GENESIS 46:1-30 THE ISRAELITES GO TO EGYPT Day 8
Much had happened in Abraham’s family in the two generations after Abraham. Isaac repeated the mistakes of his father, as he lied to Abimelech about who his wife was (Gen 26:8-11; cf. 20:1-13). Each did this because he feared the Canaanite king. Then, the rivalry between Ishmael and Isaac was replayed in rivalry between Esau and Jacob. Jacob fled from Esau’s wrath, going to his mother’s family in Haran. There he married sisters and began his large family before returning to Canaan as a wealthy man. Genesis 34 tells a tale of Jacob’s daughter being raped and his sons taking vengeance by killing all the men of the home village of the rapist. Jacob, rightly, said to them, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land…. I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” God had brought Abraham to Canaan, but increasingly it was apparent that they would be in constant tension with the people there.
Sibling rivalry continued in Jacob’s family with the older brothers selling the favored son, Joseph, into Egyptian slavery. In Egypt, Joseph proved to be a heroic character. He resisted seduction by his master’s wife, but was imprisoned because she lied. In prison he became the chief “trustee” in charge of other prisoners. He interpreted dreams of two prisoners who had displeased the Pharaoh, one of whom was restored but the other executed. Then, after a 2 year delay, he was called to Pharaoh’s side to interpret his troubling dreams – dreams that pointed to 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine.
Pharaoh was so pleased with Joseph that he put him in charge of storing up food in the time of plenty to prepare for the coming famine. When the famine came, it was also felt in Canaan where Jacob and his other sons still lived. They heard there was food in Egypt, so Jacob sent the 10 older sons who had sold Joseph into Egypt to get grain. Joseph recognized them and treated them as spies, eventually sending them back to their father while holding 1 of them as a hostage. He said they should bring their youngest brother back to “prove” their story that they were brothers of 1 man. When they did, Joseph revealed who he was, and there was a tearful reunion (though the 10 brothers were terrified because of what they had done to him at least 20 years before).
That brings us to Genesis 46, where the brothers had returned home with the news that Joseph was alive and was second only to Pharaoh in Egypt! God assured Jacob that He would be with him in Egypt, and that he should go there where the family would be safe.
Non-biblical history tells us that the ruling Pharaoh in Joseph’s time was from a foreign dynasty, the Hyksos. These rulers of Egypt were Semites, as were the Hebrews. The native Egyptians hated shepherds, which the Israelites were. Accordingly, Pharaoh settled Jacob’s family in Goshen, a part of Egypt well suited to the life of shepherds and somewhat isolated from the Egyptians who hated them. Here they were able to live and increase in number in safety.
God’s providence was caring for Abraham’s family in Egypt – though dark days lay ahead when a new king, in an Egyptian dynasty, would come to power – a king “who did not know Joseph.” But that is where we next take up the STORY.