Sermon Tone Analysis

Sunday April 1, 2007

Genesis: Genesis 47:11-12-Joseph Settles Family in Goshen

Lesson # 306

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 47:1.

On Wednesday, we studied Genesis 47:1-6, which records Joseph’s brothers meeting Pharaoh.

On Thursday, we noted Genesis 47:7-10, which presents to us the record of Jacob meeting Pharaoh.

This morning we will study Genesis 47:11-12, which records Joseph settling his family in Goshen.

Genesis 47:1, “Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, ‘My father and my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.’”

Genesis 47:2, “He took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.”

Genesis 47:3, “Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, ‘What is your occupation?’

So they said to Pharaoh, ‘Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.’”

Genesis 47:4, “They said to Pharaoh, ‘We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan.

Now, therefore, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.’”

Genesis 47:5, “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Your father and your brothers have come to you.’”

Genesis 47:6, “The land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock.”

Genesis 47:7, “Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.”

Genesis 47:8, “Pharaoh said to Jacob, ‘How many years have you lived?’”

Genesis 47:9, “So Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.’”

Genesis 47:10, “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from his presence.”

Genesis 47:11, “So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered.”

A comparison of Pharaoh’s statement recorded in Genesis 47:6 with the statement in Genesis 47:11 indicates that “the land of Goshen” and “the land of Rameses” refer to the same location in Egypt.

The fact that Joseph’s family would reside in Goshen would later on protect their descendants, the Israelites from the plagues that God placed upon the nation of Egypt during the Exodus generation (See Exodus 8:22; 9:26).

As we have noted in the past, the racial bigotry of the Egyptians towards Hebrew shepherds would serve to maintain the Israelites as a separate people.

Even though the Israelites exile in Egypt was in many respects a bitter experience for them, it was a gracious act on the part of God since it protected them from the corrupt Canaanite influence.

Therefore, the divine rationale for the Lord for moving Jacob and his family to Egypt was to protect them from the corrupting Canaanite influence.

Unlike the Canaanites, the Egyptians would be unwilling to integrate with the Israelites and absorb them into their culture since they considered their worship of God repulsive as well as the profession of shepherding.

The segregated culture of the Egyptians guaranteed that the embryonic nation of Israel could develop into a great nation within the Egyptian borders.

Genesis 47:11, “So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered.”

“Settled” is the verb yashav (bv^y*) (yaw-shav), which means, “to live in a place for a period of time” and does “not” mean to live in a place permanently.

In the hiphil (causative) stem, the verb indicates that Joseph “caused” his father and his brothers to live in the land of Rameses, which is Goshen for an unspecified period of time, which according to the prophecy given to Abraham in Genesis 15:12-16 was four hundred years.

Although this would be a long term migration from the human perspective, from the divine perspective it would not be permanent.

Genesis 15:12, “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.”

Genesis 15:13, “God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.’”

“Your descendants” is a reference to the nation of Israel and the “land” in which the nation of Israel would be strangers in and would be enslaved to and oppressed for four hundred years is Egypt.

“Four hundred years” is a “round” number for the more precise figure of four hundred thirty years appears in Exodus 12:40-41; Acts 7:6; Gal.

3:16-17.

Genesis 15:14, “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.”

“The nation” is a clear reference to Egypt (Ex.

6:6; 7:4; 12:12) and thus the divine statement “I will judge the nation (Egypt)” is a reference to the Lord judging Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt through the ten plagues for not letting Israel leave as God had commanded Pharaoh as recorded in Exodus 6-14.

Genesis 15:15, “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.”

Genesis 15:16, “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

“They” is a reference to Abram’s descendants, namely, the Israelites who will return from the slavery of Egypt to the land promised to Abram and his descendants.

“Generation” is the noun dor (rw{D) (dore), which denotes a “cycle of time, a life span,” which in the context of Genesis 15 is calculated to be one hundred years since Abram had his first child at one hundred years of age (Gen.

21:5).

