SOVEREIGN GRACE PRESERVES HIS PEOPLE
Genesis 46:28—47:12

INTRODUCTION

The church of Jesus Christ is always on the edge of extinction. We live, as God’s people in hostile conditions. Some of the hostility is open and blatant. We are threatened, bullied, arrested, tortured, and killed all over the world. God’s people are pressured by violence and the threat of violence to renounce our allegiance to Jesus Christ. However, most of the time for most of the church the danger is far subtler. The threat of extinction of the church comes mostly through subversion, not coercion. The church isn’t conquered by the world, rather we are seduced and we become part of the world. Jesus and the apostle Paul expressed the danger by talking about wolves dressed as sheep, leading the people of God astray. The threat is not that we stop worshipping; it is that we worship a false god while thinking we worship the true God. The great threat is that we become like the nation Israel, under the leadership of Aaron the priest, worshipping a golden calf while saying, “Here is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” In other words, the language remains the same, but the object of worship is an idol, not the true and living God.

What is true for the church is also true for each of us individually. It is so easy for us to forget that we are on a journey to heaven. We so easily become enamored with the pleasures of this world and begin to live as if this world is our home. This is not our home. We are, as Jacob says to Pharaoh in our passage today, “sojourners” or “pilgrims”, people who live in a country that is not their own but who are traveling through to another, better country. Jacob and his family have moved from the Promised Land to Egypt at the command of God to join Joseph in the land of suffering and slavery. This small band of nomadic shepherds is moving into the midst of the greatest nation on earth. It is a powerful, prosperous, proud and pagan nation. The greatest danger facing the people of God in Egypt is not persecution, but assimilation. How will they maintain their distinctiveness as the people of God, ready to return to the land of promise? How will they not be seduced by the prosperity and pagan practices of the majority culture? As we examine Jacob’s arrival in Egypt we are going to see how it is that God means to keep them separate as his chosen people while they live in the midst of this seductive culture.

We desperately need to observe God’s plan for preserving his people for we live in the midst of the most dangerous nation on earth. It is so easy to be religious in America. It is easy to be impressed with the comforts and pleasures of life in the USA. It is easy to be seduced and assimilated while maintaining the form of religion. Eugene Peterson describes the danger this way, “Religious activity on our continent is very popular. There is absolute religious freedom, which means that we can be religious any old way we want to. But the way we want to doesn’t turn out to be anything close to the biblical originals. North American religion is basically a consumer religion. Americans see God as a product that will help them to live well, or to live better… Our constitutionally protected freedom of religion has turned out to be culture-enslaved religion…. Far from being radical and dynamic, most religion is a lethargic rubber stamp on worldly wisdom… Surveyed as a whole, we are immersed in probably the most immature and mindless religion, ranging from infantile to adolescent, that any culture has ever witnessed.” The danger of being dominated by the culture we live in and ceasing to be the church is very real. This morning we are going to observe how it is that…

MAIN POINT
God, through Jesus, preserves his people while we live in an alien world by…

I. Revealing his glory to us (46:28-30)

It would be hard to imagine a sweeter reunion than the one that takes place between 130-year-old Jacob and his now 40-year-old son Joseph, the prince of Egypt. For twenty-two long years, Jacob has mourned the death of his beloved son. Sorrow has been his daily companion. Despair has often swept over him. He was certain that he was going to die in sorrow, never to be happy again. For twenty-two long years, Joseph has lived away from the comfort of his father. Now they are reunited and they hold each other tightly and weep the sweet tears of joy. This last week, Elizabeth Smart, the fifteen-year-old teen that was abducted from her bedroom at knife point nine months ago was found and safely returned to her family. Against all hope and expectation she was found alive and safe. In a few hours, her family went from sorrow and despair to absolute joy. (Show the picture.) This is the emotion that consumes this father and this son.

But there is more here than the joy of a long separated father and son. As we have been observing throughout the story of Joseph, he stands as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples in Luke 24 that the OT was the record of his sufferings and his glory. We have seen the sufferings and glory of Jesus in the life of Joseph. In this passage, Moses, the narrator of the story inserts a little word to tip us off to something greater that is happening here. In verse 29 we are told that Joseph “appeared to him (Jacob)”. The word “appeared” is an odd word to use. It is the word that is used each time the Lord appears to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18 when he promised the birth of Isaac. He appeared to Isaac to tell him not to go to Egypt in Genesis 26 and then at Beersheba to assure him of his presence and blessing. Moses wants us to see, in the appearance of Joseph to Jacob, the glory and love of God for his people.

