Genesis 46. If you're paying a little bit of attention, you'll notice that by turning to chapter 46, we are jumping ahead and deep somewhat into, you might say, the story of Joseph with regard to the progression of the book of Genesis. Last time we were together and looking at the life of Jacob, which we are still doing today, we were in chapter 35, which is as far as we've gotten. Genesis 46, just briefly to read the opening seven verses of this chapter. And Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, here am I. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt. For I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up again. Joseph, and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, and the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan. and came into Egypt. Jacob and all his seed with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt. Amen. And in our reading, I trust the Lord will bless the public reading of His Word. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Our Heavenly Father, we take up the testimony, the prayer of our dear beloved brother of years gone by and would say we don't come despairingly because we come to a God who forgives sins. We come to a God who is pleased to draw His people, to keep His people, to restore His people. And as we see even example of that in the Word today, we pray that you'll take it up and apply it to our hearts. And we pray these things in Jesus' worthy name. Amen. It has been almost a month since our last visit with the Patriarchs. Holidays intervening in my absence and then failure to preach for our brother Bannister last Lord's Day. Jeff seems to get the short end of the stick sometimes. There's just some history behind that. But I've asked him to preach when other preachers have bailed out on a week of prayer and things like that. But Jeff is one that's always ready, so it was good. But I say it's been almost a month that we have had a visit with the patriarchs. And in that message, as we suggested a moment ago, a message that spanned from really chapters 33 to chapter 35, we considered roughly the first decade that Jacob spent after he had returned to the land from his sojourn in Mesopotamia, in Padan Aram. He has now returned to the promised land, and in that decade, we have found and saw last time several sad evidences of what we might borrow from a future time in Israel's history, evidences of sin in the camp. Reuben's incest with one of the concubines. Dinah's curiosity with the world and its outcome. Simeon and Levi's cruelty. And even Jacob himself, Israel's own weakness and fear. But God intervened. And we saw in the closing moments of our thoughts last time that Jacob experienced a fresh visitation from the Lord. calling him to return to Bethel, the place where he met with him when he was leaving the land, and he had promised to return there and yet had not. And so the Lord, I say, visited Jacob, caused him, as we saw, to return to Bethel, caused Jacob to rally his extended household and call them to the fresh repentance and faith to which he had been brought. It causes us to marvel and to rejoice when we consider what we might call the preserving or maybe the preservation of the saints alongside of the phrase we normally use, the perseverance of the saints. Why is it that true saints persevere? It's because of God's hand in preserving them, only letting them go so far in their sinfulness drawing them back to himself. Well, so it is, we see it on display in the life of Jacob. Jacob's walk and testimony have been renewed, but there's also the sad, mingled testimony of the growing tribe of the Lord's people, Jacob and his sons in the midst of Canaan. What will become of this growing covenant community in the increasingly apostate land of Canaan. We'll see windows into that prospect as we turn our attention over the next weeks to the life of Joseph. But I want us to turn our attention momentarily to the big picture. In some ways, we might think that Genesis ends with the story of Joseph. Remember in seminary days, memorizing chapter content. That was a very helpful little section there. Genesis 37-50. The story of Joseph. Well, it is in some ways the story of Joseph, but it is the story of Jacob. Joseph just has a large chapter, if you will, in that story. Genesis ends with Jacob. It ends with Israel blessing the sons of Israel. In Genesis 49, and the sons of Israel taking the bones of Jacob. of Israel back to the cave at Machpelah. So, I say Genesis ends with Jacob's story, hence we jump ahead today. We will, Lord willing, spend some time with Joseph to be sure. The incident of which we've read today, as we've said, comes deep into the story of Joseph. But its significance in the story of Jacob would be hard to overestimate. Here we find Israel. Jacob and all his offspring encamped on the border of the promised land. Beersheba is the southern extent. In future years, it would be a description of Israel from Dan to Beersheba. What is it we say in North Carolina, Manny Odom Murphy? Well, Dan to Beersheba is the description of Israel, and Beersheba is the southern border, the southern extremity, And Beersheba also is the place where Isaac spent most of his sojourn in his life, where Isaac blessed his sons, Jacob and Esau. It's where Jacob spent his childhood. It's where he spent his life before his flight from the land for fear of his brother. And so as he comes to this place, doubtless there are a lot of just pure human emotions that come to him as an old man. An old man that has been bereaved of his favored son Joseph for many years now, so he thinks. He's just recently learned that Joseph is alive. Circumstances of that story must have brought interesting conversations around the family dinner table and gatherings. Drama at holidays and family meals is not necessarily just a modern thing. But for all the joy that he's known in hearing that Joseph is alive, that the dreams of Joseph's youth were revelatory, that Joseph's brethren and his family were bowing before him as the ruler of Egypt, but those Joyful thoughts and purpose and the journey that he's on to see Joseph have got to, in a sense or at least in a measure, fade into the background as he now encamps along the way in this journey to Beersheba. Every other time that the patriarchs had left the land had been either because of sin or at least fraught with danger. Abraham's sojourn in Egypt was in a series or