~~~~~Lesson: Genesis: Chapters 47-50 (reading after lesson)

Joseph uses the famine to collect first all of the livestock, secondly all of the farmland, and lastly, the very persons (they become slaves) of every Egyptian for Pharaoh.
It is arguable that he also is profiting from this....

Question: Is it fair/moral of Joseph to take these peoples every possessions and also their freedom? Why or why not?
Do you believe there could be a better course of action...if so, what?
Do you think his harsh land policy led to the Hebrews later slavery?

I skipped the many blessing of Jacob because it is widely believed that the blessings were later added during the "kings" phase of Israel.
Jacob was insistent that he be buried with his ancestors in Canaan. His sons, especially Jacob, carried this wish out.

Question: Do you think our burial place is important, since we believe in the resurrection? Is cremation an option? (This is of course, an OPINION....just let us know what you think!)

~Reading: Genesis: Chapters 47-50

(47:11-14) As Pharaoh had ordered, Joseph settled his father and brothers and gave them holdings in Egypt on the pick of the land, in the region of Ramses [Goshen]. And Joseph sustained his father and brothers and his father's whole household, down to the youngest, with food.

Since there was no food in any country because of the extreme severity of the famine, and the lands of Egypt and Canaan were languishing from hunger, Joseph gathered in, as payment for the rations that were being dispensed, all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan, and he put it in Pharaoh's palace.

(47:20) Thus Joseph acquired all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh, since with the famine too much for them to bear, every Egyptian sold his field; so the land passed over to Pharaoh.

(47:25-26) "You have saved our lives!" they [the people in Egypt] answered. "We are grateful to my lord that we can be Pharaoh's slaves." Thus Joseph made it a law for the land of Egypt, which is still in force, that a fifth of its produce should go to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did none pass over to Pharaoh.

(49:28-29) [Jacob pronounces blessings on everyone] All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said about them, as he bade them farewell and gave to each of them an appropriate message. Then he gave them this charge: "Since I am about to be taken to my kindred, bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite [in Canaan].

(50:14) After Joseph had buried his father he returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all who had gone up with him for the burial of his father.

[Joseph takes care of everyone for years]
(50:24-26) Joseph said to his brothers: "I am about to die. God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Then putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued, "When God thus takes care of you, you must bring my bones up with you from this place." Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was embalmed and laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.