[0:00] Well, please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 45.! And our passage this morning is chapter 45, verse 16, going all the way through 47, verse 31.
[0:16] And it's our normal practice that we have you stand for the scripture reading before the sermon. But as we did last week, I'm going to spare you that this week because it's about 80-something verses long.
[0:28] But we will read the scripture portions during the sermon. So we'll cover it that way this week. Would you pray with me once more for the preaching of the word as we prepare to hear it?
[0:40] Lord, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. God, we pray, would you bless the preaching of your word? Would you empower it by your spirit?
[0:53] Would you ready our hearts to receive it? May it land on fertile soil in our hearts this morning. Open our ears to hear the truth. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I found an interesting website this week.
[1:08] It's polameter.org. I've never visited that site before. And my disclaimer is I make no claims whatsoever as to the factuality of this website.
[1:19] Okay? So before the emails come, that's my disclaimer. I'm just here to tell you what the site aims to do. Apparently, it is, quote, an independent initiative developed by political scientists that tracks whether or not politicians keep the promises that they make.
[1:39] This particular website tracks Canadian politics. But I did a quick search and found several others that track American politics as well.
[1:50] And so if you have nothing else to do this week, you can do a quick Google search. And pretty quickly, you can find a Joe Biden promise tracker for his time in office. You can find a Donald Trump promise tracker for his first term as well as an active one for his ongoing current term.
[2:06] And it's interesting for me as I looked on these different websites to see all the many promises made. And to see that across the board, whether they are Democrat or Republican or anywhere in between, whether they are American or Canadian, for as different as these politicians are, they all shared one thing in common.
[2:26] You know what it is? Not a single one of them has perfectly kept all of their promises. The first guy on the Canadian site, as of the time of my research this week, had been in office for 372 days.
[2:43] Apparently, he has made about 440 distinct promises that his website is tracking. 62% of them are not yet rated, meaning in over a year's time, he has not yet done anything on those promises.
[2:59] 26% are in progress. That's a good thing. 6% have been kept. 3% are partially kept. And another 3% are broken promises.
[3:09] I think we would agree that's not all that encouraging, is it? But the sad truth is, and he's actually, comparatively speaking, he's actually doing pretty good.
[3:20] I hope that it's not news to you this morning that sometimes people, sometimes politicians, sometimes you and I, make promises that we wind up not keeping.
[3:33] And it all makes me very thankful, praise God, that our God is not at all like this. Now we've seen over and over and over again in the book of Genesis that our God is a promise-making God.
[3:50] We saw all the way back in the Garden of Eden, Genesis chapter 3. He promised that there would be a coming seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. And then we saw in Genesis chapter 12, God makes great promises to Abraham.
[4:05] He says, Our God is a promise-making God.
[4:24] But praise God, not only this, we've also seen our God is a promise-keeping God. The Christian confidence is that our God ensures that 100% of his promises are either kept or are in progress.
[4:41] Our God is a promise-keeping God. You know, it's vital for us as God's people to remember this because, as you know, life on this side of the Garden of Eden, life in a fallen world, is not easy.
[4:55] And it's tempting for us in the constant challenges that we face here in a sin-cursed world. We're tempted often to doubt the faithfulness of God to his promises.
[5:06] The good news of our passage this morning, we're reminded yet again that no matter the obstacle, our God keeps his promises.
[5:17] That's the big idea for us this morning. Our God is a promise-keeping God. And so let's take a look at our passage this morning. And what we'll see is three truths to remember about God's promises.
[5:30] This is our outline this morning. If you're a note-taker, that might help you to follow along. I realize it's a lengthy passage. We're going to see three truths to remember about God's promises. The first, first we see God's promises often seem to be threatened.
[5:47] God's promises often seem to be threatened. Look there with me starting in chapter 45, verse 15. Verses 15 through 28 set the stage here for our passage.
[5:59] It says, When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come, it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this, load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your household and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.
[6:20] And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, Do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.
[6:33] The sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.
[6:49] And to his father he sent as follows, ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way.
