Genesis 46

Consequently, Abraham found problems in Egypt, and even told the Pharoah at the time that his wife Sarah, was his sister because he was terrified that the Egyptians might kill him to get his wife.

God had also said the same thing to Isaac. In Genesis 26 we see yet another famine in the land and Issac wanting to go down to Egypt to escape it. God told him very specifically not to go as He reconfirmed the promise He’d made to Abraham that the land of Canaan would be his and his descendants and that those descendants would multiply as the stars of heaven.

So now the question is, should Jacob go down into the land of Egypt? The old Jacob would have just packed up and gone if he’d wanted to but Israel, the new Jacob who’s learnt to trust God much more needs more than his own feelings. He needs a little more encouragement than the invitation from his son Joseph or even from Pharaoh. He needs to have a green light so to speak from God.

Let’s begin this 46^th in Genesis 46:1

So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 

Now this is quite an amazing thing if we see it in the light of Jacob’s whole life as of course we can. He offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

The first time he’d left that land and headed to the land of Haran, he’d come to Bethel where he spent his first night away from home and family.

Was he looking for God then? No, he thought he’d run away from Him. He wasn’t seeking the mind of God in any way, and he certainly wasn’t asking God for His guidance and leading. What a contrast we see here between young Jacob and the servant of Abraham that was sent to look for a wife for Issac in the same place. The servant of Abraham never took a step without looking to God for guidance, but Jacob didn’t think that he needed God in his life at all. It took a long time for him to learn that his own way was a very poor substitute for God’s way.

How many of us today go through life leaving God pretty much out of the journey.

We make our own decisions and do what we want to do, seldom seeking the Lord’s will.

We absolutely know God exists, but we don’t see His reality in the daily, moment by moment walk through life. Then, when a disaster strikes we cry out to God to get us out of it. If we’d only seek His will first we’d avoid many of those disasters.

Old Jacob had, for most of his life, not been looking to God, but now, as he comes to Beersheba, and he doesn’t want to put his foot over the border into Egypt without consulting God.

He’s left nothing behind in Canaan, and so at this southernmost outpost of Canaan. Israel stops to honour God with sacrifices.

Both Abraham and Isaac lived for a time at Beersheba.

Israel’s grandfather Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba many years before and had called on the name of the LORD there. Isaac received a special promise from God and built an altar for sacrifice there, calling on the name of the LORD as well. Jacob was probably at the very place that Issac sacrificed, remembering what God had done before.

So, it was a memorable spot in the history of this family, and in Jacob’s own life because it was here that he saw the ladder to heaven in a vison from God. So, it called for a special time with the Lord. He was to go to a place his fathers were told not to go to and so he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham.

Now God is going to be gracious and appear to him.

Verses 2 and 3,

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. 

The fact that God told Jacob not to be afraid to go to Egypt indicates that he probably was, as most of us would be.

Remember in ancient times, people didn’t travel very far from where they were born. This is a huge move.

Now God speaks to Jacob in a dream, a night vision, and re affirms His promises that He made to Jacob at Bethel that He’ll make of Jacob a great nation and now we see clearly that this move to Egypt is exactly in accordance with God’s purpose.

Did God come good with the promises He made that He would make a great nation from Jacob?

The answer’s in the next book of the Bible in Exodus 1 verse 7,

But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

There was a population explosion of Israelites in Egypt. What is the explanation of that? We’’, God’s made good on His promise to Jacob. “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.” God absolutely made good on His promise.

Verses 4 and 5,

I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.” 

Then 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 to carry him. 

God also promised here that He’ll be with Jacob the whole time and that He’ll surely bring him up again, meaning He’ll eventually return him to Canaan. You see it’s Canaan that God’s given to Israel not Egypt but this detour into Egypt is necessary for the family’s survival. God then says to Jacob quote, “and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.”

This is God’s final assurance to Jacob that Joseph was indeed alive and would care for him until his dying day. This was sweet assurance.

They put Jacob in one of the wagons, that Pharoah has sent and off they go.

The life of Jacob can be divided into three locations: the land of Haran, the land of Canaan, and the land of Egypt.

These aren’t only geographical areas, but they represent three spiritual levels. Jacob left the land with just a staff. When he came into Haran, he was God’s man living in the flesh. He came out of Haran, running away from his father–in–law and was afraid to meet his own brother Esau. Then in the land of Canaan Jacob had his wrestling match with God. He was God’s man but fighting in his own strength. Now he’s going to Egypt. He’s not walking in his own strength anymore, and he’s not running away anymore. He’s now walking by faith.

Although Joseph is the main character in this section of Genesis, it also features the spiritual growth of the man of faith that is now Jacob. Jacob has become the man that God wanted him to be, and only God can make this kind of man.

Jacob’s life in Haran is typical of a person who knows God exists but who’s living in the flesh, living his own way, by his own ideas of what his life’s going to become and who has little or no regard for God.

Jacob’s life in the land of Canaan is typical of the person who’s come to know God. He sees God’s existence and His power and majesty, but he hasn’t yet learned how to trust God for everything in his life. In other words, he’s still fighting in his own strength.

