May 3 Worship: Genesis 45:16-46:34

Good morning Three Rivers Church and Friends. What a joy it is to be part of this fellowship. I’m so proud to watch you love each other through staying connected and serving one another, serving your city, and your world well.

Don’t forget our church wide webinar this Wednesday May 6 at 6:30 PM. We will be discussing our timeline, based on current standing. Here is a copy of what we’ll discuss Return to Gathering Webinar

Here are your sermon notes for RK: RK: Sermon Notes for Kids

Here is our “Box in the Back” for giving Give to TRC

Below is the sermon on our passage and our response of worship. Gather with your family or your small group of 10 and under, watch the sermon and worship the Lord and enjoy your Sunday. 

If you’d like to share how you have turned to Jesus, please send me an email at mitch@threeriversc.org and I’d like to share with you some steps to follow up. 

Grace to you and peace!

NOTES:

Genesis 45:16-46:34 Yhwh keeps his word in preserving his people

Genesis 15:13-21 – God tells Abram what he is going to do. 

• Our passage is part of the great fulfillment of God’s promise to Abe. 
• 45:16-46:34 reminds us that Yhwh keeps his word!

 

3 Key questions in studying God’s word:

What does our passage say?

 

Moses then gives us a genealogy of the family. DON’T SKIP THE GENEALOGY!

 

• ASK: HOW DOES IT FIT WITHIN THE AUTHOR’S NARRATIVE INTENTIONS?

• HOW DOES IT FULFILL GOD’S PROMISES? HOW DOES IT POINT TO FULFILLING GOD’S PROMISES?

• WHAT ARE THE SHADOWS OF GRACE?

 

 

Jacob arrives in Egypt, and Jacob sends Judah ahead to prepare for his arrival and restoration to Joseph. Hmmm (Gospel tributary – Judah as a mediator and preparer for the coming father, the family and restoration).

 

• There will be one from the tribe of Judah who will be sent ahead to prepare for the coming of God’s kingdom and to prepare for the restoration to his people. 

• WE COULD TRUTHFULLY STOP HERE AND JUST THINK ON THE NUANCE OF HOW GOD WOVE THE GOSPEL INTO HISTORY AND BE MOVED TO FERVENT WORSHIP. 

 

 

What does our passage teach us about God and man?

1. God has kept his word!

1. Genesis 15:13-21

 

1. 46:8-27 Everyone and everything will make it to Egypt and will come back out to this promised land.  

 

1. There is a preciousness and a difficulty to this providence. 
   1. Precious in that God keeps his word. 
   2. Difficult in that God’s plan will involve suffering so that many may be saved. 
      1. Difficulty is promised in Genesis 3:15 “bruise his heel”. 
      2. The way of crushing the curse is going to involve difficulty.
         1. SALVATION WILL HAVE A COST…BUT GOD HIMSELF WILL PAY PROVIDE THAT COST. 
         2. HE PAYS IT FOR US AND WE GET TO WALK WITH HIM THROUGH THE TRIAL. HE PAYS FOR IT AND PAVES THE WAY THROUGH IT. 
         3. WE GET TO FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM IN HARDSHIP.
         4. THIS TRUTH REDEEMS DIFFICULTY FOR GOOD FOR GOD’S PEOPLE. 

 

2. God’s work of reconciliation is good news, and it travels fast. 45:16

 

1. There is a supernatural speed to the good news of God’s work, and God sees to it that it speeds along. 

1. Nothing in Moses’ recounting for his people is accidental. 

1. It reminds Israel of God’s saving power toward them.

1. It reminds us of God’s saving power toward us. 

 

 

3. Pharaoh gives the best of the land to live in and eat from. 45:18-20

1. There are some echoes of Eden with the hope of a promise that the goodness of Eden would be restored. 

1. 1. 1. Egypt
      2. Canaan
      3. All nations

 

4. Jacob and his family are brought into the land by no provision of their own. It was all of God (Gospel Tributary).

 

5. Jacob operates in faith by leaving the promised land and taking everything and everyone in hope that God will keep his word. 46:5-7

 

6. God is merciful and gracious. 

1. In answer to his prayer in 43:14, Yhwh has shown Jacob mercy and grace.
   1. (ESV) May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin.

 

1. Yhwh showed mercy through Joseph by causing Joseph to be merciful to his brothers. 

 

1. Yhwh showed grace/generosity/kindness by giving Jacob more than MERCY. HE SHOWS GRACE IN giving his son back. 

 

7. Jacob responds to God’s kindness IN/BY/THROUGH worship. 

 

8. God reveals himself as near, PERSONAL and on mission. 

1. God is personal. 
   1. God goes with Jacob and his family AND he will be with Moses and his people as he brings them out.
2. God pursues his people. God did not let Jacob go. Through all of this, he was going after Jacob.
   1. My sheep hear my voice because Jesus is calling them to himself. 
3. God keeps the vision/the main thing/the end in view while caring for his people.
   1. There is still a mission to carry out. Bless the nations through Abraham’s people.

 

9. Joseph exercises wisdom in a master stroke of diplomacy AND acts as a mediator to shield from the worst of Egyptian culture (Gospel tributary). 

1. Joseph plays the societal disdain for shepherding to the advantage of his family. 
   1. They can stay in fertile land. 
   2. They can keep their trade.
   3. They can keep some distance between them and Egyptian culture. 
      1. This will allow them to maintain some of their growing theological distinction between the worship of Yhwh and the false gods of Egypt. 
      2. This will come in handy at the Exodus. 

 

How do we apply our passage? (What do we need to believe/know/do?)

1. Believe that God has, does and will keep his word. 

1. 1. God’s word is central to the faith. 

 

1. 1. God speaks, he decrees, he promises and he acts in history to keep his word. 
      1. The NT makes a point to connect God’s word to it’s fulfillment in Jesus. 

 

2. Know that Jacob, Moses, David, you, me…we are saved from the curse of sin by God’s work not ours.  

 

3. Believe that God is good, merciful, gracious and kind to us. 

1. 1. Part of the temptation of Israel and us is to become distracted by life’s circumstances and that distraction can cause us to begin to develop a theology of God NOT from Scripture but from our life experience.
      1. When this happens we can make an invisible idol of our conjectures and put Jesus’ name on it. 
      2. Circumstances do not define God. God defines the circumstance. 

 

4. Believe / know that God is near, personal, and on mission. 

1. 1. He is not distant or generic. 

 

1. 1. ASLAN IN THE HORSE AND HIS BOY. 

 

1. 1. SOMETIMES WE THINK GOD IS DISTANT AND UNCARING FOR ME. 
      1. AND HE WAITS FOR ME TO COME TO THE END OF MYSELF, CRY OUT AND FIND HE WAS THERE AND SUSTAINING AND MERCIFULLY BRINGING ME TO A PLACE OF GLORIOUS DEPENDENCE ON HIM. 

 

1. 1. YOU MIGHT SAY GOD LOVES HIS PEOPLE, STAYS NEAR THEM, AND MOVES THEM TO MISSION AT THE SAME TIME. 
      1. HE WILL ALWAYS BE NEAR TO DO US GOOD AND PURSUE HIS FAME, AND THESE GO TOGETHER LIKE A HAND IN A GLOVE. 

 

5. Worship is THE correct response to God in Jesus Christ.

1. 1. Jacob responded to God’s faithfulness and kindness by worship. 

 

1. 1. Worship tunes our hearts to feel the truth of what God’s word says.