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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Genesis 45:16-46:27
The work of God in these brothers' lives has been so profound. They're now actually eager to return and share the glory of Joseph, when 20 years prior the glory of Joseph was the very thing that caused them such hatred and cruelty.
So this is a picture of complete transformation. They hop back down toward Canaan, and of course they're excited to tell their father of all the glory that God has granted to Joseph. Now we begin in verse 16 with this report entering the ears of Pharaoh.
Joseph's brothers have come, and it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this, load your animals and depart. Go to the land of Canaan. Bring your father and your households and come to me.
A repetition of what we saw last week, come to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. Now you are commanded, do this, take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives.
Bring your father and come. Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. We have here in these verses evidence of just how highly admired Joseph is to Pharaoh.
Pharaoh so loves and enjoys and respects Joseph that he wants to be abundantly lavish toward all that belong to Joseph. And so even though it's thick in times of famine, he promises the very best, over the top embrace of hospitality.
And that's because he knows Joseph's desire to be reunited with his father, and also Joseph's desire to preserve and protect his family through the famine. Look at this language, the best of all of the land is yours.
Just complete blank check, whatever we have that's great now belongs to you. Come to me, me personally. This is sort of an all-access VIP pass, and you have this very graphic language, the fat of the land, come and eat the fat of the land.
Remember this is a time of famine, this is a time of dry soil, this is a time of burnt and crumbling crops, and yet he says there's the fat of the land. It's an interesting expression, isn't it? How do you picture that?
Globules of fat mixed into the soil? It's saying the cream of the crop, the very best, the excess of the land, all of the best things now belong to you. Carts are sent. Pharaoh also has a mind to the aged father and the little ones, that it would be hard for them to make this difficult journey.
And so the command is given, take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, bring your father and come. Perhaps there's some exaggeration here, but I love what James Boyce says.
To return to Canaan with carts from Egypt was the cultural equivalent of landing a jumbo jet among a tribe of isolated savages. This is the stuff legends are made of. Do you remember when those carts came from Egypt?
Now, I don't think carts were all that revolutionary, I don't think they rival a 747, but the point is made. In times of famine, the last thing you'd expect to see journeying into the backwaters of Canaan would be carts loaded with food and all sorts of provisions.
Verse 21, the sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them carts according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments, but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments.
So Joseph now gives them carts and gives them all the provisions they need for their journey back to Canaan, and very significant, and it's significant just in the way it's written, is the change of garments.
Notice how it's emphasized, we have it even in the translation, he gave to all of them, again to each man, changes of garments. And so this is standing out now, what's the significance of this? Victor Matthews in a wonderful commentary on Genesis says, once they've been convinced of his true identity, Joseph gives each of his brothers gifts of new garments as evidence of his forgiveness and favor toward them.
Now if we take a step back from that and just think through the logic of garments in Scripture, this becomes a very rich symbol, a very deep symbol. Clothing from the very beginning of the Bible is a metaphor of one standing before God.
Fig leaves become the covering of guilt, but they're stripped clean and God makes garments for Adam and Eve. Think of that now being converted toward white robes in the vision of Revelation. Think of Ephesians and the wrinkles and the stains that Christ's blood purges from his bride.
Think of Colossians and the putting on and the putting off of our sinful desires. So you see this language of garments is rich with symbolism and here we have this beautiful picture of reconciliation reinforced with the idea of a change of clothes, a change of garments.
These brothers had come a very long way in a time of famine and great need to stand before Joseph. They probably had all sorts of nasty smells and stains on the garments they were wearing. They were unfit to go now as emissaries and ambassadors of Joseph back to their father.
They must have a change of clothes. They must now show forth the acceptance and the favor and the forgiveness, in short, the reconciliation they have with their brother. Remember that it was Joseph's garment, the multicolored robe that marked Jacob's special love for his son, and for that reason that robe was to these brothers the very symbol of hatred, of rage, and so they stripped it from him.
Joseph had come in this garment and they tore it from him as they threw him into the pit, and then of course Joseph, when he began to be exalted in the household of Potiphar, he again experienced being humiliated.
His clothing was stripped from him by Potiphar's Gentile wife, but here when Joseph is exalted, notice that he gives new clothing in the same way that when he had been exalted by Pharaoh, Pharaoh gave him new clothing.
It's marking a change of stature, a change of relationship. Now you are in a position of honor and acceptance and authority, and so Joseph is giving his brothers a change of clothes to show that they truly have been reconciled.
These are changed men, inwardly and therefore outwardly, and as a result of this, these brothers would be reminded almost sacramentally of the fact that our brother has accepted us, our brother has forgiven us, our brother has shown favor toward us, our brother desires to bless us.
Look at the evidence in our very clothing. That's the idea. 23, he sent to his father these things. We have this nice little itemized list. Ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt. Don't you wonder what the good things of Egypt are?
Probably leeks and cucumbers and everything that the Israelites go on to crave from the wilderness. Ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, food for his father for the journey. So not only do they have provisions to get back, they're doubled with provisions to make the return trip.
And so Joseph sent his brothers away and they departed and he said to them, see that you do not become troubled along the way. Joseph is a very wise man. That's been an emphasis, the wisdom of Joseph.
