GENESIS 43-502012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Genesis 43-50

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. Good evening. Would you turn with me please to Genesis chapter 43. Genesis chapter 43 this evening as we continue on going through the Bible in three years.

We'll be looking at Genesis chapter 43 through 50 this evening, finishing up the book of Genesis and getting ready to now head into the book of Exodus tomorrow as we continue on in the Bible and three years. So a lot of exciting things coming up in the word for us. And we get to finish off the life of Joseph here in the book of Genesis, which is just really exciting.

Well, as we look at the book of Genesis, we're talking about beginnings. That's what the name Genesis means. It means beginnings. And we've been seeing the beginnings of all kinds of different things of the Christian faith, of life in general, of God's relationship with mankind, and so on and so forth. And so we see these beginnings here. Now, these things were recorded for us by Moses in

And it was during the time that the children of Israel were out in the wilderness that he put these things together and wrote them down for us so that we could have them and study them today.

He records for us in the book of Genesis, essentially the first 2,000 years of history, give or take a couple hundred years. But from the very beginning, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth to now the death of Joseph that we'll be studying this evening. We have the recorded history of what happened in the world and specifically what God was doing to bring forth the Messiah, the Savior, to this world.

The purpose of the book of Genesis is primarily to record the beginning of the Hebrew nation, that is the nation of Israel, because it was through that nation that God was going to bring forth the Savior that he has been promising. Well, on our timeline, as we look at the books of Moses, we have covered already quite a bit of time as we head now to the end of the book of Genesis. We started, of course, in the beginning with Adam and Eve and the garden and

all of the things that transpired up to the flood with Noah. And then after the flood, we saw the Tower of Babel and, you know, the surrounding events, the dispersion of mankind, the introduction of all the different languages. Then we jumped in at Abraham and kind of slowed down quite a bit, looking at the lives of Abraham and Isaac, as well as Jacob.

And then we also have been focusing on, for the past few weeks, the life of Joseph and his role in God's plan for the people of Israel. And so as we've been talking about Jacob's family, we'll see the death of Jacob this evening. This is, once again, a picture of the...

family that Jacob had through his different wives. And so he married, of course, Leah and Rachel, and then Bilhah and Zilpah were their maidservants that also were given to Jacob as wives in Leah and Rachel's competition to have more kids than the other. And so he ended up with 12 sons and one daughter, and

And those are listed there for you. They're not in order of birth because they're grouped together by who gave birth to them. But you have Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, all given through Leah. And then Joseph and Benjamin through Rachel, Dan and Naphtali through Bilhah, and Gad and Asher through Zilpah.

And so these are the sons of Jacob or the sons of Israel. And we'll be looking at that once again this evening because these sons are now becoming pillars or foundational for the nation of Israel that is going to be developed this evening as well as in the next couple of weeks as we look into the book of Exodus.

Well, as we're looking at the book of Genesis, it's also good to understand a little bit about the geography of what we're covering here. Now, starting up at the top, you have the area of Haran. That's where Abraham was in Genesis chapter 12 when God called him away from his family to go to the land that he is going to promise to him, and that was the land of Canaan.

And so Haran, we've been to a couple times because also in Genesis 24, Abraham sent his servant there to find a wife for his son Isaac. And so the servant went up there and found Rebekah and brought her back for Isaac as a wife. And then also in Genesis chapter 29, it's also where Jacob fled to when he had taken

blessing that was intended for Esau. And so Esau wanted to put him to death. And so Jacob fled back to Haran and spent 20 years in Haran. That's where he got married to Leah and Rachel and so on and so forth. And so we've been to Haran quite a few times. Of course, the land of Canaan is the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so for much of Abraham's life, that's where he lived. For much of

Actually, for all of Isaac's life, he lived in the land of Canaan. And for much of Jacob's life, he lived in the land of Canaan.

We also saw and discussed the area, the land of Edom, which was populated by Esau and his descendants. And we talked about that a little bit as Esau went to meet Jacob and then returned back to Edom afterwards. And then we've also been looking at Egypt because now Joseph has been sold into slavery. So the second to youngest son of Jacob is Joseph.

And he was sold into slavery. We saw that last week. And as a slave, he was taken to Egypt and began to be a slave there for Potiphar, who was the captain of the guard there in Egypt. And so we're now looking primarily at Egypt. We'll be spending the remainder of our chapters primarily in Egypt and looking at what God develops there in the book of Genesis.

Here's a map of the Egyptian empire, kind of at its peak. And to give you a sense, so you see Canaan up there on the top right of the Egyptian empire, because Egypt was kind of a world power of the day, and it had a lot of influence.

