"THE BIBLE IN PICTURES!"--Chapter Eight--Genesis 46--Exodus 1. DFO1146 1962
"ISRAEL MOVES TO EGYPT!" & "THE BIRTH OF MOSES!"
IN THE PRECEEDING CHAPTER WE SAW JOSEPH SOLD BY HIS BRETHREN, & CARRIED TO EGPYT to become the property of Potiphar, a military man of high rank under Pharaoh. A false story was concocted by Potiphar's wicked wife, & the poor slave boy was cast into prison!
BUT FINALLY PHARAOH HAD A TROUBLE SOME DREAM, which Joseph interpreted as being a warning of an oncoming famine. And when he recommended the course the king should pursue, to store food & thus save Egypt from starvation, he was immediately raised to a high position next to Pharaoh himself & given full charge of all the preparation!
DURING THIS FAMINE JOSEPH'S OLD FATHER SENT HIS SONS INTO EGYPT TO BUY FOOD, & after some extremely interesting but embarrassing events for his cruel brothers, Joseph sent them back to Canaan for his father, so that all the house of Jacob went to the grand land of Pharaoh to live on the Nile!
IT WAS GOD'S OWN MARVELLOUS MERCIFUL CHASTISEMENT FOR THE SINS OF THE OLDER BROTHERS, but resulted in their preservation & prosperity, with afflictions, & to be finally brought out of Egypt over 400 years later in great power & numbers under Moses into their promised land of Canaan, later named Israel after their illustrious father!
1. JACOB ARRIVES IN EGYPT. Jacob in his extreme old age had made the 300-mile long wagon trip into Egypt without injury, for God had advised him to go. (1706 B.C.)
2. JOSEPH DROVE TO THE NILE DELTA LAND OF GOSHEN IN HIS CHARIOT TO MEET HIS FATHER'S PARTY, & there was great rejoicing! "He fell on Joseph's neck & wept a good while." "And Israel said, now let me die since I have seen thy face, because thou art alive!" Gen. 46:28-34.
3. THE WHOLE NUMBER OF THE FAMILY THAT CAME WITH JACOB WAS 66, Exactly what they looked then we cannot say, but this & the following are photos of Palestine Jews of today, About 400 years later after Joseph Moses led about 6 million of them out of Egypt into Canaan, & today they are scattered into every nation on Earth by the many millions!
3. A NAZARITE, who like Samson, has never permitted his hair to be trimmed.
4. TYPICAL JEWISH WOMEN OF JERUSALEM: Except for the style of their dress they certainly must resemble those who accompanied Jacob into Egypt.
5. A PALESTINE JEWISH LAD. He is about the age of Benjamin when he first met his brother Joseph in the land of Pharaoh.
6. A DAUGHTER OF ISRAEL DWELLING IN THE HOLY LAND. Though she is a Zionist & a Russian Jewess, yet she cannot be mistaken as other than a daughter of Israel.
7. JACOB IS NOW PRESENTED TO PHARAOH BY JOSEPH & was received by the king in a most cordial manner. The patriarch sustained a most dignified presence before the king, "and Jacob blessed the monarch & went out from before him." Jacob was 130 years old at this time. He died there in Egypt later at the age of 147 with his sons & grandchildren present at his bedside for his final prophetic blessings! Read them in Gen. 48 & 49!
8. WHEN PHARAOH LEARNED THAT THE SONS WERE SHEPHERDS, HE SENT THEM INTO THE FERTILE NILE DELTA LAND OF GOSHEN with their flocks. He added that all the land of Egypt was before them, & that in the best of the land Joseph should make his father & brethren to dwell. Gen.47:1-6.
9. HERE YOU HAVE A WATER-BUFFALO IN EGYPT. Pharaoh recommended that, if Joseph knew of a man among them who was active and unemployed, he should make him ruler over the cattle which belonged to the government--not only their own cattle, but he should make one of his brethren to be in charge of the cattle of the government!
