Chapter 47

Verse 1 – Joseph is a type of Jesus Christ. He came and told Pharaoh who is a picture and type of God the Father.

“my brethren” – represents believers. This is a picture of what Christ has done. He entered into the presence of the Father—doctrine of ascension. We are positionally in union with Christ and in order that we might have provision for phase two God has provided for all who are in union with Christ. The wagons are God’s provision, inner resources and divine operating assets for phase two.

All of the way through this chapter we find Joseph doing certain things:

Verse 6 – when a believer accepts Christ as saviour all heaven is before him. God the Father is going to make each believer a ruler in the future.

Verse 11 – Jesus Christ has provided possession for each one of us.

Verse 12 – “Joseph nourished his father.” Jesus Christ has provided for us in time.

Verse 14 – all of the wealth of the universe belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Father.

Verse 16 – Christ is the provider for the believer in time.

Verse 20 – Jesus Christ has purchased humanity for god the Father. We will be in a kingdom which was designed by God the Father and which is ruled by God the Son because we have been bought with a price. 1 Peter 1:18,19.

Verse 23 – Jesus Christ speaking to us through the cross. He has purchased us.

Verse 25 – here are the ones who respond to the gospel, the work of Jesus Christ.

There are a few lessons to be learned from chapters 45, 46, and 47:

1. The compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ—45:1. Cf. Hebrews 1:1-3.

2. Joseph’s lack of bitterness reminds us of the importance of mental attitude in the Christian life. Negative mental attitudes perpetuate misery.

3. Joseph’s concern for his brothers (45:3)—Does my father live? His questions, and so on. This is a picture of our Lord’s concern for us.

4. Joseph’s grace. “Come near to me,” instead of commanding his brothers to be destroyed.

5. 45:16-18 gives us a beautiful picture of being accepted in the beloved. The brethren were acceptable to Pharaoh because of Joseph. They would never be accepted but for the fact that they were brothers of Joseph. We are born into acceptability by the new birth.

6. Joseph’s commission to his brethren (45:9, 13). The commission that we have as believers: Go and tell. Matthew 28:7.

7. The danger of failure among the brethren. 45:24, he warned them of one great danger. “See that you do not fall out by the way.” The Hebrew says, “Do not quarrel along the way.” Even though God’s provision is there for each one of us bickering and hostility among believers will keep the believer from using the wagons.

We have seen Jacob growing older and being a very selfish, evil, egotistical old man.

The restoration of Jacob with Joseph turned the tide, even in old age. Doctrine can even change people in their old age—but it is the only thing that can. Doctrine finally caught up with Jacob in the last seventeen years of his life and changed him. This man who was a rat all of his life finally understood and began to use the faith-rest technique. One of the most wonderful things in life is old age. It is often the real clear indication as to whether a person has gotten with doctrine or not. The finest people in the world are old people who have really understood grace, lived by it, and used it. The worst people in the world are believers in their old age who are legalistic, self-centred, vicious and implacable, and filled with envy and jealousy and pride and the other things that destroy inner beauty.

Jacob died when he was 147 years old. Up to age 130 we have thoroughly described Jacob. Now in the last 17 years Jacob is going to have a wonderful termination to his life. These years are going to be very wonderful and the thing that made the difference is one thing: doctrine, and specifically a technique.

Verse 27 – “And Israel dwelt.” The word dwell here means to dwell in great peace and happiness and blessing. For the first time in all of the 130 years of life on this earth Israel dwells some place in peace and blessing. This was not true of him before and the reason for this is the operation of the faith-rest technique. It is a matter of speculation but we will later see that the influence came from Joseph. Joseph learned the faith-rest technique. Because of the type of life that he lived he either had to depend upon the Lord or he was dead, and he learned to depend upon the Lord.

Jacob all of his life has been beating a dead horse and trying to make him go. He has had a most miserable experience. Now he finally gets with the only thing that can change a life and make old age much greater than youth could ever be. Doctrine makes the difference. The more the believer uses doctrine and orients to the grace of God the better his life becomes.

