MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 47:27-28
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL IN GOSHEN
I. Their quiet possession of the land.
1. They had the means and appliances of prosperity. They were saved from great privations, and they dwelt in a fertile land, most favourably suited to their industry.
2. They enjoyed their freedom by a firm and honourable tenure. They were hampered by no relations of dependence upon Pharaoh that would be irksome to them.
II. Their prosperity. By the peculiar blessing of God, this people grew into the promise of a great nation. Several things contributed to this. They had a definite territory exactly suited to their calling. They were free from moral contamination by intermarriages with an idolatrous nation. But above all, God bestowed upon them the blessing of an extraordinary fruitfulness. Old Jacob lived with them for seventeen years, and saw the commencement of this wonderful history. Thus he survived the famine by twelve years, and saw prosperity with his children.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 47:27-28. It is a remarkable circumstance that until now we read of only two daughters in the family of Jacob. The brothers could not marry their sisters, and it was not desirable that the females should form affinity with the heathen, as they had in general to follow the faith of their husbands.—(Murphy.)
Seventeen years. So long he had nourished Joseph; and so long Joseph nourished him. These were the sweetest days that ever Jacob saw. God reserved his best to the last. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for”—be his beginning, and his middle never so troublesome—“the end of that man is peace.” (Psalms 37:37). A Goshen he shall have, either here or in heaven.—(Trapp.)