Day 12 – September 16, 2023: Genesis 42-47

The story of Jacob continues. We see his story from chapter 30 all the way until he passes away in chapter 50. That’s a lot of the Old Testament that deals with Jacob and his story. Remember whom he becomes. He becomes Israel and it is from Jacob that we get the twelve tribes. So it makes sense that so much time is given to Jacob and his life and how the nation of Israel is formed as a result of his children and the progeny that are saved as they now settle in Egypt. But keep in mind that Egypt was never meant to be their final resting place. While they are protected by Joseph while they are in Egypt, that is not the land that God has promised to the. This will be remedied as we get into Exodus. God doesn ‘t lead them out of Egypt just because they were slaves, but because God had promised them land in Canaan, which is where they end up settling after Egypt.

Now to the whole Joseph reveal. It is quite long and complicated how Joseph gets Benjamin back to Egypt and puts his borthers in a position where they are able to realize the harm that they had done to Joseph and now this is a bit of payback. The key verse that you want you to look at is 45:8 where Joseph says to his brothers that it wasn’t them who sent him into Egypt, God had done it because God knew that the famine would come and this would be the only way to preserve Israel, Jacob, and all of his family. Since this was the family of God it had to be saved and God’s plans, God’s ability to providentially be over all things, allowed the family to be saved.

To me it remains interesting that it is the one who was sold into slavery who needs to make his brothers feel better about themselves. The take away point is that even those most tragic of events in our lives can become a way in which God is able to save and reveal himself. I hope that provides some consolation.