p. 2 | Joseph and the Exodus

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 23, 1912

Joseph and the Exodus

Schedule for Week Ending February 3 Sunday, January 28, Genesis 42-43

Sunday	January 28	Genesis 42, 43
Monday	" 29	" 44, 45
Tuesday	" 30	" 46, 47
Wednesday	" 31	" 48, 49, 50
Thursday	February 1	Exodus 1, 2
Friday	" 2	" 3, 4
Sabbath	" 3	Psalms 13, 14, 15

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Our readings continue the story of Joseph, and God's providential dealings through him for the preservation of the lives of his relatives. They thought to do him ill; God was using him for their good. Jacob felt, "All these things are against me;" God was making all those things for him. There are wonderful lessons for all generations in these closing chapters of Genesis. Jacob's prophecies concerning his seed are scriptures over which there is more or less discussion, some holding that the tribes will again be restored in the last days, and the prophecies are still, in a measure, to be fulfilled. But the 10th verse of the 49th chapter gives us a solution of all the prophecies,—"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering (the obedience) of the peoples be." When Christ the Lord should come all should center in Him. He, the true stock of Israel, must be the one in whom all Israel find root and nourishment, and therefore those who are Christ's are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise, and are of the true tribes.

We have four chapters in the book of Exodus. The term "exodus" itself means "a going out," and the book is so called from Israel's going out of Egypt. God blessed the children of Israel wonderfully while in Egypt, under kings who were favorable, and who knew the good that Joseph had done to Egypt; but later a new king came. There is no certain agreement regarding the changes which took place in the dynasty from the one that was favorable to the children of Israel to the one unfavorable. Certainly there was a clear, a decided transformation. And here again we have God's providential care over His people. The more they were oppressed the more they increased. The dynasty, however, seems to have sprung from Assyria (see Isa. 52:4). The term "Pharaoh" is an appellative, or title, and not a name,—the same as czar, emperor, king. Pithom, one of the treasure cities, comes from Pa-Tum, the abode of the god Tum, the same as the Greek Heroöpolis; and Raamses, said to be so called because built by Rameses II.

The great character which stands out above all others in these chapters is that of Moses. Self-sufficient at first, in his own earthly wisdom, skill, power, and position, all this falls away after his forty years of postgraduate work with God in the deserts of Midian. Keeping the flock under the shining heavens, and communing with the great Creator, he has come to recognize his own littleness and God's greatness. God reveals Himself to Moses as the great "I AM," the covenant God, the one who will fulfil as He has fulfilled in the past, as He will fulfil in the future,—the great, ever-present Deity. The book also is a book revealing the redemption of man. In the very names themselves, again and again we have evidences of God's redemption. It is worth while, sometimes, to look out the meaning of the names of those whom God is using in His work, or of persons connected with God's work in times of crisis,—the covenant name of God, the revelation of His name, Moses speaking to the ruler in His name, Pharaoh raised up to add glory to that name, the law given in the name, God's name in the angel; and there are still other instances in which God shows regard for His name. And through all the book, as through Genesis, the seed, and the promise of the seed, are kept uppermost.

The week closes with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Psalms. Very heart-searching, indeed, is the last one.