"Bearers of Blessing to the World"
Genesis 47:1-27
November 21, 1999

Text Comment

v. 4      As Joseph had foreseen, Pharaoh asked the brothers about their occupation and they replied as Joseph had coached them to reply (46:31-34). Joseph wants his family settled in Goshen, and not in the Capital with its alien way of life.

v. 6      The audience went very well. The king even offered them jobs as royal stockmen. This position is attested in the archeological record. Rameses III is said to have employed 3,264 men, mostly foreigners, to take care of his cattle. In any case, the family will enjoy more rights than the typical immigrant and, so we will see in v. 11, they become property holders.

v. 14    "Brought it to Pharaoh’s palace" demonstrates Joseph’s honesty. It was axiomatic in the ANE that people paid their own way, so long as they had anything to part with, including, eventually, their liberty. The Law of Moses recognizes this principle, but humanizes it with the right of redemption and ameliorates it with the law of jubilee.

v. 17    The first mention of the horse in the Bible.

v. 19    The possibility of the arable land reverting to desert was real and serious.

Now we have two important scenes in our reading this morning, the latter flowing from and confirming the lesson of the former. Both of them describe a preliminary fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that all the world would be blessed through them. As so often in the unfolding narrative of Genesis, what transpires is, in some way or another, the unfolding of the divine promises to the patriarchs. So here.

First you have the audience that the Pharaoh gives to Jacob. But, how strangely and unexpectedly it develops. In the previous section, where Pharaoh met with the brothers, we have what we would expect. The brothers are deferential to the king, they wait upon him, respectfully answer his questions, and receive what favor he chooses to bestow. That is what we would expect, of course. They are guests in Egypt, aliens, with no particular claim on Pharaoh’s time or attention.

But when Jacob is presented, everything changes! It is Jacob that blesses Pharaoh, and not once but twice. Almost certainly this blessing would have taken the form of a pronouncement of God’s favor, such as when Jacob, in a prophetic role, blesses his sons and says something of their future, in chapter 49, and a prayer for God’s kindness to the king.

Then Pharaoh asked Jacob about his age. Jacob was a very old man by this time. As we will also read at the end of this same chapter, in v. 28, Jacob was one hundred and thirty years of age when he came down to Egypt with his family and died seventeen years later at one hundred forty-seven years of age. One hundred and thirty was as old then as it is now! It was a supernaturally long lifetime and would have, of course, commanded the respect and wonder of the king. Pharaoh knew he was dealing with no ordinary man.

But, then, Jacob’s answer is so odd. "The years of my pilgrimage have been few and difficult. What is more, I haven't lived nearly as long as my father and grandfather." Pharaoh must have been taken aback and thought to himself, "if this old man thinks one hundred and thirty is a short life, he is operating with a very different understanding of life than I am." Remember, Joseph’s extraordinary story of rise to power from slavery and prison must have impressed Pharaoh, and here was Joseph’s father, a man of one hundred and thirty years of age! What was it with this family?

But, for the reader of Genesis, Jacob’s answer is poignant and meaningful. We think back to the flight to Paddan Aram and the years spent there, the deceit perpetrated upon him by his father-in-law, the conflict in his home between Leah and Rachel, the rape of his daughter Dinah, the untimely death of his favorite wife, the tragedy of Joseph’s apparent death, and the long years surveying the wreckage of his home, and the bitter rivalry of his sons. Verse 7 seems to suggest that now the old man is so infirm that Joseph must help him into the court. The long and difficult journey is near its end. Perhaps Jacob is thinking as we do. "It seems like only yesterday when I first laid eyes on Rachel at that well in Paddam Aram."

But Pharaoh, the greatest king in the world of that day, deferred to Jacob, seems to recognize that he is standing in the presence of one much greater than himself, a man who knows the mind and will of God and who has God’s blessing upon his life. And twice he receives Jacob’s blessing.

The man who deceived his brother and stole his blessing, is now the source of blessing to the world! That is the jar, the striking fact the narrator expects us to notice. That is the difference the grace of God makes. A disreputable fellow, in many ways, becomes the source of blessing to the world.

