Day 28 – Genesis 46-47

Talking Points

• Jacob and all of his people make the trip to Egypt. (What a fateful trip — hundreds of years later, and one of the great demonstrations of God’s power and deliverance will come from this choice.) Seventy people from the line of Jacob end up living in Egypt.
• As Jacob and Joseph are reunited, they embrace and weep.
• As the famine grew in severity, the Egyptians end up trading their livestock and then their land in exchange for food. With Pharaoh now owning all the land, they farm it and give him a fifth of all their harvest. Through Joseph, God’s plan moves forward and blesses Egypt and the Israelites during the famine. In fact, Pharaoh prospered during this time. Joseph’s family lives in abundance and in worship.
• Jacob makes the request that when he dies, his body would not be left in Egypt, but carried back to Canaan. There’s no place like home.

Thoughts

After Jacob has decided to travel to Egypt, God speaks to him in visions, assuring him that he was doing the right thing. I can’t help but marvel at Jacob as he stops at Beersheba to offer sacrifices to God. This is a place that both his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham, had offered sacrifices. How anxious Jacob must have been to see his son after all these years of mourning his death. Yet, he must have also been afraid to enter into Egypt without seeking God’s direction. And God knows. God tells Jacob not to be afraid, promising to make him a great nation there. He also promises that Jacob will see his son, Joseph, before he dies a peaceful death. 

Praise God that He knows! He knows when we are truly seeking His will. He knows when we need assurances. He knows how to speak to us so that we will not be afraid to do what He calls us to.