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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
I found an interesting website this week.
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.
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.
This particular website tracks Canadian politics.
But I did a quick search and found several others that track American politics as well.
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.
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.
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.
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.
26% are in progress.
That's a good thing.
6% have been kept.
3% are partially kept.
And another 3% are broken promises.
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.
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.
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.
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.
He says,
Our God is a promise-making God.
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.
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.
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.
The good news of our passage this morning, we're reminded yet again that no matter the obstacle,
our God keeps his promises.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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?
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?
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
But God has sovereign purpose even in this seemingly dangerous journey.
What is it?
We've seen this answer over and over and over again over the past few weeks.
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.
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.
And all of it in some way is for your good if you are in Christ.
Our sovereign God is bringing Israel into Egypt.
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.
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.
All of this, of course, anticipates the ultimate display of the glory and grace
and redeeming power of God and the cross of Christ.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
That's not true.
There's no hidden secret code here.
But Moses, in organizing this,
intentionally draws our attention to the number seven.
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.
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?
Seventy.
Which, math people, is seven times ten.
Rachel's children are fourteen,
which is twice as much as Bilhah's seven.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Though none go with me,
still I will follow.
No turning back.
The cross before me,
the world behind me,
no turning back.
I'm afraid that
many professing Christians,
maybe some of you in the room this morning,
are hedging your bets.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Why in the world would they do that?
Why move your young family
from the safety of Augusta
to go to Azerbaijan?
Why?
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.
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.
Are you all in?
Or are you holding something back?
God's promises will seem to be threatened.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
This Hebrew abomination,
this shepherd,
comes and extends
a blessing, again,
to the most powerful man
in the world.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
God's kingdom
through God's people,
the church,
will continue
to multiply
even in Egypt,
even in exile,
even here
outside of Eden.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Church
would you look
to Christ
and remember
our God
is a promise
keeping God.
He will
accomplish
all
that he's promised.
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.
We praise you
for this
in Jesus name.
Amen.
Thank you.