Sermon Tone Analysis

Genesis 46-50

 

! Introduction

            Have you ever watched a person turn off a light and then walk in the dark.

Even though they know the room well, they walk with caution, fearful that the next step will bring them pain from something that was not there a few minutes ago.

They are not at all certain of what they do not see.

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith when it says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

There is much that we do not see.

We do not see God.

We do not see heaven.

We do not see purpose in some things that are happening.

In the darkness of this uncertainty we often walk like a person in the dark, but God invites us to walk with hope and confidence in him, being certain of what we do not see.

Every once in a while, as we look at Scripture, the veil is pulled back and we have a glimpse of what is really happening, we have a picture of what God is doing and how He is at work.

Such glimpses encourage us to live with hope and confidence in God.

Today we come to the final message on Genesis, a series that we started in September.

In these last chapters, we have the veil pulled back a little and we see a glimpse of God at work, which gives us hope for what we do not see.

We also see into the lives of some who put their hope in God, specifically Jacob and Joseph, and are encouraged to do the same as we think about their example.

!

I. Hind Sight Is 20~/20

We sometimes hear the saying, “hindsight is 20~/20.”

When we look back, it is easy to see how God has been at work.

These final chapters of Genesis give us an opportunity to look back and see the ways in which God has already been at work.

!! A. God’s Promises To Abraham

            Much of Genesis 12-50 is a fulfillment of the promise made by God to Abraham in Genesis 12:2,3.

God called Abraham to leave his home and promised him, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

In this promise, there are four major points.

1.

That Abraham will become a great nation - an amazing promise when we consider that he was still childless at this time.

2. A nation needs a land and, although it is only implicit here, the promise of a land that would be theirs is included here in the promise of becoming a nation.

3.

That God would bless him - a promise given at a time when God was asking him to leave his home and family.

4. The promise that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him.

When Abraham heard these promises, he had no reason to know or believe that they would be fulfilled.

Being a childless wanderer would be reason enough to doubt that they would ever come true.

!! B. Fulfillment To This Point

            Yet as we have said, hindsight is 20~/20 and as we read these final five chapters of Genesis, we have a number of glimpses into how God has kept these promises.

!!! 1.

I Will Multiply Your Descendants

            The promise to give Abraham many descendants has been fulfilled.

The mention in Genesis 46:8ff of the names of those who moved to Egypt and the further mention in Genesis 46:27 that 70 people in all moved from the promised land to Egypt is indication that this promise has begun to be been fulfilled.

It was a promise made several time to Abraham who until he was quite old had no children.

It was a promise made to Isaac who had only two sons.

For many years as both Sarah and Rebekah were barren, it looked as if this promise would not be fulfilled, but now, as we have the hindsight to look at it from the perspective of the end of Genesis, we see that it was indeed fulfilled.

A further indication of the fulfillment of this promise is found in Genesis 47:27.

After Jacob and his sons and family - 70 people - moved to Egypt, they settled in the land of Goshen.

There we read that “They … were fruitful and increased greatly in number.”

So as we look back, we see that God has fulfilled this promise.

!!! 2. I Will Bless You

            We also see the fulfillment of the promise that God would bless them.

This promise was already fulfilled in the days of Abraham and Isaac.

Several stories in this section show us how they prospered wherever they went.

But now, during the seven years of famine, all of their prosperity and all their blessings are in jeopardy.

They don’t have enough food to eat and their livestock will suffer if they don’t find a better place to live.

But, as we saw a few weeks ago, God has been at work.

Joseph was sent ahead to provide a place for them to live during the years of famine.

Now, as we read in Genesis 46:28-34 we learn that they settled down in the region of Goshen and with all the provisions of Egypt, which Joseph has collected, available to them, they are able to sustain their livelihood.

God has blessed them.

We read Genesis 47:27 that God blessed them with many descendants.

This same passage also indicates that they experienced God’s blessing in other ways when it says, “they acquired property and were fruitful.”

In other words, God blessed them in Egypt and continued to provide for all their needs.

From the perspective of the end of Genesis, the promise of blessing which God had made to Abraham is being fulfilled.

!!! 3.

All Nations On Earth Will Be Blessed Through You

            The third promise from God that is fulfilled is the promise that “all nations on earth will be blessed through you.”

There are several indications in the end of Genesis that this happened.

After Jacob moved to Egypt, Joseph set up an appointment for his family to meet Pharaoh.

Can you imagine moving to another country and being invited to meet with the president of that country?

It must have been a high honor.

Of course, it was accorded because of the position that Joseph was in, being the second in the land.

Nevertheless, it was a great privilege.

What is interesting, however, is that when Jacob and Pharaoh met, we read in Genesis 47:7-10 that it was not Pharaoh who was over Jacob, but Jacob who blessed Pharaoh.

Being of a great age and the father of Pharaoh’s second in command put Jacob in a very honoured place.

In Hebrews it says that the lesser is blessed by the greater, so when Jacob blessed Pharaoh, it showed that he was greater than Pharaoh.

This demonstrates the fulfillment of the promise that “all nations on earth will be blessed through you.”

Egypt was blessed because of Jacob.

As we read on in this chapter, we have a description of all the things that Joseph did to preserve the people during the years of famine.

It is a little hard for us to understand.

In essence, Joseph made the whole country slaves to Pharaoh.

But we need to look at it with different eyes than those coloured by the horrible experience of the American slave trade.

At that time, if you became too poor to make it, you could sell yourself to pay off your debts with dignity.

That is what happened here.

The Egyptians first of all exchanged all their money in order to buy food.

Then they mortgaged their herds for grain and finally they sold their land and became slaves in order that they could eat.

When they had done this, they were not bitter about it, rather, they said to Joseph, as is recorded in Genesis 47:25, “You have saved our lives…” Once again we have a fulfillment of the promise that “all nations on earth will be blessed through you.”

Joseph was the instrument of that blessing for his family, but also for the rest of Egypt.

If he had not been there, his family and all of Egypt would have been devastated.

As it was, they managed to make it through the difficult years.

So at the end of Genesis, we have 20~/20 vision about what God has been doing.

He has been fulfilling the promises made to Abraham about descendants and blessing.

As we see God’s work clearly, we rejoice at what God has done and we are thankful that God has been at work.

!

II.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

            But, of course, the end of Genesis is not the end of the story.

Remember there were four promises which God had made, but we have only seen the fulfillment of three of them.

The fourth one, the promise of the land, seems to be going backwards.

How can God be at work when things look like they are going backwards?

In these last chapters God makes other promises that at this point are not seen as fulfilled.

!! A. God’s Promises At The End Of Genesis

!!! 1. Promise Of The Land

            We already noted that Jacob had a hard time leaving the promised land in order to go to Egypt.

It made a lot of sense from the perspective of having something to eat, but as a man who trusted the promises of God, it did not make any sense.

How could he leave the land that God had promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to him?

In his mind there was a terrible conflict.

In his mind, “go down to Egypt” contradicted with “I will give you this land.”

As he prepared to go, in order to save his family from starvation, God came to him in Genesis 46:1-4 and told him that he should go down to Egypt.