Genesis 46:33-34 When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”
There are often two sides to an issue. In fact, there are often many facets to difficult issues. Very few things in life are truly simple. Even what seems to be simple can have complexities about which we are not aware. And it often in the sorting out of these complexities that we learn and grow.
We come to a place in the story of Joseph where much of the plot tension has come to a close. Joseph’s identity has been revealed to his whole family and they have joined him in Egypt, a place of refuge and safety. This image of Egypt is not the normal image we have of Egypt as we read the Scriptures. In fact, when the book of Exodus opens, we read a very different picture of Egypt.
Our text gives us the setup for Jacob and his family’s arrival and settling in the land. We learn that Goshen is one of the best places in the land, the place that is desired by all. It is the “best part of the land.” And this is where the Israelites are going to be placed.
But in order to secure this place, they must declare themselves “detestable” to the Egyptians. They will get the best part of the land in which to live, but they will become a rejected people to the very people in whose land they live. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being seen as “detestable” by those among whom I live. I want to be “acceptable.”
But Joseph, who is guiding this integration into Egyptian society knows what he is doing. He has lived among them, learned their culture, and has been given tremendous wisdom for the LORD. He is second in command of the whole country, even as a non-Egyptian.
But there is more here than Joseph manipulating the Egyptians into giving them the best land. Pharaoh even tells Joseph to give his family the best of the land. Pharaoh recognizes that whatever Joseph is involved with, that endeavor is blessed. Even Pharaoh wants Joseph’s family to care for the royal flocks so that they will be blessed.
I think Joseph knows the danger of too much “Egyptian” rubbing off on his family. He knows his brothers. They are not the best of the best. They did, after all, sell him into slavery and keep up the big lie before his father for years about his death. Could they really be trusted to stay true to the call of God?
But Joseph isn’t the cleanest knife in the drawer. We read in this chapter that it is he who enslaves almost everyone as the famine continues. Year after year the people are stripped of their money, livestock, their persons and their land. Eventually, Egypt owned everything and everyone, and this happened at the hands and order of Joseph.
Joseph could have provided for everyone without this takeover. He could have blessed everyone on behalf of Pharaoh. Pharaoh had given him charge of everything, all his affairs, everything that had to do with the management of Egypt. Joseph could have done anything. But he chose the route instead.
Think of this. Joseph started the enslavement of people that would result in his own family being enslaved and crying out for freedom in just 400 years. What would have happened if Joseph had offered grace instead of servitude? It was his choice. How would that have changed history?
The Arnold Journey 