Memory Text: Genesis 45:7 KJV “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”

Sunday, December 24 Providence Unfolds
Genesis 41:45 NKJV “And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-Paaneah. And he gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. So Joseph went out over [all] the land of Egypt.”
Genesis 41:45 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY his [Joseph’s] father-in-law was high priest of On, the city of the great sun temple, which was a few miles from Memphis on the eastern bank of the Nile. The Greeks later called this city Heliopolis. The sun temple of On and its priesthood wielded a strong influence on Egyptian religious life for many centuries, until the worship of Amen and later of Amen-Re of Thebes overshadowed the sun worship of Heliopolis, in the 15th and succeeding centuries. Joseph’s social position was tremendously strengthened by his marriage to a daughter of one of Egypt’s first families.
Genesis 42:21-23 NRSV “21 ¶ They said to one another, "Alas, we are paying the penalty for what we did to our brother; we saw his anguish when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen. That is why this anguish has come upon us." 22 Then Reuben answered them, "Did I not tell you not to wrong the boy? But you would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood." 23 They did not know that Joseph understood them, since he spoke with them through an interpreter.”

Monday, December 25 Joseph and His Brothers
Genesis 42:24-28 NLT “24 Now he left the room and found a place where he could weep. Returning, he talked some more with them. He then chose Simeon from among them and had him tied up right before their eyes. 25 Joseph then ordered his servants to fill the men’s sacks with grain, but he also gave secret instructions to return each brother’s payment at the top of his sack. He also gave them provisions for their journey. 26 So they loaded up their donkeys with the grain and started for home. 27 But when they stopped for the night and one of them opened his sack to get some grain to feed the donkeys, he found his money in the sack. 28 "Look!" he exclaimed to his brothers. "My money is here in my sack!" They were filled with terror and said to each other, "What has God done to us?"”
Genesis 42:36-38 NLT “36 Jacob exclaimed, "You have deprived me of my children! Joseph has disappeared, Simeon is gone, and now you want to take Benjamin, too. Everything is going against me!" 37 Then Reuben said to his father, "You may kill my two sons if I don’t bring Benjamin back to you. I’ll be responsible for him." 38 But Jacob replied, "My son will not go down with you, for his brother Joseph is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children. If anything should happen to him, you would bring my gray head down to the grave in deep sorrow."”
Genesis 43:31-34 NIV “31 After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, "Serve the food." 32 They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. 33 The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment. 34 When portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.”
Genesis 43:30 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The ancient Egyptians were always particular in the matter of association with foreigners. They considered themselves to be the highest class of human beings. They called themselves “people,” whereas all others were more or less barbarians, creatures standing between them and the animal world. The aversion to foreigners revealed itself strikingly in the matter of eating. The Hebrews, for example, slaughtered and ate animals that were regarded by the Egyptians as sacred. According to the account of Herodotus (ii. 41), no Egyptian would use the knife, or fork, or saucepan of a Greek, nor would he eat of the flesh of a clean animal that had been cut up with a Grecian knife.

Tuesday, December 26 Family Reunion
Genesis 45:1-13 ESV “1 ¶ Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, "Make everyone go out from me." So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3 And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. 4 So Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." And they came near. And he said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. 10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11 There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ 12 And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here."”
Genesis 46:29-30 KJ21 “29 And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. 30 And Israel said unto Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive."”
Genesis 46:31-34 KJ21 “31 And Joseph said unto his brethren and unto his father’s house, "I will go up and show Pharaoh, and say unto him, ‘My brethren and my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come unto me. 32 And the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle; and they have brought their flocks and their herds, and all that they have.’ 33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you and shall say, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 that ye shall say, ‘Thy servants’ trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we and also our fathers,’ that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians."”
Genesis 46:34 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Every shepherd is an abomination. These are probably not the words of Joseph, but of Moses, the historian, given in explanation of Joseph’s advice and action… Moses’ evaluation of the Egyptian attitude toward shepherds is corroborated later by Greek writers (Herodotus, ii. 47, 164) and by Josephus (Antiquities ii. 7. 5), as earlier by pictorial representations in paintings and reliefs. Shepherds are frequently represented as miserable creatures, dirty and unshaven, naked and half starved, and often either lame or deformed.

Wednesday, December 27 The Patriarchal Blessings
Genesis 28:12-15 NKJV “12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder [was] set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: "I [am] the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 "Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 "Behold, I [am] with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."”
Genesis 35:9-15 NKJV “9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, "Your name [is] Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name." So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him: "I [am] God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 "The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land." 13 Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him. 14 So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.”
Genesis 45:2-4 NKJV “2 Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob!" And he said, "Here I am." 3 So He said, "I [am] God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. 4 "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up [again]; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes."”

Thursday, December 28 The End of the Beginning
Genesis 50 NRSV “1 ¶ Then Joseph threw himself on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. 2 Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel; 3 they spent forty days in doing this, for that is the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. 4 When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph addressed the household of Pharaoh, "If now I have found favor with you, please speak to Pharaoh as follows: 5 My father made me swear an oath; he said, ‘I am about to die. In the tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.’ Now therefore let me go up, so that I may bury my father; then I will return." 6 Pharaoh answered, "Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear to do." 7 ¶ So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. 9 Both chariots and charioteers went up with him. It was a very great company. 10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed a time of mourning for his father seven days. 11 When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning on the part of the Egyptians." Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan. 12 Thus his sons did for him as he had instructed them. 13 They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, the field near Mamre, which Abraham bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. 14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. 15 ¶ Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, "What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?" 16 So they approached Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this instruction before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.’ Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, "We are here as your slaves." 19 But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? 20 Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. 21 So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones." In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them. 22 ¶ So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s household; and Joseph lived one hundred ten years. 23 Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation; the children of Machir son of Manasseh were also born on Joseph’s knees. 24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die; but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." 25 So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, "When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here." 26 And Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.”
Genesis 50:3 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The time involved depended upon the wealth of the family of the deceased and the period of Egyptian history. Jacob, being the father of the prime minister, received the best care of the time. His embalming continued for 40 days, and the preparations for his burial another 70 days. This was proclaimed an official period of mourning.
Genesis 50:23 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY In an act of faith on the part of the dying Joseph the history of the patriarchal period ends. His coffin, or tomb, became to the sojourners in Egypt a constant reminder of the promises of God, that their permanent abode was to be the land of Canaan and not Egypt.