a season of weakness of faith. His sojourn in Gerar among the Philistines, again a season of the trial of his faith. Isaac's own sojourn in Gerar, trial of faith. The whole fact that Abraham had forbidden Eleazar his servant to take Isaac out of the land and for Isaac to seek a wife from the inhabitants of the land or to leave the land seeking for his wife. All of this points to the fact that leaving the land of promise was not necessarily a good thing. And so Jacob pauses here at Beersheba and I say, what must be the thoughts of the old man Jacob? As he has undertaken this journey and he arrives at the location of his boyhood home, the place where his father Isaac, I say, spent most of his pilgrimage, where he had connived to receive that patriarchal blessing. Here he is, preserved over all the decades that have passed. His troubled history, and yet the grace of God. what I say that night must have been his thoughts. I want to consider something of the thoughts and the experience of Jacob at Beersheba this morning. And really if we would take a text that's just in the words of the Lord to him, fear not. Fear not to go down into Egypt. Just three words, really, that I put before you today as we survey these brief verses. The first one is this. I think we find here reverence. Reverence. As Jacob arrives in Beersheba, we read that he stops here, and we read verse 1, Israel took his journey with all that he had, came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father, Isaac. The offering of sacrifice here was prior to the Lord's visitation. The offering of sacrifice here, the pause for concentrated in particular worship and reverence to God was something that Jacob initiated before the Lord came to meet with him. It shows his condition of heart. He's overwhelmed at the grace of God. He's mindful of his own sinfulness. That, if he reviews for any moment at all, is clearly on display. God has been gracious to him. And now he has to pause. Because with a proper understanding of the birthright, with a proper understanding of the blessing and all that it meant. With a gospel focus. Now certainly as an aged old man, mindful as Abraham, the original patriarch was, that the blessing is gonna come after this life. It's gonna come after his resurrection. It's gonna come after our resurrections. But now he, with understanding pauses. Is this the right thing? I'm leaving the land of promise. All of the seasons before, when my father and his father journeyed outside this land to which they'd been called, there were sinful or at least fearful and weak circumstances that accompanied them. Is this the right thing to do? I say even in that we see reverence in the heart and the mind of Jacob. He doesn't want to mess up. He doesn't want to bring any danger, any problem to the fulfillment, the ongoing fulfillment of the promise. Jacob knows his life is almost spent. His season in the land of promise is drawing to its final chapter. Actually, he's leaving the land of promise for the last time. It's just his bones that will, on this side of the resurrection, return. Think of the memories, the scars of sin, his own schemings, the sins of his family, Dinah, Simeon and Levi. The sins we've yet to look at in our survey of the patriarchs of the Ten Sons against Joseph that are the reason Joseph is in Egypt. The reason the family is going to Egypt. The scars of sin are evident, but the experiences of grace are evident. Bethel itself wrestling with the angel of the Lord at Peniel. Remarkable answer to prayer and divine providence that followed that. His revival, as we saw last time at Shechem, which caused him to return to Bethlehem again, make sacrifice and meet with the Lord. Jacob will not leave the land again on bad terms. It's interesting, there's a phrase in chapter 48. I'll just read it for you. It's at the close of his interview with Joseph before chapter 49 where he blesses all of his sons. He says, and if you recall there, he gives a double portion to Joseph. Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's sons, Jacob says, these are mine. You're gonna get two portions in Israel. I'm claiming your two sons as mine. There'll be a tribe of Ephraim and a tribe of Manasseh, not just one tribe of Joseph. But he says as he describes that, moreover, I've given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow. We don't read of that in the earlier history. Prelude, what earlier battle does Jacob reference with regard to a gaining of the land? We don't know. But I say it's interesting because the reverence with which Joseph, or Jacob rather, approaches this departure, his mind is all about the fulfillment of the promise. And so he seeks God. Well, God visits him in the wake of this sacrifice. And so let me come to suggest our second term to you this morning, and that is the term revelation. Here we find that the Lord acknowledges Jacob's awareness of the significance of this occasion. Jacob is aware of one of the great pieces of revelation given to Abraham. And I want to ask you to turn with me back to Genesis chapter 15. If you look there very early in the story of the patriarchs, very early even in the story of Abraham, the original patriarch. Genesis 15, if you'll read with me from verse 13. This is, as you're turning there, recall the chapter where we have that enactment of the covenant ceremony. where Abraham makes sacrifice and divides the pieces. And those two divine emblems pass between the pieces as a deep sleep falls upon Abraham. And we read here the Lord's Word to him, verse 13, And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge. And afterwards shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again. For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Now it is almost certain Jacob would be aware of this significant piece of revelation given to Abraham. That Abraham's seed would be a stranger in another land. 400 years they will be there. And if you think of the words that must have stood out to Jacob as he ponders, is what's going on right now, where this begins to be fulfilled, Certainly it must be. Perhaps the terms serve and afflict with reference to His seed weighed heavily upon His heart. Again, think of, you know, I always like to call you to look at the big picture. What has God done in calling the patriarchs? He's honoring His promise to Noah who was the sole survivor with his sons and their families, eight souls that came through the