The Joseph Experience – The End.

We’ll be breezing through a lot of this story. It doesn’t mean that it’s not important, it just doesn’t pertain to what we’re looking at for this series, but I want to encourage you to read the entire story in one sitting to see the bigger picture. Back to the story….

Genesis 46 _NKJV

Jacob’s Journey to Egypt
⁴⁶So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. ²Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!”

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called on the name of the Lord. Jacob stopping here to honor the Lord and his grandfather’s covenant to the Lord caused God to speak to him. For us, we can learn from Jacob that stopping what you’re doing and where you’re going to honor the Lord will result in Him leading and guiding you. We can expect it too!

⁽²⁾And he said, “Here I am.” ³So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. ⁴I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.”

There’s a lot of information packed in here. Yes, God made them a great nation! God also told Jacob, I will go to Egypt with you, and I will bring you up again. Wait a min! This never happened. Jacob stands in front of the pharaoh at 130 years old and dies at 147. That’s 17 years later. Did God lie, change His mind, or did Jacob not want to leave the land of Goshen? Certainly, it’s never in God’s plan to do evil or harm (Jeremiah 29:11). They veered off God’s path again. God is not a liar. The final promise of God was, “Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.” This was an ancient middle eastern practice where the one who takes over after the father closes his eyes when he dies, it was an honor to be asked to perform this.

The Bible goes on to say that Jacob went to Egypt and gives up the names and numbers all those traveling. Jacob arrives in Goshen and sees Joseph. They have an emotional moment. Joseph plans to have the family settle in the best part of Egypt, away from the Egyptians in the land Goshen.

Genesis 47 _NKJV

Pharaoh replies to the request, ^6”The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock.”

Not only is he giving them the best of the land, but also employing them, as in paying them too!

⁷Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. ⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”

This is a funny question. Pharaoh sees an old man and that’s his first question! But it’s because the Egyptians didn’t live long. They had a host of diseases and sicknesses because they were demon worshipers and lived without God’s blessing. If you Google the average age of ancient Egyptians, you’ll see an average age range from 20-25 at this time. The reason was because most children died, lowering the average age. Those who made it past 10 years old would live 30-40 years; and the wealthy lived 40-45 years. This means that the Pharaoh that killed the baker, saved the butler, and made Joseph second in command over all of Egypt was likely just a teenager or very young man himself at the time. Being just a teenager, he was probably even more amazed at Joseph’s wisdom than what we realize. This paints an entirely different picture for us when we think, “Oh wow, they put a 39-year-old in charge of the entire country.” When in fact Joseph was the age of wisemen and elders.

⁹And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” ¹⁰So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

But, back to what we talked about before. This is where we see Jacob lived 17 years in Goshen and didn’t leave. It’s important for us to recognize the subtle clue where the problem started. If you read verse 4 in Hebrew, God says to Jacob, “bring you,” it’s second person singular you, not “you guys,” or “y’all.” God said, “I will bring you, JACOB, up again.” Also note that nowhere do we see in the Bible they were commanded to stay after the famine had ended.

The Bibles goes on to say they moved to Goshen and Joseph provided food for his family. The famine became worse. Joseph took up all the money in Egypt for Pharaoh, then their livestock, and finally their land except for the demon priests. Again, everything became worse. This time the people happily agreed to give pharaoh a 5^th of their other harvests and then become pharaoh’s servants. 

²⁷So Israel (Jacob) dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly. ²⁸And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years.

So, God kept His word about Jacob multiplying. But seems Jacob decided to stay there until his death. God gave Jacob 3 promises, the promise to leave was the second and the promise Joseph would close his eyes was the 3^rd promise. That tells us, Jacob decided not to leave.

 ²⁹When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, … Please do not bury me in Egypt, ³⁰but let me lie with my fathers; you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.”

Hmm… Why didn’t he want to stay if it was no big deal to live there?

⁽³⁰⁾ And he said, “I will do as you have said.” ³¹Then he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.

Wow. He made him swear! Why? Because Jacob didn’t leave, and Jacob didn’t even want his body left with the demon worshippers. If you study what they were doing, prosperity or no prosperity, you’d want to leave too!

Genesis 48 _NKJV

Jacob is about to die. He tells Joseph that his sons will be equal to his brothers in the inheritance. Prior to this, the brothers didn’t know they would become the tribes of Israel; hence, the family fighting. God has a way of working things out that we don’t expect. 

¹⁷Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim (the youngest), it displeased him; so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” ¹⁹But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”

Thinking back to the beginning of the story with all the brothers. It was ok when Joseph was the one jumping from eleventh brother to first, but when it came to his children, he wanted to follow birth order. Again, we keep seeing how important the first born was in the ancient world, and I’m not sure any of us really understand the magnitude of the upset.

After this, Joseph continues the blessing and ²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. Jacob continues on blessing.

