Author: byrdmanbloggeth

Moses’ character is challenged in Exodus 3 and 4. As his faith and courage are tested, he is both a failure and a victor. His faith in God’s identity is strong as he sees God’s burning bush and he removes his sandals. Moses does not balk at God’s explanation of who He is. He knew that he was in the presence of God. However, Moses is concerned with how the people will take the message that God will bring all of the Israelites out of Egypt. This is how chapter 4 begins.

Verses 1-17:

“What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

God then shows Moses a series of three miracles that can be employed to convince the people that the divine and Almighty God is there to help them. He has heard their grief! The miracles:

1. Moses throws his staff on the ground, which becomes a snake. Then, when picked up again, the snake returns to a staff.
2. Moses’ hand turns leprous when placed inside his cloak and removed. The affliction of leprosy is removed when he places his hand inside his cloak and removes it again.
3. Moses takes water from the Nile river and pours it on the ground, where it becomes blood.

Moses’ faith and courage falter here. Despite being armed with amazing miracles, Moses still fears that he does not have the ability to speak on behalf of God. He sees himself as a poor speaker, unpossessed of the abilities required to speak with authority and sway opinions. God assures Moses that He is the author of Moses and that He will judge whether or not Moses is capable.

But God’s assurances do not satisfy Moses and he says to God, ““Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” This angers God. God had a plan for Moses, that is plain enough to see by the pattern of his life. Interestingly though, God has mercy. Although we are not told exactly why, we can reasonably assume that God was willing to be patient and allow Moses to grow into the man of faith and action that God knew he would become. Evidently eloquent Aaron is given the job of spokesperson, with Moses acting as authority and performing the miracles.

Verses 18-31:

Moses heads back to Egypt with his family, secure in the knowledge that the men that had sought him in connection with killing the Egyptian were now dead. God tells Moses that Pharaoh needs to be told that if Pharaoh would not let God’s “son” Israel go, then God would kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son. This is a prophecy of interest because we have the detail of the tenth plague and the death of the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. God says, “Israel is My Son, My Firstborn.” God was contrasting His firstborn “son” Israel with Pharaoh’s firstborn son, who will eventually die due to Pharaoh’s inability to relinquish the Israelites.

As Moses is traveling back to Egypt to deliver the news, God confronts him about the fact that one of his sons is not circumcised. This is a crime punishable by death to the Israelites and Moses shirked this duty, perhaps to appease his Midianite in-laws. Midianite culture did not typically circumcise their young men until before their wedding. At any rate, Zipporah understood the gravity of the situation and circumcised the son. After this, the threat of death on Moses relented.

When Moses meets Aaron again, it must have been an emotional meeting due to their having been estranged for so long. Moses told Aaron about all that he was to do for God. When Moses and Aaron gathered all of the Israelites together and gave them the news and the signs, they were humbled that God had seen their affliction, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.

The Israelites were a people beloved by God. Although they did not yet possess a written record of God, His directives, or their history, they knew who He was and they recognized His intervention in their lives with humility, gratitude and worship. In a sense, I think we can relate to these Israelites. When we see a reprieve opening for us connected to some great suffering, we recognize God is the source. We know from Whom our blessings flow. We do not need the signs and miracles that the ancient Israelites had to recognize the great sway that God holds over the details and broad strokes of our lives.

In this chapter, God communicates with Moses and tells him what His plans are to remove the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. God does not tell Moses every detail, but He reveals enough to Moses and to us ahead of time to confirm that this is His plan and He intends to make it happen. God is faithful and he fulfills His promises.