Jacob’s life in Egypt typifies the person who’s walking by faith.

This’s true for us today as well.

There was that time in our lives when we came in contact with the gospel, the Word of God, and we turned to Him. Then there was that period of struggle when we thought we could live our lives in our own strength. That may have lasted for years. Then there came the time when we grew in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and began to walk by faith.

Verses 6 and 7,

So they took their livestock and their goods, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him. 

His sons and his sons’ sons, his daughters and his sons’ daughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt. 

Because of the famine, Jacob had to take everyone, children, and grandchildren. And all of their livestock had to go with them since none of them could have survived the famine.

The following verses give the genealogy of Jacob. It’s very important because it is the genealogy which will lead to Jesus Christ and will be followed through the rest of the Bible. After a list of all of Jacob’s descendants, we read this in Genesis 46 verse 26,

All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all. 

There were sixty–six people who were the direct descendants of Jacob that went with him from Canaan into Egypt. Of course, Joseph and his family were already in Egypt.

Verse 27,

And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy. 

This brought the total household of Jacob to seventy souls.

There were 70 people of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt.

The total number of males of this clan was 70. There were 66, plus Jacob himself, Joseph, and his two sons. This large family would become a nation of perhaps more than two million over the next 400 years.

Like many great works of God, Israel had a slow beginning.

• From the time God called Abraham, it took at least 25 years to add one son – Isaac.
• It took Isaac 60 years to add another son of Israel – Jacob.
• It took 50 or 60 years for Jacob to add 12 sons and one daughter.
• But in 430 years, Israel would leave Egypt with 600,000 men plus all the women, children, and the elderly.
• It took this family 215 years to grow from one to 70, but in another 430 years they grew to two million or more.

As a bit of a side note, in Acts chapter 7 verse 14, Stephen said that there were 75 who went into Egypt. This is because Stephen quoted from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, which says 75. The number in the Septuagint is not wrong, just arrived at in a different way, specifically adding five more sons (or grandsons) of Joseph who were born in Egypt.

Notice that each son of Jacob and his offspring are listed by name. Why are these lists of names given to us in the Scriptures? Doesn’t God have more important information to give to us? My friend, there is nothing more important than our Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the genealogy that leads to Him. We’ll find some of these names in the genealogy in the first chapter of Matthew, which we’re coming to very soon. We’ll also find some of these names in the genealogy given to us in Luke, chapter 3.

These lists of names are important for that reason.

There’s another reason, and it is very personal. Have you heard of the Book of Life? It’s mentioned in Philippians 3:3, Revelation 3:5, Revelation 17:8, Revelation 20:12, Revelation 20:15, and Revelation 22:19.

It’s called the Lamb’s Book of Life in Revelation 21:27, The Lamb being Christ, or the Book of Life of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world in Revelation 13:8, meaning it was always God’s purpose that the Messiah, Jesus Christ would be slain for us.

We’re not told what form this book takes, whether it’s a gigantic physical book, or maybe a book that exists in another dimension and in another form outside of the dimensions we live in, or it may be as Chuck Missler once wrote, the Bible itself that has our name coded into it through the incalculably complex codes that the bible contains.

Whatever form the book takes, the question is, is our name written there? If it is we’re destined for eternal life, never to die spiritually. For those of us who’s name doesn’t appear there, a hopeless and fearful eternity is awaiting.

Just as you and I and every other human got into the line of Adam by birth, we get into the line of Christ by birth. But in the case of the Lamb’s Book of Life, we get there by the new birth which comes about by believing, through our own choice, that Christ is our personal Saviour through his death, burial, and resurrection. When we do that, we become a child of God or reborn spiritually, born again into Christ with His life.

How important are you and I to God? Well, you and I know very few of the 8 billion people on the planet, but God knows every single one of us including the multiplied billions who have already suffered the death of the body. In fact, Matthew 10 verse 30 and Luke 12 verse 7 tell us that He’s numbered the very hairs of our head! He knows you and me better than anyone else knows us. He knows us far and away better than we know ourselves and He loves us more than we can ever fully grasp. Yes my friends, God knows you personally.

In Jacob’s genealogy there’re names that mean nothing to us, but they certainly meant a great deal to God. He knew them intimately, just as He knows us and he knew how each one would play a part in the line that would provide a body for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Frankly we’re not so much interested in them. But God is. He delighted in putting their names down because they were His.

We’re not going to read all the names of this genealogy, but I hope that you’ve realised how important this genealogy is.

So, now here comes Jacob with all of his family to the land of Egypt.

Verse 28,

Then he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out before him the way to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen. 

It was fitting for Judah to do this since the Messianic line to Christ would come through him and it was Judah who demonstrated the true spirit of repentance and change of heart among Joseph’s brothers. Possibly Judah may have also established just that little bit higher respect in Joseph’s eyes as well because of the way he stood up and pleaded to be taken as a slave rather than Benjamin. More than anything this showed that he was desperate to save his father from the awful blow he would have suffered had Benjamin not returned.

Verse 29,

So Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; and he presented himself to him, and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. 

