Genesis 50:15-Exodus 2:10

I think it's appropriate that Genesis ends with Joseph's death and the oath made to carry his bones to the Promised Land.  Joseph, he was a far-seeing guy.  His passing is an excellent transition from the time when he held preeminence and established a place within Egypt to the time when no one really remembered him or what he did for Egypt (or maybe, didn't care) and how the Egyptians then turned on the Israelites.  Out of fear, out of jealousy, they enslaved a nation living within their borders.  And God, looking out for His people and His promises, raises up this guy: Moses.  Moses, who was born and lived when he shouldn't have.  Who was put into a reed basic and sent down the Nile (apparently among any of the seven cataracts that dotted the Nile, thankfully).  Who is raised to straddle the line between Egyptian and Hebrew and will eventually lead his people out of slavery and towards the Promised Land.  And Joseph saw it coming.  He saw it well enough that he made the descendants of Israel swear they would carry his bones out of Egypt and into the Promised Land to be buried.  They took that oath seriously enough that they embalmed him and entombed him for later recovery.  Dates for the Exodus vary, but it is believed that something like 400 years existed between the end of Genesis and Exodus (though I am still fact checking.  I'll update the post if I find I'm mistaken).  For 400 years (at least), the Israelites remembered that promise and kept true to it and to Joseph.  That's amazing.  If only they had kept true to their promises to God!  The story of Israel may have been something else entirely.

Tomorrow's Reading: Exodus 2:11-3:22 (Exodus, yeah, baby!)

Genesis 49:1-50:14

The blessings of Jacob are more like prophecies of his sons' fates.  He tells them, from the outset, that he is going to let them know what is to come in the future.  Here's the break-down

• Reuben, because he defiled his father's bed by sleeping with one of his father's concubines, loses his place as the firstborn and the preeminence that should have gone with it.  Interesting, that instead it goes to Judah, from whom the future kings of Israel come as well as the Christ.  Could that possibly have come from Reuben if he hadn't been unstable, impatient, and lustful?
• Simeon and Levi are condemned for their actions at Shechem.  Here is Jacob's prophecy that I've mentioned before: he says they will be scattered among Israel.  In Joshua, we will see that come to pass. Simeon is given no land to inherit and Levi, because the service the Levites performed for Moses before the Golden Calf at Sinai, are granted towns throughout Israel to uphold the priesthood.
• Judah, then, certainly not the eldest, is given the preeminence of the eldest.  Jacob says that his father's sons shall bow before him, and all of Israel does when they bend their knees to their kings, as well as someday, The King.  He says the scepter and the rod shall not depart, and in Christ it never shall.
• Zebulun, though not actually on the sea, apparently does in fact profit from sea trade during Israel's occupancy of the Land.
• Issachar because of its occupancy of a fertile plain is often raided by armies and is subject to them, as Jacob says that they choose to rest in a good resting place and yet are forced laborers.
• Dan, whose name is a play on "judge", is to be a judge and mediator amongst his brothers.  Yet Jacob predicts he will be wily and treacherous, like a snake in the grass.  It is among the Danites we will eventually see the first practices of idolatry.
• Gad was among the two and a half tribes that settled on the east of the Jordan River.  Because of it, it was often subject to raiders.  The price of not actually entering into the Promised Land and experiencing fellowship with the brother tribes, I guess.
• The tribe of Asher eventually settles in rich farm land and are very productive.
• Naphtali settles in the mountains.  Cross-reference the story of Deborah and how the Naphatalite warriors descend from the hills on Sisero.  (Cool story.)
• For Joseph and his sons, they get a lot of praise.  If you read through Judges, many of the heros there are actually from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.  Here you can see Jacob's favoritism for Joseph in the rich blessings bestowed on him.
• The prophecy about Benjamin proves too true; they are brutal.  Have you read the last three chapters of Judges?  Yeah.

