Joseph Brings His Family to Egypt

Well, if you come to Genesis chapter forty six, and we'll look at the first half of Genesis chapter forty six. And it's always interesting when you are assigned a preaching segment that has, for the most part a list of names as its content. And we have that today where we have a list of names as a good portion of the content in Genesis chapter forty six. And yet that list of names is extremely important as we understand the movement here in chapter forty six. I want you to go back to Genesis chapter thirty seven. And if you'll remember when we started in the Life of Joseph, we started in Genesis chapter thirty seven, and we talked about those eleven times in the book of Genesis that you see this Hebrew phrase or this Hebrew concept of the toolodote, or this Hebrew concept of the story of the generations of Genesis starts these ptolodotes early on in Genesis chapter two. Ironically, that's the first time when it's not the polodote or story of the generation of a family. But in Genesis chapter two it is the polodote or the story of the generations of the heavens and the Earth. Well, this is the last one of those phrases that we have in the Book of Genesis here in Genesis chapter thirty seven. So the last ptolodote or the last story of the last generation to be accounted here in the Book of Genesis is not the tootodote of Joseph, but that of Jacob. And it's important to remember that. So go back to Genesis chapter thirty seven, beginning of verse one. Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Now we've looked that the life of Joseph, but we are studying the generations of Jacob. The life of Joseph, though it looms large in the minds of those of us who love the Bible and those of us who love the Book of Genesis, the life of Joseph, is only a parenthetical statement in the life of Jacob. Joseph is not the patriarch. Jacob is the patriarch. This is not about Joseph. Joseph finally understands that, and we saw that in the last chapter when Joseph says to his brothers, listen, don't be angry with yourselves, for what you did to me, God sent me here. And more importantly, God sent me here in order that he might use me to rescue you from this famine. Why because this is not the total adult of Joseph, it's the total adult of Jacob. This is about Jacob being rescued and God using Joseph to rescue Jacob. Don't miss that. So now we come back and all of a sudden, that title is reintroduced. That title Israel. Remember this is the name that he gets after he wrestles with the angel. So we are now talking about the nation that is going to come forth from Jacob. Therefore they refer to him with this name again. We saw it already in chapter forty five, as he was once again referred to as Israel. But now again we'll see it in chapter forty six. So ultimately, here in this first half of chapter forty six, we're going to look at this picture of Jacob's multi generational vision and blessing. Jacob's multigenerational vision and blessing look beginning in chapter one. So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba. Now we've seen that place before Bearsheba. His father Isaac built an altar there and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said Jacob, and he said, here am I. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. That statement only sounds confusing if you don't understand this multigenerational and covenantal concept. If you don't understand this multigenerational and covenantal concept, then God just contradicted himself. Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt. I'm going to bring you back up out of Egypt. By the way, You're going to die there, and Joseph's going to be the one to close your eyes when you die in Egypt. Will time out God? She said, I was going to go to Egypt, and then you're gonna bring me out. I'll explain in a moment verse five. Then Jacob set out from Bearsheba, the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives in the wagon that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They also took their livestock and their goods which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt. Jacob and his offspring with him, his sons and his son's sons, with him, his daughters and his son's daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt. Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel who came into Egypt. Jacob and his sons, Reuben, Jacob's first born, and the sons of Reuben. So we got a lot of pregnant women out there right now. You're trying to think about names. You're gonna get a whole bunch of ideas right here. Hannakh, Plu, Hezron, and Karmi, the sons of Simeon, Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, the sons of a Canaan, the son of a Canaan Nite woman. The sons of Lebi, Levi, Gershan, Kohath, and Mai. The sons of Judah, er Onan, Sheila, Perez, and Zirah, but and Onan died in the land of Canaan, and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamu. The sons of Isakar, Tola, Puva, Job and Shimron, the sons of Zebulun, Sared Alan and Jahaleel. These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padanaram together with his daughter Dinah. All together his sons and his daughter numbered thirty three. The sons of God Ziphion, Hagi, Shuni, Esbon, ari Arodi, Aireli, the sons of asher Imnah Ishva, Ishvi, Briah with Sarah their sister, and the sons of Beriah, Heber and Malchiel. These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob sixteen persons, the sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife, Joseph and Benjamin, and to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manassa and Ephraim, whom Asanath, the daughter of Padifera, the priest of Aun, bore to him, and the sons of Benjamin, Belah, Bekher, Ashbel Gerah, Nahemon, Ehi, Rush, Mupim, Hupim, and Ard. These are the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob. Fourteen persons in all. The