1.
God Provides for His People
·
God had given
Joseph great favor with Pharaoh and all of his servants.· This spoke not only to the kind providence of God but also to the kind of employee and example that Joseph must have been.
· God had given Joseph great favor with the upper class and lower class alike and this was evidence of God’s kind providence through Joseph’s faithfulness and diligence.
· For the Christian, we not only pray for the favor and Providence of God, we also are to walk in a manner that is worthy of Him. Sometimes, God uses our faithfulness and character to be the means of His providence.
· God was using Pharaoh to provide for His chosen people
· Since God is over all and works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes, then God can use whomever He wishes to bring about His plans for His people.
· Pharaoh commands Joseph with compassion and cares for the little ones, the women and his old father specifically. He doesn’t want them to have to walk on such a long journey and he tells him to use wagons to get them.
· Notice too that he told them not to worry about bringing their things either – they would have all the best of the land.
· In Jacob’s generosity, we see the results of a fully reconciled relationship –lavish affection expressed in great generosity to his brothers and father and their families as well.
· In the midst of his kindness and God’s providential care for the covenant family through Joseph, Joseph was still a wise and faithful leader.
· Joseph wasn’t naïve – he knew that people were tempted to jealousy, arguing and comparing.
· He may have rightly assumed that they would be tempted to blame each other for how they treated Joseph or to argue about who was going to tell their father, or perhaps they would be tempted to not want to go back to Egypt, because they may not have wanted to be under their brother.
· Perhaps they were tempted to quarrel about whether to tell their father the truth about what had really happened to Joseph or fabricate a story or just claim they didn’t know.
· Whatever the case, it is notable that Joseph tells them not to quarrel along the way, just after they received great blessings
· And we need to be reminded of that as well – we can be tempted to compare what we’ve received with what others have received and allow the bitter root of jealousy to grow
· We can be tempted to blame other people for the mess we are in. And we can be tempted to not own up to our own mistakes
· Whatever the reason, we can be tempted to lash out at the very people who are closest to us – our family and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
· Often, such quarreling comes from us wanting something that we don’t have or wanting something that we think someone else has and doesn’t deserve.
· The brothers have been changed by God and made into His people but they are not fully sanctified yet by any means.
· They still had competing desires and struggled with mixed motives, like any of us do.
· Even after we’ve been made a new creation, we still need to guard against wanting our own way, being jealous and wanting the wrong things. Often this temptation comes in the midst of God’s provision.
· But such quarreling for the brothers of Joseph would have been counter-productive and it would have undermined the new-found unity that had recently been built into the sons of Israel.
· Quarreling would have got in the way of their mission and potentially divided the family. Just like quarreling with each other in our own family causes division
· When they get to their father Jacob, they tell him that Joseph is not dead. In fact, he is alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt
· But Joseph doesn’t believe them. Maybe he thinks they are trying to deceive him yet again
· As a parent of a missing child, he must have had his hopes lifted and dashed so many times over the years, to the point that he didn’t dare hope for the best any more
· Jacob displays a very human reaction at first – he is just numb and he doesn’t believe the truth.
· The same reaction happens to many people when they experience hurt or disappointment or dashed hopes year after year – there is a tendency to get numb and not believe anymore
· But then, Joseph looks around at what they had brought back and sees the new clothes and wagons and realizes that it is the only explanation that makes sense.
· Joseph sees the truth. His heart is warmed after he hears the words that Joseph spoke and as his spirit is revived, he determines to go see Joseph before he dies.
· But before Jacob goes, he goes to worship God.
· He goes to check with God to make sure he can leave the Promised Land.
· He spent so many years outside of the Promised Land and experienced hardship because he was slow to come back into the Promised Land.
· So now, he must have been hesitant to leave the land that God had told him and his father and grandfather to live in.
· It was the place where God had promised to bless him and make him into a great nation.
· He probably also remembered the terrible nightmare that his grandfather had and that had been passed down from Abraham to his own father.
Genesis 15:13-14 13 Then the LORD said to Abram,
"Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is
not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four
hundred years. 14 But I will
bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out
with great possessions.
·
Jacob understood
that Egypt would be the last place he ever lived, especially if he had to be
there at least 5 more years to wait out the famine.· He probably had figured out that it would be in Egypt where God would fulfill his revelation to Abraham that his family would be sojourners in a foreign land for 400 years
· The question of whether or not he could really do this and whether he really should go must have crossed his mind. It says,
· God was calling Israel, He was calling His chosen people to follow Him into Egypt
2.
God calls His people to follow Him.
·
God called Jacob to
go Egypt. This is something we don’t just see here though. · God continually calls His people to follow Him. We see early examples of this in Genesis when God called Noah and then God called Abraham to go into a land he didn’t know.
· Thousands of years later, Jesus would call His disciples to follow Him, even though He didn’t tell them where He would go specifically. They had to trust Him and follow Him.