The narrative begins to intersect with wisdom literature. Joseph's life is imbued with proverbial wisdom. And Joseph, as this wise man of God, gives his brothers a very sharp warning. See that you do not become troubled along the way.
Now he doesn't mean by that. See that you choose the best route and you don't become irritated with your GPS. See that you're very mindful of the footwear because you don't want to have sores on your heels.
He's not talking about troubles, little irritations. He's talking about conflict between them. The difficulty of returning home is they have to face Jacob with the truth. Joseph is alive. What do you mean?
How could that have been? If they've confessed this much to Joseph and Joseph is going to be reunited with Jacob, there's a lot of questions to be asked and there's a lot of answers to be given. They know that they have to give a confession when they stand before their father.
And the pressure of that and the accuser in their midst, accusing them, accusing their forgiven consciences. They've been reconciled but as they begin to make this long journey back, that prowling line will come in and accuse them.
Do you know what Jacob will think of you? Do you know that once Joseph sees Jacob, he's going to be in rage against you? Do you know that they're gonna team up against you? And this isn't even really my fault.
I was just going along with the flow. It's really, it's really Simeon's fault and Levi's fault. It's where you go, they're the murderers anyway. There's going to be trouble brewing up as blame-shifting and guilt begins to work its way into their conscience, excited by the accuser, whoever stands against the brethren.
And the joy of forgiveness and reconciliation will soon fade and become something irritable and accusatory and temptations will begin to arise in their midst. And Joseph says, sin is crouching at the door, its desire is for you, but you must resist it.
You must anticipate and stand against it. Let nothing trouble you along the way. How you're feeling right now, that streamlined desire to go to your father, confess all, and bring him to me. Let nothing dissuade you or discourage you from that.
And that's very wise advice, because what happens often in these trials and vicissitudes of life is we seek to extend forgiveness, maybe even we're working toward reconciliation, and the enemy comes and all that good seed that's been sown, he snatches it up.
He seeks to break and destroy this work of grace. He seeks to kill it in its youth. He seeks to stall and to paralyze all that God would seek to do through mercy and forgiveness. Let nothing trouble you along the way.
This is a warning we need to hear, brothers and sisters. We talked last week about how we all have the ministry of reconciliation. This is the ministry we've been given. See that nothing troubles you along the way.
See that old charges and old accusations and old wounds don't crop up in your mind again and cause you to tumble backward from what God has been patiently moving you toward. Let nothing trouble you along the way.
I love what John Calvin says on this passage. We ought to imitate this kindness of Joseph, that we may prevent as much as possible quarrels and strifes, for Christ requires of His disciples not only that they should be lovers of peace, but also that they should be peacemakers.
Blessed are the peacemakers, not just people who happen to enjoy peace when it can be found, but blessed are those who actually undertake the work of making peace. Blessed are those fully engaged in the ministry of reconciliation.
Wherefore, Calvin says, it is our duty to remove in time, there's some wisdom, it's our duty to remove in time all matter and occasion of strife. It's not going to be instantaneous, it's not going to be easy, but it's our duty if we're followers of Jesus to be making peace and removing all matter and occasion of strife.
Besides, we must know, he says, what Joseph taught his brothers is actually the command of the Spirit of God to us all, namely this, that we should not be angry with one another. Very simple, simple to say.
Brethren, be not angry against one another. So simple and yet so difficult, so easy to state, so hard to live out. See that nothing troubles you along the way. Verse 25, then they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father and they told him saying, Joseph is still alive and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.
And Jacob's heart stood still, his heart fainted, his heart stalled, his heart gave out because he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them and when he finally saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived and then Israel said, it is enough.
Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. You wonder what was going through Jacob's mind when he first saw the caravan of the brothers begin to approach. The first thought is, poor Jacob, whenever these brothers have returned from afar it's always been bad news, it's always been a bad turn of events, and he must have been just saying, oh no, I can't even bear to hear it, what am I gonna have to face now?
He's probably looking to count, is Benjamin among them? Were they actually able to release Reuben? What he must have thought when he finally saw them come back again. He had grown so accustomed to bad news and yet they come with such good news that he could have never dreamt.
Good news that not only have they secured the missing brethren but the long-lost son now lives and now has all authority over the land of Egypt. And so we understand, you remember I think two or three weeks ago at SLBC we talked about the attributes of God and how we read Scripture and part of our reading of Scripture is to say, what does this tell us of God?
What do I know of God's character, of God's dealings as I'm reading this passage? Well that's a good question to ask of this. Here's Jacob and the brothers have come, it's been a series of bad news, a series of unfortunate events, and they finally come with the most unimaginable news.
Joseph lives, Joseph has all authority, Joseph is now in a position to save all of us. What does that say of the character of God? Certainly a God of providence, that He could orchestrate all of these things for such a time like this.
More than that I think it's a God of mercy. Remember in chapter 43, Jacob himself had been fearing the worst, clutching to Benjamin, refusing to let the youngest of his beloved Rachel go, but Judah threw himself on the line willing to sacrifice his own future, his own inheritance, his own household if he could not return Benjamin, and that sacrifice, that act of faith sparked something in Jacob, that he then turned to God by faith, but he only did so crying out to Him as one undone.
