When the Place That Saved You Starts to Own You | Genesis 47

There's something in you that knows this isn't where I belong. You can't explain it. You might even feel guilty about it.

Because how how do you complain when God just kept you alive?

But the feeling is real. You're in a place God used to preserve you, and it's costing you something you can't name. Maybe it's the job that pays well but is slowly hollowing you out. Maybe it's the city you moved to for survival, but it never became home.

Maybe it's the relationship.

Maybe it's the church, the role of the season.

God clearly used.

But it was never meant or intended by God to be permanent.

That's a Genesis forty seven.

It's not an easy question. It's a super hard question. The question this chapter asks is not. Can God provide in a hard land?

He can. Clearly and obviously he can.

The question is, can you receive his provision without letting the hard land own your soul?

A lot of you are in a hard land right now. Look, this is one of the most urgent questions in the entire Bible. And it's one of the most urgent questions in your life right now.

Stay with me.

I want you to imagine Jacob. He's old. He's limping. He's displaced. He's standing before the most powerful man in the ancient world.

How do we receive God's provision? Without surrendering to God in my identity. Welcome.

Shalom and welcome. Welcome to True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Dr. Sean. We're streaming to nine locations live, and then if you're listening on playback, it's on every single podcast platform. There is. All of them. So whichever one you're listening on, please consider clicking on follow or subscribe, click on the little bell, maybe do a review, thumbs up. I sure would appreciate it. Well, today's day 50. 50 days we've been at this.

In our walk through the Bible in a year. We're in Genesis 47. Jacob's family has come down to Egypt.

The famine hasn't destroyed the covenant family. Joseph is alive. God has pres he's preserved them, but now they have to do something harder than just survive.

They have to live in a land that's not the land of promise.

Egypt is provision for now. Egypt is not a promise. Goshen is mercy.

Goshen is not covenant inheritance. This distinction between the the useful and the ultimate may be the most important distinction in in the life in the life of faith.

Because what God uses to preserve you isn't always what God has called you to become.

In the chat or comments, drop a prayer.

You can do the praying hands if you want, it doesn't matter. Drop that. In the chat or the comments, if you've ever been in a season that kept you alive.

But it didn't feel like home. Joseph presents his family.

