To Egypt

Good morning. We hopefully have gotten the demons out of the slide mechanism. However, we had to make a deal. They went into my voice. So hopefully, I feel fine. I'm not sure my voice does, so we'll see if we make it through here. We're moving on in our study of Genesis and now into chapter 46.

Just to kind of catch us up with what's going on here, the family of Jacob had packed all their wagons and everything to head back up. And, of course, they didn't have a cell phone, so they couldn't call Jacob ahead. They just had to let him know when they got there. This was all these wagons and animals are all about. You're moving to Egypt.

And by the way, your son Joseph, who you thought was dead, he's alive. And we have a few other things to explain, too. So they made their way back to where Jacob and the rest of the family was located. And you can understand, of course, why Jacob was rather shocked, because that was a lot to absorb. By the way, Your son Joseph, who you thought was dead for 20 years, he's not only alive, he's number two man in power in Egypt. And you're going to go live with him. So this is quite a shock. He finally does accept it and so he's headed back, as this chapter begins, headed back with the rest of the family towards Egypt. And it goes like this. Starting here in verse 1, Jacob, who is also called Israel, begins by offering sacrifices.

The Bible doesn't give us a whole lot of detail about the trip back to Egypt or from Egypt to Canaan. Packing the wagons, even though there are about 70 people going on this trip. And it may even have been some Egyptians that came along to help out. A lot of things take place, but no real detail on that.

However, what the Bible does detail is where Jacob stops along the way. And just to kind of give us a map here, here's Beersheba, where Jacob stops in order to make sacrifices to the Lord. It's kind of like, this is sort of the last of the land of Canaan before you head out into this desert area between there and Egypt. And so he has stopped there.

He offers sacrifices. What's interesting is altars are built, offerings given. Jacob is the first one in the book of Genesis to offer sacrifices. He offers sacrifices at the same place where his father Isaac had built an altar. and where Isaac's father Abraham had called upon the name of the Lord. This is the place where he called upon the everlasting God.

So this is not only kind of the southern end of Canaan, but it's also a place of great significance for Jacob's father, Jacob's grandfather. So now we get to a question about God's will in this passage too, and we'll see why that comes up. But you start to think about it for a little bit, Jacob has some significant questions about God's will. And let's take a look at why that would be.

Jacob knew that Canaan was a promise first to Abraham. Remember, that was given not by name, but by the land that I will show you way back in Genesis 12. Way back when he said, this land that I will show you, I'm going to give it to you and your descendants. So here's the land. That promise was repeated to Jacob's father Isaac. And he wants to make sure that leaving that land for Egypt is okay. He said, we've had now the third generation of promise, this is the land.

You're sure you want me to leave here? I mean, not just for a little trip, but to move everybody down here. Besides that, we're talking 70 people now we're moving down there. This is quite a client we're getting. Are you sure you want me to do that? So you can begin to see why he would have questions in his mind. What's the right thing to do here? I mean, this all looks like the right thing to do in some respects, but is it really?

Certainly, as believers, we ought to be careful to seek out God's will as well. To really ask, is this what God wants? Is this what God has in mind for my life? Is this really what God intends? Fortunately, as with Jacob, the Lord has revealed a great deal in his word to give us guidance and understanding of his will. There are even passages that spell out, this is the will of God.

And we'll take a look at one or two of those as we walk through the passage here this morning. There's something else that's happening. Jacob is leaving everything that's familiar, realizing that lifetimes are a little different now than they were then.

This guy, as we'll find out later, is 130 years old, okay? That's not exactly the time when you start out on grand adventures, right? It's not exactly the time when you say, hey, let's move to a different continent, okay? So there's a tendency for people as they get in their later years, certainly not a rule, but a tendency to be reluctant to move away from what's familiar to them as they get older.

And so for Jacob to make this big adjustment, it's got to be one of those things, I've got to be really sure that this is what God wants. I can't just go and decide on a whim to move here or just because it seems like a good thing to do. I've got to make sure that this is what God has in mind. But that's the way walking by faith can be. The Lord wants us to depend upon Him, wants us to rely upon Him, and depend upon our familiarity with Him, not just our physical circumstances. Walking by faith can be that way because it's reliance upon Him. We may say, Lord, I'm not so sure about this. I've never been there. I've never done this. This wasn't something I planned. This is kind of radical.

