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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Genesis 46:28
Comments
Pharoah has already allocated the land of Goshen to the family (Genesis 45:10). It has all been planned in advance where they will live. It seems to have been a fertile area in the north east Nile delta. Possibly it was a barely inhabited region. This would allow for growth and seclusion. Jacob now sent Judah ahead of the main party to obtain directions to Goshen, the region they already knew they were to live in. Finally Joseph comes to meet is father after such a long period of time. It is an emotional reunion. Little is said between father and son, but both have known great grief, and their emotion is given free reign. The brothers probably look on with anxiety, wondering how long Joseph’s good will to them will last, and whether after reuniting with his father he will take revenge on them. They know they have been responsible for all that these two have suffered. ‘Now I may die’, says Jacob. He doesn’t plan to die, but this has been the one great longing of his life for so many years, and now God has brought a good outcome, better than any he dared hope for. It is an insight into the love of Jacob for Joseph. Joseph has been raised from the dead, as it were, as far as Jacob is concerned.
Application
Bishop Hall says, ‘The intermission of comforts hath this advantage, that it sweetens our delight more in the return, than was abated in the forbearance. God doth ofttimes hide away our Joseph for a time, that we may be more joyous and thankful in his recovery. This was the sincerest pleasure that ever Jacob had, which therefore God reserved for his old age.’ He then applies this to the wonderful reunion which the saints will experience in heaven when death in its cruelty has separated us for a time from those we loved most in this world, but which the resurrection has reunited again.
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