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GENESIS 47
Joseph’s family became rich in Egypt and the Egyptians were enslaved to Pharaoh. -- (DATE: Up till 1644 before Christ)
DISCOVER Genesis 47: When Joseph went to Pharaoh and informed him that his family had arrived safely in his land, he had brought with him five of his brothers. Pharaoh asked what their occupation was. They answered according to what Joseph had told them, that they were shepherds from their youth, just like their fathers. Hearing this, together with their request to please let them live in Goshen, Pharaoh turned to Joseph and told him that his family had come to him, and since the land of Egypt was his to oversee, he was to let them settle in the best place for them. And if Joseph knew of able men among his kin, he was to give them Pharaoh’s livestock to oversee, just as he oversaw all the land of Egypt. -- Joseph also brought his father, aged 130 years, before Pharaoh, whom Israel blessed (for his friendly invitation). After a short discussion, so Pharaoh could get to know who this father of his most trusted advisor was, Israel blessed him again and left. -- Joseph provided for his father Jacob, as he did for all the households of his brothers. During the following years Israel and his kin thrived, grew in number and gained more and more possessions, despite the continuing drought. -- But the people of Egypt grew poorer and poorer. When the homes in Egypt ran out of money to buy food during the famine, Joseph had them pay with their livestock. When the terrible famine continued on and they had no more livestock to sell, the people came to Joseph and demanded he keep them alive with food in exchange for their plots of land and lives, making themselves slaves to Pharaoh. To this Joseph answered that he would do so. -- Joseph decreed that henceforth the people of Egypt could continue cultivating and living off their plots of land, but they would have to pay one fifth of their harvest as tribute to Pharaoh. Thus all of Egypt became Pharaoh’s slaves with two exceptions. One was the priests and their lands, for Pharaoh had allotted them a fixed income, which they used to feed themselves with. -- The other exception was Joseph’s family, in the midst of which Jacob grew old and weary. Shortly before dying at the age of 147 years Jacob called Joseph and made him swear that he would not burry him here in Egypt but would bring him to where his forefathers lay, which his son swore he’d do.
PRAYER: God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we praise you and adore you for choosing a man, Abraham, in far away Mesopotamia and against all odds making him become a clan of 70 people in Egypt. Thank you that his descendants, as sojourners from faraway lands, by your guidance met with one of the mightiest men in the ancient world: Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. You are the God, who makes the impossible possible, if we trust you completely concerning your guidance and providence. In the same way you also allowed your Son Jesus Christ, who was born into a modest carpenter family in Bethlehem, to come into the presence of the mightiest men of their land: the High Priest, King Herod and Pilate, the Roman governor. You are a wonderful God, full of hidden glory and unseeming majesty. Help us to always trust you and obey you so that your will can be accomplished in and through us. Amen.
QUESTION 47: What did Jacob and Pharaoh speak about and how did the Egyptians become slaves to Pharaoh?