THE KING’S BUSINESS
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3. His Father Presented. (1) Picture the scene. Joseph, “comely and well-fa vored” (39:6), glorious in apparel; Jacob, old, gray, bent, crippled but venerable with the grace of Peniel (32:28), on the arm of his noble son, crossing the throne-room; Pharaoh descending from his throne and receiving a blessing, no vain thing .from Israel, the prince with God, and the less is blessed by the greater (Heb. 7:7). That blessing is yet in store for Egypt (Isa. 19:25). (2) The king’s question, “How old art thou?” (3) Jacob’s answer,"“Few and evil have the days of the years,” etc. Read thoughtfully. What to Pharaoh was life, was to Jacob a “sojourn” in the ves tibule of life. 4. “Few men have had such a series of domestic trials and sufferings to look back upon as he had —from the day of that dark deed which drove him from Hebron. Exile from home; separation from a mother he was never to see again; seyen years of labor for the object of his love, and then hu miliatingly deceived; twenty years of toil in the house of a selfish uncle, the drought consuming him by day, the frost by night, sleep departing from his eyes, his wages changed ten times; sons multiplying rapidly around him, the crowded household bring ing him but little comfort; a daughter’s dis honor, her brothers’ deliberate fraud and desperate cruelty; Rachel’s premature and melancholy death; Reuben’s incest; Judah’s disgrace; the falsehood and malignity of the sale of Joseph, the presentation of the bloody coat—a long line of sorrows.” Wm. Hanna. But God crowned his life with seven teen years of peace and honor and the hope of everlasting rest.
tions. Jesus said, “Say, ‘Our Father,’” and Paul said, “Put on the new man.” (2) Joseph informs Pharaoh (47:1). Our fore runner, too, has entered for us (Heb. 6:20). 2. The Brethren Presented. (1) The king asked, “What are your works” [lit eral]. See Matthew 16:27. Works decide the King’s disposition of us (Luke 19:17; Rev. 2:2, S, 9, etc.). (2) The brethren an swered, “Shepherding” [hereditary]. God’s people are born shepherds. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:2, 3). Shep herds' were an abomination to Egyptians. What is abominable with men is esteemed of God (Luke 16:15). Abel was a shep herd. Cain was not (Gen. 4:9). This frank confession was their preservation. It determined their relation to Egypt (the world). Goshen was of Egypt, not in it (John 17:14-18). It separated them—the Egyptians let them alone—they let the Egyptians alone, their ways and their idols. Otherwise they would have been contami nated and might have been exterminated. Say what you are and be what you are, and you will be an abomination to the Egyptians, and they will consign you to Goshen—a good land for shepherds ; on the Canaan side of Egypt; a “Beulah land,” where you may “Stand and look across the sea Where mansions are prepared for thee.” Had Israel set their affections there (Col. 3 :2) they might have had opportunity to return before a Pharaoh “that knew not Joseph” arose. Think what they might have escaped. If we could persuade them to return before the Antichrist comes they would escape the great tribulations. Here is thought for all.
LESSON XII.—June 22d. —T he B linding E ffect of S in .—-Amos 6:1-8. G olden T e x t : Seek good, not evil, that ye may live. —Amos 5:14. I. A mos . 1. The Man Himself. He was a shep 3 :3, 4) ; a layman, not of the schools (7: 14, 15).
herd, of Tekoa, in Judah, south of Jeru salem (1:1). He was poor; lived a simple life; a wilderness man, like John (Matt.
2. His Prophecy. One of the earliest prophetic books. It was a call to repent ance backed by predictions of approaching
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