February 10, 2018: Day 47 – Genesis 47

Pharaoh himself gets to meet the family of Joseph.  He meets 5 of the brothers and they answer exactly as he commended them to do.  They tell Pharaoh that they are shepherds and as a result the king of the land gives them Goshen and specifically the area known as Rameses.  Then Jacob/Israel comes and is presented before Pharaoh.  Twice this Scripture tells us that he blessed Pharaoh.  The king asks Jacob how old he is, a bit rude, but something that a king is able to ask.

We then get a historical account of how Egypt became so powerful.  Not only did they get all of the money from all of their neighbors because of their stockpile of food, but they also got all of their livestock, their land, and even the people themselves as slaves.  The people were grateful for their lives, even though they had nothing but their lives to show.  

It is interesting that the taxes that Egypt charged were 20% as opposed to that which we are supposed to give to the Lord which is 10%.  It was Joseph who set the tax rate and came up with that.  But you also find that the priests were protected and received a stipend from the state.  It was not long ago, and it may still happen, that the Lutheran Church in Germany received a stipend from the government, and maybe even today many of the salaries are supplemented by this amount.  This may have changed over the last 20 years, but I know it used to be that way.  Can you imagine if the US government had pastors on their payroll, or at least pastors just from a single denomination?  That would cause quite an outcry.

We end with the harbinger of Jacob’s death as he has Joseph promise that he will not bury him in Egypt, but rather back in Canaan in the promised land with all of his other ancestors, you know, all of those ancestors which we now know.  We don’t see him die yet but the promise is made not with handshake, but with a hand under the thigh…, now that is interesting.