Joseph brings five of his brothers before Pharaoh. He's already coached them not to perform, but to tell the truth. Their fathers were shepherds. Their flocks need pasture, and they are asking to dwell in Goshin. Now, we need to be smart to pause here because the cultural tension in this moment is absolutely enormous. You never know it unless you know the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context. That's why I'm here. Shepherds are an abomination to Egyptians. The Hebrew word there is Toyva. Toyva. It's not a mild word. That's the same word the Torah uses for things that are ritually and culturally detestable. That's what the Egyptians think of shepherds. And here come a bunch of shepherds. This word Toevah, it carries weight, carries distance, it carries, hey, we don't eat with these people. We don't become these people. And some have suggested that later Egyptian hostility towards Semitic shepherd peoples may have been intensified by memories of foreign rule connected with the Hykusos period. We should hold that carefully because the text itself doesn't explain Egypt's disgust that way, but it does remind us that Israel entered Egypt carrying an identity Egypt already looked down upon. I do. To be the representative of something people they've already decided to distrust. Joseph knows his brothers are walking into that room and notices what he. I want you to notice what he what Joseph does not do. He doesn't say, don't mention the sheep. Don't embarrass me. Come on, you guys dress it up a little bit. How about take a bath or a shower or something before you come in here, wash your clothes, maybe put some fabric softener and some some nice smelling stuff in there. Do something, but don't embarrass me. Don't talk like them. No, he doesn't do any of that. He lets them tell the truth. They stand before the most powerful throne in the ancient world and they say, We are shepherds, just like our fathers. Please let us settle in Goshin. That's not foolishness. That is covenant identity under pressure. And Pharaoh gets it. He gives them Goshin, which the text will later call the best of the land. He even invites capable men among them to manage his own royal livestock. The very thing that made them different became the thing God used to make room for them. Write that down. No, really, write that down, family. God doesn't need you to erase who you are in order to make space for you where he is sending you. The thing they feared would disqualify them became the very credential that positioned them, and that is how God works. Type Goshen in the chat or in the comments if God has ever used the very thing that made you different to open a door for you. And to address the chat, hi to everyone listening, all for all the new folks listening all around the world. Thank you. It's a pleasure to have you. Manos-mz3UU asks, is this another pro-Jewish hybrid Christian Protestant stuff or real Christian life? Well, maybe you listen. What this is is accurate ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and contextual rendering of scripture. Maybe give it a shot. So Jacob blesses Pharaoh. Most powerful person in the world, in the ancient Near Eastern world, and Jacob, a shepherd, an old limping shepherd, not far from his end, blesses Pharaoh. Egypt has empire. Jacob has the God of Abraham. Now Joseph brings Jacob, his elderly father, before Pharaoh, and the text says, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. This is in verse 7. Don't move past that sentence. In Egypt's worldview, Pharaoh stood at the center of divine order. He was linked with Horus. Sonship language connected him with Ra. His rule was bound up with Ma'at, the ordered life of the world. And into that throne room walks this old, limping man, one hundred and thirty years old, limping from a wrestling match with God, dressed as a shepherd, a toavah, a cultural abomination, standing in a foreign court where he has no army, no land, no throne, no visible power. And Jacob blesses Pharaoh. The writer of Hebrews later gives us the interpretive key. Without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater. That's in Hebrews 7:7, if you're taking notes. Jacob isn't more powerful than Pharaoh by any visible measurement. But Jacob carries covenant, and in the economy of God, covenant outranks empire every time. Think about what this moment is saying. Egypt has the grain. Jacob has the God who gives the rain. Egypt has the storehouses, but Jacob has the word that fills every storehouse. Egypt has the army. Jacob has the covenant that cannot be broken. The most powerful ruler in the room receives a blessing from an old Hebrew shepherd who looks by every external measure like the dependent one. But Jacob doesn't bow in his in his spirit. Instead, he blesses. Some of you need to hear that today. Some of you are all spun up on your on your group, your label, your crew, the thing that you attach yourself to, and you seek out only those things. Some of you are in a dire situation. You absolutely need the paycheck, but the paycheck isn't your the paycheck isn't your provider. You may need the doctor, but the doctor isn't your healer. Absolutely. You may need the government document, the platform, the opportunity, the relationship, but none of these things, none of these things hold your future. If you belong to Yeshua, you may stand in Egypt, but Egypt doesn't get the highest seat in your heart. You carry covenant. You bless, you don't bow. This is what he asked. It's a fascinating moment. The divine king before whom nations prostrate themselves is asking the old shepherd a question. In the ancient world, great age carried great weight. Pharaoh recognizes something in Jacob, and Jacob answers with extraordinary honesty. You know, the Hebrew reads, Miat Varaim. Miat Varaim. Well, Miat means few, small, not enough. Raim means evil, bad, or distressing. It comes from the root, the same root as the word for evil. Jacob says, the years