Now that we have the roots of the twelve tribes of Israel in Jacob’s (Israel’s) twelve sons, look at what God is stuck with. Those twelve sons were all from different mothers. The wife whom Jacob loved, Rachel, he was cheated out of in the beginning when Laban, her father, sent his oldest daughter, Leah, into the marriage chamber to sleep with Jacob, and she became pregnant and had not only one son, Reuben, but a number of other sons. Jacob had worked for seven years for nothing for the right to marry Rachel and he was now furious at the treachery. After a very heated confrontation, Laban, after demanding another seven years of free work, finally gave Jacob the other daughter, Rachel, and for the longest time she could bear children, so she gave her maid to Jacob to be his concubine, and Jacob had a son from her. Leah then did the same, and Jacob had a son from Leah’s maid, Finally Rachel bore two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. So now you had the twelve sons of Jacob, whose name God had changed to Israel, all the sons by different wives. What a mess God was now stuck with, and this was his very special family that he had placed such hope in! Who said we do not have a patient and understanding God. It is not ourselves, but God who always gets the short end of the stick in deals. And their descendants still think God owes them. We are all the same. We should be thinking not that still owes us, but that we owe him for having fouled up all his beautiful plans for our peace and happiness. We too easily blame God for disappointing our hopes, and not fulfilling his promises. We are the ones who broke the covenant, by rejecting Whom he promised, and turned our backs on him. And we blame it on him for being unfaithful, and we blame God for disappointing us.
But the story of Israel is just beginning. These twelve sons are not nice people. The youngest of them, Joseph, was hated by his brothers because he was his father’s pet, and he used to have dreams in which he was the hero and his brothers were his servants. He was naïve enough to tell these dreams to his brothers, so they reached the point where they could not even stand the sight of him. So, one day they planned to kill him, but instead decided to sell him to wandering traders on their way into Egypt. So they sold him for twenty pieces of silver, (a prophetic hint of things to come) and Joseph finally ends up in Egypt, a slave in Pharaoh’s palace.
In time Pharaoh has dreams that trouble him, and Joseph interprets his dreams, in which God was warning Pharaoh of dire times ahead. Pharaoh is so impressed with Joseph’s wisdom he makes him prime minister of Egypt and places the future of the kingdom in his hands. The dreams come true; first, the seven years of abundant harvests and, then, the seven years of extreme drought, for which he had well-prepared the country. Not only did the Egyptians have plenty, but peoples from far away came for food and there was plenty for everyone. Among the hordes of foreigners begging for food was a family of ten brothers with their tale of woe. When they came into Joseph’s presence he recognized them as the brothers who sold him into slavery. He could understand every word they said, but still used an interpreter, so they had no idea he was their brother Joseph. After playing tricks on them, he let them go, knowing one day they would have to return, but not without their youngest brother Benjamin, whom Joseph had never known.
They finally returned, and after putting them through a very difficult time, he finally revealed who he was, and then let them go back home, but ordered that they bring their old father and all their families back with them to Egypt, where they would be well provided for.
So, now we have Jacob (Israel) and his twelve sons and their wives and children, all together in Egypt, where they will be for the next 450 years. They were treated well while Joseph was alive, but years after Joseph’s death they became Egypt’s slave labor force.
What a mind God has! This is the plan of our redemption in the initial stages of development, when most of what is happening from hereon is prophetically symbolic of what will take place far into the future. But, so far, we are learning a lot about this mysterious God of ours. He puts up with so many evil things and devious people rarely plotting good, and so often scheming evil towards others, but in his gentle, tender ways, God manages to salvage the horrible messes they create, and in humorous, playful ways, turns tragedy into awesome miraculous happenings that bring salvation to vast numbers of people facing total disaster. Yet, this beautiful, and surprisingly humble God always remains hidden, and his presence is known and felt by only by the few whom he uses as instruments of his awesome goodness.
