Thru the Bible

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Of Foundation, ye Saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

Steve Schwetz: If we were all completely honest, we'd admit that we're just a bunch of sinners with nothing to brag about, except a wonderful savior who has been gracious and patient with us through the years. Welcome to Thru the Bible. That's the wisdom our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee shares as we continue studying the life of Jacob in Genesis 47. I'm your host Steve Schwetz, and I'm really glad you've hopped aboard the Bible bus. Before we begin our study though, I'd love to share a couple of letters from listeners traveling with us. Here's one from Dory who writes, "I've always thought of myself as Timothy, learning the word at my mother's and grandmother's knees. It was common to hear Dr. McGee on my grandmother's radio, and many times she'd say, 'Sit down and listen to this with me.' When we had a Bible question, she'd often start answers with, 'McGee says,' Well, 40 years later, I met another believer who was visiting a neighbor. As we compared our walks with the Lord, she asked whether I had ever heard of this old man from Texas. The accent bothered her. She was from New York, but she really liked his teaching. When she said his name was Dr. McGee, I was thrilled. I hopped on the Bible bus that week, right in the middle of Revelation, and this month we'll complete my first round trip. Thank you for your faithful ministry, taking the whole word to the whole world."

Steve Schwetz: Well, thanks for hopping back aboard, Dory. We're so glad that you're here with us. And then a listener named Moon, this time in India, emailed this. "I began praying to know God more deeply and to understand the Bible. There was no church or Bible study near my home where the scriptures were clearly explained. Then by God's will, I discovered this Bible teaching in the Bengali language. This has been a great blessing for someone like me living in a rural area. God is revealing himself to me and helping me understand the true meaning of life. I'm learning how loving and wonderful he is. I thank God for bringing me this far, and I believe he will continue to use my life. I cannot fully express everything in my heart, but thank you."

Steve Schwetz: Well, if you'd like to partner with us in prayer or even help keep the Bible bus moving with a tank of gas or maybe a new set of tires, visit ttb.org or call 1-800-65 Bible, or connect with us through our app. Let's thank the Lord as we open his word together. Heavenly Father, thank you for the eternal hope that we have through your son, Jesus. As we study together, Lord, change us and challenge us as we remain in your word and in your grace each moment of the day. In Jesus name. Amen.

