The first three reasons, as discussed in a previous blog, were to make Israel a great nation before it returned to conquer the land, to reunite Joseph with his father and brothers, and to keep the nation of Israel a separate people. While any of those three reasons would have been sufficient, there were three additional powerful reasons.
Reason number four: God sent Joseph and his family to Egypt to bless the Egyptians. While Jacob’s blessing Pharaoh (Gen 47:7-10), might seem odd to us, it was not. In the ancient Near East, a blessing given by an elderly man, especially one who was a man of God, was highly valued.
Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, the friend of God. To be blessed by Jacob was a wonderful thing.
While I cannot be sure, I think it likely that we will see this pharaoh in the kingdom. He appears to believe not only in the God of Israel, but also in the coming Messiah and His future kingdom.
It is also likely that untold thousands of Egyptians came to faith in the coming Messiah during Israel’s 400-year sojourn in Egypt.
We know that Egypt will be one of the nations in the Millennium and on the new earth.
God used Joseph to save the Egyptians from death (Gen 47:13-26). When the Egyptians ran out of anything with which to buy grain, Jacob imposed a twenty percent tax in perpetuity. This arrangement left the Egyptians very grateful: “So they said, ‘You have saved our lives; let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants’” (Gen 47:25).
Reason number five: The aim was to return the nation to the Promised Land at the proper time (47:27-31).
Jacob made Joseph swear that he would not bury him in Egypt, but would carry his body back to Canaan and bury him with Abraham and Isaac (vv 29-31).
This foreshadowed the return of Israel’s descendants 400 years later.
Reason number six: The Canaanites could not be destroyed and dispossessed until their sins were filled up.
This reason is not found in Genesis 46-47. However, it ties in perfectly with reason number five. Even if Israel had been a great nation at that time, the sins of the Canaanites were not yet full.
Imagine a cup that is filled with water. The Scriptures are clear that God is loving and longsuffering. He does not destroy an individual or a nation until their sins fill the cup to the brim. A biblical expression for this is that their sins are not yet full. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? The Lord said that if there were only ten righteous people in Sodom, He would suspend judgment. (There weren’t, so He didn’t.) Why did the Lord wait 120 years before He destroyed the earth in Noah’s Flood? Because the sins of the world were not yet full. Why has the seven-year Tribulation period not yet begun? Because the sins of the world are not yet full (2 Pet 3:9). Remember Nineveh? The city-state repented at the preaching of Jonah, hence God relented concerning the destruction He had announced (Jonah 3:10).
In His longsuffering, God waited 400 years before destroying the Canaanites. Why? Because He had told Abraham, “But in the fourth generation [i.e., after 400 years away from the Promised Land] they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites [here = Canaanites] is not yet complete” (Gen 15:16). Until the sins of the Canaanites were complete, Israel would not be permitted to destroy them.
Hamilton comments:
Only when the iniquity of the Amorites (i.e., the pre-Israelite inhabitants of Palestine) has run its full measure will the Israelites enter Palestine to claim it and possess it. Only when the iniquity of the Amorites has reached the point of no return will they forfeit the land. This last half of the verse articulates the idea that the fixing of times is conditioned not on necessity but on morality. This commentary on the immorality of the indigenous population of Canaan also establishes Joshua’s invasion as an act of justice rather than of aggression (Genesis 1-17, p. 436).
God works in human history. In a sense, history is His Story.
God had good reasons to send Israel to Egypt for 400 years.
God’s hand can be seen in all the details of Joseph’s going to Egypt, Joseph’s eventual rise to power, the seven fat years followed by the seven lean years, and the family’s coming to Egypt and dwelling in the land of Goshen.
So, too, God brings about events in our lives that are designed to maximize our service for Him. If we seek to please the Lord in all things, God will work behind the scenes so that we might be blessings to many people as we await being sent to the land of promise. For the Church, the land of promise is the millennial kingdom followed by the kingdom on the new earth.
We will live among the nations, ruling with Christ over the Gentiles, if we have been faithful in this life.
Just as God will be faithful to His promises to Israel, He will be faithful to His promises to us. If we abide in Christ until our deaths or the Rapture, then He will praise and highly reward us at the Bema. Wouldn’t it be great if He said, “Well done, good servant” (Luke 19:17)? Keep grace in focus and you will win His approval (1 Cor 9:27; 2 Tim 4:6-8).