of my sojourning are one thirty, few, and they have been evil, painful, hard, distressing. He adds that his years have not reached the years of his fathers. And then he blesses Pharaoh again, and he leaves. This is not unbelief. This is not Jacob lacking faith. This is covenant honesty. Jacob was blessed, and Jacob suffered. These two things coexisted in the same life. He ran from Esau. He was deceived. Remember when we taught early in the early days here? He was deceived by Laban for 20 years. He buried his dear wife Rachel on the road to Bethlehem. He grieved Joseph, his beloved son, for more than twenty years. He watched his household fracture with rivalry, betrayal, and violence. Jacob limped to the end. And he was still carrying the promise. This corrects something shallow in how we often talk about blessing. Blessing doesn't always mean comfortable. Blessed isn't always tantamount to comfortable. Chosen doesn't always mean easy. Covenant doesn't always mean calm. If Jacob showed up to your little small group, some people would try to correct his faith, brother, you just need to confess the right thing. That's what we would say, all high and mighty. Maybe you're not trusting God fully. And Jacob would look at you. This man who wrestled God himself and did not let go, and he would say, My years have been few and evil, and God has kept every promise he ever made to me. Both things are true. Notice also what Jacob calls his life. He uses the word sojourning. It's connected to the Hebrew idea of living as a stranger, of resident alien, a person passing through. The Hebrew vocabulary is tied to ger, the related idea of ger, the sojourner. In Torah, the ger is not fully rooted as a native-born citizen, but he is present under covenant concern and protection. Jacob is 130 years old, and he's standing in Egypt. And he still understands himself as a man passing through under God's promise. He hasn't settled in his spirit. He hasn't reclassified Egypt as his home. He hasn't allowed extended residence to redefine his identity. And this is where we drift. We start as pro-pilgrims. That's how we start. We start as pilgrims. And then comfort slowly turns us into settlers. We begin by saying, Lord, lead me. We end up by saying, Lord, just don't move me from here. Receive the provision, but don't reclassify the provision as the promise. Now we're already to part four. Joseph and the Famine, a word of caution here. A system can feed you, and that same system can still starve you. Genesis 47 also gives us the details of how Joseph manages the famine. The people exhaust their money, then they exchange their livestock. Then the land itself comes under Pharaoh's control, all of it except for the priest's land. Joseph establishes a 20% portion for Pharaoh on produce, and the people keep the rest. The text shows real preservation. This text demonstrates real preservation. People live who otherwise would have died. The people themselves say to Joseph, You have saved our lives. And we shouldn't flatten this passage. But we should also keep reading with our eyes wide open. Because Genesis lets us see. Look, we have been in Genesis. This is day 50. And the majority of comments that I get are either I've never gone through the Bible like this, ever in my life. Thank you. Or, you know, it's day 50. You're never going to get through the Bible in a year. First of all, that's not our goal. Our goal is to walk, it's through the Bible in a year, walking the story of God. I said last night in the 630 broadcast, the summation and deepening. Go back and listen to it. It's free. It's totally free. Everything is free except for my book. You have to pay for that. True WordFaithforLife.com. Understore blah blah blah. You can reach out to me through TrueWord, True Word FaithforLife.com. Contact. You can use the little thing on the side and leave me a voice message. It's free. I pay for it, so you don't have to. You can do the contact thing and type it out if you like. You only get two minutes on the voicemail, so use it wisely. Look, Genesis lets us see the shadow before Exodus arrives. And if you don't understand Genesis, truly understand Genesis, you will not understand a thing in the rest of the Bible. Especially the New Testament. Yeah, Genesis lets us see the shadow before Exodus arrives. The same Egypt that preserves life here will later become the Egypt that crushes life. Listen, don't get so comfortable. The same land that shelters Israel will later enslave Israel. Hey, we can help you out. We're happy to do it. Just uh, you know, just stay in this area right here. Oh, yeah, we're gonna have you come work for us. Oh, you don't want to? Oh, that's beneath you? Oh, that's not in your covenant. Then they start killing them and enslaving him. We'll get to that. The same system that feeds them will later fear them, control them, and command the death of their sons. That doesn't mean Joseph was wrong to preserve life. It means Egypt is still Egypt. God used Egypt. God bless you, brother. God bless you. Good morning, Jess and family and Matthew. I don't know why you're asking. What are you talking about? That's teaching, isn't you? Listen and take notes and use the resources. TrueWordfaithforLife.com has a blog section. It's very detailed. The only thing I ask, I don't mind you use it for your small groups or for anything, just take the copyright too. There's a copyright. Everything I do is copyrighted. Make sure you include that. Listen, Egypt is still Egypt. God still uses Egypt. God didn't sanctify. God didn't sanctify Egypt. God used Pharaoh. God didn't make Pharaoh ultimate. God put Joseph in a place of authority inside a system that would one day become an instrument of oppression. That is sobering. God may use a system to preserve you without declaring that system holy. A system can open doors for you and still demand things of you it has no right to demand. A platform can amplify your voice and still try to own your message.

