Settled in Goshen
Genesis 47 · Vern Peterman · Mar 15, 2009
Genesis, No. 57
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926127316531

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Before we step into our passage here in Genesis, I'd want to bring a few things to your attention for your thoughts here. Yeah. These are some things we're thinking about looking ahead towards in the next quarter. So we'd appreciate your thoughts and input. constructive criticism if you think that's appropriate. We're looking at another single seminar like we had last year. We've invited some basketball players from CCU to join us. And so that's one of the possibilities there.

We actually offered four times the marriage seminar last year, and we're thinking of offering that once more, but also adding on part two, what Christ's love looks like in the marriage relationship, and giving a little bit more kind of detail and explanation and substance of that. There was a coupon class that was held a couple weeks back. I think there were roughly 20 or so that attended that and looking at a possible follow-up meeting for that. Before stepping into 1 and 2 Corinthians after completing this Genesis series, which will be done the first Sunday of next month, looking at a short series on the life of the body here at Holly Hills, and also considering another trip to Uganda to teach pastors and teachers there. Students, there are about 120 there, and I've been invited back to speak, so anyway, looking at that as a possibility. So anyway, your thoughts, prayer for wisdom, input, those are all welcome here. Now, let's step into our passage. We're moving into Genesis 47. Randy read the first six verses there for us.

And imagine the change that has taken place. Here is Jacob with his family moving back to Egypt now. They had been through a two-year period of time not realizing that this famine still had five years left to go. Moving into this period of time where they were anticipating what's next. How are we going to make it? And now The first two years have been behind them, and they had been attempting to buy food to survive. As it turns out, Joseph, whom none of them knew previously was their brother, had had the money put back in their sack. So that's why I say attempted to buy food from Egypt.

Now that both Joseph and Pharaoh, with some additional offerings and invitations, had invited them, they were now offered to live in the best part of Egypt. Pharaoh offered them also the opportunity, as Randy read here, to work with the livestock if they have capable people. We know from historical records that Pharaoh actually had several thousand people under his employ working with the Pharaoh's own livestock. So this would be adding to the force that was working with his own livestock. This would allow them in moving to Egypt to grow in numbers and provide certainly for all their families.

As you step into verses 7 through 12, here's one of the interesting things that happens. Jacob blesses Pharaoh. You say, wow, that's kind of extraordinary. Yes, it is. Joseph figures that, hey, this introduction of his family into Egypt is really going well. And as a matter of fact, we're on a roll here. So as he sees the opportunities in front of him, he says, hey, I'll introduce my father to Pharaoh. So he introduces Jacob to Pharaoh, and Jacob blesses Pharaoh.

It actually says so twice, verse 7 and 10. And you might say, well, what does that mean? The word for blessing there has several possible uses. So in context, it likely means a couple of things. Jacob speaks well of Pharaoh. Probably you can understand that here. Pharaoh has been offering a great deal to Joseph's family, Jacob's family.

And so speaking well of him, but also wishing God's blessing on Pharaoh. Can you wish God's blessing on somebody who isn't a believer? Well, at least materially, yes. The ultimate blessing would be if they would come to believe, right? So Jacob blesses Pharaoh. Pharaoh then asked Jacob, how many years have you lived? I could guess that Pharaoh's looking at Jacob and saying, boy, that guy is an old codger, right? And, but he wouldn't quite put it that way. How many years have you lived?

You've obviously got a few under your belt there. And so, Jacob begins counting. Okay, one, two, three, gets all the fingers out, right? Okay. Jacob tells Pharaoh that he's lived 130 years, but they've been few and unpleasant. So lots of years, but you got to Cut back on that assessment a little bit because they've not been that many, at least not as many as his father's, and they've been rough. Rough. The not as many as his father's thing, that's about right.

Here's Jacob, who ultimately at this point in time, though he's 130, is going to live 17 more years. He doesn't know that yet, but that's what we know. Abraham had lived 175 years. Isaac 180. And Jacob's feeling like, I'm 130 and I'm getting close to the end. So they've been rough and they've been few. Now here's Jacob at 130.

It turns out that it had only been ten years before that he had buried his father Isaac. It turns out that at 130, only having buried his own father ten years earlier, he's feeling pretty old. But the Lord is going to bless his later years, at least with a whole lot better conditions, and I think some spiritual conditions improve too. Now, let's look at a summary of Jacob's life. You have this on page one, the middle of your handout there. Let's step through briefly. We won't go in immense detail. Step through briefly. Why would Jacob say that his years have been unpleasant?