A few interesting aspects of this chapter:

• The miracle of the burning bush
• The promise to bring the Israelites to Canaan (fulfillment of the land promise)
• Moses will confront Pharaoh
• Due to Pharaoh’s resistance, God will strike Egypt with wonders (10 plagues)
• The Israelites will take great wealth with them from the Egyptians

Aside from these momentous events that we will soon be reading in Exodus, there is a fascinating study of the identity of God to be found here. Note how God identified himself to Moses at the burning bush in 3:13-15: “Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’”

Now, of course, God is authoritative in how He presents himself to Moses and eventually the people, to whom Moses will deliver this message. He clarifies the initial statement by saying that He is the God of their forbears, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This connection would have been relevant to the people and would confirm the consistency of their deity across generations. But it is how He names (or doesn’t name) himself that makes a huge statement. What does He say? “I AM WHO I AM.” Now, looking at that sentence structure, we notice that it is the normal SUBJECT – VERB – DIRECT OBJECT structure. The first word, “I” is the subject, the second word “AM” is the verb and the last three words “WHO I AM” make up the direct object. So, understanding this sentence from a technical standpoint tells us that God is Himself. At first, it seems like a nonsensical circular reference. But in reality, God’s statement about His identity makes complete sense when we keep in mind everything else we know about Him from the Bible. He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and capable of any miracle at any time. In this passage, God does not rely on a name to impress the import and impact of His existence. His existence is so strong and emphatic that it stands alone and, in a sense, it transcends the convention of naming because His existence is beyond the idea of names. Analyzing the sentence structure clues us in on the meaning attempted through the translation – God is so powerful that His existence speaks for itself.

The Israelite people were scared of the Egyptians, but not so scared as to willingly hand over their male children for killing. Pharaoh had said that the male Hebrew babies were to be tossed into the Nile. It naturally followed that the male babies would be killed in this way. Moses’ mother did put Moses in the Nile but she did it in a way that would save his life.

Moses was from the tribe of Levi and his mother hid him for three months after he was born to keep him alive. She saw that he was a fine child. When it became too difficult for him to be hidden any longer, she made a little boat for him out of papyrus, tar, and pitch. Moses’ sister kept an eye on what would happen to her little brother in his fashioned boat as he floated down the Nile.

As it would turn out, Moses ended up with Pharaoh’s daughter, who had gone down to the Nile to bathe. She noticed it was a Hebrew baby and before anyone had the opportunity to suggest that he should be killed, Moses’ watchful sister asked, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” Most likely because of the compassion that Pharaoh’s daughter had on the baby, she agreed. Moses ended up becoming the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and she is the one that named him Moses, meaning “drawn out.”

Moses grew up seeing the fear that the Egyptians had of the Hebrews because of their number. He witnessed the burden the Hebrews had to bear because of the oppression of the Egyptians. This had a great effect on him. He killed an Egyptian that he saw beating a Hebrew. He surmised that he did so without anyone else knowing, but the next day Moses found out that some Hebrews did know that he had killed the Egyptian, even though he had hidden the body.

Word spread of the killing and soon Pharaoh found out. Moses fled to Midian to hide. In Midian, Moses is kind to the daughters of a priest and helps them to water the flock they had brought to a well. Materials peripheral to the Bible suggest that this priest and his daughter were actually worshipping the true and living God and not a pagan deity. In fact, the origin of the Midianites can be found back in Genesis 25:1-2 where the children of Abraham’s wife Keturah (his wife after Sarah) are described. So Moses was in good company.

Moses ultimately comes to live with the priest and his family. He marries one of the priest’s daughters named Zipporah. She bears him a son who is named Gershom, a name meaning “stranger there,” because as Moses says of Midian, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

The last passage of this chapter is very powerful. It shows God’s love for His people, as well as His faithfulness. Back in Egypt, the Israelites continue to suffer under Egyptian bondage. They pray and cry to God to remove their pain. To say that God’s coming actions on behalf of the Israelites is an acknowledgement is a tremendous understatement. As God reveals Himself to first Moses, then to His people, mankind will witness an amazing sequence of increasingly astonishing miracles.

The book of Exodus contains some of the most powerful examples of God’s power to save His people. Coming off of the reunion in the latter chapters of Genesis, Exodus 1 starts us off with the reminder that Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons still live in Egypt. Even though Joseph has passed away, Israel’s other sons and their respective families have begun to prosper.

