We saw yesterday how Joseph had warned his brothers to play down their role as shepherds because Egyptians detested shepherds. However when the five brothers chosen by Joseph are brought before Pharaoh and are asked their occupations they blandly come out with what they are, just like their fathers had been. Now this indicates either they have short memories, or that they are overwhelmed by Pharaoh's presence and forgot all Joseph's advice, or that they disdain their brothers advice and give a proud answer.

Whatever their reason for responding in such a way, Pharaoh's response is exemplary! He gives no negative reaction and instead he graciously offers them a home, and indeed a privileged job if they wish for it. Pharaoh's response, more than any other at this stage, shows us the amazing thing that God has done through Joseph. It was worth the hard years! Jacob's position is also worth noting. He is the patriarch who is now highly respected for his old age, and in that old age he blesses the younger man, Pharaoh, even though he is the more powerful. From a twister he has become the respected elder. God has worked some wonderful changes in this man, but then changing men is one of the Lord's favourite jobs it seems!

D. Application?

1. Do we take advice? Look up Proverbs 12:1b

2. When others are insensitive are we gracious like Pharaoh was?

3. Are we changing as we grow older, for the good?

Chapter: Genesis 47

Passage: Genesis 47:13-26

A. Find Out:

1. What did Joseph first take in return for grain? v.14

2. What did he next take? v.16

3. What did he finally take? v.20

4. What did he finally require from them? v.24

5. Who had not surrendered their land? v.22

6. What did the general people feel about what had happened? v.25

B. Think :

1. Why does what Joseph did perhaps appear hard to us today?

2. Why might it have had good results?

3. How has Pharaoh benefited by listening to Joseph?

C. Comment :

Joseph, with God's wisdom, knows how long the famine is going to last and has made provision for it. Others have not done so, and thus when the famine gets worse and worse Joseph is in an increasingly strong position, until eventually the entire nation has sold its assets to Joseph so that everything belongs to Pharaoh. Now that naturally repulses us with our enlightened view of what is fair in Society but we need to remember that these are still very early days of civilisation. For us absolute authority being invested in a leader usually results in abuse from dictatorship.

When the leader is a man conscious that he is there because of God's leading (as we shall see later), it means that we may have a means of order for society that can only bring blessing. Romans 13:1-4 speaks of authority as being God given for our blessing. With Joseph in control there would be a greater possibility of bringing good to the nation than ever before. Joseph has the means to bring peace and order to this land, which is of course, God's desire for all nations. He looks for His people that He can use to bring it through!

D. Application?

1. What is our attitude towards authority? Do we see it as there for the good

of society or as a means of suppressing society?

2. Ask the Lord to help you have right attitudes in respect of authority

today.

Chapter: Genesis 47

Passage: Genesis 47:27 - 48:9

A. Find Out:

1. What did Jacob make Joseph promise? v.29-31

2. Why did Joseph go to Jacob again? v.1

3. What did Jacob tell Joseph about? v.3

4. What had the Lord promised? v.4

5. What did Jacob therefore want to do? v.5

6. What did he next want to do? v.9

B. Think :

1. How is Jacob's desire to be buried in Canaan later seen to be an act of

faith?

2. Why do you think Jacob wanted to adopt Joseph's first two sons?

3. Why would he want to bless them? (see previously- "Jacob's Story")

C. Comment :

As Jacob senses he is near the end of his life, having lived 17 years since coming to Egypt, he makes Joseph promise he will take his body back to Canaan when he dies. When he later talks to Joseph we see he has remembered God's promise to give him that land, and going back, even after death, is an act of faith. He then states that he wants to adopt Joseph's two sons as his own. By his reference to his favourite wife Rachel, we may surmise that he felt that if Rachel had lived after having Benjamin, she might have had at least one more son. In a sense therefore, he is trying to bring into being what he felt OUGHT to have happened. Whatever is the truth here, Jacob wants to make sure that these two sons of Joseph, born away from Canaan, are reckoned as part of the family of Israel .

1 Chronicles 5:1 tells us that these two sons took Reuben's rights as firstborn after Reuben had insulted his father by sleeping with his concubine (see Genesis 35:25). Whether Jacob had this in mind at this moment is not made clear. Whatever it is, these two sons move into the Biblical records of the tribes of Israel .

D. Application?

1. Are we people of faith who persevere in obtaining what God has promised

in His word, right to the very end of our lives?

2. Ask the Lord to help us persevere like Jacob.

Chapter: Genesis 48

Passage: Genesis 48:8-22

A. Find Out:

1. How did Joseph set his sons before Jacob? v.13

2. How did Jacob place his hands? v.14

3. What did he desire for them? v.16

4. How did Joseph feel about this? v.17,18

5. How did Jacob respond? v.19

6. What did he desire for Joseph? v.21

B. Think :

1. Read Hebrews 11:21 How is Jacob commended?

2. What significance did Jacob obviously place on blessing these boys?

3. How would you describe Joseph's reaction?

C. Comment :

Jacob comes to bless Joseph's two sons. He believes in blessings. He remembers his father blessing him (Genesis 27), and he had wrestled with God for His blessing (Genesis 32:26). Oh yes, Jacob knew about blessings; they conferred or declared God's goodness in a prophetic way. And now, as these two sons are presented to him, he senses that the future is not as it might be expected, the younger will be greater than the older, and he places his right hand, the hand of authority on that son. Joseph isn't moving with the same sensitivity as his aged father and thinks the old man is just getting it wrong! Jacob enlightens him.

