Genesis 50:23 Commentary and Bible Study

Now the way the Hebrews counted included the first generation, so this is simply his grandchildren, not his great grandchildren. ‘The children also of Machir’ the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.’ You can imagine Joseph, at a great age, having his grandchildren regularly upon his knees, and that again would imply that he wasn't miles away from Goshen now. He had begun to identify with the people of God entirely, and was living their kind of life. ‘And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you’ – his faith and his message – ‘to bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ So right to the very end of his journey his message to the people is, ‘We do not belong to this world. There will be first of all a figurative land. You know where it is: it is the land of Canaan. And we will enter it, and it will be given to us. But in its turn, it's only a figure of eternity and the new heavens and the new earth.’ That's what he believed. They were very comfortable in Goshen. They would be there for over four centuries before the tide turned, and the Egyptians said, ‘Just a minute, they are more numerous than we are. If we were ever attacked, they would probably side with our enemies. They have got to be brought into subjection. They have got to be our slaves. We have got to somehow take the heart and strength and leadership and culture out of this nation that lives within our borders, and all but destroy them.’ It was very viciously done, and Egypt became a land of bondage. Joseph isn't given to prophesy that, or to promise that, but simply to tell them, a time will come when a deliverer would rise. Another type of Christ, Moses, of course, and he would take them out of Egypt. ‘And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ The promise is still alive. ‘But we are comfortable, and we are wealthy, and we don't want to go’, may well have been the reaction. ‘We are very happy here. What could be better about the land of Canaan, and besides we would have to dispossess the people who are there.’ One could imagine that any thought of going back to Canaan, as the years and the centuries went by, was something lost in the past, except that there was a big memorial planted in the middle of the nation to remind them that the purpose and the promise of God was to return to Canaan. That was the great type of the eternal land which was long term promised to God's children. The hardship that began to come upon them was needed to make them want to return.