CRITICAL REMARKS
Acts 7:9. Moved with envy, or jealousy, they, the patriarchs, sold Joseph into Egypt—i.e., to be carried thither. Stephen condenses the Genesis narrative.
Acts 7:10. The Pharaoh under whom Joseph rose to power was the last of the Hyksos or Shepherd kings, Apophis, who, not being himself a native Egyptian, might feel disposed to favour the Hebrew stranger who had in so remarkable a manner interpreted his dreams and saved the country.
Acts 7:11. A dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan.—Brugsch, Sayce, and others find this dearth in a famine, which, according to an inscription from a nobleman’s tomb at Eileythia in Southern Egypt, prevailed in the land for several years, and during which the dead man (Baba), according to the inscription, “distributed corn to the city each year of famine.” Baba, the nobleman in question, is supposed to have lived shortly before the establishment of the eighteenth dynasty. Counting four hundred and thirty years back from B.C. 1325, when Menephtah II. ascended the Egyptian throne, gives the reign of Apophis as the commencement of the exile according to Stephen, as the date of the promise according to Paul. (But see above on Acts 7:6.)
Acts 7:14. Threescore and fifteen souls.—So the LXX. in Genesis 46:27; but the Hebrew text of Genesis 46:27; Exodus 1:5, and Deuteronomy 10:22 gives threescore and ten as the number of souls that went down into Egypt—i.e., the sixty-six of Genesis 46:26 with four (Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh) added. The additional five were probably Joseph’s grandsons, counted by the LXX. as among his sons. Stephen, a Hellenist, most likely followed the LXX. without deeming it necessary to correct what after all was no mis-statement, if “sons” be taken in the wider sense of descendants.
Acts 7:16. Carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money.—Two historical inaccuracies are commonly discovered here:
1. That Jacob and the fathers were all buried at Sychem, or Shechem, Abraham’s earliest settlement in Canaan (Genesis 12:6-7); whereas Jacob was interred at Hebron (Genesis 1:13), and only Joseph’s bones were laid in Sychem (Joshua 24:32), Scripture being silent as to where those of the other fathers were deposited.
2. That Abraham purchased a sepulchre at Shechem from the sons of Emmor, or Hamor, for a sum of money, or for a price in silver; whereas the tomb Abraham bought was at Hebron, while the seller was Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23:16), and Jacob’s purchase was of a field at Shechem (Genesis 33:19), in which afterwards Joseph’s bones were interred (Joshua 24:32). As to the first part of Stephen’s statement that Jacob and the fathers were all carried over into Shechem and laid in a tomb, nothing can invalidate that. If Stephen must be understood as asserting that all were laid in the same tomb, that was not so, since Jacob was buried at Hebron and Joseph at Sychem, unless it can be shown that Joseph’s bones were subsequently reinterred in the patriarchal vault at Hebron—a hypothesis not impossible, certainly, but still not capable of proof. If, further, Stephen purposed to affirm that Abraham bought a tomb at Shechem, this can only be harmonised with Genesis by maintaining that the tomb at Shechem was purchased twice—once by Abraham and afterwards by Jacob, which is not a likely supposition. The suggestion that Abraham has been either substituted in the text for Jacob, or inserted in the text which originally had no nominative to the verb “purchased,” is rendered inadmissible by all existing MSS. having Abraham. Yet if Jacob were inserted every difficulty would not vanish. It would still remain impossible to maintain that Jacob was interred at Shechem. Could Stephen himself be recalled, it might be possible to solve this problem; in his absence it must be given up, at least till additional data be forthcoming. On the ground of this unsolved problem it would be rash to challenge the inspiration of either Stephen or Luke.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 7:9-16
The Last of the Patriarchs; or, Joseph a type of Christ
I. The victim of a terrible crime.—Joseph was sold into Egypt, for twenty pieces of silver (Genesis 37:28). So was Christ betrayed to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15). The former crime was—
1. Perpetrated by Joseph’s brethren. And so was Christ’s betrayal by those who were His own kinsmen according to the flesh (John 1:11), and in particular by one of His own disciples (Matthew 26:14).
2. Instigated by fraternal jealousy. Joseph’s brethren were envious of the place which Joseph had in their father’s affection, and of the greatness which Joseph’s dreams foreshadowed (Genesis 37:4-5). So the real root of men’s opposition to Christ was His essential goodness and greatness, which they hated.
3. Followed by unmerited afflictions. These, in excruciating forms of slander, accusation and imprisoment were all without being deserved, experienced by Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 39). The like and worse were without cause, in after years, meted out to Joseph’s antitype Jesus (Matthew 26; Matthew 27).
II. The subject of a marvellous interposition.—God worked in his behalf, and gave him three things which again had their counterpart in the experience of Christ.
1. Consolation in his troubles. Such as arises to a good man from the enjoyment of God’s favour and fellowship (Psalms 91:15): “God was with him” (compare Genesis 39:21). The same support was extended to Christ in His tribulation (John 16:32).