For this act, Jacob receives a place and a commendation in the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. We should not despise this strong belief in "blessings" because we may not understand it, for it clearly receives God's commendation. Perhaps, instead, we should seek to be those who are sensitive to the Lord, who bring God's blessing upon the lives of others, but then that requires maturity and sensitivity and brings a responsibility with it which we may not want! Jacob had it. Do we?

D. Application?

1. Are we alert to the will of the Lord or do we proceed with only human

consideration of the future?

2. Ask the Lord to teach you to be sensitive to Him.

Chapter: Genesis 49/50

Passage: Genesis 49:33 - 50:14

A. Find Out:

1. What was done at Joseph's command? v.2,3

2. What did Joseph request of Pharaoh? v.5

3. Who went with Joseph? v.7-9

4. What was done near the Jordan ? v.10

5. Where was Jacob buried? v.13

6. Then what did they do? v.14

B. Think :

1. What does Joseph's action tell us about him?

2. What does Pharaoh's response tell us about Joseph?

3. What does the whole thing say about Jacob?

C. Comment :

Jacob had made Joseph promise that when he died Joseph would take him back to Canaan to bury him. Joseph (by the way he asked) wondered how Pharaoh would feel about him leaving the country but, to honour his father, he risks asking. Perhaps this is the reason why Joseph and the rest of the family remained on in Egypt and didn't return to live in Canaan, perhaps Pharaoh realised that blessing accompanied this man, and didn't want to let him go.

He grants Jacob what we would call today a "State Funeral" accompanied by all the top people, all the way up to Canaan (to ensure Joseph comes back perhaps?). When they got there, there is a full week's state mourning. What was Pharaoh doing? Well perhaps it was a combination of his gratefulness to Joseph together with a bribe to continue to hold his loyalty and overcome any temptation to stay in his home land. In it all Joseph very clearly honours his father. His initial anguish, the mourning for seventy days, the returning his father to Canaan, and his mourning for a further seven days, all reveal the extent of his love for his father. There is nothing half hearted about his love and his feelings for his father or about this funeral! Honouring his father is just another example of this man's righteousness.

D. Application?

1. Above all else this passage shows us Joseph honouring his father. Do we

honour our parents with such feeling as Joseph did?

2. Thank the Lord for your parents today.

Chapter: Genesis 50

Passage: Genesis 50:15-21

A. Find Out:

1. What did the brothers fear? v.15

2. What did they say Jacob had asked? v.16,17

3. What was Joseph's response? v.17c

4. What did they say they were? v.18

5. What did Joseph say they had intended? v.20a

6. But what had God purposed in it? v.20b

B. Think :

1. What did the brothers now realise?

2. Why do you think Joseph wept?

3. What understanding did Joseph have?

C. Comment :

Within this passage is one of the most wonderful statements of the Old Testament. Verse 20 ought to be memorised, so wonderful is it. The brothers rightly realise their protection, their father, is no longer there. They are completely at Joseph's mercy and he has every reason to want to get his own back for what they did to him, selling him into slavery and years of life in prison. Whether their story about Jacob's request is true or not is not clear. Quite possibly it is just the brothers' way of trying to get round Joseph. When Joseph hears the message he is moved to tears, either by his father's concern or even perhaps by his sadness at his brothers' fear which is now groundless.

He shares with them his understanding: they had done what they had done out of wrong motives but God had planned it for good to save many lives. Psalm 105:17 says "he (God) sent a man before them". God who knows men's hearts, knows what provocation will be necessary to set things in motion, and in this case a couple of dreams would do the job! In Jesus' case, truth and miracles would do it. Acts 2:23 shows that Jesus' death, like Joseph's "death" (to his father at least) was all within God's plan [see "How to Build a Church" in this Series].

D. Application?

1. Do we give forgiveness, by understanding the heart of God?

2. Ask the Lord to give you that understanding.

Chapter: Genesis 50

Passage: Genesis 50:22-26

A. Find Out:

1. How long did Joseph live? v.22

2. Of what was he aware? v.24a

3. What did he prophesy? v.24b

4. What did he want them to do? v.25b

5. When would that happen? v.25a

6. Where was he placed in a coffin? v.26

B. Think :

1. What does this passage tell us about Joseph in his last days?

2. Look up Exodus 13:19 to see how Joseph was honoured.

3. Look up Hebrews 11:22 Why was Joseph commended?

C. Comment :

The end is near; Joseph senses it. He has lived long and seen his family grow up around him and have their own children and even grandchildren. The years have been good to him but the end is near. In his last days he gathered his brothers together (?those that were left?) and told them that God WOULD deliver them OUT of this land and INTO the land of their fathers that had been promised to them.

