Joseph's Brothers Return to Egypt 43 Now the famine was severe in the land. 2 And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.” 3 But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’” 6 Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” 7 They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” 8 And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. 9 I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. 10 If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.” 11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. 12 Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. 13 Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man. 14 May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” 15 So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” 17 The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph's house. 18 And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house, and they said, “It is because of the money, which was replaced in our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.” 19 So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house, 20 and said, “Oh, my lord, we came down the first time to buy food. 21 And when we came to the lodging place we opened our sacks, and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us, 22 and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.” 23 He replied, “Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them. 24 And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and given them water, and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, 25 they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there. 26 When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground. 27 And he inquired about their welfare and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” 28 They said, “Your servant our father is well; he is still alive.” And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. 29 And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son!” 30 Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there. 31 Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself he said, “Serve the food.” 32 They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. 33 And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. 34 Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him. As we said in the last blog, Jacob is afraid to send his sons back to Egypt because Joseph had dealt harshly with his brothers, had accused them of being spies, had taken one of their brothers captive--probably to make him experience the same kind of prison Joseph had been thrown into--and had made them out to look like thieves and told them to never return unless they brought their other brother, Benjamin, with them to confirm their story.
Jacob didn't want to release Benjamin to these sons that it seems he was trusting less and less and Judah (the tribe from which the future kings, including Jesus would come) has to make a vow to Jacob that he will swear by his own sons that he will let nothing happen to Benjamin and that he will be guilty if anything does happen before Jacob agrees to let the sons go back to Egypt to buy more grain--as the famine was severe. Jacob sends them back with Benjamin, the empty sacks, the money that they should have left in Egypt the first time that had been returned to them, more money for the purchase this time, and some peace offerings of the best gifts they had to offer--a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. This was a great gift in the time of famine. Joseph then accepts them as guests in his home and throws a party for them, which greatly confuses them since they have been accused of being spies and they assumed they were wanted as thieves. They tried to rectify the second situation by telling Joseph's steward about the issue with the money in their sacks when they left, but the brothers were told that it was their God who had returned the money to them and that Joseph had received their money. And they were treated well as their brother SImeon was returned to them and their feet were washed and their donkeys were stabled and they presented their gifts for Joseph around noon as they heard they were going to eat the noon-time meal with him. Joseph is overcome at the sight of his brother Benjamin and longs to get to know him better and have some time alone with him--and he's not yet done with his tricks to this end. We'll see that next time. For now, he pretends to be one of the Egyptians and eats separately from his brothers because Hebrews and Egyptians were not supposed to eat together as it was culturally inappropriate, and he didn't even eat with the other Egyptians, probably because of his being royalty and them being his servants/subjects and that too would be inappropriate. Joseph then gives them a hint that he knows more about them then they imagine because he has them seated from oldest to youngest. They had never told him who was older and at their age it probably would be hard to tell who was older and who was younger (with the exception of Benjamin of course, because he was born so much later than the others). And Joseph gave Benjamin five times as much food as he gave any of the other brothers. This should have made the gears start turning and probably left the sons of Israel with more questions than answers. Joseph won't be satisfied just seeing his brothers and sending them back on their way--especially now that he has seen is brother Benjamin. He'll try to make Benjamin's stay a little more permanent and the "big reveal" as he tells his brothers his true identity next time.
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Joseph's Brothers Go to Egypt 42 When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 2 And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.” 3 So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. 5 Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 6 Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. 7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” 8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.” 10 They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.” 12 He said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.” 13 And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.” 14 But Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you. You are spies. 15 By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.” 17 And he put them all together in custody for three days. 18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: 19 if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, 20 and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so. 21 Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” 22 And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” 23 They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. 24 Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. 25 And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them. 26 Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. 28 He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” 29 When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’ 33 Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way. 34 Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’” 35 As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.” 37 Then Reuben said to his father, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.” 38 But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.” Last time, we left Joseph as the governor of Egypt (or something similar as he Pharaoh was greater than him only in the throne). Whatever Joseph said was what was done as the people of Egypt needed the wisdom that God had given to him in order to survive the coming famine.
