Day 15 -- Genesis 46-47

You can hear the eternal stagehands moving the sets. A new act is beginning for the Family of the Promise-- Israel in Egypt. But at the very outset of the journey into a new land the Nameless One speaks to Jacob—“I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will bring you up again; and Joseph’s own hand shall close your eyes” (46:3).

“Do not be afraid”—it is the good news—the Gospel—at its most essential. It is what the angel said to Mary. It is what the messenger said the shepherds keeping watch in the fields by night. A great change is about to take place, but you should not be afraid. I am with you.

There were solid reasons for uneasiness. It was the end of Jacob’s life. It was the beginning of a new act. It was a time of transition. Transitions—a move, a death, children leaving home—are the most stressful moments in our lives. Those transitions can take a terrible toll on our health and our peace of mind. “Three moves are worse than a fire,” my mama used to say.

But the Lord is with us, especially in those times of transition, just as he assured Israel that he would be. He always goes with us.

There are a number of tensions present throughout the Old Testament. One of them is the tension between farmers and ranchers. It’s played out in all those old western movies. It erupts in Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. It shows up in the reading for today in the tension between the agrarian society of Egypt and the semi-nomadic shepherd society of the Hebrews. They settle in the sparsely populated northern part of Egypt—lower Egypt—because “shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians.” Sheep and goats destroy crops. This tension will continue to grow throughout Israel’s sojourn in Egypt and climax in the events of the Exodus.

There is a touching moment in chapter 47:7ff where Joseph brings his father to meet Pharaoh, who questions him about his age. Only 130—“few and hard have been the years of my life,” the old man says (9). Then Israel blesses Pharaoh. And the presence of the Jews—contrary to so much racist propaganda throughout history—is a blessing to any nation in which they are allowed to live peacefully. The blessing of God on the Family of Promise rubs off on every other family. "By you all the families of the of the earth will be blessed," God promises Abraham.

Wherever the Jews have been welcomed, there has been prosperity and a flowering of culture; whereever they were persecuted, exterminated, and expelled, there has been darkness and a terrible curse.