The former Pharaoh that had gained so much respect for Joseph and his family has now passed away and a new Pharaoh is at power. This new Pharaoh recognizes the prosperity of the Israelites in Egypt, but he does not recognize the source of their prosperity, Almighty God. Pharaoh fears that they will become so strong as to take power away from him. Pharaoh believes that he can put the Israelites under his control and hinder their prosperity. He drives them to harsh labor, “in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service with which they made them serve was with rigor.” This is surely the beginning of the enslavement of the Israelites by the Egyptians: an enforcement born out of fear and based on fear. While the Israelites worked hard and were happy, they were blessed by God and prospered greatly. Pharaoh did not see this as a boon to his local economy and culture, and this belief leads to actions that will ultimately mean disaster for all of Egypt. Such is often the same for nations, cultures and individuals today that go against the grain of God’s design.

When Pharaoh devises a plan to have all of the male Israelite children killed by the Hebrew midwives, it fails because the midwives feared the retribution of Almighty God. They told Pharaoh that they were unable to kill the male children because the Hebrew women were having the babies quickly, before the midwives arrived to assist. Because of their fear, God blesses the midwives and provides for their respective households.

After failing via the midwives, Pharaoh simply commands all of his people to kill every male Israelite child and leave the females behind. In this way, he hoped to starve off the male progenitors and assimilate the Israelite culture into Egyptian as the Israelite women would marry Egyptian men.

But the truth is that God will not allow this to happen.

Because of Joseph’s stature, his father’s funeral was grand and well-attended. Not only did many Egyptian dignitaries attend but the vast majority of Joseph’s family did also, minus only their children and animals. All of these went with Joseph back to the cave where Joseph wished to be buried.

Near the Jordan river, ”Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father.” Joseph’s request was fulfilled as he was buried in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. After the burial, Joseph, his brothers, and all of the Egyptian dignitaries returned to Egypt.

With the death of Jacob came the fear of his brothers. They felt that, now that their father was dead, Jacob might no longer be ashamed or afraid to take retribution on them for the way they treated him so long ago. They even went so far as to share a letter Jacob wrote before he died on the brothers’ behalf. It pleaded with Joseph not to treat his brothers badly for what they did to him in the past. When Joseph saw this message he cried, for he had no desire or design to treat his brothers badly.

Joseph understood God’s place for him in the world. He understood God’s plan and the part that he played in being a savior for his family. He knew that all the pain and tribulation that he had to bear was so that he would be in a position where he would take care of his brothers, to make sure his family would be safe and fed during the famine. Joseph’s heart and his faith are revealed to his brothers in the following passage from Genesis 50:19-21: “But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.”

Joseph had the faith of his fathers, but he didn’t seem to have as much difficulty in maturing in his relationship with God as his forbears did. Joseph was a singularly unique individual, blessed with talents of leadership and organization as well as a thoroughly strong desire to do what was right in the sight of God. He allowed himself to be guided by God and was not fearful in the face of men or under their implied threat. Joseph’s sense of pride early on may have turned some off, but is it pride or bragging if he was right? As a youth, he most likely did not have the social awareness to know that he was bothering his brothers by interpreting his dream that he would rule over them. But he did have the surety of knowing that he believed in his dream. He acted accordingly, and his dreams of himself came true. What if we were as open to God’s plan for us as Joseph was for him? What would that look like for us in this modern age? By fervent prayer and a constant belief that God’s plan is best, we can live out God’s plan for us with an open heart and an understanding of the Bible. It may be true that God might not act in our life in such a dramatic fashion as He did in Joseph’s, but how will we know if we are not open to the possibility?

Joseph’s death occurred when he was 110. He was able to see his children’s children for many generations due to his long life. True, his life was not as long as many that preceded him, but long enough to see up to the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Even in death, Joseph’s faith shone. He asked his brothers to remember to bring his bones back to Canaan, for Joseph believed that God would give the Israelites all of the land of Canaan at a future date. He was buried in a coffin in Egypt until the time that the children of Israel would eventually leave Egypt as victorious slaves.

As Jacob (Israel) nears the end of his life, he gathers his sons together to give them their individualized blessings. The information passed on from Israel to his sons is once more prophetic, providing clues on what each son will do or how they will fare in the expanse of their lives.