flood and the ark. The old world perished except for them. And it's only in that tiniest of remnants that God's honoring the promise of Genesis 3 to send the seed and to save His people. But now, the nations have fallen into apostasy again. Instead of sending another flood, instead of sending another universal judgment, He lets the nations go on. But He takes Abraham out. He begins forming a new nation, a new people through which He'll send Christ. And I say here, God is honoring His Word and honoring His promise. Instead of destroying the world again, God is calling a people out. before that day. There's going to come a day when the Amorites will be judged. And even that in itself, you think of the whole picture. Israel's bondage in Egypt. Their inability to do anything about their situation. Supernatural deliverance from their bondage. The Passover lamb. Passover itself. their wilderness journey, the life of a redeemed people in this world, and their crossing over Jordan into the land of promise and the overthrow of the nations and the inheritance of that promise by the people. It doesn't take much study at all to see the gospel ramifications, the gospel picture that is there. Jacob is aware But the Lord comes so often and gives fuller revelation. He gives more light. And so for Jacob's trouble, for his burden about leaving the land and what will transpire, what of this servitude? What of this affliction? God says, I'm going to bring you again. Fear not. Here is an early one of the many, many, many fear nots of Scripture. Fear not, I am the God of thy father. Fear not, I'm still gonna make of you a great nation. Fear not, I'll go down with you. This season in Egypt is of my doing, not of your sin. I'm gonna go with you. I'm gonna bless you there. I'm gonna protect you there. I'm gonna bring you back. You're gonna sleep, you read, in peace. Revelation. Jacob's given a word. Folks, isn't this often the pattern? as we would in reverence seek God's help, lay ourselves open before His face at a point of crisis, a point of need, a crossroads in life, whatever circumstance we might experience and see. Seeking God in the middle of it. Understanding something of its significance. And God comes and gives more light. He gives assurance. He gives help. Jacob, I say, experiences revelation. The third word I would put before you is one I nearly uttered a moment ago. Reassurance. Reassurance. Commentators draw attention in verse 4 to the transition from the corporate, the, to the promises of renewal to the individual thine. Look with me, if you will, in verse 4 again. I will go down with thee into Egypt. I will also surely bring thee up again. These are words that the first, we can say, certainly applies to Jacob. God went with him. But the second has to be corporate. Jacob doesn't come up again out of Egypt in the flesh. It's Israel. It's a seed that's brought up out of Egypt. But he moves from the corporate to the personal. I will go down with thee, bring thee up into Egypt. I'll also surely bring thee up again. And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. You think of the picture in Genesis 48 and 49 and 50 of Jacob's meetings with Joseph and then all his sons. And his beloved Joseph that he thought he had lost for all those years, he sees in his sunset years. He's with him in his deathbed. It's Joseph that closes the lids of Israel's dying eyes. but reassurance here that God honors His promises, that God will bless and bring His people to Himself in spite of their sinfulness. Reassurance to Israel. When you think of Israel among all the patriarchs, if we would use the phrase a checkered history, His own stubbornness, His own sinfulness, so often on display, so often requiring, as it were, if we can feebly speak this way, requiring the overruling providence of God. But here is the old man Jacob, reassured by the fresh visitation of the Lord. My hand is in this. My purpose is in this. Your people are going to come out. I'm going to honor my promises. And you personally are part of that. You personally are like Abraham and Isaac, going to sleep with your fathers. You're going to die in a good old age in the peace of being one of my children. is going to belong to you. What a testimony. What a final word, as it were, from his God. Surely God met with Jacob in Egypt, the closing years of his life. He would have known prayer and communion. But these words This special we see in Genesis, again, spanning so many centuries and so few chapters and so few words, those highlights that are brought out. Jacob's troubled and questioning heart as he approaches Beersheba and leaving the land. And God says to him, and I say it's really a remarkable text. It's a text I've thought about taking in different directions over the years because Egypt, in many ways, is a type of the world. We can even go into the text in Hosea and quote it in the Gospels with some of the interpretive difficulties we have. Out of Egypt have I called my Son. Here is Israel, the father of all of Israel, according to the flesh, going into Egypt. The God of heaven says, fear not to go down into Egypt. God's hand is with him, and God will bring him out. The faith that these patriarchs had, don't leave my bones in Egypt. Even Joseph, who stayed in Egypt, his bones, until the whole nation came out, Israel's bones would be taken out even at the point of his death. his sons would return to the land of the Amorites and place those bones in the cave of Machpelah, knowing that that land would be theirs in that day of resurrection. I think this is a precious part, a precious window in the checkered experience of Jacob and the children of Israel, that he is told by his God not to fear. Reverence, revelation, and reassurance. God has his hand and his promise on this man. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Heavenly Father, we ask that you will give us grace and give us some spiritual discernment to meditate on this the closing chapter in the life of Israel. And Lord, if You have said in Your Word as You have, that the things that were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Lord, You've given the chapters in Jacob's story, the good and the bad, to warn and to encourage us. So do those very things for us today. Let us hear warning. Let us take encouragement. And let us reverently submit to the wonder, the sovereign grace of the gospel. We pray these things in Jesus' worthy name. Amen. you