Well, let's look at the big picture. He was raised by parents who were dysfunctional. Mom and Dad have a pair of twins who, by the way, wrestle on the way out. A pair of twins and Dad gravitates towards one and Mom gravitates towards the other. That's rough. That's a tough way to do things.

He stole his father's blessing by means of deception. Deception, after all, was a family tradition. He was forced to leave his family because of the hatred of Esau. Esau said, I'm going to kill that guy as soon as my father dies. And Jacob says, oh no you don't, I'm getting out of here. But that's also a rough way to live, to have to leave. He spent years in exile serving his uncle Laban, who repeatedly cheated him.

Laban would make deals like, I tell you what, I give you a special deal. Two wives for the price of two. That's a special deal. And I'll only tell you the arrangements after we're halfway through the deal. Laban repeatedly cheated him. He planned to marry one wife and ended up with four. Boy, that's rough. And the outcome of this was continual competition and strife. And it was difficult for the wives, too.

One of the things that's very evident as we've gone through these chapters is Leah, who was a genuine wife, and actually, in fact, his first wife of the four, Leah felt unloved. As she gave birth to sons, she thought, at least He might love me for bearing Him sons. I hope that He will love me for bearing Him sons. She was even willing to have a because of kind of love, and not a I love you, just I love you love, but a because of kind of love, if at least it was some kind of love. So those times were rough.

He finally fled from his uncle, had to sneak away at night. His uncle comes chasing after him and they finally have this kind of a pact, a peace pact, if you will. I won't bother you and you won't bother me. In order to avoid any further conflict, because this was getting worse, He greatly feared on the way back to the promised land from fleeing from his uncle. He greatly feared a revenge massacre upon his whole family. And finally upon him from his brother Esau. Especially when he heard that his brother Esau had hundreds of troops at his call. He thought, oh man, we are all dust. We are toast.

His only daughter Dinah was seduced or violated there at Shechem as they got into the Promised Land. It's just the only one that's named. He lived in fear of revenge because after Dinah was violated or seduced, Two of his sons killed all the men in what appears to be a stealth attack, one of those nighttime sneak in one by one kind of deals.

He lost shortly after his favorite wife, Rachel, at a young age. She was bearing Benjamin, her second child. She was alive just long enough to name him and then died. Four wives, tough time with them. The one he cared for the most dies young. His oldest son, Reuben, lay with one of his concubines.

That's Bill, huh? A real violation of trust and a real disgusting character. His favorite son Joseph was tragically lost and presumed dead. Of course, we know that he was in fact deceived. Jacob was deceived by his oldest sons, which I'm sure later on was a tough thing to swallow. Because in fact, Joseph was not killed as they had deceived him, but was sold off as a slave.

He had, up until the very time before what we're looking at this morning, been on the verge of losing everything in this worldwide famine. We're going to buy this and buy this and buy this food and pretty soon we'll be all spent. Then what will we do? We will have given them everything we can. At best, we'll end up being slaves to the Egyptians. Jacob's life had indeed been a hard life, hadn't it? He had some real rough spots. The truth is he brought a lot of troubles on himself.

In a household where deception was a family tradition. In a household where picking favorites was also a family tradition. He managed to trick his brother into selling his birthright. He managed to trick his father into giving him the blessing intended for Esau. Put some fur on the arm, make sure the dad has poor vision, can't see. So he gets the blessing intended for his brother.

He had indeed done some things that caused him problems. He had also not done the right things. It's apparent that he didn't do anything to instruct his sons. And his sons did horrible things. We've looked at some of them. Horrible things with not even a comment apparently after the fact by Jacob.

Jacob not only done things that were wrong, he had failed to do the things that were right. So he asked for a lot of the troubles he got, didn't he? Other things, however, appear to be God bringing discipline in Jacob's life to correct him regarding his errors.

It wasn't just an immediate consequence, but, for example, here's Jacob, a master of deception, with the assistance of his mother. Now he goes to be next to his Uncle Laban, and guess what Laban does? Deception. The very thing that he had done, he got back on him. The Lord did indeed bring discipline upon Jacob's life. He had in that indirect way brought troubles on himself.

Truth is for us, the Lord brings difficulties in our lives and I'll suggest in a couple of primary ways. God may indeed allow difficulties in our lives. And it's important for Christians to realize that God, and I say may indeed, go ahead and make that a strong may because James writes when. When. The Lord will bring difficulties in our lives. But the Lord does it with a view to testing us for approval. He does so with the intent of our own spiritual growth. He does so to conform us to the image of Christ. He will bring difficulties in our lives.

