1.
And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
2.
And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.
3.
And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:
4.
I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
FATHER AND SON
‘Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.’
Genesis 46:4
I. ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’ Nothing in by-gone years would have given Jacob more pleasure than the knowledge that at the end of his sad and weary pilgrimage, Joseph should close his eyes in death. When Rachel was taken from him, he turned naturally to Joseph to perform the last sad offices; but at one time nothing seemed more unlikely than that this would be the case; yet now the impossible had suddenly become possible, and Joseph was to receive his last instructions ( Genesis 47:29).
II. It is pleasant to think that God takes delight in gratifying the innocent and natural wishes of His saints, where it is possible. ‘The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,’ and surely the last ones. He who loved to receive at Mary’s hands the anointing for His burying, will see that the body which has served Him, and been His temple, shall be rightly honoured. I like to believe that God’s love-idylls end joyfully; that those who have loved find each other, and enclasp in an embrace that can never be unloosed; that days of weeping clear towards evensong, and that Josephs put their hands upon our eyes. But even if that cannot be, our risen Lord will stand beside us then.
‘Thou shalt see,
Steadfastly gazing towards eternity,
The heavens opened, and at God’s right hand,
With the same smile as once, thy Master stand;
Nor only so, but come down from His place,
And stand beside thee, and His arms embrace,
Nor ever let thy hand go, holding fast,
Till all the tyranny be overpast.’
Illustration
‘It is very good that an old man’s years, last years, should be illumined by messages and tokens of love from his children and his grandchildren, that he should enter when he is past seventy into the pleasant stir of new lives and new friends, into a world of wider interests. Those, I imagine, are the lives that best deserve to be called happy, those lives in which all that has been given in the anxious days comes back tenfold in the days of peace, and where the end is a golden sunset.’
5.
And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
6.
And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him:
7.
His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
8.
And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.
9.
And the sons of Reuben; Hanoch, and Phallu, and Hezron, and Carmi.
10.
And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman.
11.
And the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12.
And the sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zerah: but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul.
13.
And the sons of Issachar; Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron.
14.
And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel.
15.
These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padan-aram, with his daughter Dinah: all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.
16.
And the sons of Gad; Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.
17.
And the sons of Asher; Jimnah, and Ishuah, and Isui, and Beriah, and Serah their sister: and the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel.
18.
These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls.
19.
The sons of Rachel Jacob's wife; Joseph, and Benjamin.
20.
And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On bare unto him.
21.
And the sons of Benjamin were Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard.
22.
These are the sons of Rachel, which were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen.
23.
And the sons of Dan; Hushim.
24.
And the sons of Naphtali; Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem.
25.
These are the sons of Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and she bare these unto Jacob: all the souls were seven.
26.
All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six;
27.
And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.
28.
And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.
29.
And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
30.
And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.
31.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father's house, I will go up, and shew Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren, and my father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me;
32.
And the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.
33.
And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?
34.
That ye shall say, Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.