SECOND QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #13
JUNE 25, 2022
“ISRAEL IN EGYPT”

 

 

“So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly (Genesis 47:27 NKJV).

 

We have come to the final chapters of the beautifully inspired first book of the bible.  It is of interest that the parallelism observed in the creation story in the book’s beginning, also exists in the two divisions of Genesis.  In chapters 1 through 11 we read of creation, the fall and its results, the promise, choices, divisions, blessings, judgment, redemption, recreation, and the beginning of nations.  These themes reoccur in chapters 12 through 50.  However, in these chapters the storyline centers on four generations of one family, the beginnings of Israel.

 

While the germination, growth, and maturation of the seed of deceit produces a harvest within this one family, the God who recreates, heals, and saves is ever present.  Our covenant keeping God is faithful!  And in the end a family that was torn apart is reunited.

 

Picture Jacob’s amazement when he grasps the truth the son dead to him is truly not dead at all!  “It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive:  I will go and see him before I die” (Genesis 45:28).

 

When Joseph was a mere lad, seventeen years of age, Jacob had been cruelly separated from his beloved son.  Poetically, the last seventeen years of the father’s life will be spent in close proximity to Joseph.

 

“In his first greeting to Joseph, Jacob had spoken as if, with this joyful ending to his long anxiety and sorrow, he was ready to die.  But seventeen years were yet to be granted him in the peaceful retirement of Goshen.  These years were in happy contrast to those that had preceded them.  He saw in his sons evidence of true repentance; he saw his family surrounded by all the conditions needful for the development of a great nation; and his faith grasped the sure promise of their future establishment in Canaan.  He himself was surrounded with every token of love and favor that the prime minister of Egypt could bestow; and happy in the society of his long-lost son, he passed down gently and peacefully to the grave.” -Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 233.

 

There are times in life when we face bitter disappointment, trial, grief, loss, and/or perplexity as Jacob did.  I imagine the following questions running through Jacob’s mind as he dealt with the loss of his son.  “Why Lord?  Why Lord!  What of my son’s dreams?  Did they mean nothing?  My young son so full of promise is dead!”

 

But all things truly do “work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

 

God guides and directs.  He overrules for the greater good of His children.

 

“All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain.  The things hard to be understood will then find explanation.  The mysteries of grace will unfold before us.  Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony.  We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying.

 

He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ.  The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Savior, Who surrounds Him with His presence.  Whatever comes to him comes to Christ.  He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense.  Nothing can touch him except by our Lord’s permission, and “all things” that are permitted “work together for good to them that love God.” -The Faith I live By, p. 64.

 

Jacob’s sin of deception in obtaining the birthright had cost him dearly and produced bitter fruit in his own life and in the lives of his family.  In his struggle with the Angel of the Lord at the brook Jabbok contrition, repentance, perseverance, and faith were the victors.  Upon Jacob was pronounced the blessing, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”  Jacob became a prince.

 

“Not long after their arrival Joseph brought his father to be presented to the king.  The patriarch was a stranger in royal courts; but amid the sublime scenes of nature, he had communed with a mightier Monarch; and now in conscious superiority, he raised his hands and blessed Pharaoh.”- Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 233.  “And without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater” (Hebrews 7:7).

 

Jacob, the grasper, the deceiver, became Israel; to whom the birthright was bestowed by the Angel of the Lord.  In the fullness of time from this family the Seed of Israel would be born, the promised Heir, “the Desire of all nations.”  This future Savior (foreshadowed in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, and others to come) would win back the birthright Adam and Eve sold to the serpent.

 

The patriarchs, each in due time, passed to the grave.  “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.  And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16).

 

“By faith Jacob, when he was dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff” (Hebrews 11:21).

 

Not long after Joseph and his two sons visited the aged and infirmed father, all of Jacob’s sons gathered around his death bed.  The Holy Spirit rested upon Israel, and the future was revealed to his children.

 

“Jacob had ever been a man of deep and ardent affection; his love for his sons was strong and tender, and his dying testimony to them was not the utterance of partiality or resentment.  He had forgiven them all, and he had loved them to the last.  His paternal tenderness would have found expression only in words of encouragement and hope; but the power of God rested upon him, and under the influence of inspiration he was constrained to declare the truth, however painful.” -Patriarchs and Prophets p. 237.

 

“Then he charged them and said to them:  I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.  There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah… And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people” (Genesis 49:29-33).

 

So, Jacob died in faith of the Promise, but after his burial “fear filled the hearts of Joseph’s brothers.  Notwithstanding his kindness toward them, conscious guilt made them distrustful and suspicious……Joseph’s love for his brothers was deep and unselfish, and he was pained at the thought that they could regard him as cherishing a spirit of revenge toward them.  “Fear not,” he said; “for am I in the place of God?  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.  Now therefore fear ye not:  I will nourish you, and your little ones.” -Patriarchs and Prophets p. 239.

 

The theme of salvation and the foreshadowing of the Messiah is a golden thread that runs through Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament books that follow.  Joseph’s words to his brothers point us to Jesus.  Our Savior tells us, his brothers and sisters, “Fear not.  I will nourish you.  I will keep you and be life to you.”  “You meant it for evil; but God meant it for good, in order to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20, 21).  The cross of Christ (agape) will be a marvel and continual study for the redeemed throughout eternity.  Let us make it our theme and focus now.

 

“Abraham thought at one time that he himself must fulfill the promise of God.  So Jacob doubtless thought, as many do still, that “God helps those who help themselves.”  Afterward he learned better, and was truly converted, and exercised as sincere a faith as Abraham and Isaac.  His case should be an encouragement to us, in that it shows what God can do with one who has a very unlovely disposition, provided he yields to Him.”- The Everlasting Covenant, Chapter 10.

 

Aren’t you glad that the bible presents the lives of the overcomers with all their flaws and defects?  As we review our own failures and sinful hearts, often we are ready to despair and feel our cases are utterly hopeless.  We can take courage, however, when we read of bible characters, who by God’s grace overcame, and fully cast their helpless souls upon Jesus.  “The vilest offender who truly believes, this moment a pardon from Jesus receives.”  We need Jesus’s forgiveness and love to wash over us.  Oh, how we need to believe and receive God’s word and the Savior, the Word Himself!  He has gone before us to prepare a place for us.  We are promised, “The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37).  He is more than able to restore us to oneness with Himself and the Father.

 

We need a heart appreciation and an experiential knowledge of the everlasting gospel that will carry us through the coming storm.  Many do not know and appreciate the costly redemption that has been so freely given.  May we joyfully share the good news of salvation.  We are living in the very time when the Israel of God is soon to be reunited as a family.  God desires that we be members of the royal family.  Jesus is alive!  The great reunion is very near!

 

“Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1).  “And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God” (Revelation 14:5).

 

~ Martha Ruggles