From outcast to upper crust! Joseph, Number 2 Man in Egypt, is about to get some visitors.
The concluding section of Genesis 41 (vv 38-57) describes the meteoric rise of Joseph in Egypt, now age 30. He becomes second only to Pharaoh. The king’s signet, his authorizing signature, is entrusted to Joseph. He gets the number 2 limousine: “He had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him, ‘Bow the knee!’” (v 43). On top of that, Pharaoh arranges a royal wedding, giving Joseph “Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On” in marriage (v 45). He crisscrosses the land, overseeing the building of granaries and appointing directors of this herculean operation. “Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable” (v 49). Joseph and Asenath also welcome two boys, Manasseh, meaning “forgetting” and Ephraim, meaning “fruitful” because these wonderful blessings helped to put behind him his hard and lonely past, and had also reminded him that good fruit takes time to grow, and God has brought a bountiful harvest into his life. But then Pharaoh’s dreams came true, and the Scripture says, “The famine was in all lands” (v 54), “but,” the verse continues, “in all the land of Egypt there was bread.” Now the author pans east and north across the Sinai Peninsula until he zooms in on a large family table around which Jacob’s sons sit, staring at each other. They’re hungry and the cupboard is bare. Action, says Jacob! All of you but Benjamin, head for grain in Egypt. We’ve been waiting for this—Joseph’s dreams fulfilled: “Now Joseph was governor…And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth” (42:6). God has a long memory. His will is not sudden, but certain. Now what? It gets better yet!