[7:04] I love that. So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob, and they told him, Joseph is still alive, and he's ruler over all the land of Egypt.
[7:15] And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.
[7:28] And Israel said, It is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. On one hand, Israel, Jacob, has just received some of the best news imaginable.
[7:42] His son, Joseph, who he thought was long gone, who he thought was dead, somehow is still alive. And more than that, somehow, we know how, this is the providential hand of God, somehow, Joseph is in a position of authority in Egypt, and he's calling Israel and his family to come into Egypt in the midst of this famine.
[8:04] It seems undeniable that this is the hand of the Lord. If the Lord is paving the way for Israel and his family to come into Egypt, that all seems like great news, but it also presents a bit of a problem, doesn't it?
[8:20] It presents a challenge here. Put yourself in Jacob's shoes. This whole time, we have been journeying, working our way towards the promised land. But now, God is calling us out?
[8:34] Now, what does this mean for the promises of God? Can God's promises survive in Egypt? Will we be safe there? What about this promise of multiplication of offspring?
[8:46] Will we be able to grow and multiply there? What about the promise of the land of Canaan? We're leaving Canaan. How can God's promises survive in Egypt? Will God be with us there?
[8:56] And it seems like, yet again, these are threats to the promises of God. And we've seen this again already in Genesis, haven't we? We've seen threats of infertility and barrenness to the promise of a coming seed.
[9:11] We've seen threats of war and conflict. We've seen threats of family strife. We've seen threats of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob's own sinfulness that seem to maybe put the promises of God at risk.
[9:23] It seems like, once again, there are threats to God's promises coming true. Now, I wonder if you ever feel that way. God has made some pretty incredible promises to us in His Word, hasn't He?
[9:37] He's promised us that any sinner who comes to faith in Christ will be totally forgiven, washed clean of their sin. And yet, how do we feel when we look in the mirror and see the depth of our own sinfulness?
[9:50] It seems like to us, it feels like to us, that each new sin puts God's promises at risk, like a threat. We know God's promised us one day that this whole world will be remade, there will be no sin, there will be no death, there will be no sickness, there will be no pain.
[10:11] But when we look around at the world that is all around us, the world that we live in, and we see the depth of wickedness around us, sometimes it just feels like, God, how in the world will you really keep your promises?
[10:24] It seems like there are threats to the promises of God. Of course, we should know better. There are no threats to His promises. God is kind here to remind Jacob and to remind us that no obstacle can stand in the way of His promises.
[10:40] Look there to chapter 46. It says, Israel took his journey and all that he had, and he came to Beersheba. This is sort of a sacred space here in Genesis where God shows up often, and again, that's exactly what happens here.
[10:55] It says, Israel offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac, and God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, here I am.
[11:06] Then he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt. And he gives him four reasons why.
[11:19] For one, he says, don't be afraid to go down in Egypt because even in Egypt, even there, I will make you into a great nation. See, that promise hasn't gone anywhere.
[11:32] The location is changing. You're no longer in Canaan. You're going to be somewhere else. You're going to be in Egypt. The location is changing. But my faithfulness is not changing. My promises are not changing.
[11:45] A second reason, God promises his presence in Egypt. Didn't I promise you I would be with you and I would be your God? Well, even in Egypt, that promise remains.
[11:57] He says, I myself will go with you down into Egypt. I mean, don't you love that? Because it's often outside of this comfortable place of blessing that we're tempted to doubt God's faithfulness.
[12:11] But don't you know, Christian, that even there, he is with you. Even in sickness, he is with you. Even in trial, he is with you.
[12:24] He goes down with you into the place of loneliness. He goes down with you into the place of despair. Even to the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord is with you.
[12:35] God promises his presence with his people, even to the ends of the earth. Even to Egypt, Jacob. He says, I will be with you to protect you and to bless you.
[12:47] But it gets even better. Third reason here, not to fear. He says, Jacob, don't be afraid to go into Egypt because I will bring you up again.