Steve Schwetz: Open now to Genesis 47 as we continue Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Our study today brings us to the 47th chapter, and if you have your Bible, you'll want to turn there. And if you have the notes, why you could follow right along in the study. We've seen now that Jacob and his family, 70 souls in all, have arrived now down in the land of Egypt. And Joseph, as a move of strategy, he brought them into the land of Goshen, which actually was the richest land in that day. But they're right now in the midst of a famine, and any land is not very valuable to the owner at this particular time. Now, we are going to find this is the best chapter of Jacob so far. Jacob just doesn't appear in a good light when you first meet him in scripture. In fact, all the way through, until you get to the time he makes his trip to Egypt and you begin to see he's become a man of faith. And I believe this chapter more than any other reveals that.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, the famine has become more intense and worse. Of course, it's drawing to an end, but the people in the world were involved in this and not just the land of Canaan, not just Egypt. They're the only two mentioned here, and the reason is obvious, because they are the only two sections, geographical sections that concern our story at all. Now, we want to begin reading here at chapter 47, verse 1. And we find now that Joseph is going to present his father and the family to Pharaoh in Egypt. "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."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: You see, before he asked for a place for his father and his brethren, why he put them in the land of Goshen, and you can see the strategy in that for the very fact that if they are there, why he'd be more apt to give them that land, in view of the fact they'd already moved in and unpacked their goods. The idea would be, well, just go ahead and stay where you are, and that would be the attitude. Now will you notice verse 2, "And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them under Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What's your occupation? They said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We saw last time, shepherds and cattlemen didn't get along in those days, and the Egyptians, they just didn't care for shepherds. In other words, they didn't care for taking care of sheep. That wasn't their, why there's the slang expression today, it's that wasn't their bag, taking care of sheep. The little poem about what was it and who was it that had three bags full? One for my master, and one for the dame, and one for the little boy, lives in the lane. Well, the Egyptians, that wasn't their bag at all, let alone three bag fulls, and they didn't care for that. So that opened up an occupation for the children of Israel to do something that they could do and that the Egyptians didn't want to do.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: So Pharaoh said unto his brethren, "What's your occupation?" 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 spoke 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 man of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: In other words, here is an occupation that apparently in Egypt was not popular, being shepherds. And also, it would seem here that Pharaoh needed someone to take care of his cattle. Now the famine was worldwide, and the seriousness of it is revealed because it's now affecting the land of Egypt. You see the land of Egypt depended upon the flooding each year from the Nile. Well, there's no flooding from the Nile, and as a result, why even Egypt was suffering. But Joseph had already gathered up the grain. Now, we find that Joseph presents his own father. And I want you to notice this. Jacob now stands in the best light that we've seen him in in the entire course of our study here of him.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: "And Joseph brought in Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh." Notice that. Jacob now is in the place of blessing Pharaoh. He's beginning to live up to his name. You see, he's a witness for God, and the less is always blessed to the greater, and he blesses him in the place, you see, as a witness for God. "And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?" Now here is the very place that if Jacob was asserting that old nature that he had at the beginning, here would be the place to say, well, I tell you, I'm 130 years old, and I want to tell you, Pharaoh, I have really seen things. I'd like to tell you about the time I put one over on my brother Esau.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I'd like to tell you about how I did this, and how I accumulated a great deal in the land of Haran, and how I finally made a deal with my father-in-law. Then how I met Esau, and oh, he could just go on and on and on. And he could brag about his family. I got 12 sons. Well, listen to him now. He's a different man. Listen to Jacob, friends. "And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and 30 years." Now that's how old he was when he came down to the land of Egypt, friends. He was 130 years old. We'll find when he died, he's 147. He spent 17 years down at the land of Egypt and seeing Joseph.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And coming down to Egypt at this time, this man who was right on the verge of death, I think he had one foot in the grave, the other foot in a banana peel, when he came down there. He was about ready to die, but now he lived 17 more years, having found out Joseph is alive. Now listen to him. "Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage, 130 years. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been. And I have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Here was an opportunity for the old man to boast. Why he could really tell a few tall tales at this point. And if he'd been the same man that ran away from his home up yonder in the land of Canaan, he probably would have, but now all he can say is, I'm 130 years old, and my life is not anything to brag about. Few and evil have been the days of my life. And now another thing, I put one over on my father. Is that what he says? No. He says, "I have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. I don't measure up to my father's."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Does that sound like the same old Jacob that we knew at the beginning? No. It's a different man now. He's changed. He's giving God the glory for his life, and he's making no appeal that he has accomplished a great deal. "And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh." And I think frankly, that he's arrived here. Here's an opportunity for him to boast, and he certainly doesn't take advantage of it. And somebody else might have said, well, now I want to impress Pharaoh, who I am. Pharaoh's a great ruler, but I want him to know I was a pretty big man up yonder in the land of Canaan. But not Jacob, he says, "My days have been evil. I've been a sinner. Nothing to brag about, save but a grace of God."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I get a little weary about all today. You hear so much boasting on the part of many Christians, even in our fundamental circles, how we attempt to applaud certain man for what they've done. We talk about how great they are. Well, if we all told the truth, what we'd say is we're just a bunch of sinners. And we haven't anything to brag about, except we have a wonderful savior who's been gracious and patient with us down through the years. And friends, that's all we have to boast of. That's all that any of us here today have to boast of. That's a savior slain for us. And we can't say we're superior to our fathers.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I remember years ago a friend of mine, he's a seminary professor, he was telling me, because I think every boy, and I guess girl goes through this period of life in your teens, you're sort of ashamed of your parents. They're just not hip, you know, they're not up to it. And so this fellow's telling me, he says, you know, when I went away to college, why, he said, I, to be honest with you, I was just ashamed of my dad. And his dad was a preacher, by the way, and he was coming to the college to speak. And he said, I pretended I was sick. Couldn't even go time he spoke in the school because he said, I just didn't want to be known as his son. And I was ashamed of him.