In Egypt

B/Millions of years before there is human habitation; then the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, the classical period, middle ages and the modern period.

It seems to me that a lot of people don’t want to think in any depth about any of that stuff because doing so can destroy daily life.

Why worry about all the bother of jobs and mortgages and relationships and raising children if a human life is just a blip on a screen that came from nowhere and is going into oblivion?

Think too deeply about that and you’ll give up altogether.

And sure, there are some people who push hard to work the system to do whatever you think best to fix things.

If you’ve made billions… well, you could buy up an energy company and shut down the coal fired power stations and fix the climate change problem.

Or work out how to work the system in a particular seat so you get elected to a seat in parliament because the mob that are there now haven’t got a clue. Elect me and I’ll fix it for you.

Or just go and make your own happiness in whatever way you think may work for you.

God’s word gives humanity in general and God’s chosen people in particular, a very different perspective on our history and day to day life and our future.

Christians don’t avoid confusion or bad decisions or suffering… but our relationship with the Creator God and Lord of the universe changes our understanding of the past and the future… and so dramatically changes the way we do all the ups and downs of daily life!

And these are the names of the sons of Israel…

As we open up God’s word once again back in the OT, we come to history from 3500 years ago, and we find a story about a family who went to Egypt.

In the Hebrew language the book of Exodus begins with a conjunction that is normally translated as “and” or “together with”.

This ‘and’ is not normally translated into English (who begins a story with ‘and’?), but if they did we would read… And… Ex 1:1 “1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:”

And then we have a list of 12 brothers… so this “and” (with the list of names), takes us back to the previous book, Genesis, the book of beginnings… and the story of a people with a (very doubtful) history…

Go back a page Gen 50:22-26.

This Joseph is the boy who had a famous coat of many colours.

His father was Jacob, Jacobs father was Israel and Israel’s father was Abraham.

Those that take the time to read through the book of Genesis will find that in so many ways this is not an auspicious family.

Indeed, in the family record from Gen 12 to 20 we have wives passed off as sisters, incest, deceit, lies. There has been rape and murder and threats of murder.

And my goodness, think also of the obstacles that have been overcome for those sons of Jacob to arrive in Egypt!

In Gen 12 God promises Abram and Sarai descendants, and land… but Sarah is barren; then remember the attempt to have children through Abraham conceiving a child with Hagar;

then finally when the promised child, Isaac, is born his father comes within an inch of sacrificing him to God…

and then Isaac marries Rebecca who is also barren (Gen 25:21) and finally when Rebekah does give birth she had twins (who started fighting with each other before they were born... and continued fighting each other most of their lives).

Finally Jacob marries Rachel (after being tricked into marrying Rachel’s sister Leah), and then Leah has children… but guess what? Rachel is barren! (Gen 29:31).

Leah is having children right, left and centre, Rachel’s servants are having children (fathered by Jacob…) before finally Rachel has a baby and names him Joseph.

Well, Joseph is just the apple of the eye of his parents.

Rachel has another son they name Benjamin but it is Joseph who’s the favourite son.

But he’s proud and arrogant and he has dreams about his father and brothers bowing down to him… which he unwisely perhaps shares with them.

The other 11 brothers are so incensed with this young upstart that they plan to kill him, but end up throwing him in a well before selling selling Joseph into slavery in Egypt.

Then to cap it all off… the brothers then take Josephs beautiful coat and smear goats blood on it and go home and tell their parents that Josephs been killed by wild animals.

Then there is a severe famine (Gen 41:57) in the whole world so finally Jacob is forced to send his sons to Egypt to get food.

Long story short… there they meet Joseph who, though he was left to rot in prison after a false allegation that he tried to seduce the bosses wife he has risen to be the second in command in a fabulously wealthy Egyptian government!

Finally the brothers go back and get their aged father and their is great rejoicing when they are re-united and the whole family settles in Egypt.

Now all of this happened 3 1/2 to 4 thousand years ago.

Has the world got better or worse over that time?

Sure we’ve got amazing, 4 wheeled steel and plastic air-conditioned boxes that whisk us in comfort and safety from here to Sydney between breakfast and lunch.

We’ve got space satellites and aeroplanes and mobile phones.

But we’ve also got as many relationship problems as any of Abraham’s family.

Marriage failures and affairs and deception and lies and wars and famines and just as much a part of our world as Abraham, Isaac and Jacobs.

Blended families and step families and rapes and murders just as much a part of our world as theirs.

What hope is there. Will Michael Canon-Brooks buying energy company and shutting down the power stations help? Will the teals in parliament help?

Don’t get me wrong!

I’m not saying everything is as bad as it could be, nor am I saying that there is no point trying to make things better. I’m all for doing what we can.

In the providence of God good governance and functioning hospitals and armies and international peace treaties are a million times better than bad decisions and corruption and unmitigated wars.

But the best millionaires and entrepreneurs and politicians and laws won’t (and haven’t) fixed fundamental human problems over thousands of years of human history.