May God Almighty give you mercy from that man. That was his prayer. May the Almighty God, the God who can work this kind of providence that we see in chapter 45, may that God give you mercy so that He sends you back with Benjamin and your other brother.
Well God not only heard that desperate prayer, He answered it beyond Jacob's wildest thought. God was merciful. Merciful not only to the brothers on their return trip to Egypt, but merciful to Jacob himself.
Merciful beyond anything he could possibly have asked for in that prayer. He was praying for something and God gave him a deeper answer. And so now as a result of that, the brothers are in this position to proclaim the resurrection.
The one that you thought was dead now lives and He is the exalted Lord. He is the one who will preserve us. He will bring us into our inheritance. Come and see Him. And it's like, where are we? Are we in Genesis or are we in one of the Gospels?
The one that we thought was dead now lives. And much like the original resurrection pronouncement in the Gospels, the good news seems too good to be true. So Jacob doubts. I'm not going to believe it until I see him.
What's this? What did he say? What are these carts? What are these provisions? It's until he sees the evidence that he can believe. And as Jesus says, blessed are those who believe yet do not see. Jacob is doubting Thomas to this resurrection episode.
Jacob sees the evidence. His mind begins to work. How else could the brothers have maneuvered all of this? How could they have Benjamin? How could they have returned with such provision unless what they say is true?
I love what Ligon Duncan was talking about this episode of Jacob seeing the carts and the provisions, eating, literally eating out of the carts as sort of a foretaste or almost a down payment of what would happen if he continues to walk and make his journey to Egypt to be in front of the Lord of the land.
So it's like here in Canaan in the midst of despair and famine, here comes these carts full of provisions and he can eat and feast and be satisfied and yet it's just meant to draw him and coax him to take that long difficult journey to be standing in front of the Lord of the land where there is vast untold resources at his disposal.
And Ligon Duncan says that's what we do whenever we partake of the sacrament. We have a physical reminder, a physical symbol, and it's a down payment, a foretaste. It's meant to coax us along this difficult journey until we stand before the Lord of glory.
Now one thing we can say, we don't know how these brothers confessed to Jacob, we don't have those details. Perhaps it was between him believing and him saying, it's enough. They must have been rattling on and on and on and on and on about everything that happened and how they felt about it but what God did and how they've been brought to conviction and he finally must have said, it's enough, it's enough.
My son lives. Joseph, my son is alive. I will go and see him before I die. This is an incredible event in Jacob's life. Glorious news that will cause him to leave everything he's known behind to go on this difficult journey in his weakness to go stand before the beloved Son.
That's much like a Christian. This glorious call, we see that the sheer abundance, the goodness. We know that the Lord of glory is awaiting us. We leave behind everything that's familiar to us. Take nothing.
I have everything you need. Just trust me and come to me. That's the Christian life. Chapter 46 beginning in verse 1. Israel, interesting that it's Israel here, right? We're used to seeing Jacob. Of course Israel is another name for Jacob and of course we're reminded that we're moving into the larger pattern of what God's doing as Israel moves into Egypt.
It's very significant for moving from Genesis into Exodus. This is now Israel settling into Egypt. All of Israel, all 12 tribes of Israel will become a mighty nation in the land of Egypt. That's setting up everything that God will do in the next stage of this unfolding drama of redemption where he's carrying forth the Abrahamic promise and now it's involving a liberation from the evil empire in Exodus.
Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba. Can you imagine what it was like to put bungee cords over those carts? Did you get that? Leave the Ikea desk, that thing's falling apart anyway.
Make sure you get that. That was my grandmother's clock, yeah? Did we forget the coffee maker? You're loading up the carts with all that he had, bungeeing it, securing it, and beginning this journey down toward Egypt.
The effect of this is that it leads Jacob to worship. He came to Beersheba, we read, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. So he's aware that God and his providence has preserved the life of his beloved son Joseph.
He must have immediately gone back to chapter 37 and thought of the dream. The dream that he incredulously went to his own son, a lot like his other sons, and said, do you really think I'm gonna come and bow before you?
He must have been struck like, I'm literally on a cart about to bow before him. This is how God has moved in his providence. Joseph, my son, is still alive, and so as he makes his journey southward through the land of Canaan, he comes to the very extreme edge of the land, to Beersheba, and he offers sacrifices, and the language here is so significant.
He offers sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. It's a way of saying he knows that God is moving forward in this covenantal promise, and so he comes to God as the God of Isaac and Abraham, the God who made a covenant and has a purpose, and he's really feeling the weight and the pressure of that.
Part of God's promise was this land, Canaan, and in chapter 26 it was God Himself who told his father Isaac, do not go into Egypt, and so he brings that all to worship and to sacrifice, to seek God's will.
But notice, before we even get into that, the effect of this good news, your son is alive, the beloved son is risen and exalted, the response to that is worship, worship and sacrifice. It is no different for you and I here this morning.
That's what we're doing. We're here to worship because the risen Son, the one who was slain, now lives and has been given all authority under earth and on the earth and in heaven. And we get some insight into Jacob's mindset here.
He doesn't rush down into Egypt. Though he's surrounded by famine, he doesn't say well the most important thing is that we get to the place where the getting's good. I just want, I can't wait to try some of these new recipes.