In the larger context though, the important theme here is the full meanings of the blessings of these sons. When Jews are referred to as “the nation of Israel” or “the children of Israel”, it is in reference to the children of Jacob as we have come to know them. And the blessings that we have here can be interpreted as blessings not only for the individual sons, but also as prophecy for the 12 tribes that will come from the sons (including Ephraim and Manasseh, which received their blessings in chapter 48). The words of blessing given to each son are hints of the future for each tribe.

Although Issachar was born before Zebulun (Genesis 30), Zebulun is mentioned before Issachar in Israel’s spoken blessings. Naphtali is also out of order here as Genesis 30 has him being born after Dan where here in Genesis 49, Naphtali is listed after Asher. These are the only inconsistencies in the order of the sons’ receiving blessings from Israel, and they are likely insignificant.

Here is a summary of the blessings for each son:

• Reuben: At first Reuben is praised for being firstborn, but his mistake of bedding his father’s concubine Bilhah has ruined his propensity for success.
• Simeon and Levi: You may recall how Simeon and Levi led the charge of retribution after their sister Dinah was taken against her will in Genesis 34. Because of their cruelty (which should preferably have been righteous anger), these two brothers will not be given specific lands, but rather their dwelling places will be scattered.
• Judah: Judah’s blessing is glowing because it is the tribe that will bring Christ. The glory of the triumphant lion vanquishing his enemies is parallel to Jesus’ defeat of Satan from the cross. The description of Judah including praise and eventual success helps us to understand the coming glory of Jesus.
• Zebulun: His blessings will be among the northern coastlands of Phonecia.
• Isaachar: Issachar’s legacy will be one of slavery.
• Dan: Dan will have a legacy of those who will serve as judges.
• Gad: Although Gad will encounter much difficulty, victory will be had in the end.
• Asher: Asher’s legacy is hopeful and pleasant.
• Naphtali: Naphtali’s legacy is also a very good one.
• Joseph: Joseph’s great strength of character, his great faith and his abilities to excel and succeed take center stage in his blessings. Only Judah’s blessings can rival the ones that Joseph receives. Israel praises Joseph as the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. He is one who provides great blessings for his people with the help of God.
• Benjamin: Benjamin’s blessing has an ominous ring to it, but at least it does not portend evil or negative connotations for Benjamin and his family.

In the final verses of this chapter, Israel’s death is recorded. Like his forefathers, he desires to be buried with his family that preceded him. It is comforting to us in a familial way that Israel remembers how Abraham came to be in possession of the cave where he wants to be buried. It reminds us of memories that we have of our own families and in a small way we can relate.

At the final summary of Israel’s life, we can forgive the mistakes that he made early on and come to see the full picture of the heritage of faith and godliness that he leaves with his sons. Of course, it is not up to us to forgive him, but we can also identify the peaks and valleys of our own spiritual journey when we look at the whole of Israel’s life.

Israel is nearing the end of his life. When Joseph finds out that Israel is sick, he takes the two sons he has had in Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim, to go and see Israel.

In Genesis 28, Isaac blessed Israel (then Jacob) before he fled Esau. In Genesis 35, while in Luz, God blesses Israel. This blessing, essentially the same but given in varying forms to Abraham, Isaac and Israel, is now given to Joseph and his sons. In this chapter, it reads in verses 15 and 16:

“God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads;
Let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

Before the blessing is rendered, and as Joseph brings his sons, the eldest Manasseh and the younger Ephraim, to Israel for the blessing, he does so in a way that would have had Israel put his right hand on the elder Manasseh’s head. This would have meant that Manasseh would receive the greatest portion of the blessing as the eldest son. Instead, Israel places his right hand on Ephraim’s head. What is the relevance of this seemingly insignificant detail?