ALREADY JOSEPH WAS IN CHARGE OF THE GRANARIES AND THE FOOD, which controlled the whole land at this time. He was second-in-command to the Pharaoh himself. In fact, the Pharaoh hardly knew what he had: Joseph really controlled the whole country!
10. NOW IN NUMBER 10 WE FIND DEAR OLD JACOB BLESSING EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH. Jacob was now very old, & before he died, he pronounced a blessing upon each of his sons. He predicted their future--in the 49th chapter of Genesis--a very remarkable prophetic prediction, which has been very literally fulfilled in the case of each tribe! He blessed Manasseh and Ephraim, the two sons of Joseph, and gave each of them an equal portion with his own sons. The House of Joseph, therefore, received a double portion of the inheritance of Israel.
NOW JACOB HAD 12 SONS & 1 DAUGHTER, DINAH, 13 CHILDREN IN ALL by 4 wives! But one tribe was not to receive any possession, who were they? The Tribe of Levi. The Tribe of Levi inherited cities, Levitical cities, cities of the priesthood, but the other 12 sons had the possession of the land. The Tribe of Levi had no possession of the land.
WE FIND THAT ONE SON, JOSEPH, RECEIVED A DOUBLE PORTION--through having two of his sons blessed and each one given an equal portion along with their uncles, Joseph's brothers. So literally, in the long run, there amounted to 13 tribes of Israel. Although they actually received 13 equal portions, the two portions given Ephraim and Manasseh were counted as one tribe. So Joseph received a double blessing for his faithfulness!
12. JACOB YIELDED UP THE GHOST and was gathered unto his people. He died a very well-ordered death--like my father-in-law. My wife's father just seemed to plan his death the way he wanted it. He set all of his house in order and ordered all the his business--every detail worked out exactly the way he wanted it. Then he decided when he was going to die too! He just died when he wanted to die!
I THINK THAT'S A WONDERFUL WAY FOR GOD'S MAN TO DIE! To die at a ripe old age, with his house well in order and blessing his children! Then just to give up the ghost when ready to go, in other words, releasing his spirit and going to be with God.
JACOB WAS 147 AT THIS TIME, and he'd lived in Egypt 17 years. After 40 days of mourning, the family was escorted to his burial in Canaan. He had requested that he'd not be buried in Egypt, but rather, be buried back in his homeland of Canaan. So they did bury him there in Canaan, at a considerable difficulty and expense, and a military escort of the Pharaoh's own soldiers!
HE WAS VERY HIGHLY HONOURED BY THE PHARAOH IN THIS WAY. (It says nearly the whole land of Egypt went up with 'em.) So this dear old patriarch was highly honoured by the land of Egypt in his day. What a different Egypt it was from the days that later made them slaves!
13. WE FIND HE WAS BURIED IN THE SAME CAVE OF MACHPELAH THAT ABRAHAM AND SARAH HAD BEEN BURIED IN, in ancient Hebron, which is now a Mohammedan mosque. There was pomp and splendour, Hebron had never seen a funeral like this! It was entirely unlike the simple funerals of the folks that they had known before. The body of Jacob had been brought under the Egyptian military escort, which will be better understood when we consider Joseph's position as second-in-command only to the King himself!
HERE WE HAVE HIM BEING GIVEN A REGULAR EGYPTIAN FUNERAL, in all its splendour and glory, an embalmed mummy, in the sepulchre of the Cave of Machpelah, in the city of Hebron in the land of Canaan--later known as Israel.
14. HERE IS THE ENTRANCE TO THAT MOSQUE, WHICH NOW COVERS THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. No Jews or Christians are allowed to enter this mosque or visit the tombs of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah and Jacob. They are taking good care of it, however, and protecting in and have revered it and honoured it for thousands of years--so we can be thankful that they have preserved it.