sons of Dan Hushim, the son of Nephthali, Jaziel, Gunni, Jees, and Shilim. These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob. Seven persons in all. All the persons belonging to Jacob came into Egypt who were his sons who were his own descendants, not including Jacob's son's wives, were sixty six persons in all, and the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy. There's your nation of Israel. Seventy people. That's it. God made a promise to Abraham. And his promise to Abraham was a number so great that it could only be compared to the stars and the heavens, and the grains of sand and the sea. And we just read what they have up to now in five minutes. That's it. Seventy people and God's going to turn seventy people into a nation, and he's going to take seventy people out of Canaan. Most of the Canaan I probably didn't even know these seventy people were there, had no idea that who this clan was or anything about this clan. They're going to come back and take over the place seventy people. What on earth can seventy people do? That's a good question. If you know the rest of the story in the Bible, you know that these seventy people are going to change the entire world, but not in and of themselves. It is going to happen over generations. And so here's the multi generational vision and blessing of Jacob that we see here in Genesis chapter forty six. Couple of things. Number one, we see that Jacob worships the God of his father. Jacob worships the God of his father. First piece of the multigenerational blessing of Jacob goes backwards. It's ironic because usually when we talk about multigenerational vision, multigenerational blessing, we're always talking about forward. We always start with me, and then we go forward, my children, my children's children. That's going to be my multigenerational vision, my multigenerational blessing. Now, the beauty of Jacob's multigenerational vision and multigenerational blessing is that it goes backwards before it goes forward. Look at verse one and two. So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to bear Sheheba. He goes back to the place of his father and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. So he goes back to the place established by his father to remember God. He offers sacrifices there in order to remember God. And God spoke to Israel in vision of the night and said Jacob, Jacob, and he said, here am I. Then he said, I am God, God, the God of your father. He goes back. This is something that we don't appreciate, especially those of us who are of the Reformed ilk. We don't appreciate it because we look, for example, at Catholicism and we say, well, Catholicism has a huge problem because they put the history of the Church and the tradition of the Church on par with the scriptures. That is wrong. Sola Scriptura solar Scriptura, to which I say, Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, be careful. That's my response, Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, be careful. Here's why we worship the God of our fathers. If your idea of biblical Christianity is starting at ground zero and not depending on anyone who came before you, you are arrogant, ignorant, and in great danger. If you do not appreciate the history of the Church, you are arrogant, ignorant, and in great danger. If you don't read things that are older than your own generation, you are arrogant, ignorant, and in great danger. The first part of our multigenerational vision is to go back. Why because God wasn't invented in my generation. Amen. God's truth wasn't invented by my generation. There are those who have gone before, who have known God, who have walked with God, who have also failed to walk with God, and there's something to be learned from them all. Why is this so important? Well, a couple of things. Look at For example, the First Commandment, in the Fifth Commandment. In the First Commandment, God makes it very clear, I am God. You should worship me only. I'm God. You worship me only. Amen, He's God, we worship him only. Then there's the fifth commandment, by the way, first commandment, the first of our vertical commandments, the fifth commandment, the first of our horizontal commandments, is what honor your father and your mother? Why? Because they're the ones charged with teaching you who God is and how God is to be worshiped. Do you follow? So the first part of our multigenerational vision is we go back. We go back to our forefathers, by the way, going back to our fourth fathers. This is not about blood, this is about truth. So who are my genuine forefathers in the faith? My genuine forefathers in the faith are those who followed God? Which God. The Bible makes it clear throughout the penitude, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Who's that? That is the one true and living God. Why don't we follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What because the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was also the God of Noah. Well, why don't we want to follow the God of Noah? Because the God of Noah was also the God of Adam. Well, why don't we want to follow the God of Adam, because the God of Adam is the God who created all things. He is the Lord of the universe. And if you're worshiping somebody who was not the God that Adam worshiped, who is not the God that Knowah worshiped, who was not the God that Abraham or Isaac or Jacob worship then you are not worshiping the God of the Bible. So the first place you look in your multigenerational vision is backward to make sure that the God whom we worship is the God of scripture, the God who has revealed himself, and the God who has called upon those to whom has revealed, He has revealed himself to tell the story to coming generations. Which is the incredible blessing that you and I have when we open up the scriptures, that those who have gone before us, who have encountered