Also covered the area of Sinai and then all the way down there for Nubia and Cush. The main area that we're looking at as we are talking about Egypt is the upper area where you see all the rivers coming and connecting with the Mediterranean Sea. And so this...

blow up on the left-hand side here is a blow up of the what's called the lower Egypt which is you know where kind of the main things were going on Memphis there is the capital of Egypt although Thebes will become the capital later on in Egypt's history but you also see the land of Goshen there we'll talk a little bit more about that this evening

And so this is where we're going to be spending our time, geographically anyways, in the land of Egypt where Joseph is and where his brothers go to visit him and finally where his family comes to live as well.

Well, this evening, as we get started in chapter 43, we begin with the key verse, which is verse 15. And it says, So the men took that present and Benjamin, and they took double money in their hand and arose and went down to Egypt, and they stood before Joseph.

So just to really quick recap the story up to this point, Joseph was favored by Jacob. He was the favorite son of the 12th.

And so the rest of the brothers didn't really like him that much as a result. And as he went out to check on them one time, the brothers plotted together to kill him. But then they decided, well, let's just sell him into slavery. And they went back and told their father that he had died in the wilderness.

And so Joseph was sold into slavery, taken to Egypt. He was, well, experiencing some hard times in Egypt because as a slave, you know, of course he would not have his freedom, but then he was also falsely accused and imprisoned for some amount of time. And so Joseph was suffering there in Egypt, uh,

until the Lord brought him out of prison before Pharaoh to interpret the dreams that Pharaoh had. And the dreams were dreams from God that foretold the famine that would come.

And through this, Pharaoh recognizes that the spirit of God is in Joseph. And so he appoints Joseph as second in command of all of the nation of Egypt in preparation for the famine that was to come. He puts Joseph in charge. He's collecting the grain and supplies and everything so that they'll be able to survive the famine. And so Joseph is now basically in charge of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

And his brothers come to Egypt to buy some food because the famine affects not only Egypt, but also the land of Canaan. And so they come to Egypt to buy food. They stand before Joseph, but they don't realize that it's Joseph. He sees them. He knows it's them, but they don't realize that it's Joseph that they're dealing with. And so Joseph is dealing with his brothers and he

deals harshly with them, it said last week as we studied together, we saw that in the chapters. And so he keeps Simeon, the eldest brother, well, the second oldest brother, he keeps Simeon in prison in Egypt and sends the other brothers back to prove that they're not spies. They have to come back with their youngest brother, Benjamin.

Well, the brothers go back. That's back in Genesis chapter 42. They go back home. They tell Jacob. Jacob says, no way you're not taking Benjamin back because, well, I've already lost Joseph. Remember, Joseph and Benjamin were both children that were born of Rachel. And Rachel was the wife that he loved, remember? And so he already lost Joseph. He's not willing to lose Benjamin as well.

And that's where we left off in chapter 42. Now in chapter 43, they've run out of food. They're hungry again. And in verses 1 through 14, what we find is Judah is convincing Jacob to let Benjamin go to Egypt. And he really steps up here and says, look, I'll take him on. He's my responsibility. If anything happens to him, you can hold me accountable for whatever happens.

And so Judah steps up and he convinces Jacob to let Benjamin go as they go back to Egypt to get more food so that they can survive the famine.

Well, as they get to Egypt, the brothers are then taken to Joseph's home there in verses 15 through 25. They don't really know what's going on, but Simeon is reunited with them at that time. So all the brothers are together. And then in verses 26 through 34, we find that Joseph throws a dinner for the brothers. And so they dine together at Joseph's home.

Now, I think it's important to understand and to point out in verse 30 of Genesis chapter 43, it tells us that Joseph's heart yearned for his brother.

And I think these things give us some insight, as we saw a little bit last week and we'll continue to see this week, that Joseph is not just, you know, playing games. He's not just having a good time with his brothers and, you know, hey, they don't realize it's me, so I'm going to, you know, play with them and toy around with them and give them a hard time. Nor is he saying, I'm going to get back at them for what they did to me.

We'll see that's not the heart of Joseph throughout our time together this evening. His heart is yearning for his brother, it says there in verse 30. And so he's not just having fun, he's not trying to get even. We see here indicated that Joseph would end this now and reveal himself to his brothers if he could. But there seems to be some direction that he received from God or some instruction or something that he is going through this unknowingly.

Not willingly, not because this is what he wants, but because this is what he has been called to do. David Guzik puts it this way, he is guided by the hand of God, testing the hearts of his brothers and bringing them to complete repentance. And we'll see the evidence of that repentance in a few more chapters as we look at his brothers and Joseph's dealings with them.

Also, another important thing to point out here is verse 32 of Genesis 43, because this will come up a little bit later on in our study. It says, So they set him a place by himself and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat food with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. So,

Dinner was held in kind of a unique way, not probably what we would picture. It wasn't everybody all together around one table, but there's actually three separate sections where food is being consumed at this dinner because the Hebrews would not eat lunch.

