A Tale of Two Settlements

A TALE OF TWO SETTLEMENTS

An Exposition of Genesis 47:11-27

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: August 11, 2024

Series: The Book of Genesis

Note: Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

BRIEF BACKGROUND

Good morning, everyone. I invite you to turn to Genesis 47. In the midst of the storms of this life, we have a sure and certain word from the Lord in order to steady our hearts and fill us with hope. That is why we need to turn to the Scriptures over and over again. Before I read verses 11-27, let me provide a brief background. By way of reminder, last week – when we looked at Genesis 46:1-47:10 – we learned about Jacob and his entire family finally making the trip from the land of Canaan to the land of Egypt, where they were going to be settled for a very long time, and where Jacob would live for the final 17 years of his life. Once in Egypt, five of Jacob's sons, in addition to Joseph, appeared before Pharaoh. And then Jacob himself appeared before Pharaoh and blessed Pharaoh. And all that paved the way for what was going to happen next, which was for Jacob's family to be settled in the land of Egypt. And thus we come to our passage today.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

¹¹ Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. ¹² And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents.

¹³ Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. ¹⁴ And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in exchange for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. ¹⁵ And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone.” ¹⁶ And Joseph answered, “Give your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.” ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. ¹⁸ And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land.¹⁹ Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

²⁰ So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. ²¹ As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. ²² Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.

²³ Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. ²⁴ And at the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.” ²⁵ And they said, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.” ²⁶ So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; the land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's.

²⁷ Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. (Genesis 47:11-27)

INTRODUCTION

I have a simple message this morning. It is a message that runs off and on throughout the entire Book of Genesis. There are two ways. On the one hand, there is the way of divine grace, visiting and transforming the lives of sinful people. And on the other hand, there is the way of sinful people striving in their own strength, always coming up short. On the side of divine grace, we encounter Abel and Seth, Enoch and Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph and Judah. On the side of human striving, we encounter Cain, Nimrod, Laban, and Esau, among others. Genesis often gives us contrasting examples side by side, so that we will see clearly that there are these two ways – one way marked by grace and life under God’s promise, the other way marked by futility and loss.

Today’s passage fits this mold. Our passage is like a sandwich: the top of the sandwich (v. 11-12) and the bottom of the sandwich (v. 27) are about Israel’s settlement and experience in the land of Goshen. In between the top and bottom we have the bulk of the sandwich (v. 13-26) which is mainly about the experience of ordinary Egyptians during the final years of the famine. As you probably began to discern while I was reading the text, the ordinary Egyptian experience was very different from Israel’s experience, and it is no wonder why. In Goshen we witness the bestowal of special favor and divine grace, but outside of Goshen it is men getting by the best they can in their own strength. Thus the title of the sermon: “A Tale of Two Settlements”.

THE SETTLEMENT OF THE EGYPTIANS IN EGYPT (v. 13-26)

Let’s begin by taking note of the settlement of the Egyptians in Egypt (in v. 13-26). Although these verses focus on the Egyptians, the first few verses describe the experience common to both Egyptians and Canaanites during the remaining years of famine. Notice the phrases “no food”, “the famine was very severe”, and “the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished” (v. 13). The situation is desperate, and desperate people will pay a steep price in order to survive. Notice the progression of thought from verses 14-25, which describe the price that the Egyptians had to pay in order to be delivered from the severity of the famine.

Money

First, both the Egyptians and the Canaanites spent all their money in order to buy grain from Joseph (v. 14). “Joseph gathered up all [this] money” and “brought [it] into Pharaoh’s house” (v. 14).

Livestock

Second, as we come to verse 15, the focus shifts to the Egyptians. Having spent all their money, “all the Egyptians came to Joseph” and requested food from him, as they were concerned about their very survival (v. 15). Joseph allowed them to pay for grain with livestock (v. 16), and so that year the Egyptians gave all their livestock in exchange for food (v. 17). Just imagine what it would be like to be an ordinary Egyptian in an agrarian society in the ancient world, and all your money is gone, and all your horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys are gone, and severe famine is still upon the land. Your options are greatly diminished. What will you do?

