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Genesis 48:1-7: Praying in faith.

“Some time later Joseph was told, ‘Your father is ill.’ So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. ² When Jacob was told, ‘Your son Joseph has come to you,’ Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.³ Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me ⁴ and said to me, “I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.”⁵ ‘Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. ⁶ Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. ⁷ As I was returning from Paddan,^[b] to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath’ (that is, Bethlehem).NIV

When it came to blessing Joseph’s two sons, Jacob appealed to what God had already said to him (4).

‘God had promised him two things, a numerous issue, and Canaan for an inheritance (Gen. 48:4); and Joseph’s sons, pursuant hereunto, should each of them multiply into a tribe, and each of them have a distinct lot in Canaan, equal with Jacob’s own sons. See how he blessed them by faith in that which God had said to him, Heb. 11:21. Note, In all our prayers, both for ourselves and for our children, we ought to have a particular eye to, and remembrance of, God’s promises to us.’ Matthew Henry.

These boys were now not to see themselves as heirs to worldly power and wealth in Egypt, but as members of the despised, but divinely chosen people of God (cf. Hebrews 11: 25,26).

Genesis 48:1-7: Blessed to bless.

Some time later Joseph was told, ‘Your father is ill.’ So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. ² When Jacob was told, ‘Your son Joseph has come to you,’ Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.³ Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty^[a] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me ⁴ and said to me, “I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.”⁵ ‘Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. ⁶ Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. ⁷ As I was returning from Paddan,^[b] to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath’ (that is, Bethlehem).NIV

‘’When Jacob was told, ‘’Your son Joseph has come to you,’’ Israel rallied his strength and sat up on his bed’’ (2).

Most weeks, on a Monday morning, I pray about the meetings I’m going to have during the week, asking God to both bless me and make me a blessing. I want my pastoral visits to have a strengthening effect on people, as in the case of Joseph here, with Jacob. I ask for that kind of positive impact. Some pastoral encounters are far from easy, and will stretch you out of your ‘comfort zone’, but you want to be a ‘channel’ of blessing.

However, even when sick people get well, they must eventually die. We are all mortal. Jacob ‘’rallied’’, and was able to say and do some important things at the last. But he was soon to die (49:33)  Christianity is not an inoculation against sickness and dying; nor is it a vaccination against loss (7).

‘The removal of dear relations from us is an affliction the remembrance of which cannot but abide with us a great while. Strong affections in the enjoyment cause long afflictions in the loss.’ Matthew Henry.

That is a true observation. Jacob felt the loss of his beloved Rachel deeply.  However, in all of life’s ‘ups and downs’, we can affirm that God is working for our good in all things, and that nothing can separate us from His love (see Romans 8:28, 38 & 39).

Genesis 48:1-4: Respect for the elderly.

“Some time later Joseph was told, ‘Your father is ill.’ So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. ² When Jacob was told, ‘Your son Joseph has come to you,’ Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.³ Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty^[a] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me ⁴ and said to me, “I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.” NIV

Christian parents desire blessing on their children and not just on themselves. Joseph brought his boys to his father to be blessed. Ephraim and Manasseh also got to hear something about their grandfather’s experience with God.

I am impressed by this quote from Matthew Henry:

‘Joseph took his two sons with him, that they might receive their dying grandfather’s blessing, and that what they might see in him, and hear from him, might make an abiding impression on them. Note…It is good to acquaint young people that are coming into the world with the aged servants of God that are going out of it, whose dying testimony to the goodness of God, and the pleasantness of wisdom’s ways, may be a great encouragement to the rising generation. Manasseh and Ephraim (I dare say) would never forget what passed at this time.’

I feel blessed that I have grown up in churches where the young and old mixed freely. As younger people we loved the older ‘saints’ and were eager to hear their stories of faith. We were only too willing to ‘sit at their feet’. As I write this, memories come streaming back of dear old friends who loved me, and I loved them. Many of them were not in the ‘spotlight’, but they were illuminated with the light of Christ. There influence is incalculable.

