Let me read the first line of
chapter 46 in verse 1. And Israel took his journey with
all that he had. That's really a significant statement
that the Spirit of God leads Moses to write. Because do you
remember what Pharaoh had said to Joseph regarding the word
that was to be sent by his brothers back to Jacob. If you don't remember,
I'll remind you here in chapter 45, if you'll back up just a
bit, chapter 45, verses 19 and 20. This is what Pharaoh said. Now
thou art commanded this do ye. take you wagons out of the land
of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring
your father in come. Also, regard not your stuff. Don't give any regard to your
stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours." Look
at that word, regard. It means don't look with compassion
upon. Don't longingly look after the
things that you've accumulated in Canaan. And don't be disappointed
when I say leave all of your goods in the land of Canaan and
then you come and I'll have something better for you. It's interesting
this word stuff. Refresh my memory on this. Pulled
out my Hebrew lexicon, did a little study. Stuff comes from a Hebrew
word which means to consume. That which will come to an end. That which is only temporary.
That pretty well sums up all of our stuff, doesn't it? The
things of this world, No wonder we're admonished, set your affection
upon things above, not upon things of the earth. But you can look
at it another way here. Jacob, even though he got the
word, leave all your stuff, and this is what Pharaoh said, the
riches of Egypt are before you. but he wasn't excited about the
Egyptian riches. And I rather think he was like
Moses. And Moses, the scripture says
in Hebrews chapter 11 that he considered the reproach of Christ
greater riches than all the treasures in Egypt. You know, if you look
back, go back just a little bit further in Genesis, go back to
chapter 28 and verse 20. And I think this is the reason
that Jacob, he takes all of his things. Remember what I read
to you. He took his journey with all that he had. He didn't pay
any attention to what Pharaoh said. Leave your stuff behind,
but he's taking everything with him. He's not looking for any
handout from the Egyptians or from Pharaoh. Because back here
in chapter 28 of Genesis, The Lord met with him, verse
19 says, he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name
of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a
vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in the way
that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on
so that I come again into my Father's house in peace. Then
shall the Lord be my God." In other words, Jacob, he sought
the Lord, and he said, Lord, give me that which I need to
sustain me, to provide for my needs. I look to You for everything. And you know what the Lord did?
The Lord provided for him. And now Pharaoh would have him
leave all of those things that Jacob knew God gave him. Pharaoh would have him leave
all that behind. But Jacob wants nothing of that.
These things he realized, they came to him from the hand of
God. He had asked the Lord. for food and raiment for the
Lord to provide for him. And the Lord has provided for
him. And so rather than go to Egypt
and be fully dependent upon the welfare of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, his
attitude was, God has provided for me. I don't need what Pharaoh
is going to give me. And so he goes further. He's not going to abandon the
things that God gave him. They didn't mean anything to
Pharaoh, but they meant something to Jacob. And I know we don't want to become
infatuated with the toys, the possessions that God has given
us, but let's never forget this. God's the one who gave us these
things. You wouldn't have anything the Lord didn't provide for.
You wouldn't have a house over your head. You wouldn't have
clothes on your body. You wouldn't have food to eat
if God didn't provide for you. And this is the way Jacob looked
at things. This is the Lord. This is the
Lord. In fact, you'll notice as you
go back to chapter 46, it doesn't even say in Jacob took his journey
because that's his name of the flesh. That's his natural-born
name. But God the Spirit has Moses
to speak of him as Israel. He speaks as a prince with God.
And he takes all the things that God has given him, mindful of
the fact that all that he had, all that he possessed, was what
God gave him. Aren't you thankful even for
the temporal mercies that God has given you. And I know they're
not to be compared with the spiritual mercies that we have in Christ.
