Plans To Prosper You

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“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.” Genesis 46:3

Main Readings: Genesis 46

Supporting Readings: Genesis 46-48 & 1 Peter 1

This morning’s sermon is the last in our summer series on the life of Joseph - even though, in it, we don’t quite make it to the end of his life. And you might think, that’s like telling the story and leaving out ending. I wouldn’t blame you if you felt like that. But the main purpose behind the series was not so much to see Joseph’s story, as to see God’s story of providential care for his people. And that, in seeing his providential care unfold firsthand, we might believe that it is unfolding even now for us too.

What an encouragement it has been to me, to see God moving, and closing in, and exposing sin, and revealing his plan in these past weeks. 

But now at last, we want to see the fruit of it all. And I’m sure it will come as no surprise to any of you, who know God at all, that he doesn’t ripen his purposes only for a moment, but the actual fruit carries promise for the next chapter also. In fact, for all the subsequent chapters. And even beyond. And we’ll see that, before the morning is done.

Now, I need to set some background in place for you to understand something of how chapter 46 starts. First, let me remind you that in the story, Joseph has revealed himself to his brothers and sent them back with carts to get their families and Jacob, and return to Egypt to live. He said to his brothers: ‘Now hurry back to my father and say to him, “This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me – you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there”’.

And now having returned and told Jacob that his son Joseph lives, Jacob prepares himself to make the journey to see his long-lost son. What a moment that must have been for Jacob!

As chapter 46 opens, Jacob - also called ‘Israel’ - has set out with ‘all that is his’. 

As I set out on a journey with my family this afternoon, I do not set out with all that I have. It feels like it. If I did, I would certainly need some of Joseph’s carts too. 

No, even though I go on holiday with my whole family I do not take all that I have. But Israel sets out for Egypt with everything. And verse 1 tells us that he reached a place called Beersheba where he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

Now why does he do that? And why at this location? It’s certainly not because this is a convenient place to stop. It’s not because it’s a nice tourist attraction, worthy of a detour. Rather it’s because it’s where his grandfather Abraham called on the name of the Lord. It’s where God reaffirmed his covenant with his own father Isaac. And it’s also because it’s the place where Jacob and his family leave their own country. This is the last stop on their way out of Canaan.

And when you think of the promises God made to Abraham, and the fact that Hebrews 11 tells us that Jacob was an heir with Abraham of the same promises. When you think how those promises included the land of Canaan, and now Israel is upping sticks with everything he’s got and getting out of there - as he approached the border lands of Canaan, it must have felt like God’s promises were more or less dashed. 

For all the world it must have looked to him like there was no hope for his people in that land after all.

I would point you therefore, to Jacob’s faithfulness here. Because, despite that sinking feeling, he doesn’t turn his back on the God of his ancestors. Rather, he believes in Him still. And even though he can’t see the way ahead, he worships his God by sacrificing there at Beersheba.

This is why Hebrews commends Jacob for his faith. Because there is no doubt, that when things look the least likely to work out, that is the moment of the greatest test of our faith in a God who knows all, and works all, according to his perfect wisdom and plan.

In fact, if you think about it, verse 4 has three promises which are closely echoed in the New Testament to us. God says to Jacob, ‘I will be with you’. In the New he promises: ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’. 

He says, ‘I will make you into a great nation there’. In the New he promises: ‘on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it’. 

And he says, ‘I will bring you back again to the promised land’. In the New: ‘I am going there to prepare a place for you, and I will come back and take you to be with me that you may be where I am’. 

You see it’s the same God who promised Jacob at Beersheba, that promises us now. And just as Jacob was strengthened by those promises to journey over the border of Canaan and on into the unknown of Egypt, so we are strengthened by God’s promises to continue our journey into an uncertain future.

As if to emphasis Israel’s belief in the covenant-keeping God of Israel, Moses (who wrote Genesis) reiterates a further two times that Jacob took ‘all his offspring’ with him to Egypt and then he lists them all by name. Seventy direct decedents of Jacob went with him into Egypt; not one stayed behind in the country of promise.

Now, Joseph heard his family had arrived in the part of Egypt he had assigned for them, namely the region of Goshen. So, he rode out in his chariot to see them. And of course, to meet his dad for the first time in 22 years. It must have been overwhelming for both. The passage says, ‘Joseph threw his arms around Jacob and wept for a long time’.

Of course, there is the separation which has finally come to an end; that issues in a flow of emotion. But there is also this joy: that being with his father means that his family will be safe from the famine. There is only one person who could save the whole family like this, and it was the man who had the position that Joseph had in Egypt.

And you can’t help but think of Jesus returning to the Father’s side after his resurrection. The joy that it was for Jesus and his Father to be reunited. But not just their delight in each other; also, their delight in the mission that had been accomplished, namely the saving of all of God’s people. Only one person could have pulled that off and it was Jesus. 

