The Pharoah Who Knew Not Joseph

[Barbara]

This is a portion of a great (and very prophetic) teaching from Bill Cloud, at a recent conference with Perry Stone in Tennessee:

"...as we were concluding Part I, we were discussing the cycles of God's people, how they start out in obedience, they prosper, they multiply, they're blessed. Then they begin to turn their eyes toward the prosperity and the blessing, rather than the one who has blessed them with that, they turn their heart away from Him - they end up mingling and merging and mixing with the ways of the nations - introducing the nations gods into their homes, etc. - and before you know it the blessings have become curses, because that is what impedes them from returning to their God with all their heart; and so He has allowed those blessings and that prosperity, during those times of rebellion, to be taken away from His people - in order to provoke them to return to Him.
     And we see those cycles repeating over and over. So then, I want to suggest to you that, that cycle was not exempt when Israel was in Egypt. Of course, when they first went down into Egypt, Jacob was with them. This was the time when all of the Patriarchs were alive, as far as the 12 sons of Jacob.
     They are living in the best land of Egypt, the land of Goshen, at Pharoah's invitation. But, if you'll recall, in Genesis 47, that one of the things that sets them apart, one of the reasons they are living in Goshen is because they are shepherds, and shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. And so my point will be then, that they were separate from the Egyptians. They lived separate lives, they had a distinctive walk. So when they were in Egypt, they were set apart from Egypt living in the land of Goshen.

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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

But as they prosper, as they multiply, as they have posession, I want to suggest to you that over time, they begin to spead out, to mix, to mingle, to merge to some degree, with the Egyptians. And I'm going to jump ahead of myself to make this point, just to understand that what I'm telling you is true, because when they get out into the wilderness, later on at Sinai, you'll recall that after they've asked Moses to go to speak to God on their behalf, find out what it is that God wants them to know and come back and tell them, Moses does not return when they think he should. They say we don't know what's become of this Moses. Then there were people in their midst who incited this rebellion. But in the end, he doesn't return when they think he should, and by the way, they apparently miscalculate by as little as 1 day. But because he doesn't return when they think he should, they took their gold and took it to Aaron. Aaron takes the gold and, according to what he told Moses, he threw the gold into the fire and out jumped a golden calf.
     But the point is this - the golden calf incidentis an indication that not only have they been living in Egypt all those years, but, for a long time, Egypt had been living in them. By the way, I'm of the opinion, and I believe Scripture backs this up, that the golden calf incident was evidence that, not so much that they worshipped an idol of Egypt, but that they were taking an idol of Egypt, they were taking what they were familiar with, and then having it represent the God that Moses was speaking to on the mountain...

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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

...because God had said from the mountain, "I Am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage..." and upon fashioning the golden calf, they said 'this is your god O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Then Aaron tags on to that, '...tomorrow we keep a feast unto the LORD'.
  So not only had Israel been living in Egypt, but at some point, Egypt began to live in them.
  Another example of this in the scripture is Ezekiel 20 when God says that while they were in Egypt, He made Himself known to them - He declared that He was their God, and that would mean they were His people. And He told them to put away the abominations which were before your eyes and not defile yourself with the idols of Egypt. But they rebelled against Him, and so He had to pour out His fury upon them in the midst of the land of Egypt. Point being, that while they were in Egypt, before they were in the wilderness, He had to tell them to put away the abominations and to not defile themselves with the idols of Egypt - which would mean He would not have had to tell them NOT to do that if they hadn't been doing that.
    So again, not only has Israel been living in Egypt for all those number of years, but Egypt began to live in them. So what we want to do now is read Exodus chapter 1. Because we see that everything was going really well for Israel. They were growing, they were multiplying, they had posessions, they were prospering, etc.