Joseph fell on the neck of his father and embraced him and wept. The Word of God says this went on for a good while. We don’t know how long a “good while” is, but it does mean that it wasn’t just a brisk handshake that had little or no meaning. It was a reunion charged with emotion. What a wonderfully moving sight this would have been!

Now to verse 30,

And Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive.” 

What a joy this was to old Jacob!  He’s an old man now and quite frankly he’s about ready to die.

It could even be that he barely made this trip, but God sustained him. We’ll find that he’s permitted to live for a few years in the land of Egypt. Israel and Joseph have these last years together. Notice that Jacob is now “the child of God who lives by faith.” Therefore, he is called by his name Israel.

Genesis 46:31-34,

Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and those of my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 

And the men are shepherds, for their occupation has been to feed livestock; and they have brought their flocks, their herds, and all that they have.’ 

So it shall be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’ that you shall say, ‘Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.” 

The Egyptians didn’t like shepherds, in fact they were an abomination to them.

The Word of God has a lot to say about shepherds. “Shepherd” is the figure of speech which is used to describe our Lord. He’s the Good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep. He is the Great Shepherd of His sheep who watches over them today. He is the Chief Shepherd who is yet to appear. He calls Himself the Shepherd.

As we’ve said a number of times, Egypt is a type of this world and just as the shepherd, was regarded as an abomination in Egypt, Jesus is an abomination to the world. He’s not received today.

Of course, we’re talking about the real Jesus Christ.

The world has made up a Jesus who they can accept. They’ve made an idol that doesn’t even look like the Lord Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus the world wants is not virgin born; he never performed miracles; he did not die for the sins of the world; and he was not raised bodily from the dead. Of course, the Jesus that the world has created never lived. There’s no record of a Jesus like that.

The only One we’ve got records of was virgin–born, performed miracles, died for the sins of the world, and arose bodily from the grave. That’s the Shepherd who the world doesn’t like. Yes, friends, the real Jesus is still an abomination to the world today.

Joseph became the representative and the advocate for the whole family. They came to safety in Egypt, but they needed Joseph to represent them. In the same pattern, the believer needs Jesus Christ to represent him or her.

Joseph now gives his brothers instructions on an important next step.

He says to the brothers, “I’ll go up and tell Pharaoh that you’ve arrived and that you’re shepherds who feed you’re livestock and you’ve bought all your flock and herds with you and when Pharoah asks your occupation, say that you’ve been with livestock since you were young the same as your fathers before you.

The Egyptians were agricultural in the sense that they were crop farmers and they considered sheep unclean, and therefore detested shepherds. Even in this we see God’s provision as we’ll see later that Pharaoh gives them the land of Goshen which is referred to in the next chapter of Genesis as the best of the land of Egypt. Then he asks them to take care of his own sheep so that the children of Israel became the shepherds of the land of Egypt.

It’s really quite amazing to see that now the family of Jacob are to live in this lovely land of Goshen and it’s to be their home for a long time.

God had a place for His people. He didn’t bring them to Egypt and give them no home. It wasn’t enough for Joseph to provide for their needs in Canaan; he had to bring them to the place he’d prepared for them.

We see Jesus in both aspects. He takes care of us in the present, but He’s gone to heaven to prepare a place for us there as well where He’ll receive us to Himself.

The pharaohs that came to power after Joseph’s death forgot about Joseph and made the people of Israel slaves as we’ll see in Exodus 1 verses 8-10, but God will be with them throughout all that time. They’ll become the great nation down there as God promised and then God will lead them out under Moses.

Even though there’s no record that God ever appeared to Joseph, we certainly see the provision and protection of God in his life. It’s obvious to us now that he had to come ahead to prepare the way so that the entire family of Jacob could survive in the land of Egypt.

The further we get into the story of Joseph we see the jigsaw pieces falling into place to make up the complete picture of God’s purposes for this nation of Israel.

The fact that God has gone to such great lengths to preserve this special nation should make us fear for those nations and individuals that mean to harm them.

We must never forget that God cannot lie and so He’s not forgotten His promises to that nation and that one day, perhaps very soon, God’s focus will change back to those promises. Then, He’ll bring them into the place and into the position that He purposed for them all along.

Many people who are professing Christians today believe in what’s known as “replacement theology”. They may not even be aware of the term, but replacement theology teaches that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan and that the many promises made to Israel in the Bible are fulfilled in the Christian church today and not in Israel.

The prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land are spiritualised and twisted by people who have accepted only bits and pieces of the Bible, and this has cause hideous persecution to the Jewish nation, by the Church, over centuries.

The church has not replaced Israel in God’s plan.

While God may be focusing His attention primarily on the church in this dispensation of grace that we’re in today, God has not forgotten Israel and He’ll restore Israel to His intended role as the nation He’s chosen and, possibly, very soon. Romans 11 leaves us in no doubt whatsoever about this.

Whenever we have any dealings whatsoever with Israel we should be careful to keep in mind the words that God told Abraham in

Genesis 12 verses 2 and 3.

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 

In the next episode we’ll see Jacob meeting Pharaoh.

We are going to find that this is the best chapter in the life of Jacob so far so until then my friends may our wonderful God be with you and guide you through the rocky road that is this life.