The morning Manna will be provided at 6am. Thanks.

Studying Genesis in the SSnet.org series Lesson 12, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your heart.

The Topic today is: "Joseph told them he is their brother"

The Opening Hymn will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God"

The Sabbath School Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on page 155 and for the laymen edition or Standard Edition, on page 101.

The SSnet.org site allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your own language to see God speaking also to your heart.

---God revealed Himself to the brothers through the experience of Joseph.

---He used him and their evil to brign about a good outcome. That is what dr. Doukhan is emphasizing in this lesson.

---It is the year 22 of Sesostris I in 1950/1949 BC. Joseph knew that the famine will continue until 1945/1944 BC for five years in a row.

---What Doukhan is not bringing out, is that prophet Joseph speaks for God that He has sent them before them for the sake of preservation of the remnant.

---Another great Adventist scholars was Gerhard Hasel who did his dissertation on the remnant motif in the Old Testament.

---Hasel pointed out that the purpose here was the preservation of danger and not just the danger of the drought. Hasel correctly saw that Joseph saw prophetically all dangers of the remnant in future (Hasel 157).

---A certain scholar Sellin said that this was the starting of the bell of the remnant ringing so clear in the prophets.

---H. Gross came here at the verse and says it shows how God's election works and that He preserves a nucleus for survival (Hasel 157ff).

---Genesis 45:11 God said: "and there I will sustain you, for there are yet five years of famine, lest you come to poverty, and your household and all that you have".

---There are literary texts from this period published by R. Landgrafova in 2007 similar to Joseph feeding his brothers; similar to Joseph giving a house and riches to his father.

---There were no words at first, only crying. Years of guilt had to be washed away. Happiness and reconciliation had to make space for some words to be expressed, but it took time.

---Hanging, crying, kissing and full of unbelief and yet reality. Grace and mercy floated in the air for a long time.

---Sesotris I heard that the brother of Joseph had come and he was very pleased with it (Genesis 45:16). Joseph was like a father to the young Sestostris I.

---What Joseph decided was already confirmed by Sesotris I as well. Joseph was his older brother, his father. Now he will help Joseph to take care of his father also.

---His own father died 12 years earlier (Genesis 45:18).

---The Egyptian limousines were provided by the Pharaoh for the children and wives (Genesis 45:21).

---Joseph gave Benjamin five times more.

---God brings great reconciliation with Himself and with us as well.