Three Observations from Genesis 45–50
I recently read through Genesis 45–50 again. There were three things that really stood out to me this time, some new, some old. I was especially captured by a verse that highlights God’s sovereignty AND man’s responsibility in our decisions. I also empathized with Jacob who missed his lost son. Finally, I was struck by the contrasts between wisdom and foolishness and their consequences.
Who Sent Joseph to Egypt?
If you attended Sunday School as a child for more than a few months, you’re probably familiar with the story of Joseph. As a young person, he has dreams from God that his family will all bow down to him. He shares what God has shown him, and it’s received about as well as most things that God has to say. Joseph’s brothers are envious and eventually hatch a plan to kill him. At the last minute they back off just a bit and instead sell him to some merchants bound for Egypt as a slave.
Years go by and Joseph is now the ruler of Egypt in all but the title. For seven years, there was a great abundance in harvests. But for the past couple of years, there has been such a famine that people are desperate for food. In his wisdom (given by God), Joseph has been leading Egypt to store up a portion of the abundant harvests and so is now providing food not only for the Egyptians but selling to people from the lands around them.
In this context, Joseph’s brothers arrive in Egypt looking to buy food themselves. They don’t recognize Joseph, but he knows them. There’s a wonderfully dramatic narrative of Joseph determining whether these men have changed from the kind of people who sell off a younger brother out of envy. At last, Joseph reveals himself to them in an emotional scene where he cries, his brothers cry, the servants cry. It’s a powerful event. And here’s what Joseph tells his brothers:
“5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt”. [Gen 45:5–8 ESV]
In verse five Joseph says, “you sold me here, for God sent me…” And in verse eight Joseph emphasizes God’s role saying, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God”. Here the compatibility of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility are clearly seen. Joseph’s brothers clearly sinned against him. This is reiterated in chapter 50 verses 15–20 where Joseph’s brothers acknowledge that what they did was evil, and Joseph agrees. They are responsible for the evil they did. But in another sense, God was responsible for what took place. Joseph clearly states, “God sent me”. In chapter 50 Joseph says God meant it for good.
How do these two truths fit together? I think we can speculate on that, and even back up some ideas from Scripture. But the important thing is that they are both true. We have to embrace them both. We are not allowed to deny either one in trying to understand either God’s role in ordering events or our own responsibility for our actions. Both are true.
Why Did God Allow Jacob to Suffer?
The story progresses and Joseph’s brothers return home to tell their father Jacob that Joseph is alive and ruling in Egypt. Jacob and all his family are invited to come live in Egypt where they will be well cared for. When Jacob hears the news, it almost kills him. The ESV says his heart became numb, the KJV says his heart fainted. After explaining it to him, Jacob’s spirit revives, and he undertakes the journey to Egypt to see his son before he dies.
A curious thing takes place at the beginning of chapter 46, though:
“2 And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” 3 Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. 4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”” [Gen 46:2–4 ESV]
God appears to Jacob as he had on earlier occasions in his life. God tells him to go to Egypt and specifically that “Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes”. This is undoubtedly reassuring to Jacob as he takes his entire family to the land of Egypt. But I had to wonder, why didn’t God tell this to Jacob years earlier when he received news of Joseph’s death?
Jacob clearly grieved for the loss of his beloved son and continued grieving for all the years he was lost. God had spoken to Jacob in the past. But for all the years Joseph is missing, God says nothing. Year after year God does not say anything to Jacob about Joseph being alive, being in Egypt. Doesn’t say anything about how Joseph will close Jacob’s eyes in death. What comfort those words would have given Jacob!
So why didn’t God speak sooner? Because God is wise and good in all he does, and his purposes are the highest, the best, the most good. It may not seem that way to us living with our limited perspective. But Joseph’s perspective in chapter 45 supplies us the way to look at hardships and trials through God’s perspective. Joseph said, “God sent me”. So long as we put our trust in God, we can rest assured that our suffering is not unnecessary.
The Consequences of Foolishness
Genesis 47:13–26 tells the story of how Joseph bought Egypt for Pharaoh. As the years go by and the Egyptian people run out of money to buy food, they make a trade for cattle and lands and finally sell themselves as slaves to Pharaoh for food.
“19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.” 20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh’s. 21 As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other.” [Gen 47:19–21 ESV]
This story always rubs me the wrong way. Joseph’s the hero of our tale, yet what he does here seems…tyrannical. You collected all this food through taxes, why not use it to benefit the people, rather than Pharaoh. I still don’t have a good answer to that, but that’s not my focus right now.
What struck me as I read through this was how foolish these people were to be selling everything for food. It sounds similar to the deal Esau made for a bowl of lentils. If you’re starving, you do what you have to do, I guess. But why are these people out of food?
Joseph collected 20 percent of the grain produced in Egypt for seven years. This was enough to not only feed the people of Egypt for the next seven years but to sell to people from surrounding nations. So, if the people of Egypt had set aside 20% of their harvests for seven years, they would have had enough not only to feed themselves but to sell to their neighbors. They would have been rich! Why didn’t they? What did they do with all that extra food?
As an American, I don’t need too much imagination to guess what happened. We live in a materialistic culture. We spend money. According to a MarketWatch story from 2018, Americans save only about three percent. For many people, they simply barely make enough to pay the bills. But for most people, they had rather buy a new phone, a newer car, or whatever strikes their fancy in the moment than to save money.
Joseph was recognized for the wisdom he showed in the advice given to Pharaoh. This wisdom not only benefitted him but blessed the entire nation as well. While the foolishness of the Egyptians bankrupted them and made them slaves. Wisdom is constantly praised in the Bible. It is one of the attributes of God. Proverbs praises wisdom and pictures it as a woman crying out to everyone who passes by to listen to her and come to her and promises to bless all who do. Jesus is described as the wisdom of God personified.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those who despise wisdom become slaves. Slaves to their appetites, slaves to sin. But James tells us that any who lack wisdom should ask for it from God who gives to all generously and doesn’t reproach anyone for asking. We should be in continual prayer that God would grant us the wisdom we lack in every area of our lives.
These are just some observations I had in reading these few chapters and meditating on them. I hope you find some good in them. Perhaps you see something else in these chapters I didn’t mention? I’d love to hear from you!