We are now transported back to the land of Canaan to check-in on Joseph's family--you know the brothers that wanted to kill him, but instead sold him into slavery so they could make something off of him, and told their father that his most beloved son was dead, and a father that has been grieving ever since--at least, until his last son, Benjamin was born, as he sees Benjamin as some sort of way to have a second-chance. When he sees Benjamin, he sees Joseph as Benjamin was Joseph's only full brother (all the other brothers were half-siblings of Joseph and Benjamin from 3 other women). The famine is so severe that it has reached Canaan and it seems that Jacob's sons are wallowing in self-pity staring at each other instead of doing anything productive, and old-man Jacob tells them to get up and go to Egypt to buy grain because he's heard they have an abundant supply there and may be willing to sell some of it to the Israelites. Jacob does not send Benjamin with them because he no longer trusts them to take care of his beloved son. Maybe in all these years Jacob has gotten some feeling that the older brothers were responsible for what happened to Joseph. Joseph somehow recognizes his brothers after all these years, and remembers the dreams that God had given him as a child. Surely this was the fulfillment of his first dream where his older brothers would bow down before him, and God had even made the dream about them gathering grain and their sheaves of grain bowing down before Joseph's sheave. But wasn't there another dream where there the sun, the moon, and ELEVEN stars bowed down before Joseph? Joseph still hasn't been able to figure this dream out until his brothers tell him about Benjamin, the brother that Joseph never knew about. Joseph knows that he must bring Jacob, Leah, and all of the other brothers down to Egypt. Notice he skips over the oldest brother Reuben when deciding who to put into jail, probably because Reuben tried to save his life, and goes to the next-oldest brother, Simeon. Joseph may not have even been aware of this part of the story until they confessed right in front of him in Hebrew, assuming that he couldn't understand as he had been speaking in Egyptian and using a translator the whole time, but he hears the whole thing and realized that Reuben always wanted to come back and save him and was not responsible for what happened. He decides to hold one of the brothers hostage while he sends nine of them back with grain and with the money that had brought to buy the grain, which makes them appear to be thieves. He said he would not release Simeon until they came back with their brother Benjamin, for he longed to see the brother he had never seen, and we'll see later that he even tried to use some trickery to make Benjamin stay with him in Egypt later. Jacob is distressed at hearing that Simeon is gone and that the governor of Egypt thinks them to be spies (a crime that would likely be a capital punishment) and thinks that both Joseph and Simeon are dead and now the governor wants to take Benjamin too? This is too much for the old man's heart and he would rather he and his family starve and let Simeon rot in prison then ever let his son Benjamin out of his sight--that is, until the famine gets so bad that he has no option other than to go back to Egypt to try to buy food again and his sons remind him they can't go back without Benjamin. We'll see that next time. Joseph Rises to Power 37 This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. 38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” 39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. 40 You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” 41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. 43 And he made him ride in his second chariot. And they called out before him, “Bow the knee!” Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. 46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. 47 During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly, 48 and he gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities. He put in every city the food from the fields around it. 49 And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured. 50 Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore them to him. 51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.” 52 The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” 53 The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, 54 and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.” 56 So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. 57 Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth. I am going to trust at this point that most of you following along with me are now in possession of a hard copy of the Bible to follow along with us or that you are aware of one of the many Bible applications that you can use for reading, note-taking, and even listening to the Bible. More information about study tools can be found on our Discord Server (see the link in the site navigation). Everyone is welcome to join and study along with me. Those looking for opportunities to be discipled and make disciples should also join the Discord server as there's a community of people there waiting to help you grow in Christ and others who you can help disciple as well. Remember that God doesn't always call the equipped, but He does equip the called, and all of us have been called by way of the Great Commission to "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." I just wanted to get that out of the way today first before we returned to the biography of Joseph in Genesis as some may still be unclear that my purpose in writing these articles is to encourage myself and my friends and many others to study the Bible one bite at a time, try to see the entire narrative of the Bible as a plan that God ordained from before the beginning of time to create, redeem and restore His people and to have an everlasting, covenant relationship with them, and to do all of this to the praise of His glory. Let's see how that plays out today in the book of Genesis as God puts His man, Joseph in the palace of Pharaoh to bring about salvation for his people, the people of Israel and to protect them not only from famine, but from the influence of the wickedness of the Canaanites.
