Genesis 47:27

So Jacob went from Beersheba into Goshen, the eastern part of the land of Egypt... We are given a list of sons and grandsons, and told their number was seventy. If we turn to Exodus 12:37, we shall see the great increase that took place while they were in Egypt. It shows how God fulfilled His word about making them a great nation.

It is easy to see how this suited God's purpose. His purpose was to make a nation of them, free from any mixture of foreign blood. They lived under Egyptian rule, but from the start there was to be a dividing line between them and the Egyptians... Remember that Egypt, along with the rest of the world, was in the middle of a great famine. Such favourable treatment was truly extraordinary. The only way to account for it is the moving of God's hand behind the scenes.

At this time Jacob's family clearly did not come under the same bondage as the Egyptians. Pharaoh had given them land and Joseph had supplied their food (vv. 11-12). They grew and multiplied greatly. Egyptian culture did not absorb them; they kept their identity as the children of Israel.

Joseph's father and brothers now had the best of the land and were provided for there. We turn next to the state of things among the Egyptians in verses 13-26. As the dreams had foretold, the famine grew worse and worse. The people were fed, but not like those in Goshen. They had to buy their food from Joseph, who acted for Pharaoh. They brought their money, and when that ran out their cattle, and when those ran out they had to sell their land.

No man had ever held such power or such a place of worldly glory as Joseph in Egypt. Yet when he is dying, all the glory of this world fades from his sight. Instead of looking back to the past glories of Egypt, Joseph is looking on to the coming glories of Israel. At that moment it looked very unlikely that Israel would ever leave Egypt. They had settled down in Goshen and, as we read, "they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly." But faith saw that a hundred and fifty years later Israel would be rescued out of Egypt and enter their own promised land. So faith gave commands with their departure in view.

How well Jacob lived with his heart set on Canaan, surrounded by all the attractions of Egypt... His heart was satisfied in getting Joseph back. His circumstances were prosperous and flattering. He saw his family flourishing around him, and his long-lost Joseph second in the kingdom. At evening time there was light indeed.

But his faith won through. Nothing moved him — not memories of sorrows or disappointments or disasters or disgraces in Canaan, and not present possessions of honour and wealth and happiness in Egypt. The promise lived and ruled in his heart.