Bodies and land

Third, having spent all their money and exchanged all their livestock, the Egyptians offer to Joseph the only two things that they still have: “our bodies and our land” (v. 18). Still concerned for their very survival, they offer to sell themselves and their land to Pharaoh in order to obtain food, with the understanding that going forward they will be Pharaoh’s servants who work the land for Pharaoh (v. 19). Even so, the servant is worthy of his hire, and ought to be able to subsist from the labor of his hands, as will indeed happen here. So, Joseph did as the Egyptians proposed: “Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields” (v. 20). Joseph also bought the Egyptians themselves for Pharaoh, as he told the people in verse 23: “Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh.” The arrangement included the provision of seed for the Egyptians, so that they could “sow the land” (v. 23). The arrangement also included a 20% tax of the subsequent harvests: “And at the harvests you shall give a fifth [20%] to Pharaoh, and four fifths [80%] shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.” (v. 24). The people were willing subjects, for they obtained the survival that they sought: “And they said, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.”” (v. 25)

The winners

Though I don’t wish to digress into political theory, it should come as no surprise that when a nation has to navigate a national crisis, one of the winners is going to be the national government. By the time we get to verse 25: all the money from both Egypt and Canaan is in Pharaoh’s treasury; all the livestock from Egypt is in Pharaoh’s possession; all the land belongs to Pharaoh; all the Egyptians belong to Pharaoh; and 20% of all future harvests belong to Pharaoh. All this transpired under the wise management of Joseph. At the same time, Pharaoh was not the only winner: the Egyptians had their lives, had food on the table, and had a means of livelihood for the foreseeable future.

The priestly exemption

There is one other observation we should note about the settlement of the Egyptians: the priestly exemption. Unlike the land of ordinary Egyptians, “the land of the priests” did not get sold to Pharaoh, but remained in the possession of the priests (v. 22, 26). The priests were in a financially advantageous situation, because Pharaoh provided “a fixed allowance” to the priests, which the priests were able to live on (v. 26). This tells us that the priesthood of Egypt represented an important service in the eyes of Pharaoh, so much so that Pharaoh saw to it that the priesthood was publicly supported.

THE SETTLEMENT OF ISRAEL IN GOSHEN (v. 11-12, 27)

The 14-verse account of the settlement of the Egyptians is sandwiched in-between two short accounts of the settlement of Israel in the land of Goshen, and the settlement of Israel contrasts sharply with the settlement of the Egyptians. Let’s trace the flow of thought, with verses 11, 12, and 27 in front of us.

The fact of their settlement

First, notice the fact of their settlement: “Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt” (v. 11); “Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt” (v. 27). Whereas the Egyptians would soon be selling their land to Pharaoh, the sons of Israel received a settlement of land from Pharaoh.

The quality of their settlement

Second, notice the quality of their settlement: the possession that they received was “in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded” (v. 11); “in the land of Goshen” (v. 27). Pharoah had promised to the sons of Israel: “I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land” (Genesis 45:18); “Have no concern for you goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours” (Genesis 45:20). And Pharaoh had told Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen” (Genesis 47:6). “[The] land of Goshen” (v. 6, 27) and “the land of Rameses” (v. 11) must be two different ways of referring to the same area – the area that was considered “the best of the land” (v. 6, 11).

They received provision at no cost

Third, notice that they received the provision of food at no cost: “And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents.” (v. 12) Remember that Joseph had already been providing for his father and his brothers at no cost to them: they had brought money to pay for the grain on their first trip, but Joseph had all their money returned to them; they had also brought money to pay for the grain on their second trip, but Joseph returned that money too. Joseph had also given them additional provisions at no cost. After Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, he made this promise to his father: “You shall dwell in the land of Goshen… There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.” (Genesis 45:10, 11) Joseph made good on that promise, and at no cost to his family, Joseph furnished them with food for the entire family.

They gained possessions

Fourth, notice that Israel “gained possessions” in the land that they had come to possess (v. 27). One might say that they possessed their possession, that is, that they settled into the land, developed the land, and built things in the land. Or in terms of the language of Genesis 1, one might say that they filled the land and subdued it (see Genesis 1:28).

They multiplied

Fifth, notice that the members of Jacob’s family “were fruitful and multiplied greatly” (v. 27). That also echoes Genesis 1:28 – “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). What a contrast: the picture of the Egyptians in verses 13-26 is a picture of languishing, a picture of losing nearly everything in order to survive; but the picture of the Israelites in verse 27 is the picture of flourishing and of exceeding fruitfulness.

The contrast between the Israelites and the Egyptians

The contrast between the experience of the Israelites in their settlement in Goshen versus the experience of the Egyptians in their settlement in their own land is all the more remarkable when you consider the fact that the level-headed Pharaoh and righteous Joseph were over both groups. Pharaoh’s authority and Joseph’s agency governed both the Israelites and the Egyptians, but humanly speaking the Israelites got the better deal. But the sovereign Lord was behind the human movers and shakers, and He was fulfilling His promise to accompany Jacob down to Egypt (Genesis 46:4) and there to “make [Jacob] into a great nation” (Genesis 46:3). Just as Pharaoh took special care of his priests, so the Lord took special care of His kingdom of priests, for that is what He calls His covenant people.

