Genesis

Chapter Forty-six

Preface

In this chapter Israel (Jacob) with his family travels to Egypt where he is reunited with his son Joseph.  J. Vernon McGee in his Thru the Bible commentary makes an astute observation about Jacob, which will be presented here in his own words:

The life of Jacob can be divided into three geographical locations:  the land of Haran, the land of Canaan, and the land of Egypt.  These are not only geographical areas, but they denote three spiritual levels.  Jacob left the land with just a staff.  When he came into Haran, he was God’s man living in the flesh.  He came out of Haran, running.  He was running away from his father-in-law and was afraid to meet his own brother Esau.  Then in the land of Canaan Jacob had his wrestling match, but he is God’s man who is fighting in his own strength.  Now he is going to Egypt.  He is not walking in his own strength, and he is not running away anymore.  He is now walking by faith. . . .

This, I believe, is true also for a great many of us today.  There was that time in our lives when we came in contact with the gospel, the Word of God, and we turned to Him.  Then there was that period of struggle when we thought we could live our lives in our own strength.  Perhaps that lasted for years.  Then there came the time when we did grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and began to walk by faith.

The most important lesson for a Christian to learn is that the same principle that applied to him in appropriating eternal salvation (salvation of his spirit) also applies to his sanctification (salvation of the soul)—spiritual maturity.  Just as self-efforts (human good works, i.e., works of the flesh) can have no effect upon one’s eternal justification before God, they can have no effect upon one’s approval before his heavenly Father and will accrue no heavenly rewards (1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 2:6; 14:10; Galatians 6:7; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians 3:24, 25; Revelation 22:12).

Only through “divine good works (works done by God the Holy Spirit through the Christian) will make any spiritual difference during this life and at the judgment (before Christ at His judgment seat) and the millennial age to come.  Note the connection of the following scriptural passages to this end:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8, 9)

As [in the same manner—by faith] you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so [in that same manner—by faith] walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

(Colossians 2:6, 7)

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

For a Christian to be honored by God, as are those that He records in His “faith hall of fame” (Hebrews 11), the Christian must be a person of faith.  The Christian life can only be entered through the door of faith, and it can only be successfully traveled on the path of faith.  Entering God’s grace-gift of salvation is “being in Christ.”  Living God’s grace-gift of salvation is “Christ in you.”

Genesis 46:1-4

So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.  Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.”  So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of 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 put his hand on your eyes.”

As Israel (Jacob) was now a “man of faith,” who trusted in God for all his activities in life, his priority was first to stop at Beersheba to worship the God of his father Isaac. The name Beersheba (Hebrew meaning:  “Seven Wells, or Well of the Oath”) was named by Abraham after he swore an oath (made a covenant) with Abimelech over their agreement and Abraham’s newly dug well (Genesis 21:30-32). 

But more importantly, Beersheba was the location where Abraham “called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God” in faith and worshipped Him (Genesis 21:33) just prior to being tested by God with the offering of his son Isaac (Genesis 22:1-14).  Beersheba was also the place the Lord appeared to Isaac to confirm His covenant as promised to Abraham and where Isaac also “called on the name of the LORD” in faith and worshipped Him (Genesis 26:23-25).

Now God appears to Jacob (Israel) to confirm again the Abrahamic Covenant and Jacob’s part in it.  It was in Genesis 15:13 that God first informed Abraham that his “descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.”  But God also added in verse 14:  “And also the nation [Egypt] whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”  This is the last of the Bible’s recorded seven appearances of God to Jacob.

God promises Jacob that He will go down with him to Egypt but that He would also bring him back to Canaan.  Although Jacob died in Egypt, God indeed brought him back to be buried in Canaan.  At his death the Egyptians paid him great homage.  His sons, led by Joseph, carried his body back to Canaan and buried him at Machpelah with Abraham and Isaac (49:29-50:13; cf. 25:9, 10; 35:28, 29), fulfilling the desire of the ancients to be buried in their homeland. 

The phrase (idiom) “Joseph will put his hand on your eyes” conveyed to Jacob that He would experience a peaceful death in the company of his most beloved son Joseph.

Genesis 46:5-27

Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives, in the carts which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.  So they took their livestock and their goods, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him.  His sons and his sons' sons, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt.  Now these were the names of the children of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt: Reuben was Jacob's firstborn.  The sons of Reuben were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.  The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.  The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.  The sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.  The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puvah, Job, and Shimron.  The sons of Zebulun were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.  These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the persons, his sons and his daughters, were thirty-three.  The sons of Gad were Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.  The sons of Asher were Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui, Beriah, and Serah, their sister. And the sons of Beriah were Heber and Malchiel.  These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bore to Jacob: sixteen persons.  The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife, were Joseph and Benjamin.  And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him.  The sons of Benjamin were Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.  These were the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: fourteen persons in all.  The son of Dan was Hushim.  The sons of Naphtali were Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.  These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob: seven persons in all.  All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob's sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all.  And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy.

The total of the names as listed in these verses is sixty-six, and when Jacob, Joseph, and Joseph’s two sons are added, the grand total is seventy.  The number did not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.  Ancient Israelites regarded the number 70 as a token of God’s special blessing on them.  The number of nations in Genesis 10 is also seventy.  Just as the “seventy nations” represent all the descendants of Adam, so now the “seventy sons” represent all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the sons of Israel.  Here is a demonstration of the theme in Deuteronomy 32:8, that God apportioned the boundaries of the nations (Genesis 10) according to the number of the sons of Israel.

Genesis 46:28-34

Then he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out before him the way to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen.  So Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; and he presented himself to him, and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.  And Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive.” Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and those of my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.  And the men are shepherds, for their occupation has been to feed livestock; and they have brought their flocks, their herds, and all that they have.’  So it shall be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’  that you shall say, ‘Your servants' occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

It was Judah, not Joseph, who led the sons of Israel into the land of Goshen.  Although in this historical account Joseph was responsible for the preservation of the sons in Egypt, here it is Judah who pointed out the way to the land of Goshen.  Along with Joseph, God gives special focus on Judah and highlights his crucial role in God’s plan to bring about Israel’s deliverance—initially by suggesting to his brothers that instead of killing Joseph they should sell him into slavery to the caravan heading for Egypt (Genesis 37:26, 27), and now, by leading Israel’s family into Egypt.  Later, the prominence of Judah is seen in Jacob’s words of blessing to his twelve sons (Genesis 49:8-12).

The epic meeting between Israel and Joseph took place in Goshen, the most fertile section of Egypt, near the delta of the Nile.  Jacob and his sons preferred to stay there, since it provided the best pasture for their herds.  It was agreed that they would tell Pharaoh that they were shepherds.  Since shepherds were despised by the Egyptians, Pharaoh would let them live in the land of Goshen, far away from the royal palace.  There in Goshen they were isolated from social intercourse with the Egyptians, first because of their nationality (43:32) and then because of their occupation.  God left them in this incubator until they were a strong nation, able to possess the land that He promised to their forefathers. (Believer’s Bible Commentary, William MacDonald, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995)

In this passage the leadership of Joseph is amply demonstrated.  He accomplished the placement of the nation of Israel by maintaining a genuinely deferential attitude to those in authority, by skill in making suggestions, and by knowledge of the customs of the people.  Jacob’s family had already started marrying Canaanites (chapter 38) and was in danger of losing its identity as the chosen people of God.  Through Joseph, God used the racial and ethnic prejudice of the Egyptians as a way of preserving the ethnic and spiritual identity of His chosen people.