Remember from last time that God has sent Pharaoh some disturbing dreams that none of his spiritual advisors, the magicians of Egypt, could interpret for him. The chief cupbearer who had been in prison with Joseph and had a disturbing dream of his own that God had given Joseph the interpretation for, remembers Joseph and wrongly ascribes the interpretation that he received to the man--he wasn't really paying attention when Joseph said "The Lord will give the interpretation." The chief cupbearer tells Pharaoh that he should call for Joseph because it couldn't hurt to ask this man if he could interpret the dream that none of the magicians could, and the chief cupbearer feels guilty for forgetting his oath until two years later that he was going to bring up Joseph and his predicament to Pharaoh and this seemed as good a time as any to make good on his vow. God has given Joseph not on the interpretation of Pharaoh's dream, but a plan of action to save the kingdom of Egypt from destruction by this famine, and the plan would not only save Egypt, but many of the other surrounding nations that would come to Egypt for food--in a way this is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant that "through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed," though it is not the ultimate fulfillment of that promise. Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of executing the plan that God has given him and makes him authority to speak and act on behalf of Pharaoh so that there is no one higher in the entire kingdom with the exception of Pharaoh himself--quite a change from the position Joseph had been in to this point being a slave in Potiphar's house and a prisoner in "the pit." We'll see God work in similar ways to bring about role reversals and but His person in the right position in the books of Esther and Daniel later in the Old Testament--and I'm sure there are other examples as well through both the Old and New Testaments. Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name (though he never goes by it, much like the Babylonians gave Daniel a new name that he never went by). The meaning of this name is unknown but appears to be a combination for the words "to hide or store," "to come to rest," and "to shine or be beautiful." One way it could be looked at to "To rest in God's glorious storehouses of provision" so that we fear nothing because we know that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.. There is a brief note here about Pharaoh giving a wife to Joseph (important because we'll see later in the chapter that he will have two sons by her). Most of the chapter though gives some specific details about Joseph executing the plan God had given him--details like he was 30 years old when he started his career as what some have referred to as the Prime Minister of Egypt (though I'm not even sure that title is correct). It's an interesting parallel that we'll see Jesus starts His ministry at 30 years of age as well. And God blessed the land of Egypt so much in the time of plenty (and I believe that he moved the heart of the people of Egypt so that they gave above and beyond what was required) so that Joseph could no longer count the grain that had been stored up and it is described as being "like the sand of the sea." A quick aside, not to be confused with Biblical interpretation here, but I've often wondered how there could be room to store such grain and we wouldn't see the remnants of these storehouses. Surely you'd think we'd see some silos or something to protect the grain since it was the property of Pharaoh and the kingdom of Egypt. Is it possible that this was the true purpose of the pyramids and that they had nothing to do (at first) with death, burial or storing up earthly treasures for the afterlife? Maybe they were seen as a place of protection and storing of treasure (in this case the valuable food that was necessary to feed the people for seven years) and like many things they became icons that lost their real meaning and people associated the power to be in the object instead of in the God who provided the deliverance. Just a thought and maybe I'm way off-base, but it does say that Joseph's plan was to store up the grain in the big cities and we do see the pyramids near the major cities. It would be interesting if these are left as memorials to God's provision from this point in history and I could definitely see no longer counting the grain if it was enough volume to fill all the pyramids of Egypt. Back to the actual biblical account now. God blessed Joseph with two sons, the first named Manasseh as God had allowed him to forget all the pain and suffering to this point and to have a new family apart from the one in Canaan that had brought about so much pain and suffering, and he called his second son Ephraim because God had made him fruitful and blessed him abundantly in the land of his affliction. Notice that the grain that had been taken from the people by tax and stored up for this famine had to be bought back when the people wanted it to make bread--this was not a government welfare program. Joseph was responsible for rationing out enough for each family according to what they could afford and it is no surprise that Egypt became wealthy as we'll see soon that people from other nations would come to buy grain. In fact this famine is going to lead to an awkward "family reunion" for Joseph that we'll talk about next time, Lord willing. READ: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+41%3A1-36&version=ESV LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.41.1-Gen.41.36 Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams 41 After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, 2 and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. 3 And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. 4 And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. And Pharaoh awoke. 5 And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. 6 And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. 7 And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. 8 So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh. 9 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “I remember my offenses today. 10 When Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, 11 we dreamed on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own interpretation. 12 A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. 