He's more concerned about God's will, God's worship, is this the right move? Spiritually, he's cognizant of the fact that God has moved in this way, but he's unsure. Is this a test? Does God really want me to go down into Egypt?
This is the land of inheritance. And so he worships because he's concerned about God's will. He worships the God of his fathers because he wants to understand the promise that God made to his fathers and what he's to do now in this moment.
He perseveres, but it's in fear and in reverence and he sacrifices. Remember this is a time of famine. He takes some of these provisions and he sacrifices them. That's a way that you know you're seeking God's will.
The times are tough, you're feeling the pressure, you're in a trial, you're torn between two forks in the road, but you sacrificed in order to better understand God's will. John Calvin says here we see how deeply he was rooted in true piety.
By offering a sacrifice, he increases his own strength and also makes a profession of his faith. It's not Pharaoh, Lord, it's you. It's not Egypt that provides for me, Lord, it's you. I sacrifice to you, I honor you because you are the one who cares for me and you are the one who must guide me.
Beersheba is a place so rich with history for Jacob and Isaac and Abraham. It's where Abraham first called upon the name of the Lord in chapter 21 and settled in that place and offered up Isaac on Mount Moriah.
Isaac there was visited by God. The covenant was renewed with him and it would seem that Jacob lived at Beersheba when he was on the run in chapter 27. It seemed like it was a familiar place to him as a boy and so he went there initially when he was fleeing from Esau.
As he's leaving this land of promise, we're also reminded this is the last time that Israel offers worship in the land. Normative worship of Yahweh in the land of promise for almost half a they will not come back to worship the Lord as Israel for almost 500 years.
Imagine if the last normative worship service of God was done in Martin Luther's day and we're just now re-entering into that. That's the prospect of what they're looking at. It was dramatic for them to leave the land, but as a result of worshiping and sacrificing and seeking God's will, God speaks, God guides.
Verse 2, then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob, and he said, here I am. So he said, I am God, the God of your Father. Do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there.
I will go down with you to Egypt that will also surely bring you up again. And Joseph will put his hands upon your eyes. So notice first that in response to worship, God calls Jacob to give Jacob guidance, to reveal his will to Jacob.
When we come in worship and sacrifice to God, we can expect, not as though it's an immediate cause and effect, but we can anticipate that God desires us to understand his leading in our lives. So he calls Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, as he must call any of us.
We call upon the Lord, but it's his prerogative to answer. He's the one here that takes up that prerogative and calls out, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob must be like me. I sleep and it's very hard to wake me up.
A car could go through our house and I wouldn't wake up. He has to keep on, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, here I am, Lord. That's what happens with the night vision. But he reveals himself, I am God. That's the first thing, I am God, Yahweh, I am God.
But the same way that Moses narrates, you know, he came to worship the God of his father Isaac, that's how God reveals himself, I am the God of your father. So you're right to say and right to think in this way, I am doing something with my promise, with my covenant.
You're keyed in, you're thinking in the right way, and that's why you're afraid to go down to Egypt. You know the covenant is about the land, but don't be afraid to go into Egypt. Go to Egypt and know that I'm going with you and I will bring you up again.
Now of course when he says, I will bring you up again, there's sort of a double entendre here. In one sense, Jacob will be brought up again, but it will be in his coffin to be buried in the land. And that's why we begin with Israel, but when God calls out Jacob, he says, Jacob, Jacob.
It's a way that Moses is saying, this is speaking also of Israel. Israel has a corporate identity. I will bring you, Israel, up out of Egypt again. I will deliver you. So here we have Exodus theme breaking into the narrative.
And Joseph will put his hand on your eyes, probably referring to the way Jacob would die. He would be reunited with his son and so he could die in peace, as it were. The son that he so dearly loved that he thought was gone would now be the very one by his side to the very end.
Remember in chapter 44 when he said in frustration, in despair, he said, my gray head is gonna go down to the grave in sorrow. And what does God say? Your own beloved son is gonna close your eyes in peace.
I said in my haste, the psalmist says, Psalm 31, I'm cut off before your eyes, but you heard the voice of my supplication and when I cried out to you, you listened. Oh, love the Lord. All you His saints.
The Lord preserves the faithful. Verse 5 we read, Jacob arose from Beersheba and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones and their wives, in the carts which Pharaoh had sent. They took their livestock and their goods which they had acquired in Canaan and went to Egypt.
Jacob and all of his descendants with him, his sons and his sons' sons, his daughters and his son's daughters and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt. Now do you get a sense of what's important there?
He keeps on repeating it. You could just say Jacob and all his descendants went with him, but he keeps on stretching it out. His sons, his sons' sons, his daughters, his sons' daughters, all of his descendants, all of the seed he brings out of Canaan into the land of Egypt.
So think again this emphasis. All of Israel is now heading down into Egypt. Think of what Egypt is in the mind of Scripture, in the mind of God. Egypt is symbolic for the kingdom of sinful domination, of bondage and tyranny.
It's evil empire. It's that which becomes Babylon and Rome and the sort of antichristic vision, and yet it's this place, this fallen kingdom where God is calling His people to go. So Israel must go into, as it were, the very place of tyranny and bondage and persecution.