2. Deliverance from his troubles. “God delivered him out of all his afflictions.” So Christ was delivered from death and the grave. A like favour promised to the righteous (Psalms 34:19). As Joseph escaped out of his afflictions in Egypt, so will the Christian be released from his, if not here, at least hereafter (Revelation 7:16-17).
3. Promotion after his troubles. God “gave him favour and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and made him governor over Egypt and all his house (Genesis 41:40-41). In like manner Christ was exalted after His humiliation (Acts 2:33; Acts 5:31; Philippians 2:9); and so to Christians is promised after life’s trials a share in Christ’s throne (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 4:10), a crown of life (James 1:12), an exceeding even an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).
III. The instrument of a wondrous deliverance.—
1. The subjects of this deliverance were Joseph’s brethren, who had sold him into bondage, with their families; and so is Christ’s salvation intended for those who sold Him to death, and for their children (Acts 2:39).
2. The nature of this deliverance was a rescue from famine which entailed sore affliction, and might have ended in death—a type of the peril, spiritual hunger, from which Christ proposed and still proposes to save men.
3. The terms of this deliverance were free. Joseph exacted no conditions from his brethren or father beyond this, that they should accept his kindness and live upon his bounty; and no conditions different does Christ impose on sinful men.
Learn.—
1. That a man’s foes are often those of his own household (Matthew 10:36).
2. That God never forsakes them that trust in Him (Joshua 1:5; 1 Samuel 12:22; Hebrews 13:5).
3. That all things work together for good to them that love God (Romans 8:28).
4. That sinful men are seldom requited according to their deserts (Psalms 103:10).
5. That Old Testament history was full of God and Christ (Acts 7:38; Acts 10:43; 1 Corinthians 10:4; 1 Peter 1:11).
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 7:9-14. The Portion of God’s People.
I. Affliction.—Of various sorts and sizes, of differing severity and continuance (John 16:33).
II. Consolation.—From God and Christ, whose companionship the saints will or may always enjoy (Matthew 28:15; Hebrews 13:5).
III. Promotion.—Out of their afflictions (Psalms 34:19) and into places of honour (1 Samuel 2:30).
IV. Usefulness.—In their day and generation, to the Church and to the world (Matthew 5:14-16).
V. Renown.—Their names being often held in remembrance by posterity (Psalms 112:6).
Acts 7:9. Egypt a Type of the World.
I. In its attractions.—
1. A land of luxury. “ ‘Take thy fill, eat the fat, and drink the sweet,’ was her seductive song. The means of subsistence were inconceivably abundant. The very soil teemed with life” (Baldwin Brown).
2. A land of civilisation. Egypt “was full of the wisdom of this world, the wisdom of the understanding, which prostitutes itself eagerly to the uses of a sensual and earthly life” (Ibid.). Such the world is still to them whose main ambition is learning.
3. A land of promise. It promised food, learning, safety, comfort, honour to Joseph’s brethren; and the like attractions does the world hold out to its devotees.
II. In its deceptions.—
1. A land of spiritual barrenness. In all its multitudes of gods there was none that Joseph’s brethren could worship; in its elaborate ritual nothing to feed the faith of the chosen family. With a similar soul dearth is the world struck, as they who live in it find.
2. A land of moral deterioration. As all Egypt’s civilisation could not keep her people from sinking down to lower depths of sensuality and vice, in which Israel must have shared, so neither can the culture of the present-day world prevent those who have nothing else to live upon from undergoing a similar experience.
3. A land of intolerable bondage. Whereas Joseph’s brethren expected to find in Egypt shelter, comfort, and honour, they were not long settled on its fat soil before they discovered it to be a house of galling oppression. A true type of what the world always proves to them who try to live for it as well as in it.
III. In its fortunes.—As old Egypt was invaded, broken up, and its power destroyed, and God’s Israel rescued from its grasp, so will it be with the present evil world, whose power indeed has been already broken, and from whose servitude the children of God will be eventually delivered (Galatians 1:4).
Acts 7:10. God’s Presence with His People.
I. Real, though unseen.
II. Constant, though not always felt.
III. Beneficent, though not always believed to be so.
IV. Efficient, though this is often doubted.
The Pharaohs mentioned in Scripture.
I. Abraham’s Pharaoh (Genesis 12:14-20).—Probably Amenemhat III. of the twelfth dynasty, B.C. 2300.
II. Joseph’s Pharaoh (Genesis 40).—Most likely Apophis, the last of the shepherd kings, who reigned B.C. 2266–1700.
III. The Pharaoh who knew not Joseph (Exodus 1:8).—Aahmes of the eighteenth dynasty, B.C. 1700.
IV. The Pharaoh who commanded the first-born to be cast into the river (Exodus 1:22).—Seti I. of the nineteenth dynasty, B.C. 1366.
V. The Pharaoh of the oppression, who sought to slay Moses (Exodus 2:23).—Rameses II., B.C. 1350.
VI. The Pharaoh of the Exodus (Exodus 14:5-31).—Menephtah II., B.C. 1300.
VII. The Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon married (1 Kings 3:1).—Pinetem II., the last of the twenty-first dynasty, B.C. 1033.
VIII. The Pharaoh who invaded Judah in the reign of Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 12:2).—Shishak, Sheshank I., of the twenty-second dynasty, B.C. 966.
