Now we go into Pharaoh’s court, first to listen to Joseph telling the great man that Jacob and the others were now in the land of Goshen, which maps will show you is between Cairo and the Suez Canal. Then Joseph presented five of his brothers, and Pharaoh asked them what work they were used to doing, and they told him that they were all shepherds, or cattle farmers, and would like to stay in the land of Goshen. Pharaoh turned to Joseph and told him very kindly, that his father and brothers with their families might live in the best of Egypt, and if any of the men were extra good workers they should be given charge over Pharaoh’s cattle.
Then we read of Joseph’s old father being brought in to see Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed the king. He told him rather sadly, no doubt, that he was not going to live as long as his father and grandfather had, and that he had had a troubled life and then with another blessing on Pharaoh, Jacob went away. Jacob’s life was a troubled one, surely, but he had made much of the trouble himself, by not, trying to keep close to God, and seeking to please Him in his ways. Boys and girls, and grown folks too, would save themselves much sadness and many heartaches. if they told God in prayer all about themselves, and asked Him to guide them through life, for Jesus’ sake.
Joseph now had his father and his brothers and their families near him, and we are told in the eleventh and twelfth verses how he took care of them. But the famine grew worse in Egypt and in Canaan, so that the people were starving, —not Joseph’s people, but all the others. All the money in Egypt was paid in to Joseph for food, and then the poor Egyptians exchanged their cattle and other animals for food; at last they sold themselves and their land to Joseph for Pharaoh, because they had nothing left to pay for food. How dreadful the famine must have been! Nothing grew that could be eaten for seven years. Everything depended on Joseph and his great storehouses packed with food.
God has just given us another picture of Himself, in this true story of the land of Egypt and Joseph. Does He not say to us. “Come to My Son or you will perish? There is a dreadful time coming. and Jesus is the only Saviour.” Indeed now is the time to go to Him and we cannot be saved without Him.