Scripture: Genesis 46 and 47:9-10
Video Link: https://youtu.be/g5QAMDXeqms
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Over recent years there has been an increase in migration around the world.
Stats New Zealand estimate new arrivals to Aotearoa to be around 239,000 people, which is a 39% increase on the previous year. Departures are up by 31%, with nearly 128,000 people leaving. This equates to a net gain of over 111,000 people coming to live in New Zealand.
These migration statistics represent a lot of movement. A lot of change.
But they don’t tell the whole story. Often people move countries because the situation in their homeland has become intolerable and they want a better life for their family.
Whatever the reason for migrating, it is not easy to leave loved ones and all that is familiar to establish yourself in a new land, where the language and culture are different. It takes courage and faith. Many of you here know that from your own experience.
Today we continue our series in the life of Joseph. This week, in Genesis 46, we read about the migration of Jacob’s family from the land of Canaan to Egypt. From verse 1 of Genesis 46 we read…
So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he replied.
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.”
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, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
Over the past few months, the Deacons and I have been giving careful thought to the church’s insurance policy. Back in February we received an enormous insurance bill. Tens of thousands of dollars more than we were expecting.
At our church meeting next week, we plan to present a proposal for restructuring our insurance cover to bring the premium cost down.
[If you want to see the proposal before the meeting, then we have left copies on the foyer table or you can ask me and I’ll email you the information.]
On one level this is a financial decision. But at a deeper level, it’s also a spiritual decision. Our enormous insurance bill raises some fundamental questions about where our attachments lie. As a church, where do we place our security? In what (or whom) do we put our trust?
Kiwi culture values land. We like to own a piece of dirt and put a building on it. We don’t like to rent. Ownership of land and buildings make us feel safe, secure.
This being said, the church is not the buildings. The church is the people. The church is the quality of our relationships together, in and through Christ.
Yes, the church’s buildings are useful. They provide a place to gather for worship and fellowship. And yes, we want to take care of the buildings. We want to be good stewards and manage our risk as best we can.
But if our attachment to the land and buildings becomes greater than our attachment to Jesus and one another, then we have lost our way. As followers of a Messiah who had nowhere to lay his head, our trust and our security needs to be in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As important as the land of Canaan was to Jacob, he was more attached to God and his family. Jacob’s trust and security was in the Lord of all the earth.
But it had not always been that way. As a young man Jacob coveted the land. He wanted to possess the land so badly that he cheated his twin brother, Esau, out of the birthright and blessing. In the process he destroyed trust with his brother and was forced to flee for his life to Haran, to work for his uncle Laban.
On leaving Canaan the first time, the young Jacob had a dream at Bethel in which he saw angels ascending and descending on a stairway. In the dream God promised to give Jacob and his descendants the land of Canaan. God’s promise gave Jacob hope and enabled him to leave the land he loved knowing he would be back one day with a family of his own.
Some twenty years later, when Jacob returned with wives and children, he wrestled all night with a man at the boundary to the land of Canaan. In the morning the man asked Jacob to let him go but Jacob refused saying, “I will not let you go unless you bless me”.
Jacob did not let go easily. The man said to Jacob, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome”. Then the man blessed Jacob. Afterwards, Jacob realised he had been wrestling with God.
Now, in Genesis 46, a much older Jacob is leaving Canaan again and it is no small thing. So much of Jacob’s life has been wrapped up in the promised land. Now Jacob is needing to let go of the land and letting go is not easy for Jacob. There is risk involved. What if he loses the land?
Feeling the gravity of the situation, Jacob offers sacrifices at Beersheba, once again near the boundary. He is seeking God’s blessing before he crosses over to Egypt. Is it okay for me to leave?
And God responds with a vision in the night, telling Jacob not to be afraid.
God reassures Jacob of his presence saying, “I will go down to Egypt with you”.
God is not restricted by geography. He is Lord of all the earth.
God goes on to say, “I will make you a great nation there”. Jacob’s family, at this point, is not really a nation. It’s more like the embryo of a nation. It was God’s purpose for the nation of Israel to live and grow in the womb of Egypt for around 430 years, before returning to the promised land.
With the reassurance that God travels with him, Jacob leaves the land of Canaan and goes with his family to Egypt. This is an act of faith on Jacob’s part. It demonstrates that Jacob’s security is in the Lord. As important as the land is to Jacob, he has a greater attachment to God and his family.