“they had possessions” – materialistically the progeny of Jacob were much better off than they had ever been.

“and grew and multiplied” – the word grew is a word for individual and personal maturity; multiplied is a word for the increase of family.

Verse 28 – the length of this faith-rest technique with Jacob. This started for him at age 130.

Verse 29 – Jacob takes three looks at life. He knows that he is going to die very shortly. The events that now occur are given in the last few days of his life. Now he takes a good look at death, and we see two factors in verses 29-31 and Israel or Jacob looks forward. First he is going to look forward, then he is going to look backward, and then he is going to look upward. Looking forward is anticipation of death. As of verse 29 Jacob knew that he was to die very soon. Knowing this, because of those 17 years of the faith-rest technique, he doesn’t miss a beat or stumble for a second. He moves right on and into that sphere called dying grace. Te principle here is that during the period that Jacob was dying he did more good as far as his progeny is concerned, he had more spiritual production, than he had in all of the rest of his life put together. Jacob could have remained as he had been through all of his life, but he didn’t. So as long as there is doctrine there is hope for the believer.

What is Jacob looking forward to?

1. He is looking forward to no condemnation—Romans 8:1 cf. Hebrews 9:27.

2. He is looking forward to living with God forever—John 10:28; 20:31.

3. He is looking forward to a new home—John 14:1-3.

4. He is looking forward to an eternal inheritance—1 Peter 1:4,5.

5. He is looking forward to being face to face with God—2 Corinthians 5:8.

6. He anticipated the time when there would be no more pain, sorrow, tears, death—Revelation 21:4.

7. He is anticipating a glorious resurrection—John 11:25; 1 John 3:1,2; Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58.

“And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph.” The reason he called Joseph is because Joseph is the one who taught him the faith-

rest life.

“If now I have found grace in thy sight.” This is an idiom which means, “if you regard me with any love at all.” To find grace means that you are loved in spite of yourself.

“put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh.” This was the way in which in those days you swore a solemn oath. It is literally, ‘Put your hand on my thigh.” It means the same as, ‘Promise on a stack of Bibles.’

“and deal kindly and truly with me, bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt” – here is the promise he took from Joseph. Why doesn’t he want to be buried in Egypt? Because he is going to be resurrected. It wouldn’t make any difference actually where he was buried or how his body was disposed of, except for one thing. He knew all about the resurrection and he wanted to be on the spot that belonged to him at the moment of resurrection. The resurrection is real to him. He is looking forward—to being with the Lord, to the resurrection.

Verse 31 – “And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.” It actually says, he bowed himself on the top of his staff. What is so important about that? The staff is more significant than just the staff in itself. Jacob had been using a staff for seventeen years. A staff is something you lean on to move, and for the last seventeen years Jacob/Israel had a wonderful, wonderful life because he leaned on a staff, the staff of the promises of God’s Word, the faith-rest technique.

Why does the Holy Spirit include this phrase? Bowing himself is worship; leaning on the top of the staff is the faith-rest technique. He used the staff for support. For the last seventeen years of his life he used the Bible for his support. If you want to save a lot of wear and tear in life start using the Bible for your support right now! God has given each one of us a staff. He has given us promises, He has given us doctrine, He has given us the categories—all of these factors found in the Word of God: this is our staff. And when we lean on it we have this wonderful peace and blessing that nothing can shake or change. When we ignore the staff, then we are just as miserable, if not more, than unbelievers—up and down, unstable, and so on.

Verses 27-31 indicates to us that even though Jacob was a rat most of his life you can teach an old dog new tricks. But it wasn’t done in a day, it took time to teach this old reprobate carnal believer the faith-rest technique, and it took this seventeen-year period to really get with it, but in that period of time it is beautiful to note that Jacob did not die without finding what true happiness is in life. The great tragedy is that many believers die without knowing what true happiness is in this life.