And in fact, the Lord may call us to do things that are kind of out of our comfort zone. Why? We'll depend upon Him. That's exactly what He has in mind. Maybe exactly what He has in mind for us. The Lord may be calling us to something that is unfamiliar to us at different places in life. The other thing is about, wait a minute, where am I going? Egypt? Here's Jacob. Imagine him. He says, my grandfather went there and got into big trouble. They were really mad at him and really upset. And so my grandfather, he had trouble there.

In fact, the Lord just told Isaac directly, do not go down to Egypt. Don't go there. Now you're telling me that that's what I'm supposed to do? Or at least that's what I think you're telling me. Jacob had, after all, been told that the land that he was in was the one God intended. Every indication we've had is Egypt is a place to stay away from. It's trouble or you just said don't go there. Are you sure you want me to go there?

So he had every reason to double check the invitations. The invitations had come from his son Joseph. The invitation had come actually from Pharaoh. It was Pharaoh's orders to send these wagons along. So the Egyptians were saying, yeah, come along. They were giving the invitation. Does that mean it's right? Does that mean that's what God wants? Let me ask you this question. If the circumstances are right, if the door is open, does that mean it's God's will? Maybe, maybe not.

He really needed to make sure. He needed to think about his own feelings. On the one hand, I get to see Joseph. I get to be with Joseph. We've been struggling through two years of famine, and from what I hear, we've got five years more to go, and this is one nasty famine. It'd sure be nice to have this off my back. Feelings, invitation, circumstances, all those things. Lord, I want to check all this. What do you have in mind?

I'm not so sure. The Hebrew word that's used there for sacrifices is used for two things, vows and thanksgivings. From the context, it's a little hard to know exactly what sort of a vow he might have made. So the likely thing from the context is thanksgiving.

After all, think about it. The Lord restored his relationship with Joseph when we thought he was dead. and providing for his family through the famine. Certainly two years we've been provided from Joseph, not knowing it was him. And now it looks like five years more of famine, we're going to be provided some more. So certainly there's a lot to thank the Lord for.

What becomes apparent, though, as we step into the next verse, though, is there's more to it than just thanksgiving. Even we as believers, when we're asking about and seeking God's will, wondering what's next in our lives. God, what do you have in mind? What do you want, Lord? Thanksgiving is the right response to God's gracious blessings and to seek His blessings even more. Yeah. Thanking the Lord is a good place to start. Lord, what do you want me to do next? How do you start off with the, Lord, what do you want me to do next? Thank Him. How about that? Thank Him. Lord, I don't know what the next step is, or I at least feel like I need to double-check it, but starting off by thanking Him is a good way to go.

Lord, look how You've been faithful before. Look how You provided before. Lord, You've given way beyond anything I deserve. You've been merciful to me beyond imagination. Certainly, certainly, Lord, I can count upon your grace and your mercy. Thank you, Lord, for all you've done. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for every provision you've made. That's a great place to start when we're looking to have the Lord answer, what's the next step? Thank you, Lord.

As Paul wrote to the church in Colossae in chapter 3, interesting, he just packed in thankfulness into three verses in verses 15 through 17. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, that word there means umpire in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom and teaching, admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That means, by the way, that our worship time together is a teaching and admonishing.

With thankfulness in your hearts to God. Notice the thankfulness isn't just something you put on the outside. Where is it? In your hearts. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Our thankfulness is a heart response to God's expressions of a wealth of grace and riches of his grace toward us. Let's look at another one. First Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18.

Rejoice always. Wait a minute. Rejoice when? Always? Oh, wait a minute. Always? Yes, it says always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. Now, wait a minute here. There are some circumstances that just don't call for that, right? Or do they? In everything give thanks. Why would you do that? What sense does that make? But Lord, I have questions. That's okay. Give thanks. Lord, what just happened hurts. Yeah, give thanks then too.

It was about some 17 years ago that I came down with Lyme disease and the impacts were just horrific. I felt like a truck had backed up over my arm. Here I was working in an engineering office and I could not remember the names of the guys I'd worked with for several years.

I'd be in the middle of a conversation with a client and it was suddenly like somebody cut the cord. I couldn't remember who I was talking to or what I was saying. So I just hung up because I figured nothing else to do. Can you imagine asking the client what you were talking about and who are you?