[12:57] I love this. This journey into Egypt is all part of the sovereign plan of God. This journey into Egypt is not the end of the story of my people.
[13:10] I'm not going back on my promise. I already have plans to bring you up out of Egypt. He says, you're worried about the beginning of all this when I have the end of it all planned out.
[13:21] But God has sovereign purpose even in this seemingly dangerous journey. What is it? What is it? We've seen this answer over and over and over again over the past few weeks.
[13:34] It's all over Joseph's story. Our God is working all things for his glory and for the good of his people. All things for his glory and for our good.
[13:49] And if you want to understand the big broad strokes, the big picture purpose of all things, even the hardest things, even things that seem to put God's faithfulness to the test, the big picture purpose of all of it is that in some way, every single moment of your life, believer, every single challenge, every single difficulty, all of it is in some way, it is for his glory.
[14:17] And all of it in some way is for your good if you are in Christ. Our sovereign God is bringing Israel into Egypt.
[14:28] And you keep on reading in the Exodus, we'll see. Yes, God, our sovereign God will bring them out. And in so doing, he will get glory over Egypt.
[14:39] And you, Jacob, you, Israel, will be not just my called people, you will be my redeemed people. And you'll get to see my power and my grace and my glory and display in ways that you couldn't even possibly begin to imagine if you did not go down into Egypt.
[14:57] All of this, of course, anticipates the ultimate display of the glory and grace and redeeming power of God and the cross of Christ.
[15:09] Don't be afraid to go, Israel. I have purpose for you there that you cannot even begin to imagine. I will get glory in Egypt.
[15:21] Also, fourth reason here. Fourth reason not to fear. He says, don't be afraid to go down into Egypt because I have good things in store for you.
[15:31] Even there, Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. If he had even the slightest bit of doubt about the truthfulness of all of this, could Joseph possibly be alive?
[15:44] Now that doubt is gone. God himself says, yes, it's true. Joseph is there and you will not die before you see him. And your beloved son himself will lay you to rest.
[15:58] Church, here in a fallen world, I mean, it's true. God's promises often seem to be threatened. Here by famine and here by a call out of Canaan and into Egypt.
[16:09] But in our lives, by sickness, by financial hardship, by the constant delay between promise and fulfillment, by the disruptions of sin in our homes and in our churches, in our families, in our marriages, in our society.
[16:27] But we ought to remember that our good God is sovereign even over what seems to be threats to his promises. And what these so-called threats often do actually is provide for us a test of our faith and our obedience to him, which is what we see in our second point this morning.
[16:48] Second, our faith in God's promises will be tested. And the second truth that we ought to know about God's promises is that for all of God's people, our faith in his promises will often be tested.
[17:03] And God's people must respond to his promises in the obedience of faith. Jacob hears all of this and now the question is, well, how is he going to respond?
[17:14] What's he going to do? And what we see in verses 5 through 27 is that Israel goes all in in faith. Look there at chapter 46, verse 5.
[17:26] It says, Then Jacob set out from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, their wives, and the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
[17:36] They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt. Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.
[17:56] And if you look at the rest of chapter 46, I will spare you here, okay? I will not read every name. But the rest of chapter 46, if you pay attention, it gives us the names of the descendants of Israel who came into Egypt.
[18:10] And if you do pay attention in your own Bible reading, if you don't just breeze by these names like we're often tempted to do, you'll notice that there's an emphasis here in this list on the number seven.
[18:21] And I don't want to make too much about that, because sometimes people will take it a little bit too far with the numbers, and it's almost like you need a decoder ring to understand the Bible, like there's some secret code.
[18:32] That's not true. There's no hidden secret code here. But Moses, in organizing this, intentionally draws our attention to the number seven.
[18:44] It's arranged in this way intentionally, because as you know, the number seven is a significant biblical number, and often it carries with it the idea of completion and fullness.
[18:57] You think of the seven days of creation. That's a complete week. The work is done. It's full. It's perfect. Well, look at this. Verse 27 says, all the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were, how many?