13 And as he interpreted to us, so it came about. I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.” 14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. 15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” 17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. 18 Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. 19 Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt. 20 And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, 21 but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke. 22 I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good. 23 Seven ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them, 24 and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.” 25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one. 27 The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. 28 It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, 30 but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, 31 and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. 32 And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. 33 Now therefore let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years. 35 And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. 36 That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.” After many years that have passed quickly in just a couple of chapters, Joseph has gone from being the heir-apparent of his father, to a slave in the house of Potiphar, to a prisoner and an enemy of the state, to God's prophet inside the prison, to a time and place where he is now about to stand in front of Pharaoh to speak to the king and the nation on behalf of God.
Two years after Joseph prayed for the Lord to give him the interpretation of the dreams for the cook and the cupbearer, which revealed that the cook would be hanged for trying to poison Pharaoh while the chief cupbearer would be returned to his post with honor, Pharaoh has a couple of disturbing dreams given to him by God, but neither Pharaoh nor any of his "magicians" (the ones with the books of the symbols on how to interpret dreams) could give the interpretation. The cupbearer being close to the king (that is Pharaoh), heard his predicament and finally remembered Joseph and remembered that he was supposed to bring Joseph to Pharaoh's attention and had failed to do so. He tells the story of Joseph interpreting the dreams of both the cook and the cupbearer. Pharaoh calls for Joseph and Joseph is cleaned up so that he may be presentable to the king. Once again, Joseph answered wisely to give God the glory for the interpretation of the dreams, just as he had with the cook and the cupbearer. Pharaoh relays the dreams to Joseph about seven fat cows and seven skinny cows by the river and how the seven skinny cows ate the seven fat cows, but the seven skinny cows stayed skinny. And again there was a stalk of corn with seven good and full ears of corn and seven ears of withered, dried-up, blighted corn And the seven withered ears ate up the seven good ears and remained withered, dried-up and blighted so that there was no difference from before. Pharaoh reiterates that he had told these dreams to all of the magicians of Egypt and none of them could give an interpretation. Joseph then spoke to Pharaoh say the two dreams were two versions of the same dream--there were going to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of severe famine that would be so severe that they would seem to swallow up the seven years of plenty and no one would remember them--they would only remember the famine. And this famine would be so severe that it would take place the entire kingdom of Egypt and this thing that God is going to do is certain, but that God was giving Pharaoh this dream so that he could be ready and prepare for it. Joseph then goes beyond just interpreting the dream and lays out a plan for Pharoah to institute a 20% tax on all produce and to store up this tax from the years of plenty so that they may have enough to give rations to all the people of Egypt during the time of famine. We'll see in tomorrow's passage how Pharaoh sees that Joseph is not only blessed with the gifts of prophecy and the interpretation of dreams, but also with the gift of administration and Pharaoh sees no one better to execute Joseph's plan than Joseph himself (and probably it's to his political advantage to make Joseph the "fall guy" if something goes wrong), so God will once again change Joseph's address and give him a different mission which will lead to one of the greatest statements in the entire Bible when Joseph will be reunited with his brothers and say to them, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." However, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself and look forward to sharing more with you about the story of Joseph--an Old Testament type of Christ--next time. READ: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2040&version=ESV LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.40 Joseph Interprets Two Prisoners' Dreams 40 Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. 4 The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. 5 And one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. 6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. 7 So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” 8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” 9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, 10 and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. 11 Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.” 12 Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 13 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. 14 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. 15 For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, 17 and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” 18 And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. 19 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.” 20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. I told you a little about this passage at the end of the blog from Chapter 39 of Genesis. Joseph, through no fault of his own in that chapter, got arrested because the wife of his owner accused him of trying to rape or at least sexually assault her when in reality it was Potiphar's wife who was trying to force Joseph to have sexual relations with her while Potiphar was away.