A BETTER SETTLEMENT

Now as we move into additional reflection and application, I want you to ask yourself whether you are living in the good of God’s grace. Are you living in the good of God’s grace, like the Israelites in Goshen? Or are you living in the economy of human striving, where you must pay in order to keep your ship from sinking?

I want to be clear that my focus in drawing a contrast between the land of Goshen and the rest of Egypt is not political or economic in nature. To be sure, the doctrine of special grace and divine favor does have political and economic implications, but that isn’t my concern at the moment. My concern, rather, is that you see that the Israelites in the land of Goshen were brought into a fundamentally different experience than the experience of ordinary Egyptians in the rest of Egypt. See the land of Goshen as a place where God bestows special grace. See the rest of Egypt as a place of natural human reason – nothing particularly wrong with the arrangement, but just human beings getting along without the imprint of special grace.

Let’s reflect on four lessons that we can glean from our passage.

Lesson 1: God makes His people distinct

Number 1: God makes a distinction between His covenant people and everyone else. Verses 13-15 make it clear that both the land of Canaan and the land of Egypt were languishing under the famine and that both their peoples had been emptied of money in order to buy grain. Jacob’s family had come from the land of Canaan, and they had gone to the land of Egypt, but they no longer fit neatly into either place. Jacob’s family had left Canaan, and although they were technically now in Egypt, they had been given a special allotment within the land of Egypt, they had received the very best of the land. Goshen is set apart. More specifically, Jacob’s family is set apart in the land of Goshen. They stand out. And this is God’s will throughout the entire Bible: that His holy and ‘set apart’ people stand out from everyone else. Here their set apartness is very physical and tangible. Later in the Book of Exodus, when the Lord is putting plagues on the land of Egypt, Israel’s set apartness will also be physical and tangible, in that God doesn’t put the plagues on Israel in Goshen. Ultimately, though, God’s will is for His holy and ‘set apart’ people to stand out in a spiritual and moral sense. We have been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. Last week referred to John 17, where we saw that although we are in the world, we're not really of the world, but we've been called out of the world, spiritually speaking, to receive and live in the good of God's truth. Jesus tells us that our distinguishing mark among the peoples of the world is our special and sacrificial love for one another, which marks us out as Jesus' disciples (John 13:34-35). In Matthew 5, when Jesus is talking about us being the salt and light of the world, He precedes that by talking about such things as humility, meekness, hunger for righteousness, peacemaking, and purity of heart. There is a genuine moral and spiritual transformation that takes place and makes us stand out in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.

Lesson 2: God’s kingdom involves a grace that transcends mere justice

Number 2: Israel obtains provision at no cost, whereas the Egyptians get what they can pay for. Do you see this? The Egyptians must exchange all their silver, and then all their livestock, and then all their land and even their own bodies, in order to obtain food. The arrangement is just and fair. But the Bible teaches us that if we are going to live in God’s kingdom of grace, then we’re going to need something that transcends mere justice. “[The] wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “[The] soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). That is mere justice.

The apostle Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) When it comes to being the chosen beneficiary of God’s mercy, “it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (Romans 9:16) We have been journeying with Jacob and Jacob’s sons since Genesis 25:19. They don’t deserve God’s mercy and grace, just as the Egyptians don’t deserve God’s mercy and grace. But by means of His electing love, the Lord has come down and laid hold of Jacob and his sons as heirs to His covenant with Abraham and Isaac, and thus they receive what they do not deserve. The Egyptians get what they can pay or barter for; Israel gets what God wants to put into their open hands.

Lesson 3: The Lord blesses the work of His people’s hands

Number 3: The Lord’s special blessing was upon the lives and labors of His people. It is not as if the members of Jacob’s family sat around and did nothing. They were shepherds living in an agrarian society. They had to work, and to work hard. For all I know, the Egyptians worked hard too. Unbelievers are certainly capable of working hard and producing things – even good things – as a result. But God’s promise to accompany Jacob to Egypt and to make Jacob into a great nation, alerts us to a theme throughout Scripture, that God blesses the work of His people’s hands. God brought blessing through Jacob and to Jacob, when he labored for Laban in Haran. God brought blessing through Joseph and to Joseph, as he has been laboring in Egypt for more than two decades. The wonderful Psalm 90, written by Moses, concludes with this prayer:

“Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:17)

Even though we have no reason to think that Jacob’s family was outstanding in their obedience (in fact, we have reason to think that they were not outstanding in their obedience!), nevertheless the Lord was giving them a foretaste of the blessing that would continue to overwhelm them if they walked in holiness, for it is written in the Book of Deuteronomy:

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.” (Deuteronomy 28:1-6)

In saying that “the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth” (Deuteronomy 28:1), we see once again that the Lord makes His people distinct and causes them to stand out. In this context, what makes them stand out is the multiplication of practical blessings. Now I want nothing to do with the so-called health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, which turns the true gospel into a means to worldly comfort and worldly gain. But I also don’t want to react so strongly to that distortion, so as to end up in the opposite ditch, which is to reject the goodness of creation, the goodness of human labor, the goodness of productivity and profit that become tangible means of blessing to our families and to other people. Even a very simple New Testament passage like Ephesians 4:28 – “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Ephesians 4:28) – shows us that honorable work, done honestly by the sweat of one’s own brow, and the provision and surplus that results, is all part of what it means to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. God’s people must neither deify nor denigrate the material world, but instead learn to be good stewards of it for Jesus’ sake.