Shortly after Jacob "blesses" his sons (because how many of those are actually blessings rather than foretellings?), he "goes to be with his fathers. "  Joseph, particularly, is broken by his father's passing, having only been recently reunited with him.  This is the only time Joseph leaves Egypt again: to return his father's body to be buried with Isaac, Abraham, and Sarah (and we can assume likely Rebekah).  However, we see that that is not Joseph's last connection to the land of his father's sojourning.

Genesis 47:13-48:22

Here is the passage that I referred to earlier about how Joseph acquired all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, essentially making all of Egypt vassals to Pharaoh.  But you also have a little incident that foreshadows things to come.  Joseph takes his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to his father and Jacob claims the boys as his own.  Basically, he is taking the boys into his inheritance at the same level as Reuben and Simeon.  Rather, they take Joseph's place.  You never hear of the tribe of Joseph or of Josephites as you do Danites, Levites, or Benjaminites.  You could say that one of the boys takes Joseph's place and the other takes Simeon's place, as his tribe is left out of the inheritance.  We'll learn more about that in the next chapter, but his sins at Shechem come back to haunt him.  So, though Jacob had twelve sons, and twelve tribes came from Israel, two of those tribes for much of the Bible actually belong to Joseph through his sons of Ephraim and Manasseh. You will see this a lot in the books of Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges... wherever the tribes are spoken about in depth, especially as relates to land allotments, censuses, etc.  And why do we always say "Ephraim and Manasseh" when Manasseh is actually the elder?  This passage explains.  Jacob blessed Eprhaim over his older brother Manasseh, just as Jacob the younger brother had been chosen over the elder Esau, just as Isaac had been chosen rather than his older brother Ishmael.  (Do you wonder if possibly Abraham was the younger brother has well?  Though he is mentioned first which usually, unless explained otherwise as in here, it means the first is the eldest.)  This perpetuates the favoring of the younger son over the older, "more logical" son. 

Tomorrow!  The blessing's of Israel's sons.  Very interesting stuff.

Tomorrow's Reading: Genesis 49:1-50:14

Genesis 46:1-47:12

It's been a long day.  I was up at 5:00 am, took myself and my baby girl to Omaha, enjoyed a day of running around the Big O with friends, and then coming back home.  I have read the passage for today, and there's some really good stuff in it.  All about Israel and his family, who's in it, and how they went down to Egypt and how Joseph persuaded Pharaoh to give his family the land of Goshen, the best of the pasture land, and how they even won the right to care for Pharaoh's flocks.  But if I'm honest, I'm a little nauseated from lack of sleep.  So, I am going to bed.  But I hope you've read Genesis 46 and 47.  It's a very poignant reunion between Joseph and Jacob, even describing how Joseph wept on Jacob's shoulder for a good while.  You can tell how much Joseph missed his father.


Tomorrow's Reading: Genesis 47:13-48:22 (We're almost done with Genesis.)

Genesis 45:1-28

The more I listen to people talk, the more I realize that forgiveness is a touchy subject among Christians.  We all know we're supposed to do it, but it's not always at the top of people's list as part of the Christian walk.  When you talk to people about how they can improve their walk, how often do they say, "Pray, read the Bible, go to church"?  Now, how often do you hear people say, "I should forgive this person who hurt me"?

Once during Bible study I listened to a woman describe how difficult it is for her to forgive some things that have happened in her past, and then she said very matter-of-factly that she didn't believe she had to.  I remember being a little shocked by that statement.  My first response was, "But we're commanded to!"  And indeed we are.  We are commanded to forgive, and not only that, but warned that if we refuse to, forgiveness towards our own persons could be in jeopardy.  It's something I've done a lot of thinking on: we know we are commanded to forgive, and yet we all know how hard it can be, especially if the offense is grievous.  How do you juxtapose those?  (And this is not to say that I have never had some pretty difficult, even damaging, experiences in my life to forgive.  I have.  But I also know I haven't had to forgive something horrific happen as some of the people I have listened to speak on this topic.)

