Jewish tradition speaks of the importance of a shepherd’s staff, and we also have biblical truth to support that tradition. It was the rod and the staff of God that David made mention of in Psalm 23. And we can remember in Genesis 38 that when Tamar asked for a pledge from Judah, his staff was one of her requests, and in Numbers 17:8, God used the budded rod of Aaron to show the sons of Israel that Aaron was his chosen high priest.

 

A shepherd’s staff was as good as DNA, as good as a social security number or driver’s license in our day. Tradition says that the shepherd’s staff held carvings that identified its owner. In this time in history, there were no stores filled with notebook paper for journaling, no computers on which to blog; the shepherd’s carved staff told the stories of his life.

 

Tradition also speaks of the passing down of the staff of the father to the son, a sign to show transfer of the head of the family. Hebrews 11:21 says, “By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped leaning on his staff,” most likely the very same staff that he held in his hand in Genesis 32:10 when he cried, “For with my staff only I crossed this Jordan and now I have become two companies;” quite possibly the very same staff that once belonged to Isaac and once belonged to Abraham.

 

NowJacob,Israel, is about to breathe his last. He has blessed the sons of Joseph and claimed them as his own sons, and now he calls in the other eleven. Traditionally, the firstborn son would become head of the family after the passing of the father, but sometimes that privilege is lost.

 

Jacob blesses Reuben, but Reuben will not receive the ruler’s staff, for in Genesis 35:22, we learned that Reuben greatly dishonored his father by defiling his father’s bed by going into Bilhah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob now refers to God as his shepherd, the shepherd that has guided and protected him his whole life. David also referred to God as his shepherd: “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). In John 10:11 Jesus Christ says, “I am the good shepherd.” He is the shepherd that lays down His life for His sheep.

 

Jacob learned through his lifetime that God was with him. He learned that God was sovereign. He learned that God was the door and God was the gate, and no one and nothing could pass through that gate without God Almighty’s permission. Jacob realized that God had always been there leading him, guiding him, protecting him, even when Jacob was not seeking Him.

 

I can look back on my life and see so many places where God sovereignly watched over me. I see how “in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25–26).

 

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and sin has had every right to claim its wage in my life. Yet God protected me. God, in His patience, in His love, gave me time. Now God, by faith in Christ, is my justifier.

 

Now I look back and see all that He has done for me, even when I gave Him no glory. Now I give Him all the glory, for now my eyes see.

 

Jacob now saw and knew that it was God who made him lie down in green pastures, and it was God who led him beside still waters. He learned that when he had fallen, it was God who picked him up and restored his soul. It was God who guided him in paths of righteousness, for he knew not the way on his own.

 

Jesus said in John 10:27–28, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our journey through Genesis is drawing to a close. Jacob is on his deathbed. As he speaks with Joseph, he reminds him of the promise given by God to Abraham; the promise that includes the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and through Jacob.

 

This promise, this covenant, was and is an everlasting covenant. Jacob refers to God as God Almighty, El Shaddai, and he reminds Joseph that God is going to make their family a company of peoples and that the land promised them is in thelandofCanaan. God let Jacob know that it would not be in his lifetime that the land would be in their possession, but in the lifetime of his descendants.

 

We know from history and from this present day thatIsraelhas yet to fully possess her land, but we know that God’s Word is sure. He always keeps His word. One day El Shaddai will fulfill His word.

 

 

I must admit that I eagerly anticipate that day, the day when Israelwill occupy her land, the day when Jesus will reign as Lord of lords and King of kings. I long for the day when all the world will see that when God says forever, He means forever. I long for the day when the world will see that it is God who places the boundaries of the nations (Job 12:23). One day Jesus Christ will ride in on the clouds, clothed in all His brilliant majesty, and every eye will see and all will know that God is indeed El Shaddai.

 

 

 

 

 

Pharaoh, the ruler ofEgypt, the man who wisely put Joseph under him, the man who now has the world in debt to him because he is the possessor of the world’s food supply, comes in to meet the Hebrew father of Joseph.

 

Joseph’s father, Jacob, is a shepherd and the head of a family of seventy-five. Joseph presents his father before Pharaoh, and it is not Pharaoh who blesses Jacob, but it is Jacob who blesses Pharaoh. Hebrews 7:7 says, “But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.”

 

What made Jacob greater than Pharaoh, the ruler ofEgypt? It was not his money, his fame, or his social status. It was his God. I can only imagine the conversations that must have gone on between Joseph and Pharaoh as they discussed the kingdom business ofEgypt.