God is Jacob’s insurance. Jacob believes God will restore the promised land to his descendants one day.
Jacob’s experience reminds us of Jesus. In Matthew 2, Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, had a dream in which an angel of the Lord told him to take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt to escape king Herod. Like Israel, Jesus lived in Egypt for a while, before returning to Nazareth after Herod had died.
Jesus knows what it is to be a migrant and a refugee. Jesus knows how it feels to be displaced, forced to leave your homeland.
The kiwi band, Six60, have a song called, Don’t forget your roots.
It’s about the importance of remembering where you come from and taking care of your family relationships. The chorus reads…
“Don’t forget your roots my friend, don’t forget your family,
Don’t forget your roots my friend, the ones who made you,
The ones who brought you here, don’t forget your roots…”
It is important to remember our roots and to take care of our family relationships because if we don’t, we can lose our sense of identity, we can forget who we are and become lost, adrift from what is true.
Whakapapa is the Maori word for genealogy. In English, it translates to something like, ‘place in layers’ or ‘create a foundation’. A person’s whakapapa links them to their ancestors, to their tribe and to their land.
Whakapapa or genealogy is important in the Bible. Genesis is peppered with layers of names which create a foundation and make connections. Two of the gospels (Matthew and Luke) give Jesus’ whakapapa, linking our Lord to the tribe of Judah and even further back to Adam and therefore to all of humanity.
In Genesis 46, verses 8-25, we are given the list of names of those descended from Jacob, who left Canaan and settled in Egypt for a while. This Hebrew whakapapa provides a kind of foundation for the nation of Israel.
It helps Jacob’s descendants to remember who they are and where they come from. It strengthens their sense identity, so they don’t forget their roots or become lost in a foreign land.
Now you may be relieved to know that I don’t plan to read out all the names. You can do that later, at your leisure. But I will make a couple of observations.
Firstly, there are no illegitimate children in this list. All of Jacob’s children are named and given a place of honour. Those of you who know your Bibles will remember that Jacob fathered children to four women. He had two wives, Leah and Rachel. And they each had two handmaids who, at Rachel & Leah’s insistence, also had children by Jacob.
The children of the handmaids are not treated as less, in any way. They are valued members of Jacob’s family and of God’s people. With God, there is no such thing as an illegitimate child.
Now it needs to be acknowledged that Jacob practiced polygamy and
polygamy is not ideal. Just because some of the Bible’s heroes had more than one wife, at the same time, it does not follow that the Bible recommends it.
More often the Bible portrays polygamy as a cautionary tale, something to be avoided. Nevertheless, God in his grace accommodated it for a time. God worked with the choices human beings made to create the nation of Israel.
Verse 27 tells us that 70 members of Jacob’s family went down to Egypt. Seventy, in ancient Hebrew thought, is the ideal number symbolizing completeness. The nation of Israel, in miniature, is represented here as ideal.
When we look back at the dysfunction in Jacob’s family. The lies, the hatred, the envy and rivalry, we may wonder how the Bible can represent this messed up family as ideal.
Well, it seems the text is making a point. Despite a less than ideal past, a profound healing has taken place within the family so that they can be reunited again. Not just geographically reunited but restored in their relationships.
We might think of Jacob’s family as a patchwork quilt. Before the quilt is sewn together it looks like a bunch of random rags destined for the scrap bin. But when God brings all the different shapes and sizes and colours of human fabric together, it becomes a thing of beauty and usefulness.
We catch a glimpse of the healing, restoring work of God in verses 28-30 of Genesis 46, when Jacob is reunited with his son Joseph…
28 Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, 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 fatherand 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.”
Although Jacob says he is ready to die, he actually goes on living for a number of years. Jacob is basically saying he is satisfied with his life. He has received his son back from the dead and it is well with his soul.
Joseph does not say anything at first. He weeps, for a long time. Joseph’s tears communicate more powerfully than words. Joseph’s tears speak to the depth of his suffering and love. Joseph has not forgotten his roots. He is at home in the arms of his father, even if they are in a strange land.
It’s interesting that the first thing Joseph attends to here is his emotions.
He has a good cry. After (and only after) he has attended to his emotions, does Joseph attend to the practical task of settling his family in Egypt and giving them security in Goshen.
