CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 47:2. Five men.] The number five was a favourite number with the Egyptians. (Genesis 41:34; Genesis 42:34; Genesis 45:22; Genesis 47:2).—
Genesis 47:7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] This word is sometimes used to denote an ordinary salutation. But the salutations used among the pious Hebrews were real prayers addressed to God for blessings on behalf of the person saluted.—
Genesis 47:11. The land of Rameses.] The land of Rameses is mentioned here only. The city is mentioned in (Exodus 1:11; Exodus 12:37; Numbers 33:3; Numbers 33:5). Herroopolis was afterwards substituted by the LXX as the name in their time.—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 47:1-12
JOSEPH INTRODUCES JACOB AND HIS FAMILY TO PHARAOH
I. The introduction.
1. Of Joseph’s brethren. In this appears
(1.) Joseph’s character for fidelity to his promise. He had promised to do this for his father and brethren. And now he does not spend his time in indulgence or festive rejoicing, but takes proper steps to fulfil his word.
(2.) Joseph’s respect for constituted authority. His high position would have warranted him in doing much for them on his own authority. But in this important matter of the settlement of his kindred in the country, he will have the direct authority of Pharaoh. It was only proper that they should remain on the borders until all was settled. Joseph accomplishes his purpose by selecting delegates from among his brethren, which gives to the affair the aspect of a public and political transaction.
(3.) The straightforwardness of Joseph’s brethren. (Genesis 47:3-4). They desire to be taken for what they are. They envy not their brother’s grandeur. The answer which they gave to Pharaoh left them no higher ambition than to be appointed as rulers over cattle. They inform him that they are only come to sojourn in the land. They only require a passing accommodation. The Divine plan was impressed upon their minds, and they wish to regard themselves as strangers even in the midst of a nation which affords them peculiar privileges. They reserve for themselves the right of leaving the country when they please. The reception
2. Of Joseph’s father.
(1.) The reverence due to age. (Genesis 47:7). The father is not introduced for the purpose of business, but by way of respect. He would soon pass away, and these arrangements would be of little moment to him. When the young men were introduced they stood. Jacob, in honour of his years and in compassion for his infirmities, is set before Pharaoh.
(2.) The priesthood of age. “Jacob blessed Pharaoh.” Here was the patriarch and priest of God’s church before the mightiest monarch on earth. In political position and importance Pharaoh was greater than Jacob. But Jacob was greater than he in the kingdom of God. Therefore he thought it not presumption to act upon this consciousness. His blessing was more than a mere privilege of venerable age. He was a son of Abraham, one to whom the promise was made, “I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing.” He was “a prince,” and had “power with God and man, and prevailed.”
II. The reception.
1. Of the brethren. Pharaoh grants their request, and receives them with courtesy and frankness. He does the best possible for them, as they themselves had limited their ambition. But even within this limit he proposes rewards for superior merit. (Genesis 47:6).—The reception,
2. Of Jacob. Pharaoh was struck with his venerable appearance, and enquires his age. This seems to affect him more than the solemnity of the blessing. But it is probable that he felt the influence of Jacob’s spiritual character. His question was natural under the circumstances and drew a tender and pathetic utterance from the venerable patriarch. (Genesis 47:9.) Concerning himself he speaks—
(1) Of the shortness of his life. His days had been “few.” He “had not attained unto the days of the years of the life of his fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” He was now 130 years old; but Abraham lived to 175, and Isaac to 180 years.
(2) Of the sorrow which filled his life. Neither Abraham nor Isaac had so much toil and trouble. Ever since that day when he beguiled his brother of his birthright; all kinds of bitterness seem to have been mingled with his cup. He was a fugitive for his life from his father’s house. He was compelled to serve seven years for a beloved wife, and then was cheated of his recompence by his deceitful father-in-law. He was doomed to serve seven years longer, and to endure the vexation of having his wages changed ten times. He was grieved by the dishonour of his only daughter, and by the conduct of his sons who revenged it with such reckless cruelty. His beloved wife died in childbed. Then a cloud of sorrow settled upon his soul and remained to the end of his life, only to be removed by the light of another world (Genesis 48:7). His son, Reuben had disgraced the honour of the family by a foul crime. He had lost Joseph for twenty-two years. He had endured the present famine, with all its fearful anxieties. Surely he knew from bitter experience the ills of human life!
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 47:1-3. That they had an occupation Pharaoh took for granted. God made Leviathan to play in the sea (Psalms 104:26); but none to do so upon earth. To be idle is to be evil; and he shall not but do naughtily that does nothing. We may not make religion a mask for idleness. (2 Thessalonians 3:11-12.)—(Trapp.)
Every Government has a right to require that those who enjoy its protection should not be mere vagrants, but by their industry contribute in some way to the public good.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 47:4. The king’s questions corresponded with what Joseph had anticipated. An instance of Joseph’s sagacity.
They wished only to be accounted as strangers and sojourners in Egypt. They had left the land of their inheritance for a season. In five years more a great part of the cattle of Canaan was likely to perish; yet they would not on any account renounce their final interest in that good land of promise. It was the land which the God of their fathers had spied out for them and given them for an everlasting inheritance; and there were their hearts.—(Bush.)
