No Need to Fear

[0:00] Last week, Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers.

[0:13] ! Joseph then revealed his plan.! God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not tarry.

[0:34] You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children, and your children's children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty.

[0:53] And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen.

[1:05] Hurry and bring my father down here. And of course, I actually went through verse 13 to give you a little more context there, but that gives you an idea of what we talked about last week.

[1:15] Tonight we'll cover the remainder of chapter 45 and the beginning of chapter 46. In those verses, we'll see that believers in God have no need to fear.

[1:26] That's the main idea of this passage. Believers in God have no need to fear. Let's go ahead and read Genesis 45, verses 16, through chapter 46, verse 7, and then we'll skip down and read a couple more verses.

[1:44] So starting with Genesis 45, 16, it says, When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come. It pleased Pharaoh and his servants.

[1:54] And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this. Load your beast and go back to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.

[2:10] And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, Do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

[2:21] Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey.

[2:37] To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver, and five changes of clothes. To his father he sent as follows, Ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey.

[2:57] Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way. So they went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob, and they told him, Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.

[3:16] And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

[3:31] And Israel said, It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

[3:47] And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here I am. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father.

[3:59] Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.

[4:12] Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

[4:24] They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

[4:42] Now skip down, and we'll look at verses 26 and 27 of chapter 46. Those verses say, All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not including Jacob's sons' wives, were 66 persons in all.

[5:01] And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were 70. So we'll break tonight's passage into four sections.

[5:16] In the first section, we see God's provision. So God's provision is the first thing that we will look at. Pharaoh and Joseph make sure that Joseph's brothers have more than enough supplies to return to Canaan and bring the elderly Jacob and his entire family safely back into Egypt.

[5:37] We could easily take verse 16 for granted, but it shows God at work. Verse 16 says, When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come.

[5:49] It pleased Pharaoh and his servants. Egyptians historically have viewed foreigners, especially Hebrews, with disdain. Pharaoh is pleased that more Hebrews are coming into his country.

[6:03] That gives us an indication of how much respect Joseph has earned. Pharaoh goes beyond just a feeling of happiness. He becomes the unexpected source of God's provision.

[6:15] Pharaoh even orders Joseph what to say. Look at verses 17 through 20. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this, load your beast, and go back to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt.

[6:36] And you shall eat the fat of the land. And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, Do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, and bring your father, and come.

[6:48] Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. At first glance, Pharaoh's command sounds very much like what Joseph said in verses 9 through 11.

[7:00] But let's look a little closer at those two passages. Both Joseph and Pharaoh commanded Jacob's family to come down to Egypt. But Joseph suggested that they come and live separated from the Egyptians in Goshen.

[7:15] Pharaoh, by contrast, repeatedly offered them the best of the land of Egypt, Joseph urged his father to come with all his flocks and possessions. Pharaoh told them to leave all their stuff behind and not look back.

[7:29] These differences raise an important question for us, and that question is whether Israel will be assimilated completely into Egypt and lose all its distinctiveness, as Pharaoh seems to wish.

[7:41] Or will the vision of Abraham be preserved by Israel keeping its cultural identity, living, in essence, as a nation within a nation? We already know the answer to that question.

[7:53] We talk about it every time we look at a section of Genesis. The main point of the book of Genesis is to show the progression of redemptive history, how God will redeem his people from the curse of sin.

[8:06] Throughout Genesis, God shows that he's faithful to preserve the line of the seed who will redeem God's people. Egypt becomes an incubator for the nation of Israel.

[8:17] That journey is a necessary part of God's plan to grow and multiply them without intermingling them with other nations. Even though we know that God will keep Israel separate, Pharaoh's desire to absorb the family into Egyptian culture is understandable.

[8:36] After all, Pharaoh is following his usual tactic. Pharaoh's desire to assimilate Jacob's family is similar to what he'd already done with Joseph. Earlier in Genesis, we saw how Pharaoh renamed Joseph and how Pharaoh even picked Joseph's wife for him.

[8:54] We also saw that Joseph resisted the assimilation as much as a slave could. When he was given the opportunity to choose his own son's names, Joseph chose Hebrew names for those sons instead of Egyptian names.

[9:09] Look at verses 21 and 22 now. They say, The sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh and gave them provisions for the journey.

[9:23] The brothers won't be ambling home on donkeys laden with grain. They'll be escorted by a fleet of wagons large enough to convey their families to their new residents. The wagons are more significant than they first appear.