Most men, in the time and culture I was raised in, did not give priority to their emotions. Feelings were this annoying thing that got in the way of being a man. The problem is, if we treat our feelings with contempt, they often return with a vengeance, in the form of anger. And so what you get is a lot of angry young men. Things are different these days, but there was a time when anger was the only acceptable feeling for a Kiwi bloke.
In Joseph though we are given a different model, a better example. In Joseph we see a powerful and successful man who manages his emotions well. Joseph gets things done by wisdom and patience, not violence or force.
Joseph reminds us of Jesus. Jesus also gave priority to taking care of his feelings. Before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he wept. Only after Jesus had faced his feelings did he get on with the practical task of bringing Lazarus back to life. We do well to remember that tears often precede new beginnings.
After attending to his emotions, Joseph makes arrangements for his family to settle in Goshen. Shepherding was the family business and Goshen was a region in Egypt that was suitable for shepherding. There is more than enough change migrating to a new country. Best (if possible) to keep some things familiar, like the work you do. Stick to the knitting, as they say.
Joseph is careful to do everything above board. There is no deceit with Joseph. He doesn’t sneak his family into Egypt. He gets Pharaoh’s permission, instructing his brothers to be honest with Pharaoh about what they do for a living. Then Pharaoh will allow them to settle in Goshen.
Joseph’s approach is very different from that of his great-grandfather, Abraham. When Abraham went to Egypt, he lied to Pharaoh because he was afraid. Joseph has learned from Abraham’s mistake. Joseph is respectful of Pharaoh and his authority. He speaks the truth and trusts the outcome to God.
The note, in verse 34, that all shepherds are detestable to Egyptians suits Israel well. It means the Egyptians will keep some distance between themselves and Jacob’s family. This will enable God’s people to preserve their identity and not be assimilated into Egyptian culture.
It is similar with the followers of Jesus. We are to be in the world but not of it. We are to preserve our distinctive identity in Christ and not be assimilated by the prevailing culture. We are to keep our saltiness.
In Genesis 47, Joseph introduces his father to Pharaoh and Jacob blesses Pharaoh, twice it appears.
We are reminded here of God’s promise to bless the nations through Abraham and his descendants. God does, quite literally, bless Pharaoh and all of Egypt through Jacob and Joseph, the direct descendants of Abraham.
Conclusion:
This morning we have heard how Jacob and his family migrated to Egypt. While the promised land of Canaan was important to him, ultimately Jacob’s security was in the Lord. Jacob was more attached to God and his family than he was to the land.
But in migrating to Egypt, Jacob and his family did not forget their roots. They remembered who they were as God’s covenant people. By preserving their identity and staying true to God’s purpose for them, they blessed the people of Egypt.
Today is Pentecost, a special Sunday in the church calendar when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. When Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Spirit 2000 years ago, they were mobilised to migrate from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, blessing the nations as they took the message about Jesus with them.
By the power of God’s Spirit, a new nation was born and has grown around the world. This nation of people, who are known as Christians, is not bound to a particular piece of land or to a particular ethnic genealogy.
Whether we were born here or moved here, as the people of God, we are all pilgrims (or migrants) in this world, connected across time and space by the Spirit of Christ.
Let me finish now with a blessing for you. This prayer was written by Gustavo Santos, of Vancouver…
The Lord of the Nations has brought you here and he has protected you through many challenges. Even though you might be invisible to those around you, remember that the Creator sees you. And even though you might not be able to express yourself in a new language, remember that the Creator hears you. As you go into the world, extend his love through the work you do. Welcome those who don’t look like you. Serve those who may persecute you. Seek justice wherever God takes you. Keep your head high and your heart soft, knowing that you belong regardless of where you are. Because in God’s kingdom, nobody is a stranger. Amen.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
- What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- Have you ever migrated from one country to another? (Or from one city to another, within the same country?) How did you feel? What was helpful to you in the process of migration?
- How do you imagine Jacob felt when he was leaving Canaan? How did Jacob deal with his migration?
- Discuss / reflect on God’s words to Jacob in Genesis 46:2-4. What do you need / want God to say to you?
- Why does Genesis contain genealogies? What is significant about the genealogy of Jacob’s family in Genesis 46? What is significant about Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew & Luke?
- Why does Joseph weep when he is reunited with his dad? What happens if we don’t take care of our feelings? What practical things can we do to look after our emotions?
- What was the long-term consequence of the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost? Why does Jesus send his Spirit upon people today?
Tawa Baptist 