 

Egyptserved many gods, and they were a “religious” people. I am sure that Pharaoh must have sought to know more about the God that revealed his dream to Joseph; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I can imagine Joseph walking with Pharaoh and sharing his God with him through the stories that had been passed down from father to son. So when Jacob, Israel, the man who had seen God face-to-face (Genesis 32:30), came before Pharaoh, a blessing was welcome from him becauseIsrael intimately knew God.

 

This intimate knowledge and relationship with the God of gods, the Creator of all things, was what made Jacob greater than Pharaoh. It’s said that it is not what you know; it’s who you know. All the whats in this world will someday pass away, but the Who will remain forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The years of my life are far from attaining the years of Jacob, and sadly, I too can say, “Few and unpleasant have been the years of my life.” I can sympathize with Jacob. He looked back on his life, and he saw the pain of his wrong choices, and I too can see the pain of my wrong choices—choices made before I knew Christ, choices made without consulting Christ when I did know him.

 

These choices have reaped consequences and continue to reap consequences. These choices have given the enemy of my soul words of condemnation to whisper in my ears. These words he is not afraid to use to try to bring me into a place of depression and doubt.

 

There is one choice that I have made that trumps all other choices—my choice to surrender to Jesus Christ. Having made this choice, I now rejoice in forgiveness, and when I get caught looking back at past mistakes, I remember the promises of my God. I remember Philippians 3:13–14: “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

 

 

 

Jacob wrestled with the man in the place he called Peniel, and he held on for dear life, knowing that he could not go on without a blessing. I too hang on to Jesus Christ for dear life, knowing that I could not go on if he were not with me. He is my “friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverb 18:24).

 

This stay on earth may not be the most pleasurable, but that is all right because praise be to our God that this is not home, “for our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Romans 8:18 declares, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Genesis 12:1–2, God called Jacob’s grandfather Abram out of the Ur of Chaldeans, and He told him to go to a land that He would show him. God told Abram that there He would make him into a great nation.

 

In Genesis 26:2, God appeared to Jacob’s father, Isaac, and told him not to go down toEgypt.

 

Now here, in Genesis 46 Jacob has been sent word to not just visitEgypt, but to pack up and move there. Jacob hesitates to make this move, with good reason.

 

God knows our hearts. He knew the dilemma that Jacob was struggling with within himself: to stay in the land that he knew God had promised his family and their descendants, or to move to a land that his father had been commanded not to go to.

 

 

God knew the struggle going on within Jacob, and so God came to him. “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). We cannot put God in a box. Abraham and Isaac were not to go toEgypt because it was not time. However, with Jacob, now it was time.

 

It was time for the word of God to be fulfilled: “God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years’” (Genesis 15:13).

 

God may call us to live in one place, to take one job, to teach one class, and then after a time, He might call us again. We have to remain open to the voice of God and remain in daily communication with Him.

 

He has a purpose and a plan for our lives. Acts 17:26 tells us that God has determined our appointed time and the boundaries of our habitation. In Psalm 32:8 God tells us, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.”

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Magdalene leaves the feet of the risen Christ and runs to share the glorious news to the disciples, and “when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it” (Mark 16:11).

 

How many refuse to believe, but refusing the truth does not make it any less true. Jesus has risen. He lives to make intercession on behalf of those who believe and receive him as Savior. He is our eternal high priest (Hebrews 7:23–25).

 

When Jacob heard that Joseph was alive, he did not believe. He was stunned, just as the disciples were stunned by the news of Jesus Christ. Their disbelief did not come from a stubborn and unrepentant heart, but of stunned reaction that such wonderful news could really be accurate. Their unbelief quickly became belief, and in this, they rejoiced and rushed to be reconciled to the One whom once was dead but now was alive.

 

Joseph was alive, and he was ruler over all of Egyptand the surrounding lands because God had given him the ability to give life. In John 5:21 Jesus says, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.” Joseph had limited power to give and sustain life to those who would come and seek his grain. He is just a small picture of the reality of Jesus Christ. Jesus has all power and all authority; the life He offers is eternal. There are no limits to the power of Jesus Christ.

 

When Jacob heard the words that Joseph had sent through his brothers, and when he saw the wagons filled with the gifts from Joseph, Jacob believed. There was one disciple that held on to his unbelief a little longer than the rest, and Jesus said to him, “Reach here with your fingers, and see My hands; and reach here with your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” He then said, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” ( John 20:27, 29).

 

Jacob didn’t have to physically see Joseph to believe he lived; he responded to Joseph’s sent word and the evidence that his word was true. We have not physically seen the risen Lord Jesus, but we respond to His sent Word (John 17:20, Romans 10:14) and the evidence (James 2:18) that His Word is true. Blessed are those who believe yet do not see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The life of Joseph is the perfect commentary for Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

 

The heart of Joseph amazes me. He looked back on his life, and even looking on the actions of his brothers, he did not look back in hatred or bitterness, but with peace and confidence in the sovereignty of God.