Remember how we have seen this before. Abraham lied for a second time about Sarah when he moved to Gerar and feared the king Abimilech. And Sarah was taken into the king’s harem and the promise was jeopardized once again. God then closed the wombs of all the king’s wives and concubines. Remember that after God came to Abimilech in a dream and straightened the matter out, he required Abimilech to seek and receive blessing from Abraham and only after Abraham had prayed for Abimilech did God again open the wombs of the women of his household.

That seems backward to us. Abimilech ought to have prayed for Abraham, not vice versa we think. After all, it was Abraham who deceived the king, Abraham who by his cowardice brought the trouble on the king’s household. Abimilech should forgive Abraham. But, no, the blessing the king must have, only Abraham, frail, cowardly, sinful Abraham can give him.

So we are taught, throughout Genesis, that the covenant is kept and brings its blessings not because of the faithfulness and steadfastness and goodness of the men who are in covenant with God, but because of God’s faithfulness, even, often in the teeth of the unfaithfulness of his people. And we learn that God's people are the channel through which God is blessing to the world, even though they are unworthy of such an honor.

Most of the time, Jacob is not presented to us in Genesis as a paragon of virtue – though, to be sure he has his shining moments – but, nevertheless, Jacob is the source of God’s blessing to Pharaoh and to Egypt. "We hold these treasures in earthen vessels…" Paul will later say. But, we hold them, no one else. Those who believe and walk with God, however poorly we often do both.

This point is then illustrated and confirmed in the next section of the chapter that tells the story of Joseph’s management of the famine in Egypt and the eventual enslavement of all the people of the land.

But with our modern view of slavery and our modern sensibilities about the institution, we are apt to miss this important point. We are apt not to see that these verses are precisely the demonstration of God’s blessing coming to the world through those who are in covenant with him. We are apt not to see these verses as an unfolding of the promise that all the world would be blessed through Abraham.

It seems to us, at first glance, that Joseph, on Pharaoh’s behalf, takes cruel advantage of the Egyptian citizenry and eventually enslaves them all. He has, as it were, cornered the market on food, and uses his power to disadvantage others. I confess that that was the view I always had of this history, and that it bothered me somewhat, what Joseph did. But, I think I was entirely mistaken and that the text teaches me that.

There is in many of the narratives of Genesis some statement that scholars have come to call "the evaluative viewpoint." It is a statement, usually by someone else than the biblical hero, and sometimes by the narrator himself, that interprets for us what has happened and gives us the narrator’s view or interpretation of what has happened. This statement tells us how we ought to judge what has been done or said, what ethical perspective we ought to have in reading the narrative. The "evaluative viewpoint."

For example, in Genesis 12:10-20 we have the account of Abraham’s descent to Egypt shortly after he arrived in the Promised Land and his lying to the Egyptian officials about Sarah, saying that she was his sister, not his wife. Now the result of this was that Abraham accumulated great wealth as a result of Pharaoh’s favor and the Lord inflicted diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Sarah’s presence in his harem. But what are we to think about what Abraham did? Was the lie an acceptable tactic? Was God pleased or displeased with Abraham? Well, in vv. 18-19 we have Pharaoh, after he discovered that Sarah was married, condemning Abraham for lying to him and sending him packing homeward. That is the statement of "evaluative viewpoint" in that narrative, the interpretation offered by the narrator of what had transpired. Here is a pagan king lecturing God’s man about honesty. That could have been left out, would have been, except the narrator wants us to know that what Abraham did was wrong and evil. And he puts that interpretation of the events in his narrative, by repeating the words of Pharaoh.

Or, take another example from the very next chapter, chapter 13. What is going on here in the choice that Lot makes to live in Sodom and Gomorrah? What are we to think of that? Abraham has offered him first choice and that was a beautiful and well-watered land around those cities. But, in v. 13, right in the middle of the story, we have a statement of evaluative viewpoint from the narrator himself: "Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord." You see that single statement puts Lot’s decision and his choice in its true moral context. Now we know what to think about what Lot did and why. He chose luxury and prosperity for himself with no thought to the spiritual interests of the soul, the corrupting effects of evil company, or the duty of living to the glory of God. He was happy to live in a foul environment if it offered pleasure and prosperity to himself. The narrator tells us all that by inserting a statement of evaluative viewpoint.

