Tender Love
Opening Prayer
Father God, help me to know You better through Your Word this day, and to love You more deeply.
Read Genesis 46:1–7,28–34
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
2 And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
3 “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 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.”
5 Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. 6 So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. 7 Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring.
Genesis 46:28-34New International Version (NIV)
28 Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, 29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.
30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”
31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32 The men are shepherds; they tend livestock, and they have brought along their flocks and herds and everything they own.’ 33 When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What are some of the promises God has made to you for your life? Can you trust him to carry them out?The prospect of seeing Joseph revives Jacob from what appears to have been a tragic 22-year- long torpor of self-pity. Still, how can he leave the land that the Lord told him would be his and his children’s (28:13,14)? How can he go to Egypt when his father had been
forbidden to do so (26:2)? God’s response to Jacob’s worship is to speak to him, as in the past, in a dream. He confirms his promise to make a great nation of him. He promises to be with Jacob in Egypt and assures him that he will return to Canaan (4).
God also promises that it will be Joseph who closes his eyes when he dies. What comfort that must been! God understood the old man’s heart, that it still beat with love for Rachel and Joseph and Benjamin. Yes, this love had generated a corrosive favoritism, but it was love indeed.
Apply
Pause to think about the ways God has blessed you in your life. Take a little time to offer him your gratitude and worship.
Closing prayer
How tender You are, Lord! How You delight to grant the desires of our heart when we find our delight in You (Psa. 37:3,4)!
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