[19:14] Seventy. Which, math people, is seven times ten. Rachel's children are fourteen, which is twice as much as Bilhah's seven.
[19:26] Leah's offspring are thirty-three, which is twice as much as Zilpah's sixteen, which has nothing to do with seven, unless you add them together, and then you get forty-nine, which my math people can tell me is seven times seven.
[19:38] It just keeps going and going and going. And the point is, I think the point that Moses is trying to make for us is that the full, complete, total, perfect number of Israel is going.
[19:51] He does not leave a single thing back in Canaan. Jacob is all in. Church, this is what full obedience looks like. This is the obedience of faith.
[20:05] You've probably heard the legend before of Cortez coming into Mexico with his crew. And they come, they arrive in unknown territory. They didn't know what to expect.
[20:16] They knew that it would be dangerous. And so the temptation would be, in theory, to just turn back and hop back on the boats and to sail back to Cuba if things got difficult.
[20:27] But what did Cortez do? He orders his men to burn the boats. Set them ablaze. Why? So that there would be no turning back.
[20:38] We are all in. There's no escape hatch here. But that's exactly what Jacob does. This isn't an easy call for Jacob. Again, he's moving out of the promised land into Egypt.
[20:51] But God has called him to do it. And what does he do? He goes all in. He brings all his offspring, all his livestock, all his possessions.
[21:02] He doesn't hedge his bet. God has called him to go. And he goes all in in faith. This is what the obedience of faith looks like.
[21:16] If you've trusted in the promises of God, it's like what we sing in the old hymn. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back.
[21:28] No turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back. The cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back.
[21:39] I'm afraid that many professing Christians, maybe some of you in the room this morning, are hedging your bets.
[21:53] And they want to claim to believe in God's promises and maybe in some small way they do, but something in them is holding them back. You haven't yet burnt the ships.
[22:05] They aren't yet all in. And so when that faith, if it's genuine faith at all, when that faith is tested and when push comes to shove and when things get difficult, what happens?
[22:18] They turn right back to their old ways and they turn right back to the pleasures of this world. They turn right back to emptiness and they retreat. Christ, Jesus says, you must be all in.
[22:35] If anyone would come after me, he says, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. He says, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
[22:48] Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it.
[23:00] Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. I have a good friend who just had a send-off celebration yesterday. I wanted to go, but I couldn't make it down there.
[23:13] And he and his wife and his two young kids are preparing to move their family to Azerbaijan. That's why we've prayed for Azerbaijan the past two Sundays.
[23:24] Why in the world would they do that? Why move your young family from the safety of Augusta to go to Azerbaijan? Why?
[23:37] Simply put, they are all in. They believe God has called them there and that whether in Augusta or Azerbaijan, their God will be with them and their God will fulfill his purposes in them and through them.
[23:53] Christian, you may be called to Azerbaijan. That's a possibility. You may be called to go. But more likely, you are all called to be all in right here where you are.
[24:09] Are you all in? Or are you holding something back? God's promises will seem to be threatened.
[24:23] Our faith in his promises will be tested. But third, and finally, third, we see the good news that our God always keeps his promises.
[24:34] Our God always keeps his promises. We see this here in the rest of our passage. And starting in verse 28, we get to see God's faithfulness to three specific promises.
[24:48] And we read them at the beginning here all the way back to the promises he made to Abraham. For one, we see God blesses his people even in Egypt. Didn't God promise I will bless you?
[25:01] I will bless you. Well, how is that going to happen in Egypt? Look there, starting in verse 28, chapter 46. It says, He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen.
[25:14] And they came into the land of Goshen. And then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.
[25:27] Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die since I have seen your face and know that you're still alive. And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh and will say to him, My brothers and my father's household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me and the men are shepherds for they have been keepers of livestock and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.
[25:52] When Pharaoh calls you and says, What is your occupation? You shall say, Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now both we and our fathers in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.
[26:09] So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, My father and my brothers with their flocks and herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen and from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh.
[26:24] Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds as our fathers were. They said to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan.
