he shall receive the crown of life” (James i, 12). “The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come” (Rom. 8, 18).
Application. Men often take that to be a misfortune which is really the contrary. Never complain of the ways of God, but always, and in all things, submit to His holy will. Have you ever complained? Are you not cowardly and desponding under suffering? Say to yourself: “God knows what is best for me. Not my will, but Thine be done!”
Chapter XXII.
THE SONS OF JACOB GO INTO EGYPT.
[Gen. 41, 53 to 42.]
THE seven years of plenty came, as Joseph had foretold.
There was great abundance everywhere. And Joseph gathered the surplus of the grain[1] every year, and stored it up in the granaries. But, after the years of plenty, the seven years of scarcity set in, and a famine prevailed in all the countries. The people of Egypt cried to the king for bread, but he answered them: “Go to Joseph, and do all that he shall say to you.”
Joseph opened all the granaries and sold to the Egyptians. Likewise the people from other countries came to Egypt to buy corn. At last the famine reached Chanaan, and Jacob, having heard that there was wheat in Egypt for sale, sent ten of his sons with money to buy food. But Benjamin, the youngest, he kept at home, fearing lest some evil might befall him on the way.
The ten sons of Jacob arrived safely in Egypt, and seeing Joseph, they bowed down before him, not knowing[2] that he was their brother. But he at once recognized them, and remembered
- ↑ Grain. Corn, wheat &c. (Fig. 16).
- ↑ Not knowing. Joseph was a boy of sixteen, when they sold him, and was now thirty-eight years old. He would have changed a great deal in appearance in twenty-two years. Besides that, they could never have dreamt that their young slave-brother could have become this great ruler.
