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Well, good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your week got off to a good start yesterday. Today we're reading in Genesis 47 and 48, and then we also have passages of Matthew 17 and Psalm, the 17th
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Psalm. Today I want to focus on really encouraging thoughts from chapter 47 of Genesis.
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Joseph and his brothers and his father have come to Egypt. Jacob has done this, has taken this sojourn with his whole household, brought them to Egypt, and they are now presented before Pharaoh.
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And in chapter 47 we see this really encouraging truth brought out here in verses 5 and 6.
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Pharaoh says to Joseph, he says, your father and your brothers have come to you.
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The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land.
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Let them dwell in the land of Goshen, all right? And then in verses 11 and 12,
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Joseph does exactly that. He says, Joseph situated his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
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Then Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with bread according to the number of their families.
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Now look, the Lord in his grace, his kindness, he knows how to care for his people.
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He knows how to care for his own. He orchestrates people and places and brings them together to provide for and meet the needs of his needy people.
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And here is Jacob and his family, it's like the whole house of Israel. This is the nation of Israel in a microcosm, if you will, before it actually becomes a nation.
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They come into a foreign land. It's not the land God's promised them.
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He's promised them Canaan. They're far away from Canaan. But what's going to become of them while they're sojourning in Egypt?
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Are they going to dissipate? Are they going to be swallowed up by the Egyptians? Will God preserve them?
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Will he care for them? And the answer is, he will. And how do we know that?
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It's clear right from the beginning. Pharaoh says, give them the best of the land.
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And there is Joseph, the son of Jacob, whom God brought to Egypt. Remember Joseph's perspective on this?
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God's brought me here to preserve you, to protect you. That's exactly what he does.
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He puts them in the land of God, the best of the land of Egypt, and he preserves them, and he cares for them, and he provides for them.
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But there's another little interesting tidbit I want you to get here. Whose idea was it to place them in the land of Goshen?
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It was Pharaoh's. It was Pharaoh's. Now hold on to that.
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Remember that, because in a few days we're going to be going from Genesis to Exodus, and we're also going to span a few hundred years, and another
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Pharaoh is going to come on the scene, whom we're told God's heart hardens.
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God hardens Pharaoh's heart in Exodus, but he softens
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Pharaoh's heart in Genesis. He softens Pharaoh's heart in Genesis to preserve and protect his people and to provide for them for the years ahead.
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He hardens Pharaoh's heart in Exodus so that they will leave and go to the land that God has promised them.
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More about that later. One other thing I want to point out, in chapter 48 we see this theme occurring frequently throughout the
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Scriptures, especially the Old Testament. In chapter 48, verses 13 and following, you have this account of Joseph presenting his sons
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Ephraim and Manasseh before his father Jacob to bless them.
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And once again, just as we saw with Jacob and Esau and so forth, and even with Isaac and Ishmael, the younger is preferred before the elder, and all of this in the providence of God.
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God is at work in this preserving of his people and providing for and protecting his people.
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He was at work like this a few thousand years ago in the land of Egypt, and you know what?
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He works like this even today. Maybe not in quite so dramatic ways as we see written in the pages of Scripture, sometimes in very dramatic ways in our lives, but mostly in just the day -by -day faithful orchestration of people, places, and things to care for and provide for his people.
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Let's give thanks to him today. And so our Father, we do thank you, and we do praise you for the way you provide for your people, how you work in the hearts of others, and how you orchestrate events and places and timing so that your people are preserved, protected, and provided for.
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We thank you and praise you for it, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your day