We've been set an amazing example in Christ's very forgiveness of us, and His forgiveness of the people who crucified them, even as He was still on the cross.  It could be very easy for us to say, "Yeah, well, Christ was also God.  That's easy for Him."  Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.  Christ was also fully human.  He's not our only example, though.  Joseph forgave his brothers.  His brothers who stripped him, through him in a hole, ignored his pleas and cries, and sold him into slavery, leaving him to his fate.  This... is pretty bad.  This, I would think, would be difficult to forgive.  They completely altered the course of his life.  Granted, God did what Joseph said He did: He took what the brothers meant for evil and made it for good.  Maybe you could say that his cushy new life made it easy to forgive.  But I think that misses the mark.  Joseph demonstrated wisdom, openness, and character throughout his trials.  By the time he met up with his brothers he had not only been a lowly slave, bought and sold on a caravan, but a prisoner in a pit.  Have you seen Egyptian pits/prisons?  Dark and dank doesn't cover it, my friends.  Would prosperity really erase longs years of toil and hardship?  I don't know that they do.  Observation of people suggests that they don't.

Joseph could have taken vengeance.  He could have thrown his brothers in prison and forgotten about them.  He had servants at his disposal: it wouldn't have been hard for him to send some to Canaan in search of his father to provide for the family left over.  Instead, Joseph weeps over his brothers.  He forgives them, pulls them close.  He not only provides food, but gives them a new home in the good land of Goshen in Egypt.  He more than forgives, he loves and lets go.

I'm not saying forgiveness will ever be easy.  I'm not saying that when something horrific happens, we should be able to immediately forgive like a robot.  I'm just saying, I don't know that we should ever feel like we're "off the hook" or that we don't have to.  God asks us to be like Him, to reflect Him to others.  Being willing to forgive in a world that doesn't see forgiveness as a viable response is a shining example of God's goodness and glory.  We can do all things through Him who strengthens us.  Don't you think He'd help us to forgive, too?

Tomorrow's Reading: Genesis 46:1-47:12

Genesis 44:1-34

I never really understood this passage.  Why was Joseph doing this?  Why not come out and tell them who he is?  So, I referred to my trusty Bible Knowledge Commentary, and found this interesting thought: that Joseph was testing his brothers to see if their concern for themselves would at last be set aside in favor of concern for another.  Did it work?  I think so: Judah's pleas to remain in Benjamin's stead are pretty selfless.  He seems only concerned for Benjamin's welfare, especially in respect to Jacob's welfare.  He knew his father might just give up and die in his grief, to lose this last shred of connection to his beloved wife Rachel.  Rather than resent Jacob's attachment to Benjamin, Judah desires to protect it, even to the point of taking Benjamin's punishment.  Judah has proven that he, at least, has matured into a man.

Tomorrow's Reading: Genesis 45:1-28

Genesis 43:1-34

It struck me for the first time today that Joseph was taking care of his family when he sent back their money.  I had always wondered if he had meant to intimidate them or get them in trouble.  Nothing of the sort.  Imagine, if your family had come to buy food because they had so little at home.  Would you charge them full price?  Would you charge them at all?  Joseph didn't.  And in fact, he told a little misdirection (was it really a lie) in telling them that God had put the money in their sacks: do we not credit God for every blessing we receive?  Would it be so far-fetched to say that God moved Joseph to return the money in their sacks, when they could not return it or try to pay again, in order to provide for Israel and his sons?  I think not.  And Joseph did indeed receive their money; he simply put it back.  I have to admit, if I was in Joseph's shoes (and refusing to reveal my identity), I would likely have done the same thing.  No way was my family going to pay!

A side note: Notice Israel instructed his sons to take the choicest fruits of the land... during a famine.  Things are incredibly lean, so much so that to eat they went all the way down to Egypt to buy grain.  So these things must have been very precious indeed to send along to an unknown man.  But then, this man was holding one of his sons and Israel was sending him another.  So, really, what was the most precious?

Tomorrow's Reading: Genesis 44:1-34