Remember the Promises

Remember on the Promises

Genesis 15:18-21 (ESV)  On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Genesis 49:11-12 (ESV)  Then Joseph settled his father [Jacob] and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. ¹² And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents.

Sometimes we look at the riches available in life just as Jacob and His family saw the luxury available in Egypt. Jacob was the father and family of the number two man in all the land.  But he had forgotten the promise God had given to Abraham, his grandfather, that they were given the land of Canaan, not Egypt.

I can see Jacob now, entering the house of Joseph, which was most probably a palace, and settling into Joseph’s favorite recliner, putting his feet up, leaning back with his hands behind his head ready for a cushy retirement.  Jacob had it made.  His son was the second most powerful man in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, wealthy beyond measure, and life was good.  “God has blessed me,” I’m sure he thought.  But is that what God had promised to the family of Abraham?

Jacob started by doing the right thing. He was providing for his family by buying food from Egypt.  He had sent his boys down to do that, but when the family saw the possibilities of wealth and comfort, they decided to stay.

I’m thinking we are a lot like Jacob.  We sometimes find ourselves in favorable situations and think it’s God’s blessing on our lives.  And maybe we even believe we deserve it.  But what if it’s just a test to see if we will follow what God has promised rather than a path to our own comfort? Maybe it is something that will keep us from what we should be doing.

There are times when we read God incorrectly.  Throughout Scripture, Egypt is used as a type of sin.  It’s seen as a place of bondage (Ex. 20:2), as a return to the old life (Deut. 17:16), and as representing a trust in the world system rather than God (Isa. 31:1).

Jacob and his family fell into the trap like rats who see the cheese but never ask why it’s free.  We see that while Joseph asked for his bones to be returned to the Promised Land, he had Jacob’s body embalmed (Gen. 50:2), an Egyptian practice that took 40 days. The Israelite practice was to bury the dead the day they died. Then Joseph buried him in the land of Canaan.  Joseph was also embalmed (Gen. 50:26).  I believe this shows to what degree Jacob’s family had slid into the practices of the Egyptians, even when only the first generation of Israelites in Egypt was present. 

Their willingness to dwell in Egypt rather than the land God had given them resulted in 400 years of slavery there.

Why is this important?

This is reminiscent of the story of Lot when he separated from Abraham, how he looked longingly at Sodom (Gen. 13:10), then he settled as far as Sodom (Gen. 13:12), then he was dwelling in Sodom (Gen. 14:12) and finally he was sitting at the gate of Sodom – a place of city leadership (Gen. 19:1).

We can so easily be distracted from God’s promises by power, wealth, and position.  We need to step carefully to make sure we aren’t headed in the wrong direction.

Let’s not go back to Egypt just because it looks more attractive.

1 Cor. 10:1-6 (ESV) For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, ² and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ and all ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. ⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.