 

Joseph’s heart was so much like the heart of Christ.

 

Jesus came to earth to be loved by some, hated by others, betrayed by His brethren, convicted of a crime He did not commit, hung on a cross to die, yet raised from the dead because death could not hold the sinless Jesus Christ.

 

David wrote in Psalm 37:25, “I have not seen the righteous forsaken.” Joseph believed God, and that belief was accredited to him as righteousness, just as it was his father, Abraham. God never did forsake Joseph. However, it was Jesus who cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.”

 

Oh precious one, He was forsaken so that those who trust in Him would never be forsaken. Let this truth resonate in your heart and in your mind. Let it sink into the depths of your soul. Our Creator God is holy. Sin will not be in His presence, and He will not look upon it.

 

When our sin was laid upon Jesus, in His holiness, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit had to turn their faces away from God the Son. Of all that Jesus experienced as the Word made flesh, this had to be the most painful moment. Yet, even in this, the risen Lord does not look at us with contempt because He was betrayed, mocked, forsaken, and slain. He looks at us with eyes filled with love that we cannot even begin to imagine or understand and says it had to be done this way so that we might live.

 

Joseph was sent to preserve life, and through his life we get a picture of the coming Christ; our Jesus, who would come not just to preserve earthly life, but to give eternal life. In John 11:25, Jesus is speaking to Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus and He says to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” Death could not hold Jesus Christ, and it cannot hold those who have trusted in Him.

 

The pain from hurts and betrayals by others did not control the heart of Christ, and they did not control the heart of Joseph. We have a choice to make in this life. We can choose to see all our hurts and pains as God against us, or we can choose to see that our hurts and pains are just this life and it is God that works in us to make even these glorious.

What will be your choice?

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many times have we thought we have “gotten away” with sin?

 

Judah and his brothers fall before Joseph and beg for the life of Benjamin.Judahproclaims that God has found out their iniquity. The guilt over what they had done to Joseph and what they had done to their father had never left them. They know now beyond the shadow of a doubt that God knows about their sin.

 

We may be successful in hiding our sin from others, but we cannot hide it from God. Numbers 32:23 says “And be sure your sin will find you out.” In Matthew 9:4 we learn that Jesus knows our thoughts, and in John 2:25 we learn that He knows what is inside of us. Nothing is hidden from the sight of our all-knowing God.

 

We cannot hide even what we think we have done in secret, for “God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16). Sin will be dealt with; it will be judged. Sin cannot hide in the dark forever because the light will shine into all darkness and one day expose what it is trying to hide (John 3:20). In Psalm 51:3, David cried out, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”

 

Oh yes, God will find out the iniquity of all. He sees it before Him. He has every right to bring immediate judgment, but instead He offers opportunity to confess and be cleansed. “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust” (Psalm 103:14). He knows our sin, and yet He loves us. He loves us so much that He makes the way for us to confess. He makes the way for us to be cleansed. He makes the way for us to be reunited into fellowship with Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

 

 

 

 

 

The brothers return toEgyptwith Benjamin and with gifts ready to present to the one who was ruler over the land, Joseph. When the brothers came before Joseph the first time, they bowed before him, and Joseph remembered his dream—the dream of the sheaves and the dream of the sun, moon, and stars bowing down before him.

 

God does not place dreams in our hearts and in our minds that He does not plan to bring to fruition. He will accomplish what He begins in us, not in our time and not in our ways, but accomplish it He will.

 

When Joseph lifted his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, he was overcome and he left to find a place to weep. Real men love with all their hearts. Joseph wept and Jesus wept (John 11:35, Hebrews 5:7). Their tears were not for show, not to win pity, not to get their way, but for love. Their tears were for the glory of God and for His faithfulness.

 

We are allowed the privilege of seeing right into the heart of Joseph through the Word of God. Through the recorded life of Joseph, we are able to see right into the heart of Jesus, and from the heart of Jesus, right into the heart of God. The Word of God is the heart of God lay bare and open before us. We see His love for us. We see His faithfulness toward us. We also see His strength and His righteousness and His patience. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

 

Joseph dries his tears, washes his face, and returns to his brothers in complete control of his emotions, “for the love of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). Only by the power and grace of God has Joseph been able to control himself at this point, for if we walk by the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).

 

It has been close to twenty years since Joseph has seen his little brother, but God has not allowed Joseph to reveal himself as of yet, and so Joseph waits, for now is not the time. It is easy for us to allow emotions to control us. We must not forget that our hearts can still deceive us, but we know that “God is greater than our heart” (1 John 3:20). Joseph’s heart was overwhelmed with emotion, and he knew he needed to leave the situation before he acted on these emotions instead of the will of God.