ALL OF THEM WERE BURIED THERE: ABRAHAM, ISAAC, JACOB AND THEIR WIVES, EXCEPT FOR RACHEL, and where was she buried? She was buried in Bethlehem, remember? Her tomb is still to be seen to this day at Bethlehem. (Q: Did Joseph get buried there?) No, Joseph was not buried here in the Cave of Machpelah. He was buried in another place; his tomb is still pointed out to this day also. We will tell you about Joseph's burial shortly. Jacob was buried in the Cave, and it was never used again as the burial place, as far as the records speak.
FOR CENTURIES THIS CAVE HAS BEEN IN MOSLEM HANDS; neither Jew nor Christian can enter it under any consideration. Although we did show you secret photographs which were taken by the electrical crew. They took a picture of Abraham's tomb and a picture of Sarah's tomb.
IT'S THE SECOND MOST HALLOWED SPOT IN ALL OF ISRAEL TO THE ARABS. Jerusalem is the most hallowed spot! The Mosque of Omar is there, called the Dome of the Rock--covering the rock where Abraham started to sacrifice Isaac.
THE ARABS CONTROL THE TWO MOST HOLY, SACRED SPOTS TO BOTH JEWS AND ARABS IN ALL OF THE HOLY LAND! This is very important because the Mosque of Omar, in Jerusalem on the top of Mount Moriah, will some day be faced by the rebuilt temple of the Jews! They will restore temple worship at Jerusalem in the days of the Antichrist, who will make an inter-faith treaty with the Jews, Muslims & Christians to internationalise Jerusalem for all faiths.
THIS COMING WORLD DICTATOR WILL RULE THE WORLD--the Anti-Christ System, which I believe has already begun and is sweeping the world today! He will eventually make a covenant with all 3 religions to make Israel an inter-faith Holy Land for all the World to enjoy, because of their support of him. They will consider him as their Messiah, sad to say, until Jesus returns--the true Messiah!
THEY WILL THINK THAT THE ANTICHRIST, THIS SATAN IN PERSON, WILL BE THE MESSIAH THAT THEY HAVE LONG EXPECTED! He will rule the world and cause great peace and great plenty and great economic reform and so on, and it will seem like a heaven on earth for about 3 1/2 years!
THEN, AS YOU RECALL IN THE BIBLE PROPHECIES, FOR 3 1/2 YEARS HE ABOLISHES ALL RELIGION! He tries to annihilate all religionists of all faiths and all of those who will not worship him. He stamps out all religion! Although he has allowed the temple to be rebuilt during the time of religious freedom, at this time--the last half of his reign, the last 3-1/2 years of that 7 years of the Antichrist--he will stamp out religious worship of the Jews in the temple.
HE WILL CAUSE THE SACRIFICE TO CEASE AND WILL SET UP AN IMAGE OF HIMSELF IN THE TEMPLE, TO BE WORSHIPPED AS GOD--THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, spoken of by Daniel the prophet and repeated by Jesus, in His prophecies of the Endtime. He says when that is seen, then beware for the End is nigh!--The end of the kingdom of the Antichrist, and the coming of the true Christ! The true Messiah will stamp out the kingdom of the Antichrist and set up His Kingdom here on earth to rule and reign for 1000 years! (Mt.24:15; Dan.7,8 & 11; Rev.20)
15. WELL, LET'S GO ON WITH THE STORY. HERE IN NUMBER 15, THE HEART OF GOSHEN. This is almost desert country today, as you can see. There's not nearly as much rain there today as there was during the time that God blessed it, when the Israelites were inhabitants there.
ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL RETURNED TO EGYPT; there were no Hebrews left in Canaan whatsoever then. For more than 400 years they remained in Pharaoh's land; their experiences were varied and numerous, as we shall see in the succeeding chapters.
16. HERE IN NUMBER 16 WE SEE THE RUINS OF THE OLD CAPITAL OF GOSHEN, Joseph dwells here as he finishes his great task of caring for the famine-stricken inhabitants, He assures his brothers that they need not fear him; but as long as he shall live, he will feed and protect them. So the one whom they had wronged the most & had almost killed, turns out to be their saviour!