Well we have such a statement of evaluative viewpoint here also in Genesis 47. We find it in v. 25 on the lips of the Egyptians themselves: "You have saved our lives…" Whatever we may think, the Egyptians themselves viewed what Joseph did as their salvation. And the narrator wants us to hear them say it.

The history of the African slave trade and of the American slave experience have colored our view of slavery, so that it is difficult for us to enter into the ANE mind. In ancient society, slavery was an accepted way of bailing out the destitute and, under a benevolent master, could be quite a comfortable living situation, and certainly much to be preferred to starvation. Joseph was a slave in Potiphar’s house and lived well and comfortably, had responsibility and, apparently, a substantial measure of personal liberty. Indeed, the law envisaged some temporary slaves electing to become permanent slaves (we read of this in Exodus 21:5) rather than to take the freedom to which they were entitled after six years of service. Ancient slavery, at its best, was like tenured employment whereas the free man was like someone who was self-employed. The latter had greater liberty, but he faced substantially greater risks and there were not so many safety nets as we have in place today. Remember, the Law of Moses provides, with some further protections for the slaves, for much of what Joseph did here and there it is regarded as a means of providing for those who are destitute. It was the ANE form of welfare, if you will, with a "must work for benefits" proviso, such as we are re-introducing today in the United States! There really is nothing new under the sun!

As it happened, in a time of great famine and so great peril, what Joseph did in making these people slaves, really was to their benefit, for feeding all of these people immediately became Pharaoh’s responsibility. Further, what they were left with was, effectively, the right to make a living from the land, a good living in good years, with the requirement to pay income tax at the rate of 20%. Somewhat higher than many pay today and considerably lower than many others pay! Though, to be sure, it appears to have been a Steve Forbes type of flat-rate income tax. None of the complications of our present system of deductions, depreciation, and so on.

Now, I don’t say that all people were happy with the arrangement or that Pharaoh did not himself take more advantage of it than he should have. The OT law carefully circumscribed the rights of slave holders precisely because slavery was an institution so open to abuse. It did not allow the taking of land in perpetuity as Pharaoh took it, there was always the Jubilee.

But, the fact is, the Egyptian people themselves, saw what Joseph did as saving their lives and as saving their lives in the manner and by the means most acceptable in that time and culture. That was their own evaluation and so, by its inclusion, has become the evaluative viewpoint of the narrator as well.

So, we have, in chapter 47, Jacob blessing Pharaoh, twice, and then that divine blessing coming to the king and to his people through the wise administration of Pharaoh’s affairs through the famine by Joseph, the son of Jacob. It is a case of the nations of the earth being blessed through Abraham and of those that bless Abraham being blessed themselves – those who gave shelter to Jacob and his family were saved through a great famine. Those who bear the blessing, like Jacob, are feeble men in and of themselves, but they have the favor of God upon them and even the vaunted of the world depend upon them for the blessing they need.

And so has been the story of human history ever since. Tadd Bentson recently acquired a book for me that covered a subject I have long wanted to read about. I knew something of the story told in this book from things that I had heard through the years, but wanted to read it for myself, all the more since I became enamored of the life and ministry of John Paton, the Scottish missionary to the South Sea Islands. Paton and other missionaries like him, you remember, took the gospel to peoples that were still living in the stone age – cruel, violent, given to cannibalism, almost universally given to lying and theft – and deeply superstitious. But, through the heroic effort of these faithful Christian preachers and teachers, the gospel took root and a new civilization was born among the people. The church was established, the number of Christians increased rapidly, and the way of life on the islands was transformed by the gospel. And as the generations passed the church continued to exercise a life-giving and purifying influence among the peoples who inhabited the islands of the South Pacific.

