Jacob Comes To Joseph Series

Jacob comes to Joseph

Genesis chapters 46 and 47

The end of chapter 45 gives to us this amazing picture of the brothers heading back to their father in Canaan with the carts and the clothes and the provisions and the donkeys that Joseph gave them and the prospect of having to announce to their father about Joseph being alive. They had been sent with a word of warning from their brother Joseph in verse 24 of chapter 45: “Don’t,” he said, “quarrel on the journey!” He didn’t want them to spend their time aggravating one another, and so they must’ve spent their time in some form of conversation.

But what ,” said one of the brothers as they were returning home from Egypt , “but what are we going to tell our father? How are we going to tell him in a way that preserves us and encourages him? Because it’s impossible for us to tell him that Joseph is alive without having to acknowledge the fact that we had lied and have lied over twenty years in an act of total deceit?”

When they told him that Joseph was alive he was stunned.

Did not his sons show him the blood stained robe and ask him to identify it. And didn’t he conclude that Joseph was dead torn by wild animals – Gen 37: 32-33. Now Jacob may have been old, but he was far from senile. While the carts from Egypt was convincing Jacob needed something more to set the record straight. Things just did not add up. There had to be some explaining by his sons. Painful though it was, I believe that the whole sordid story was spelled out. I am persuaded that confession was made because it was necessary in order to convince Jacob that Joseph was alive. And if we look into Gen 50: 15 -17 we find that Jacob is requesting Joseph ” to forgive the brothers for the sins and wrongs they had they had committed against you in treating you so badly” Now from where did he get all this information unless they had confessed their wrongs against Joseph to him. But this is speculation on my part. ( From my study “Joseph reveals himself”)

Jacob had hastily packed his belongings, gathered his family, and begun the long trek to Egypt, just as Joseph had urged (45:9). When he had gotten as far as Beersheba, Jacob seemed to feel the full impact of what he was setting out to do. Beersheba was also at the southern extremity of the land of Canaan. Later the land of promise would be spoken of as “from Dan to Beersheba” (e.g., Judges 20:1), Dan being at the northern border and Beersheba at the south. Once Jacob left Beersheba, traveling south, he would be leaving the land of promise, which was the land that God had promised Abraham (12:1-3; 15:7,18-21), Isaac (26:2-4), and Jacob (28:13; 35:12). How could Jacob be assured of God’s blessing if he was leaving the land of promise?

Beersheba was a place rich in the history of his forefathers. Abraham had called upon the name of the Lord here (21:33) and had settled in this place after offering up Isaac on Mt. Moriah (22:19). Here at Beersheba Isaac had been visited by God, and the covenant made with Abraham was reiterated (26:23-25). It would seem that Jacob lived at Beersheba when he deceived his father and obtained his blessing (chapter 27), for it was from this place that he had fled from Esau and departed to Haran (28:10).

At Beesheba God spoke to Jacob in visions of the night and confirmed, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will close your eyes.” Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob and their little ones and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their livestock and their property, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him: his sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt (Genesis 46:1-7).

God assured Jacob that it was His will for him to depart from Canaan to dwell in Egypt. Three assurances were revealed to confirm God’s approval of the move to Egypt. First, the God of Isaac (and, of course, Abraham, 26:24) promised Jacob that He would go with him to Egypt and in that pagan land would make of him a great nation. Many years before, God had assured Jacob at Bethel that He would be with him as he journeyed north to Haran (28:15). Now He would be with him as he traveled south to Egypt. Strangely, it would be in Egypt, not Canaan, that his offspring would multiply into a great nation (verse 3).