THIS STORY IS A TYPE OF WHAT HAPPENED TO JESUS, when He was here: His elder brothers, the Jews, refused to receive Him and finally crucified Him, and later He became their very Messiah and their Saviour--just as in the story of Joseph!
17. THE VALLEY OF THE TOMBS IN EGYPT. Before Joseph's death he made his brothers swear that they would carry his bones into the Holy Land and bury him, in the possession of Jacob, at Shechem. He did not want to be buried in the land of Egypt, even as his father before him hadn't. Instead of wanting to be buried in their tomb at Machpelah, for some reason or other, he preferred to be buried in his own possession, that his father had bought, at Shechem.
18. WHEN JOSEPH DIED, BEING 110 YEARS OLD, THE BIBLE TELLS US THAT THEY EMBALMED HIM after the manner of the Egyptians, and he was put into a coffin in Egypt. The Egyptians were very amazing undertakers, morticians; they had a method of embalmment which has surpassed anything that man has been able to invent or discover since then!--A method of perfect preservation! So much so, that mummies, as we call them, which have been in their tombs in Egypt for four to five thousand years, are very perfectly preserved--such as the one of the famous King Tut, as he's called.
JOSEPH WAS EMBALMED IN THAT VERY SAME EGYPTIAN WAY. He was laid in a coffin in Egypt and preserved until 500 years later, when he was finally buried in Israel. That's about the longest case on record, in history, as far as we know, of a body being preserved before it was buried! He was preserved in Egypt for over 400 years and was carried for 40 years through the wilderness. He had lived 54 years after his father's death, and at all times he had treated his brothers very kindly.
19. SEE ON THE MAP HERE HOW HIS MUMMY WAS DEVOTEDLY CONVEYED FROM PLACE TO PLACE, until it was carried through all the wilderness journeys. Finally, when the Israelites gained possession of the land that flowed with milk and honey--Canaan or Israel--he was buried in Shechem, according to his request.
20. THE TOMB OF JOSEPH STANDS THERE TO THIS VERY DAY. The tomb is a Mohammedan shrine today, but it is also revered by both Christians and Jews. All these sacred places are being preserved devoutly by the inhabitants of Israel today.
THAT WAS A VERY INTERESTING STORY, DON'T YOU THINK?--ABOUT JOSEPH AND JACOB moving their whole families and everything they had from the land of Canaan down to the land of Egypt. They were inhabitants there for 400 years before they ever returned to the Promised Land, in accordance to Bible prophecy--which had been exactly predicted by the Lord to Abraham that they would be in the land of Egypt for 400 years before they would return to their land. We'll study that a little later. (Gen.15:13 & Exodus.)
21. THIS IS ONE OF THE ANCIENT RUINS OF THE CITY OF MEMPHIS, which was the capital of Egypt. In the days of its grandeur, Egypt was the greatest country on the face of the earth--the world's greatest civilisation, a very great empire!
AFTER THE DEATH OF JOSEPH, MANY YEARS OF HISTORY ARE WRITTEN IN A VERY FEW SENTENCES: "And the Children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." (Exodus 1:7 & 8.) Now we're beginning this study in the Book of Exodus.
THIS NEW KING WAS ONE OF THEIR FIRST EGYPTIAN KINGS. Up till this time they had been ruled by the Hyksos Dynasty of the Shepherd Kings, which were not truly Egyptians. They were more closely related to the Hebrews than they were to the Egyptians; therefore, they were very friendly to the Hebrews. You remember they received Joseph and Jacob kindly, and invited all the Israelites, Jacob and his children, to come down with their families and settle in the very best part of the land--the land of Goshen! Here they lived for hundreds of years. They came down to survive the famine and stayed on for 400 years, before they finally left the land of Goshen and the land of Egypt.
NOW THEY MULTIPLIED VERY RAPIDLY and they increased abundantly. They became very mighty till this new king of the new dynasty arose, & he knew not Joseph. A great deal is said in those few words, because it simply means that he was an enemy of the Children of Israel.
