Genesis 47: 1-6: “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. 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. 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. 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.”
This is the final episode in the reunification of the family. Abraham’s descendants were few and far between for quite some time but when they began to multiply there was a lot of jealousy and the family was divided. This can often happen in churches and other Christian works. There are problems between different people and the work suffers because the family of God in a local area is divided. However, we can all come together again, by God’s grace. In this case, when the family was united they all came with Joseph and went to Pharaoh. When there is a problem in the church we should remember that people on both sides of the divide are hurt and if we wait for the one who hurt us to apologise we will die before anything happens. In Joseph’s case, God brought the family together but Joseph had to forgive his brothers and they had to acknowledge they had done wrong. However, they all worked as a united group and chose five representatives to speak for them and went to Pharaoh. Remember, this was a small divided group but they believed in the true God of heaven, the God of all the earth ( Is 54: 5 “... The God of the whole earth shall he be called.”) He moved everyone in the earth so that this family could be united and they were united under the authority of the most powerful man on the earth at that time. Pharaoh gave them good land so that they wouldn’t lose their wealth during the severe drought but this was really God at work as well.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
No comments:
Post a Comment