Chronological Reading Plan for Jan 28

Today's readings are Gen 46-47. Tomorrow's are Gen 48-50.

Gen 46 finds Jacob's family moving to Egypt. God has used all the hardship and struggles of Jacob and his sons to place them exactly where He wants them. He has graciously provided for them when all around them are starving and dying. He will now use Egypt to build them into the nation He promised they would become. Keep your eye on what God is doing here. It is not by coincidence that, in the Bible, Egypt is a synonym for the world and it's fallen nature. Rather than His people becoming victims of Egypt, this powerful nation will become a tool in God's hands used to refine His people.

Jacob and His family travel to Egypt

God makes a promise to Jacob (Israel). God, Himself, will take him to Egypt and bring him back to the Canaan. Jacob's son, Joseph will "close his eyes". In other words, Jacob will see Joseph again and they will be together until Jacob dies. 

This is a promise within a promise and shows us that we should be careful how we interpret God's promises. As we will see, God will indeed bring Jacob to Egypt. God will also return him to Canaan (The Promised Land). He and the nation named after him will be blessed in a mighty way. But, Jacob will die while he is in Egypt and be buried in his homeland. God will be with him throughout, an assurance of continued blessing after Jacob's death.  

As Jacob's life end, we see that God has used his struggles to bring him closer, to bless him and those around him. Furthermore he will do the same with Jacob's sons, each of them, even though they may have some good points, as flawed and troubled as Jacob was. God shows us that He is the hope of a dysfunctional, struggling family. They have been petty, jealous, manipulative, deceitful, disobedient and fearful. Yet God has chosen Jacob and his twelve sons to bless the world. Keep this in mind as the story of Israel unfolds. The heads of the twelve tribes have been identified. These are the patriarchs if ancient Israel. Far from possessing Charlton-Heston-Cecil-B.-DeMille nobility and virtue, the are frighteningly normal people. 

Meanwhile, in ch 47, we see Joseph, the one who was sold into slavery to the Egyptians, selling the entire nation of Egypt into slavery. As a people, they were dependent upon God for the wisdom that saved them (the wisdom God gave Joseph). God provided the food they are eating. Now they have no possession no land and are even more dependent upon Him. Yet, as a nation, they do not follow God. 

Egypt has become a picture of God's common grace, benefiting from God's goodness without calling upon Him as the one, true God, even denying Him and following other gods. God is pleased to allow this because He us using Egypt for His own purposes in blessing and providing for His chosen people, Jacob and his family.

It would be easy to look at Egypt and feel offended that God is caring for them. "They haven't earned God's grace and favor!" our sensibilities scream. But, neither has Jacob and his family. In another few generations, God will say to Moses, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." (Ex 33:19)