But God told Jacob personally He would bring him up out of Egypt. Now Jacob is telling Joseph God will bring you back to the land of your fathers. What’s going on here? God told Jacob not Joseph! It’s likely Joseph was supposed to remain in Egypt and his family return to Canaan. Let’s read on…  

Genesis 49 _NKJV
Jacob gives his sons their last words and blessings. Then he says…

²⁹…bury me with my fathers … ³⁰in the cave that … Abraham bought … ³³And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 50 _NKJV

²And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. … ³Forty days … are the days required for those who are embalmed;

This was only for the wealthy and elite. Which also means that Joseph probably had a very nice coffin made for him as well.

¹²So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. ¹³…carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave … which Abraham bought ¹⁴Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.

Why? Why? Why? Why are they going back? Who told them to go back? Canaan was the Promise Land.

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.”

They’re still in fear. Once fear was let in, it didn’t matter what reality showed them or what blessing The Lord spoke, fear ruled in their hearts and their perception was off. 

¹⁶So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying, ¹⁷‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.” ’ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Fear will make you do crazy things!

¹⁸Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” ¹⁹Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. ²¹Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Again, let’s camp out here for a moment. Because people read, “God meant it for good,” and also, “in order to bring it about,” they believe this was God’s Master Plan. Joseph did the right thing in how he spoke, “am I in the place of God?” He’s saying, “should I judge and punish you?” Why did he respond this way? Because so many people take the place of God in this moment, “Well, you wanted to kill me, so… Well, when I just tried to do my job and tell daddy what you were doing… When I just tried to tell you what God showed me… You wouldn’t listen to me…” We all do this very same thing even in our modern-day family. When someone tries to apologize, instead of peace, let it go, and see the good, nooo there’s a fault-finding fight. There was no fault-finding fight, so we modern-western thinkers blame God, “He did it!” It’s our flesh-nature that wants to “clear the air” with stench and a post “sorting things out” to appease our emotions. Joseph is an excellent example of true forgive and forget; but yet we can’t see that because of what we’re taught.

²²So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.

According to World History.org, Egyptian records state that Joseph served the pharaoh that made him governor, and possibly the three succeeding pharaohs. Of course, if you do your own reading there, they will call Joseph by his Egyptian name, Imhotep.

²³Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph’s knees.

This is very important information for calculating years. This information lines up with World History.org.

²⁴And Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Didn’t God tell Jacob He would visit Jacob? Ok, now Joseph was telling his brothers to leave Egypt. He was warning them. He knew they shouldn’t stay there!!

²⁵Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” ²⁶So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Joseph took an oath from his brothers. He knew they were supposed to leave!! He knew they wouldn’t listen!! He also didn’t even want his bones left with these demon worshipers. He knew they’d make him a god.

That’s the exact reason Joseph was called to lead the family. Joseph, although he had some refining work to do on his life, had his eye on God, while his brothers had their eye on the blessing. Let’s take a quick look in Exodus and then we’ll end this series here. 

Exodus 1 _NKJV

⁸Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

The word know here in Hebrew doesn’t mean know as in know who he was, but it means know as in know him personally. This pharaoh in chapter 1 most certainly knew of him, even we all know the name Imhotep. Right? 

Going by Egypt’s history according to World History.org, Joseph served 4 pharaohs and died at age 110. He was made governor at age 39. That’s about 70 years of service, and we’ll leave one for retirement. Four pharaohs ruled in the 71 years. That means at least 4 generations of wealthy Egyptian families have also come and gone. To put that thought into perspective, that means the famine happened to your great grandfather or your grandfather if your family had long life. The love and affection from the Egyptian people for Joseph had passed. The wealth God, through Joseph, brought to Egypt was now just a normal thing to this 4^th and 5^th generation of people. But for God’s people, if you read through the names and chart the dates, the famine generation was still alive and well in Exodus chapter 1. I know it’s not the mainstream belief, but facts are facts.

The remainder of this story is another study for another day. But I think it was very important to understand where all the problems originated in the family and see how God had to alter plans to save Jacob and his family. Again, it was never God’s Master Plan to have Joseph sold into slavery any more than it was God’s Master Plan to allow the children of Israel to become slaves. We saw Jacob didn’t listen and the brothers didn’t listen. If you’re interested in this topic, read on and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes; you’ll see Moses didn’t listen at first.

God sees the end from the beginning, and the bigger picture. When we’re in the middle of situations, sometimes we can’t see the bird’s eye view of what’s happening. In those times where life seems unfair, or like God isn’t delivering you; that’s the best time to check if you or a loved one is camped out in Attitude City, or if you or a loved one has gone to spiritual prison already. I’ve camped out in Attitude City and allowed myself to walk into the spiritual slave in Egypt phase, before the Holy Spirit caught my attention. When I was in the slavery in Egypt phase, I wanted the Lord to help me, but He wanted to guide me out of Egypt first. I had to do things His way. When I started to do things His way, the blessing returned, and things started to be restored. You can expect the same if you’re not in The Promise Land.

Thank you for going through this story with me. Lord bless everyone reading with Your grace and wisdom to spot a Joseph situation in their life or in the lives of people they are ministering to. Give them the words to say to help let You heal up hearts and restore what was lost. In Jesus’ name, Amen

  Christi