22. HERE WE HAVE AN ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH OF THE HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF RAMESES II. Not only did a new king arise, but an entire new dynasty of kings! One of the early rulers in this new family was Rameses II. This is actually his photo!--Looks like my grandpa!
THE EGYPTIANS HAD THE BEST METHOD OF PRESERVATION AND EMBALMING. The bodies were wrapped up in these spices--so that they are amazingly well-preserved, as you can see, to this very day. After being buried for thousands of years, you can even see the veins in the forehead!
THAT IS HIS ACTUAL HEAD, his skin, his hair and his blood vessels sticking out there in his temple! They had the most amazing means of preserving the human body after death of any civilisation! It's a lost art, it's been lost to mankind, science doesn't even know how they did it! It can not even be done today as well as they did it then!
23. THIS NEW FAMILY WAS VERY VAIN AND VERY CRUEL. Rameses II built cities and temples and images and dedicated them to himself. He was heartless in the shedding of human blood! (Exodus 1:9-14,22.)
WE SEE HERE ONE OF THE TEMPLES WHICH WAS BUILT BY RAMESES II; it's known as the Ramesesium--not a museum, but a Ramesesium! Besides building a city in Goshen, named Rameses, by the labour of the Israelites, whom he made slaves when he came into power, the king built great temples which are called Ramesesiums, the ruins of which are to be found all over the land, to this very day.
24. IN NUMBER 24 WE SEE A STATUE OF RAMESES II, evidently when he was quite a bit younger than the looks of his mummy! You can see the statue here under the temple at Karnak--one of the largest temples in the world still in existence.
THROUGHOUT EGYPT HE REARED STATUES OF HIMSELF, until the architecture and the sculpture of the country may be said to have entered upon an entirely new era, entirely over-shadowing that of the day of the Hyksos and the earlier builders. If Joseph had awakened from the dead, he would have scarcely known this country, which he had saved!
25. HERE'S AN ARTIST'S CONCEPTION OF AN EGYPTIAN COURT SCENE, in the grandeur of that day. The jealous king notes the increasing Hebrew population. He fears that if war should come, instead of fighting with the Egyptians, they would join the enemy and perhaps overthrow his kingdom. They were not the natural friends of the Egyptians and these were now Egyptian kings.
26. THEREFORE HE MADE SLAVES OF THE JEWS IN EGYPT--as you saw so beautifully illustrated in the wonderful motion picture "The Ten Commandments". They were reduced to slavery and put to making brick and building cities. Their burdens became more and more heavy, until the slaves had to restrain every nerve to accomplish the daily tasks which were imposed upon them. This was about 1500 years before the birth of Christ. (Exodus 1).
27. IN NUMBER 27 WE SEE SOME ACTUAL HIEROGLYPHICS, FROM THE BUILDINGS OF EGYPT. These are picture carvings, in the walls of many temples and buildings of state and so on, describing the history of Egypt. Much of this history is carved upon such buildings.
HERE'S A CHAPTER WHICH TELLS OF THE JEWISH BRICKMAKERS AND BUILDERS. Notice how the Jews are making bricks and building. You can tell the difference between them and their oppressors: Most of the Jews are wearing beards and the others, with the whip or staff in hand, are not--especially in that bottom picture.
28. HERE WE HAVE A PICTURE OF THE VERY BEAUTIFUL RIVER NILE. In spite of the cruelty, the population of the Israelites continued to increase. Rameses' bloodthirstiness having no bounds, he arranged with the nurses to put every Jewish male infant to death immediately after birth--by throwing them into the River Nile, that they might be devoured by the crocodiles and the alligators! He had a very beautiful palace, as you can see here, in the middle of the River Nile.
29. THERE WAS ONE MOTHER WHO DISOBEYED THAT LAW! It is believed that this decree had been in effect two or three years when Moses was born of the Tribe of Levi. His mother succeeded in hiding him for three months, but fearing detection, she put the baby in an improvised boat, a little ark--actually it was a little basket daubed with tar. (Exodus 2)
SHE SET IT AFLOAT ON THE RIVER NILE, AMONGST THE FLAGS NEAR THE PALACE OF THE KING, TRUSTING GOD that someone would pick him up who might take a liking to him and care for him! Now in effect, she was literally obeying the law, wasn't she? She could say, "Well, I obeyed the law, I put him in the river!" But she didn't put him in there to drown!