Actually, flip that around. The Egyptians would not eat with the Hebrews because that was an abomination to them. They wanted nothing to do and they wouldn't have that kind of closeness with the Hebrews. And that, again, becomes important later on. So the brothers dine at Joseph's home and have this time together, but Joseph has still not revealed himself to them. Well then...

Skipping ahead now. This is the journey to Egypt, by the way. So they were in Canaan, probably in the southern part of Canaan, which is where they typically would dwell. And then they head over to Egypt to where Joseph was to buy grain. That's where they have dinner. They don't know what's going on. But then the plot thickens in Genesis chapter 44. Key verse is verse 2.

Joseph says, also put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest and his grain money. So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. So what we have happening here is the brothers have had dinner with Joseph. Now they're going to be heading back to Canaan. They're going back home. And Joseph gives instruction to his servant. He says, put their money back in their sacks, but also take my silver cup and put that in

in benjamin's sack in the the the the pack for the the youngest brother make sure you include the silver cup and then as the brothers leave and they're heading back home then the servant goes and catches up with them and they find the cup in benjamin's sack and that's verses 1 through 17.

Then they're brought back to Joseph, verses 18 through 34, and here's where we begin to see the evidence of repentance in the heart of Joseph's brothers. Because at this time, Judah offers himself in place of Benjamin.

Because the cup was found in Benjamin's sack, the verdict was that, well, Benjamin will have to be the slave there in Egypt for the rest of his life because allegedly he stole this cup.

Now, Joseph knew he didn't steal the cup. He told his servant to put it there. But again, this is a test that has been set up for the brothers. And it's part of God bringing them to repentance. And we do see here Judah showing repentance by his actions. Now, we've talked about repentance many times in the past. Repentance is to stop doing something, to stop sinning,

But it's not just the stopping of that behavior. It's then practicing the opposite of that behavior. So to repent of lying is not just to stop lying, but then to turn around and tell the truth.

To repent of stealing is not just to stop stealing, but then to turn around and pay back and give what is rightfully given, rightfully deserved or rightfully owned, and then even to give generously to others. That's the opposite of stealing. Well, in the same way, we see Judah showing this opposite of his previous behavior, right?

It was back in Genesis chapter 37, verse 26 and 27, that Judah speaks up and he says to his brothers, hey, what profit is it to us if Joseph is killed or put to death? Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, Judah says. Let's get some profit from it. Let's earn some money through this. And he can go into slavery. And so Judah,

Judah is the one who suggested that they sell Joseph into slavery. Now what we see happening is Judah does the opposite. And instead of saying, yes, that's a good verdict. Take Benjamin. He could be your slave. We're going to go back and we'll be fine. He says, no, take me. Instead of selling his brother into slavery, he offers himself as

to take his brother's place. He says, take me instead. I'll be the slave for the rest of my life. Here in chapter 44, verse 33 and 34, he says, let your servant, speaking of himself, remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord.

And so what we're seeing here is the fruit of repentance in Judah's life, that his heart has been changed through all of these things. And so what God is doing through Joseph is being seen here as Judah is repentant of his actions. He's not just stopped, you know, his attitude and his heart towards Joseph, but now he's doing the opposite and he's demonstrating genuine repentance in his protection of Benjamin.

Well, that brings us to chapter 45, the key verse is verse 9. It says, And so what we have here in chapter 45 is now Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers there in verses 1 through 15.

So as Judah is stepping up and showing this repentance and saying, take me instead, now Joseph is so overcome with emotion, he can't hold it back any longer. And so he reveals himself to his brothers and says,

demonstrates to them, I'm Joseph. He convinces them, I'm Joseph. Now, they were probably pretty floored as he is revealing himself to them because, you know, they've been terrified of this guy for some time. They thought Joseph was long gone, but now they're

They don't know the story yet, but he's been made second in command of the nation of Egypt. So you can imagine what the brothers were experiencing and how fearful they would be when they realize he's the one that we sold into slavery and we treated so badly. And that's going to come out later on. We'll see their fear and their terror lasts a long time to come.

And so he reveals himself to his brothers, but he doesn't have any hard feelings to them. He loves them. He wants to be with them. And so he invites his family to move to Egypt. There in verses 16 through 24, Pharaoh hears about his family and also extends the invitation for them to move to Egypt to be provided for and taken care of.

during the remainder of the famine. And so the brothers return home in verses 25 through 28 and begin to tell Jacob or Israel the news.

I love the heart of Joseph here. And again, we get to see it over and over again. But there in verse 8, Joseph, his testimony to his brothers is, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. And so even though Joseph was treated so terribly by his brothers and then sold into slavery and then

and then falsely accused and put into prison. He went through all of these things as a direct result of his brothers hating him because he was his father's favorite. And yet, he's able to say, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He's able to see God is at work. God is in control. God is accomplishing his purposes.