Those kinds of difficulties are not because we've done something wrong, but because the Lord is doing something right. See the difference? It's not a consequence of our doing wrong, but because the Lord is doing something right in our lives. He works all things together for good. It doesn't all feel good, but he works things together for good. Other difficulties may be corrective. They're either a direct consequence of the wrong action, or it may be God's discipline. God working things in such a way that we're disciplined, even if it's not a direct consequence.

So really, as a believer, one thing that we can put confidence in, we do not encounter any difficulty for nothing. Every difficulty in our lives is for a purpose. And that's a good thing to be able to count on, isn't it? Every difficulty is for a purpose. God allows no senseless difficulties into the life of a Christian. None. That's good. The other thing is God can make changes late in life. Do you notice that?

Here he is, 130 years old, and Jacob comes to Egypt, speaks to Pharaoh. The way he talks, it sounds almost as if life is just about over. I've lived few years, fewer than my father's. Well, his life isn't done, but it sounds like he thinks it's close to done. Jacob would live another 17 years, and in fact, those would be peaceful and uneventful. They would be provided for.

Some of the greatest of Jacob's heartaches and personal failings would find some real resolution and restoration in the last years of his life. He spent more than two decades aching over the loss of his son, Joseph. Now Joseph was with him. to his very last days. And the Lord had even assured him, Joseph will be there to the very end to even close your eyes in death. Joseph will be there. These sons of his, they had been so treacherous as to sell Joseph off as a slave. That would be resolved. He would see Joseph forgive. Forgive his brothers.

Many of these things that had been at tension, all the years where he'd lived life out of deception, all those things would come to a place where they're behind him. And after all, as we talked about last week, he had even gotten clear indication that the Lord actually did want him to be there in Egypt. So his presence there was not in question. He knew from the Lord Himself, yeah, I'm supposed to be here.

A lot of things would be restored and resolved. Things would finally be at peace. Problems that had nagged him for decades, over a century even, would now be at a place where those are resolved. We ourselves need not give up hope. And I think that's one of the things that we see from this. Ever been in a situation where you look at it and you say, oh heavens, there's no hope. Well, maybe there is. Maybe there is. Okay? Maybe there is. Ever been through a situation in life where you look back on it and you say, oh heavens, what I did or what I didn't do? And finally to see it resolved.

When I was in high school, I played football on track. I was very busy. I was the editor of the annual for my senior year, student body vice president, class officer three years. By the way, it's a small school, so. I was president of the local chapter of the California Scholarship Federation.

I was in choir and honor choir. I was a guitarist and singer in a rock band. It was 60s, and in those days, that wasn't oldies, okay? I did farm chores on our 80 acres and then also hired myself out working part-time for other farmers and ranchers as well. And I was selected for the California Boys State by the American Legion. Doesn't that sound like a great resume?

It was terrible. You know why? Because I depended on those things. I looked at those things. Doing things, that's what really counts in life. Doing stuff. Oh, good things, but doing stuff, that's what really matters. Nancy and I got married, oh, about three and a half years out of high school. And about the first 15 and a half years, Nancy had to put up with my really feeling like I had to do things, lots of things. If my kids were to spend time with me, at least a good chunk of that had to be while I was studying for my next degree.

And the next one, and the next one. But the truth is that after 15 and a half years, ding, the light went on. It wasn't too late. Was there some catching up to do? Yeah. Did I apologize to every single family member for the husband and father that I had been or not been? Yeah, I did. But it can change late, and the Lord can do things late in life.

My dad's mother, my grandmother on my dad's side, lived into the latter half of her 80s. And she had grown up, her family background was atheism and Christian science. When presented with the gospel, and there were various family members that tried to do that, she would just clam up. She wouldn't respond or even be antagonistic, just absolute dead quiet. She would shut her mouth, and that's the way it would stay until the subject changed, if it changed.

But about three weeks before she died, By the word of neighbors that we didn't even know were in contact with her, she came to know the Lord. And you know what? You could tell it. You could tell it. She had a look on her face I'd never seen in all her 80 plus years. Well, I didn't live around for all those 80 years, but anyway, you get the idea.

