Abraham had traveled from the land of Ur, in Mesopotamia, and was dwelling in the land of Canaan, northeast of Egypt. As mentioned in our last article in this series, he went to Egypt during the twelfth dynasty. His son Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob had deceived his brother and was forced to flee to his mother’s ancestral home in Padan-Aram. After serving a harsh apprenticeship, he returned to the land of his father and reconciled with his brother Esau.

For the next thirty odd years Jacob dwelt in various places of the “southern country” which would later be called Samaria and Judaea. Jacob had twelve sons, but one was his favorite: Joseph.

Joseph was the second youngest of the twelve boys, but was the elder of the two born to Jacob’s wife Rachel. His other brothers were much older than he was, and they hated the fact that their father cared more for Joseph than for them. He was given a great coat of expensive material as a gift from his father, and his brothers became even more jealous. To make matters worse Joseph told his family about dreams he was having, showing that they would be bowing down to him.

Some time after this, the older brothers were sent to find better pasture for the flocks. Joseph acted as a courier/messenger for his aged father between the main camp and the brothers in the distant pastures. It was on one of these missions that the soon-to-be-important young man, clad in his very distinctive cloak, hurried north to Sechem. Not finding his brothers there, he went 20 miles further to Dothan, and there he found them. The brothers decided that this was the time finally to be rid of their younger brother. But Joseph’s life was spared, and instead of being killed he was sent to Egypt in a state of living death—slavery.

Joseph’s purchasers were a group of Ishmaelite traders who had forded the Jordan and were heading for the main trail into Egypt running down through the seacoast plains. The transaction they had just completed was not an unusual one for those times. Canaan was a thinly populated land with virtually no regular rulers or law. It fluctuated between control by Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Asia Minor powers. This state of flux made it easy for someone to sell another person into slavery.

Joseph presumably arrived in Egypt during the 15th and 16th dynasties in the period between the Middle and New Kingdoms during the rule of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. The Hyksos were foreign rulers who had conquered Egypt, and the Pharaoh Joseph encountered was one of these foreign rulers, not a native Egyptian.

Josephus quotes Manetho in describing how the Hyksos came to power. “There was a king of ours whose name was Timaus. Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that God was opposed to us, and there came in most surprising manner, men of ignoble birth out of the East, who were bold enough to make an expedition into our country, and with ease subdue it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle with them. So, when they had those that governed us under their power, they burned down our cities, demolished the temples of the gods, and treated the people most barbarously. . . . At length they made one of their number king, whose name was Salatis. He also lived at Memphis, and put both Upper and Lower Egypt under tribute, and left garrisons at all strategic places” (Against Apion, 1, 14).

These new rulers from the East were of the same Semitic blood as Joseph. Joseph was sold to a man named Potiphar, but circumstances went against the young man and he ended up in prison. While “serving time” he had the opportunity to interpret the dreams of two other prisoners. One of these men, the king’s butler, promised to remember Joseph. But after being released the butler forgot the man who had interpreted the dream of his deliverance, until one day the king himself had a bad dream.

The king wanted an interpretation of the dream, and the butler remembered the young man in prison. Joseph was brought before the king and was ordered to interpret the dream. He told the ruler that his land would have seven years of plenty, but that this would be followed by seven years of famine. As a reward for his service Joseph was made the third ruler in the land of Egypt and was placed in charge of storing food during the years of plenty, and distributing it during the years of want.

As another reward, he was granted permission by Pharaoh to settle his large and ever-expanding family in a part of the delta called Goshen in the Bible. Joseph was permitted to undertake this resettlement even though the Egyptians despised shepherds, “for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians” (Genesis 46:34).

During the years of plenty, Joseph stored food in warehouses throughout Egypt. The land continued to prosper under her foreign rulers, Joseph amongst them. Great cities were built, wars were fought, art was created, and the people lived in a generally happy state. Each person owned his own animals, his own home, his own property, his own wealth.

When the time of famine came, the people turned to Joseph for food. This food was not given for free. The people were required to pay for this food. “And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house” (Genesis 47:14). But eventually time dragged on and the famine continued. When all the money in Egypt had been used to buy food, the people asked Joseph what they should do for food. “And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail” (Genesis 47:16). But after some time all the cattle in Egypt belonged to Pharaoh. “When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands: Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof” (Genesis 47:18–21).

This new societal structure would remain with the Egyptian people for many centuries, even after the Hyksos were removed from power. All the land in Egypt belonged to Pharaoh, and even the people themselves were the bondmen of Pharaoh. The only exception to this were the priests of Egypt, who were given a portion of the food by Pharaoh free of charge. Over time the priests would become the custodians of the Pharaoh’s treasure.

Both Joseph and his father were embalmed in the Egyptian manner (Genesis 50:2, 3, 26), and Joseph was put in a coffin. During this period of history, Egyptian coffins were anthropoid, made of wood with a conventional portrait-face at the head-end. Joseph extracted a promise from his family, that when they returned to claim the promise land they would take his bones with them to be buried there.

During the early Hyksos occupation, the native Egyptians accepted their rule, but after some time the native princes began to make trouble. One of the first to resist the Hyksos rule after the time of Joseph was the prince of Thebes, Sekenenre. We know that he was unsuccessful in his attempt to throw out the Hyksos and he must have died a very violent death. His mummy shows five major skull wounds, any one of which may have been fatal.

His oldest son, Kamose, had a greater deal of success, but it was the younger son, Ahmose, who would eventually achieve the restoration of native rule to Egypt. Ahmose raised and trained a very large army. Not content with having thrown the Hyksos out of Egypt, he took his army into Canaan and spent many years going up and down the length of Palestine, sacking the cities were the Hyksos had retreated in refuge.

This plunder from Palestine, combined with the large army and a remembrance of the years of humiliating foreign rule led to an Egypt that was more militant and agressive. In the years ahead Egypt would be a military power to be reckoned with. Ahmose I founded the 18th dynasty in 1580 b.c. By the time his great-grandson, Thutmosis III, died, Egypt extended from the Fourth Cataract of the Nile to the upper shore of the far away Euphrates, including all of the land of Canaan.

The native rulers now wanted to wipe out all memory of their humiliation. By the time Moses was born, the people had forgotten the Hyksos rulers, including Joseph, so that it could be said: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). But the Hebrew people were still in Egypt’s best land. In the next issue we will examine the history of Egypt in relation to these Hebrew people, and the results of their Exodus on the world’s greatest nation of that time.

In this issue we have discussed the history of Egypt, but you should take some time to study the life of Joseph. What was his relationship with God and with his family? What was his childhood like? What training did he receive in his home?

“The young Christian will have severe tests and temptations. Satan will not permit you to leave his banner of darkness to march under the bloodstained banner of Prince Immanuel, without making an effort to retain you in his service. He will present every attraction to cause you to leave the narrow road that leads to eternal life; but you must stand like a faithful soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph is an example of how the youth may stand unspotted, amid the evil of the world, and add to their faith, virtue. Though a captive in a strange land, far from the restraints of home, he kept the fear of God before him, and when he was sorely tempted to indulge in evil, he exclaimed. ‘How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ The grace of God enabled him to resist the tempter. He was cast into prison, because of his steadfastness of purpose to keep the commandments of God. But prison walls could not shut out the light of Heaven’s favor, nor hinder his advancement in the divine life; for ‘the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy.’ And the Lord will be with every soul who adds the precious grace of virtue, and who fears to transgress the law of Heaven.”—The Review and Herald, February 21, 18