Jacob (Israel) lived in Egypt for 17 years and died at the age of 147 (Genesis 47:28). Pharaoh gave Joseph and his family permission to take Jacob back to Canaan to be buried in the same cave as his father and grandfather. Joseph and his brothers returned to Egypt, which had become their new ‘home.’ However, it was not be their permanent home. In light of our series focus, we see Egypt as a place of ‘training to reign.’ The children of Israel still had much to learn so that they might ‘subdue and have dominion.’

Israel in Egypt

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each one according to his own blessing. Genesis 49:28

This is the first place in the Bible that Israel is referred to as ‘twelve tribes.’ If you look at the context of Genesis 49, you’ll see that it refers to the ‘twelve sons’ of Jacob (Israel). Keep in mind that the promise and unconditional covenants God made with Abraham, and repeated to Isaac and Jacob, passed along to the sons of Jacob as well. That meant the ‘twelve tribes’ of Israel were still in ‘training to reign’ and be a blessing to ‘all the families of the earth’ (Genesis 12:3).

The ‘children of Israel,’ as they were also known, were alive and well living in Egypt because of Joseph. Yet, they were afraid of Joseph because his brothers had sold him into slavery many years earlier. Joseph was second-in-command to Pharaoh, so the brothers were afraid he would kill them as revenge for their evil cruelty toward him. However, they were about to learn an important lesson in how God works out His eternal plan to bless –

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.’ So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, ‘Before your father died he commanded, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: ‘I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.’ ’ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.’ And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, ‘Behold, we are your servants.’ Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.’ And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Genesis 50:15-21

Key in for a moment on verse 20 – “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” Joseph, who had undergone extreme pain and suffering because of his brothers’ evil, understood that God’s plan ‘for good’ was far greater than just one person’s suffering. Joseph knew that everything that had happened to him had happened as part of an eternal purpose.

God trained Joseph to ‘reign,’ and reign he did as the chief governor in Pharaoh’s government. Joseph had learned these five ‘basic training’ principles –

  1. Believe in the Only True God (Monotheism)
  2. Fear God and Obey Him
  3. Worship God and Serve Him
  4. Listen to God and Trust Him
  5. Love God and Devote Your Life to Him

That’s the lesson we all need to learn.

So, how did the ‘twelve tribes’ of Israel do? Did they learn these basic principles as well?

A Major Change for Israel

Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household continued to live in Egypt for many years. However, he and his brothers eventually went the way of all people. Joseph died at the age of 110 years old. Joseph made a prophecy just before his death that gives us some insight to God’s eternal plan for Israel –

And Joseph said to his brethren, ‘I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.’ So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. Genesis 50:24-26

God’s plan for Israel was not for them to remain in Egypt, but there were things for them to learn in Egypt before returning Joseph’s remains to the land of Canaan.

Egypt’s Pharaoh took good care of the families of Jacob (twelve tribes) because of Joseph. The children of Israel ‘were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them’ (Exodus 1:7). However, a new Pharaoh came to power in Egypt who ‘did not know Joseph’ (Exodus 1:8). He viewed the Israelites (children of Israel) as a potential threat to native Egyptians. The Pharaoh was afraid that ‘in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land’ (Exodus 1:10). The Pharaoh changed the children of Israel from being free people enjoying their lives in Egypt, to being slaves to the Egyptian government.

 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. Exodus 1:13-14

Pharaoh went even further and commanded the midwives for the ‘Hebrew women’ to kill every male Israelite as they were born. (Abram was first called a ‘Hebrew’ in Genesis 14:13, עִבְרִי, one who has traveled, crossed over .. it became another name for an Israelite). However, ‘the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive’ (Exodus 1:17).

That angered Pharaoh. He asked the midwives why they were not killing the male children of Israel. The midwives made up a story about how the Hebrew women were not like the Egyptian women – ‘for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them’ (Exodus 1:19).

Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them. So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, ‘Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.’ Exodus 1:20-22

Pharaoh commanded Egyptians to kill every baby boy by casting them into the river to drown. Only the Hebrew baby girls would be allowed to live. That would eventually destroy the Hebrew race within a couple of generations because there would be no males to continue the ‘Hebrew race.’ While that sounds like something the Israelites could not possibly overcome, it was part of God’s eternal plan.

Free eBook

You can download the first 13 chapters of this series here.

Next Time

We’ll see how God used Pharaoh’s hatred for Israel to accomplish what God intended for Israel to learn in the next part of our series – Train to Reign.

“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

GraceLife Copyright © 1990-2025