Will they'll be, as a result of being Israelites, isolated? They'll be eventually oppressed by Egypt, and this will keep their identity, their ethnicity, their spirituality pure, and that's often how God will move among His people.
Of course, the ethnic thing's a little bit different because we go from ethnic Israel, which is commanded not to intermarry, to then a bride of every tribe and tongue, a glorious turn of events after Pentecost.
We see here Jacob's great faith. He knows that God has promised him what he had promised Isaac, what he had promised Abraham. Descendants in the land, seed in the land. He takes all of his seed down to Egypt.
If ever there was walking by faith and not by sight, it was this. How is God going to protect and preserve all of the seed and somehow restore us out of our Egyptian dependence into the land of His own choosing?
And so, again, we move this emphasis. We have it in verse 7, and here it's just in verses 8 and following, we have it in front of us. For concerns about time, I'm not going to read through the names. I'm tempted to have Tony read through the names because he does so well with Hebrew, but we're just going to pass by the names for now.
I'll simply put this. These names are listed because of this emphasis on having seed in the land. When you get to Deuteronomy 7, part of the contrast that's established is when I first brought you into Egypt, you were barely a people.
You were a large extended family. You were not a nation to rival nations, but behold, I have made you a great nation. And God says in Deuteronomy 7, it was not because you were some mighty people, so numerous and mighty like the Egyptians that I called you, it was because you weren't that.
It's because you were a weak and feeble and needy family, depending on the scraps from the Gentiles' tables just to get along. I called you by my grace for that reason. The concern for the seed and the land has been in front of us, whether we realize it or not, from the very beginning of Genesis.
It's been the land that Adam and Eve were torn from, the land of God's dwelling, the land where God would be with his people and there'd be no curse, no effects of the fall. So God in Genesis 3 promises a seed, a seed that will come and crush the serpent and undo the effects of sin and rebellion in fallen man.
And that promise is then taken up to the next level with the covenant God makes with Abraham. It's a covenant of seed and of land, of an inheritance that will protect and bring forth the Messiah, the promised serpent crusher.
And so this this dual focus on the seed and the land we see from the very call of Abraham, to your offspring, to your seed, I will give this land, the land of promise, the land of Canaan. God had promised Abraham a seed.
And here in chapter 46, the same great subjects that we've been tracking through Genesis reemerge, the seed of the patriarchs leading forward to the Messiah in the land in which God would dwell with his covenantal people.
In verse 3, the Lord promised to make of Jacob a great nation, the same way that he promised Isaac and Abraham that he would make of them a great nation. Mighty will be your descendants. Go look at the stars, count the sand on the seashore.
That's what I'm going to do for you. I don't know if many of you ever listened to classical music. I was thinking, is this something like an overture? An overture which sort of samples different pieces of a larger work, like an opera, and you have it all compressed at the very beginning, and you get a sense of some of the larger, more elaborated piece that you're about to hear over the next hour or two.
I don't think it's an overture because it's not a sampling. It's more like a symphony, and often a symphony is in several movements, three or four movements, and in those movements you have such variation that they really are distinct and of themselves, and yet sometimes you don't recognize that there's themes, there's notes or phrases that are woven through, and they variate.
It might be a key change, it might be the tempo, it might come to a crescendo, and when you get to that final movement, often the things that you've been hearing in some somewhat familiar way come in full force, full clarity.
It's like going from VHS to IMAX when you get to that last movement, and that's essentially, we're looking at the first movement of the symphony of Scripture here in Genesis, where there's something familiar that's going to carry us all the way to the climax of Christ and his coming, and when that comes it will be in full effect, and though it will be distinct here, Jews to this day read the Hebrew Bible as a distinct narrative, and they view it religiously, and it's completely cut off from Christ, and we're saying you're only listening to the first movement of the symphony.
You don't see how this has been composed and where this is all going. When we look at these themes like seed and land, that is the case. All of this is moving toward the fulfillment that comes through the promised seed, who takes us into the land, the one who, as Stephen says in Acts 7, is like the greater Joshua leading us in conquest into the land.
This is a turning point for that very reason. We're reminded that Israel is now being brought into Egypt. God will soon make a great nation, and as we begin Exodus, we'll see just how off the rails the Egyptian domination has become, from Pharaoh showing lavish favor to Joseph and his family, to a different Pharaoh now binding them, torturing them with toil and labor, calling them to cry out to the God of their fathers.
Taking a step back, as we think about this passage, what seems clear to me is how God has preserved all of Israel. Years of famine have come and they've devastated the land, and they've put Jacob and his family into dire straits.
Please go to Egypt and bring back some food. The famine, the judgment has come, and out of desperation, God's providence has brought these ten brothers back down to Egypt, and He's worked by His grace this miracle of reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers.
And now God's purposes begin to move forward, and He shows how He's preserving not only physically the lives of Jacob and Israel, but how He's preserving spiritually all of the promises He's made by way of covenant.
God is faithful to His promise as He is faithful to His people. He's faithful for the meal that sits in front of these brothers night by night, even as He is faithful to preserve the covenant He made with Abraham so many hundreds of years earlier.
