Read with Me
Genesis 46:1-7 (HCSB)
Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba, and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. That night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” He said.
And Jacob replied, “Here I am.”
God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back. Joseph will put his hands on your eyes.”
Jacob left Beer-sheba. The sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their children and their wives. They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his children went with him to Egypt. His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters, indeed all his offspring, he brought with him to Egypt.
Listen with Me
Jacob still had quite a primitive understanding of who God is and of what He is like. He still believed that the God he had pledged to follow was the God of Canaan, but that when he left land to go to Egypt, he would be walking out from under His protection. He did not fully grasp at that point that that God is the only God, the Lord of heaven and earth. So, before he left the land, he went to the altar that his father, Isaac, had built in Beersheba down in the Negev, and he offered sacrifices there to “the God of his father”.
But even though Jacob’s view of God was still woefully incomplete, it was still the one true God that he was seeking, and He honored that by coming to him in a dream that night. He called him by the name Jacob, because even though He had earlier changed his name to Israel, Jacob had not owned that new identity for himself. He identified himself as the God of his father, because Jacob had not yet owned Him as his own God, either.
But in that dream, God assured him that He was not merely sending him off to Egypt. Instead, He was going to be with him there and all along the way. He would watch over him and provide for him as He had since He met with him at Bethel years earlier. God even promised that He would be with Jacob all the way until his death, and that He would ensure that he was interred in the family tomb at Machpelah.
Armed with all those good promises, Jacob was now willing to turn away from all that felt like home to take up a new adventure. And of course, if it helped that he was going along with his whole extended family.
Pray with Me
Father, it is very clear from all this that, as long as we are willing to follow You, we don’t have to have all our theology exactly correct. You will meet us where we are, and You will walk with us as we move into the next phase of our lives. Help me, Lord, to keep learning about You, and to stay close to You as I learn, and as You lead me from place to place, and from adventure to adventure. Amen.