· God calls us to follow Him as well – to trust Him and follow Him – even though we may not know where it will lead us.
· Israel knew Egypt wasn’t his final destination and he must have wondered why they needed to be in Egypt for so long
· Egypt represented all that was antithetical to the land he had been called to. It was a completely foreign, completely pagan, very decadent nation. They did not know God there and they weren’t interested in God either.
· But Jacob knew that even though he would likely die in Egypt, it wasn’t his family’s true Promised Land – it wasn’t the place where the people of Israel ultimately belonged.
· If you are a Christian, then this world is not your final destination place. God has a promised land prepared for us.
· Jacob had a longing to be in the place where God wanted him. He wanted to be home. He wanted to be in the place where his family would grow and become great.
· Jacob likely wanted to make a lasting home for generation after generation.
· The idea of going to a foreign land and not seeing the fulfillment of the promise in his lifetime must have been daunting, disconcerting and disappointing to some degree.
God calls Jacob by name
·
But then, God spoke
beautiful, reassuring words to him in a dream.· God spoke to him and he called him by name. In fact, to make sure Jacob gets it, the Lord says his name twice.
· Jacob must have been concerned about how in the world it would all work out. It was difficult to see how God’s promises were true and how it all made sense. Life had not turned out as he thought it would.
· We read in Genesis 35, that it was in Bethel that God said to Jacob “The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you."
· But now, it seemed as if he wouldn’t have the land at all. So God calls his name twice and tells him that He is the same faithful God that was faithful to Jacob’s dad. he said, "I am God, the God of your father”
· Jacob could trust God. God knew Jacob and God was the same one who had been faithful to Isaac as well. If God sustained Abraham and Isaac, surely He would do the same for Jacob.
· God tells Jacob not to be afraid
3.
God tells His people to not be afraid
·
God told Jacob to
not be afraid because he would make him into a great nation there.· Jacob didn’t need to worry about going into the unknown, about leaving all that he held dear behind and going into a pagan land, because God would make him into who he needed to be there, and Go would make him into a great nation, even if he never saw it happen in his lifetime.
· We may not understand and see all that God is doing in this lifetime, but God is in things for the long-haul and we can trust Him and not be afraid, even if what He has promised doesn’t come to fruition for us right away.
· We don’t know what God may be up to in our family, in our children or our children’s children 400 years from now.
· Ultimately, this life is not all about us. It is about God working in and through us to accomplish His purposes, even though they may seem slow to us sometime.
· Jacob had faith in God – he had faith in the unseen. We too can believe in the unseen and leave a legacy for our descendants.
· The second thing that God tells Jacob is that He Himself will down with him into Egypt.
· That is remarkable! This is the same kind of language that we saw in the garden when God Himself walked with Adam. God’s very presence would be with Jacob in Egypt.
· There could be no more secure guarantee than God Himself with Jacob.
· All else will fail but God will never fail. Circumstances will be too much for us at times but they are never too big for God. No one can hold back His arm and no one can resist His plans.
· We can trust God’s mighty arm to be with us, even if it means being under circumstances that don’t seem to make sense to us.
· Then, God tells Jacob a third reason why he doesn’t need to be afraid.
· God said, and I will also bring you up again – even though he would die in Egypt – even though Joseph’s hand would close his eyes there, God would bring him up again.
· If you are a Christian, God promises that he will one day lead us to our home country, the country we have never seen. The place we have been longing for our entire lives.
“It was the Unicorn
who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right forehoof on the
ground and neighed, and then cried: “I have come home at last! This is my real
country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life,
though I never knew it till now…” C.S
Lewis, The Last Battle
·
This land, this
country and this present earth are not our final destination place. · In one sense, Egypt wasn’t where Jacob belonged ultimately, even though it was right where he needed to be.
· In the same way, this world and the circumstances you may find yourself in are not where you belong ultimately, but if you are one of God’s adopted children, you can trust that He has you right where you need to be, even though we may not understand it or see how it will all work out.
· You may not understand why you are living in Egypt – the place that God has for us before He takes us back into the Promised Land.
· God used Egypt to mature, strengthen and prepare His people and make them into a great and mighty nation.
· In a similar manner, God uses the place and circumstances to which He has called each one of us, to strengthen us and cause us to grow. And we shouldn’t be afraid and we shouldn’t despise being in Egypt.
· You have been given good reasons to not be afraid to go where God calls you. He will be with you – He will make you into who you need to be and He will bring you up again.
Jacob is faithfully obedient.
·
God led Jacob
through the famine, Pharaoh, His providence and His Word. Then, God called
Jacob to step out in faith and obey.· And we can see from chapter 46:5 through to chapter 47:12, that God honors Jacob and Joseph and his family’s faithful obedience.
4.
God Honors Faithful Obedience
·
Verses 5-28 tell of
the chosen family’s migrations. It gives a list of all of the names of his
sons, to show that they were completely obedient.· It also lists all these names to show us what a comparatively small group they were to begin with.
