07-21-19 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Pastor Timothy Patoka

Joy For Our Journeys #3 July 21, 2019 The Journey From Canaan To Egypt Genesis 46:1-7, 26-27 1) God Promises To Provide 2) We Journey Worry Free

People wisely ask for advice before they make a big decision. When you buy a car, you might bring a friend along so you can bounce ideas off them or make sure the salesperson isn’t pulling your leg. When deciding which school or job offer is the best, you’ll probably seek out other people’s opinion because what you decide will have a large impact on the next few years of your life.

This morning our attention is on Jacob who was at a pivotal moment in his life. He was about to leave the Promised Land and go to Egypt. Jacob knew that it was a big deal for him to leave the land that God promised was going to be his. Yet his worries were done away with when God spoke to him in a vision at night. God assured Jacob that he had nothing to be afraid of on his journey from Canaan to Egypt. For God promises to provide for his children. And as a result, we can journey worry free.

1) God Promises To Provide If you were with us last week, you heard about Abraham’s journey to the Promised Land and learned about the blessings which God promised to him.

Blessings like an honorable reputation, a large number of descendants, and how all peoples on earth would be blessed by his family line through Jesus Christ. Jacob was Abraham’s grandson and was also a recipient of these same promises.

However, things had not been all that rosy in the Promised Land since Abraham’s time. Jacob had not seen his son Joseph for decades due to Joseph’s conspiring brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt. But nevertheless God blessed Joseph and had him rise to power in Egypt as Pharaoh’s right hand man to store away tons of food. That extra food would now come in handy as there was now a severe famine ravaging the land, including up north in Canaan. After a series of heart-warming events, Joseph was reconciled with his brothers and showed it by inviting his long-lost family to leave hungry Canaan and live in wellstocked Egypt. Jacob knew that to stay in Canaan meant that his family would go hungry and some would likely die from starvation. Taking Joseph up on his offer and moving to Egypt was the only logical way to proceed.

1

Pastor Timothy Patoka

Joy For Our Journeys #3 July 21, 2019 But it wasn’t so easy for Jacob to just up and leave Canaan through the border town of Beersheba. Because to leave the Promised Land without God’s permission could easily be seen that Jacob no longer trusted in God to hold true to the promises he first gave to Abraham. Canaan was the Promised Land, not Egypt.

It’s in Canaan that God promised to bless Abraham’s descendants, not in Egypt.

Yet God did not let Jacob remain in doubt for long. That night in Beersheba, God spoke to Jacob in a vision to give him permission to leave Canaan and to assure him with promises that would accompany him on the journey to and from Egypt. As God said to Jacob, “Jacob! Jacob!....I am God, the God of your father…Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.” (Genesis 46:2-4) God identifies himself as the same God who gave Abraham his wonderful promises from last week. What was promised to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac was here renewed to Jacob even though he was going to Egypt. God can do that because he has all power. He is not a regional deity whose power stops at a country’s border like many heathens believed was the case. Whether it’s in the land of Canaan or Egypt or anywhere else, God has the power to provide and protect all 70 people in Jacob’s family.

And he’s not going to forget or abandon his people while in Egypt. He was going to bring them back in force to this Promised Land as we’ll hear about in next week’s sermon. But perhaps most comforting of all to Jacob’s ears was the last promise. He was going to be reunited with his long-lost son Joseph and be with him on his deathbed. When Jacob woke up the next morning, he knew that he could journey from Beersheba to Egypt in God’s good graces.

It’s not only in Beersheba where God makes such lavish promises to his children. As we read in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6, Jesus promises us that God will take care of all our daily needs. Listen to what he says. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?....Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew

2

Pastor Timothy Patoka

Joy For Our Journeys #3 July 21, 2019 6:25-26, 32-33) We need not worry about what we will eat, drink, or wear. For God will provide these bare necessities for us.

Yet how often it is that we still worry about these things. Sometimes it’s because we think that God can’t provide for us because he’s taken on more than he planned. There are many more mouths around the world to feed now than there was when Jesus spoke these words from Matthew chapter 6. And on top of that, we’ve somewhat made it harder for God to provide for us because of technologies and techniques that are not good for the environment’s long-term. Sometimes we sinfully worry because we think that God won’t provide for us. Don’t we sometimes think that we are just one of many numbers before God? Don’t we sometimes wonder if God’s forgotten about us or shifted his attention to others who appear to be more deserving? I mean, it’s not like we have God speaking to people in visions at night anymore to assure us he’s still providing for us.

2) We Journey Worry Free Yet even when we worry if God has left us hanging, that is never the case.

There’s never a reason to worry if God about these things. That’s because God will provide for us just as he promised in Matthew chapter 6 and he illustrated with Jacob in the pages of Genesis. And our confidence for this comes from who God is. Whether it’s a believer or an unbeliever, a bird of the air or a lily of the field, God promises to provide life’s bare necessities of food, water, and shelter because he loves his creation. It’s because of that same love that he sent his Son Jesus to Earth, to suffer our punishment for sin and to be our Savior. Our God takes care for us as loving father takes care of his children.

And we can be sure that our Father in heaven will follow through on his love because of his power. The Apostle Paul makes it clear to us how this has always been the case. As he said in our Second Lesson, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth….[who] gives all people life and breath and everything they have. From one man, he made every nation of mankind to live over the entire face of the earth. He determined the appointed times and the boundaries where they would live….’For in him we live and move and have our being.’” (Acts 17:24-26, 28) All that we have and see and are is from God. And many times the way that our God provides our needs of food, water, and shelter is through normal and natural means. He sends the rains and sunshine at the right times to raise up food all over our world. He gives us the ability to work and earn a paycheck so we can 3

Pastor Timothy Patoka

Joy For Our Journeys #3 July 21, 2019 go the grocery store, pay the utility bill, and score that great deal on the suit you wear every Sunday morning. Or maybe that’s just me there. He gives us his representatives in the government and home to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. These natural means are not all that glamorous. Yet they are living proof that God still does provide for our needs just as he promised us thousands of years ago.

It’s because of God’s loving power to provide that his children can journey worry free. Jacob and his family did that when they went to Egypt. All 66 of his direct descendants, his sons’ wives, their livestock, and their possessions left Canaan and went into Egypt. They didn’t hedge their bets and leave some behind in Canaan just in case things didn’t work out. No, they journeyed worry free because they trusted in God’s promise to provide.

As Jacob journeyed to Egypt worry free, so can we journey to our heavenly home worry free. Our God has taken our sins away. He has promised to provide us with life’s bare necessities. And we know that he will do that because of who he is.

God is able to provide because he has all power. God is willing to provide because of his love for all he has created. God is dependable to provide because he will never forget or abandon us. May we remember this and take it to heart so that as we journey to our heavenly home, we may journey worry free. Amen.

4