After Joseph came to power in Egypt, Pharaoh gave him a wife fitting his high office. Her name was, Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On, which is Heliopolis, a city located about 20 miles north of Memphis, and 10 miles northeast of Cairo. During the seven years of plenty, Asenath bore Joseph two sons, whose names (Manasseh and Ephraim) point to Joseph’s family in the Land of Canaan (Genesis 41:45). One has to wonder, since Joseph is now a powerful man, why he never tried to contact Jacob and let him know of his welfare, and to understand the welfare of Jacob and that of his mother, Rachel. Remember, Rachel died in great sorrow immediately after bearing Benjamin, who was born shortly after the false report of Joseph’s death (Genesis 37:31-35; cp. Genesis 35:16-18).
Any reply to such a question, of course, would be a guess. We simply are not given the information in the text required to do justice to such a question. Nevertheless, if I were to offer my opinion, I believe it had to do with simply depending upon the revelation and promises of the Lord. Jacob left Beersheba for Haran, when his father, Issac, was 138 years old, and it was believed that he wouldn’t live much longer (Genesis 27:41). Yet, there is no record of Jacob seeking to know the welfare of either his father, Isaac, or his mother, Rebekah, during the twenty years he spent in Haran. There seems to be more of a dependence upon the Lord for such things in ancient times.
The Lord promised Jacob that he would bless him and bring him back to the land of Canaan (Genesis 28:13-15). As for Joseph, he was given a dream, wherein his brethren and his father would bow before him (Genesis 37:7-10). The first part of the dream had come to its fulfillment, in that he was in the position of great authority. Therefore, it seems to me that Joseph was probably content to wait for the Lord to fulfill the latter portion of the dream, as well. It may also have to do with lessons learned. For example, God promised Abram, he would bless him and make him a great nation (Genesis 12:1-2). Yet, when Sara didn’t produce any children to Abram, they decided to “help” the Lord, so Abram went in unto Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid, and according to the law in existence at that time, Hagar’s child, Ishmael, was legally Sarai’s child. However, the Lord rejected Ishmael, in favor of giving a child to Sarai through her own body. Additionally, upon that announcement, the Lord renamed Sarai to Sarah, and commanded that her child be named Isaac.
Moreover, it was promised Rebekah that her elder son would serve the younger (Genesis 25:23). However, neither Isaac believed Rebekah’s declaration (Genesis 27:33), nor did Rebekah believe the thing would come about without her help (Genesis 27:5-10). Instead of letting the Lord fulfill his promise, she sent Jacob to Issac under guise of impersonating his brother, Esau. This was done because Isaac was about to bless Esau with his birthright (Genesis 27:1-4), but he blessed Jacob unawares (Genesis 27:28-30). Earlier, it was Jacob who swindled Esau out of his birthright, by demanding it in exchange for a bowl of lintel soup (Genesis 25:29-34).
Therefore, after three generations, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, perhaps we are able to conclude that Joseph finally learned the lesson from his family ancestry that it is simply better to allow God to be God and perform his will in his good time without interfering. Although the Lord’s will shall be done, many troubles have occurred among his servants, simply because they believed they needed to help the Lord fulfill his promises to them. The fact is, the Lord doesn’t need our help. What he desires is that we trust him to do what he says he’ll do. Joseph did that, while his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had to learn that lesson the hard way.
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