Joseph here, who's been in the study with Abraham and his descendants. If you remember, Joseph was promoted to governor over all of Egypt by Pharaoh. He's second in command under Pharaoh. His father, Jacob, and all his brothers and their families. There's a seven-year famine going on. And as we read last time in chapter 46, they were about two years into the famine at the time that Joseph instructed his brothers to bring their father and all their families and everything they could carry. I actually sent wagons to them to bring everything they could to Egypt. And he gave them the land of Goshen as a place to live. And we noticed where it appears as though they didn't have permanent plans to stay, but they stayed for a long time. for many generations, actually, before Moses comes along. And so they weren't originally intending to stay, but as this generation dies off, the generations after them decide to stay, I guess. And it becomes a problem because that's not where God had told them they were going to be. He had promised them a land in Canaan. They had been living in Canaan. Jacob, like his father before him and his grandfather before that, was a sojourner in Canaan. He had sort of settled in one place, but not permanently. And so, when they go to Egypt, they have, they do, it appears anyway, that they do have plans to go back to Canaan at some point. They're just there to wait out the famine. And it's not just a famine, but it's a drought. All the crops have died. They're not able to raise anything in Canaan. And it's not just Canaan. It appears as though it's a worldwide famine. And it says so in several places that it was worldwide. A lot of people in that region were flocking to Egypt to buy food, grain mostly. And Joseph, under Joseph's leadership, they had gathered a lot up and stored it up. And Egypt was a great place in that day. It was a very busy place. It became very wealthy under this Pharaoh and under Joseph's leadership. Now we'll pick up in verse 47, or chapter 47, where Joseph's family, speaking of his father and his brothers and all their people, have come into the land now. Joseph has introduced Pharaoh to his father. Pharaoh thinks his father's a great man. He likes Jacob. They like each other. Now, understand, Pharaoh's not a saved man. There's nothing here that insinuates that at all. He still has, and he mentions it today, he still has his priests that are of false gods. They're not, the Egyptians are not saved during this time. There might have been a few, we don't know, but there's no mention of it, if there were. There's still a, a pagan nation. But isn't that how it is oftentimes? God puts his people in the midst of pagan nations. He's done it all down through history. Certainly in church history our Baptist forefathers have lived in places where the people were not Christian. They were not Not just Baptists, but they weren't Christian of any kind in some places. And it's that way today. Now, chapter 47, verse 1. Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, My father, and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have are come out of the land of Canaan. And behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. Now remember, the land of Goshen in that day and time was the most fertile place in Egypt. Pharaoh agreed. Joseph had given it to him without asking Pharaoh to start with. But Pharaoh agrees to give these people the best of the best in the land of Egypt. And it's all because of his his respect for Joseph. That's how much he... Joseph has done a great work in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh recognizes that and he's... he feels like he's obligated to Joseph to do this. So he does it. And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers. And they said, moreover unto Pharaoh, for to sojourn in the land are we come, for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Now, remember in the last chapter, Joseph told his brothers to tell Pharaoh that they were the keepers of cattle, not to mention that there were shepherds, because there was a hatred in Egypt for shepherds, of sheep in particular. And I mentioned that some of the older writers that I read after tell that it's very possible it was because of the conflict that Pharaoh, not this Pharaoh, but Pharaoh back in history had had with Abraham and Sarah. And you remember that story where Abraham tried to pass Sarah off as his sister, and Pharaoh almost married her. And the Pharaoh back then was scared of the God of Abraham. And so he banished Abraham from Egypt. Now, so some of the Jewish writers, even some of the secular historians claim that that's why even in Joseph's day, the Pharaoh There were laws in the land of Egypt that would have said that they were not to allow shepherds of sheep in the land because of that very reason. And the scripture doesn't tell us that. I'm just going off of secular history and off of Jewish history. But that's a thought, something to think about here. But they don't hide it from Pharaoh. They let him know that there are shepherds. We see that in verse 3. He asked them what their occupation is. What do you do for a living? Because Pharaoh had told Joseph, if any of them are, if they work with cattle, and you see one of them that's a good leader, he said, put them in charge of some of my cattle. That's how much Pharaoh thought of Joseph. He said, if your brothers are good with cattle, put them on my cattle. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee. The land of Egypt is before thee. In the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell in the land of Goshen. Let them dwell, and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. See there, Pharaoh Well, first he says, the land of Egypt is before thee. In other words, you get to pick of the best. He spreads it out. He said, here's the whole land of Egypt. It's like looking at a map. He said, here's the whole land of Egypt. Pick the best. He said, the best of Egypt is Goshen. Give it to them. Let them have it. And if there's any that are that are good herdsmen. Let them rule over my cattle. And Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and sat him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years. So Jacob is 130 years old. And my life, let's see, few and evil have the days of the years of my life been and have not attained the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. So he's saying, compared to Isaac and Abraham, my days are few. I've not lived as long as they have. And notice he says the days of our pilgrimage. Even Jacob understands, just like Abraham and Isaac, that he was a sojourner. He was a pilgrim. He was someone who wandered. He was not someone who was ready to possess a land yet. He knew that was in his future. And maybe not in his personal future, but he knew for his future generations, at some point, God had them a land promised. And he knew where that land was. Remember, Abraham and Isaac both had sojourned all over Canaan and had surveyed what God was going to give them. Jacob would have been there for part of that at least, if not most of Isaac's time around. But he knew where his land was, it just wasn't time. And he knew it wasn't God's time yet for him to possess that land. