Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

46:28-47:6 - It seems like for all his boys, Jacob has come to rely on Judah the most to run the show. On the way down to Egypt from Canaan, Jacob sends Judah to Joseph so that they could know exactly where he wanted them to go. When Judah gets to Joseph, he is directed to the land of Goshen, for the reasons that we’ve discussed previously, such as keeping Joseph’s family away from the corruptive influence of the unbelieving Egyptians and also allowing them to pursue shepherding in a community that hates shepherds. Upon Joseph instructing Judah to go to Goshen, Judah returns to his father Jacob, and Joseph “made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father… and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.” I can’t imagine how this feels for Jospeh and Jacob both, truly never thinking that they’d see each other again. I wonder if this is how I would feel if one of my children was taken away for 20 years, I’m sure it is. While settling in Goshen, Joseph wants to ...

46:1-27 - The joy felt by learning of Jospeh’s wellbeing in Egypt must have been countered equally with dread when Jacob realizes that his sons are planning, to take the whole family from their lands in Canaan to Egypt, permanently. Why the trepidation about leaving Canaan where there was a years long famine and going to Egypt, where they would have the best lands and plenty of food because of the political position held by his long lost favorite son? First, Jacob was born in the land of Canaan and his brother Esau lived in that area, so he would be leaving his childhood home and family. This is a double edged sword though because it seems he had a tenuous relationship with Esau. But familiarity wouldn’t have been enough to discourage Jacob from going to Egypt. Second, we have to remember that even though Jacob was born in this land, he had to flee it for his safety in his formative years, and on his journey away there was a spiritual awakening with visions where God promised “the la...

45:16-28 - The news that Joseph’s brothers had been found as well as his father, and that they were all coming to live in Egypt became big news, at least to the political elite, and even Pharaoh told Jospeh to take all types of food and beasts and wagons to Canaan to pick up his father and the rest of his house hold. Pharoah promised “I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.” Pharoah is able to give the best land to Jospeh’s family because at this point, he owns almost all the land in all of Egypt because he’s been selling the grain confiscated from the Egyptian citizenry, back to them taking all their money, land, and even themselves as slaves. I would imagine that if this land that was gained by Pharoah through these means was then just freely given to Joseph’s family, the Egyptian people would not be pleased and it would cause hate and bitterness between the two groups, Egyptians and Hebrews at some point. Joseph does as Pharoah advises a...

45:1-15 - After Judah made his impassioned plea to Joseph to take him as a slave instead of Benjamin, who in the eyes of the law was guilty of theft, “Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him.” He sent out everyone who wasn’t his brother and wept so loudly that “the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.” He revealed to his brothers saying, “I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.” Now this could have gone many different ways. I wonder what these guys think happened to Joseph after they sold him, they probably thought that his soft, favored teenage boy would have died in slavery, and maybe that’s what happened to slaves during that time. I know that there were many instances where the work that slaves were made to perform was so brutal that the life expectancy was very low, and maybe that was standard at that time. I wondered how Joseph could have proved to his brothers that it was indeed him, I imagine it wouldn’t have taken a lot, he probably ...

44:1-13 - The super personal and bizarre dinner is over and I bet the brothers all sigh with relief while they pack and plan for their journey home the next day. Joseph, however, is up to some shenanigans during the night by telling his head servant to not only fill the brothers’ sacks with food “as much as they can carry,” but also return the men’s money in the sacks just like last time, and additionally “put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest.” TB notes that this isn’t just some random piece of Joseph’s housewares, but instead is a large silver bowl which is used by Egyptian leadership for divination, which is a type of false seership. It’s not just like Benjamin put a fork into his pocket during dinner, this would have been equivalent to Rachel stealing her father’s household gods, these pieces are expensive, and have a deep spiritual implication. The men leave the city to head home, “and when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far off,” Joseph tol...

I know I’ve been MIA for several weeks but work has been crazy busy and I’ve driven almost 2,000 miles on and off on different road trips to pick up my daughter’s car and drive it from was she was training in Texas to where she was permanently stationed, as well as he being home on leave for the first time in several months. And my sister had another adorable baby boy with so many boys already at home and this new baby was in the NICU for the first 3 weeks, so anyway, it’s been a very wild and crazy last several weeks, but hopefully I’m back, even if I can only do a small amount here and there. 43:16-30 - The remaining 10 of Jacob’s sons leave to go back to Egypt and when Joseph sees them again, he tells his servants to make a big feast and bring all the men inside. At this point the men must have been so perplexed as to why they were receiving so much attention from this guy, the attention and extremes of emotion being so completely disproportionate to their social status and signifi...

42:29-38 - Nine of the ten brothers who left Jacob in Canaan show back up after going to Egypt to buy grain during the famine and of course they have to tell their father what happened and explain why they came back without Simeon. They tell him about being accused as spies and that this crazy governor guy kept Simeon in prison until they come back to Egypt with their youngest brother Benjamin. Now I’m not exactly sure how they justified to themselves that this made sense at all, or how they thought that bringing another man that they say is their brother will somehow prove that they are not spies. I don’t even know if it did make sense to them or if these demands were just as bizarre to them as they are to me. Jacob reacts about as expected basically saying that if they take Benjamin to Egypt and something happens to him, then he will have lost both of his favorite sons, Joseph and Benjamin, and Simeon and that he will literally die. Reuben, as TB describes him, the consummate polit...