PRAYER: Father God, I want to say ‘thank you’ for the older believers whose examples inspire, and who have encouraged me along the way. As I grow older, may I be a blessing to the rising generation.

Genesis 48:1-2: Sick visiting.

“Some time later Joseph was told, ‘Your father is ill.’ So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. ² When Jacob was told, ‘Your son Joseph has come to you,’ Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed. “NIV

Visiting the sick has traditionally been seen as one of the duties of Christian pastors. It is indeed an important ministry. When I was a child I was often sickly, and I remember my pastor coming to see me. He had lost his leg in a cycling accident when he was 17, but he got around in an invalid car. My pastor was a man of God, and even now there is a special fragrance surrounding the memory of his visit.  But this ministry should not be restricted to pastors. We may not always feel equal to the task; for a hundred reasons or more we might prefer to do something else, but we should consider doing it all the same, trusting God to use us to bring comfort, company, encouragement…and maybe even healing.

‘Visiting the sick to whom we lie under obligations, or may have opportunity of doing good, either for body or soul, is our duty. The sick bed is a proper place both for giving comfort and counsel to others and receiving instruction ourselves.’ Matthew Henry.

PRAYER: ‘Oh to be His hand extended…’

Genesis 47: 27-31: A time to die.

^“27 Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.²⁸ Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. ²⁹ When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, ‘If I have found favour in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, ³⁰ but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.’‘I will do as you say,’ he said.³¹ ‘Swear to me,’ he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff.”NIV

Ecclesiastes 3:1,2 says: ‘’There is…a time to be born and a time to die…’’

However long a life may stretch; or how great an individual may be, there will come a time to die. We are wise to make preparations for it. We have followed Jacob’s ‘journey’ through many years. We have seen his many character flaws (and identified with him!). We have watched with breath-taking wonder as God has patiently worked on him, and as he has learned to pray, to trust, to cling to God, to worship. When we come to face the end, don’t we want to be like Jacob, approaching death as worshippers? (31b; Hebrews 11:21).  The bones of Jacob’s ancestors, Isaac and Jacob, were already in the cave near Mamre, which Abraham had bought from the Hittites for a burial site (Genesis 23:17, 18). When Jacob died, Joseph and his brothers carried his body to Canaan, and buried it there (Genesis 50:12,13). He kept his word  Matthew Henry’s comment is helpful:

‘He would be buried in Canaan, because it was the land of promise, and because it was a type of heaven, that better country which he that said these things declared plainly that he was in expectation of, Heb. 11:14. He aimed at a good land, which would be his rest and bliss on the other side death.’

PRAYER: Thank you, Lord, for the hope we have in you of a better land; and thank you for the grace which gets us there.

Genesis 47:13-26: Salvation and service.

^“13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. ¹⁴ Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. ¹⁵ When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, ‘Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.’¹⁶ ‘Then bring your livestock,’ said Joseph. ‘I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.’ ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.¹⁸ When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, ‘We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. ¹⁹ Why should we perish before your eyes – we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.’²⁰ So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, ²¹ and Joseph reduced the people to servitude,^[a] from one end of Egypt to the other. ²² However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allowance Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.²³ Joseph said to the people, ‘Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. ²⁴ But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.’²⁵ ‘You have saved our lives,’ they said. ‘May we find favour in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.’²⁶ So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt – still in force today – that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.” NIV

‘’You have saved our lives…May we find favour in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh’’ (25).

‘They were willing to serve their saviour…Meditate much on the love of Calvary, and you too will feel that his empire should begin within your heart, and hasten to subdue the kingdoms of the world…We shall never know the real blessedness of living, its peace and joy and strength, till we have utterly surrendered to Christ’s supremacy.’ F.B. Meyer.