· They were not yet a nation but God would use Egypt to make them a nation.
· The point is to show that they all faithfully obeyed God
· In chapters 46 & 47, we can see that God honors their faithful obedience.
· We see the incredible reunion of Jacob and his son Joseph in chapter 46, verses 29 and 30
· God honored Jacob’s obedience with a sweet reunion with his son.
· Then in the last verses of chapter 46, Joseph gives his brothers instructions about how to speak with Pharaoh.
· He tells them to tell Pharaoh that they are shepherds, because the Egyptians hated shepherds and he knew that Pharaoh would make sure they were settled in a land good for raising animals but also away from the Egyptians
· Joseph acts wisely. He is not foolish in the way he lives and obeys God.
· God didn’t give all the details about how to live and what to say – God expected them to act wisely and gave them the wisdom to be able to carry it out on their own.
· Just like God doesn’t tell us exactly how to live in detail but He does give us wisdom and expects us to use our brains and live in a wise manner.
· He expects us to act prudently with our bosses and teachers and those over us as we carry out His commands and obey Him.
· God blesses their obedient, prudent and wise response.
· They go into Pharaoh and tell him they are shepherds and then Pharaoh gives them the prime grazing land to live in – where the Egyptians would not have liked to live.
· Pharaoh not only gives them the best land, he also gave them paying jobs – he gave them jobs that would sustain them and pay their rent so to speak, while they grew their own flock.
· The Egyptians hated shepherds and it was this very hatred that kept them from intermarrying or being corrupted by the culture around them.
· God honored the family’s faithful obedience. God would use Egypt to shelter them and keep them from being defiled in Canaan.
· In the end, God would use Egypt to care for them, to cause them to grow, to teach them, to make them into a mighty nation.
· God honored their faithful obedience.
Throughout all of the verses that we have covered, there is
one main idea that holds them all together:
Main Idea: God enables His people to do what
He calls them to do.· He called them to obey. He called them to follow Him and then He enabled them.
· God spoke words of comfort to them and He promised to be with them. He promised to bring them again into the land they always longed for.
· God provided for them. He blessed them. He sheltered them. He would cause them to grow
· God does the same for His people today. God calls to us to follow Him.
· If you are not a Christian yet or if you are unsure, you can respond to Him as He calls your voice.
· God calls each of us by name. He calls us to stop focusing on being so busy with so many things – stop worrying about this life and trying to make your own destiny.
· He calls to you by name. He is speaking words of comfort and peace.
· He tells you to not be afraid to leave everything you’ve known and everything you are holding onto. Don’t be afraid to leave all that you find comfort in now. Repent, turn from trusting in yourself and turn to Him and you never have to fear again.
· If you are a child of God, you never have to be afraid, because God will be with you. He will enable you to do what He has called you to do.
· This doesn’t mean life will be easy. It doesn’t mean you will be able to figure everything out.
· It doesn’t even mean that everything will make sense to you or that you will understand why He has called you to follow Him into Egypt, when it doesn’t seem good or right to you to leave the Promised land.
· He will provide for you what you need, even if through famine. He will comfort you and be with you. He will enable you and He will honor your faithful obedience.
· We all have a longing for something to satisfy us. But nothing here will truly satisfy us. No relationship, no comforts, no food or drink, no home or country.
· What we truly long for is to be with Him and that we can have in this life, as in a mirror.
· One day, for all who have placed your trust in Him, we shall see Him face to face and One day, we will say like the Unicorn in the Last Battle did,
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong
here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew
it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia [Earth], is that it sometimes looked a little like this…. Come
further up, come further in!”
Potential Application
Questions:1. God faithfully provides for His people. How has God faithfully provided for you? (financially, physically, relationally, spiritually, etc)
2. Are you tempted to doubt His provision for you because He has provided for you in a way that you didn’t expect or perhaps don’t like?
3. Are you tempted to quarrel along the way - in the midst of His provision? If so, how do we identify and put to death the desires that tempt us to quarrel?
4. What is your own “Egypt” (foreign land) that God has called you to follow Him into? (job, location, circumstances, etc.)
5. God would use Egypt to care for, protect and strengthen His people. Can you see how God might use where He has called you to follow Him, in order to care for, provide, protect or strengthen you?
6. Where are you tempted to fear the future, fear the unknown or fear present circumstances?
7. Jacob needed to be reminded that God was the God of his fathers. Where do we see God’s faithfulness through the lives of His people in Genesis?
8. How does it comfort you to know that God calls you by name and He will be with you?
9. How does it help you be at peace to know that He will bring you up again to His true promised land?
10. Where is God calling us to trust in Him and faithfully obey Him?
11. How is our journey here meant to create a longing for heaven (our true promised land)?
12. How can a heavenly perspective help us on the journey we have left here on earth?