This is the great summary of Jacob's perseverance by faith, but more than that, it's a summary of God's preservation of Jacob, God's preservation of Israel, God's preservation of the covenant, so that they can persevere by faith.
And that's really the focus I want us to have in three points of application. First, God preserves us. God preserves us. From the beginning of the story, we've recognized this. Jacob, when his hip was put out of joint and he recognized who he was wrestling with, and he said, bless me.
Do you remember the response? Genesis 32 verse 30, Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. God has preserved my life. He recognizes that God has brought him to a place to do deeper work, to bring forward his purposes, but behind all of that has been God preserving him, sustaining him, providing for him.
It's the same thing that Joshua recounts as the people are about to embark toward the covenant at Shechem in Joshua 24, and Joshua says, the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from this house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us all in the way.
He recognizes that God has been the one who's been preserving his people along the whole way. God is preserving. It's not so much their perseverance, their decisions, their strategies, the way that they're operating, it's rather God's preservation.
Recognize that pattern. Jude chapter 1. Well, there is only one chapter in Jude. Jude 1. Greetings. A professor I have, Dr. Schnabel, he often says if you ever, sometimes he'll be in different parts of the world, the Philippines or Singapore, and there's always some desire to have him come and preach to a church.
Someone will come up at a conference and say, will you come preach? And he says, you know, it's good I have a little bit of time to think through what I might share, but he says there's been times where I've been visiting, you know, a church plant or, you know, some missionary activity and a brother will come to me and say, will you come preach for us?
He says, oh yeah, when? Now. He says, you know, he says it's happened to him several times and he says, let me tell you what I do in a moment like that. I'll open up one of Paul's letters and I'll just look at the first two verses.
I'll look at the greeting and let me tell you, there's more than a sermon just in a greeting. And so I think of that with Jude chapter 1. What's the theology of this greeting? Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ.
There's a lot of theology just in that one sentence. Jude, a slave of Jesus, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ. How profound is it to think that we are preserved in Jesus?
The Son secures our salvation. Doesn't that sound a lot like Genesis 45 and 46? The beloved Son has secured salvation. I have all authority. I have all abundance. Look how I'm providing for your needs even now.
Keep coming toward me. In a sense, they're being preserved in Joseph. They're being preserved by having life in relationship with that Son. And so the Son secures our salvation even as the Father calls, Jacob, Jacob, don't be afraid to go down to Egypt.
Paul says that we have redemption through the blood of Jesus, forgiveness for our trespasses. We're saved, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Again, just map this on to Genesis 45 and 46.
Jesus saves abundantly. Jesus saves gloriously. Jesus saves willingly, more willing than we are to go to Him. Come to me. Look at the mercy. Look at the fruit. Look at the peace. Look at the good things I'm surrounding you with.
Won't you come to me and know me and know my goodness. Taste and see that the Lord is good. So the Father calls and the Son lavishly, abundantly preserves us and moves us toward Him. The Spirit seals us.
The Spirit seals our salvation in the Son. Ephesians 1 .13 says we're sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit. And this is why we persevere in the Christian life. John Bunyan, he says to be saved is to be preserved in the faith to the end.
I love that, because what are you expecting? To be saved is to persevere in the faith until the end. Well, it's like, amen, that's a biblical truth. If you want to be saved, you must persevere to the end.
Don't turn back. Don't fall short. Don't miss that grace of God. Repent. Maintain your walk with Him. Abide in Him. Work out your salvation. Work out your calling and election. But it's not so much at the end of the day to say to be saved is to persevere in the faith to the end.
That's a true statement, but listen to the emphasis. To be saved is to be preserved in the faith until the end. We're not saying that perseverance has no place. That is the life of faith. It's a life of perseverance.
But we can only persevere because we are being preserved. God's preservation leads to our perseverance. Our perseverance is not some accident to our faith. Our perseverance is not something that we muster up and bring to the table.
God, you met me halfway and I'm gonna keep persevering. Here's my half of the work. We persevere because God is preserving us. We are kept by God for a salvation yet to be revealed. But perseverance, of course, is absolutely necessary in order to enter into salvation.
We must persevere. How is Israel going to be saved in Genesis 46? If they stay in Canaan, they will starve to death. Israel will die. If they want to be saved, they must persevere on their journey to the Son.
They must look at the provisions He's given them along the way and walk by faith, looking for more provisions to come, trusting that He's giving them grace and that when they stand before Him, they'll find that full embrace, that full acceptance, and then untold provision, things that eyes can't see, that minds can't imagine.
Bunyan says, he that goes to sea with a purpose to arrive at Spain cannot arrive there if he's drowned along the way. We have to persevere, but the point is we persevere because God is the one who's preserving our walks before Him.
We're kept by the power of God. So the first point, God preserves us. Second, God actively preserves us. God actively preserves us. Remember how in chapter 42 it was Jacob who said, all these things are against me.
He had completely lost heart, his faith was sinking, he thought every turn of providence is against me and I'm even going to go down to my grave in despair. He didn't realize that God was providentially moving in and through everything he was experiencing to bring him to this point, the point that he could walk with great joy and expectation to stand before the Beloved Son and to receive from Him and embrace Him and to watch as his whole family, as the whole Church of Israel as it were at that time, is embracing that same salvation.
