Genesis 47, or, "Lost spoilers ahead"

Wherein Joseph's family takes residence in Goshen, the famine worsens, and Israel prepares to die

After meeting with several members of Jacob's family, Pharoah allows them to move to Goshen. It is the best land in Egypt and they prosper and multiply.

The rest of Egypt is not as fortunate, however. The famine that has been devastating the land for years gets even worse. Each time the people come to Joseph for help, they have less and less to offer in exchange for food. Eventually Joseph has to take possession of their land, and everybody (besides priests) become servants of Pharaoh.

Years pass, and Israel reaches the point where he knows he will soon die. He tells Joseph that he does not want to be buried in Egypt, but instead in the burial place of his fathers.

---

The Lost finale was a few weeks ago, and I, like many of the show's fans, was disappointed. There are a couple reasons for this, but my number one complaint is that the show didn't wrap up enough of its mysteries. What was the point of the Dharma Initiative? What did Walt have to do with anything? What was up with that bird that screamed Hurley's name in that one episode? The list goes on and on.

I guess as I get closer to the end of Genesis, I'm kind of feeling the same way about this book. I want everything that I've read to have mattered in some way. To add up to some greater, important message.

To a large degree, I feel like most of the stories in Genesis have accomplished this. You can draw a clear line all the way from Adam to Joseph and see how we have come to where Genesis has brought us. And themes of faith, family turmoil, searching, and transiency have been explored throughout.

But there certainly have been detours and dead ends as well. Did we really need three wife-sister narratives? What was up with Abraham and Abimelech arguing over that well? Was it that necessary that we know Eber lived thirty-four years and begot Peleg? I'm also starting to wonder if all this famine business is going to add up to anything.

It's probably fruitless to hope that everything in the Bible matters in equal measure. Sometimes it's going to revelatory and mind-expanding, but other times it's going to be boring and extraneous. And I think when you're reading a book of the Bible you hope to reach the final page and have this big "Aha!" moment where everything ties together in a nice tidy bow. But I suspect that I'm just going to end up finding out that the sideways universe was purgatory (so to speak).