The Book of Genesis

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Joseph presents five of his brothers to Pharaoh, who grants the family the best of the land, Goshen, and even offers to make able men among them overseers of his own livestock. Then Joseph brings in his aged father, and the scene is striking: the old shepherd Jacob stands before the mightiest king on earth, and "Jacob blessed Pharaoh." When Pharaoh asks his age, Jacob answers with words full of weariness and honesty: "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." He calls his whole life a "pilgrimage," a sojourn, and admits it has been shorter and harder than his fathers' lives, marked by grief, deception, loss, and long sorrow. Then, once more, "Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out." His life had been hard, yet he stood before a king not as a beggar but as one who could bless.

Gospel Focus

Two things in this scene are full of instruction. First, Jacob calls his life a "pilgrimage." He understood that he was a sojourner, a traveler passing through, not a settler with his heart in this world. This is the outlook Scripture commends in all the patriarchs, who "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13). The believer, too, is a pilgrim here, and life's brevity and hardship, "few and evil," only remind us that this is not our final home. As the psalm says, our years are soon "cut off, and we fly away" (Psalm 90:10). To live wisely is to live as a pilgrim, holding this world loosely. Second, notice that Jacob, the humble shepherd, blessed Pharaoh, the great king. Scripture draws out the meaning: "without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better" (Hebrews 7:7). In the things of God, the poorest saint outranks the mightiest ruler. Jacob had little in the world's eyes, yet he carried the blessing of the living God and could bestow it even on a king. So the humblest child of God today holds a treasure and a standing greater than all the crowns of earth.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The famine deepens until there is "no bread in all the land." Joseph manages the crisis in stages. First the people spend all their money for grain, and Joseph brings it into Pharaoh's house. When the money is gone, they trade their livestock for bread. The next year, with nothing left but their land and their own persons, they sell both to Pharaoh in exchange for food and seed. Joseph gives them seed to sow and sets a fair arrangement: they will keep four parts of the harvest and give a fifth to Pharaoh. The people are not resentful; they are grateful: "Thou hast saved our lives ... we will be Pharaoh's servants." Through Joseph's God-given wisdom, an entire civilization is carried through years of famine that would otherwise have destroyed it, and the people bless the man who kept them alive. Joseph's foresight in the years of plenty now saves a whole nation.

Gospel Focus

"Thou hast saved our lives." Joseph, once thrown in a pit and sold as a slave, has become the savior of a nation, and the people gladly give themselves to serve the one who kept them alive. There is a gospel echo in their words. When we truly grasp that Christ has saved our lives, the natural, glad response is to give ourselves wholly to Him: "Thou hast saved our lives ... we will be Pharaoh's servants" becomes, for the redeemed, "you have saved me, Lord; I am yours." Real salvation produces willing service, not grudging duty. Notice also Joseph's faithful stewardship. God had shown him what was coming, and he prepared, and now his wise administration preserved countless lives. God calls His people to be faithful stewards of what He entrusts to us, our resources, our influence, our foresight, using them to serve others and honor Him. Joseph gathered in the good years so he could give in the lean ones, and God still looks for stewards who will manage His gifts wisely for the good of many. The one who saves lives by faithful stewardship reflects the heart of the Savior.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

A short but significant note: while the rest of the world struggles through famine and Egypt itself passes into Pharaoh's ownership, Israel "dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly." The family that arrived as seventy hungry souls is beginning to flourish. God's promise to make Jacob a great nation is quietly coming true, even in a foreign land and in the middle of a famine. Jacob himself lives seventeen more years in Egypt, reaching the age of a hundred and forty-seven. These are peaceful, restful years for the old man, reunited with Joseph and surrounded by his growing family. After a lifetime of striving and sorrow, God gives Jacob a quiet evening, and lets him watch the beginning of the nation that would carry his name.

Gospel Focus

"They grew, and multiplied exceedingly." God's blessing was on His people even in Egypt, even in famine, causing them to increase. God is able to make His people fruitful in any soil, in hard times as well as good, for the growth comes from Him, not from favorable circumstances. What He has promised, He performs, quietly and steadily, whatever the surrounding conditions. And there is a gentle word here about the shortness of life and the mercy of God's rest. Jacob's long, hard pilgrimage ended in seventeen restful years. Our lives, too, are brief, for "what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). Yet God is faithful to the end, often granting His weary servants seasons of peace and the joy of seeing His promises begin to bear fruit before they go. The God who was faithful through Jacob's evil days was faithful in his restful ones, and He will be faithful through all the brief, vaporous days of our pilgrimage too.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

As Jacob's death approaches, he calls Joseph and makes a solemn request, sealed with an oath: "bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt." He wants to be carried back and laid with his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, in the cave at Machpelah in Canaan. Egypt had given Jacob refuge, provision, reunion, and seventeen restful years, yet he did not want to be buried there. His heart belonged to the land God had promised. Joseph swears to do it, and Jacob, satisfied, "bowed himself upon the bed's head," a gesture of worship and thanksgiving to God. This dying request is not mere sentiment about a family tomb; it is a declaration of faith. Jacob believed that Canaan, not Egypt, was the land of promise, and he wanted his very bones to testify that his hope was fixed there.

Gospel Focus

Jacob's dying charge is one of the great acts of faith in his life. Comfortable in Egypt, he refused to let Egypt be his final resting place, because he believed God's promise of the land. His insistence, "bury me not in Egypt," was a testimony that he still counted himself a pilgrim looking for the inheritance God had sworn. This is the faith of all the patriarchs, who "died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13). They would not let the comforts of the present world become their home when God had promised something better. So the believer, however comfortable this life may become, must keep the heart fixed on the promise beyond it. Egypt is not our home; the promised land is. Jacob's bones, waiting to be carried up to Canaan, preach to us that we should live and die as people whose true hope lies in the country God has prepared. And his final act, bowing in worship, shows a man at peace, trusting God to keep every promise even beyond the grave.