Joseph gets thrown into prison--but not just any prison, as it seems like this prison is reserved for those who are political enemies of the state, as these other two prisoners we are going to see today are there because one or both of them were involved in an attempt to poison the Pharaoh's food in an assassination attempt. The two obvious culprits were Pharaoh's cook and cupbearer. We don't usually have cupbearers in today's society, and some translations will say "butler" (which isn't really right). This person served by the side of the king and was part of his "security detail." Specifically, it was his job to taste-test everything that the king was going to eat or drink to make sure that it would not make the king sick and that it did not contain any lethal poison (and that it actually tasted good and was fit for the king). Poisoned food shouldn't be able to get through to the king unless he let it happen, or unless the cook sent different (non-poisoned) food to the cupbearer than he sent to the king. Both of these men where in prison awaiting execution unless the investigation showed that one of them was innocent. Both men had dreams sent from God, but the dreams were symbolic and while these men probably would have turned to the magicians in the king's palace for interpretation of such dreams if they were in their royal posts, they were in prison and had no one to turn to. Joseph, being the man of integrity that he was had gained the respect of the jailer (think warden of the prison) and had been given care over the inmates--much like he had been given care over everything in Potiphar's house, save Potiphar's wife. He sees these two prisoners are troubled by something and asks them what's wrong. They tell him they've had a disturbing dream and they don't know the interpretation. Notice Joseph's response--he doesn't claim that he's an interpreter of dreams. He says that interpretation of dreams belongs to God and that they should tell Joseph the dreams so that he can pray to the Lord for the interpretation. I'll let you read the dreams and the interpretations on your own, but God uses these dreams to reveal to the two parties that He knows which is guilty and which is innocent, and which one would be set free and restored to his position and which one would be executed. In this situation, it was the cook who was guilty and the cupbearer--one of the closest people to the Pharaoh, was set free. Joseph's only request was that the cupbearer remember how Joseph had helped him and plead to Pharaoh on his behalf once he was released, but the cupbearer did not remember Joseph or his request (at least, not at this time). God uses this situation though to prepare the way for another divine appointment when God will send dreams to Pharaoh that his wise men (the "magicians") could not interpret and the cupbearer will remember that there was a man in prison with him who could interpret dreams, or at least served a God who could interpret dreams, and Joseph will be called forth from prison to assist Pharaoh with some truly miraculous results. We'll study that passage next time, Lord willing. READ: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+39&version=ESV LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.39 Joseph and Potiphar's Wife 39 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” 10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. 11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” 16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.” 19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. 23 The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. This passage is going to stand in stark contrast that that of the last blog. Where Judah and his family failed miserably when it came to sexual purity, Joseph's integrity stands head and shoulders above that of his brother (and most of his brothers for that matter). Perhaps that has something to do with Jacob keeping his favorite son so sheltered and close to home, or perhaps it has to do with his being sold into slavery and taken away from the affects of the Canaanites, or his clinging to God and everything that made him a child of God when he was a prisoner and slave in a foreign land--whatever the reason, we know that It's only through God's grace and His provision that Joseph was able to resist this temptation because the Lord provides the way of escape.