Joseph, in verses 13 through 26, is described as managing Egypt here through the rest of the famine. Basically, the way it worked out is all these people and livestock and grain and land for the rest of the time of the famine, five more years. So two years have been rough, five more years to go. The way it ends up, Pharaoh ends up owning more of Egypt than when the famine began.

But at least the people survived the famine. Because of Joseph's dream interpretation, because Joseph had said, look, you're going to have a total of seven years. Been through two, count them. You got five more to go. So he manages the land, and the way it ends up is everybody ends up selling their land, animals, themselves, everything to Pharaoh. Pharaoh ends up owning it all. But at least people are maintained and survived through this. Interesting observation as you look through it, just kind of a parallel.

Through one Jew, Joseph, both Jews and Gentiles, that's non-Jews, are preserved from the worst consequences of this very severe and widespread famine. Isn't it interesting that through one Jew, Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles are preserved from the very worst consequences of the worldwide curse of sin for all those who believe? In verses 27 and 28, it sums up Jacob's last years. Jacob, also known as Israel in the passages that we've been reading, and his extended family live in the land of what is known as Goshen on the eastern part of the Nile Delta. It's over in this area approximately.

They acquired property in it and grew in number. As a matter of fact, that's what you would expect because even with the threat of the famine, The Lord had promised Jacob himself in Genesis 32, 12, God had said to Jacob, I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered. Would the famine threaten their numbers? It would appear so, but the Lord is faithful, isn't he? The Lord would provide for them through that. If the Lord promised you're going to be great in number, he's going to follow through. The Lord will provide the means.

Jacob lived there in Goshen in Egypt for those 17 years. So all of his years were 147, all totaled. But there are three chapters yet to go in order for us to finish our study, okay? 48, 49, and 50. So we're not done. We're going to continue through the first Sunday in April.

Jacob made a promise, seeing that his life was close to the end. Jacob made Joseph promise him with his hand under Jacob's thigh. That was in the tradition, the way you make a solemn pledge. You put your hand under the person's thigh. To put Jacob's body in the same burial place of his father's, that place there in Hebron, where Abraham had bought the cave, Here's Hebron, the old city. There's the place. It's got this building around it. That's the place where Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and several others, so the patriarchs are buried.

So Joseph made the promise to Jacob. Why would Jacob ask for that promise? Why would he say, this is what you've got to do? Reason being, that's the land God promised us. We may be in Egypt here for a time. We may be here because the Lord even wants us here. But ultimately, that's the land that God promised. I want to be there. Take my body to that place in the land God promised. But that's not the end of the story, is it? Three more chapters left to go. Now, we're going to shift into something that may be a little surprising, but I'm not kidding.

For any adult with significant assets and or responsibility for children, and I'm going to have also some other conditions here. And by the way, I don't expect your household looks like this, but just for fun. You should have at least these four legal documents prepared and current. This is just similar to, here's Jacob dealing with end-of-life issues, okay? These are four documents that you ought to prepare and current. If you're an adult with significant assets and are responsible with children, as we'll talk about briefly, even if you don't have significant assets or children, a couple of these would be a good idea.

A will or living trust, it's possible sometimes to make arrangements otherwise, but generally speaking, you need to make sure that that's thought through. I've been in situations where this has gone real smoothly, and I've been in situations where this has gone really badly. I much prefer the smoothly. And I suggest for the sake of your loved ones that smoothly is better. So will or living trust, some way to indicate that things are clearly taken care of. Another is a living will.

This is in the condition that you are alive but unable to make decisions or express decisions for yourself. What are the kinds of things that you want done or not done medically? A lot of times this will include things like don't take emergency measures, don't take great, you know, expense at trying to keep me alive as if just staying alive physically is all that matters. Don't do that.

Nancy's mom had one of these in place and Nancy was actually in an instance where her mom was just coming out of surgery and the doctor said, we've got a problem. We need to go right back in surgery and we can't wait until your mom wakes up. We need to get a decision right now. Because Nancy had this document to go by, she had no problem making the decision that her mom wanted. even though her mom was not out of the anesthetic. So far easier to do it that way.

The other one is a pair of documents, health care power of attorney and a financial power of attorney. One is somebody to make those decisions when you are alive but can't express yourself, can't make those decisions and let other people know. So somebody who has the power to make those decisions for you. And the financial power of attorney is if you have some prolonged period of time where you can't, you know, pay the bills handle financial matters, someone else who is trusted to deal with those.

