32. B.C. 1708 to 1635

B.C. 1708 to 1635

Chapter VI

Timeline View:

1. Among the foreigners who repaired to Egypt to buy corn in the first year of the famine, were the brethren of Joseph. As they stood “and bowed themselves before him, with their faces to the earth,” and thus accomplished what was predicted by the dreams which they had so criminally endeavoured to frustrate, they little thought of their brother, but he knew them well. To try their present dispositions, he spoke roughly to them, and accused them of being spies, “come to spy the nakedness of the land.” This was a most grave and dangerous charge, coming from such a quarter. This they felt; and, in their anxiety to repel it, gave a particular account of their real condition, from which Joseph learned that his father still lived, and that his favorite son, their youngest brother, had remained at home with him. Joseph seized hold of thus, and made the appearance of that younger brother before him the test of their sincerity, and decided that one of them should go for him, and the rest remain in custody till that one returned with Benjamin. Meanwhile they were cast into prison; but on the third day he spoke more gently to them, and directed that they might all go home, except Simeon, who was to be detained as a hostage for their return. Their troubled consciences interpreted the difficulties into which they had fallen as a divine judgment upon them for the treatment of their brother; and as they freely expressed this to one another-not supposing “the governor of the country” could understand them-Joseph was much moved, and turned from them and wept. He gave them provisions for the journey, and caused the money they had paid for corn to be privily restored in their sacks.

2. When they reached home they gave their father a full account of the strange behaviour of “the man, the governor of the land.” He was much disconcerted at the demand for Benjamin, and refused to let him go. But, when the corn was all consumed, and Jacob desired his sons to go to Egypt for more, they absolutely refused again to appear before “the governor” without Benjamin. At length, with extreme difficulty, they extorted his consent—Judah making himself individually responsible for Benjamin’s safe return. Anxious to make a favorable impression upon the much-dreaded “man” in Egypt, Jacob sent him a present of the choice products of the land of Canaan—balm and honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds.

3. They arrived in Egypt, and again stood before Joseph, who no sooner saw Benjamin than he expressed his satisfaction, and set Simeon free. He asked them concerning that old man of whom they had spoken—their father—and was obliged to withdraw to indulge that burst of emotion which the sight of his brother inspired. He feasted them sumptuously that clay, and the next morning allowed them to depart with the corn they required. But, to try their feeling towards Benjamin, be caused his own silver cup to be secretly introduced into the month of his corn-sack, that he might see whether, when Benjamin should be charged with the theft, they would leave him to his fate, and go home without him. Accordingly, after they had left the town, they were over-taken by a party of Joseph’s servants, who ordered them to stop, and charged them with having stolen their master’s silver cup. Alarmed at this accusation, but conscious of their innocence, they expressed their readiness to be searched, and declared that any one with whom the cup might be found deserved to die. When the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, they returned with the supposed culprit to the city, and once more stood before the governor of the land. They fell on their faces before him, and, in answer to his reproaches, declared themselves his bondsmen, without attempting to deny or vindicate the apparent guilt of their brother. But Joseph told them it was right that only the guilty should suffer. Benjamin, therefore, he would detain in bondage, but they might go home. Judah then interceded, and, in a most eloquent and touching address, evinced the most tender affection towards his brother and his aged father; and, declaring the special trust he had incurred, entreated to he taken as a bondsman in the stead of Benjamin. The governor could contain himself no longer; he made himself known to them—“I am Joseph!—doth my father yet live?” Perceiving them overwhelmed with apprehension and remorse, he endeavoured to comfort and reassure them, by directing their attention to the designs of Providence—“Be not grieved or angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life.” He then embraced them all, and opened to them his desire that they should return and bring their father and their families down to Egypt, where they would enjoy plenty during the remaining years of famine; and he would procure them a grant of the pastoral district of Goshen for their residence.

4. Joyful was their return, and rapturous their announcement to their father—“Joseph is yet alive, and is governor over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob’s heart fainted, and he believed them not. Twenty years he had mourned his beloved Joseph as dead, and it was not easy at once to receive so great a joy. When at length their solemn assurance created belief, he said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive—I will go down and see him before I die!” So Jacob left Canaan with all his family and possessions. On the way he paused to worship at the old family altar in Beersheba, and was there favored with the intimation from God, that the purpose of His providence was, that his race should tarry in Egypt, to grow into a great nation there; and that, as such, they should then march forth to take possession of the land of Canaan, their promised inheritance. Jacob’s family—consisting of his sons, with their wives and children—at the time it entered Egypt, consisted of seventy-five[*] persons (Acts 7:14). On entering Egypt, Jacob sent Judah to give notice of his arrival to Joseph, who immediately rode forth in his chariot to meet his father, who, when he saw him, ‘‘fell upon his neck, and wept on his neck a good while;” and, as soon as he could speak, he said, “Now, let me die since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.” Joseph conducted them into the land of Goshen, which they were to occupy. Having left their flocks and herds there, they proceeded to the metropolis, and were introduced by Joseph to the king, the father separately, and the sons together. Pharaoh was much struck by the venerable aspect of the patriarch, and asked him how old he was? He answered—“The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage.”

[*] InGen 46:27, we read “seventy.” The reason of the difference is this—Jacob’s eleven sons and a daughter, and their children and grandchildren, made sixty-six persons, to whom the account in Acts adds the nine wives of Jacob’s eleven sons. The account in Genesis omits these wives, but makes the number seventy, by adding to the sixty-six Jacob himself, and Joseph, with his two sons, already in Egypt.

5. Jacob and his family having taken possession of the district of Goshen, remained there, undisturbed, in their usual pastoral employments for seventeen years, at the end of which Jacob—being then 147 years old—felt that his last hour drew nigh. He therefore called his sons together, to tell them, in the spirit of prophecy, what should befall them and their tribes in the coming times. As they all stood around him, he gave utterance in the most beautiful language, replete with poetical images, to a wonderful series of predictions respecting the future character, circumstances, and situation of the tribes which were to spring from his several sons. To Judah was allotted the pre-eminence, and a more especial interest in the promises of the covenant; nor was it obscurely intimated that in his tribe was to arise the promised Deliverer, whose coming was the main object of the Hebrew covenant, and of the Jewish polity, as established in after years. Joseph was eminently favored with a double portion; for Jacob adopted his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, as his own children, thereby making them heads of tribes, and entitling them, as such, to be counted as two tribes in the commonwealth of Israel; but, at the same time, Jacob intimated that the tribe of the younger son Ephraim would take a leading part in the nation, and be greater and more renowned than the tribe of the elder Manasseh.

6. When he had finished blessing his sons, Israel gathered up his feet into the bed, and died. Joseph fell upon the face of his dead father, kissed him, and closed his eyes. Egypt held a solemn mourning for him. His body was embalmed after the manner of the Egyptians, and carried with great state to the land of Canaan, to be laid in the family sepulcher. Such had been his own desire, in the unshaken conviction that the Lord would restore his race to the land which contained that sepulcher, and give it to them for a possession. In the same conviction Joseph himself, fifty-four years after, and just before his death—being then 110 years old—sent for his brethren, and required them, on behalf of the family, to swear to carry up his bones from Egypt, and bury them in the Land of Promise—thus, at once, evincing his faith, and taking his last place with the Israelites rather than with the Egyptians. He then died; and, as he had only charged them to remove his bones with them when the time of their final departure should arrive, his body was carefully preserved in a coffin against that time.