IX. The Pharaoh of Hezekiah’s time (2 Kings 18:21; 2 Kings 19:9).—Tirhakah, the Ethiopian, of the twenty-first dynasty, B.C. 693.
X. The Pharaoh against whom Josiah warred (2 Kings 23:29-30; 2 Chronicles 35:20-24).—Necho, Naki, of the twenty-sixth dynasty, B.C. 612.
XI. Pharaoh, the ally of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (Jeremiah 37:4-7; Ezekiel 17:15-17).—Hophra, the second successor of Necho; Uahabra, or Apries, B.C. 591.
Acts 7:12. Corn in Egypt; or, Good News from a Far Country.—The tidings brought to Jacob may be used to illustrate the good news of the Gospel. Jacob’s tidings were—
I. Timely.—Corn in Egypt! This was heard of when Jacob’s household was famishing (Acts 7:11). So Christ, the Bread of Life, came when the world was on the eve of perishing. So the gospel comes to sinners in a destitute and lost condition.
II. Unexpected.—Corn in Egypt! Though the famine was there as well as in Canaan. So the salvation of the gospel arose in a quarter the most unlooked for, and proceeded forth, as it were, from the very humanity which required to be redeemed. So often the good news reaches sinners in places and at times where and when they least anticipate.
III. Joyful.—Corn in Egypt!
1. Not in a distant country, but close at hand. So the gospel is nigh to men, the word of faith which the apostles preached, requiring no painful journey to obtain its provisions but only the exercise of faith.
2. Not a small supply but an abundant store. All countries sought to Egypt for corn. So the gospel contains “enough for each, enough for all, enough for evermore.”
3. Not on hard conditions but on easy terms. At least for Joseph’s brethren. So the gospel’s heavenly corn is without money and without price.
IV. Certain.—Corn in Egypt. If before they started from Hebron Joseph’s brethren had doubts, when they arrived in Joseph’s presence they had none. So will no one question the truthfulness of the gospel news who will repair to Christ’s presence in search of a supply for his soul’s needs.
Acts 7:16. Buried in Canaan.—Jacob in the field of Machpelah (Genesis 1:13) and Joseph at Shechem (Joshua 24:32), or the dead hand grasping its inheritance.
I. An act of filial piety.—
1. On the part of Joseph towards his father Jacob in fulfilling his dying request.
2. On the part of the children of Israel in remembering Joseph’s last injunction.
II. An act of lively faith.—On the part of both Jacob and Joseph.
1. In clinging to the inheritance God had promised them.
2. In predicting the return of Israel to Canaan.
3. In wishing to have their dust laid in its sacred soil.
III. An act of prophetic meaning.—It seemed to say that those whose dust was laid in Canaan’s soil at their own request anticipated a time when not only their descendants should come over but themselves should arise to take possession of its acres. It was their way of hinting at a future resurrection.
Acts 7:9-19. Joseph’s brethren. These ancient patriarchs are here presented in three aspects.
I. As perpetrators of a hideous crime.—The sale of their brother into bondage in Egypt. The feeling which gave rise to this unnatural deed was the seemingly small and harmless one of envy at their brother’s foreshadowed greatness, combined, as the Genesis story shows, with jealousy on account of the paternal favour he enjoyed. From this they passed to hatred of their brother’s conspicuous goodness, which silently rebuked their wicked lives, and constrained him to report at home their ill behaviour. The next and final step was easy for those who were already murderers at heart (1 John 3:15). At the first convenient opportunity the object of their envy and hatred was deprived of his liberty and sold to a company of Midianite merchants who carried him down to Egypt. The lesson is to guard against the entrance of envy into the heart, since once admitted to the bosom none can predict to what enormities it may impel its victims.
II. As sufferers of severe retribution.—It is not often that Nemesis so soon overtakes evil doers as it did them. Hardly had they returned to their homes than they began to be pressed by the straits of famine, which Scripture constantly represents as one of God’s ministers of judgment on rebellious lands and peoples (2 Samuel 24:13; Jeremiah 29:18; Ezekiel 5:16). On visiting Egypt in search of corn they saw their wicked plans defeated. The dismay which seized their spirits when they beheld their long dead brother, as they supposed, seated on the throne and clothed with imperial power, is aptly pictured in the Hebrew narrative which says, that “they were troubled at his presence.” Nor did vengeance close with them, but was entailed on their descendants, who, in after years, were subtilly dealt with, evil entreated, and finally enslaved in the land into which their fathers had sold Joseph.
III. As recipients of undeserved mercies.—There are few instances in which mercy is not mixed with judgment. Joseph’s brethren experienced kindnesses beyond their merits. At the hand of God who preserved them alive, when He might have justly left them to starve for their inhumanity to their brother. At the hand of Joseph who treated them with clemency and rewarded them with love, inviting them to Egypt and caring for their wants throughout the years of famine, when he might have exacted vengeance for their former cruelty to him. At the hand of their descendants who carried their dead bodies into Canaan and buried them in Abraham’s tomb, when they might have been left to rot in the sepulchres of Egypt.