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THE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
| In te rn a t io n a l S e r ie s of Sunday Schoo L essons || EXPOSITION OF THE LESSON,' . - Frederic W. Farr DEVOTIONAL COMMENT, ~ - John A. Hubbard COMMENTS FROM THE COMMENTARIES, H. G. Dean ELEMENTARY, - - - - - Mabel L. Merrill
JANUARY 13, 1924 The Long Sojourn in Egypt Golden Text: “The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.” Psa. 121:7. Lesson Text: Genesis, Chapters 37 to 50 inclusive. De votional Reading, Psa. 124. When the children of Israel left Canaan and went to Egypt they were a family. When they left Egypt and re turned to Canaan they were a nation. When Abraham went to Egypt under the stress of the famine (Gen. 12:10) he did wrong. When Isaac tried to go under LESSON similar circumstances, God forbade him, EXPOSITION (Gen. 2 6 :2 ). When another famine came F. W. Farr and there was need to go, Jacob does not start until he gets Divine permission, (Gen. 46 :3 ). It was therefore right for him to go. Israel in Egypt is according to the Divine plan. When Abraham went to Egypt unsent of God he brought trouble upon Pharaoh. When Isaac started for Egypt, he brought trou ble upon Abimelech. When Jacob went to Egypt by God’s command, he carried a blessing with him. “Jacob blessed Pharaoh,” (Gen. 47 :10 ). Beyond contradiction the less is blessed of the better and the greater. Pharaoh was the greatest monarch of his time, but Israel, the prince of God, was greater than he. Old Israel lived and died in Goshen in peaceful and happy age. What a significant and striking contrast between the first four words and the last four words of Genesis! “In the beginning God.” “A coffin in Egypt.” This is not the end of the Bible but only the end of the beginning. When the curtain rises in the first chapter of Exodus we find the children of Israel in the degradation of slavery. They have grown in wealth, numbers and influence, but they have lost their testimony as children of God and heirs of the promises. What has become of the promises made to their fathers? God had promised this land to Abraham. It is occupied by the Canaanite. ' There was also a promise of a seed that should bring salvation. It might have seemed that Joseph was that seed since he became in a sense a saviour of the world. Joseph, however, is dead and a Pharaoh who did not know him is on the throne. There was a promise of a mighty nation but Israel is in abject slavery and idolatrous degradation. There was a promise that Jehovah would be a God to Abraham and to his seed after him. Has He forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? He has ceased to speak to them. He seems even to have ceased to hear them. All that is left is a coffin with a few moulder ing bones, but those bones were linked with the Word of God. When Joseph was dying he said, “God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” The bones were dead but the Word of God was alive. The coffin of Joseph seemed the grave otf the Old Covenant even as the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea seemed the grave of the New Covenant. It was rather the path of its glory. The direction of Joseph concerning his bones is mentioned
as a special exercise of faith, (Heb. 11:22 ). Jacob asked for a grave in Canaan, (Gen. 49 :30 ), but to him it was only a memory. To Joseph, however, Canaan was a hope and a promise. “These all died,” (Heb. 11:13),-—Abra ham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,— and that was the end of them on earth, but “they all died in faith,” and it was not the end of their hopes and dreams. God is not ashamed "to be called their God and He is not the God of the dead but of the living. Gen. 47:1-12. V. 1. Goshen— the land east of Memphis suitable for grazing. Mentioned in the Inscriptions as containing non- Egyptian inhabitants and Semites.— Companion Bible. Joseph furnishes a beautiful example of a man who could bear equally well the extremes of COMMENTS prosperity and adversity. High as FROM THE he was, he did not forget that he COMMENTARIES had a superior. Dearly as he loved V. V. Morgan his father, and as anxiously as he desired to provide for the whole family, he would not go into the arrangements without the sanction of his royal master.— J. F. and B. V. 2. We may note in Joseph’s conduct an instance of a man high in office and not ashamed of his humble rela tions. One of the greatest lessons meant to be taught by the patriarchal period was the sacredness of the family. It took some nerve and a great deal of affection, for the viceroy, whom envious and sarcastic courtiers watched, to own his kin. What a sweet morsel for malicious tongues it would be, “Have you heard? He is only the son of an old shepherd who is down in Goshen, come to pick up some crumbs down there.” One can fancy the curled lips and the light laugh, as the five brothers lead by the great man himself make their rustic reverences to Pharoah.-—McLaren. V. 7. When Abraham went down to Egypt, unsent of the Lord, he brought trouble on Pharaoh and all his house. But when Jacob, guided an dinstructed by the Lord, goes down into Egypt, he carries a blessing with him. So when we are in the line of duty, in the path that God marks out for us, we are sure to carry blessings wherever we go. —Gibson. V. 4. They thought of five years, and it was to be nearly as-many centuries. They thought of temporary shelter and food; God meant an education of them and their descend ants. Over all this story the unseen Hand hovers, chas tising, guiding, impelling; and the human agents are free and yet fulfilling an eternal ‘purpose, blind and yet ac countable, responsible for motives and mercifully ignorant of consequences. So we all play our little parts.-—McLaren. V. 9. He was now 130 years old; but he had not at tained the age of his fathers, Abraham having died at the age of 175, and Isaac at the age of 180, whilst, in com parison with those of their ancestors before the flood, even their ages were hut as a few years.— T. Smith. Jacob has had a very troublous life, for which he himself has been altogether to blame. His course has not been at all straight, hence- his troubles and distresses. And now he has come into Egypt, and how delightful is the evidence we have that- Jacob’s better nature is triumphant at last over all the crookedness and wickedness of his old nature, as for example in chap. 48:15, 16. There is a peculiar light and the glory around the closing scenes in Jacob’s history. The mind is entirely relieved from all those painful feelings it had in following his earlier career. When we followed Jacob in his youth,’ it seemed a sad downcome from the lofty ranges of Abraham’s life to the low level of Jacob’s.
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