Connecting Scriptures:  Genesis 15:16, 21:35, 22:1-2, 28:10, Exodus 3:4-8, 1 Samuel 3:4, Isaiah 6:8

Lots of names and numbers here today!  So, I have two big standouts and they are places—Beersheba and Goshen.

Beersheba was a place of significance.  Remember it?  This is the place where Abraham acquired a well shortly after Issac was born.  He ended up planting a tamarisk tree and it became a home place for him, and also for Issac, for a while.  This is a place Jacob had to flee from as he ran for his life to Haran.  Now, this is a place where Jacob/Israel will seek God.  Before he leaves the place that God had faithfully brought him home to, and kept him in, I think Jacob desired a sign.   A point of connection before he did the reasonable thing of going to Egypt for reunion and redemption.  God, in His faithfulness, gives him the green light and assurance.  He would be, as He always had been, with him.  In Jacob’s coming and going, God was his guide and stay.  He would see his son, who came back to life in the words his sons brought form Egypt, and it would be enough.  Enough to lay down and trust God with all the promises He alone could keep.  What a gift!

Goshen, in the fertile north west corner of Egypt.  Fed by the Nile’s steady waters, the land there was lush and good for herding and was able to accommodate a large group of people.  While 70 plus didn’t seem like a huge starting number of Jacobs family, it would grow to millions over the passing of years.  Egypt sees a reunion of father and son.  Joseph and all those in his influence celebrate the reunion and with it, came a warning.  We will see further in the next chapter, but they were to make it clear that they were “keepers of livestock”. Shepherds.  This was a low role in Egyptian society, who apprised aesthetic and cleanliness almost as much as their worship of the dead.  Shepherding as an “abomination”, or untouchable profession, will be a familiar theme in the biblical narrative.  We will see God choosing shepherds to be leaders a lot.  Ultimately culminating in Our King Jesus being seen as the Great Shepherd.  For today though, I think Joseph’s instructions were for a big reason.  They were, in fact, a shepherding people, and since this was seen as an ugly and unsightly profession, it would be just the thing that would keep Jacob and his family separated from the practices of the Egyptians.  Egypt was to be a place of rest and shelter—later their prison, but it was never to be home.  They needed to hold onto the things that made them God’s people, which up to this point, was passing down the stories and faith of Abraham, Issac and ultimately Jacob.  

Questions for Reflection:

1.  What do the sacrifices that Jacob offers in Beersheba tell us about his heart and faith journey?

2.  How does Jacob’s journey to Egypt relate to the bibles theme of migration. (God’s people always on the move!)?  How how does it foreshadows Israel’s eventual exodus from Egypt?