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out before Pharaoh. And remember, Jacob is not royalty. You know, normally in their day, for sure, before a man would have got to go before the king, Pharaoh, He would have had to be in the leader of another nation or royalty of some kind to get the respect that Pharaoh has given Jacob. But remember, Jacob is also known as Israel. He's the father of Israel is what he's known as in much of the scripture. He's it would be his sons who would become the twelve tribes. Of Israel. 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 Ramesses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Ramesses, remember, was the Pharaoh in Moses' day, was he not? So this would be, they gave him the land of Goshen, which would be where Ramesses would come from, is what this is saying. That's why it's called the, in there, in Joseph's day, it would not have been called the land of Ramesses, but in Moses' day, it was the land that Ramesses would come from. This is a note from Moses writing this, would have made this note here so that we would know where the land of Goshen is. And notice Pharaoh had it commanded that they were to get the best. This wasn't just by Joseph, Pharaoh approves it. And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and all his father's household with bread according to their families. So he took care of them. And 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. So that they were not able to even grow crops. The only way they could get food was from Egypt, from what they had stored up. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the corn which they had bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. So the Pharaoh's coffers were getting pretty full now. Joseph has made Pharaoh a wealthy king in that day and time, from all the money that they have gathered, not just from Egypt, but also from the land of Canaan, people coming from there. And when money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in other words, the money was no good, stock market crashed. That would be the comparison, I guess. When the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, give us bread, for why should we die in thy presence? For the money faileth. And Joseph said, give your cattle, and I will give you for your cattle if money fails. So if your money's no good, bring cattle, and we'll swap your food for cattle. Well, it's kind of odd, and I don't know why. I couldn't find why. Why didn't they eat the cattle for food? Well, other than the fact that bread was a mainstay in their day, a main meal, even in the scriptures, you don't read a lot about them eating meat until you get more into the New Testament, of course. And maybe the Jews at the temple, the priests at the temple, you see where they ate a lot of meat. But their main meal was bread. And so, Joseph agrees to, when the money is no good, when it fails, or when they run out of money, whichever it was, or maybe both, that they could swap. They do a barter system. They would swap cattle for food. And they brought their cattle unto Joseph. And Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for flocks, and for the cattle of the herds. and for the asses, and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year. So it wasn't just cattle. They swapped everything, anything they had of value, which in their day, their animals would have been probably the most valuable thing they had, except for their property. When that year was ended, so they did it for a year. When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year and said unto him, we will not hide it from my Lord how that our money is spent. Now they're out of money. Not only is the money not any good, they're out of money. My Lord also hath our herds of cattle. He's got all their cattle. They've got nothing left but their property. There is not aught left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our lands. Whatever shall we die before thine eyes? Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes? But we, both we and our land, buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh, and give us seed that we may live and not die, that the land be not desolate. It appears up until this point they've not been able to raise crops because of the famine. Now they're asking for seed. And notice what the payment is for the seed? Slavery. Things have gotten so bad, they're willing to sell themselves into slavery. Now, we say slavery, but it's more like servitude. It's more like a sharecropper. But it winds up being slavery in the end, is what it winds up being. But they're willing to. give themselves and their land to the government. That's a pretty serious matter, isn't it? I mean, if you think about it, now we know with Joseph being in power there, they've at least got one man in the government that's a godly man and is willing to do right by them. But remember what happens after. Remember in Moses' day where it says, the scripture tells us that there was a generation that forgot Joseph? And look what happened. What happened? The people of Israel that were in Egypt were turned into slaves. They lost their property and they turned them into slaves. That's what happens. You give in a little bit and they'll take it all. And that's what happened. Now, here it says, and Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. He bought all the land, all of it. Now, not only is Pharaoh king over the land, but he owns all the property. And not only does he own all the property, all the people that are Our citizens of the land are now owned by Pharaoh, the king. In our day and time, that's a scary thing, isn't it, to think that the government would have that much control. And