And that was just the start. There was one symptom after another. I remember one time talking to Nancy, and she was across the room, and just in the middle of a conversation, I just started going over. The balance started losing. Every two weeks, something happened. But I can remember thanking the Lord for that, for the things he was teaching me through it. In everything give thanks.

Our living of life is to be centered, be sprung from rather, and to be motivated by thankfulness for God's marvelous mercies and His most amazing grace. Notice what that says? For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. You want to know what God's will is? Certainly we want to know whether to buy the blue Chevy or the green one, okay? But this is no question about it. God's will.

Thankful in all things. Thankful in everything. In everything He thinks. So now the Lord is, as Jacob is giving thanks, and probably in the back of his mind he's thinking, am I doing the right thing? I'm taking my family down to Egypt. My father was told, don't go there. Am I doing the right thing?

And the Lord says, Jacob, Jacob! Now, any of you who have kids, or have had kids, know why the Lord would call twice. You know how that goes. God calls out Jacob's name twice, as he did with Abraham. This might be particularly something, I think, Genesis 22 is, Abraham, Abraham, don't kill your kid. Here's with Moses and the burning bush, with Samuel when he was small, with Martha, and when Paul, named Saul then, was stopped on the road to Damascus. Saul, Saul. So he calls out Jacob's name twice.

It's clear here that God's communication with Jacob is very personal. specifically with and for him. He didn't say, hey, somebody. No, it's Jacob. And by the way, just in case you're not sure, Jacob. Jacob responds as others did before him. This is what Abraham said. Others responded similarly.

Here I am. I'm sure the Lord doesn't need to know that to know where He is, but that's what He said. God identified Himself. I am God, the God of your fathers. And he first starts off, do not be afraid to go down to Egypt. Tells us right off that he probably was. He says, boy, am I doing the right thing? This certainly, with the invitation, we get food for the whole family. I get to see my son Joseph. But I'm not so sure about this. Ever been afraid of something? Have you ever been not quite sure, is this what God has in mind?

As we go through scripture, we've seen it, and as you continue through the Bible, you'll see more. God or his agents, the angels, tell people in the Bible not to be afraid. Actually, dozens of times. Close to four dozen, I think. Don't be afraid. These passages are there for a couple of different reasons.

One is we human beings need to be comforted. I think especially if you think about what some of these beings, including the appearances of the Lord himself, showed themselves as, the first thing, don't be afraid, is appropriate. If you see some being that is absolutely brilliant beyond anything you've seen on planet Earth right in front of you, yeah, don't be afraid is completely appropriate. So as human beings, yeah, sometimes we need comforting, sometimes because the being we're looking at is startling beyond all description. But the other reason is we need to trust God for one of two things. Either what's next in our life or what He's going to have us do next. What God's going to bring into our lives and bring about in our lives or for what He is going to have us do.

Those are the things where it's very important here to not be afraid. Don't be afraid even though you're going to do this. Don't be afraid even though I'm going to do this in your life. You imagine, just take it for instance, here's Mary, early teens probably, Jewish girl, small town, All of a sudden, an angel shows up. Mary, don't be afraid.

You're going to get birth to the Messiah. You know, the one that's been promised for centuries and centuries? Yeah, you. And you're not going to be doing it as a result of any normal human birth. This is going to be extraordinary. Don't be afraid. That kind of thing.

The very last time it shows up is one we've looked at in the Revelation elective. Christ tells the Apostle John, do not be afraid, in Revelation 1, 17-19, when he saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he placed his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid.

I am the first and the last. That's the same form of I am as shows up In this passage we're studying in Genesis as the one that shows up where Moses is at the burning bush. That I am. Okay? I am the living one and I was dead and behold I'm alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and of Hades. Therefore write the things you have seen, the things which are, the things which will take place after these things.

Don't be afraid because of who I am. You don't need to be afraid. Don't be afraid because of what I've done. You don't need to be afraid. Don't be afraid for the things that I'm going to ask you to do. You can trust me for the whole thing. Will it be scary? Yep. Will it be overwhelming? Yep. Will it be difficult and uncomfortable at times? Yep. But don't be afraid. So his promise was not, oh, it's going to be real easy, a piece of cake. You won't have anything unusual or disturbing happen. No, that's not the promise. The promise is don't be afraid because of who I am. Don't be afraid because of what I've done. Don't be afraid, not because you don't have fearful circumstances, but don't be afraid because I am the Lord.