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Then he said, you know, I spent four years in college, and then went into the business world for a couple of years. And he said, I want to tell you, I had a rough time. And during that time, he said, I changed my thinking about my dad. He said, I had thought for a while, the old man, he just not capable of making a living for us. And he seemed to do pretty well. Certainly he was an outstanding Bible teacher, but I thought he was pretty stupid. But he said, you know, after I'd been out in the business world and faced up to a few things, he said, I came home. And he said, my, how my dad had improved. No one had ever learned as much as he learned in those brief years I was away from home. He certainly had grown.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And he said, frankly, I had come to the conclusion that he's a lot smarter man than I thought he was. Well, that's the thing many of us would say, but not Jacob. Jacob takes this humble place. And he's a different man here. He's a changed man. Now let me read beginning at verse 11 of chapter 47 of Genesis. "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." And that's the land of Goshen. "And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren, all his father's household with bread according to their families." "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."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, the reason these two lands are mentioned, they are the geographical locations that are involved in our story, but both places now are suffering. And had Jacob remained with his family in Canaan, he would have perished. But now in the land of Egypt, grain has been stored, but they're not producing it anymore. Evidently the famine had spread all over Africa because the Nile River, the Blue Nile was not feeding water in for the overflow of the Nile River in Egypt. Verse 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 unto Pharaoh's house."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, this is something Joseph has been criticized for, that he took advantage of the people's poverty, and he bought up the land. In other words, he closed in on the mortgage and brought the land. Well, I think that's an unfair criticism of him to begin with. He's the agent of Pharaoh. He did none of this for himself. It didn't help him a bit. He's making no effort to enrich himself. And he was not crooked in any sense of the word. He did not gain personally because of the famine. And I think the illustration would be that you'll recall when it was discovered that the atom bomb is to be made from uranium, uranium all of a sudden becomes one of the elements, one of the metals that's intensely valuable.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And some man found that they had uranium in their property, especially over here in Arizona. Well, they were paid a handsome sum for it. Were they taking advantage of their government? I don't think so. The law of supply and demand took care of the price, and the scarcity of the article and the demand for it. And the same thing I think was true here in the land of Egypt. He bought the land, I'm sure that he got it at a good price. He bought it for Pharaoh, but it's the question of law of supply and demand, and he's actually enabling the people to live by furnishing them food. I think that Joseph stayed within the confines of the law of supply and demand.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now will you notice verse 15, "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?" And Joseph said, "Give your cattle, and I'll give you for your cattle if money fail." And they brought their cattle. And then the cattle failed. That is, they got rid of them, in the sense they sold all they had. They came the second year and said unto him, "We'll not hide it from my Lord, how that our money is spent, and the herds of cattle are gone." And they want to put themselves in slavery. He takes the land for Pharaoh. "And Joseph, verse 20, 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."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Evidently the famine really was a very terrible thing. It had spread over the land. Now, verse 21, "And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to the other end of them." A great migration into the urban areas, you see. Why? Well, they'd be near the center of supply. That is where the grain was stored. And you remember that Joseph picked these centers throughout Egypt at the very beginning and the grain was stored there. He brings the people where they'll be close to the supply because it has become very serious. We are told verse 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 land."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: "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 you shall sow the land, it shall come to pass in the increase that you 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." Now the famine is over, that is, Joseph knows it will be over in the next year. So he tells the people to sow their grain. "And they said, thou hast saved our lives, let us find grace in thy sight, of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants." Verse 26, "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."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Verse 27, "And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen. And they had possessions therein and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the whole age of Jacob was 147 years." See, he was in Egypt now, we're told definitely, 17 years. "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, deal kindly and truly with me. Bury me not, I pray thee in Egypt. But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: "And he said, I will do as thou hast said. And he said, Swear unto me, and he swore unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head." Now Jacob knew at this time, and I think there's several factors that entered into him asking that he be buried back in the land. First of all, as he looks around him and sees what's happening, he becomes alarmed that he will die in the land of Egypt. I think that's clear to him now. And the success of Joseph in acquiring all the land for Pharaoh, it makes him believe that his family might become comfortable in Egypt and they'll never want to return to Canaan. And that could happen. It did happen, of course.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And in the second place, his own age made him know that he'd die shortly. This is an evidence, I think, of the faith on the part of Jacob in the covenant God had made with his fathers. And I'd have you note this in closing, because this will come up several times now as we go through the Bible. The hope of the Old Testament is an earthly hope. Abraham believed he'd be raised from the dead in that land, he wanted to be buried in that land. That was true of Isaac. And now Jacob has the same faith. You see, the hope of the Old Testament is not to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and enter the city of the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal and permanent abode of the church.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: That's not the hope of the Old Testament. This earth is to be heaven. I'll tell you when the kingdom is set up on this earth, why that will be the great hope. And these people will be raised for that kingdom. The first part of it, a thousand year of testing, but after that, it's the eternal kingdom and it continues on. Now this man, he says, I don't want to be buried in Egypt. If he had no faith or hope, what difference would it make where you're buried? And for the believer today, what difference does it make where you're buried at the time of the rapture? Wherever you are, why you will be raised, your body will, and you'll be joined to your spirit, if that is, if you've died. And the living are to be changed and caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, it wouldn't make any difference whether you're in Egypt or Canaan or Los Angeles or wherever you live today in Timbuktu for that matter. Why, the living in Christ and the dead in Christ, in all of these places, they'll be caught up. So it wouldn't make any difference. We don't go to a launching pad down in Florida and get on that launching pad and take off from there. Our hope is a heavenly hope. This is an earthly hope. And the fact that Jacob wants to be buried back in that land is an evidence of his faith in the resurrection and to be raised from the dead in that land. I say to you that this man's growing, but next time, we're going to see another evidence of the faith of Jacob. And so until next time, may the Lord richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: We're grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Thru the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.