Joseph was a slave in Egypt in the house of Potiphar, the captain of the guard for Pharaoh. Potiphar was an influential man and was a man used to needing to be away from home, and God blessed Joseph because of his integrity and faithfulness, even in the small things so that he Potiphar trusted Joseph with more and more until he oversaw the entire household with the exception of Potiphar's wife. This gives us some indication that Potiphar was away from home for extended periods of time and it appears that Potiphar's wife would long for intimacy during these times and fantasized about being comforted by an affair with Joseph as he also seemed to be blessed in form and figure, and she found him very attractive. Joseph sees that his giving into Potiphar's wife's advances as a sin against both Potiphar and God, and he continued to resist her advances day after day until one day she set a trap for him. She sent all the other servants out of the house so that only her and Joseph were left inside. He cornered him and tried to force him to lie with her, but she ran away naked with her holding his garment. She had to think of something quickly to explain the situation and told everyone that Joseph had actually tried to rape her and that she had screamed and he ran away, leaving his clothes behind. Joseph, through no fault of his own, ends up in prison for a crime he didn't commit, but he's exactly where God plans for him to be. God is once again protecting him--first by getting him away from the Canaanites by making him a slave in Egypt and now providing a way of escape from the constant temptations and advances of Potiphar's wife by sending him to prison. I'm sure this isn't the way he imagined God's provision when he prayed for deliverance, but the Lord moves in mysterious ways that we often times don't and can't understand. God has placed Joseph here for a special purpose as he will continue to gain the trust of those in the prison, even the jailer (or maybe warden would be a better term) and the other prisoners. This will lead to Joseph being God's prophet for them during a time a planned assassination attempt and saving the life of the Pharaoh from inside the prison, and would put things in motion for Joseph to become prime minister of Egypt and make preparations not only for Egypt but for the whole region (including his family in Canaan) who would be seeking food and shelter during a time of great famine. We'll read about that as we study chapters 40 and 41 over the next few blog articles. Before we get started today, this is another one of those passages in the Bible that may not be appropriate for the youngest of readers. It's a real thing that happened and the narrative is descriptive, not prescriptive. With that said, let's get to the passage. READ: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+38&version=ESV LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.38 Judah and Tamar 38 It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her, 3 and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. 4 She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. 5 Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him. 6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. 8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. 10 And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. 11 Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house. 12 In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 And when Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14 she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” 17 He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “If you give me a pledge, until you send it—” 18 He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him. 19 Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood. 20 When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to take back the pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her. 21 And he asked the men of the place, “Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim at the roadside?” And they said, “No cult prostitute has been here.” 22 So he returned to Judah and said, “I have not found her. Also, the men of the place said, ‘No cult prostitute has been here.’” 23 And Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at. You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.” 24 About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” 25 As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” 26 Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again. 27 When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb. 28 And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez. 30 Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah. I'm going to take a guess that most of you have never read this chapter in the Bible unless you have undertaken a Bible-reading plan that tries to get you to read the entire Bible in a certain period of time. This is one of the passages that most people would skip if given the choice. Even so, Tamar is going to be one of the few women mentioned in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 (specifically, verse 3). For reasons you'll probably figure out rather quickly, this would probably be a story that you'd want to skip over when you're telling your family's history, but God insists on mentioning as part of the history on how His Son, Jesus was born to show how He can work all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Before we jump headlong into today's passage, let's look at one relevant passage from the New Testament that is going to show that what Tamar was dealing with was wrong and would be addressed specifically by the apostle Paul in his first letter to the church at Corinth.