God, who have been encountered by God, have provided for us a record of that encounter. Go with me, if you would, and look to the right and look at Deuteronomy chapter six. Look at Deuteronomy chapter six, verse one. Now, this is the commandment, the statutes, and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord, your God, you, your son, and your son's son, by keeping his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Here therefore, Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey. There's the multi generational vision. What does he keep doing. He keeps going backward to the God of your fathers and forward to the God of your sons and your son's sons. It's backward and it's forward. In other word, Moses says, I'm giving you these commandments. By the way, these commandmentsh didn't originate with me. They go back to the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, to the God who created the world. This does not happen in a vacuum. It does not exist in a vacuum. Our desire is to worship God in spirit and in truth, not based upon my own limited experience and my own limited scope and frame of knowledge. I cherish the record of those who gone before. Turn with me, if you will to Psalm seventy eight, Psalm seventy eight, and look at those first few verses. There. This is a mascul of Asath. Give year on my people to my teaching, and cline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. He's reaching back. We will not hide them from their children, but tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law and is which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them. The children yet unborn and arise, and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments that they and that they should not be like their fathers. A stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful, to God. So we reach back, but not for everything. Amen, we reach back, but not for everything. We reach back for that which is true, which is biblical, which is right. But we also learn from those who have gone before us and the things that they did not do well. Not just the Psalms, but look at Proverbs. And we'd have to read all of Proverbs to get the richness of this concept here. But look at for example, Proverbs chapter four and verse one. Hear, o, son, a father's instruction and the attentive that you may gain insight. For I give you good precepts. Do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son, with my father tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments, and live. In other words, Son, I want you to pay attention to what I teach you. Why because I'm teaching you God's precepts, which, by the way, I learned from my father, who taught them to me, reaching backward and reaching forward and again. In Ephesians chapter six, verses one through four, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother which is the first commandment, with the promise that it may be well with you and you may live long in the land. By the way, what's that? That's Deuteronomy chapter five and Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. What's that Deuteronomy sixty seven. So the beauty here in what we see in Jacob is first and foremost in its continuity. Jacob knows God for himself. Jacob has encountered God on his own. And yet the God whom Jacob has encountered was the God of Isaac and the God of Abraham. Abraham could not know God for Isaac. Isaac could not know God God for Jacob. They had to know God for themselves. Yet it was incumbent upon them to teach their sons about this God with whom they were in covenant relationship. And so it first reaches back. That's the beauty of his multigenerational vision is that the first thing that we see here is that Jacob is walking with the God of his fathers. Because we've already learned that the God of his fathers is God indeed, Amen. Secondly, Jacob remembers the Covenant. Jacob remembers the Covenant. What does this sacrifice idea come in? This sacrifice idea that we see here in Jacob's life is the same idea that we saw in the life of his father and of his grandfather. And so we go back again to this first part of the passage, verse forty six, Chapter forty six, Verse one. So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba. He stopped in Bersheba, heading south on the way into Egypt, offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. God spoke to Israel in a vision of the night, confirming again the Covenant, and said Jacob, Jacob, and he said, here I am, And he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. Turn with me back to the left and look at Genesis chapter twelve. Genesis chapter twelve, and listen to this. Now, the Lord said to Abram, by the way, here's another one who's going to have a name change. Isn't that beautiful? Even going back here to Jenesis chapter twelve. You realize that this is before the name change. God changes his name. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you by the way. Is that not exactly what's happening now with Jacob? God is saying, leave here, leave here, and I will make of you a great nation. Is that not exactly precisely what God just said to Jacob? And I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you. I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And again we see it in chapter fifteen, and so on and so forth. So what's happening here is that God is reminding Jacob of the covenant that he made with Abraham, that he renewed with Isaac, that he is now again renewing with him. He remembers the covenant, he remembers the promise of God. Listened to John Calvin commenting on this, Because the Holy Man is compelled to leave the land of Canaan and to go elsewhere. He offers, on his departure a sacrifice to the Lord for the purpose of testifying that the covenant which God had made with his fathers was confirmed and ratified to himself. For though he was