The blessing of Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, brings them officially into Jacob’s family. But they come not as Jacob’s grandsons but as his sons, so that they will be listed among the tribes of Israel and Joseph’s name will be removed (Numbers 1:10, 32-35). Ephraim is preferred over Manasseh, following a consistent pattern in which the younger is chosen over the older (for example, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau).

PRAYER: Lord, may I have faith to see you at work in all of life. Amen.

List several pros and cons of Joseph’s policies in the fourteen years of feast and famine.