And now it is done. Praise God! all Jesus’ brothers and sisters, who he died for, will be saved! ‘And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all he has given me, but raise them up at the last day’.

It shouldn’t be lost on us that there was substantial favour on the part of Pharoah king of Egypt that also made all this possible. And that, the favour of Pharoah was not co-incidental.

Back in chapter 45, it was Pharoah who said to Joseph, ‘get the carts and send for your family; they will occupy the best of the land of Egypt and enjoy the fat of the land’. And now at the beginning of chapter 47, the family representatives have a face-to-face audience with Pharaoh himself. Quite amazing when you think about it.

Joseph is no fool though; he knows the customs of the Egyptians. Which is why he tells the brothers ahead of the visit to make it clear to Pharoah that they are shepherds. And this has a number of advantages for his family. 

First, because the Egyptians detested shepherds, they would want them as far from themselves as possible. Goshen was in northern Egypt, in the Nile delta, where the lands were perfect for grazing. It was also far removed from downtown Egypt – from the metropolises of Memphis and Thebes. Second, they would be unbothered there by native Egyptians who might not be so keen on foreigners. And third they would be free to continue their own customs, rather than integrating with, and adopting the customs of, Egypt. And that’s very important because Egypt is a land of false gods of course.

So, they said to Pharoah, ‘We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now please let your servants settle in Goshen’. And Pharoah replied, ‘the land of Egypt is before you, settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen’.

And that’s what Joseph did. Verse 12 says that Joseph ‘provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food according to the number of their children’.

You see, it is still Pharoah who has the ultimate say, despite Joseph’s position. And his decree is, ‘settle in Goshen’. Such things are not random. Proverbs says, ‘in the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him’. 

Even kings are in God’s hand. They do what he wills for the purposes of prospering his people. Ephesians 1 says, Jesus is enthroned ‘far above all rule and authority, power and dominion; indeed, above every name that can be named’.

So, if Jesus is for you, there’s none that can thwart his will for you – not even a king! Human or demonic! And Jesus’ plan is always to promote your good.

So, when you come up against impossible situations, know that every detail of that situation is going to fall exactly where God has planned and exactly where it will work for your greatest good. Have confidence in God, like this. Out of that kind of confidence will flow peace, and contentment, and hope, the likes of which this world cannot dare to promise or hope to give.

Now with the blessing of Pharoah, all of Jacob’s family settle into a new life in the land of Goshen. And their particular benefit is that Joseph is their ongoing provision. He is not providing their needs just the one time; he is providing their needs every day they are in the land.

Verse 12 seems to suggest that he's got some kind of ration system for his family, whereby he doles out food to them according to the numbers of children in each family unit. And in chapter 45, Joseph said to his brothers that they would be near him, and he would provide for them because there was still five more years of famine to come.

And so, it’s in this way that God designs for Jacob’s family to have an advantage over the native Egyptians. 

They are supplied with all they need, whilst the Egyptians go cap-in-hand to Joseph for food. And Joseph really makes the Egyptians pay. In fact, chapter 47, verses 13 through to 26 detail all that Joseph made the Egyptians pay for their grain. First with their money, then their livestock, then their land, and then even themselves. Until they had nothing left and Pharoah had it all. Even after that, Joseph made them give one fifth of the produce back to Pharoah. And he wrote it into law, so that a steady stream of income made its way into Pharaoh’s coffers even after the famine. 

I’m not sure he’d have lined up with social policy today, but so far as treasurers are concerned, you’ve got to give it to Joseph – he was pretty efficient.

And it massively impacted the Egyptian economy. But it also prospered the Israelite economy. Such that, by the time Jacob had lived there for 17 years – well after the end of the famine – it says that the Israelites had acquired property in Goshen; were fruitful in the land; and had increased greatly in number.

So now then, this is a bit more than mere survival, wouldn’t you say? We’re not talking about the breadline anymore; we’re not talking about scraping an existence. We’re talking about flourishing. We’re talking about a thoroughgoing people group occupying and expanding within the borders of a foreign land.

And again, I would draw your attention to the fact that this flourishing happened under the watchful eye and the caring hand of their exalted brother. Were it not for Joseph this would not have been possible.

And we should not think that we will prosper as God’s people one jot, in this foreign land we call ‘the world’, without the constant watchful eye and caring hand of our exalted Lord Jesus. It is Jesus who saved us out of the disaster of our sins. It was him who settled us in the world - not to mix with the world but to flourish in it as aliens and exiles. Our flourishing under his hand is not material; it’s spiritual. And he provides for our flourishing not just at the beginning of our Christian lives, but every single hour of every single day until the very end. Paul says, ‘My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus’.

You see, ‘the lion may grow weak and hungry, but those who hope in the Lord will lack no good thing’. Our lives are in the hands of another. They are in the hands of him who will provide for our every need. All we need to do is trust in him, that what he is providing is sufficient and good for us. If we do that, we can take it, use it, and spiritually thrive.