[9:37] The types of wagons mentioned here were unique to Egypt. We can think of them like we would think of limousines today. Jacob's sons are going to be returning home in style.

[9:52] Check out verse 22 now. We see even more provisions. To each and all of them he, Joseph, gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave 300 shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.

[10:07] Each brother received at least one change of clothes and we see here that Benjamin received five. The clothes show the thoroughness of God's provisions. Do you remember why the brothers needed new clothes?

[10:19] We'll look back at Genesis chapter 44 verses 12 and 13. Genesis 44 verses 12 and 13 happened just after Joseph's steward had accused the brothers of stealing Joseph's silver cup.

[10:35] Those verses say, and he, talking about the steward, searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Then they tore their clothes and every man loaded his donkey and they returned to the city.

[10:52] The brothers needed new clothes because they had ripped their own. God used Pharaoh and Joseph to take care of every last detail. By this, Joseph is declaring that the period of mourning is over.

[11:06] The brothers and Jacob have no need to fear because God, through Joseph and Pharaoh, will provide for them. Joseph also thought about what his father would need and we see that from verse 23.

[11:19] It says, to his father he sent as follows, ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey.

[11:31] For his father's journey, Joseph equips Jacob in lavish style, including ten male and ten female donkeys that bear the good things of Egypt. The abundance reinforces the image of plenty that Joseph wants to illustrate.

[11:46] Joseph is smart enough to know that his father will have a hard time believing the blessing that Jacob will hear about. Joseph is setting things up so that Jacob will find it easier to believe what Jacob's other sons will tell him when they get back to Canaan.

[12:03] Remember that Jacob has no idea what has been happening. All Jacob knows is that ten of his sons left on a journey to Egypt to get food. Only ten left because Simeon was in jail in Egypt at that time.

[12:17] During the time that the sons have been gone, Jacob has been asking questions such as, how many of my sons will return? Will Benjamin be with them? And if they return, will they have enough food for the family?

[12:32] Verse 24 closes out the section that documents God's provision. It says, Then he, talking about Joseph again, sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way.

[12:47] The Hebrew verb that's translated quarrel here has a wide range of meanings, including fear, trembling, and sometimes rage. The primary meaning of the verb is to quake or shake either physically as the earth does in an earthquake, or emotionally as a person does when that person is trembling with fear or uncertainty.

[13:08] It's the opposite of being tranquil and calm. What Joseph is saying is don't be agitated about how you're going to tell Jacob the news that you're taking home.

[13:18] He knew that the brothers would be worried, upset, and anxious about their father's reaction to the news that they were bringing. Accompanying the truth that Joseph was alive and the Lord of Egypt was an even more difficult fact that the older brothers had been responsible for selling him into slavery 22 years earlier.

[13:38] The older brothers had carefully guarded a lie while their father suffered. They were going to have to come clean. There was a painful moment of truth coming. Joseph tells them to avoid letting the trip home fall into arguments and blame shifting.

[13:53] He's telling them to avoid worrying about telling the truth. I wish we could have heard the brothers discussing things on their way home. they had to know that we better tell our father first because when he sees Joseph, Joseph is going to tell him what happened if we don't.

[14:10] Moses, though, omits that part, so it must not be important for us to know. Perhaps we can ask the brothers and Jacob that when we get to heaven. No. So we've seen God's provision for Jacob.

[14:24] We'll move to the second section of the lesson now. And in verses 25 through 28, we see God's proof. proof. So we'll see God's proof for Jacob. That proof comes from all the things that Joseph sent home with his brothers and also from some other things that we'll see in these verses.

[14:44] Look at verse 25 again. It says, So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. Picture Jacob sitting home anxiously awaiting any sign of his son's return.

[15:00] Quite likely at the first sign of any activity, he started trying to count the heads of his sons. If he could make them out, he would be thrilled to see that 11 sons were returning.

[15:11] But he had no idea of the other big news that awaited him. Check out verse 26. It says, And they told him, Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.

[15:24] And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. The ESV says there that his heart became numb. Other translations render the Hebrew word as stunned.

[15:36] The verb here is different than the one used earlier to describe the reaction of the brothers when Joseph revealed his true identity to them. The brother's stunned response was laced with fear that arose from guilt over their past actions toward Joseph.