He has preserved us. He has secured our salvation. Now we can live abundantly by hope. When God undertakes His work in our lives, He moves in providence in the same way. He moves in us in a way that will often cause us to be confused, even become doubtful, even despair.
Why this? Why now? Why not this? Why couldn't this have happened? If only I could go back five years ago, I'd redo it all. I catch myself thinking like that sometimes. I wonder if you do as well. I wish I had rethought this.
I wish I had known this at the time. What did I get myself into? It's the equivalent of saying, my gray head's gonna go down to the grave in despair. We become ignorant to the way that God is providentially working in and through us, even through our failures, even through our blindness, even through our backsliding.
He's advancing His purpose. Why? Because this is how God works. When He undertakes an action toward His people, He who begins a good work in us carries it through until it is completed. He who gives us a promise will preserve that promise and move in His providence in our lives to preserve us according to that promise until that promise is completed.
Paul says he's sure of this, Philippians 1 6. I am sure of this, this I know, this I amen. He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. He will preserve it until it comes to fulfillment.
Notice what Paul says just in that verse. Another time you can take theology from a sentence. Notice how Paul speaks. He doesn't say, I'm confident of this very thing, that he's begun a good work in you and you're doing a great job in response.
Keep using those means of grace, keep clinging, keep persevering, be wise to fellowship, mindful of your walk. Again, all these things are helpful, but that's not the emphasis that Paul is putting forth before the believers.
Not here. I am sure that God who began a good work in you, God will complete it until the day God brings you before Jesus. The emphasis is all on God's preserving grace. God is the preserver. Then Paul can work toward the implications of that in terms of our own perseverance, working out his will in our lives.
We also see that Paul has a view that God is actively, intimately at work in our lives. What else does it mean? I'm sure of this, he who began a good work in you. There was a beginning and it's moving toward completion.
That implies that the same work that began is continuing. Now often for Christians, it's evident that God is working in our lives. We have those initial stages of repentance or conviction or even closing with the Lord and it's just like, oh, he's at work.
This is so marvelous. He's begun this good work in my life. And then the affections begin to cool. Maybe his shielding hand is pulled back a bit because we need to weather some storms and be tried. All of a sudden we think we're just floating along passively.
I just wish he would do work again. I wish he would move like he did all those years ago. And like Jacob, we're ignorant to this truth. God is actively at work, intimately in the lives of his people. We're reminded thirdly that this work will be completed.
We have the 10 ,000 foot view of what God is doing with Jacob and Israel and Egypt. They had the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 15. Maybe that was part of the fear of entering into Egypt.
Remember that great dark horror fell upon Abraham when God was making the covenant and God said to him, know this for sure, your descendants will be brought into a land that does not belong to them and they will be slaves there for 400 years.
Well here they are heading into a land that doesn't belong to them. They could not have known what God was ultimately orchestrating his providence toward, but they must have had some semblance, some sense of how this was related to the promise that God made, not only to Abraham but even to Eve in Genesis 315.
God is undertaking a work and he is carrying it to completion, but notice this is going to take more than a millennium. God is very patient. We have promises about the kingdom of Christ and the conquest that we're to have as God is bringing his enemies beneath his footstool and and he won't return until all of the enemies have been brought beneath his footstool, but every generation that comes up thinks they're gonna be the generation in which they see all of this happen and so every three years we sit among the chairs and we go, oh it's time, it's time, you know it's never been times like this and we need to be reminded God is very patient.
He is bringing this work to completion and there's a lot of journeying and exercising of faith to do in the meantime, but God is very patient. It's that provocative question, I forget where I heard it, what if we are still the early church?
What a way to think. What if we are the early church? When Jacob saw the dragons, his heart, his spirit revived and he believed and he went to Beersheba and he worshipped and he headed down into Egypt as a result of God's revelation, but we don't wait for night visions.
We have God's revealed will in his word and with that word in hand we walk by faith, not by sight, not by the evidence of Pharaoh's carts, we walk by faith in what God has revealed. So third and last, so God preserves us first, God actively preserves us.
He doesn't just give us a jump-start and say I hope you make it, right? He's actively working it out until it's completed. Third and last, God actively preserves us and seeks to be our help. God actively preserves us and seeks to be our help.
God's working in us. God's actively, intimately working in us and through us, but notice He never does this in some anonymous way. He doesn't work in our lives so that He can remain aloof and anonymous to us.
He always works in such a way that He's demonstrating His goodness, His patience, His wisdom, His care, His control. He works in us so that we can be better knowing Him. He works in us to be better known by us so that we can return worship and sacrifice, obedience and faith just like Jacob.
And that's why throughout the Psalms you have this language of God being help to His people. It's striking to me how easily we miss this. We are intended to look to God as our present, active, near, intimate help in times of trial and distress.
We all, like Jacob, are intended to look toward God rather than Egypt, Pharaoh, or the carts full of provisions, but we look toward God as our help. And when Egypt, Pharaoh, and carts full of provision come our way, we see that as God's help to us.
God is always forefront, always receiving the glory, always cognizant in everything that we experience. We are like the Psalmist in 121 verse 8 confessing, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Our help. Help is such a disarming thing. It almost implies that God is put at our charge. He's our help. Like when you go and ask for someone's help and they're coming to assist you, it's almost uneasy to think of it in this way, and yet God says, this is a way for you to approach me.
