# 6 2024 Dev. Ge. 46:2. God Speaks! Read all of chapter forty six first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Ge. 46:2 “And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said ‘Jacob! Jacob!’”
Chapter 46 is about Jacob being convinced to move to Egypt. We can imagine his reluctance to move to Egypt with all his offspring and all their flocks and possessions. I think of my own family moving to a foreign land, different language, customs and culture, a big undertaking and a huge step in faith.
Vs.1-7 Pharaoh had sent transport for Jacob and family so they started their journey from Mamre, where both Abraham and Isaac had lived, to Egypt. This was Jacob’s ancestral home for three generations, for something like 500 years. Every offspring, all their goods, there would be nothing to come back to.
“So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Beersheba was on the border. Jacob worshiped there, God had returned Jacob back to Mamre from Pana Aram, Jacob needed assurance about leaving the land promised to him, to Issac and to Abraham. God spoke to Jacob: go to Egypt, I will go with you, make you a great nation and bring you back again. So Jacob went, with all his offspring and all he had with him.
Vs. 8-27 These are the names of all who went to Egypt. Based on other genealogies Like in Numbers 26 this one is not as accurate as we expect. Joseph and sons are included, as well as Er and Onan are replaced by Perez and Zerah, none of the women are included except for Diana and Gad’s daughter Sarah.
This is what The NIV commentary has to say about it: “ we must remember that we need not expect genealogies to operate in the Israelite culture the same way they operate in ours. If they have a different function in the culture, different methods can be used to construct them, and different criteria must be used to evaluate their accuracy.” It appears that the goal was to add up to 70 which is considered as a complete number.
Vs.28-34 they arrive in Egypt and Judah is sent ahead to Joseph, and then Judah leads Jacob and group to Goshen. It appears that had settled in before Joseph went to see His father. After that Joseph prepares to introduce his family to Pharaoh. What do we take away from this chapter?
The first thing is that we see that family is so important in our lives and God considers it as such. The second thing is that God works through families and with individuals formed in families. The third thing is that God controls our lives and our situations as he controls all of history. The Word of God gives us the big picture. Praise the Lord.
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Heavenhigh 