otgenesis47

Revelation 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

John 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:13-14
[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. [14] He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

This Bible Study was originally written by Roger Christopherson,
published at http://www.theseason.org/

Without the leading by the Holy Spirit, there is no understanding of the truths, for all the truth of the Scriptures are revealed to us by God's Spirit.

Genesis 47:1 "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."

Genesis 47:2 "And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh."

Genesis 47:3 "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."

Genesis 47:4 "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."

Genesis 47:5 "And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, "thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee:"

Genesis 47:6 "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."

The Pharaoh is now telling Joseph, you are in charge of the whole land, go ahead and let them dwell where they want, in the land of Goshen. We now see that if Apepi [Pharaoh] was also from shepherd stock, he knew where the best land for grazing would be. This also documents that this Pharaoh also has sheep, which would be an abominations to a Egyptian King.

Though very little is said about this Pharaoh, what is said is enough to help us understand secular history, and the fact that God placed a shepherd king over the land of Egypt, for the time of the famine, and in the supplying of the Israelites during the time when this family of seventy people grow into a nation. God is in control, and He paved the road in Egypt long before the Israelites arrived.

Genesis 47:7 "And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh."

Genesis 47:9 "And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, "the days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."

Did you get that, "days of the years of my pilgrimage" refers to the fact that Jacob never had a place to call his home. He had never had a piece of land that he could call his own, for from his trouble with Esau, when he left home, he was always grazing sheep on other peoples lands. He was a man on the move.

With Jacob being one hundred thirty years old, it would make Joseph thirty nine, Reuben forty six, and Judah forty three. This time is two hundred and fifteen years from Abram's call by God from Ur, of the land of Chaldea.

Genesis 47:10 "And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh."

Genesis 47:11 "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 Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded."

Joseph was the savior of the world of his day, and God used this boy, and placed him in a position where he could keep one of God's promises, and allow Israel to be blessed when the whole world was in a famine. If you ever wonder, what difference can one person make? One person can make a great difference, when God is using that person, and he or she is in the will and faith of our heavenly Father.

Genesis 47:12 "And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families."

Genesis 47:13 "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."

Don't loose the fact that the reason that we are given all the details, is the fact that Joseph is the type of Christ. There is a famine today in all the land where there is no bread of truth being taught. In Amos 8:11 we are told that in the last days there also would be a famine in all the land, like never before, but then it will not be a famine for bread, but for the truth, and hearing of the word of God.

"The Famine of the End Times"

In the 8th chapter of the Book of Amos, in the Old Testament of all places, we come to the verse that fully explains what the famine of the end time is which Christ talked about in Mat. 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. We need also understand that this is no longer prophecy and that we are right now in the midst of that great famine.

Amos 8:11
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

You know, a loving person who SEES his or her own people dying from starvation would naturally give them food to eat if they had some, wouldn't they? Are you familiar with the parable in Matthew 25:31-46? God's people of the house of Israel are basically well fed and have plenty to drink in this country and yet while they gather food for the homeless and needy (a good work for sure), they themselves are starving and dying of thirst, NOT for bread or for water, but of HEARING THE WORDS OF THE LORD!Are you able to help any of them, to feed them bread and meat from His Word, or give them to drink from His well of Living Water, or even just show them where the plumbline is?

Matthew 25:31
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall He sit upon the throne of his glory:
[32] And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

The Valley of Jehoshaphat.

[33] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
[34] Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Seek Him and love Him by keeping His Words and He will bless you.

[35] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

This is spiritual hunger, and spiritual thirst and nakedness and sickness and prison.

[36] Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
[37] Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

Can you look out across this nation and see the Valley of Dry Bones Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 37 which was caused by the famine and the drought, the lack of food and water from His Word?

[38] When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
[39] Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
[40] And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

The famine in our land is a spiritual famine for the Bread of Life, the Word of God. For without the knowledge from His Word, our people are destroyed (Hos. 4:6).

Amos 8:12
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

They shall wander from Sea to shining Sea, from border to border, back and forth, here and there, from one Bethel to another, and shall not find the truth from the Word of God taught. What a waste of time and energy! Haven't you read what Amos wrote: "Seek not Bethel (Amos 5:5)". There are way too many Amaziah's out there. Hey, you have the Word of God, the very Bread of Life, right before you! Seek ye Him, and ye shall live! Here is His PROMISE!

John 6:35
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

FEAST or FAMINE! His Word or some Bethel! It is your choice dear one!

You can study the Word of God (your Bible) or go to church and sit in a pew every Sunday, learning nothing in most churches about what God really wants for you. The choice is yours!

Amos 8:13
In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

You can thank all those good reverends and fancifully dressed evangelists and priests and all those highly polished brazen preachers for the famine! It is precisely because of the drought of His truth, the "Living Water" having been dried up by the scorching "fire" (remember Amos' second vision in chapter 7), that our nation has become a valley of dry bones as described in Ezekiel 37! Remember what happened when Ezekiel was told to go teach the truth to them? Bone joined to bone and they came to life (spiritually)!

[14] They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

If you do some homework as you are instructed in 2 Tim 2:15, you will learn that Dan and Beer-sheba were where the golden calves were set up for people to go and worship instead of having to go to Jerusalem according to the Word of God. So the people quickly began to suffer from that Mad Cow disease of IDOLATRY, which is the "Sin of Samaria"! Who are they who swear, i.e. those who make oaths to the false god? The Amaziah types and their harlots! Again, the sin of Samaria, the sin of America, is IDOLATRY. Though they do it mostly because of ignorance, because they lack the knowledge of His Word, our people worship the wrong god, the false god, the instead of Jesus, the god of the golden calves which were set up at the borders in Dan and Beer-sheba. Again, the "sin" of Samaria, the capital of the 10 tribes of Israel and therefore representative of the whole, is IDOLATRY, the worship of another god instead of the "I AM the Lord thy God" of the first commandment.