actually, in a roundabout way, they do, don't they? Try not paying your taxes on your property and see what happens. They'll come take it, won't they? If you don't, you try to not pay your taxes, your income taxes, what happens? Well, you'll either get a fine or you go to jail, or both. So it's a scary thing for us to think about what could have happened and what the consequences could be in this situation. And Joseph bought all the land. of Egypt for Pharaoh. For the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them. So the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof." There's another scary thing. If you live in the country or have lived in the country and think that Now your government's forcing you to move to the city. Why did they do this? Well, in this time, it was a necessity. You get everybody in the city, you can better feed them. We see that. But in our day and time, we've never seen anything this bad. We've never had a famine that was, I mean, we've had famines that were maybe localized, but nothing that was a whole nation. Nothing that would have been so bad as to do what they've done here, to stay alive. Some people, like I said, locally, at a local level, maybe there's been a few times, but I like this. This is a lot of people that's affected by this. This is only the land of the priest, bought he not. For the priest had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them. Wherefore they sold not their lands." Who's priest? Well, certainly this was not the priest of Israel, was it? Because as far as we know, there were no priests in Israel at this time. Because it was just Jacob and his family. This was the pagan priest of Pharaoh. They didn't have to sell their land. Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day your land for Pharaoh. Lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the increase that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your household, and for food, for your little ones. So what does he do? Joseph, because they've sold themselves and their land to Pharaoh, now they're gonna become sharecroppers. They're gonna work for Pharaoh now. To a point. Now notice he's fair about this. He gives them seed for their land and for themselves. So the famine's over enough that they can grow crops again, maybe not like they did before, but at least it somewhat grows some crops, and they're going to give a fifth part of it to Pharaoh. Why? Well, one, for a tax. Some say it was to pay back Pharaoh for buying their property and themselves. I don't know, but at least it's some kind of a tax. And four parts of it is for themselves. So enough to feed their families. Well, you still got a bunch left over. What are you going to do with that? Well, it was for them to sell and make a profit off of. That was the deal. So that's not a bad deal if you think about it. And they said, Thou hast saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priest only, which became not Pharaoh's. Now, understand, this is not just the native egyptians this is everybody that was in egypt that has property remember joseph under the approval of faro had given land to jacob and his family in goshen they would have included them too, would it not? because now they're subjects to faro because they live in the land the only ones that were excluded from this new law were the priests of Pharaoh. Now remember, remember who one of the priests was of Pharaoh? Remember Joseph's father-in-law was not, he was a priest in the city of On, O-N, On. He was a priest there, and so Joseph's wife's family was not affected by this. But his family would be. And it says there in verse 26, And it says, Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day. I understand this to say that when it says this day, because Moses is the one writing this, it was a law in Egypt up until the day, or at least to the day that Moses was living there. Or until the day he wrote the book of Genesis, whichever that would apply. Is that the law there now? No, certainly the laws have changed. You no longer have the pharaohs for one. So all that's changed now, that's not including today, but that's up until, at least until the day of Moses, when there were still pharaohs in the land. So it was a long-standing law. And Israel, speaking of Jacob and his family, dwelt in the land of Egypt. in the country of Goshen. And they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly." God blessed them. As simple as that. They were there, they got the best of the land, and they prospered because of the Lord's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. And we think 17 years is a pretty long time. But it says here, so the whole age of Jacob was 147 years. 17 years to Jacob was nothing. But we think of it as a long period of time today. That's almost 20 years. But Jacob lives to be 147 years old. He's an old man by this time. Very old man. And the time drew nigh that Israel must die. And he called his son Joseph and said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh and deal kindly and truly with me. Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. He didn't want to be buried in Egypt. Why? Well, he already had a place in Canaan. That's where Rachel was buried. That's where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebecca, all his family was buried back in Canaan. He wanted to be buried back there. Not an unusual request, not even today. You know, a lot of people want to be buried back in their hometown. But I will lie with my fathers, and they all shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. And he said, swear unto me. And he swore unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head. Joseph Basically makes a vow to his father. I'll get you back there when you pass away We'll take you back Back to Canaan to where your family's buried and you'll be buried there with them Now We're gonna stop there for this morning Next time we'll see Jacob and begins to prepare for his death. He begins to pass on blessings to Joseph, to Joseph's sons. Joseph's sons, we'll see, will play an important part in what will become the nation of Israel. In the chapter after that, chapter 49, Jacob, in the first part of the chapter, he will begin to give blessings upon his own sons, and then towards the end of the chapter, Jacob passes away. And they take him back to Canaan. Take his body back, I should say, back to Canaan. So, we'll stop there for this morning, and we'll pick back up in chapter 48.