My name is your help. I am your help. I help my people. I send my helper, my comforter. Another translation for comforter, helper. Do we think of God in this way? How often have you prayed, if ever, God thank you for being my help today.
Lord, thank you. You've helped me through this season. We're quick to think of that toward other people, other means. This book greatly helped me. This was a helpful sermon. What about God himself as our help?
Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. The French Huguenots, when they began a worship service, they recited Psalm 121 verse 8. I don't speak French, otherwise I'd do it to try to mimic it, but they said in French, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
They had to be reminded in days of tremendous persecution, where did their help come from? Wasn't their smarts, wasn't their wisdom, wasn't their experience, wasn't their strength, wasn't their planning, it was from the Lord.
It doesn't mean the Lord doesn't use those things, but it means our minds and our hearts and our worship must connect that our help comes from the Lord. Our help is in the name of the Lord. The psalmist asked, where does my help come from?
And the answer is given. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. This is all of our hope and stay. This is what beckons us out of the safety and familiarity of our tents in the times of famine, to take a very long and unknown journey into a land where God has assured us we will stand before his presence.
Where does your help come from? Do we confess our need for help? Think of the despair of Elijah. I alone am left, Lord. There are none who follow you. And God says, actually, Elijah, I've been helping you.
I've been helping 7 ,000 others as well. I've been preserving you. The anxious father cries, Lord, help my unbelief. And even his belief is something that has been given to him by God. The terrorized 12 yell, you don't care that we're drowning.
Ignorant to the fact that the one in their midst is holding together the H2O molecules on which they float, William Plumer says, men must be very unbelieving to make it necessary for the Almighty so often to assure them that he's willing to help them.
Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. We recognize with these words that apart from Christ we can do nothing. That's what Jesus told us. We must turn to the Lord and we're reminded of his great power.
He's the one who made heaven and earth. If he can control the diet of a sparrow day by day, cannot the maker of heaven and earth provide help for the people that he's given covenantal promises to? Promises written in the blood of his Son?
Jonathan Edwards, let this truth also cause believers more to prize the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider that it is he and he only who defends you from wrath and that he is a safe defense. Your defense, a high tower, your city of refuge, impregnable.
There is no rock like your rock. There is none like Christ, the God of Jacob, who rides upon the heavens as your help. In his excellency is the sky. The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are his everlasting arms.
He in whom you trust is a buckler, a shield to all who trust in him. So prize the Lord who keeps your soul in safety. Do we recognize where our help, where our safety, where our security is coming from?
There's no way that Jacob and Israel at this time could persevere unless they recognize that God was helping them. He was helping advance them along to his purposes for them. He was helping them to have their their immediate needs met so that their greatest needs could be met in the fullness of time.
And God preserves us in the same way. Faithfully and patiently he provides for our immediate felt physical needs, but he always does so in a way preserving our lives and livelihoods in a way that our ultimate, our greatest needs will be met.
We persevere because God preserves. God preserves us. God actively preserves us. God preserves us in such a way he's seeking to be our help. Jacob at the end of his life, we'll get there eventually in Genesis 49, you can picture him there in Goshen on his deathbed.
And he says, God has been my shepherd my whole life. God has helped me my whole life. He's untwisted me. He secured me. He's provided for me. He's walked with me and led me. He's humbled me. He's brought me away from my own fallen flesh and desires.
He's been my shepherd. He's been my help. He's been my keeper. He's actively preserved me. He's the one who sought to be my help. God is so trustworthy. I wonder if there's some in this room even this morning who are looking for many things in their lives to help them, but they will not look to God to be their help.
They cannot trust God to help them. I hope you see from Genesis 45 and 46 there is no other help. There is no other place that will give you the help that you need. For this God is our God forever and ever.
He will be our guide even unto death. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are the one who preserves your people. You are the one who preserves your promise. Lord, left to us all would be undone.
Your great covenant, Lord, could not advance a millimeter if it had reliance upon us, Lord, but because it is of you, because you have sworn by yourself that you will do all that you've undertaken to do, therefore our hope is stayed.
We know the work that you've begun in the lives of believers will continue until you complete it on the day of Jesus Christ. We praise you and thank you, Lord. Forgive us that we're often so fleshly, so anxious, so earthbound that we do not look to the heavens for help.
We do not conceive of you as our helper, one who desires to help us and therefore be known by us, to be displaying your marvelous character and attributes in us and through us in the way that you care and lead us, Lord.
I pray that if there's any in this room that do not know you as their helper, that feel somehow it's beneath you or even beneath them to think of you or seek you in this way, that they would see this great urgency, this invitation to cry out to you for help, to find you as a great help, as a refuge in a time of need, that you would do that work that you undertake to do, preserving us so that we may persevere.
Help us, Lord, as believers to persevere in your grace and give you all of the glory, knowing it is you who works in our wills. And Lord, for those who are unbelieving, may you break into their minds and convict them.
Show them the ways that they are illusory, depending upon themselves and looking to a fallen world for help that will never come. Show them the path of righteousness that leads to salvation. For your name's sake, these things we ask in your Son's name.