[26:39] And now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land.
[26:52] Let them settle in the land of Goshen. And if you know any able men among them, and put them in charge of my livestock. Why in the world does Pharaoh respond this way?
[27:06] Haven't we just seen shepherds are an abomination to the Egyptians? He doesn't know them. He doesn't owe them anything. Here's the most powerful man in the world.
[27:17] He holds all the cards. He doesn't have to give them anything. And yet, here he is being incredibly generous to God's people. Why? It can only be explained by the providential work of the Lord.
[27:30] The Lord is continuing to bless his people even here in Egypt. He gives them the land of Goshen up by the Nile. That's good land. He says it's the very best. On top of that, he gives them jobs.
[27:42] He puts them in charge of his livestock. How do we explain this? God is fulfilling his promises. God is blessing his people even during a time of famine.
[27:55] He provides them with food. He gives them shelter. He arranges far in advance how they're going to be cared for. He sends Joseph ahead of them to preserve a remnant for them.
[28:06] Joseph's hard work during that time, it earns Pharaoh's favor, which then spills over in blessing and favor towards his people. All of this, all of this is God fulfilling his promise.
[28:19] He's ensuring his promises are kept. And not only this, we see a second promise kept starting in verse 7, chapter 47, verse 7. God promised that God's people would also be a blessing to the nations.
[28:34] Not only would God bless them, but through them, the nations would be blessed. And again, the question is, how in the world is God going to do this even in Egypt? Look there to verse 7.
[28:46] It says, Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days of the years of your life?
[29:00] And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. And they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojourning.
[29:14] And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. And then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
[29:30] And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food according to the number of their dependents. Jacob blesses Pharaoh.
[29:43] This Hebrew abomination, this shepherd, comes and extends a blessing, again, to the most powerful man in the world.
[29:54] It's a picture of the blessing that God promised through his people to the nations. Keep reading. We see that promise kept even more clearly with the wisdom that God gives Joseph. Verse 13.
[30:05] It says, Now there is no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain that they bought.
[30:22] And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house, and when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes?
[30:35] For our money is gone. And Joseph answered, Give your livestock and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph.
[30:46] And Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses and the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, We will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent and the herds of livestock are my Lord's.
[31:05] There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh and give us seed that we may live and not die and that the land may not be desolate.
[31:24] So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh for all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's.
[31:35] As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them.
[31:47] Therefore, they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you and you shall sow the land and of the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh and four fifths shall be your own as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households and as food for your little ones.
[32:09] And they said, You have saved our lives. May it please the Lord. We will be servants to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt and it stands to this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth and the land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's.
[32:27] You see the wisdom that God's given Joseph here. It's an incredibly shrewd move, isn't it? My boys and I like to play a game called Settlers of Catan.
[32:40] Amanda doesn't really like to play with us and I'll let you in on a secret. The key to winning that game is kind of like Monopoly. The key to winning that game is understanding supply and demand.
[32:52] You have to have certain resources in order to build and if you don't have access to wheat, you can't build a settlement. That's just how the game goes. And so if you want to be really strategic or some would say really mean, what you do is you hoard all the resources that other people need.
[33:11] And I'm telling you now, they may not like it and they may never play with you again, but eventually if they want to build, they will need to come to you to get what they need.
[33:21] And that's exactly what Joseph does here. And Joseph, first he stores up all the wheat and then he sells the wheat. He gathers up all the money when the people have no money. Then they come to him, they offer their livestock for the food.
[33:34] Then they have no livestock so they come and offer themselves. They offer their land. And so in this one shrewd maneuver, Joseph has successfully settled the land of Catan.
[33:44] All the land of Egypt was now Pharaoh's. All the people are now his servants with the exception of the priests. It is a brilliant, wise plan. But do you see in the same way, in that same maneuver, he is blessing the nations by the wisdom God has given him.
[34:04] He has provided food for the nations. That's a blessing. He's provided a cash cow and pep and forever. for Pharaoh, for Egypt.
