CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 41:47. By handfuls.] “Not in single stalks or grains, but in handfuls compared with the former yield.”—(Murphy)
Genesis 41:51. Manasseh.] That is, causing to forget.
Genesis 41:52. Ephraim.] That is, fruitful.—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 41:46-52
JOSEPH ADVANCED TO POWER AND PLACE
In his new condition of dignity and honour, the following facts and characteristics are to be noted:—
I. The ripeness of his age and experience. He was now thirty years of age (Genesis 41:46), the age which was appointed for entering the priesthood, and in general, for manly service. (Numbers 4:3.) He had now lived for thirteen years in Egypt, and a considerable portion of that time was spent in prison. We are reminded that this was the age when the New Testament Joseph entered upon His ministry of love and mercy. (Luke 3:23). Thus slowly and carefully does God prepare His servants for their great work. Even the Son of Man thought it meet to observe this propriety, and to endure this discipline. He, too, obeyed the law of growth, and waited His time. What a rebuke to those who are in haste to thrust their unripe fruit upon the world! Joseph was of ripe age and experience when he took upon him this office as a ruler of Egypt. That Providence which prepares events also prepares men for them.
II. The practical character of his mind. Joseph, though so suddenly and remarkably raised, is not puffed up with pride. He does not spend his time in self-admiration, nor go about to display his greatness, but at once betakes himself to business. And, first of all, with great sagacity he endeavours to obtain some knowledge of the area over which his work is to spread. He takes a general survey of the country. (Genesis 41:46.) Then, having thus ascertained the extent of his work, he puts his plan into execution energetically, and without delay. (Genesis 41:48-49.) It was the grace of God that kept him above every temptation to pride and vain glory, and it was the same grace that gave him this sense of duty and obligation, and also this power to bring his knowledge and convictions to good effect.
III. The cheerful and hopeful character of his piety. In this time of his prosperity, two sons are born to him. (Genesis 41:51-52.) Their names are significant of his remembrance of God’s goodness and of his cheerful hope for the future.
1. He desires to forget all that is evil in the past. “God hath made me to forget all my toil and all my father’s house.” He does not mean to say that he forgot absolutely, for he remembers them in these very words. But so far as they had been a source of sorrow and affliction to him, he remembers them no more. He is willing to forget the cruel treatment of his brethren. Love covers up and hides out of the willing sight of the mind all that is evil in the past. But Joseph still cherishes the better feelings of former days. Filial affection was still strong in his breast; but he was content, for the present, to cherish it in secret and to await the unfolding of Providence.
2. He is thankful for present mercies. “God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” His true home, after all, was in Canaan. Egypt is the land of his affliction, but even there God had made him fruitful and blessed him. He is thankful for the past with all its sorrow, and awaits with cheerful hope the promised mercies of his God. Above all he fails not to remember the Divine source of all his good.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 41:46. Thirty years old. This is mentioned, to show what wonderful graces he had attained at those years; what rare endowments both of piety and policy.—(Trapp.)
He made no sinecure of his office. He was, and he felt himself to be, exalted to power for the good and safety of the people, and he entered at once upon the active discharge of the duties of his station.—(Bush.)
New honours impose and demand new obligations.
Genesis 41:47-49. Pharaoh hath not more preferred Joseph, than Joseph hath enriched Pharaoh; if Joseph had not ruled, Egypt and all the bordering nations had perished. The providence of so faithful an officer hath both given the Egyptians their lives, and the money, cattle, lands, bodies of the Egyptians to Pharaoh. The subjects owe to him their lives; the king, his subjects and his dominions. The bounty of God made Joseph able to give more than he received.—(Bp. Hall.)
Joseph’s plan was simply a prudential foresight of the future. This prudence is a Christian virtue. It is such a virtue only so far as it has no reference to self. If we save in one thing only to spend in another, it may be a virtue, but certainly it is not a Christian one; that alone is Christian which is done for the sake of others. Thus, if we retrench our expenses in order to have more to bestow on others, it is Christian. Thus did Joseph. His economy was all for the sake of others.—(Robertson.)
The saving hand is full and beneficent; the squandering hand is not only empty, but unjust.—(Lange.)
Genesis 41:51. He remembered his toils in the very utterance of this sentence. And he tenderly and intensely remembered his father’s house. But he is grateful to God, who builds him a home, with all its soothing joys, even in the land of his exile. His heart again responds to long untasted joys.—(Murphy.)
How could he have retained just impressions of the Divine goodness if he had forgotten the evils from which he was delivered? But in another sense he forgets his misery. He did not so cherish the recollection as to allow it to embitter his present enjoyment. The painful remembrance of the past was expelled from his mind when his adversity was changed into prosperity.—(Bush.)
Genesis 41:52. He had formerly been like a heath in the desert; but now he was like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which brings forth abundance of fruit, and whose leaf does not wither. (Genesis 49:22.)—(Bush.)
But why does no message go from Joseph to his mourning father? For many reasons.
1. He does not know the state of things at home.
2. He may not wish to open up the dark and bloody treachery of his brothers to his aged parent. But,
3. He bears in mind those early dreams of his childhood. All his subsequent experience has confirmed him in the belief that they will one day be fulfilled. But that fulfilment implies not only the submission of his brothers, but of his father. This is too delicate a matter for him to interfere in. He will leave it entirely to the all-wise providence of his God to bring about that strange issue. Joseph, therefore, is true to his life-long character. He leaves all in the hand of God, and awaits in anxious, but silent hope, the days when he will see his father and his brethren.—(Murphy).
In all Joseph’s conduct we can discover a mournful longing after Canaan, deep indications that, after all, his true home was not in Egypt.