And so again, we get to see a glimpse in the heart of Joseph as he really is not bitter towards his brothers, but he is really trusting God through all of the midst of his circumstances, which are probably very difficult for you and I even to fully comprehend. What an incredible example we have for us in Joseph.

Well, as we look at chapter 45, the brothers now head back to Canaan. This was a trip that would take probably about two weeks to go each way. It was about 250 to 300 miles, depending on the exact route that they took. And so as the brothers are going back and forth, it's taking about two weeks, kind of at least, in order for them to go back and forth between Canaan and Egypt.

Genesis 46, the key verse is verse 5. It says, So Pharaoh sent carts to Jacob, to the family, and said, come on out. We have a place for you here in Egypt. Come and live here and we'll provide for you here.

And so the brothers go home and tell dad the news. Joseph is alive. And the father is having a hard time believing this, but they convince him. And he sees all the things that were sent by the Pharaoh. And he says, okay, well, let's go. I got to go see my son.

And so as he's heading out in verses 1 through 7, we see that he stops at Beersheba, which was home for Abraham and Isaac. That was the place where they spent the most of their time in the land of Canaan. And he spent some time just worshiping God there. And as he worships the Lord there, God reveals himself to Jacob and says, hey, don't be afraid to go to Egypt.

I'm sure that Jacob did have some fear. You might remember when Abraham went to Egypt, it didn't really go so well because he was lying about Sarah and saying she's my sister and not my wife. And you saw how that happened. And then later on, when Isaac tried to go to Egypt, God intervened and God said, Isaac, don't go.

But now Joseph's in Egypt, and so Jacob's figuring, I ought to go see Joseph. And God says, yes, I want you to go. Go. Don't be afraid. I'll take care of you there. I am involved in this. And so Jacob begins this journey, and it records for us here in chapter 46, the family of Jacob that is going along with him to Egypt. And you can see by this time, he's already got quite a large family.

He had 12 sons, but they've already begun to have sons as well. So he's traveling with his sons, but also his grandsons as they move the family to Egypt. And so verses 8 through 15 record the sons that were born to Jacob through Leah.

But then also their sons. And then verses 16 through 18, the sons born through Zilpah. And then the sons born through Rachel in verses 19 through 22. And then the sons born through Bilhah in verse 23 through 25. And then the sum total at the end there in verses 26 and 27, there was 70 men all together there.

In Egypt that were part of Jacob's family. So they take the journey back. Again, it's another two weeks back now, about 250 or 300 miles.

And this is the family that they're carrying with them. So here's the picture of it in case that's a little bit helpful to you. So this is the sons that are born through Leah. So you have Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. And then their sons. And then you can also see some of their sons had already had sons. And so we saw the story back in Genesis 38 of Judah and then his sons and then Perez and Hezron.

They're in red. They're a different color because that's the line of the Messiah. And so we'll come back to that in future weeks and look at that. But the Messiah comes from Judah and then on through Er, Perez, and Hezron. And then we have the family that came through Zilpah. This is Gad and Asher, their sons, and then their sons' sons that were with them at that time.

And then you have Jacob's family that came through Rachel, which is Joseph and Benjamin and their sons. And Joseph's sons were born to him in Egypt. So they were in Egypt already. But Benjamin and his sons went with Jacob to the land of Egypt in this journey. And then you have the family that came through Bilhah. And so you have Dan and Naphtali and their sons. And so

I understand it's not legible, but just to kind of give you a glimpse of how big his family was. So that's Jacob there at the bottom, and then that's the different branches of his sons and their sons that were going with them. Now this doesn't include their wives and any servants they might have, their livestock. And so you can understand this is a massive undertaking for these 70

to go to Egypt and they're moving there. This isn't a vacation, but they're packed up all their stuff. They move now to Egypt and now they're going to be spending the rest of their lives in the land of Egypt. It's interesting because...

This is quite an impressive, you know, amount of family. But going back a few chapters, you had Abraham who was given the promise of a son and yet for so many years he had no children. And...

We've gone now from Abraham and Sarah, just them two by themselves essentially, now to this large family of 70 over the past, it's about 200 years that take place between these two points.

Now over the next 400 years, the 70 people will turn into roughly 3 million. Or these 70 men will turn into 600,000 men plus wives and children and so on and so forth. And so you get the point that

a couple hundred years, there's not much, you know, difference. But then in this time in Egypt, there's going to be a massive development of the nation as now they grow from 70 to 600,000 as they leave Egypt. And we'll see that in the book of Exodus. Well, that brings us to Genesis chapter 47. The key verse is verse 11.