And you know, we're in that spot right now as a country. We've got some things that, frankly, there are some people that are afraid of things. And they might have some good reason to be afraid from an earthly standpoint. But this is the perfect message for us right here, right now, isn't it? This is what we need to hear and understand.

Don't be afraid. Do you know who the Lord is? Do you know what He's done? As we'll see as we go through this passage, the Lord is with us all the way. Let's move on. Here in verses 3 and 4, he said, I am God. Again, this is that special form. The God of your father.

Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt. I will make a great nation there. I will make you a great nation. I will go down with you to Egypt. I'm going to fulfill my promises. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to bring you up again. Joseph will close your eyes. Joseph the one. You're not just going to go see him for a short period of time. You're going to be there. He's going to be with you to the end, to the last days of your life. Count on it.

God had promised Abraham, this is way back again to Genesis 12, that he would make a nation of him, of a great nation. God would remain faithful to that promise and continue it through Jacob as he went down to Egypt. He says, you're going to go down to Egypt?

And don't worry, I'm still going to be faithful to that promise. It's going to happen. Don't worry. I've got it under control. God would be faithful to Jacob by being with him as he goes to Egypt. I'll be with you. Do you know what that means? With you.

As believers, we can count upon God's promised presence in everything that we do. Whether you're changing diapers, or changing lanes, or changing countries, or changing continents, God will be with you each step of the way. We've got some real question marks out in front of us. as a nation, even around the world? Real question marks. But you know what? Every single believer here this morning can take this with them as they walk out the door. God is faithful. God is with you. So Joseph's family journeys to Goshen to live through the famine and the time afterwards. 70 people moved to Egypt there. Verses 5 through 27 give Jacob's family tree. The two sons of Judah are listed, but their deaths are noted.

These are the ones that we studied in chapter 38. A daughter and a granddaughter are also named Dinah, whom we've looked at before. And a new one, Sarah, slightly different spelling, pronounced similarly. And the other daughters and granddaughters are counted, but are not named, which means that these two, Dinah, Genesis 34, and Sarah, are both considered significant. What's interesting is Sarah is not described as to why she's significant in the Bible. We just know that her name is significant. And here's something interesting.

The Bible, in the way things are recorded, is biased towards the males in terms of the males' names are listed whether they're decent guys or not. The females are listed when they're notable. But I think there's a silver lining to that, and that is the guys get listed whether they're decent or not. The women, if they're listed by name, they're notable. What's interesting is that the traditions written outside of the Old Testament are that Sarah, that's S-E-R-A-H, was one who was particularly godly and virtuous. And the traditions are that she was a very notable woman.

So that's interesting. If that is indeed the case, that would support existence of the name here. You have on page two of your handout in the middle of it this listing of the names that are given and kind of a summary of all those that went either by name or by number and certainly by tribe that were the beginnings of the tribes of Israel. And I'll let you take a look at it. Looking through it, I thought it was kind of interesting. Here's names like Muppim and Huppim and Ard. I was thinking of Winken and Blinken and Nod, but I just, I don't know.

So now as they get to Egypt, here is this long overdue family reunion, especially Jacob with Joseph. And you can imagine, after a couple of decades plus of each not knowing what the other is thinking, other than knowing that Jacob thought Joseph was almost certainly dead, Joseph had no idea what his father had been told. And he wasn't sure, we can know that from the question he asked last week, is my father still alive? If his father was alive after more than two decades.

So here's this family reunion taking place after a long period of time. You can imagine all the pent-up emotions and longings and everything that are expressed that day when they met. And you had a lot of catching up to do. Oh, by the way, this has happened to me over the last two decades. By the way, you need to meet your two grandsons here. Wow. Really? Yeah, yeah. And my wife, too. You've got to meet her. Her? Wow. And by the way, Joseph hasn't met most of the 70. that are in this train here.

So there's a whole bunch of introductions to be done the first time. And how did this come about? Where did you ever come up with the name Muppin and Huppin? So there's a whole bunch of things to be explained here, and I'm sure it's one of those things where you can't pour it out in one day.