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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

Exodus 1:6, "And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation (7) And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them."
     Now the question would be there, what land was filled with them? Keeping in mind, where had they setteled, they had setteled in Goshen. Why had they settled in Goshen? Because they were shepheds, and shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. And so when they first went there, they were a seperate people. Not only that, but we have historical information that Jacob had set up houses of study for his family to teach the ways of the God of Israel, and not to embrace the ways of the Egyptians.
    But because they'd multiplied, because they'd prospered, presumably over time, they began to embrace the ways of the Egyptians, the idols of the Egyptians, the abominations of the Egyptians, to mix, to mingle and to creep into their homes, into their families, into their communities. So this mixing and mingling began to spread out from Goshen until the land, that is the land of Egypt, was filled with them. So they go from being a separate people, a characteristic of God's people, to being the same as the people of the land. A mixed people, with a mixed mindset and ideology.

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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

Now that's important to understand because we want to go over to Acts chapter 7. The story of Stephen, and when he was taken up before the elders and basically put on trial. He begins to account a history of Israel, more or less.
Vs. 11, "Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction and our fathers found no sustenance. (12) But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first."     
(Again, he didn't hear that grain was in Syria or anyplace else, indicating it was a 'global situation', where only Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth, had anything.)
vs. 13, "And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph's kindred was made known to Pharoah. (14) Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred threescore and fifteen souls. (15) So Jacob went down to Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers. (16) And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham brought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
(17) BUT when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. (18) TILL another king arose, which knew not Joseph. (19) The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. (20) In which time Moses was born...
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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

So what we wanted to do here, is see that according to Stephen, as he's recounting the story of Israel, if you will, and talking specifically about Joseph going down into Egypt, how Jacob eventually goes down into Egypt during this famine, and when Jacob died he was carried back and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought.
   But they didn't go back to the land to stay. It says that '...when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt...'
   In other words, one of the reasons the people grew and multiplied in Egypt is because the promise that God made Abraham. And what was that promise? God told Abraham that his descendants were going to be sojourners in the land that was not their own. They were going to serve the king of Egypt, and the term for that servitude would be 400 years.
   So the time was drawing near. The promise that God had made to Abraham which is that at the end of that 400 years God was going to bring His descendents out of Egypt, He would bring them back to the land that He'd sworn unto Abraham. So what Stephen tells us is that time was drawing near. As it was getting close to the time of the promise that God made Abraham to come to pass, what happened? The people began to multiply and grow, and according to Exodus 1, till the whole land of Egypt was filled with them.

 Cont'd...

[Barbara]

Cont'd...

That, in turn, implies that they began to mix and mingle with Egypt, and with Egyptian ways, and we have scriptural evidence to support that.
   But then they multiplied and grew until this new king began to reign over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
  So, here's what we need to understand. Why did this new king over Egypt arise who dealt treacherously with the poeple of Joseph? It's because the time was drawing near for the promise which God had made to Abraham, to come to fruition.
Exodus 1:8, "Now there arose up a NEW king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph."
   Now when we read that in English, some people have assumed that he didn't know who Joseph was. But we need to understand that Joseph, traditionally, went down to Egypt when he was about 17. We know that when he was about 30 years old that he stood before Pharoah. And we know that he was 110 when he died. And that means that he ruled in Egypt, second only to Pharoah, married into the priests family, and ruled in this capacity for 80 years.
   Because of Joesph, rain was stored up, Egypt had enough grain to survive the 7 year famine that had engulfed the known world. Pharoah had become extremely wealthy, receiving all the money from all these peoples who had come to buy grain, he owns all of Egypt, he owns all of the Egyptians...
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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

