seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 50:15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
22 Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years 23 and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees.
24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”
26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Here's the link to the Bible Study I use.Before your father died he commanded: This story was probably made up. They didn’t feel they had the moral right to ask Joseph for mercy, since they sinned against him so greatly. So they put the request for mercy in the mouth of their honored and dead father.
As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good: Joseph did not romanticize the wrong his brothers did. He plainly said, “You meant evil against me.” Although this was true, it was not the greatest truth. The greatest truth was “God meant it for good.”
To save many people alive: This was the immediate good in the situation. If this large family did not come to Egypt and live, it would have perished in the famine. Had the family barely survived, it would have assimilated into the Canaanite tribes surrounding it. Only by coming to Egypt could they be preserved and grow into a distinct nation.
He was put in a coffin in Egypt: According to this passage and Hebrews 11:22, Joseph was never buried. His coffin laid above ground for the 400 or so years until it was taken back to Canaan. It was a silent witness for all those years that Israel was going back to the Promised Land, just as God said.
I keep thinking "Brother in a box" or "Box up the brother". Living in a retirement community teaches a body some reassuring things. Most families have troubles. Very few families manage to put their great, great, grandkids on granddad's lap. Most of the people in this community rarely see their kids. Those who do, babysit them on the weekends, so mom and dad can work. Most of the women in this community are alone. A lot of them are separated from their kids for one reason or another. Life is hard on families.
In those days... No one was on the pill. Oh, I'm sure there were herbs that would work like birth control or potions that caused abortions. But for the most part. There was no birth control. In those days, a woman's place in the world really was "barefoot and pregnant". Still, it was something to live to be 110 years old and hold your great, great, grandbaby on your lap.
These verses start out with Rueben, Simeon, Levi, and the other brothers shaking in their sandals. Joseph was an extremely powerful man in Egypt. He could have made arrangements to have them put to death. They were scared, so they got together and made up another tall tale. They made up a tale when they sold Joseph into slavery. Jacob believed their tall tale for decades. They were proven liars. Now they made up a tale to keep Joseph from having his vengeance on them. They really didn't care who they screwed, they just wanted to survive their pasts.
Well, Joseph has to wait to be buried in Canaan. That won't happen until the Exodus. His brothers stuck him in a box and left him there, waiting for about 400 years... oh, look that's 10 times as long as Moses and company would wander around the desert.
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And that ends the Book of Genesis. Jesus and His Father were watching. Jesus and His Father intervened when they had to.
This book covers the family... Adam, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Seven men.... who were definitely not perfect heroes. All of those men suffered through some kind of drama. Some more than others. Some even acted insane... like Abraham planning to sacrifice Isaac. But these are the men who formed the Sematic tie from Adam to Joseph.
As we leave the family... they are in Egypt.
And.... they have.... A...
"Brother in a Box"
