They stayed behind and Joseph then went back to Pharaoh with his happy report. Joseph was finally reunited with his father and his brothers when he went down to meet them in Goshen. Then Joseph went and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan and indeed they are in the land of Goshen.” Five Brothers Before Pharaoh (Verses 1-3) It is a story of God’s gracious care for His chosen people and so let’s turn to this superior word again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised. We see this in today’s story about Israel’s arrival in Egypt. In the process, He is taking care of you and providing for you.
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When we get to the end of them, we can clearly see in hindsight that the delay was exactly what was needed for the circumstances. As we read the Bible, we can learn that the long delays in our own life actually serve a great purpose. Nothing is arbitrary with God and all things, even seemingly long delays in His plans, fit perfectly. But each year of Egypt was a year where they could grow and flourish.Įventually, like today, they would have a sufficient number to dwell in and assume control of the promised land. Considering that our nation is only 238 years old, to us 215 years sounds like a long time. There, for the next 215 years, they will draw ever-nearer to the day when they will be called out of that land.
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Israel has arrived and they will be planted in the land of Goshen the land of “drawing near.” In order to be brought into the wilderness and up from the land of Egypt, Israel must first go into the land of Egypt. Text Verse: Therefore, behold, I will allure her,ġ5 I will give her her vineyards from there,Īnd the Valley of Achor as a door of hope Īs in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. But even there God’s grace will shine forth, especially for this cherished group of people, Israel. It is a problem with both Jew and Gentile and it will lead down a destructive path. They take no notice of what was written so long ago to show them what would happen in the future… probably a not-too-distant future from right now.Īnd they fail to open their blinds eyes and lift them to the God who established them and has so faithfully carried them. They ignore the signs, they ignore the wonders, and they ignore the miracle. But like creation itself, most of the world, including much of Israel, tries to take God out of the picture. To those of us who read, study, and believe our Bibles, it’s not a mystery at all. The mystery of redemption is still alive and well in the world. It will be a tough time on earth, but a portion of them will be saved through it by grace. And so, like Israel in Joseph’s time, God will send a famine. They still, for the most part, aren’t listening.
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God was calling them and they weren’t listening. The ancient words of the past were waiting there for them as they arrived off of ships. Hebrew would again be on the lips of the people.Īnd as chance… no, as divine favor would have it, proof of their ancient oracles, the writings we would call the Old Testament, suddenly showed up in a dry, barren place called the Dead Sea one year before they were reestablished. And it told us that the dead language would resurrect. The word that established them also pointed to their return, and to their blossoming and fruitfulness. The land lay in ruins, the people were scattered around in pockets that kept getting shoved from place to place, and the ancient tongue was all-but gone.Īnd yet, suddenly things started to change. Only when looking at history and comparing it with the Bible, does Israel of today really shine so brightly.Ī very small piece of land and a minute number of people were all but forgotten for 2000 years. And the more years that pass, the less miraculous they must seem to people because the world ignores the Bible. They were there when we were born and like so many other countries, they pop in and out of the news from time to time, but there doesn’t really seem anything special about them.Īnd so without the Bible, it’s hard to see the miracle of Israel for what it really is. We who are a bit younger tend to take Israel for granted. Introduction: Some time ago while talking with my brother, he said something I hadn’t really thought of from our perspective.