In doing this, this man who had been through so much, stretches forth in faith to what God has already said about their future (see: to Abram, Genesis 15:13-16; to Isaac, Genesis 26:3,4; to Jacob, Genesis 35:12). Joseph has learned that when God says something He means it and He WILL fulfil it. In making this declaration of faith Joseph earns himself a place in the list of men and women of faith in Hebrews 11.

Note also that some hundreds of years later Moses honours Joseph's death request and takes his bones with them as they finally leave Egypt. He is a man to be honoured, for he has preserved the nation! He has been through much to be in the place where God can use him, and be the sort of man God can use. This has been the story of an apparently spoilt brat who becomes a great man!

D. Application?

1. May we be people of faith like Joseph who hold to God's word to the very

end!

2. Thank the Lord for the account of Joseph.

RECAP - "Joseph's Last Days" - Genesis Chapters 47 - 50

SUMMARY :

In these last 7 studies we have seen:

- The brothers being presented to Pharaoh

- The family settling in Egypt

- Joseph making Pharaoh rich through the famine

- Jacob in his last days adopting Joseph's two sons

- Jacob blessing these two sons

- Jacob dying & being given a state funeral

- Joseph allaying the brothers' fears of retribution

- Joseph's eventual death in old age.

COMMENT :

Joseph's position in Egypt means the rest of the family are honoured by Pharaoh, by provision in both life and death. Joseph has truly been the Saviour of both Egypt and Israel.

In their last years both Jacob and Joseph are revealed as men of faith who are sensitive to the will and purposes of God. They stand as beacons of faith to us today. This again, is a story of life transformation.

LESSONS :

1. We should listen to advice & counsel

2. We need to have a right attitude towards authority

3. We need to persevere in following God's word

4. We are to be alert to the leading of the Spirit at all times

5. We are to remember to honour our parents

6. We are to be "people of forgiveness"

7. We can be people of faith to the end.

PRAY :

1. Ask the Lord to help you be a person of faith who holds fast to His word throughout

your life and looks constantly for the fulfilling of His purposes in your life.

2. Thank Him for the example of Jacob and Joseph; one a twister the other a spoilt brat,

both chosen and moulded by God to become men of faith.

SUMMARY

In these studies in the last part of Genesis we have seen:

a) The Lord

- giving Joseph dreams of the future

- blessing Joseph in Potiphar's employment & in the prison

- giving dreams to two of the prison inmates

- giving the interpretation of them to Joseph

- giving dreams to Pharaoh & the interpretation of them to

Joseph

- giving wisdom to Joseph to know what to do

- encouraging Jacob to come to Egypt

- having been in the whole thing for the salvation of many people

b) Joseph

- as a spoilt young man

- blurting out his dreams to his family

- being sold into slavery & working for Potiphar

- rejecting the overtures of Potiphar's wife

- being thrown into prison & working well in the prison

- sensitive to other prisoners & interpreting their dreams

- being released to help Pharaoh

- having revelation and wisdom to help

- overseeing the food distribution

- playing with his brothers when they come

- providing for his family when they come to settle

- dying in old age after prophesying their future.

c) The Brothers

- hating Joseph at first

- selling Joseph to slave traders

- going to buy food in Egypt & in fear of Joseph

- eventually settling in Egypt

d) Jacob

- spoiling Joseph

- mourning Joseph

- settling with Joseph

CONCLUSIONS

As we come to the end of these studies about Joseph we perhaps need to take note of the following:

1. God's Sovereignty

Joseph's story appears to be one involving human pride & jealousy which results in human slavery; Joseph physically, the brothers to guilt, and Jacob to sorrow. However, the more we go on through the account, the more we note the hand of the Lord in it, bringing transformation.

At first we may not have even attributed the first dreams to the Lord but when later dreams clearly ARE prophetic, we realise He was in them ALL. Indeed we find the Lord was working behind the scenes throughout, working for the salvation of Israel 's family in the face of massive famine, and establishing them in Egypt in preparation for one of the mightiest acts of God in the Old Testament, the Exodus, possibly some three centuries later. (See the next in this series, entitled "Pharaoh's Fall")

2. The Sin of Man

We start out with human weakness and sin fully exposed: Jacob, having favourites that caused family tension and split; Joseph, a spoilt self-centred youth with little concern for the feelings of his family; the brothers jealous of their younger brother, so jealous they sell him into a life of slavery.

Later, Joseph is in the hands of a hard master who unjustly imprisons his slave, and a mistress who lies and leaves him in prison when her vanity is challenged. In prison one of Pharaoh's servants forgets Joseph's kindness and leaves him there a few years more. Not a pretty picture of the human race! No, human failure is openly portrayed throughout this history. It shows us exactly like we are!

3. Human Potential

As God works out His purposes behind the scenes, however, we see Joseph gradually changing into a hard working and sensitive employee who, even with absolute power, acts with complete integrity. As the story unfolds, more and more he is revealed as a man of integrity and righteousness.

Finally he is revealed as a man with no bitterness over the past, only a deep understanding of the workings of God. Under God's hand he has changed from a spoilt brat to a godly man of wisdom and faith. Will we change similarly as God "works behind the scenes"?