Genesis 46

Read Genesis 46 here or at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraphs:

44:18-46:7 {s} Joseph revealed to his brothers and father
46:8-27 {s} Seventy persons of Israel went down to Egypt
46:28-47:31 {p} …

If we outline the weak paragraph of Gen 44:18-46:7 which began with Judah’s speech and ends in today’s reading, we find three distinct events (where we would have ended the paragraph if we were in charge of making paragraph divisions; thankfully God is smarter than we are!):

1. Gen 44:18-34: Judah pleads to take Benjamin’s place;
2. Gen 45:1-15: Joseph reveals himself to his brothers;
3. Gen 45:16-46:7: Jacob goes down to Egypt to live under the provision and blessing of Joseph.

We saw yesterday that Judah prophesied of Messiah’s 1st coming, where He offered Himself in our place, and died a substitutionary death on the cross out of love for His Father. Now, Joseph has to reveal himself to his brothers. They do not recognize him until he makes himself known. They were separated by many years and Joseph was dressed up like an Egyptian nobleman, after all. Isn’t this what Jesus has been doing for the past 2000 years: revealing Himself to all who would come to Him? We do not find Him, but He finds us and makes Himself known to us. The third event of this paragraph is also prophetic, in that when Jesus comes in His 2nd coming, it will be as a ruler and not as a servant. Jacob will live under His reign, and life will be good with nothing to hurt in all the place of His authority.

Notice that God set the list of Jacob’s sons and grandsons, who go with him down to Egypt, in its own paragraph. The Scripture is careful to count how many sons and grandsons there are, so that we know that Jacob, when he goes down to Egypt, numbers seventy persons (Gen 46:27). We have seen this number before in Genesis. The list of Noah’s sons and grandsons, who were the heads of families, were seventy persons (Gen 10:1-32), and “out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.” So there were 70 nations who rebelled against God at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9). That these two passages of Scripture are connected by the same theme of seventy persons, is another very powerful teaching tool of Scripture, that of Common Theme.

In fact, immediately following the Babel incident, where every family and nation rejected God as God, we find Abram called out of Ur, so that God can, through him, bless every family. And now the one man Abram has become 70 in his descendants. If we fast forward in our Bible study to Rev 7, we see that Israel, through her 12 tribes (from the 12 sons of Jacob) are marked for God. Then every family, every tongue, every tribe, and every nation (a thematic reference to Babel) are pictured before the throne of God, worshiping Him. Indeed, every family blessed!

If there are questions, these are good resources:

Thematic Analysis – Restoration of Torah (pdf download)
Torah Portions Analyzed with the Teaching Tools – Restoration of Torah