accustomed to exercise himself in the external worship of God, there was yet a special reason for this sacrifice. And doubtless he had then peculiar need of sup lest his faith should fail, For he was about to be deprived of the inheritance promise to him, and of the sight of that land, which was the type and the pledge of the heavenly country. Jacob's reminding himself of the covenant. Please don't miss this. Jacob at this point is older than anybody you know. Don't miss this. Let me say that again, Jacob at this point is older than anybody you know. Old people don't move, Amen, Generally, old people don't move. If they do, it's kicking and screaming. But generally, when you come to a place in your life where you're eighty ninety one hundred years old and you live somewhere, what do you make up in your mind? This is my home. I'm going to die Hereob not only has found a place that has become a home to him because it's where he grew up. This is the place that God promised to his grandfather, Abraham. Abraham didn't even see it. He only got a small portion when he bought a piece of land to bury his wife. Now here is Jacob and he's got seventy people, and he's living in the promised land. And God says, old as you are, move really, do you know how comfortable my chair is? Now? Are you serious? This is the place where I have decided to die. I remember my grandfather who I buried earlier this year. When he was close to the end, he couldn't say much, and oftentimes he'd go into the hospital. But ultimately, ultimately what my grandfather would communicate towards the end was, I want to go home and die. That's normal, that's natural. I want to go home and die. I want to lay down my head in the place that I know where my memories are, where my family is, and I want to end my life where I have invested my life. Just let me go home and die. That's normal, that's natural. And at that point in his life, God says, move, And what does he do? He stops on his way out of the land that was his home, out of the land that had been promised, out of the land that he lived his whole life to get to. And on the way out he stops and sacrifices to God at a place where his father had built an altar on his way into the land, and he says goodbye to the promise because God meant more. So many of us when we think about a multi generational vision, all we can think about is houses and land and wealth that we can transfer from one generation to the next. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But if you have a place that you've acquired, and your greatest hope is that you look at yourself and say, one day, one hundred years from now, there will be generations named after me, and they're going to live in this same place, you've missed the idea of multigenerational vision. Jacob's hope is not in the place, but in the God who promised. That's Jacob's hope. And so we see first this multigenerational vision and that he worships the God of his father. Secondly, he remembers the Covenant, but thirdly he's leaving the land. He's leaving the land because ultimately, Jacob's multigenerational vision and is multi generation. No blessing is faithfulness to the God of the Covenant. Don't miss that faithfulness to the God of the Covenant. If Jacob refuses to go, then he has faithfulness to a plot of land. But Jacob doesn't have faithfulness to a plot of land. Jacob has faithfulness to the God of the Covenant. He recognizes that the plot of land is a very small peace in all of this. This is not about a plot of land. This is about the God who owns the plot of land. This is about the God who owns that heavens and the earth. This is about trusting that God. So he leaves. He's older than anyone you know, and he packs up everything he owns and he leaves to go to a land that he doesn't know. He also knows that he'll never be back. The last part of that paragraph is Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. He's not going on a trip. He's not going on a vacation to Egypt. Jacob's part of the journey will end in Egypt. So here's what God is saying to Jacob. Jacob, I made a promise to Abraham, and that promise to Abraham included this land in which you now live, and all of this land and which you now live. That promise was confirmed again to Isaac. Now Here you are living in that land that was promised to you. And it's good. I've been good to you, You've trusted me, and I've delivered exactly what I said I was going to deliver you. Now Here's what I want you to do. I want you to pack up everything that you own and everyone who you hold dear and take them out of the land that I promised to you. And you are going to die on foreign soil. And Jacob says, let me worship first. That's just good that I'm not there. Are you there? I'm not, but by God's grace, if he calls you to be, or if he calls me to be, He'll grant us the grace that we need in order to be there. Fourth thing that we need to know is this, Jacob's playing a part in the drama that he doesn't even know it is being written. Jacob's playing a part in a drama that he doesn't even know is being written, which is good by the way, because if he knew, it would be even harder for him to go. That's why God doesn't give us the big picture all at once. We couldn't handle it. There's no way in the world that we can handle the big picture. Here's what I'm going to do, Jacob, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take you down to Egypt and things are gonna be great. You're gonna be saved from the famine, and you're gonna multiply, and this nation is going to grow. Oh God, that's so wonderful. You too good to me. Yeah, and then they're gonna become slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. Oh no, see no, no, no, We're gonna go down there and then we're gonna eat and then the famine. See that's going to be over, right, so five more years. And then after the famine is over, then all