I Live In Goshen

I Live In Goshen

Scripture: Matthew 24:6-12; Genesis 45:9-10; Exodus 20:20-23

The title of my message this morning is “I Live in Goshen.” Now all of you know that I actually live in Lenexa, KS so I am not speaking of a physical address, but a mental one, a mindset. Based on my being a child of God, I think of myself as living in the land of Goshen alongside of the Children of Israel as they were waiting on God to deliver them out of Egypt.

If you recall from my message last week, I asked the question “Why are we so afraid.” I told you in that message that one of the drivers of hate is actually fear. Fear is an emotion that triggers other emotions with anger and hate being two of them. I told you that I believe the reason we are experiencing the anger and hate that we are seeing exhibited across the world from Christians is because many are afraid. Jesus said that, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12) When we read the first eleven verses, we find that the things we see happening in the world is the reason people are becoming afraid. I want to read verses six through ten from the Amplified Bible. We are going to see how fear leads to anger, how anger leads to hatred and how hatred leads to our love running cold. It reads, “(6) You will continually hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end [of the age]. (7) For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (8) But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs [of the intolerable anguish and the time of unprecedented trouble]. (9) Then they will hand you over to [endure] tribulation, and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. (10) At that time many will be offended and repelled [by their association with Me] and will fall away [from the One whom they should trust] and will betray one another [handing over believers to their persecutors] and will hate one another. (Matthew 24:6-10) Then verse twelve from the Amplified Bible reads, “Because lawlessness is increased, the love of most people will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12)

If you backtrack from verse twelve to what precedes the love of many growing cold, you see that hardships elicit feelings of fear, which leads to anger and a spirit of self-protection, which in turn leads to more fear of being associated with Christ. And some Christians will walk away from Him and ultimately end up being filled with hate. We cannot stop what is coming, but we can establish now how we will respond to it. My response is to believe that “I live in Goshen.” In other words, my mentality is not focused on all of the bad things happening around me, even though some of it will impact me, but on my belief that I am under God’s care in the midst of those things. And, because I choose an “I live in Goshen” mentality, I will not default to fear, anger and hate as bad things continue to happen and expand all around me. We are seeing a lot of ungodly things happening in this country and in the world, and they are going to continue, and they are going to get worse. Now I want you to hear what I am about to say New Light. No amount of prayer is going to change the ungodly direction our nation and world are headed in. We need to get this settled in our hearts and minds. Jesus did not come to change the world. He came to save the world from eternal damnation. He came to give people an opportunity to choose Him and right now we are witnessing the choice they are making. And sadly, it isn’t Jesus. So, let’s talk a little about Goshen.

The land of Goshen is mentioned first in the book of Genesis and carries over into the book of Exodus. If you recall in the story of Joseph, which comprises the final thirteen chapters of Genesis, the patriarch Jacob is facing famine and sends ten of his eleven sons to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph, another of Jacob’s sons whom he thought was dead but had been sold into slavery by his brothers, was now in Egypt and second in command behind Pharaoh over all of Egypt. When Joseph brings his family into Egypt, he settles them in Goshen, so that they will be close to him. Genesis 45:9-10 records, “(9) Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. (10) For you shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your grandchildren, and your flocks and your herds and all that you have.” Goshen is called “the best part” of the land of Egypt, and it was also somewhat set apart from the rest of Egypt, which worked in their favor years later. In Exodus, Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites, continued to live in Goshen (Egypt) and grew numerous. The name of Goshen appears only twice in Exodus. The narration of the Plagues of Egypt, which devastated Egypt but did not impact the Israelites, and those who lived among them in Goshen to the same degree, is what I want to focus on this morning.