Now Egypt is positioned to be the most powerful, the most prosperous, the most influential nation on the face of the earth. And who is responsible for this? It's Joseph...who upon his death, because he was the man who saved Egypt, was probably buried with much pomp and circumstance. So are you going to tell me that this man didn't know who Joseph was? No!
   What it's really saying is this man, this Pharoah had no regard for Joseph. And if he had no regard for Joseph, then that's a way of saying he had no regard for the policies, for the virtues, for the characteristics, for the wisdom that Joseph represented - whereby Egypt could become the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. If you will, he had no regard for the past, he had no regard for foundational principles that established and positioned that Egypt, and that made him, in effect, the most powerful man on the face of the earth. That is what the scripture is saying - he had no regard for Joseph, his policies, his standards. He had no regard for Joseph's people and, by extension, he had no regard for Joseph's God.
  So in short, the political climate in Egypt was CHANGING in those days, and not for the better. In fact, it was a very dramatic, very drastic CHANGE and turn of events.
   BUT why did it happen? Because 'the time of the promise drew near' according to Stephen in Acts 7. So this "bad" development occured because something "good" was about to happen...

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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

In short, it did not take God by surprise that this new king arose over Egypt. If it didn't take Him by surprise, then we have to conclude that He, being the Sovereign God, allowed it to happen. WHY? Because the time was drawing near for the promise that He'd made unto Abraham to come unto pass. So, the people grew, they multiplied, they filled up the land, and in so doing they began to mix and to mingle with the Egyptians. They began to allow the ways of the Egyptians, their idols, their abominations, their lifestyle, their values, etc., to mix with their own.
   And so here's my point, we need to keep in mind that the Egyptians had to sell themselves to Pharoah, and the Egyptians had to sell their lands to Pharoah, but the Hebrews did not. And so presumably they continued to multiply, to prosper, etc. And they'd become so enamored with those things that they began to they eventually began to turn their heart away from the God of Israel, and to mix what was Holy with what was profane.
   So when it came time for the promise to come to pass - Guess What? His people were not ready to go. His people had no reason, carnally speaking, they had no provocation to want to leave the land of Egypt. I mean, why would they? They had posessions, they had 'things', they prospered, they multiplied, they were so mighty and so many that they filled the whole land! Why would they want to leave a land where they had everything they ever wanted? Why would they want to leave the most powerful nation on the face of the earth?

 Cont'd...

[Barbara]

Cont'd...

They had 'WalMarts' in every town, they had 'Starbucks' on every corner, they had everything at their fingertips. Whay would they want to leave that?
  And see, ladies and gentlemen, that is the point. That's why this new king had to arise over Egypt who did not regard Joseph. It wasn't that he didn't know who Joseph was, he had no regard for who Joseph was. But once again, this did not take God by surprise. Why did He permit it? Because the time was drawing near and His people were not ready to go, because they had not only been living in Egypt - but Egypt was most certainly living in them.
  Exodus 1:8, "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. (9) And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:..."
    First of all, I would like to interject this question. And I don't know the answer. But I want to interject this question, and that is - How did that Pharoah know that the children of Israel were more and mightier than his people? Did he take a census? Did he number the people? Now that's interesting because out of the story of Moses is going to develop the Deliverer, who is a 'type and shadow' of the Messiah.
  And if you'll think back with me, when it came time for the Messiah to be born, what happened in advance of that? Well, you had this Roman Emporer by the name of Augustus Ceaser, who decided the entire world should be taxed, and that tax was a result of a census. He numbered the people of the world, which provoked those who were living in Judea to go back to the land of their forefathers...

         Cont'd...

[Barbara]

Cont'd...

This also provoked Joseph, who had a young bride by the name of Mary, to have to go to Bethlehem. And of course, had he not gone to Bethlehem, then the promised Messiah could not have been born there - fulfilling the prophesies. And what I'm trying to get you to see is - that something 'bad' happened, a census, a tax, and those people didn't respond well to that, I'm sure. But because of the census and the tax that accompanied it - this is was provoked Joseph to go to Bethlehem - fulfilling God's purposes!!
   So in other words, when it came time for God's purposes to come to pass, then all these "bad" things began to happen - "bad" from the point of view of flesh.
   So Pharoah said...'look the children of Israel are more and mightier than we...' So the question is, How did he know that? Again, I don't know the answer, but it would be very interesting to see if there was a census during that time.
   Second question is - Who are his people? Is he referring to the Egyptians? We do know that in Egyptian history there were, at times, changes in the dynastys, and sometimes, and we believe maybe in this particular instance[/i], that there was a new group of people who took over. In fact, there is some debate if this new king was not representing a new dynasty of Egyptian Pharoahs, and specifically, there is reason to believe that this particular king may have been first in a line of the Hyksos people. Which is interesting. Because the origen of the Hyksos is in question, in short, nobody knows, really, where they come from. There is an argument that the Hyksos are Nubian...