Discoveries to be made all along the way. You can imagine this interesting combination of relief. Wow, we're finally in a place where we got this food issue taken care of and we're not on the edge of starvation every day. Finally, at the end of a long journey, the start of a new life in a brand new land for most of them there. A whole bunch of things all happening at once.

Finally, the chapter finishes off last few verses with Joseph is considering, OK, let's see, my family consists of shepherds. And Egyptians don't like these foreign shepherds so much. So Joseph says, well, just tell them you're keepers of livestock. That'll be the truth, but specifically not shepherds. That's one that was bad. The reason is shepherds tended to live with the sheep. They tended to smell a lot like them. People didn't care for shepherds, even in the New Testament times that was true. So he just gives them a little, you know, when in Egypt, you know, live as the Egyptians do and just tell them you're a keeper of livestock. I want to come back to this point that we brought up earlier.

God is faithful and God is with you. One of the things I think is important to take a look at here, God's character doesn't change through all eternity. God is not going to say, I love you, and then some morning, I'm not so sure. God is not fickle. God's character is not changed to eternity. He loves us with a sacrificial love, an I'm willing to die for you kind of love, and He always will. His character is unchanging. He's a God of grace on into eternity. God is one who will do what He says He's going to do.

Do you know why we're still here on this planet? Do you know why we can even meet here in a building here this morning? Well, there may be a bunch of reasons, but one reason is because of that promise that God made to Abraham back in Genesis 12. That's been 4,000 years ago roughly, okay? And we're still here. God has not wound everything up. Why? Because He still will be faithful to the promises He made to Abraham. He will. That's one very big reason why we're here. What God says He will do, He most certainly will do. We can count on it.

We are always who we are in Him. And we're joined to Him. And that's not something that's going to slip out of being our condition, being our position. He is always who He is in us. The Lord dwells in us. And He is always that. It is His unchanging character that dwells in each of us who believe. All of the ministries of God to us are active all the time. Always. Always active all the time. The Holy Spirit is carrying out multiple ministries in your life right now as a believer all the time.

We can count upon Him as strange things happen. We look at the economic and political situation and we say, boy, this is what I'm used to. That's true. But God knows about it and He's not changing, even if the economy is. God recreated us in Christ Jesus for continuing, for ongoing intimate fellowship with Him. That is His intent.

All of what we've talked about here is not part of some big mechanism where we pull the levers and push the buttons and flip the switches. This is not mechanical. This is personal. Remember how the Lord called out to Jacob, Jacob, Jacob? Personal. And that's the same way the Lord intends it to be with us. The Lord desires ongoing intimate relationship with us. And by the way, that's through whatever's down the road in our economy. That's through whatever's down the road in terms of our political situation. God is faithful in that, and that faithfulness includes His desire and intent for us to be in continuing intimate relationship and fellowship with Him. God desires that we depend upon Him and have fellowship with Him. We referred earlier to this Colossians 3 passage, I'd like to zero in on the first part of verse 16. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Let's put that richly dwell. Let's put in there, make its home. May Christ make his home within you.

What's it like when you move into a place and you make yourself at home? You make yourself comfortable? You make your own mark in the home. You make it your own place, don't you? You know it's every turns. Almost to the point where you can walk through the hallways and into the rooms without turning the light on. Almost. You make yourself at home in that place.

Well, that's what God intends for the Word of Christ, the Lord Himself. to be in us, for the Lord to make Himself at home in us. Will we, in this world, end up in strange places? Probably so. Probably so. But in the midst of that, as this world perhaps even gets more strange all the time, God intends that Christ make Himself at home in our hearts. that our intimate walk with Him characterize our lives, as this world gets more and more strange.

That's what God intends, whether we're changing diapers, changing lanes, changing countries, or changing continents. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this chapter, certainly huge, huge change in the life of Jacob and all his family. Massive change. But in the midst of that, you are constant. You are unchanging. You are reliably loving, reliably gracious, reliably merciful.

And Lord, we pray that you would teach our hearts those truths today, in the week ahead of us, and then in the days to come. And Lord, we thank you for all that we can count upon in who you are and what you've done. And we ask, Lord, that you would indeed make yourself at home. May you dwell richly in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.