It says, and Joseph situated his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramesses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

And so here in verses 1 through 10, Jacob now arrives in Egypt with his sons. And Joseph brings Jacob with a few of his brothers before Pharaoh. And they get to meet Pharaoh and talk with him and let him know we're shepherds. And so Pharaoh gives them the land of Goshen. And there in verses 11 and 12, we have Jacob settling in the land of Goshen, also known as Ramesses.

Then the last part of the chapter, verses 13 through 26, you have the continuation of the famine. Now when Jacob and his family moved to Egypt, it says that there was still five years left of the famine. So they'd gone through the first two years. There was five years remaining. And so verses 13 through 26 record for us the negotiation that happens with the Egyptians during that last five years of the famine.

And they came and they said, look, we're out of money. We can't buy bread. So here, take our livestock. And they sold their livestock in order to have bread in order to survive. And then they came back again and said, okay, now we're out of money. We're out of livestock. Here, take our land and...

Give us bread. And so they're selling their livestock. They're selling their land. And then Joseph at the end is able to give them seed and say, okay, now go work the land. And from now on, 20% belongs to Pharaoh because he purchased all the land from them during the famine.

And then finally in verses 27 through 31, we have Jacob requesting that Joseph bury him in Canaan. Jacob knows he doesn't have much time left. He says, I don't want to be buried here in Egypt. So make sure you take me back to Canaan and bury me there in the land that God had promised to me.

Now we showed this last week, but I'll show it again. These are the pharaohs that we see mentioned here in the book of Genesis and Exodus. Back in Genesis 12, we had Abraham encountering the pharaoh, and that would have been a pharaoh named Khufu at that time. Then in Genesis 41, here we have Joseph standing before a pharaoh, interpreting the dream. This would have been Sesostris I.

And this would have been the Pharaoh that Jacob and his other sons stood before as well. Then as we head on into the book of Exodus tomorrow and this coming week, we'll be looking at a different Pharaoh. Now this will be Cessostris III. There's a couple of Pharaohs in between. And so he's going to be the one who really begins to oppress Israel.

And then in Exodus chapter 5, when we begin to look at Moses and him calling out to Pharaoh, let my people go. This is believed to be Nephrahotep I. I know that means a lot to you, but in case you wanted to know what Pharaoh's line up with these biblical passages, there you have it. Here's a look again at Jacob's age. Now we've been following the life of Jacob.

We saw that he was around 15 years old when Abraham, his grandfather, died. He was about 40 years old when Esau got married. He fled to Haran after he stole Esau's birthright at around 77 years old. Joseph, who is the second to youngest, was born when Jacob was about 91 years old. And then at 97, he leaves Haran. He goes back to Canaan.

Isaac, his father, dies when Jacob is about 120 years old. And now here in chapter 47, it says that he is 130 as he stands before Pharaoh. So he's been back in the promised land for some time, but now he's moved to Egypt and he spends the last 17 years of his life in Egypt. And so he dies at 147. We see that recorded here in Genesis 47, 28.

Also looking at Joseph's age to kind of give a perspective on Joseph as well. So just jumping forward to Genesis 41, Joseph was put in charge of Egypt at the age of 30. The famine began at 37, when he was 37 years old. And it was two years later, when he was 39, that his family is moving to Egypt. He's reunited with them. And then Joseph, we'll see later on this evening, dies at 110 there in Genesis chapter 50.

Well, as Jacob moves his family to Egypt, they're given the land of Goshen or the land of Ramesses by Pharaoh. Now looking at Egypt there on the left-hand side, where that arrow is pointing is the general vicinity of Goshen. And this was a land that was called the best of the land because, well, it was good for farming, but it was also good for their livestock. And they had much livestock. That was their primary source.

And so this was the land that would have really benefited them greatly. And so they were able to have their livestock to be able to survive off the land. They were given the best of the land because of Joseph and what he had done for the land of Egypt. Now, this is something that I just see it as so amazing in the plan of God. And I mentioned it briefly last week. I want to talk a little bit more about it this evening. And that is that

Jacob and his family moving to Egypt is a lot bigger than just escaping this famine that is going on. Really, this is what I refer to as the incubation period for the nation of Israel.

Because the nation has grown, or the family has grown now to 70 people. But when the people leave Egypt, as I said, there's going to be about 600,000 strong. That's just the men. So we estimate 2 to 3 million people that leave Egypt when they're finished there, as Pharaoh lets them go finally.

And so there's this process that's happening here as this family is being transformed into a nation. And so I call it the incubation because they're taken into Goshen, they're given that land, and they're kept separate from the Egyptian people.

In the land of Canaan, we already saw there was a lot of intermingling, right? The people of Canaan, they wanted to intermarry with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob. They wanted those relationships. They wanted to kind of, you know, all just be together and for them to be assimilated into the people of the land. And that was not God's plan.

But in Egypt, it was an entirely different story. Now you remember I pointed out to you back in chapter 43 verse 32 that for the Egyptians, it was an abomination to eat with the Hebrews.