[15:52] Jacob's stunned response was shock and unbelief that comes when something long believed is suddenly reversed by indisputable evidence to the contrary. So in other words, Jacob was stunned because he was forced to try to believe something that he believed would be impossible.

[16:10] That is where all the provisions, including the wagons and other things sent by Joseph, come into play. Joseph sent so much with the brothers so that Jacob would be forced to accept what his other sons told him.

[16:23] After all, he would have known most likely that those wagons were unique to Egypt, so he would have known they had to come from Egypt and they would have had to come from somebody important in Egypt.

[16:34] We've seen throughout the earlier chapters in Genesis that the older brothers have been anything but upstanding citizens. Because of that, Jacob certainly would want proof, and he would want more proof than just their words that Joseph was still alive.

[16:51] Let's read verses 27 and 28 now. Verse 27 says, But when they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived, and Israel said, It is enough.

[17:10] Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. It's interesting, you notice there, that it doesn't say Jacob believed when the sons told him Joseph was still alive.

[17:24] It says, when he saw the wagons, he said, It is enough. So it did take the physical evidence to convince him. When the brothers reported what Joseph had said, and he did see that tangible evidence, he rapidly came back to life and decided to go see his long-lost son before he died.

[17:43] It's interesting, too, you note there that once he says, It is enough, that is when he's referred to as Israel again, when he starts showing his faith again. So the wagons unique to Egypt, the limousines of their day provided the ultimate proof that Jacob needed.

[18:01] Consider how significant it is that Jacob agreed to go to Egypt. The older brothers' history of lying was just one reason why Jacob would have struggled with the decision to leave Canaan.

[18:13] For one thing, though, in addition to that, he is old. We'll soon learn that he was over 130 years old when these events happened. He knows that if he goes to Egypt, he probably will never leave that country alive again, so he'll never see Canaan alive.

[18:30] Another reason why he would be hesitant to leave is that he was living in Canaan, and he knew that this was the land that God had promised him and his ancestors. He had to wonder why God would move the family out of the promised land.

[18:44] Perhaps, though, he might have remembered what God had told his grandfather Abram in Genesis 15, Listen to Genesis 15, verses 13 and 14. Those verses say, Then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years, but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

[19:15] If Jacob did remember this promise to his grandfather, this would be even more proof for Jacob that he should go to Egypt. Jacob will get additional proof from God in the next section of the lesson.

[19:30] And that next section comes in chapter 46, verses 1 through 4, and in that third section, we will see God's presence. So God's presence is what we see next.

[19:43] In addition to God's provision, God's proof, we now have God's presence, and God's presence will assure Jacob that Jacob has no need to fear. Starting in chapter 46, verse 1, it says, So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

[20:06] And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here I am. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father.

[20:18] Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.

[20:32] The first thing we see from these verses is that Jacob worshipped. Beersheba had special significance for Jacob. Beersheba formerly was the principal settlement of Isaac, his father.

[20:48] Beersheba was important to Jacob as the place from which he departed for Haran and Laban's house. On his first journey leaving his homeland, he first met with God in a dream and received the promise of a safe return.

[21:02] Let's look at a few verses that document Jacob's dream on his first journey, and we find those verses in chapter 28 of Genesis. We'll look at Genesis 28 verses 10 through 15.

[21:17] Genesis 28 verses 10 through 15. Those verses say, Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran, and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set.

[21:33] Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.

[21:45] And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac.

[21:58] The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

[22:15] Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Those verses are very similar to what God restates to Jacob decades later in tonight's text.

[22:32] Chapter 46, verse 3, is where God tells Jacob, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.

[22:44] God goes one step further than that. Look again at verse 4. God tells Jacob, I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.

[22:59] God assures Jacob of his presence. The God who was with Joseph in Egypt promises to be with Jacob in Egypt as well. This ties God's providential work with Joseph to his promise to Jacob.

[23:12] This is especially encouraging because of how God has kept Joseph. For Jacob, the fact that Joseph is alive and well in Egypt confirms God's faithfulness and gives him hope as he journeys onward.

[23:25] For you and me, it should remind us that God is faithful to his people even in the darkest circumstances. God's message to Jacob has odd phrasing at the end.

[23:37] Jacob will die in Egypt. That's what God is trying to tell him. He's trying to say that Jacob will die in Egypt, but God will bring Israel or his descendants out of that land.

[23:49] God's message to Jacob here omits details about hundreds of years of oppression and bondage that eventually will happen in Egypt. God simply tells Jacob what matters most.

