A United Family in a Strange Land

Introduction

Father and Son United

Our text begins with Judah once again taking on the role of the family’s leader-to-be as he takes the responsibility to go ahead of Jacob to Goshen to make sure things are prepared for them. Joseph then gets into the iconic Egyptian chariot and goes to meet his father who followed Judah into the land of Goshen. Joseph comes to his father and we have another crying scene in our story as Joseph eagerly embraces his long lost father. It is only at this point that Joseph’s reunion and reconciliation with his family is made complete. After years of grief, Jacob had repented from his idolatry and put his fate and his precious sons in the hands of God and God had shown him kindness and blessing as a result.

Jacob finds final peace in this blessing from God. This is a peace with his son but it is also a peace with God. He has seen God’s faithfulness come when he has let go of his life and had the faith in God to leave his worries in his hands and reject the idols he had made in his heart. Now the journey of his life is complete and he is finally able to die in peace. In seeing Joseph’s face, he no longer relies on the words of his brothers. He has seen him and has peace as a result. Jacob has nothing else to look forward to in this life and he has stopped looking for comfort and security here. Now he waits for an eternal inheritance, the very same that Abraham looked for in the promises of God.

When we think about what we have seen in this story and the great emphasis put on the unity of the family of God, this moment becomes even more significant to us. The beginning of Joseph’s story and the inciting incident was his betrayal and the division in the family of faith. That division is resolved in the brother’s repentance and the reconciliation that happens as a result. We are reminded of how our sins against one another do not only affect us, but they affect the whole church from the ground up in the same way the brother’s betrayal affects their father. Likewise, their repentance affects him as well. The covenant family is finally together again, united in the covenant love that binds them first to God as his people and as a result to one another.

Jacob and Pharoah both Blessed

The next part of our text shows Joseph planning a trip to Pharaoh with his family to secure a place for them in the land of Goshen. This is an important meeting for them, although it may seem redundant at first glance. Back in chapter 45 Pharaoh had already invited them to come to Egypt and have the best of the land available for them. In fact, Jacob had already come into the land of Goshen, a territory along the outer edge of Egypt. However, in this meeting Joseph has the goal of making sure that the Egyptians will on the one hand welcome them into the land and on the other hand they will allow the Israelites to live a sort of separate existence from the rest of the land.

Remember, the Israelites have no intention of becoming Egyptians, and so even though they will be in Egypt they must not be of Egypt. We saw this a couple of weeks ago when we compared the earlier part of chapter 46 to the list of names given in Exodus 6. These lists are virtually identical and shows that through their 400 years of exile they had kept themselves from mixing with the Egyptians and becoming one nation with them. It is of utmost importance that they keep their national identity because God’s promises were revealed to Israel as a nation and they will be realized through the nation of Israel.

This is something that would be unlikely in most cases. They are not simply immigrating to Egypt, they are going there to temporarily live and grow as an individual nation living within the boarders of Egypt until the time comes for them to leave. This is why a later Pharaoh worried that if they went to war, Israel might join their enemies since they became so numerous as a fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham. If they were immigrating, they would have eventually identified themselves as Egyptians, similar to how an immigrate to Canada will start thinking of themselves as Canadian, or at least their children or grandchildren will. So in going to Pharaoh, their goal is to give a good impression while at the same time make him ok with Israel keeping to themselves.

This is why Joseph has his brothers bring up the fact that they are shepherds. We already saw in this story that Egyptians think of shepherding as a dirty occupation and shepherds as sort of unclean in society. Israel’s family were nomadic herders, specifically shepherds with the herd that Jacob had been blessed with in Haran early in his life.

Jacob is brought before Pharaoh and a mutual blessing brings out more of God’s promises to Abraham in the past. Jacob recounts the years of his life and how short difficult his life has been compared to those of his fathers. Yet we know that God has been faithful even when Jacob was often not. Then in verse 10 Jacob blesses Pharaoh, for just as God said to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you.” As Pharaoh willingly lets them settle in the best of the land, he has blessed them and so has recieved not only the blessing of Jacob but also the blessing of God.

Find Blessing on Earth with Heavenly Company

What we see in this text is the ultimate outcome of Christ-like, Godly love entering the covenant community.

Sacrificial love for Benjamin displayed the kind of love God has for his chosen people and thus wants to see them exhibit this love as his image bearers.

This love lead to a unity that is unbreakable, since it is bound by the very love of God.

This unity brings all the people of God together in the blessings of the covenant even though it means being in a foreign land in a famine-imposed and therefore God-imposed exile.

Their time in Egypt in the Godly unity and love they have adopted together gives them the ability to receive another one of God’s blessings: his willingness to bless all the nations through them. Through the OT we see that this is God’s ultimate purpose for his covenant people; that they would be a Kingdom of priests leading the rest of the world to God.

So although they will remain separate from the Egyptians, they are a blessing to them. So we see that the final end of the restoration of the family of faith is their ability to do what they were created to do: bring the world back to God.

Just like the early Israelites, the church is only able to minister and be a blessing to the world when they are what God made them to be.

Despite sin God will see his name glorified through the church.

However, God will often make that way painful and bring his people to repentance. Through the church’s repentance, God reveals his holy nature to the world.

When those in the church repent, they once again are able to reflect the glory of God in their practice. This brings blessing to them and to the world in which they live. It also removes what was at one time was actively hurting another member of the church so that reconciliation blesses them.

At the end of the day, the church is able to live in the world being a blessing to it while at the same time living as a separate people holy to God alone. While that will draw persecution from the world, it will also draw respect and listening ears. The world is blessed when the church lives among them and yet is not of them, but is holy and devoted to the Lord. The world is also blessed when the church is unified, forgiving, and showing Christ-like love towards one another. Without God’s love and the unity that comes from consistency with that love in Christ, the church is unable to survive faithfully serving God and thus unable to be a blessing to the nations.

Following Christ by Keeping Each other Close

As new creatures, we are being led to a new world in the same way Moses was leading the Israelites to the promised land. But that journey takes us through the world just like God’s process of leading his people into Canaan meant 400 years in Egypt. How are we to survive our time in the world when our own hearts betray us and the citizens of this world entice and pressure us to become one with them? The answer is obviously in Christ, but how in Christ? How does Christ give us this grace to make it through this world? How does he help us give the Gospel to the world while remaining pure in the world? He does it by keeping us close together. A campfire may survive a snow storm, but only if it is built high with flammable wood and the coals are kept together. As soon as your spread that fire out onto the snow, even the hottest coal will fizzle out. A wet log may be thrown onto the fire, but if it is hot it will soon dry up and burn like the rest. This is like the church, which when remaining close together and pumped up with the breath of Spiritual life produce a flame that stands out in a cold world.

Following Christ in the world requires a close walk with each other because:

Christ makes his church his body, and thus to walk closely to him is to walk closely with the church.

Because we are the tools of each others sanctification, filled with the Holy Spirit and yet still struggling with sin.

Because only the church can encourage a Christian the way the need to be encouraged .

Because only the church can correct a Christian the way they need to be corrected.

Because the church gives us a society to belong to apart from the world.

Because Christ loves his church. To be apart from her is to be apart from the love of Christ.

Conclusion

No ministry, worship, service, or endurance in the Christian life can be had without being close together. This is why reconciliation is so important.