Saturday, January 30, 2016

"God is my home"

Genesis 46
1 So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.  2 And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here I am."  3 Then he said, "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.  4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes."  

As I was reading my devotions today from Genesis 46, I went to the comments section. There someone had summarized Israel's leaving his homeland to go to a foreign country and live, Egypt, with the words "God is my home."  How perfect!

Joseph was sold into slavery and eventually rose to be governor of the nation he was sold to. Israel thought he had lost his son, only to find out he had been thriving and worshipping his God in Egypt. Then Joseph saves them from the famine by moving them to Egypt which had abundant grain because of Pharoah's dreams which Joseph interpreted by God's wisdom and will.  All this happened, a family is truly and horribly fractured, and yet, this same family is put back together. The memories of these tragic things must have been painful at times afterwards, but everyone was reunited and allowed to work things out.

There is only one problem with that paragraph above. I didn't give much credit to God. However, if you look carefully, you can see God's hand woven through it all. He protected Joseph in Egypt. He sent Joseph to Egypt preparation of the famine. He helped Joseph keep the correct  perspective that he was being used by God for God's will. He helped Israel at the end of his not so stellar life (cheating people, manipulating, etc.) to have his family back together. God reminded Israel in the verses above that He had a plan and He would carry it out...in His time.

He also gave us a clear picture that whatever we are doing, God has a plan for us. Wherever we are, God is taking care of us. Wherever we are, God is our home.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments. I will review then in a few days! I hope you see God's blessings for you this week!