Because it is so critical that one fully understands the "famine" of the end time caused by the lack of wisdom and knowledge from His Word, and in so far as all prophets are all in one accord concerning the events of these last days, let's let one of them give us some further explanation of the famine. We will conclude this study with the words from Hosea, whose name means "salvation", as in the salvation of His people Israel:

Christ is the bread of life, so the true famine in these approaching days, is for the bread of life that Jesus Christ gives. That bread is the Word of God. The traditions of men are taking over what is being taught in the church houses of today, and new traditions are being added to soothe the conscience of Christians, and outright lies are making void the Word of God. Yet most Christians sit Sunday after Sunday, and are no better off then they were thirty years ago. Most church houses today have become a house of fairy tales. The famine today has started.

Genesis 47:14 "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 bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house."

Joseph was always a fair man, and the Pharaoh knew that as Joseph was blessed, he would be blessed also.

Genesis 47:15 "And when 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."

What good is money when you die, and the money is no good, so take it all and give us bread to live.

Genesis 47:16 "And Joseph said, "Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail."

Genesis 47:17 "And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the 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."

Joseph preserved their lives for that year, in exchange for their cattle. They could not feed their cattle, nor themselves. however now they have bread to eat. Note how much this bread cost the Egyptians. How much are you willing to give for the true bread of life, Jesus Christ, and His eternal life?

Genesis 47:18 "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, my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:"

The lesson in this verse is that the people are now ready to give themselves for the bread to keep them alive. How much would you give to receive Christ, the bread of life. The Egyptians would give their entire beings as slaves to have enough bread to eat to satisfy their physical bodies.

We are not talking about becoming a religious fanatic, but giving to God what He desires, and that is your love and your commitment. God owns all things, but the thing that He desires most is our love and devotion.

Note: I did not say, "Place your money into the felt lined plate at a church that does not teach the Bible book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse.
I said God wants your love and commitment, so start studying today.

Genesis 47:19 "Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy we 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."

This happens to be the seventh year, and the entire nation knows that the famine was going to be for seven years, so they are seeking seed for the next year, when the famine is over. That is the only thing that can be of value, for without the seed, the year following the famine will also be barren. This seed is the start of the new life. When they asked for seed shows that they believed Joseph, and his interpretation.

Now that you are faithfully studying your Bible you need to start planting seeds of of your own in people's minds!

Note: My fellow Christian, Please remember: 1 Cor. 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Genesis 47:20 "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."

This is also a type of the heavenly Father, for the Father owns all land, and in our fleshly state we are just keepers of what belongs to Him. The Pharaoh now own all the land, because he believed Joseph, and trusted in Joseph's interpretation vision from God.

Genesis 47:21 "And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end to the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof."

The people were moved into the cities where they could be better fed, and controlled. This is as it will be on the first day of the Millennium, when every knee will bow to Christ, or they simply will not be around. They will all be fed, both manna, and spiritual food for the preparation they did not receive in this earth age, while sitting, in most of their 21st. century Christian church pews, under the false shepherds that are manning the pulpits of the church buildings today. Keep in mind that this is a type of what will happen in the end of this earth age.

Genesis 47:22 "Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.

Just as the priests of Joseph's time were given a special portion from the king, so also the Zadok in the Millennium will not receive any land to live on, for God is their inheritance, as it is recorded in Ezekiel 44, and they will be joint heirs with Christ in the management of the whole earth [the Millennium kingdom]. That means that they cannot give you anything that would not already be yours. Just as the Pharaoh owned everything, and the people occupy for a while on the kings land, so also any portion given in the Millennium age is yours as an heir to the kingdom [joint heir with Christ]. The Zadok in the Millennium is not concerned with ownership, but giving instruction to those that are still unsaved (those that entered the Millennium as the walking dead, who need to get their act together, and not still follow Satan when he is released for a short while to test them at the close of the Millennium, so they too might be awarded eternal life, based on their works).

Genesis 47:23 "Then Joseph said unto the people, "Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land."

Genesis 47:24 "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 households, and for food for your little ones."

This is a form of share-cropping and the going rate in most cases is two thirds to the sower, and one third to the land owner. So this is a very generous offer that Joseph made to the people. Today, it is similar to the government giving land to you and you paying twenty percent of the gross production revenue that comes from that land back to the government.

Genesis 47:25 "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."

Genesis 47:26 "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 priests only, which became not Pharaoh's."

Genesis 47:27 "And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly."

As Joseph was taking the cattle and the sheep for bread, remember that Pharaoh requested that Joseph's brethren take care of the Pharaoh's sheep and cattle. The Israelites were multiplying and prospering greatly in Egypt during the famine.

Genesis 47:28 "And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so that the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years."

Genesis 47:29 "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:"

Israel made this request even before he left the land of Canaan, and now he is making Joseph swear an oath to him that upon his death he will take his body back to the land of Canaan, where his father and wife Leah were buried.

Genesis 47:30 "But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace." And he said, "I will do as thou hast said."

This was a covenant promise that Joseph made to his father Jacob, and we will see that he remained true to that promise.

Genesis 47:31 "And he said, "Swear unto me." And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head."

What this verse means in the Hebrew text; is that Jacob was so happy that he found his favorite son, that when Joseph swears to him this oath, he took his staff and pulled himself up from his bed, and knelt to worship God. Jacob was thankful to God for bringing back his son, and for all the provision that was given to him and his family during the seven years of the famine.