Therefore, the “fourth generation” indicates that after four hundred years Abram’s descendants, i.e., the nation of Israel would come back into to the land of Canaan promised to Abram by the Lord.

Exodus 6:16-26 records that it was exactly in the fourth generation that the children of Israel left Egypt and returned to Canaan.

The Lord gives the reason for the delay in Abram’s descendants possessing the land of Canaan, namely, that the “iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

The “Amorite” is a figure of speech called “synecdoche of the part” where a part is put for the whole, thus the term “the Amorite” is put for the ten nations listed in Genesis 15:19-21, of which “the Amorite” was a part of (cf.

Gen. 48:22; Nm. 13:29; 21:21).

Genesis 47:11, “So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered.”

“Possession” is the noun `achuzzah (hZ*j|a&) (akh-ooz-zaw), which refers to an inalienable possession received from one with the authority to give it (cf.

17:8; 23:4, 9, 20) (Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis, page 587, Zondervan).

The prepositional phrase “in the best part of the land” describes Goshen as the best land for agriculture (Compare Isaiah 1:19) and this can be inferred by Israel’s later references to it (See Numbers 20:5; Psalm 78:47) (Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis, A Commentary, page 571, Zondervan).

The statement “as Pharaoh ordered” refers to Joseph executing Pharaoh’s command, which is recorded in Genesis 47:6, “settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock.”

Genesis 47:12, “Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all his father's household with food, according to their little ones.”

Genesis 47:12 is a “janus” verse, which is a term named after the Roman god of doorways with one head and two faces looking in opposite directions and is a term applied to a literary unit that looks back and forth to unite the units before and after.

Therefore, Genesis 47:12 contrasts the abundant food provisions of the Israelites with the hunger of the Egyptians in Genesis 47:13, which highlights the miraculous provisions and protections that God bestowed on Joseph’s family.

The phrase “according to their little ones” means that each family’s allocation of food was in direct proportion to the number of children in the family.

Psalm 37:25, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.”

Psalms 34:10, “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.”

Philippians 4:19, “Now, my God, the Father will as a dogmatic statement of fact, fully and completely provide for your every need according to His infinite wealth by means of the glorious power residing in the unique Person of Christ Jesus.”

This leads us to the communion service.

Therefore, could we have our deacons pass out the communion elements and let us take a few minutes to meditate upon the Lord and prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is a commandment given by the Lord Jesus Christ to every church age believer to bring into remembrance His Unique Person and Finished Work on the Cross, both of which serve as the basis for fellowship with God and each other as members of the Body of Christ.

In the communion service, the bread portrays the sinless humanity of Christ, which was sacrificed for us and the wine portrays His spiritual death as our Substitute, both of which serve as the basis for fellowship with God and each other.

The Lord’s Supper centers upon the Person and Work of Christ and requires concentration upon the Person of Christ by the believer.

Hebrews 12:2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

In the communion service, the bread portrays the sinless humanity of Christ, which was sacrificed for us and the wine portrays His spiritual death as our Substitute, both of which serve as the basis for fellowship with God.

In the communion service, we should recall that the Lord Jesus is the God-Man.

John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the uniquely born One from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We should bring into remembrance the fact that our Lord was impeccable meaning our Lord was sinless.

1 Peter 1:18-19, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

In relation to the wine, we are to bring into remembrance that our Lord redeemed us with His death.

Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”

The Lord Jesus satisfied the righteous demands of God’s holiness that our sins be judged with His substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross.

1 John 2:2, “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

The Lord Jesus’ death on the Cross reconciled us to God.

Colossians 1:22, “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”

The communion service is also a reminder that we have fellowship not only with God but also with each other as members of the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:16, “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?

Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?”

1 Corinthians 10:17, “Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.”

1 Corinthians 11:23, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.”

1 Corinthians 11:24, “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’”

1 Corinthians 11:25, “In the same way {He took} the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink {it} in remembrance of Me.’”

1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.”