Israel purposefully gave the greater blessing to the younger Ephraim by way of prophecy, saying in verse 19 of Manasseh first, then of Ephraim, “He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”

As students of the book of Genesis, we would be ashamed to miss the parallel of Israel himself as Jacob effectively reversing the birth order from Esau by tricking their father Isaac when they were young. Israel now has grown in faith and no longer is prone to the sneaky mischief of his youth and God has blessed him well enough to bless his grandsons in a foretelling of their stature. Indeed, there is a godly truth to be taken from both Jacob and Easu’s story as well as Ephraim and Manasseh’s: God often looks for the least likely places to give His blessings. It is not always the biggest, brightest and best that receive the lion’s share; rather it is the unassuming righteous and humble that often receive the best from God.

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

 

 

 

In verses 1-12, Pharaoh meets Joseph’s family. This is a way for Pharaoh to confirm all of the things he has heard about them. In these first twelve verses, the following things of significance happen:

• Pharaoh confirms with Joseph’s family that they are indeed shepherds
• Seeing their competence, Pharaoh makes them chief herdsmen of his livestock
• Pharaoh gives them the best part of the land for their livestock in Goshen
• Jacob (Israel) meets Pharaoh, seems to gain his respect, and blesses him
• Joseph provides them with enough food during this time of famine

In verses 13-31, Joseph sees through his obligation to take care of the people of Egypt as well as Pharaoh’s interests as the famine wears on. With two years of intense famine remaining, the people of Egypt are at a great disadvantage.

With the first year, the currency system of Egypt is no longer viable as their economy breaks down due to the famine. The money has no value and there is no food to purchase. The populace, knowledgeable of the food that Pharaoh has stored away, approaches Joseph. They offer him their livestock in return for food during the first year. They offer him their land in return for food in the second year.

Through Joseph’s prowess as an organizational leader, and, primarily, the blessings of God in the foreknowledge of the famine that helped Joseph to prepare Pharaoh for this advantage, Pharaoh is able to both provide for the Egyptians and profit from the famine. This is all part of the journey of God’s people. The Israelites, as they will come to be called, will be taken advantage of as slaves in the years to come, preparing them for an incomparable exodus.

This chapter, a resolution of sorts following the drama of the family’s being reunited, does have one moment in it that should be memorable. Israel asks Joseph to promise to bury him in the land from which he came, rather than in Egypt, so that he could rest for his fathers. Israel’s desire to be buried with his fathers is telling in that he (like most of us), wants his final resting place to be a familiar one. But is there another meaning here in that Israel knows that this foreign place will not also be the final resting place for his children and their children?

Being strangers in a strange land, they must have the sense that they are being taken care of by God through Joseph. But these Egyptians do not have their values and they have strange practices and different gods. God is taking care of the bloodline that will eventually bring Jesus into the world, but there is a very long way to go yet and there will be prices that will need to be paid by both the righteous and the wicked.

As Israel (Jacob) travels to Egypt to meet his long-lost beloved son Joseph, he stops along the way at Beersheba and offers sacrifices to God. Interestingly, the Bible uses the names of Jacob and Israel interchangeably here. God speaks to him in a dream and tells him not to fear traveling to Egypt because his family will grow there. Israel was reluctant to go to Egypt because God had forbade settling there to Isaac back in Genesis 26:2. This message direct from God must have been immensely comforting for Israel, particularly due to the fact that Joseph would visit him at his deathbed: “…and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.” Things are looking great for Israel as he is carried to Egypt on gifted carts from Pharaoh, with the promise of Jacob, the blessing of God and the assurance that his family will grow.

Verses 8-27 compile the remarkable list of Israel’s family – remarkable because this is the family from which the entire nation of Israel would come. During our study of chapter 35, I included a list of Israel’s children and their respective mothers. I have reproduced it here again for chapter 46, with a few observations that follow.