For in Christ, we have justification and sanctification. We have redemption. We have this glorious salvation
that God has given us. We have Christ Jesus. And since
God has given us His very Son, He's given us the best that He
could ever give us. Well, shall he not also with
Christ freely give us all things? He'll give us everything else
that we need. Jacob realizes that. And so the
Spirit of God has him to be addressed here as Israel, and he goes forth
believing God. As I go through this 46th chapter,
I'm just gonna give you, as time allows, I wanna give you six
things, six headings, and each of them is just one word, so
it'll make it easier to remember. First of all, sacrifices. Sacrifices. Jacob goes a day's
journey, and then he stops in Beersheba, And as I read to you,
he offered sacrifices unto God. Now this is a public worship
service. He has all of his family members,
and here's the 70 of them. Well, 68. 67, Joseph and his two sons are in
Egypt. So here are 67 of them. And they gather together for
public worship. And I'm sure that Jacob himself,
he has prophetly worshiped the Lord. But before he goes any
further, because Beersheba was like a border town. It's right
there at the border of Egypt. So before Jacob and the rest
of his family goes into the land of Egypt. He's first of all going
to have a public worship service. And to do that, he has to offer
sacrifices. In the very first verse of chapter
46, he offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
He is mindful of the fact that you can't worship God without
sacrifice. If you would honor God, if you
would reverence God, if you would worship God, you must draw near
to Him through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't offer a blood sacrifice to the Lord. We offer an unbloody
sacrifice of thanksgiving and worship. But it was our Lord
Himself who offered to God the very sacrifice that put away
all the sins of His people. And Jacob and all of the other
Old Testament saints of God, they knew how vital it was, this
blood redemption. This atonement. This reconciliation. The removal of sins. And they
knew, having been instructed by their forefathers, that these
sacrifices all directed their attentions to the seat of the
woman who would come and offer the one-time sacrifice that would
once and for all put away the sins of His people. Sacrifices. Sacrifices. He knows what God demands. Do
you? Do you know what God demands?
He demands blood. He knew he could not walk with
God, he could not fellowship with God, he could not expect
the Lord's presence, he could not expect the Lord's mercies,
except his sins be purged symbolically by offering sacrifices to God. It says he offered sacrifices
unto the God of his father Isaac. How especially wonderful it is
if we're blessed with moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas who
love the same gospel of grace. He called on the God of his father. as you think back. And I know
all of our circumstances are different, our lives are different,
and the paths that God has brought us, they're all different as
well. But there are some of you, you know in your own soul, a
mom and dad, they worship the same God I worship. That's a
great blessing. That's a great blessing. Jacob here is mindful of the
God of the covenant. As he mentions his own father,
and that covenant that was made with Abraham was passed on to
Isaac and on to Jacob, and we're always reminded of the covenant
of grace made with our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the
first word is sacrifices. The second word is encouragement. I already said Beersheba was
a border town, and it was at the edge of the
land of promise, and then you go across into Egypt. And it would appear, at least
it does to me, that Jacob now is a little bit fearful of going
into Egypt. And the Lord knows his thoughts,
his attitude. We can't hide anything from the
Lord, can we? I mean, it's all, we're an open
book before him, even our thoughts and motives and so forth. And
so it says in the second verse, God spake to Israel in the visions
of the light and said, Jacob, Jacob. And I think the reason
he addressed him as Jacob because he's acting like Jacob. He's fearful. He's fearful of
something. And if he wasn't fearful of something,
the Lord would not have said to him in the third verse, I
am God, the God of thy father, fear not. The Lord doesn't say
fear not unless we're fearful. He was fearful. Well, what's
he fearful of? Read the rest of verse 3. Fear
not to go down into Egypt. He's fearful of going into Egypt.
That's a dangerous, dangerous country. It's filled with heathenism. It's filled with idolatry. They
worship everything from cats to crocodiles. They worship vegetables. They worship the sun god, Ra. I mean, they've got endless number
of idols. And Jacob is hesitant to go into
Egypt. He knows that Abraham made a
big mistake going into Egypt. That's where he picked up Hagar.
And that's where he lied about Sarah being his sister. Abraham, he got into a world
of trouble going into Egypt, and the Lord specifically forbade
Isaac from going into Egypt. And now he is being compelled
to go into Egypt himself. He's fearful of it. That's a
dangerous place. My granddaddy didn't do good
down there. He messed up. My father wanted
to go there, but the Lord stopped him. Jacob knew it was a notoriously
idolatrous country. And his association with the
Egyptians, if they went, it's going to turn out bad because
he knows what the Lord has told his grandfather Abraham. The Lord said to Abraham, your
people are gonna be, they're gonna be taken captive and they'll
be in Egypt 430 years. Oh no. So do I go into Egypt? Do I go into Egypt when our country,
our people rather, will be taken into captivity? And he knew that unless the Lord
went with him into Egypt, he's bound for trouble. Oh, he knew Joseph was in Egypt,
but will the Lord be there with me? He knew there was lots of grain
in Egypt, but will the Lord of the harvest be with me there? Everything indeed seemed to draw
him to Egypt, but will the Lord be present
with him. It's a great matter of concern
to Jacob. And so the Lord removes his fear. The Lord encourages him. And
who among the people of God doesn't constantly stand in need of encouragement? Because by nature, we are a fearful
people. And I think I'm convinced that
in our society today, There are lots of people who want to keep
us in fear. Be afraid. Afraid of the economy,
afraid of Russia, afraid of this, afraid of that. Be fearful. And the Lord has to come to us
over and over again and remind us He's the sovereign God who
governs all things. Therefore, fear not. It's easy to say that. Fear not. Sometimes it's rather difficult
to remember that. You see, fear robs us of joy. Fear weakens us in the path of
responsibility. Jacob must go down to Egypt by
God's command, but he's afraid. And so the Lord says, look at
verse three, fear not to go down into Egypt for I will there,
and the emphasis I'm told by Hebrew scholars, the emphasis
in this verse or in that statement is there. It's on the word there. I will there make of thee a great
nation. I'm not going to make of you
a great nation here. As we read just a few minutes
ago, all of them who were in Egypt of the children of Israel
were 70. That's not a great nation. The Lord says, I'll make of a
great nation of you there, not here. Not here. And it's best for them not to
stay in the land of Canaan because the Canaanites were fierce idolaters. and they were the enemies of
the God of Israel. So the Lord says to him, look
at the I wills. End of verse three, I will, I
will there make of thee a great nation. Verse four, I will go
down with thee into Egypt. and I will also surely bring
thee up again. And Joseph shall put his hand
upon thine eyes." You're not going to die by yourself, Jacob.
