Genesis 47:6

Pharaoh does not answer them directly. He speaks to Joseph. This reminds us that God gives all blessing through the Lord Jesus, the One in whom He finds great delight. So through Joseph Pharaoh freely grants them everything they wanted. He tells Joseph they may have the best of the land (vv. 5-6). This was pure grace. But capability mattered too. Some of them could also be put in charge of Pharaoh's livestock. Since he knew Joseph, he expected that at least some of his brothers would be capable men.

Joseph was not only to make himself known to his brothers. Now his family must become known to Pharaoh too (Acts 7:13). So he presents them to the king. They were shepherds, it is true, keepers of cattle from their youth. Egypt held such people in disgust. But what of that? "He is not ashamed to call them brothers." He acknowledges them in the king's presence. The king himself is of one mind with Joseph toward them. He acknowledges them too, honours them, and will have them treat the whole of his land as open before them.

From every point of view Goshen was the most suitable land for his father and his brothers. It lay nearest for those who were only visiting Egypt. God had destined them to enter Canaan, the land He had promised long before, when their father had not even one son (Gen. 15). Again, it was near Joseph, and near the king as well. It was also the part least visited by the Egyptians, who found herdsmen and shepherds disgusting, as Joseph let them know... But it mattered that the king should reach the same conclusion as his minister of state. He had to decide freely, without pressure from a man so close to the sons of Israel... He also told Joseph to appoint capable men from among them to take charge of his own cattle there.

It is easy to see how this suited the purpose of God. He meant to make a nation of them, free from any mixture of foreign blood. They lived under Egyptian rule, but from the very start a dividing line was to separate them from the native Egyptians... Pharaoh was very kind in his attitude. He welcomed them, gave them the best of the land in Goshen, and offered them important posts as rulers of his cattle. Egypt, along with the rest of the world, was in the middle of a great famine. Treatment as favourable as this was extraordinary. Only the moving of God's hand behind the scenes explains it.

Pharaoh, on the throne, has the same mind. He makes the power and resources of Egypt bring him down there, so that all the good of Egypt might be theirs. Joseph is the source, and the centre of close relationship... Joseph is now known as alive — Governor of the world, its Source of blessing. Jacob is brought to Him in this character of glory and power. Israel still has his own portion, however, and a separate place in the world in Goshen, and in the best of it.