But in the Bible… including in Genesis and Exodus we find joy and hope and courage because there we find… well several things!

Exodus within the Drama of Scripture

(7 Part drama diagram)

Chris Wright in his commentary on Exodus asks us to insert ourselves into the big picture of the story of the Bible.

Instead of thinking big bang to us to oblivion… the Bible gives us a different timeline.

Gen 1 and 2 we have the triangle on the left. Creation. God, man and creation...Everything good and in perfect harmony.

The X is Gen 3. Rebellion and mistrust of God’s good word leading to catastrophe and confusion that will define the creation.

The first arrow begins at Gen 12. God’s call to Abraham and God’s work in Abraham’s life and in the lives of his offspring Isaac and Jacob.

(That’s the story we’ve just been considering…)????

So the book of Exodus comes in very early in this third act of the Bible story. It includes the rest of the OT.

At the very centre of the Bible story is the story of Jesus, the God-Man, born of a woman and dying to pay the price for the sin of his people and rising again on the third day.

The giving of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts is the beginning of the NT mission.

Mt 28:18-20 “18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””

We don’t know where we sit on that arrow. Perhaps we can safely say on the pointy end somewhere.

The next act in the drama/storyline of the Bible is the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead and everything put right.

Those that refused God’s offer of peace and forgiveness and relationship through the gospel find their decision is irrevocable. They didn’t want a bar of God in life; God will not be part of their existence in the afterlife.

Then in Revelation 21 and 22 we have not a return to Gen 1 and 2 but rather a fulfilment. God and mankind together forever on a glorified heaven on earth where once again everything is good, good, good and very good. Everything is in harmony and balance and productive forever.

The point of all this is to say that Exodus 1:1 “1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:” points us back to that world of chaos that began with human rebellion.

The family that settled in Egypt all those years ago was in a different act of the Bible drama to us, but it was between the rebellion that bought the chaos and the day of Judgement that will end it.

In the meantime, like the world of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons and descendants 70 people in all, their history is, like ours, littered with chaos and mayhem and deceit and sadness…

This family was in covenant relationship with the God of the universe!

BUT… this is not primarily about them… nor is it primarily about us.

This is about the God who works through the mayhem and chaos that comes from the poor, self-centred decisions made by all of rebellious humanity, including us, but in his great mercy and patience, and wisdom and grace works all things for the good of those who love him.

Look back with me to Gen 50:19-20. Joseph’s brothers have just worked out and confessed the evil they did in selling their brother into slavery and deceiving their father to think he’d been eaten by wild animals and they fulfil the dream Joseph had decades before as they bow down before Joseph and offer to be his slaves.

Genesis 50:19–20 NIV84

19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Friends that is the wisdom and power and mercy of our God!

Joseph’s brothers made a stupid decision that caused great grief to their old parents… but in the providence of God it was used to continue the Bible story of God redeeming sinful, rebellious humanity.

But Joseph also points us forward to the work and power and wisdom of God.

Genesis 50:24–25 NIV84

24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

Joseph knows he will die in Egypt, but God has a land of promise to which he is taking his people. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. And it’s not in Egypt.

Look at Ex 1:6 “6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,”

That’s a warning sign. Watch out! The change of generations is a dangerous time. Think about the wisdom and experience gained through Gen 12 to 50. But now they are in Egypt and the danger is that that wisdom and experience might die with Joseph and his brothers.

It gets worse… in that it looks so much better.

Look at Ex 1:7

Exodus 1:7 NIV84

7 but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

You can’t get more superlative than that.

Christ Wright says it literally says, the sons of Israel they were fruitful, they swarmed like insects, they multiplied, they became strong, very much, very much and the land was filled with them.

Wow! This is what creation is supposed to do!

This has all the hallmark of the involvement of that God who worked his wonders throughout the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

This God is doing a new work.

This is God keeping his promise to Abraham to make him into a great nation.

In Gen 12 God promised middle aged barren couple Abram and Sarai that if they followed him he would make them into a great nation. They spent another 25 barren years before the child of promise was born… then he almost died by sacrifice… but God provided a substitute.

Now in Egypt Abraham’s descendants are swarming all over the land… the land is filled with them.

Not only is this family in relationship with God but in the midst of the chaos that is their day to day life, almost despite it all, God has worked in the lives of Abraham’s descendants so that the barren couple, followed by two more barren wives… have become an exceedingly numerous nation of people swarming over the land of Egypt.

Is this good or bad. Have they settled down too much. Will they simply be absorbed into the Egyptians? Will God’s people disappear forever?

Is human chaos permanent… at least until they wipe themselves off the face of the earth with a disease or a nuclear conflagration?

No ! Joseph saw it in his day. God is coming to rescue his people and take them to the land of promise!

How will Abraham’s faith and Joseph’s conviction that the future of God’s people is not in Egypt come to fruition?

Life Confidence from finding our place in the Mission, power and goodness of God

Life is tough, chaotic, messy, rewarding, painful… but we too, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, have a wonderful, powerful, gracious and merciful God of the universe at work in our lives.