There'll be somebody right there with you when you die. It will be Joseph. It will be
Joseph. And as you've seen so often in
television programs or movies, And I have talked to a medical
expert about this, but you know, somebody dies and their eyes
are open, you'll see somebody close their eyes. That's the
picture here. And Jacob, this is what he's
assured of. That one you love, that one you're
longing to see, he's going to be with you on your deathbed. You're not gonna die by yourself,
Jacob. You know, Jacob, as you've been following along in this
study, he's kind of fixated on death. But he doesn't have a
gloomy view of it. And that's the thing about the
Old Testament saints of God and New Testament as well. They didn't
have a dismal view of death. They had a confidence in the
Lord. Listen, when time comes for you
who are the people of God to die, a greater than Joseph will
be there to close your eyes. Isn't that sweet? He'll be there when you fall
asleep and He'll immediately take you into His presence and
glory where you'll ever be awake. You won't die by yourself. This
is how the Lord encouraged Jacob. Be encouraged, children of God. There's no need to have a gloomy
view of death. It's one of the covenant blessings
that death will usher us into the presence of our Savior. And I noticed this and I kind
of repeat myself. I don't find in the Old Testament
or the New Testament any child of God who is fearful of death
and who dreads it and who doesn't want to die. I was brought up in free will
religion. And it was a system of works,
of rewards, and punishment. If you serve the Lord, you get
rewards. When you get to heaven, you get
rewarded. And if you don't work for Him like you ought to, when
you get to heaven, you're going to be so ashamed. You're going
to be so embarrassed. When the Lord puts your whole
life out in front of everybody who's ever lived, oh, how ashamed
you're going to be. I don't read anybody in the Scriptures
having that view of death. They all look forward to seeing
the Lord. You see, I know that's how legalistic
religion motivates people, either by the promise of rewards or
the threat to punishment. But that's not how the Lord motivates
us. It's the love of Christ that
constrains us. And love is the most powerful
motivating force there is. The Lord says to Jacob, I'll
go down with you and I'll surely bring thee up. And not him, literally,
but his family, his posterity, the Lord will bring them up. And so Jacob, needing the encouragement,
the Lord gives him the encouragement that he needs. I'll go with you all the way. And you who are
the people of God, every step of your earthly journey, the
Lord is with you. In fact, He's carrying you to
your desired end, a safe haven of rest. And you will die in peace. The scripture says, he giveth
his beloved sleep. Sleep. And at God's appointed time,
the Lord Jesus will put his hands upon your eyes and close your
eyes to this old world. And you'll immediately be in
his glorious presence forever. Have confidence in Him. Well,
then, the third thing, the third word I give you is family. And
I didn't read all of this, verses 8 through down through verse
27, actually. This is the family of Jacob,
the family of Israel. Here is the church in the Old
Testament at this time. But the Lord's going to add to
the church daily, such as should be said. and it will grow. Which brings me then to the fourth
word, which is Judah. Judah. In verse 28. And Jacob sent Judah before him. Judah is like the forerunner. He's the forerunner. It's only
fitting that he would be the forerunner, for he's the father
of the royal tribe. Judah, through whom Messiah will
come. It's only right that Judah will
conduct the path of Jacob to Joseph in the land of Goshen.
Thank the Lord there's a greater than Judah. who is our forerunner. He has come into this world. He has died for us. He was buried. He arose again. He was the forerunner
into the grave. And He came forth from the grave.
