Genesis 47:27–31 (ESV)
Joseph and the Famine (Part 4)
27 Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. 28 And
Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years.
29 And when the time drew near that Israel must
die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but let
me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.” He answered, “I will do as you have said.” 31 And he said, “Swear to me”; and he swore to him.
Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.
Powerful, wealthy Pharaoh humbly receives the blessing of Jacob, a lowly Hebrew, whose son
addresses the famine by centralizing all Egypt’s resources in a sharecropping system. Like Pharaoh, we should realize that spiritual blessings take precedence over temporal ones. People who put earthly security and temporal blessings first often take
desperate measures to keep things that death will someday take from them. Just as blessing came to mighty Pharaoh through a lowly shepherd, so also the kingdom of God and His righteousness come to believers in humble forms—an infant in a manger, a man
dying on a cross; words, water, bread, wine—yet in them are hidden God’s majesty.
I pray: “Be present at our table, Lord; Be here and ev’rywhere adored; Thy creatures bless, and grant that we May feast in paradise with Thee.” Amen. (LSB 775)
Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible (pp. 88–89). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.