1 Corinthians 7:1Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (ESV) Let's also be clear that one sin does not justify another. There is a lot of sin, corruption, rebellion and wickedness going on in this passage. Let's try to break it down as I give some of the main points. First, Judah gets involved with a Canaanite woman. We've already seen God forbid this several times and that Abraham and Isaac both took steps to make sure that their sons married women from the land of their forefathers, but Jacob had burned that bridge with his time that spent living with his uncle Laban, so now his sons are living among the Canaanites and naturally desire to take wives for themselves. We've already seen that Jacob's sons with the exception of Joseph are pretty morally corrupt in as much as they have plotted to murder their own brother and Joseph's life was saved because this brother, Judah, asked, "What profit is there in murder?" and they decide to sell their brother Joseph into slaver for the price of 20 pieces of silver--if split 10 ways between the 10 brothers involved, it means that each was willing to take 2 shekels of silver to pretend that their brother had been torn apart by wild beasts. Why did God warn His people to not marry the Canaanite women? Because he said they would lead them into all kinds of wickedness and idolatry and make their hearts divided and they would choose to follow the gods of their wives instead of following Him. We will see over and over again that idolatry and sexual immorality go hand-in-hand throughout the entire Bible, and I have a feeling that's at the root of what is going on here. Jacob's disregard to heed God's command for his children and their disobedience to that command themselves led to at least one grandchild of Jacob that was so wicked that he had to be put to death. Tradition of that time is that if an older brother died and left a widow without any male children to be heirs or to take care of her that the next oldest brother would take the widow as his wife and have children with her until she had a male child and it would be treated as if it was the son of the brother who had died, so that his family line should pass on. However, Er's brother Onan also appears to be wicked and not willing to fulfill his duty as Tamar's husband and he intentionally went through with the act for his pleasure while making sure to not impregnate Tamar and have her bear a son that would not be treated as his own, so because he did what was wicked in the sight of the Lord, he also was put to death. Judah's youngest son was apparently too young to have Tamar be given to him, and it appears that Judah is afraid that he will lose all of his sons, so while he says he intends to give Tamar to his youngest, Shelah, he really has no intention of doing so, and this becomes apparent to Tamar. So, after the death of Judah's wife, Tamar decides to disguise herself as a prostitute and trick Judah into having sex with her. While it's not mentioned here, Judah must have had some kind of reputation that would lead Tamar to believe that this would work and that he would be willing to have relations with a prostitute, and I think this once again comes back to the moral degradation that came from living among the Canaanites for so long and even taking a Canaanite woman as his wife, as prostitution was an acceptable thing in Canaanite culture and seen as part of their worship to their gods. I'll let you read the details of the encounter yourself, but notice that Tamar is careful to take in pledge someone that cannot be mistaken for anyone else, as the things she takes would be equivalent to "identity papers" at the time. When the time comes that she is called out for her sin, she will have the evidence to point the finger back at the one that is truly to blame here. Judah was ready to have her burned for her sin until she revealed that he was the father (probably in front of everyone who had been called as witnesses for her execution) and he confessed, "She is more righteous than I....." God blessed Tamar with twins and it would be through Perez that the line of the Messiah would continue, though we won't know that until the end of the book of Genesis. This seems a strange aside from the story of Joseph until you realize that it is part of the story of the Messiah and God included it intentionally. Would this be the choice you would have made if you were God? Would you have let your Son be born to this son of Jacob who had tried to sell his brother into slaver, make promises he didn't intend to keep with regard to the marriage of his son, and then turned to the comfort of a prostitute after the loss of his Canaanite wife? The Bible gives us the real stories of those involved--the good, the bad and the ugly, and sometimes, like here, and in other places like with David and Bathsheba (we'll also see her mentioned in the genealogy of Christ as "the wife of Uriah"), it can get very ugly. Yet, God uses these situations for His ultimate good to bring about the salvation of the whole world through His one and only Son, Jesus. |
Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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