of my people they come back to this land that you promised us, and they stay here after they've been rescued from the famine. God right, No, they will be slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. Why would God do that in order to keep his promise? Let me ask you a question. Seventy people live in Canaan. They continue to grow and multiply in Canaan. How the way, we know what happens when they come back in Canaan as a nation. We know the inner marriage and everything else that happens. These seventy people are there in Canaan, they begin to grow and multiply, They begin to intermarry in Canaan. What are the chances that they end up becoming a separate and distinct nation of people. Chances are slim. But if you take them into an already existing nation that is the most powerful nation on earth at the time, and you make them slaves to that nation, now what are the chances that they don't intermarry with that nation and instead become a separate and distinct nation in and of themselves, numbering in the millions, and yet being completely distinct. They go to Egypt to become a nation. They go to Egypt to remain separate and distinct. By the way, this is what God has always done with his people. In case you haven't recognized that, this is what God does with you and me in the world, but not of the world. Come out from among them and be separate. We are not of them. Do we love them, Yes, we love them. Do we proclaim God's truth with them? Yes, we proclaim God's truth to them. But by the way, here's the difference. Ours is not an ethnic nation, but a spiritual kingdom. So the blessing is that there are those on the outside who can be added to the kingdom to which we belong. But the fact of the matter is we are sojourners in this land. It is not our home, and the land of Promise is what we anticipate, not what we already have. So we played a part in that brought a drama. By the way, as I was looking at this, there are a couple of things that just stood out to me. First it was just one or two. Then I started to look more carefully and more closely. Before you get to the last point, just stay here for a minute. In this drama, that's going on that Jacob has no idea of, that Jacob cannot understand at all. Now, in this drama, there are several things going on. Number One, they're about to enter Egypt, and I want you to see how entering Egypt mirrors the Exodus from Egypt in a number of ways. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight Number one. They had to have permission to get into Egypt from Pharaoh. Pharaoh grants the permission to Joseph. They had to have permission to get out of Egypt from Pharaoh. Pharaoh grants the permission to their representative, Moses. How about that representative, Well, Joseph was the head of Pharaoh's house. In the Exodus, Moses was raised in Pharaoh's How about intercession. Entering into Egypt, God gave Joseph favor and softened Pharaoh's heart. How about in the Exodus, God used Moses and the plagues to harden Pharaoh's heart so that he would eventually let them go. What about their wealth, Well, coming into Egypt, there's wealth that was given to them by Pharaoh on those chariots that came to get them. When they're going out of Egypt and the Exodus, there is wealth that is given to them by the Egyptians on their way out. How about these chariots going into Egypt, pharaoh sins chariots to pick up Jacob and his people. Going out of Egypt, pharaoh sins chariots to destroy Israel. How about the census going into Egypt? There is a census of the twelve sons and the seventy people connected to them. Coming out of Egypt, there is a census of the twelve tribes and the millions that are now counted among the nation. How about worship? Jacob stops on the way end to Egypt to worship God. Moses requests from Pharaoh to be able to go outside of Egypt to a holy place. In worship about disaster. God uses a famine to get his people into Egypt. Then God uses plagues to get his people out of Egypt. Jacob has no idea that he is part of a much grander story. And yet when we look at a panoramic view, we see that what God is doing here is mirrored in what He's going to do to take his people out some four hundred years later. Finally, Jacob is believing God for an inheritance that he can neither see nor attain in this life. In a number of ways, God says, I'm going to make you a nation, but also you're going to go here and you're going to die, and Joseph is going to close your eyes. But I'm going to make you a nation. He's believing God for an inheritance. He can't see, he won't be around the claim it, and yet because he loves and trust God, he holds onto it. Nonetheless, he also believes that God's going to give him the lamb, and he holds onto it even though he personally is not going to see it in this life. I don't know how clearly you have seen these parallels between Jacob and his multi generational vision and ours. But let's see if we can put a finer point on it. Jacob worships the God of his fathers. Folks, you and I are called to worship the God of our fathers, of Abraham and of Isaac, and of Jacob. Our multi generation. Our multigenerational vision begins with the vision of the generations who've gone before. We are the fulfillment of someone else's multigenerational vision before we can start thinking about our own. Amen. By the way, ultimately, this multigenerational vision is about God who is calling forth a people called by his own name for his own praise and glory. Secondly, we remember the covenant, you and I as we walk through this perilous land. As we walk through as sojourners, our hope is ultimately in the covenant that God has made, this covenant that has been ratified by Jesus Christ, who shed his own blood and gives us his blood. This is the cup of the New Covenant, in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me, in remembrance of what, in remembrance of the