[23:59] Jacob learns that God is God, God is in control, and that Jacob can trust God, and God tells him that he will bring to pass everything that God has promised, and that then should be more than enough for Jacob.

[24:15] So we've seen God's provision, God's proof, and God's presence. In the final section of the lesson, we see God's people. So God's people is your last fill-in.

[24:27] we'll look at verses 5 through 7 first. We'll see from these verses that the family brought their possessions with them. Pharaoh had wanted them to leave their possessions behind.

[24:40] Instead, the brothers followed Joseph's instructions. Those instructions were the ones that would preserve the line of the Messiah. Here are verses 5 through 7 of chapter 46.

[24:52] Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

[25:04] They also took their livestock and their goods which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt. Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

[25:24] So Jacob and all his kin came to Egypt. Nobody stayed behind. This is it. This is the entire nation of Israel at this time, which is really just one big family.

[25:35] This is the promise of God in its embryonic phase. It's a wholesale move. The great irony, of course, is that Joseph was taken from the land of promise decades earlier and has longed for home ever since.

[25:49] Now instead of him returning to his home, Joseph's home is coming to him. Verses 8-25 have the register of Jacob's family.

[26:01] We'll skip reading all the list of names in detail, but the list is important, so let's hit the highlights of that list. The register of Jacob's family is organized according to his wives, beginning with Leah's children.

[26:15] That comes in verses 8-15. Then we have the children of Zilpah in verses 16-18. Rachel's children come in verses 19-22.

[26:27] And Bilhah's children come in verses 23-25. Because verse 20 includes Joseph and his sons who were already in Egypt, this list is more than only those who migrated with Jacob into Egypt.

[26:42] Let's read verses 26-27, and then we'll reconcile what at first appears to be a contradiction in the numbers. Verses 26-27 say, All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt who were his own descendants, not including Jacob's sons' wives, were 66 persons in all, and the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two.

[27:09] All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were 70. At first glance, the numbers seem to have a discrepancy because verse 26 says that 66 came into the land.

[27:23] Verse 27 says 70 were there. And if you fast forward to the New Testament and look at Acts 7-14, Acts 7-14 is part of Stephen's summary of Israel's history just before Stephen was stoned.

[27:39] And Acts 7-14 says, And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, 75 persons in all. So which is correct?

[27:50] 66, 70, or 75? Well, the answer is they're all correct. So let's talk a little bit about why. The total of chapter 46, verses 8-25 is 70, but we need to eliminate Ur, Onan, Manasseh, and Ephraim from that list.

[28:12] Ur and Onan need to be deleted because they died in Canaan. Remember, they were Judah's sons whom God killed because they were so evil. We saw that in Genesis 38.

[28:26] Manasseh and Ephraim are Joseph's sons and they need to be deleted because they were born in Egypt. So the 70 total number minus those four deletions gets us to the 66 that's mentioned in Genesis 46-26.

[28:43] And then we have 75 mentioned in Acts 7-14, but the 75 of Acts 7-14 included an additional five people who were born in Egypt.

[28:54] And these extra five included two sons of Manasseh, two sons of Ephraim, and one grandson of Ephraim. So that gets us to the 75 number.

[29:05] Both the genealogies and the final tally are important. The genealogy is important because of the theme of the promised seed. Ever since Genesis 3-15, the narrative in all of redemptive history has been moving toward God's fulfillment of his promise to Adam and Eve.

[29:25] To trace the promised one, we need to have a careful registry of the people who make up his line. The genealogies we find throughout the scriptures serve as a comforting reminder that God is at work fulfilling his promise.

[29:38] The final tally is important because of the theme of the covenant. Remember that God had promised Abraham, look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them.

[29:50] Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. That is Genesis 15-5. So here we see that the promise to Abraham is being fulfilled. Abraham and Sarah were a couple beyond any hope of having a single heir, but now they have 70 descendants, and that is just two generations later.

[30:11] So this is progress. However, it's also a reminder that God is not finished with Israel. Walking into Egypt is not the end, it's only the beginning.

[30:23] This passage's main idea is that believers in God have no need to fear. In tonight's text, we've seen that illustrated in God's provision, proof, and presence in the lives of God's people.

[30:37] In addition to that main idea, we can take a few other things from the passage. The first is that faith has no expiration date. Faith has no expiration date.