 

Bore by Leah

Son 1:     Reuben – Genesis 29

Son 2:     Simeon – Genesis 29

Son 3:     Levi – Genesis 29

Son 4:     Judah – Genesis 29

Son 9:     Issachar – Genesis 30

Son 10:     Zebulun – Genesis 30

Daughter:     Dinah – Genesis 30

Bore by Bilhah (Rachel’s handmaid)

Son 5:     Dan – Genesis 30

Son 6:     Naphtali – Genesis 30

Bore by Zilpah (Leah’s handmaid)

Son 7:     Gad – Genesis 30

Son 8:     Asher – Genesis 30

Bore by Rachel

Son 11:     Joseph – Genesis 30

Son 12:     Benjamin – Genesis 35

• Reuben, the factual firstborn, relinquished his privilege as firstborn through the sin he committed with his father’s handmaid Bilhah (Genesis 35:22)
• Most but not all of the marriages that took place within Abraham’s family were within the same family and did not include Egyptians or other foreigners; when God told the children of Abraham not to intermarry with the Egyptians, it was a way to preserve the holy bloodline
• Kohath, the son of Levi mentioned in verse 11 is the progenitor of the priestly family through which Moses and Aaron would come
• The total number of Israel’s family is 70, a significant number to Israelites indicating blessing; the number 7 itself in the Bible suggests a theme of completeness

When Joseph and Israel finally reunite, it is a humble event, with little dialog recorded, and Joseph weeping.

The chapter ends with Joseph instructing his brothers to present themselves as livestock caretakers to Pharaoh. The Egyptians found this occupation distasteful and would want to keep their distance from the children of Israel. Their proclaiming to be shepherds was not a falsehood by any means, but was a shrewd suggestion from Joseph which would ensure that the Egyptians kept their distance from Israel’s family, further preserving the holy bloodline at least for now.

Joseph’s reuniting with Israel seems anticlimactic due to the lack of dialog or detailed description. As readers of God’s Word, we can only fill in the blanks of the surrounding circumstances with our imagination. Israel and Joseph will share much in the coming chapters, so do not be disappointed at this seemingly lackluster reunion; there is still much to come.

Genesis 44 ended on a cliffhanger with Judah pleading to Joseph (whom he still does not know is his brother) to not take Benjamin as his slave because it will cause the grieving death of their father.

Joseph, hearing this and seeing how Judah is standing up for Benjamin and how his father still remembers him, can bear the ruse no longer. He weeps loudly and tells his brothers who he really is. They do not believe him at first, but as he elaborates, they come to believe. The great thing about Joseph’s revelation to his brothers is that he puts God at the center of all of these events: “for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. “Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph: “God has made me lord of all Egypt” Genesis 45:6-9

Joseph is assured of his place in God’s plan and he sees it clearly, which few can (especially when unaided by hindsight). His faith in God is palpable and his place in His plan is unmistakable.

Joseph as the Christ figure is especially poignant in this scene as he tells his brothers that he will save them from sure death during the next five years’ famine. Rewards and optimal living conditions will be theirs as they retrieve Israel to travel back to Joseph and meet him after all this time. Like Christ, those whom Joseph would save did not recognize him at first. Also like Christ, Joseph solves a serious problem for his brothers, a problem that was more serious than they knew.

Joseph’s reunion with Benjamin and the rest of his brothers is heartfelt and meaningful. We can only imagine the reunion: “Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked with him.” Genesis 45:14-15

The brothers’ separation began with envy, exclusion, and banishment, but it ends with forgiveness, sharing, and celebration. Another similarity with the story of Jesus Christ is exemplified in this aspect of the story. Jesus, a Jew, was rejected by his own people yet He comes to be the pathway to salvation for us all, loving us without urging, and accepting us when we accept and obey Him. The brothers must have been dumbfounded and grateful as they realized the surreal situation they found themselves in – a familiar state of mind for the individual that suddenly realizes that Christ died for them so their sins could be washed away.

When Pharaoh hears that Joseph has been reunited with his brothers, he is in full support of sending them back home with many possessions so that they might return with Israel to live safely in Egypt through the famine. In fact, Pharaoh, encourages the act and they go back to Canaan with “ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey.” But, again, Joseph gives Benjamin extra. The proclivity to playing favorites seems hereditary for this family.

When the brothers finally make it home to Israel in Canaan and tell him of all that has happened, he does not believe it initially. Yet, as the details of the story come to light, Israel slowly comes to believe that his beloved son Joseph is still alive. Israel’s final words in this chapter are poetic and leave us in suspense once more: “It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”