And He's the forerunner who's entered into heaven for us. He's
staked a claim to heaven for all of His people. Our great
Judah. In Judges chapter one, you might
jot this down really later, Judges one, one and two, Joshua had
died. Joshua had died, and Israel raises
this question, who's gonna fight the Canaanites for us? And the Lord says, Judah will. Judah will fight the Canaanites.
The line of the tribe of Judah. And that's how our Lord is spoken
of in the book of Revelation chapter 5. He's the one who took
on all of the enemies of His people and defeated them all. Judah means praise the Lord. Praise to Him. Judah is indeed
the head of the tribe, the royal tribe. of Judah from which our
Lord Jesus Christ came. Well, Judah is the fourth word. The fifth word is reunion. And
I read this to you where Joseph meets his father. It's one of
the sweetest verses that you'll ever read. Joseph is a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And he welcomes Jacob unto himself. And I can't help but think of
a prodigal son going home, and the father meets him. And the
son had prepared his little statement of confession, and, I'm not worried
that it'd be a son, I'd just make me a hired servant. and
the father just smothers him with kisses. No wonder the bride of our Lord
says in the book of Song of Solomon, let him kiss me with the kisses
of his lips. Oh Lord, love on me. Joseph just hugged his daddy
and just kissed him and embraced him. Oh Lord, by Your Spirit,
embrace each of us. Oh how encouraging that would
be, for the Lord to embrace you. But you know what He does? He
does embrace you. It's just a sweet reunion. And again, Jacob says in verse
30, Israel says, now let me die. I've seen thy face, because thou
art yet alive. Reminds you of Simeon out of
Luke, the second chapter. I'm ready to die now. I've seen
Joseph. That's what Jacob says. And you're
only ready to die if by faith you've seen the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you've seen Him, if you're viewing Him, you're ready to
die. And the sixth word is location. If you run a business, they say
in the business world, three most important words are location,
location, location. Well, there's a location here.
It's Goshen. It's Goshen. The land of Goshen
was an area in Egypt. It consisted of 900 square miles. It was very highly prized for
its rich and fertile land, great pastures, The tributaries of the Nile River
wound their way through there, and they had delta areas where
the land was so rich and fertile. Great place for cattle, great
place for sheep. Location. Not only was the land
rich, but it wasn't far from where Joseph had his palace in
the city of On. You might remember his father-in-law
was a priest in the city of On. This is gonna work out strategically
for Israel and for all of the Israelites because the Egyptians,
they were so prejudiced, and their prejudice worked out in
the favor of the Israelites, because they hated shepherds. They hated them. So Pharaoh says,
I'm gonna give y'all your father that land over there, and you'll
stay over there, and we'll stay over here. That's great. That's
great. 70 souls. Why, if they had relocated into
one of the major so-called metropolitan cities of Egypt, they'd just
be swallowed up by the Egyptians. But the Egyptians, shepherds
were an abomination to them. Pharaoh says, you take that land
over there. It's really good land. And it
was. It was the very best land. Look
at chapter 47 in verse 6. Pharaoh says, The land of Egypt
is before thee. In the best of the land make
thy father and brethren to dwell in the land of Goshen. Let them
dwell. It's the best land. That's what
he said. I'm going to give you the best
land. Now, what would move the heart of a heathen king who worships
all manner of false gods? What would move him to give this
best land to the family of Joseph? Well, it's not what would move
him, it's who moved him. The heart of the king is in the
Lord's hand. And as the rivers of water, he
turneth it whithersoever he will. Look again down in verse 11 of
chapter 47. And Jacob placed his father and
his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the
best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. Rameses, you know what his name
means? The son, S-O-N, of the sun, S-U-N. That's what his name
means. They were sun worshipers. And of course, the Israelites,
as we shall later find out, they're gonna make a great city in the
name of Ramses. They'll build it along with the
pyramids in time to come. But this location, this location,
and another key thing, and I made mention of it, I want to emphasize
again, Joseph was not very far away from them. He could keep
an eye on them. This was very important. He knows
the manners, the ways, the culture, the language of Egypt. They don't. They don't. All the things that
they don't know, he knows. and he will provide for them.
And I'll tell you, all the things that you don't know, and there's
a lot of things you don't know. Our greater than Joseph knows
all things. And he's not very far away from
any of us. And as Joseph was seated upon
his throne, so our Lord Jesus is seated upon his throne. and
he constantly looks out for the welfare of his people. Location,
location. And you know what the Lord does? He gives us really good things
in this life. He blesses us so much. He has blessed us with a knowledge
of himself And He has blessed this particular congregation
to be together for years with the Lord meeting in the midst
of us. Oh, how blessed we are. He's near to us by His Spirit. And He says, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. And He who brought us in will
someday take us home to glory. We can rejoice in Him. Well,
let's pray.