How did Joseph appear to Jacob? He appeared riding in the royal chariot surrounded by his royal attendants, dressed in his royal finery. He appeared to him as the glorious prince, ruler of all Egypt. He appeared to him as the object of his love, desire and affection. Joseph appeared to Jacob as the fulfillment of all his dreams and desires for happiness. See what Jacob says after Joseph appears to him? He says that now he can die happy. He has everything he needs to be happy in the presence of his son. Earth has nothing he desires except Joseph. He considers everything else in his life a loss compared to being with Joseph. He has given up his life in Canaan to be with Joseph. This suffering, royal son appears to him as the all-satisfying object of his love.

Dear friends, this is what it means to be a Christian. This is the picture of conversion, of what faith in Jesus Christ is. The primary work of God in your life is to reveal Christ to you in such a way that you desire him and are satisfied with him. God wants all other pleasures to appear as nothing compared to the surpassing pleasure of knowing Christ Jesus. The primary way God preserves his church and preserves each member of his church is to cause Jesus to appear to us as the glorious, suffering king. God wants you to long for him more than Mr. and Mrs. Smart longed for the return of their daughter. God is working to show how sufficient Jesus is for your eternal happiness. How wrong would it be for Jacob to be indifferent to Joseph? How wrong it would be for Mr. and Mrs. Smart to not be delighted with the appearance of their missing daughter! How wrong it is for you and I to not be taken up with Jesus. There is no one like him. He is better than wealth. He is better than a good marriage. He is better than hanging out at the mall with your friends. He is better than the new movie. He is better than sex. He is better than vacations. He is better than not being hassled by your siblings. He is better than everything.

Whatever it is that you are desperate to have, you must want Christ more. Whatever thrills your heart the most, Christ must thrill your heart more. This is what we ask God to do each week on Sunday mornings: to reveal Jesus to us so that we are attracted to him more than we are attracted to having a happy life on planet earth. This is what you should be pleading with God to do each day when you read your Bible. This is what you should ask God to do each day as you gather your family together to worship him. This is what you should beseech God to do through your day as you go about your life. “Lord, for the glory of your own name, so reveal Jesus to me that I discover him to be the all satisfying treasure of my life. Grant that I can say with Jacob, ‘I am ready to die because I have seen the living Christ and I need nothing else to die happy.’” This is the only thing that will keep you from pursuing the pleasures of sin, from being assimilated into the world while you maintain a form of religion.

God, through Jesus, preserves his people while we live in an alien world by…

II. Keeping us separate from the world (46:31-47:6)

The thing that struck me the most as I studied this passage this week is the fact that there are only three verses devoted to this amazing reunion and there are ten verses devoted to the introduction of Joseph’s family to Pharaoh and their settling in the land of Goshen. The unresolved tension in chapters 37 through 46 has been this separation between Jacob and Joseph. Verses 28-30 are almost anticlimactic compared to the anticipation that has been built up through the story. Why is it that Moses gives such small print to the reunion and such large space to the family’s introduction to Pharaoh and settling in Goshen? I think the reason is that the main story in the book of Genesis is the story of God saving fallen humanity. The primary concern of Genesis, as with all the Bible, is how is it that God is going to save his people out of the morass of human evil and misery? Moses knows that the danger that is continually facing the people of God is the danger that comes from living in this fallen world and being overcome by it. Therefore, he shows how it is that God, through his Savior, keeps us separate from being overwhelmed by the world.

Jacob and his family have come to the fertile plains on the eastern edge of Egypt, to the land of Goshen. Pharaoh promised to Joseph that his family could live in the best part of the land of Egypt before the brothers returned to get their father. We know that he is favorably disposed towards Joseph and his family. However, immigrants do not get to tell the king where they want to live. The king is the one who assigns the immigrants to the place where he wants them to live. Joseph knows that if his family lives in the center of Egyptian power and worship, where he lives, it will not be long before they are assimilated into Egyptian culture or enslaved as a minority and lose their distinction as the people of God. He wants to provide for his family, yet he wants to keep them separate from the pagan Egyptians. He believes that Goshen, the fertile land on the edge of Egypt would be the perfect place for his family to live and flourish, but he needs Pharaoh’s approval.

Joseph, having lived among the Egyptians for 22 years knows that they despise nomadic shepherds. The word that is translated “detestable” in v. 34 is used in Leviticus to describe how God feels about all sexual perversion. God detests all who engage in bestiality, homosexuality, incest, sex before marriage and adultery. Later, in Deuteronomy it is used to describe how God feels about those who worship idols. He finds detestable those who worship false gods. In the same way that God despises those who engage in all manner of sin, so the Egyptians despise those who are shepherds. They are bigots when it comes to nomadic shepherds and would never consent to permit such people to live among them. Therefore, Joseph tells his brothers that when they appear before Pharaoh and he asks them what is their occupation, they are to tell Pharaoh that they are shepherds. Think about what he is saying. “I want you to tell this powerful man that you are what he detests.” Joseph wants them to tell Pharaoh the thing that Pharaoh will find most offensive about them. He promises them that if they will inform Pharaoh that they are shepherds, then Pharaoh will give them the land of Goshen in which to live.