There is also the possibility of doing what's called an advanced directive, and it may have some other names. And there's a link there that you can go and get one specific for each state, kept current, and it deals with the issues of both the living will and the health care power of attorney in one document, okay? There may be other documents you need, but I'm just telling you, if you can get these taken care of, much better. And one more thing, even if you don't have children and don't have significant assets, if you're an adult, these items right here are very important to get taken care of.

Because you could be in a circumstance where somebody needs to make those kinds of decisions and you can't. And it's a whole lot easier if it's all spelled out and somebody's been given the power, okay? There are these days some pretty good pieces of software out there. They may be appropriate for your situation if there's not too much complexity, if you don't have somebody challenging the decisions. We use those in the case of Nancy's mom and they work flawlessly, perfectly. But they're only appropriate if there's no snags, okay? If you have a situation that's complex, if you feel like you don't understand it, better see an attorney.

But I highly recommend you get that done. In being in the position of a pastor, I encountered this situation. I've seen it go smooth. I've seen it go rough. Please go for the smooth, okay? Please do for the sake of your family. You don't want to be in some midnight or 11th hour legal situation trying to get some judge to make a decision. They may not like that. Okay? And you may not get the decision you want in the time you want. Okay? So far better to have dealt with these issues. So I highly recommend that you do so. I'm not an attorney, but I'd be glad to talk to you about it some more afterwards if you'd like. Let's get this guy off our screen. All right.

The end of this chapter and the next three deal with what's important. They're all three. of the next chapters, as well as the end of this one, talking about the end of Jacob's life. These are end-of-life kinds of issues that come up. This time in life brings them to consider, these are the things that are really important. It's funny how the end-of-life thing is, isn't it?

It gets you to really assess what's important, what really matters, what counts, I know when I had been diagnosed, excuse me, when I was in the process of being diagnosed with Lyme disease, Nancy had to endure kind of what we call the disease of the week, because they didn't know what it was, and so they would come up and tell us, with Nancy present, we think Vern that you have a brain tumor, so we got to check that out. We think Vern that you have cancer of the spinal cord, and it was one and then the next, and it was always some ghastly, horrific condition. So Nancy had to sort a lot of this stuff out. And to the extent that I could handle it at the time, I tried to do that as well. But we may have these periods of time where we kind of get forced to sort out what is important.

But one of the things that we look at is one of the issues that pops up right at the end of this chapter. is Jacob's looking at what's God's promise. It's that land back there, okay? So it really comes down to, you know, what has God said? What's God's perspective on this? How does God see things? How's my relationship with Him?

We're going to see a couple chapters ahead here. Jacob will bless his sons and his grandsons in truth here. He's going to address their past. But very importantly, he's going to address their future, the future of each of his descendants, tribe by tribe. He's going to talk to them about that. The end of this chapter and the next two, we're going to deal with what's important. And think about that.

Life is kind of a lot of clocks ticking, isn't it? A lot of clocks ticking on a lot of things. And before you go very far through life, you find out that some of those clocks tick to the point where the alarm goes off, right? That's behind you. That's done. This has happened. And we find we're in the middle of this time passage here, okay? As time is passing, it's passing for us. We're right in the middle of those kinds of important decisions.

And what I would, out of this passage, encourage in your own life is to consider, what are the important things? What really does matter? And obviously, you know, life moves along quickly. But taking the time to think about those kinds of things, what really does count? Those are important things to do.

And in the end, it's funny how it turns out, for believers, it ends up, how's my relationship with the Lord? Well, if it's going to matter then, shouldn't it matter now? How about the people I love and care about? How are they doing? How's my relationship with them? Do I have any bridges to unburn? Do I have any holes to patch up? And what's their spiritual standing? What's the spiritual standing of the people that I love and care about?

Yeah, Jacob's dealing with those kinds of assessment issues. What's really important after I've spent 130 years on the planet? I haven't spent anywhere near that. But still, it's pretty easy to see in this passage. Thinking about what's important even now does matter. You don't have to wait till you're 130 years old.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you've spelled out for us what is important. We thank you that you've drawn our attention to what really matters. We thank you that you've told us what's truly valuable. And when the years of life pass and things come to pass, how good it is to know what really counts. We thank You that out of Your love for us, You've revealed those things.

And we just would pray for hearts that would listen to that and minds that would think about those things in the rush and the hurry and the bustle of life. Certainly there are things to get done. But Lord, draw to our hearts the moments, the times to think about what is important, about our relationship with you, our fellowship with you, our fellowship with one another, and the relationships that we have here on planet Earth, the people whose lives you've entrusted to us. And we just ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.