And there in Genesis 43 verse 32, we see three separate tables set, essentially. The brothers are by themselves, Joseph is by himself, and then the Egyptians that are part of Joseph's household are by themselves because they wouldn't eat with the brothers because they were Hebrews. That's an abomination to them. They wouldn't eat with Joseph because although he had risen, he was second in command of the nation,

He was a Hebrew. He was not Egyptian. And so they would meet with him. And so they kept themselves separate from foreigners. This was something that was very strong for the Egyptians. It was very important to them. They wanted nothing to do with foreigners.

We also see this in Genesis chapter 46 verse 34. It tells us there that every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.

So not only did they not like foreigners and want nothing to do with them, but also shepherds especially, they wanted nothing to do with them. And so there was this automatic barrier that was there. They did not want to intermarry. They did not want to, you know, mingle and, hey, you give us your daughters, we'll give you our daughters, you know, we'll just become one big happy family. That was the attitude of the people of Canaan. But here in Egypt, they

The Egyptian says, "Hey, I don't want nothing to do with you. You guys just keep to yourselves. We'll keep to ourselves and we'll get along fine."

And so they're given this land of Goshen and they would have had it to themselves. It would have been, you know, their own territory and they would not have had the Egyptians bothering them or wanting to intermarry and so on and so forth. And so as a result of this, they're kept separate and they're developed now into the nation of Israel.

And so this family of 70 are brought in. They're kept, I call it incubation because it's, you know, they're kind of kept separate. They're kept contained and they're developed there into the nation so that when it hatches, you know, when they leave Egypt, now they are the nation of Israel. They're

They're the nation that God has developed them into. And so what we see happening here in chapter 47 is this designated land given to them where they're kept separate and they're developed then into the nation. And so as I've been saying for the past couple of weeks, what we're seeing here in Genesis is really important because

Because it's the foundation of the nation of Israel. And all the rest of the Old Testament is going to be built on this nation that is developed here in the land of Egypt. Well, that brings us now to Genesis chapter 48, verse 20 is the key verse. It says, So he blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel will bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

Here in chapter 48, we have Jacob claiming Joseph's sons as his own, or kind of adopting Joseph's sons as his own. We see that there in verses 1 through 7. And then verses 8 through 22, now Jacob blesses Joseph's sons.

And we see in this blessing that he gives, as Joseph brings him near, he puts them in a position where Jacob's right hand will go to the elder and his left hand will go to the younger because the elder was always supposed to get the extra special blessing. But Jacob crossed his arms and blessed Jacob.

The younger, as if he were the elder. And Joseph tries to correct him, but much like Jacob was the younger of Esau, right? But he received the blessing. In the same way, this is carried on by Joseph's sons. And so Ephraim is blessed as the older, even though he is the younger brother.

And what we see happening in Israel's history later on, you'll notice that Ephraim does become a prominent tribe in Israel, more prominent than his brother Manasseh. And in fact, so much so that the northern kingdom, when Israel is split in two, the northern kingdom is often referred to as Ephraim.

Even though there's a bunch of other tribes included, they're referred to as Ephraim because it was such a prominent part of the nation. And so we see these blessings that Jacob is giving to Joseph's sons are fulfilled and it happens in the way that he said.

Well, because Jacob adopted Joseph's sons as his own, it kind of reshapes a little bit the tribes of Israel that are going to develop from this. Because each son of Jacob becomes the head of a tribe in that their family is one of the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel.

Well, what we have happening though with Jacob adopting these two sons is it changes from 12 tribes to actually 13 tribes because Joseph is removed and two sons are put in his place. And so the green here, the different tribes are,

Israel. And again, we'll be seeing these repeatedly as we head into the book of Exodus and the rest of the books of Moses. So Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin now become the 13 tribes of Israel. And we'll see that develop even more, like I said, as we continue on in the coming weeks.

And that brings us to Genesis chapter 49, verse 1 is the key verse. And Jacob called his sons and said, gather together that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. So now Jacob is about to breathe his last breath. He knows he's close to death. And so he gathers his sons together.

And he says, hey guys, get together. I want to share with you what's going to befall you in the last days. And so what we have here in chapter 49, verses 1 through 28, is Jacob's prophetic words to his sons. Not only is it kind of his blessings upon them, but it's also him declaring in advance what's going to happen to them and what's going to be, you know, taking place for their families as the tribes of Israel.

And then we have verses 29 through 33, Jacob's death. Now these prophetic words, you can check them out and you can go through them and you can look in the future of Israel's history and see how many of them are fulfilled. Some of them are very easy to see how they were fulfilled and how they, you know, did take place just like Jacob said.