Now look at what the brothers say to Pharaoh. First, they tell him that they are shepherds. Not only are they shepherds but also this has been the occupation of all their ancestors as far back as they can remember. Then they tell Pharaoh that the only reason they have come is to escape the famine in Canaan. In other words, they are not interested in settling permanently in Egypt but are only here until conditions improve in the Promised Land. Pharaoh, upon hearing that they are shepherds agrees to let them settle in Goshen. He wants to treat them well for the sake of Joseph and he does not want them to live near his people so he gladly gives them the best land in Egypt, the land of Goshen. Joseph’s mediation is successful. His family will be provided for and protected from the pagan culture. What an awesome picture of how Jesus protects and provides for his church as we live in the midst of a hostile world.

However, we must see that the means that Jesus uses to protect us is by emphasizing that which the world around us despises. Why would Joseph tell his brothers to be sure to tell Pharaoh the one thing he knew would cause Pharaoh to despise his family? He wants Pharaoh to not be interested in intermarrying with them. He wants to maintain a distinction between the family of Jacob and the pagan Egyptian culture. Churches or individual Christians that believe that the way to influence the world and to be the church is to “relate” to the non-Christian world are doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus wants us to do. If the primary thing a church tries to do is to figure out how to get non-Christians in the door by removing the things that will offend them is a church that is going to become assimilated by the world. The only way we can be safe is to emphasize that which makes us distinct from the world. I’m not talking about being obnoxious or self-righteous. I’m not talking about using a style of music that was popular in the 1940’s. I’m not talking about a certain style of clothing or a certain kind of hair cut. I’m not talking about promoting some brand of legalism that promotes a particular counter-culture lifestyle as the only way to be a Christian.

What makes us distinct is the gospel of Jesus Christ. What the world despises is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must always make plain the gospel. We must emphasize human sinfulness. We must emphasize God’s hatred of human sinfulness and his righteous judgment against humans. We must stress the unique nature of the only God who exists. He is the creator and sustainer of all creation. He is the sovereign king of the universe whose purposes always prevail. He is the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We must accentuate the absolute authority and truthfulness of God’s word and of his commands. We must emphasize human inability to satisfy the demands of God or to do anything to earn or gain God’s favor. We must highlight that there is salvation to be found nowhere except in the crucified and risen God-man Jesus Christ. All other gods are false gods. All other salvations are a false hope. It is only by emphasizing the unique, one of a kind gospel that we will avoid being absorbed by the culture in which we live.

Listen to what Paul tells Timothy his young apprentice whom he sent to lead the church in Ephesus. “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and teaching…. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them because if you do you will save both yourself and your hearers…. What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit…. Remember Christ Jesus, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” If we emphasize this gospel, we can count on being despised by the world. Yet only by stressing these things can we count on being kept safe. If we stress these things, the world will hate us but we will make it safely to our eternal home. It is by accentuating the gospel in all of its uniqueness and offensiveness that our children and we will be kept safe. It is also, how we will rescue others out of the world, as we see in Jacob’s interview with Pharaoh.

God, through Jesus, preserves his people while we live in an alien world by…

III. Blessing the world through us (47:6-10)

Some time after Pharaoh grants Jacob’s family, for the sake of Joseph, to dwell in Goshen, Joseph brings his aged father, Jacob, to Pharaoh. Here we have this chief of a small, nomadic tribe of shepherds appearing before the most powerful man on planet earth at the time. Jacob comes into the presence of all that the world reveres and wars to own. He comes as the despised member of an insignificant minority people. What happens? The powerful tyrant defers to the apparently weak and insignificant Jacob. He is impressed with his age as a mark of divine blessing. He defers to him as he knows that it is this man’s son who has brought salvation to his kingdom. He permits Jacob to bless him, twice. Jacob is not impressed with all this worldly power, he is impressed with the power of God. He is not overwhelmed by all these possessions, he is overwhelmed by the promise of God of an eternal possession in heaven.

Just imagine this scene with me. Jacob, dressed in his best homespun robe, walks into the royal court of Pharaoh surrounded by dozens of attendants, seated upon his regal throne. The room sparkles with jewelry and glints with gold. Powerful men with massive spears stand guard all around. Beautiful women attend to every whim. He walks into this room and he speaks first. What he says is something like this: “May the God of my fathers, the Almighty creator of heaven and earth, of the sun, moon and stars, who alone dwells in unapproachable light bless you. May he show his favor to you and look upon you with kindness. May he turn his fierce anger away from you and give you his peace.” Talk about presumption! What does Pharaoh need that he does not already possess? What greater blessing is he lacking? Who does this despised, insignificant man think he is? What right does he have to invoke the name of his God in a room that is dedicated to and decorated with the great sun God, Ra? Jacob knows that in spite of all this wealth, this man and this kingdom can only flourish if God ordains to bless. What this man who possesses all that the world pursues needs is God and his blessing. Jacob comes in the name of God and offers the world what the world needs the most and cannot obtain except through him, God as Savior.