Those who brought the gospel of Christ to the South Seas were men and women motivated by the purest love but they were also men and women of steel. Many of their peers or predecessors were murdered by those they came to save, so, when the Japanese invasion of New Guinea began, and the British government ordered English citizens to leave for Australia, it was predictable that the missionaries refused to leave. The Anglican bishop wrote to all his workers:

"We must endeavor to carry on our work in all circumstances, no matter what the cost may ultimately be to any of us individually. God expects this of us. The Church at home, which sent us out, will surely expect it. The universal Church expects it. The tradition and history of missions requires it of us…. The people whom we serve expect it of us. We could never hold up our faces again if, for our own safety, we all forsook Him and fled when the shadows of the passion begin to gather around Him in His spiritual and mystical body, the Church in Papua."

Six weeks after writing that letter, the mission steamboat was bombed and the bishop machine-gunned while visiting territory already in Japanese hands. Such was the mettle of these who brought the blessing of God to the nations of the South Pacific. [They Found the Church There, 32] And that courageous witness through two generations bore a magnificent fruit.

So, when the Second World War came and hundreds of thousands of British, American, and Australian troops came to some of those same islands, they found a completely different world than had existed two generations before. I had long heard that there were US servicemen who became Christians through the witness of some of the islanders that they met when stationed there during the war. But I wanted more specific information.

Then Tadd found me Henry van Dusen’s, They Found the Church There. It isn’t all that I had wanted, van Dusen’s own theology is too weak and muddled for that. And, it was published too soon, in 1945 indeed, before all that was known could have been digested and evaluated. Still, it makes wonderful and fascinating reading.

When the aircraft carrier Lexington was sunk in the battle of the Coral Sea, two of its fliers crash landed near Rossel Island, off the coast of New Guinea. Christian Papuans rescued them, fed and protected them until they could send them on to safety. Years before those same islanders were already noted for their skill in helping the victims of shipwreck, but for a different purpose. When a vessel had foundered near the same island, eighty years before WWII, three-hundred Chinese had been similarly rescued by the grandparents of these same islanders who rescued the American pilots. The Chinese had also been well cared for, but they were eaten, 299 out of the 300. [12-13]

Or this AP dispatch that was carried in US newspapers on October 22, 1943.

"Stanley W. Tefft, 25 years old, an aerial gunner from Toledo, Ohio, disclosed today that Christian natives on a South Pacific island had won seven converts among navy airmen who had been shot down in combat with the Japanese. …

The gunner, who is at the naval air station [in Alameda, California] recuperating from his wounds is one of the converts. With two companions, Lt. Edward Peck of Shreveport, La., and Radioman Jeff Scott of Garden City, Ks, he reached the island on a raft after two and a half days at sea. Four others were also there. For the next 87 days they hid on the Japanese occupied island, watched over by the natives, whose first act was to give them a Bible.

"That and our experiences made us Christian," Tefft said. "Every night they would gather around us and we took turns reading the Bible…. You can tell the world that I am now a devout Christian." [p. 67]

And many more stories like that. What is that, but just one more instance of what we read this morning from Genesis 47: the blessing of God extending to the world through his covenant people, and those who bless them and receive them being blessed themselves. This is the Bible and the history of the world in sum, in a nutshell. God started with an individual, made him into a nation – a people for his very own – and by that people he reaches out to bless and save the world and will reach the entire world. That is what this world is all about.

And, along the way, even when nations do not embrace the gospel itself and when people do not themselves believe in Jesus Christ and follow him, they still, like Egypt, receive many good gifts by the hand of the church of God – sinful, weak, frail, and faulty as that church is and always shall be while in this world. We have no idea how dark and cruel this world would be without the civilizing and humanizing influence of the Christian church.

Jacob is our father, brothers and sisters in Christ – he is our father in sin and weakness, but also our father in his calling to bring God’s blessing to the world. And whether it is a king or simply our next door neighbor, it is our privilege and our calling to be the hand of God extending favor to the world. There should be in everyone of our hearts a living aspiration to do that! To do it by word as Jacob did, any by deed as Joseph did. And there should be in the mind of every reader of Genesis, everyone who sees the frailty of these servants of God and God’s covenant, the conviction that he can, she can do that! If a man like Jacob, after the life he lived, must bless the king of Egypt, then I can bless my neighbor. Surely I can.