30. GOD SO DESIGNED THAT THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH, THE KING'S DAUGHTER, SHOULD COME DOWN TO BATHE AT THE RIVER AND THERE WOULD FIND THE LITTLE BABY in the basket, floating on the water. No doubt by this time, he was crying his little heart out to attract attention. So when she came to bathe at this spot, she was attracted by the cries of the baby, and the little boat was discovered and in it the Hebrew child! (Exodus 2:5,6.)
THE ROYAL DAUGHTER MUST CERTAINLY HAVE HAD SOME GOOD IN HER--FOR SHE DID SAVE LITTLE BABY MOSES LIFE! You can see the little baby in the basket here at the bottom of the picture, and the royal daughter and her handmaidens and ladies-in-waiting in the rear.
31. NOW WE FIND THAT THROUGH A VERY INTERESTING PIECE OF STRATEGY upon the part of the mother, Miriam, sister of Moses, came up to the daughter of the king at that moment and said, "Oh, would you like for me to get a nurse for the baby?" So the king's daughter said, "Yes, of course!" And Miriam ran off and got the baby's own mother!
SO THE KING'S DAUGHTER SELECTED HIS MOTHER HERSELF TO BE MOSES' NURSE! She no doubt remained with him for several years, perhaps as long as he was still in the court of the king--watched him grow to man-hood, Moses' attitude in later life certainly portrays the faithful teaching of his mother, during the time that she was his nurse! Here you can see her nursing baby Moses.
32. HERE WE HAVE ANOTHER PICTURE OF THE PALACE OF THE PHARAOH, out in the centre of the River Nile. I don't blame him for putting his palace out in the middle of the river, where it was hard to get at. He was such a cruel Pharaoh there were quite a few people that would probably have liked to take a shot at him! It's believed that his palace was located here, where you see this beautiful building in the Nile--just opposite of what is now called the Old city of Cairo.
33. THIS IS THE SPOT ON THE SHORE POINTED OUT AS THE IDENTICAL PLACE WHERE PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER DISCOVERED MOSES in the little boat, where his mother had hidden him among the flags! (Reeds & rushes.)
Review Questions for Chapter 8:
1. Where did Joseph meet his father?
2. Describe the meeting.
3. How many were with Jacob?
4. Did Jacob meet Pharaoh?
5. What did he do for the king?
6. Did Pharaoh welcome the company?
7. Where did he advise Joseph to locate them?
8. What position did he offer them?
9. How old was Jacob?
10. How long did he live in Egypt?
11. What did he do before his death?
12. Name the 2 sons of Joseph.
13. What blessing did Jacob give them?
14. How long did they mourn for Jacob?
15. Where was he buried?
16. Who escorted them to Hebron?
17. In what cave was he buried?
18. Who else had been buried there?
19. Did they all return to Egypt?
20. What was Joseph's attitude now?
21. How old was Joseph at his death?
22. How long did he live after his father's death?
23. What treatment was given his corpse?
24. Had any other Hebrew been embalmed?
25. Where did they promise to bury Joseph?
26. Did they do it?
27. How long after Joseph's death was his burial?
28. Did Israel remain in Egypt?
29. Did they prosper?
30. What was the attitude of the future kings?
31. What kind of king was Rameses II?
32. What conspicuous work did he do?
33. Are his statues still standing?
34. To what did he reduce Israel?
35. What kind of work did they do?
36. What was done to Jewish babies?
37. Name one that was not drowned.
38. Of what tribe was Moses?
39. Who hid him for 3 months?
40. Then what did she do?
41. Who found the baby Moses?
42. On what river was this?
43. Who was selected as Moses' nurse?
44. Was it known that she was his mother?
45. Who arranged for this to happen?
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