In our dealings with the children of this world no terms should be made to the injury of our eternal inheritance.
Genesis 47:5-6. The purport of Pharaoh’s reply was this, “As to promoting your brethren, it does not seem to suit their calling or their inclinations. I will therefore leave it to you to make them happy in their own way. If there be one or more of them better qualified for business than the rest, let them be appointed chief of my herdsmen.”—(Bush.)
Genesis 47:7. The sight of a prince who had shown such kindness to him and his, in a time of distress, calls forth the most lively sensations of gratitude, and which he is prompted to express by a solemn blessing! How befitting, and how affecting is this! It was reckoned by the Apostle as a truth “beyond all contradiction, that the less is blessed of the better.”—(Fuller.)
Verse 8. The days that are past may be lost, and worse than lost to us, but they are marked down in a book that shall one day be opened. Have we not lost many of our days? What if they are all lost days? What if all that has hitherto been done by us should be produced against us in the day of trial? What need have we to redeem our time?—(Bush.)
Genesis 47:9. The greatness and the littleness of human life. Jacob speaks sadly of his pilgrimage. He calls his days few, though he had attained to twice the age now appointed to man. He calls them evil, though they were not wholly so; for he had long enjoyed riches and honour, and the far higher blessings which come through the favour of God. He alludes, indeed, to the longer life which his fathers had attained. But this is not the real ground of his complaint. It was not because his life was shorter than theirs that he spake these melancholy words. His real reason was, because his life was well nigh over. For it matters not when time has once gone what length it has been. Nothingness, vanity, emptiness, aimlessness—these are the sad characteristics of our human life looked upon from its earthly side.
I. Contrast this poor vanishing life of ours with the great capabilities of our souls. Our time on earth is too short to develop the great powers which God has given us. Life appears both great and small. It is great, in that it is filled with so much thought, feeling and energy; small, in that it is gone in a moment like a bubble that bursts on the wave. When we look upon human life in its works and effects, we see in it the energy of a spiritual existence—the greatness of a soul. But when we look back upon life, it becomes a memory—a mere lapse of time. Thus it is marked by littleness. Yet it is great, in that one moment of strong and noble life within us is worth all the ages of time. Life is disappointing, because the greatness of our souls has no opportunity for working out itself here. As believers, we have to begin here that which only faith can bring to an end. We are gifted with powers which we know must last beyond this life. These have in them the suggestions of immortality. We are forced upon the thought of another life where we shall have room for the expansion of our powers.
II. Consider some facts of human experience.
1. Consider the case of a good man who dies full of days. He may have lived to old age, still we feel that there were germs of goodness in him that had no chance of ripening. He had in him a marvellous kindness, a nobility of mind and heart; but contracted means and opportunities have repressed them, and hindered their proper issues. We feel as if his life had been a failure, as if his mind had never reached its true scope, as if the blossoms of his generous soul had been nipped. His days have been “few and evil.”
2. Consider the case of a good man who dies before his time. That is as we count such. There are some Christian men who in a single moment of their lives have shewn a height and majesty of mind which it would take ages fully to develop. Yet they are suddenly taken away. Surely they are reserved for higher things elsewhere. Such have given tokens of their immortality. There is something in the goodness and graces of the Christian life for which this world affords not sufficient room. Such men have not half showed themselves here, nor half put forth their strength.
3. Consider the case of the death-beds of some of the saints. We expect then to see the power of religion manifested, the signs of a hope full of immortality. We listen for a triumphant testimony of the supporting power of God’s grace amidst the awful terrors of death. We look for great and noble words. But how often are we disappointed! Illustrating the preacher’s words, “How dieth the wise man? As the fool.” King Josiah, the zealous servant of the living God, died the death of wicked Ahab, the worshipper of Baal. Death in all its awful forms comes to believers as to other men. By a sudden accident, amidst strangers, in battle, insensible, or seized with raging madness. Thus the golden opportunity is thrown away. The manifestation of the sons of God is hereafter. “It doth not yet appear.”
III. Our duty in the presence of these facts.
1. Seek eternal life. Like our natural life this is also the gift of God’s quickening Spirit. Christ is “the Life.” “He that hath the Son hath Life.” Without the consciousness of this eternal life, human existence is futile, empty of all solid food. No advance in science, and the arts of civilization can reconcile us to the loss of God and the hope of immortality. If there is no living God who is to reward us hereafter, if this present world is the be-all and the end-all of man, then “vanity of vanities” is the epitaph of life, and the universe is but a gigantic sepulchre.
2. Look forwards to the compensations of another world. In the heavenly world, the purposes of our life shall be accomplished, its shortcomings completed, its visions realized, its sorrows compensated.
Genesis 47:10-12. The patriarch could not take leave of the king without again pronouncing a solemn blessing. We discover in this the signs of a hope which reaches beyond all the evils of his life. There is a lasting blessing of the Most High which can swallow up all evil.
Joseph continued to nourish and cherish them “as a little child is nourished.” And thus he is made, more than at the birth of Manasseh, to forget all his toil, and all the distresses which he had met with in his father’s house.