A Time Of Peace And A Time To Pass Series

A time of Peace and a time to Pass

A. Israel finds peace

B. Israel’s provision and promise

DBF Sunday Sermon, 6/2/02, Genesis 47

You know that in our day and age the word “Peace” is taken for so many things. It is mixed up with “Peace and Love”. This is referring to of course the “Eros” love of the world. This indicates an urgent need of desire, a controlling type, restrictive type of love.

What is true peace?

Do you have the peace of God that is promised in His holy word?

I know I speak to a lot of people in Dillingham, Bristol Bay, Anchorage, and various other places throughout our state, country and world. There are truly so very few people that seem to understand the blessing of God’s peace.

God’s peace is not found in plenty, it is not found in nothingness, it can be found in both. It is a state of the heart in reference to “Who is Lord of your life?”

If I am blessed to have all my needs met, I can be within God’s peace.

I can be in need of my every meal, with no foreseen shelter, and I could be at peace with myself and with God.

We will walk with Jacob/Israel and the nation into the peace that God brings them into in Egypt. God not only provides them with peace but also with sustenance.

What a glorious change of events for a nation that has been in fear of starvation for the past couple of years.

Are you at a point of starvation today? Do you need to come and find the sustaining peace that God is able to bring into your life today? Come walk with us as we walk with Jacob/Israel this week through the peace God brought into his life and to the nations provision and promise.

A. A. Israel finds peace

Genesis 47:1-12 (KJV)

Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. [2] And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. [3] And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers. [4] They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. [5] And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: [6] The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. [7] And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. [8] And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? [9] And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. [10] And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

[11] And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. [12] And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.

Joseph has the pleasure of announcing to Pharaoh the arrival of his kindred. Do you take pleasure in announcing your kindred in Christ? We have a tendency to prefer other titles to brother and sister in Christ. Why is this? Do you not marvel in the family resemblance? I pray that this resemblance is readily visible to all who see you.

Joseph introduces five of his brothers as Shepherds, owners and feeders of sheep and other cattle.

Joseph lets Pharaoh know that his brother are men of ability, competent to take the oversight of others. Pharaoh responds by asking Joseph to find who is competent among them to set them over his cattle. During a drought this would be a blessing to a wise steward. Pharaoh can appreciate that the God of Joseph has blessed him and he wishes to continue in this light with God’s people.