Thursday, December 18, 2014

Genesis 47 Joseph Presents Israel to Pharaoh

To see Genesis 47 without my comments click HERE.

In Genesis 47 we read that Joseph presented 5 of his brothers to the Pharaoh. He told them to say their business was in cattle and sheep. This was because the shepherds to the Egyptians were an abomination, so he worked the angle of cattlemen in with their resume because the Pharaoh had cattle that needed experienced people to take care of them in the land of Goshen, and of course this was exactly where the Pharaoh wanted them to live.
Next Joseph presented his father Jacob-Israel to the Pharaoh. During his visit Jacob blessed Pharaoh, of course the blessing came from God through Jacob; Gen12:3. The Israelites were given the best of the best when they sojourned in Egypt under Joseph's hand, meanwhile the Egyptian standard of living decreased. This is because the Father was punishing the Egyptians with a famine as he does with other pagan societies such as Sodom and Gomorrah, that refuse to live under Yahweh's laws. We know in the end centuries later, the Israelites eventually became slaves themselves in Egypt because of their sins under a different Pharaoh; Exodus 1.

An important part of this chapter comes from the seemingly benign statement of when Jacob was asked by the Pharaoh what his age was in V.9, and Jacob told him he was 130 years old. The importance of this information lies in the fact that with this information we can calculate the age of the Adamic race which Jacob came from. The word “Adam” according to Strong's Concordance #119 means to have a ruddy complexion, or having the ability to blush.

I don't plan to take you through the entire process of determining the age of the Adamite race, but hopefully I will give enough information for others to get a head start to follow through if they wish to add up all the years.
We know Issac was 60 when Jacob was born and the Israelites sojourned in Egypt for 430 years. Then it was another 480 years from the time of the Exodus in Egypt, to the building of Solomon's Temple; 1 Kings 6:1.

Adding the years for each of the kings reign from both Judah and Israel, and how long they worshiped the golden calves, you will come up with a number of approximately 6,250 years. I have met people who think that the amount of years that God will let Adam's family reject Yahweh and his laws, is exactly 6,000 years before he comes to establishes his millennial kingdom here on earth. If you add up all the years then you will quickly realize we are already past the 6,000 year mark.

If adding the years was just a simple problem of mathematics to figure out when the Messiah will return, then the Messiah could have figured that out when he was here and he would not have told the disciples that only the Father knows the time of his return; Matt 24:36. However, I personally think the time could be very near because the bible tells us that if God doesn't intervein then men will eventually destroy all life on the planet, and man has that capability now; Matt24:22.

Meanwhile Joseph's brothers were wondering about Joseph's generosity, and believed that he was just acting nice in front of their father Jacob by giving them food and allowing them to sojourn in Goshen. So at the time when Jacob dies in the future would be the moment of truth which will either prove or disprove their belief; Gen 50:15.

Also in this passage the Bible tells us that Joseph collected all the money in the land for the Pharaoh and when the money failed, there was no more money to collect), he traded bread to the Egyptians for their cattle during the first year. During the following year, Joseph then traded bread to the people for themselves and their properties, except for the Egyptian priests which were assigned food directly from the Pharaoh. After Joseph bought all the cattle, people, and land of Egypt for the Pharaoh, he then had the Egyptians move into cities and were only allowed back on the farmland as sharecroppers which they had to paid Pharaoh 20% of their crops. This sounds like a huge tax however, it's less than what we pay for taxes in America right now. This form of Egyptian sharecropping existed for at least 430 years until the time when Moses wrote the book of Genesis according to v.26.

Jacob lived for another 17 years and took an oath from Joseph to bury him in the Cave of Machpelah. after he dies.It's probably more than just coincidental that Jacob lived for another 17 years and was taken care of by Joseph which is the same amount of years that Jacob took care of Joseph before he was sold into slavery by his brothers. 

I thank Father Yahweh for the story of Joseph that has been handed down throughout the centuries. All of Joseph's abilities came directly from the Father. I pray all of Israel will say "yes" to the Father so his will will be here on earth as it is in heaven, just as the Lord's Prayer states!

Praise the Lord! 

No comments:

Post a Comment