Others are more obscure, like, hey, you're going to be a producer of royal dainties and breads. There's not a lot of evidence for that. We don't have the records for that. But people like Reuben, where he says, you shall not excel. We do see that Reuben never did excel. They never did amount to much. No leaders or prominent people were ever produced from the tribe of Reuben.

and Levi, he says, you're going to be scattered. And that is what we see as they're given the land of Israel, that Simeon and Levi are scattered. We also see in Genesis 49, verse 10, where he says to Judah, he says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah. This is

speaking of the kingship that would come in place. David was of the tribe of Judah and he became the king and his descendants after him ruled the throne, ruled Israel. And so it was always from Judah. And then of course,

on up to Jesus the Messiah, was of the tribe of Judah. And so the scepter did not depart from Judah until Shiloh or the Messiah came. And so you can see that happening and so on and so forth. So you can check out the sons and look forward at Israel's history and see how those things were fulfilled.

But Jacob dies there at the end of the chapter, verses 29 through 33. At 147 years old, he lived a good long life, or not so good a long life. If you believe his words to the Pharaoh, he said that his days were few and evil. But much of that he brought on himself. So Jacob was there at 147 years old, 17 years in the land of Egypt, and he died.

goes to be with the Lord, or he dies. Genesis chapter 50 now, verse 14 is the key verse. It says, and after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father. So now that Jacob has died, Joseph is making good on his promise, and he's burying Jacob in the land of Canaan, there in verses 1 through 14. So he takes him back to Canaan and buries him there.

Then his brothers are kind of freaked out. Oh man, now dad's gone. He's really going to take vengeance on us now because dad's not there to rebuke him or scold him or look disapprovingly at him. And so his brothers come up with this story. Hey, dad said to make sure you take care of us and don't treat us mean. There in verses 15 through 21, you see that happening. And Joseph, again, you see his heart. He tells his brothers, don't be afraid. I'm not angry. God is the one who did this.

And so he says, look, I'm going to provide for you and I'm going to take care of you and you don't have to worry about anything.

And then there at the end of Genesis 50, we have Joseph's death in verses 22 through 26. And so it kind of fast forwards to the end of Joseph's life because again, the whole point of slowing down and looking at Joseph was to see how God orchestrated things to bring the children of Israel into Egypt to establish them as a nation. And then now we're going to jump forward actually quite a bit of time and look at...

Their exodus or when they leave Egypt later on. This is a quick map of how they would have went to bury Jacob. Again, it would have been a two-week journey back to Canaan. The cave of Machpelah is the cave that Abraham bought, remember, for his wife when she died. And then Isaac was buried there. And so Jacob says, I want to be buried there too. And so they take him back to Machpelah there along near the Dead Sea.

in the land of Canaan and bury him there. Joseph, as we look at chapter 50, he would have died at 110 years old. So again, we jump forward, I don't know, what is that, about 60 years to his death. And so again, we're just focused really on Joseph for the purposes of looking at how the nation is moved there to Egypt and then developed.

This is just kind of a side note on the names. The children of Israel is something we refer to often. But just to highlight and remind us what that really means is, Israel was the other name for Jacob. God renamed Jacob Israel. And so the children of Israel are Reuben, Simeon, Levi, so on and so forth. But each of them become one of the 12 or 13 tribes of Israel. And so when it talks about the children of Israel...

It's not just a way of talking about the Hebrew nation, but it's also a way of reminding us of Jacob as kind of the founder, the patriarch of the nation, along with Isaac and Abraham before him. And so these 12 tribes become the children of Israel, the descendants of Israel there in Egypt. We also know them by Israelites, Hebrews, or Jews, and we'll see that throughout our studies of the scriptures together.

Well, that brings us to the end of the book of Genesis. And I want to just talk a little bit real quick about the book of Exodus to kind of prepare the way for our journey tomorrow as we start with Exodus chapter 1. The book of Exodus, the word Exodus means exit or departure. And it's called that because that's what we see happening. The children of Israel now depart.

about 300 years after Genesis chapter 50, are going to be leaving Egypt. And so it's called the departure of the Exodus. It was written about the same time as they were in the wilderness. Moses recorded these things. And it records really God's covenant with the Hebrew nation. Now if you're looking at the timeline, this is what we're looking at. So in Exodus, you're looking at...

The end of Joseph's life, we see that very briefly, and then we jump forward again about 300 years to Moses' life. And so we're covering quite a gap in time. During that time, the children of Israel are put into bondage there in Egypt.

And so they're now forced laborers. They're slaves in Egypt where when they first come in, it's almost like they're royalty. They're given the best of the land. And so we see the transition as new pharaohs rise to power and they don't like this nation that is, you know, blossoming there in Egypt. And so they put them to forced labor. They make them slaves. And they're slaves for quite a while there in Egypt until God brings Moses to deliver them and to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

And then finally into the promised land. So that's a quick overview of the timeline for the book of Exodus. And here's a quick look at the geography of Exodus. So we're looking at Egypt, of course, over there. Goshen is where the children of Israel first came. We saw that as Jacob moved his family there. That's where they're going to be leaving from. So they stay in that area for their time in Egypt.