It would be a mistake to think that God is shallow, or one-dimensional, such that he only planned and performed the rescue of his people from the immediate threat - without any greater design to prosper them and to move them from here to there. But of course, our God is an abundant God; is a muli-dimensional God; is an unsearchably rich God. And, far from planning and performing the rescue of his people only, he actually supplies them with everything they need to prosper. Everything needed to move them from here to there. And when I say ‘from here to there’ what I mean is from where we are when we get saved, to where he wants us to be when we die.

For the thief on the cross, that journey from here to there, was only a matter of a few hours. Nevertheless, his story shows transformation even in those few short hours. A man who cursed Jesus before, becomes a man who defends Jesus to his fellow criminal.

And so, it’s a mistake to do as if the rescue mission of the cross, which accomplished rescue from hell, was the final goal of God’s plan for us. No, it was in fact the first act in the grand theatre of God’s plan to make a people for himself. A people who would be for the praise of his glory. And a people who would actually look forward to spending eternity with him in relationship.

Romans 8:28 says that we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. We are to flourish; we are to grow; we are to move from here to there.

We see, then, that God determines to make good on his promises. We see he directs the hearts of kings to prosper his people. We see he provides daily for all our needs. But then fourthly, we see he gives us hope of an even more glorious future – a return to our own promised land!

Now in chapter 48, Jacob said to Joseph, ‘“God Almighty appeared to me in Luz in the land of the Canaan [he’s referring to his ladder dream], and there he blessed me and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you’”’.

It’s a bit like when you’re on a walk with your kids and they’re saying every five minutes, ‘are we nearly there yet?’ And you say, ‘no but it’s not that far’. And, what you really mean by ‘not that far’, is down the valley, around the lake, up the mountain and down the other side – something like that.

I remember being on one such walk as a boy in Switzerland. It was a real slog. And it felt like we’d been going for hours. What am I saying! We had been going for hours! But my dad, knowing that the prospect of chilled, bottled, Coca cola would draw us on to even greater heights, said he would buy us a bottle of Coca cola at the mountain hut on the top of the mountain when we got there. Now when he said it, I could not see that mountain hut. 

But I took him at his word and pressed on ever higher with the promise of chilled Coca cola at the forefront of my mind. And my dad had not lied. We eventually made it to the top and he did not disappoint me – he delivered on his promise, I’m glad to say. I really dread to think how much that bottle of Coca cola must have cost him!

The point is, God makes outrageous promises to his people which far exceed our expectations. And those promises serve to build even greater hope in us.

We’re very fickle people when you think about it aren’t we? Imagine for a minute how the immediate threat of starvation must have filled the thoughts of Jacob and his family every moment, back in Canaan. 

Imagine how relieved they must have been to get to Goshen and eat enough not to feel hungry, every day. But then imagine how quickly that became routine. And how quickly the sense of peril they had experienced only recently, faded away. That’s what we’re like. And when that happens, and God sovereignly provides for us, how quickly then does some other concern rush in to take its place? And how quickly does the hope which had been so sweet to us just a few days before, now that it is fulfilled, fade away, leaving us anxious and uncertain again?

Ecclesiastes says, ‘In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other’. It exhorts us that way because that’s not how we are. We are joyful in prosperity, but we are anxious in adversity. Even when God has shown us that he is in full control.

Therefore, God has graciously shown us the final destination of our lives. And how full of promise it is! To Jacob he says, ‘I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants’. And it’s this hope that causes Jacob to act in a certain way. It causes him to count Joseph’s sons as his own offspring, so that they receive the same blessing that Joseph’s brothers receive.

In other words, this overarching hope draws us on through life’s ups and downs. It causes us to faithfully walk like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of old. It means that our lives are not purposeless but are designed to a God-ordained, prosperous end.

The apostle Peter says it like this, ‘Praise be to the God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time’.

A ’living hope’ Peter calls it. Think of that! Faith in God, and in his ultimate promise, supplies a ‘living hope’. A hope that sustains us through all of life. 

You know, life is a sea of troubled waves, isn’t it? But there is a way to keep our heads above water, and it is to emulate the faith of the Jacob. It is to hope in the God of Abraham.

But I would like to close by conferring the blessing on you that Jacob conferred on his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And I can only do this because I know that this blessing is secured by Jesus for you. And because, it is held out by Jesus to you.

Here it is with a few changes for relevance: ‘may the God before whom our fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob – they are our spiritual fathers – before whom they walked faithfully, the God who has been our shepherd all our lives to this day, the Angel who has delivered us from all harm – may he bless you. 

May you be called by the name of his Son, Jesus. And may you prosper by the power of his Spirit at work in you, until you enter into the inheritance that is stored up for you in heaven – the promised land of God’. 

God will accomplish this by the power of his outstretched arm.