The story is never lost

A shepherd’s son, sold into slavery, once imprisoned, forgotten, yet now the 2^nd most important man in Egypt presents his elderly father to the most powerful man in the world. The story has been working towards this moment.

“Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.” ² He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh. ³ Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?” “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” ⁴ They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.” ⁵ Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, ⁶ and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.” ⁷ Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh.” (Genesis 47 v 1-7)

He doesn’t hide who they are. The brothers could have lied; they were good at that. They all were. They could have played down their identity. Shepherds were outcasts in Egypt. What is your occupation? This time, there is the truth. No apology. Just the truth about where they come from and what they do.

The family that would become a nation doesn’t arrive in Egypt as diplomats or merchants. They don’t even arrive as a perfect family, far from it. But their occupation meant they were outsiders, and they began to live in Goshen, separate, distinct, preserved, and ready to be their own nation.

Behind Pharaoh’s generous hand is the hand of the One who moves kings and famines alike. We end this devotion today with Jacob and Pharaoh together. What happens next? At this moment, we are reading that Jacob and Joseph do not know. We rarely see where the story is taking us when we are inside it. But the story is definitely taking us into something else.

God was always there. He was there in the famine, in the reunion, in the open hand of a foreign king and in the resettling into Goshen. The story was never lost. It was simply still being written.