And so, while the rest of Egypt is gradually diminished to servitude to Pharaoh, Israel in terms of both its possessions and its people, expands under the covenant blessing of God.

Lesson 4: The King is our brother!

Now let me get to the final and crucial point. Number 4: The fundamental difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians is the way in which they are related to Joseph. Joseph is the lord of the land of Egypt (v. 18, 25), and the Egyptians are politically related to him as subjects. Nothing wrong with that, but it is a relationship with very limited benefits. The vast majority of Americans don’t expect personal care from the President of the United States; the vast majority of Egyptians couldn’t expect personal care from the Prime Minister of Egypt. The Egyptians had a political relationship with Joseph the Prime Minister, and for them this meant some limited political and economic benefits, such as survival in the midst of a seven-year famine.

But the Israelites’ relationship with Joseph was very different. Joseph was their brother! They had a family relationship with Joseph: “And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food” (v. 12). The Prime Minister of Egypt was their brother, their uncle, the beloved son of their patriarch Jacob. It’s all about the family relationship. Some of us are familiar with the song “As the Deer Pants for the Water”, of which the third verse begins: “You're my friend and You're my brother / Even though you are a King”.[1]

Both aspects are very important: a poor brother with whom you have a great relationship doesn’t have the ability to do you much good; a rich person with whom you don’t have a meaningful relationship has the ability to do you much good, but the lack of relationship makes the help unobtainable. You need a resourceful brother, a rich friend, a king who loves you personally as his own flesh and blood. Regarding Joseph: Joseph’s official position as second-in-command over the land of Egypt is important, because this means that He has the authority, power, and resources to offer help. But if you don’t have a special relationship with Him, then all of His authority, power, and resources are going to do you very little good. But Joseph’s family does have a special relationship with Joseph, and that makes all the difference.

What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus?

Now I trust you can see how all of this relates to the Christian or non-Christian, and his or her relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the One to whom Joseph points. I can tell you that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, that He is the High King over all of God's creation, that all things were created through Him and for Him, and that in due time He became a human being and lived among us and suffered in the flesh for our sins and was crucified on the cross and was buried in the grave and rose again from the dead on the third day, and that He has ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God, where he has been installed as Lord of heaven and earth, and is even now the Ruler of the kings on earth, and that He is sovereign over all peoples everywhere.

Yes, I can tell you all that. But if you don't know Him, if you're not a part of His redeemed family, then all of His great power, authority, and resources are only going to do you a very limited amount of good in this present life. And then you'll face Him as judge and be condemned to hell forever.

But if you are a sheep who hears His voice, He is the great Shepherd, and He has this intimate relationship with His own sheep, because His own sheep recognize Him, and they hear His voice, and they follow Him. They don't recognize the voice of strangers. It's not a political voice. It's the voice of their Shepherd and Friend. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘No longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends, and I make known to you what the Father is doing.’ And as the great High Priest, He is not ashamed to identify as our brother, and He is not ashamed that we are His brothers and sisters, and He bears our names before the Father. And we are secure in Him, both now and forevermore.

What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus? Is it a personal one? Do you know yourself to be a member of His family? Do you hear His words spiritually? We believers have the best settlement of all, His very own Holy Spirit, which we're going to sing about in just a moment. The folks over there in Egypt are ‘in the flesh’. But you don't have to be ‘in the flesh’. You can be ‘in the Holy Spirit’ who has been given in order to enrich our relationship with the Father, strengthen us as we journey through this life, and lead us onward to final glory.

Let's pray. 

Father, I pray that no one in this room would be content with something like a political relationship, or a professional relationship, or a business relationship with Jesus. He is everlasting Father, personal Shepherd, Friend of sinners, Firstborn Brother in the family of God. Let His sheep hear His voice. In Jesus' name, amen. 

ENDNOTES

[1] From the hymn “As the Deer Pants for the Water” by Marty Nystrom. © 1984 Universal Music--Brentwood-Benson Publishing (ASCAP) (admin. CapitalCMGPublishing)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Steinmann, Andrew E. Genesis (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019.