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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

...From the area of Ethiopia, present day KENYA, Uganda, etc. No one knows, for really certain, where they come from. But it is safe to say that the political climate in Egypt, the most powerful nation then on the earth, was beginning to CHANGE and this was not favorable for God's people.
  He looks at the children of Israel and discovers that they are more and mightier than his people. And this is what Pharoah says,
'Come and let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply and it happen in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us and so go up out of the land...'
   Now there's several things we want to look at here. And the first thing we want to look at is the words 'let us deal shrewdly with them..." that's New King James. Some translations say, 'let us deal WISELY with them...' In fact, that word in Hebrew is 'cochma' which is wise or wisdom. And that particular word has positive and negative connotations. Because there are people who use wisdom for good, but then there are people who use wisdom for evil purposes. And of course, in context, what is this king wanting to do? He's wanting to deal wisely with these people. And why? To bring about an evil purpose.

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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

What this reminds me of is back in Genesis 3:1, "Now the serpent was more subtle" (that is shrewd, crafty, sneaky) "than any beast of the field..."
   And though it is a different word translated in Hebrew in Genesis 3:1 (the root word is 'aram'), the principle, I think, is the same. Because if we go back into the beginning, how did the serpent, and we need to understand that the serpent back in Genesis 3 is not just some ordinary serpent, but it is, according to Revelation 12, the dragon, the devil, that serpent of old. How did that serpent operate?
   In other words, we understand from the scripture that the woman was deceived. The man knew what he was doing and that by one man sin entered the world, but the woman was deceived. And how was she deceived?
   Well, first of all, we need to understand that the Hebrew word for serpent is "nachash". And though that word means serpent, it's also translated brass or bronze, but, in fact, its raw meaning is 'SHINING'. And so I'm going to make a suggestion to you. That one of the components that caused the woman to be deceived is, I believe, she's distracted by what she's seeing. What she's seeing is something that's shining, something that is attractive to look at with the eye.
  Now you'll recall that in the scripture, Jesus says, 'He that has an ear, let him hear'. Meaning that, if you have a spirtual ear to hear what I'm saying, you're the ones that are going to hear it. Obviously not everyone had a spirtual ear to hear what he was saying.

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[Barbara]

Cont'd...

But I wanna go one further with that, and suggest to you, and I think most people would agree with this, wordIt is possible to hear everthing that I'm saying, and not hear everything that I'm saying. In other words, you hear my s, but not everyone hears what I'm actually conveying with those words. And so you have to have an ear to hear.
   Now, it's also evident, I'm sure that there have been times that we have been listening to someone speak, and then something catches our eye and distracts us, and though we are hearing their words, we're not hearing their intent. So I'm gonna suggest to you that, possibly, the woman is distracted because she is looking at something that is shiny, that is attractive to look at, and in part that leads to her disception. Because if she is distracted with her eye, and though she is hearing the serpent speaking, she is not detecting what the serpent is saying.
   How does the adversary come to us? As an angel of light, as something that is shiny, something that is attractive to look at. But why would he do that? To distract us, to disarm us. Why? So that then he can begin to speak with his mouth, and begin to say things, and so if we are distracted then we may not pick up on what he is really getting at with what he's saying.


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[nChrist]

Hello Sister Barbara,

Thanks! This story has my interest, and I look forward to future installments. I think that I know where this is going, but it will be fascinating just the same.

Love In Christ,
Tom