Genesis
Genesis 45:16-46:27
Joseph had been through a roller coaster of a life with extreme highs and lows, but here at the end, God had finally brought him to this incredible position of power and influence, which, in God’s providential sovereignty, allowed him to save his family from death in the famine. Joseph had told his brothers that God had orchestrated all of this “to preserve for you a remnant on earth, to keep alive for you many survivors” (45:7). So even though the human reason that Joseph ended up in Egypt was because his brothers sold him into slavery, Joseph told them, “It was not you who sent me here, but God” (45:8).
So Joseph sent for his family to come to Egypt, where they would not only be saved from the famine, but they would live in abundance – “the best of the land of Egypt” (Genesis 45:18). When Jacob started the journey to Egypt, he offered sacrifices to the Lord and the Lord appeared to him in a vision. God reminded Jacob that He was the God of his fathers, and He renewed the promise He had made to Abraham that he would make of their family a great nation (Genesis 12:2). So at this point in the story, the Bible lists and counts all of Jacob’s direct descendants, not including spouses (Genesis 46:26-27). When we see lists and genealogies like this, most of us tend to kind of skip over them, but they are always, always there for a reason.
The Bible is showing us that our God is a God who keeps His promises.
When God first appeared to Abraham and promised to make him a great nation, he was already seventy-five, way too old to start a family (Genesis 12:1-4). Yet Abraham believed God could do the impossible (Genesis 15:6; Hebrews 11:11-12; Romans 4:18-25). Here we are, just two generations later and Abraham’s grandson Jacob already has seventy descendants (Genesis 46:26-27). While they were in Egypt, they would be “exceedingly fruitful” and “multiply greatly.” They would become so numerous that the new Pharaoh would become scared of them (Exodus 1:1-10). By the time they left Egypt, 430 years later, there would be 600,000 men, not including women and children (Exodus 12:37). God surely fulfilled his promise to make Abraham a great nation.
All of God’s covenant promises to Abraham have three levels of fulfillment – an Old Testament fulfillment in the kingdom of Israel, a New Testament fulfillment in Christ, and a future fulfillment in the final, consummated kingdom of God in the Age to Come. For this one, God promised to make Abraham a great nation, with so many descendants he couldn’t even count them (Genesis 15:5).
· The Old Testament fulfillment of this promise was the nation of Israel – the over 600,000 people who fled Egypt, who would grow to millions by the time of David (2 Samuel 24:9).
· The New Testament fulfillment of this promise in Christ was the Gospel creating a new “great nation” of “Abraham’s children” – all of those from every nation, tribe, and tongue, both Jews and Gentiles, who believe in Christ the way that Abraham believed in God’s promises to Him (Galatians 3:1-9).
· The future fulfillment of the consummated kingdom of God is where we see the promise fully realized – “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” in worship and praise (Revelation 7:9-10; 19:1-8)
This is the final goal of God’s covenant promises – this perfect kingdom of God in heaven, where there is no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering, and where God’s people live fully and completely in the glory of His presence – a great multitude that no one could ever count.
The grand big-picture story of the Bible is leading us there. This counting of Jacob’s descendants is just showing us the early seeds of that future kingdom.
God orchestrated bringing Joseph to Egypt so he could save the world from a famine, and particularly save this remnant of Abraham’s family. So that through their family line would come Jesus, who would die so that anyone who believed in Him would become “children of Abraham” and heirs to the promises (John 3:16; Galatians 3:7; Romans 4:13-25). So that all those who believe from all over the world could be saved. Not just from a famine, but from sin and death forever.
This “boring genealogy” passage shows us that God had already begun to fulfill His promises to Abraham. But there is so much more yet to come.
This is the Bible. Every word on every page whispers the name Jesus.