I find Gordon Wenham’s words in the ‘New Bible Commentary’ helpful at this point:

‘Modern readers of this section tend to view Joseph’s approach to the hungry Egyptians as cruel exploitation. Why did he not just give them food instead of demanding they exchanged their herds, land and freedom for grain? This is not the way the OT views the situation. Lv.25:14-43 shows that it was regarded as a great act of charity to buy the land of the destitute and make them your employees (‘slaves’). Indeed such ‘slavery’ under a good employer was regarded by some as preferable to the risks of freedom (self-employment), and when offered freedom, some slaves refused to take it (Ex.21:5-6; Dt.15:16-17). Slavery in OT times was very different from the harsh exploitation that was involved in the Atlantic slave trade of more recent centuries. OT slavery at its best meant a job for life with a benevolent employer. Certainly, this was how the Egyptians viewed Joseph’s actions…(47:25)’

PRAYER: Thank you Lord Jesus that in service to you we find perfect freedom.

Genesis 47: 11, 12: Detailed provision.

^“11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed. ¹² Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.”NIV

This is the story of Joseph, not Jesus. Yet Jesus is there ‘’in all the Scriptures’’ (Luke 24). There are things in the Old Testament that picture Him, foreshadow Him, point to Him. We have seen this again and again in Genesis, that Joseph is a ‘type’ of Christ. This short passage speaks to me of how the Lord knows our needs, and provides for them in detail. It is the detail that strikes you repeatedly; it makes such an impression on you.You have a need; you don’t tell a soul, but you do talk to God about it. You pray. In time, just what you need arrives in your hands. You see it as a miracle. It strengths your faith. The Lord knows the needs of His family, and He knows them in detail.

‘’And Joseph provided food for his father and his brothers in amounts appropriate to the number of their dependents, including the smallest children’’ (12 New Living Translation).

‘This bespeaks, not only Joseph a good man, who took this tender care of his poor relations, but God a good God, who raised him up for this purpose, and put him into a capacity for doing it, as Esther came to the kingdom for such a time as this. What God here did for Jacob he has, in effect, promised to do for all his, that serve him and trust in him. Ps. 37:19; In the days of famine they shall be satisfied.’ Matthew Henry.

Genesis 47:7-12: Blessed to bless.

^“7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, ⁸ Pharaoh asked him, ‘How old are you?’⁹ And Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘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.’ ¹⁰ Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.¹¹ So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed. ¹² Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.” NIV

It’s been pointed out that the elderly Jacob was carried into court and helped to stand before Pharaoh (the literal meaning of 47:7). He cut a pathetic figure, but Pharaoh showed him great respect and was twice blessed by him. (Who is ‘’the greater’’ here: see Hebrews 7:7?)

We’ve grown accustomed now to speaking about someone’s ‘journey’, and here Jacob talks about his ‘’pilgrimage’’. On his ‘journey’ he had often sinned and experienced great difficulties. Yet still he was preeminently the man of blessing through whom ‘’all peoples on earth will be blessed’’ (28:14) (God’s blessing on Egypt was immediately obvious with Joseph supplying the Egyptians with grain through the famine. We will come to this in the next section).

Note 4 things:

• Sin needn’t disqualify you from being a blessing to others – especially if you learn from it, repent of it and grow through it;
• Your difficulties shouldn’t stop you blessing others, but may in some ways may contribute to the blessing you give. People are blessed by you because of what they see you have come through;
• Weakness needn’t prevent you from being a blessing, for in weakness God’s strength is made perfect. ‘He turns our weaknesses into His opportunities, so that the glory goes to Him’ (Graham Kendrick);
• We can only bless if God first blesses us – then we are ‘channels’ of His blessing to the world.

Genesis 47: 6b: Special ability.

“And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.’ NIV

I heard someone say, ‘A man’s ministry makes room for him’. This may not be unfailingly true, but it ought to be. The local church should be a ‘’Goshen’’ where people can use the gifts God has given them, for His glory. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20,27), and therefore can make a contribution to the church (1 Cor 12:7ff). There is surely no happier place to be than where you are functioning in the sweet spot of your Spiritual gifting.

I believe the old hymn is correct to say, ‘There’s a work for Jesus none but you can do.’