covenant that we have with God, in remembrance that the God that we worship is the God of the Covenant, and he is and we i'll be true to his word. We also leave our promised land. This earth is not our home. We live here as sojourners. Our home is Heaven. Our home is a new city, a new Jerusalem, and that is where our hope lies. So because of that, it doesn't matter where God calls us to move in the here and the now. Whatever roots that we set up are always going to be temporary. We also play a part in a drama that we don't even know as being written. We can go and read the end of the book, but we don't necessarily know how we get there from here. Amen, there are things that God is doing in your life and mind that are designed to bring maximum glory to our Master, Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We don't know what those things are, but we know that God's providence he knows, and so we walk holding onto that. And finally, we believe God for an inheritance that we can't see or attain in this life. We believe God for an inheritance that we can't see or attain in this life. We only get glimpses here and there. We get foreshadowings, we get pieces of the puzzles, we get types, we get representations. But I has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the mind of man, what He has in store for us. It's more than you can fathom. It's more than you can imagine, and it's way more than you deserve. Amen. We see this picture here in this first half of Genesis, chapter forty six, this beautiful portrait of a man older than anybody you know, who is willing to get up and move. Know that it's not because he was just an exceptional older man. Because he wasn't. Amen. If you've been reading, if you've been with us for the rest of the book of Genesis, you know Jacob is not an exceptional older man. He may be exceptionally wicked, but other than that, he's not an exceptional older man. This is about the power of God. This is about the covenant God makes with his people, and this is about the grace of God. You are going to come to a moment in your life where you have to let good and kindred go, perhaps this mortal life. Also, the question is when you come to that moment, will you hold on for dear life to the stuff that you've acquired, believing that that is the greatest good that your relationship with God could produce. Wait a minute, God, I have houses, I have land, I have money, I have this, I have that, I have the other. How could you possibly be calling me to that place when you are the God who exists to give me this stuff. I have this stuff. Now, why would you want me to go somewhere else away from this stuff that my relationship with you is designed to produce. That's not biblical Christianity. That's one of the greatest problems for the Word of Faith movement. By the way, when you come to that place, make sure that you already hold the blessings that God has given you with an open hand, because they're not yours anyway, And there is something for which we live that is far greater than houses and land and livestock and money and wealth and fame and fortune, children, wives, husbands or anything else. That's what we live for. But here's the beauty. Does that mean that our attitude is negative and nasty towards all that stuff? No, it means that we appreciate those things all the more as gifts from the hand of Almighty God that he didn't have to give us in the first place. That's what it means. It means that we hold on to all those things loosely, recognizing that we are part of something greater than ourselves, that we belong to a kingdom that is ever advancing, and that we serve a soon coming king who is going to make all things right and put all things under his feet. We have that perspective, then perhaps we too would be willing, at a ripe old age to get up and move if God said so, because one day we're all going to relocate for good. Amen. Let's pray, Father, we bow before you. As a people who hold on desperately to things. We'd bow before you recognizing that more often than not we cringe at the idea of You calling us to faith and obedience and sacrifice. But thank you for reminding us today that we do not live for the here and now. We do not live for ourselves, but we live for something greater. We live for something more, We live for something lasting, We live for something eternal. Thank you for the testimony of our fathers who walked with you, who, by your grace, finished well in spite of their frailties and faults, made their testimonies cause us to trust all the more. I pray for those under the sound of my voice who are wrestling with your calling, and ask that by your grace they may be granted an extra measure, that we all may be granted. Hearts willing to serve you and obey you. And we thank you for our Lord and our Master and King Jesus Christ, to whom all glory belonged, because it is only him working in us that allows us to will let alone to work for your good pleasure. Grant that we might prize him above all else. Grant that we might hold him so dear, so close, and so tight, that all the other things pale in comparison. Grant that we might remember that he left his home and glory suffered the humiliation of wrapping himself in flesh, having not only seen, but been the creator, master, and Lord of the promise that we look forward to, humbled himself, took on human form, became a human baby, submitted to human parents, and ultimately died at the hands of human sinners, all in obedience to his father, who said, go, may we, as those redeemed by your obedient son, reflect the image of his glory and our obedience to him. This is our prayer. We ask it because we believe it's in accordance with the will and the nature and the authority of Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen, the Kid's honest. So or you come to you Jennis Are Chapter forty six, and will look at the first half of