Daily Devotions
Genesis
"Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever." Psalm 145:2
Text: Genesis 46:1-34
LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL
How grateful Jacob must have been as he made his way to Egypt! The Lord had not forsaken him, though he had not been as faithful as he should have been. He dwelt on the significance of God’s words to him, as he took everyone and everything he possessed to Egypt! Would God make a nation out of his family? That would be another miracle indeed!
“Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel
carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives,
in the carts which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. So they took
their livestock and their goods, which they had acquired
in the land of Canaan, and went to Egypt, Jacob and all
his descendants with him. His sons, and his sons’ sons,
his daughters and his sons’ daughters, and all his descendants
he brought with him to Egypt.”
GENESIS 46:5-7
RECALLING A SPECIAL PROMISE GOD MADE TO ABRAHAM
In a special vision God gave to Abraham, a picture of the sojourn in Egypt was given.
“Then He said to Abram, ‘Know certainly that your descendants
will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them,
and they will afflict them four hundred years…'”
GENESIS 15:13
Whether Jacob fully knew or comprehended this word to Abram was immaterial. God was fulfilling His own word. He would see to it that a great nation would arise from the motley group of people who went down to Egypt with Jacob that day!
FAMILY LOGISTICS
A careful headcount of all the people who went down to Egypt was recorded. Each and every son of Israel had a family (Genesis 46:8-24).
“All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt,
who came from his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives,
were sixty-six persons in all. And the sons of Joseph who
were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons
of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy.”
GENESIS 46:26-27
A word of explanation may be necessary to explain a seeming discrepancy between two numbers that were given.
“Sixty-six Persons” (Genesis 46:26) This figure is arrived at when we exclude the two sons of Judah who died, and the two sons of Joseph born in Egypt.
“Seventy” (Genesis 46:27) This figure is an “all-inclusive” one!