[34:15] Perpetuity is the word I was looking for. God is blessing the nations through the wisdom of Joseph. God's promise of blessing to his people is kept in Egypt.
[34:26] God's promise of blessing through his people is kept in Egypt. But what about God's promise of multiplication? One final promise kept here. And we see this promise of multiplication kept starting in verse 27.
[34:40] It says, Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it and were fruitful and multiplied greatly.
[34:52] That's Eden language. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years.
[35:03] And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me.
[35:16] Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of the land of Egypt and bury me in their burying place. And he answered, I will do as you have said.
[35:27] And he said, Swear to me. And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed. God keeps his promise of multiplication even there in Egypt.
[35:41] Hasn't he promised? Your descendants will be more numerous than the stars in the sky or the sand on the shore. That promise is not dependent on location.
[35:53] Even in Egypt, God's people are fruitful and they multiply. If you keep on reading in Exodus, and we see that promise is not dependent on leadership.
[36:06] Joseph dies and yet, what do we see? The people continue to multiply. You keep on reading and you see it's not dependent on ease or safety of their circumstances.
[36:19] A new pharaoh rises up and he seeks to destroy the people of God and what happens? They continue to multiply. This is just how it goes. I mean, try as hard as they want.
[36:31] The powers of darkness cannot stop the people of God from multiplying on the face of the earth. Stone Stephen to death, Acts chapter 8.
[36:44] And they say, well, maybe this will stop this whole preaching Christianity thing, right? Maybe they'll just stop talking about Jesus if we kill one of them. What happens? As they're scattered, they go about preaching the word.
[36:57] You cannot stop the multiplication of God's people. Jesus has promised, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You cannot stop the multiplication of God's people.
[37:10] Why? Because God has promised it and God is faithful to all His promises. The kingdom of God will continue to grow like a grain of mustard seed that grows to be the greatest tree in all the earth or like a little bit of leaven that worked into the dough leavens the whole lump.
[37:32] God's kingdom through God's people, the church, will continue to multiply even in Egypt, even in exile, even here outside of Eden.
[37:45] Why? Because God has promised us this in His word. And our God keeps all His promises. Church, Jacob saw the faithfulness of God firsthand and as he comes to the end of his life, what a powerful reminder this would have been for him of the faithfulness of his promise keeping God.
[38:08] But church, I hope you realize we have an even greater display of the faithfulness of God than this. ultimately, all the promises of God are kept for us in Christ.
[38:27] Where do we look to know for certain that our God will keep His promises? Where do we look when His promises seem to be threatened by the challenges of life?
[38:38] We look to His faithfulness in Christ Jesus. Hasn't He showed us at the cross of Christ? that even in what seems to be the darkest and most impossible moment, that He is at work for His glory and our good?
[38:55] It is to Christ to whom we must come in faith burning all the ships behind us, going in full faith, trusting that He is worthy of our full obedience.
[39:09] It is Christ Jesus who is the promised blessing to the people of God and through the people of God to the world. It is Christ Jesus who is the true and better Joseph who was betrayed and left for dead yet in God's sovereign purpose is now the risen and exalted ruler of the nations who is alone the wise King of Kings to whom all nations will come and bow the knee and the one to whom we must come with an empty open hand if we are to live.
[39:42] And it is the very body of Christ that continues to grow and multiply as the word of Christ the gospel is proclaimed in every corner of the earth. Church we look to the gospel of Christ and see the faithfulness of our God on full display.
[40:03] Sometime soon you may already be there now God's promises will seem to be threatened in your life. Your faith in his promises will be tested.
[40:18] Church would you look to Christ and remember our God is a promise keeping God. He will accomplish all that he's promised.
[40:29] Amen. Let's pray. Father we thank you for that good news that you are a faithful God and we confess that we're often tempted to disbelieve that because of the trials that we face and because of the difficulty of life here outside of Eden but God we look to the cross and we're reminded that you are a good sovereign holy faithful God who loves sinners like us and will accomplish all that you've purposed in us.
[41:01] We praise you for this in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you.