And then you have the Red Sea, which of course is where they're going to cross. You have Sinai. You have the wilderness area above that. You have Midian. That's where Moses flees to. We'll see that this week in our reading. Then you have Edom, of course, Moab, Ammon, Bashan, and the land of Canaan. We'll develop all those later on in the book of Exodus and then on again into the further books of Moses. So that's kind of just a little bit of a reference for you for the location of these things.

And we'll talk a little bit more about this next week and probably the next couple weeks on these locations and some of the variables and variances between them. As we finish up this evening, though, looking back at Genesis 43 through 50, I'd like to conclude with two basic points. Number one, the sovereignty of God.

In our portion that we read this week, we very clearly see that God is sovereign. That he is on the throne and that he is orchestrating events. He's moving nations and empires. He is working his plan and his purposes through all of the things that are going on. You see this in Joseph. As he was sold, he was falsely accused and imprisoned.

But then raised up in order to save his family from the famine and move them into the land of Egypt. But then you also see the sovereignty of God in work amongst the brothers. As you see, you know, they were against Joseph. They hated Joseph. They sold him into slavery.

But then we also see how God works out the circumstances and situations to where they come to the point that they're brought to repentance through Joseph, the very one that they sold into slavery. And so God is working not just in Joseph's life, but he's also bringing the brothers to repentance. And we see that so clearly through the example of Judah.

We also see how God, in an overview, is orchestrating and working out all of these events to bring the family into Egypt, to develop them into a nation, so that later on he will bring them out of Egypt as the nation of Israel. And so they become a mighty people there in the land of Egypt. We see God at work in all of these things.

And it reminds us that we can trust in God, that we can be strengthened and encouraged, that God is in control, that he really is on the throne. It reminds us to follow the example of Joseph and not despair, not grumble and complain at the circumstances of our life, because we understand that God is able to work through these things to accomplish great and mighty things that we would never ask or think.

It reminds us to not take matters into our own hand, to not take revenge as we see the example of Joseph, because through this, God is bringing his plans and his purposes to fruition. Now, we look at the circumstances around us and we think, man, this is terrible. There's nothing good that can come from this. But as we see the example of Joseph, I would encourage you, perhaps through this, God is desiring to bring you to repentance.

And you may not like the way that he does it, but repentance is necessary. It's what's best for you. And so God will use these circumstances of our lives, this pressure being added to us from authorities, you know, from the harsh rulers of Egypt that we have. And God will use those things to refine in us the work that he wants to do. Through this, the situations that you're facing, God may be enabling you to save others.

And to have a mighty hand in bringing others into the kingdom of God and preserving them and drawing them to a real relationship with Jesus Christ. Whatever the case, whatever circumstances are, through this God is able to accomplish His purposes.

And so we can really look at Joseph as a great example of trusting in God, not taking matters into our own hands, but letting God accomplish his purposes in his timing for his glory. But the second thing I'd like to just close with as we look at our portion together today, in Genesis chapter 50, we see that Joseph dies, but he gets his brothers to promise him

don't leave my bones here. I'm going to die, but God's going to bring us out of this place. Take my bones with you. And here we see Joseph's great faith. In fact, it's even mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 22. It says, by faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones.

You can see that Joseph had faith because he gave instruction about his bones when they leave. It wasn't a maybe, perhaps, one day if you go. No. God said he's going to bring you out. He's going to take you into the land of Canaan. When you go, take my bones with you. And we see the great faith of God here as Joseph prepares for the future that God had declared.

And so today I want to encourage you, first of all, to trust in the sovereignty of God and let Him have His work. But also, prepare for the future that God has declared. Live today. Give instruction today. Behave today according to the reality of what God has declared.

in the future. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, for the great examples we have, the great instruction. I pray, God, that you would help us to rest in your sovereignty, knowing that you are on the throne. Lord, forgive us for whining and complaining and grumbling about the things in our lives. Lord, help us to trust you through it all, to know, Lord, that you really can work all things together for good to those who love you and are the called according to your purpose.

God, help us to trust you in life and not gripe and complain against you. But Lord, to know that you are able to work out glorious things.

Through our lives and through these circumstances that we consider to be so terrible and awful. And God, I pray as we grasp hold of you and your word by faith, Lord, that we would behave accordingly. According to the future that you've declared is for us. Lord, that we would live our lives demonstrating that. Giving instruction to people around us according to the future that you've declared. Making our plans and preparation based upon what you have said. So God, help us to trust in you.

and to live out that example of knowing that you will accomplish your plans. And Lord, you have great things in store for us. And so, Lord, we look forward to what you will do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.