Genesis 46-47: So Jacob Came to Egypt

Jacob, in leaving Canaan for Egypt, seemed to realize that he would never return to the Promised Land in life. This land, so connected to his ancestors, needed to be taken leave of properly. He stopped by Beersheba, the Well of Oaths, where both his father and his grandfather had encountered God and made covenants. God reminds him one last time of the promises He has made, particularly that He will make of Israel a great nation and that Canaan will still be the Promised Land, that Jacob and his descendants have not left there permanently. With this reassurance, the weak, equivocating Jacob becomes once more the strong, faithful Israel and he sets off.

The list of Jacob's family here is carefully planned out to make a perfect number (70) of people. Seven, a number of celestial perfection, and ten, a number of order, come together here. Most lists of families in the Bible seem to include particularly meaningful numbers of people. These 70 people are the beginnings of the tribe of Israel, just as there were 70 descendants of Shem who were the beginnings of the Chosen lineage/tribe. God's restarting with a perfectly chosen group of people.

Joseph, the type of Jesus, is returned to his father in the same way Isaac was returned to Abraham after both were given up as dead, offered as a tragic sacrifice. Joseph sets his family up with as good a start as possible, making sure they explain their trade to Pharaoh properly so that it becomes only logical to him to set the family up in the pasturelands of Goshen. Joseph's family, like the Church Christ founded, was intentionally made separate from the rest of the world. Goshen was far from most important Egyptian settlements, a little isolated cradle of plenty where the family could prosper.

When the family meet with Pharaoh, they impress him. Particularly, Jacob's longevity and humility impresses Pharaoh and he lets them have great land. Then the problems come. The Egyptians use first money, then livestock, then land to buy bread from Joseph until he has essentially every resource in the country. There is, at the end of the period, no more private land ownership, but an entire nation of serfs working Pharaoh's land. The only exceptions to this are Israelites and priests. As Jacob draws near his death, his family/tribe has become incredibly successful in Egypt. The Egyptians clearly cannot take this for long.