What Jacob does here is what we see recorded for us throughout the book of Acts. Peter, standing in the streets of Jerusalem declares to the Jewish nation that they killed the Messiah but that he wants to bless them with salvation if they will repent. Peter and John stand up in the Jewish ruling council after they were arrested for healing a crippled man and declare that Jesus is the only hope of salvation. Paul tells the august Areopagus, the ruling council in Athens, Greece, that the God who made the world does not need them and is angry with them for their idolatry but that he has made a way for them to escape his judgment through the person of Jesus Christ. Jacob blessing Pharaoh is what every parent ought to be doing with their children, telling them the way to be saved. Jacob blessing Pharaoh is what you ought to be doing with your friends and family and co-workers, announcing to them the good news of Jesus, the highest and best blessing God has to offer.

Look at what else Jacob says. Pharaoh, after being blessed by Jacob, asks in a very respectful way, admiring his age as the mark of divine approval, “How old are you?” Listen to how Jacob describes himself. First, he is humble. His years are few compared to the age of his fathers Isaac and Abraham who lived to be 175 and 170 respectfully. Second, his life has been one full of evil, which is the word the NIV translates “difficult”. His life has been the opposite of Pharaoh’s life. Whereas Pharaoh’s life has been full of the pleasures of this life, Jacob’s life has been full of evil, of suffering. Here he is, representing God. He is God’s servant and yet his life has been one of suffering. Then he says twice that his life and the life of his fathers have been lives of pilgrimage. In other words, he has lived for 130 years without a home, as a stranger on planet earth. The writer to the Hebrews describes this event in 11:13. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.” He is not lamenting his condition, he is rejoicing in it. He is exhibiting to Pharaoh the source of his contentment. His life is but a brief span and full of evil. He has never had a home but has always been on pilgrimage and yet he is happy and content because he is living for another world. After confessing that this world is not his home, he blesses Pharaoh again. He says something like this: “May the God who has promised to bless all the nations of the world through me and my people, bless you. May he give you that salvation that belongs to him alone so that you and your people can live in peace forever.” Then he leaves.

God wants to bless the unbelieving world through us. However, he is not going to do it by us trying to become like them. He will do it as we live on this earth as though we are aliens in a foreign land. He will do it as we embrace the suffering that every follower of Christ must embrace. He will do it by our courageously and compassionately blessing the world in the name of Jesus. What the world needs is a Savior. We can only help the world find that Savior if we will determine to remain a distinct people who bless the world by our suffering love for them and our courageous proclamation of the blessing of God which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Your unbelieving friends and family need to see what it looks like when people live as if this world is not their home. The most powerful testimony to the sufficiency of Christ is people who live in joy when they lose what the world considers important. The world will take notice of Christ when Christ’s people endure loss for the sake of loving one another and the people we live among.

God, through Jesus, preserves his people while we live in an alien world by…

IV. Giving us all we need to live in the world (47:11-12)

Look finally at God’s provision for Jacob and his family through Joseph. He settles them in the best part of Egypt, in Goshen and then he provides for them all the food they need to care for themselves and their children. I read that and I hear the words of Jesus in Luke 12, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: they do not sow or reap, they have not storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? … And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”

God preserves us from being overwhelmed by the world by promising to give us everything we need to make it safely to his heavenly kingdom. We do not need to worry or fear the loss of money or possessions. We do not need to run after these things like the pagan world we live in. We can be free to give our lives away in suffering love without fear that somehow our giving will outstrip the resources of God. I’m not just talking about giving money. The thing that keeps us from taking risks of love, of giving ourselves and our resources away is fear that we will not be cared for. Jesus promises to provide all that we need to gain what is most important, his kingdom. He does not promise a safe, middle-class life in the US. He does promise that he will provide everything you and I need to make it safely to our heavenly home. You cannot be harmed, even if you lose all of your earthly possessions.

You really can leave behind your life in the land of Canaan and come be near your suffering but now glorified brother in the land of suffering and slavery so he can take care of you. He is better than everything and he promises to provide you with everything you need to make it safely to your heavenly home. Let go of your demand to be happy here. Let go of your accumulation of things. Let go of your demand to be made much of by others. Do not fear the loss of earthly pleasures and comforts but learn from him to delight in God and in a life of love.

God, through Jesus, preserves his people while we live in an alien world by…

2 Thessalonians 1: 11-12 May our God count you worthy of his calling and by his power may he fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.