[30:50] Seeing the age patriarch Jacob pack up everything he owns and head down to Egypt is both encouraging and humbling. While we're here on earth, God still has a purpose for us.

[31:01] We never will retire from serving God. In John 9, 4, Jesus said, We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.

[31:15] Jacob is still trusting and obeying God in his old age. We've seen many poor decisions from Jacob. He's been a bad father. He's refused to listen to God as he spoke to Joseph in dreams that were reminiscent of the dreams that God used to guide Jacob when Jacob was living with Laban.

[31:35] Jacob has held on to Benjamin with an unhealthy fear. And Jacob has not looked much of anything like a man of God for most of those times. But here he is in chapter 45 showing renewed faith in God and expressing that faith in worship.

[31:51] We will never get to an age where we no longer have to trust God or where we no longer have lessons to learn, obstacles to overcome, fears to face, sin to mortify, or even journeys to take.

[32:06] Another thing that we can take away from this passage is that God's promises probably won't be fulfilled the way we expect. God's promises probably won't be fulfilled the way we expect.

[32:18] Jacob was already living in the land of promise with his surviving children. He may not have felt like it, but he was blessed with dozens of descendants and had the constant reminder of God's promise in the form of a limp.

[32:32] He had met with God and there was no reason to doubt that the promises of God would come to pass. However, he never thought that the promise of God would include taking the promised seed away from the promised land for several centuries only to bring back a fully formed nation into that land 400 years later.

[32:50] But that's exactly what God did. Isaiah 55, 8 and 9 tell us, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

[33:02] For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Let's close tonight by circling back to the main idea one more time.

[33:16] That, of course, is believers in God have no need to fear. The best news is that the God of today is the same God of Jacob's time. The same things that Jacob and his family saw in tonight's passage also apply to God's people today.

[33:31] We have access to God's provision, God's proof, and God's presence. God provided everything necessary for Jacob and his family to move to a new land, and God has provided everything necessary for believers to move to a new land.

[33:47] Jesus' words in John 3, 14-18 tell us, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

[34:03] For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

[34:19] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

[34:31] And then in Philippians 3, verses 20-21, we see, true Christians ought to be looking forward to heaven.

[34:56] God expects us, like Jacob and family, to be willing to leave behind our earthly possessions, if necessary, when we go to our permanent home. If we've treasured such things as houses, careers, money, and possessions, dying means leaving behind what is most important to us.

[35:13] Instead, heaven is something to look forward to with excitement and anticipation. One of the things to look forward to with excitement and anticipation is the marriage supper of the Lamb.

[35:26] In tonight's text, Joseph's brothers receive new clothes to replace their torn garments, and for the marriage supper of the Lamb, believers will receive, new clothes. Listen to Revelation chapter 19, verses 7 and 8.

[35:40] Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

[35:57] In tonight's text, Jacob saw proof that God would keep the promise to Jacob. We also have proof that God will keep his promise of eternal life to us. Ephesians 3, 11-14 say, In him, talking about Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

[36:27] In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

[36:45] Verses 13 and 14 show us what our proof is. Listen to those verses again. They say, In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

[37:07] So the Holy Spirit is our guarantee. Jacob also was blessed by the presence of God. So are we as believers. The same Holy Spirit that serves as our guarantee of salvation also dwells in us to provide the presence of God.

[37:24] Here are just a few verses to confirm that. The last part of 2 Corinthians 6.16 says, For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

[37:43] The final part of that verse references Old Testament passages. The reality of God dwelling with his people is consistent throughout the Bible. For a couple more references, listen to Romans 8 verses 9 through 11.

[37:59] Paul wrote, You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anybody who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

[38:11] But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

[38:32] Our response to these truths should be similar to Jacob's response. When Jacob realized these truths, he offered sacrifices to God. We should be thankful that we no longer live under the Old Testament sacrificial system.

[38:48] However, we still should offer a sacrifice to God. God. In Romans 12, 1 and 2, Paul tells us what our sacrifice should be and he ties that sacrifice to worship.

[39:00] Romans 12, 1 and 2 say, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

[39:15] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

[39:28] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the reminder that you are with us and that we do have no need to fear because you are with us.

[39:42] We thank you that you've also provided proof to us in the forms of the evidence that you've left behind and also your spirit that you've placed in every believer. Help us be more and more confident of those things and help us be more and more aware of them as we continue to live in a world that's not our true home.

[40:02] Help us also to reach out to others so that we will be willing to share that truth with them. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.