Gen. 47:7-22
“And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh.” Pharaoh, because of Joseph’s association with his people, accepted those who would otherwise have had no claim upon him. So God fully accepts all who come to Him through the Person and work of His beloved Son.
“And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.” When Pharaoh asked Jacob his age, he replied: “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been.” How wondrous the grace of God toward Jacob! Although compelled to acknowledge that he had not measured up to the life of his fathers, yet, he blessed Pharaoh when he went in and again before he came out. It would seem strange, perhaps, for one in Jacob’s position to take the place of blessing the greatest man in all the earth. Yet he did so with all the assurance and dignity of one who was the possessor of God’s promises, which embraced a far more elevated position than the monarch before him.
Not a favor did he ask though we may be sure he might have had anything. Yet there was in this neither vanity nor pride, but a soul that had come to know divine goodness. His portion was a better thing than the world can confer. There was treasure enough in God for Pharaoh; so his heart overflowed on the king’s behalf. “And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.” Heb. 7: 7.
So it is now: the feeblest child of God has a higher and far superior place than the wealthiest or most powerful man of this world, for are we not told: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ”? Rom. 8: 16,17. Can any earthly position’ compare with this?
“And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ram. eses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.” vv. 11,12. This brings before us a happy and touching scene. Joseph and his father must have had many a cherished hour together. It is particularly interesting to learn that Joseph nourished his own with food throughout the rest of the famine and none had lack, from the oldest to the youngest. Joseph’s eye was upon them throughout those trying years, reminding us of the One who has an even greater concern for His own and has promised, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Heb. 13:5.
As for the Egyptians, “There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.” v. 13. Now the God-given wisdom of Joseph in preparing for the famine was fully tested and proved. As the people pressed upon him for food he opened the granaries and storehouses. At first they paid for their supplies with money, but as this was consumed, they traded their cattle in exchange for food. As the famine persisted they next gave their land over to Pharaoh. Finally their very lives were offered as servants, and they were accordingly removed into cities from one end of Egypt to the other.
ML 12/17/1967