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THIS WEEK’S BIBLE INSIGHTS ARE BY:
Ian Moore and are based on Genesis 46
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MORE ON THIS WEEK’S MAJOR THEME:
Genesis 46 (in full)
1 So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered2 sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he replied.
taking with them their livestock and the 7 possessions they had acquired in Canaan. Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters – all his offspring.
3 “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”
29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. 30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”
5 Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. 6 So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt,
31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me...’
Sunday October 5 - God of promise
“I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.”
Genesis 46:4
Let’s pause for a moment halfway through Joseph’s story. It’s now more than 200 years since God made a covenant with Joseph’s great grandfather Abraham to make him into a mighty nation, to bless him and make his name great (Genesis 12:1-3). On another occasion Abraham was invited to “Look up at the sky and count the stars... so shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5). Since the promise, Abraham’s family had increased in number to a clan amounting to just 70 menfolk. Abraham and Isaac had died; Jacob was now an old man facing the prospect of becoming an alien in a foreign land. What had happened to the promise that Abraham and Isaac had so faithfully borne? At the ripe age of 130, Jacob was to spend the remaining 17 years of his life in exile, far from Canaan (Genesis 47:28). Remarkably, over the next 430 years while in captivity, the seed of Abraham would multiply from 70 to a great nation of over one million souls. God had not forgotten his promise!
The reality was that Abraham carried the promise in his heart, long before he carried a son in his arms! Dear friend, do you know that you carry the promises of God, sometimes even from a previous generation? You may feel ‘in exile’ but God is faithful. His promises are “Yes!”; our response should always be “Amen!” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Father, thank you that I carry the promises of God. May I bear them faithfully for your glory. Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
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