A nation can protect you and still over time.

Egypt can be useful. Egypt cannot be ultimate. Keep your eyes open. Oh, did you ever know this? Seventeen years. Mercy in the final chapter. Come on, somebody say you're ready. God was still writing mercy into Jacob's story, even these years on. This detail's easy to pass over, but don't do it. Don't pass over it. Verse 28 says, Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years. Did you know that? Did you notice that? And we need to be careful here. Joseph was 17 when we first meet him as the favored son in Genesis 37. Remember? If you were listening back then, you can listen to all the old, all the past episodes on the True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean YouTube channel. If you prefer Rumble, you can listen on Rumble. They're all there. You can also listen to all the audios, true wordfaithforlife.com under episodes. That's audio only. Or you can go to wherever you listen to audio podcasts. Honestly, we're on them all. We first meet him as the favored son in Genesis 37, but Jacob didn't lose Joseph for only 17 years. Joseph was 30 when he entered the Pharaoh's service. Then came seven years of abundance. Then came two years of famine before Jacob's family came down to Egypt. So Jacob's separation from Joseph was closer to 22 years, and that matters because we don't want to preach math. The text doesn't support. But Genesis 47-28 still gives us something deeply beautiful. Jacob lived with Joseph in Egypt for 17 years. That doesn't erase the years of grief. He missed his son. He grieved him all that time. It doesn't rewind the clock. It doesn't give Jacob back the first years he lost. But it does show us this. God was still writing mercy into Jacob's final chapter. Jacob thought, oh, he thought his beloved son, Joseph, was dead. Then he found out Joseph was alive. Then God gave him years, real years, with the son he thought he would never see again. Not all restoration is reversal. Sometimes restoration is mercy after loss. Sometimes restoration isn't, it isn't God giving back the exact shape of what was taken. Sometimes it's God giving grace in the years that remain. You can't unring a bell. You also can't push a rope. You have lost time. You have lost years, perhaps. You have lost moments you cannot retrieve. My friend, I'm living in that right now. And maybe you are too. Look, no honest teacher of Scripture could sit here or stand here and tell you God always gives it back exactly the way he lost it. But I can tell you this: God is still Lord over the years that remain. He can write mercy into a chapter you thought would only contain grief. He can give fellowship after estrangement. He can give peace after loss, purpose after collapse, tears of gratitude after years of mourning. No, Joseph and Jacob. Dear Father, he didn't get every year back, but he did get Joseph back. And in his final years, the covenant-keeping God was still kind. Drop a 17 in the chat or in comments if you believe God can still write mercy into the years that remain in your life. Jacob refuses Egypt as home. My bones belong to the promise. The chapter ends with Jacob approaching death. He calls Joseph close and he makes him swear, do not bury me in Egypt. Carry me out of this land and bury me with my fathers. Oh, the covenant gesture Jacob uses here is striking. Put your hand under my thigh. This is in verse 29. Put your hand under my thigh. This is the same oath gesture that Abraham used when he sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac in Genesis 24. Do you remember? And do you remember we taught that the hand placed under the thigh, near the seat of covenant lineage, the place of procreation and promise. It is an oath connected to seed, lineage, and covenant future. Jacob isn't making a sentimental request about where to put his bones. Egypt fed me. Egypt does not own me. Egypt sheltered me. Egypt does not define me. My bones belong in the land of promise. Listen, in the ancient Near Eastern world, burial location wasn't merely logistical. It was a statement of belonging. It was a statement of identity. It declared whose story you were a part of. See, we go too lightly in this world today. Everything is so passe. Everything we just rush through. We don't carry on our traditions. We don't carry on our covenant. To be buried in Egypt was to become part of Egypt's story, and Jacob refuses. His burial command preaches to the next generation. We are covenant children. Do not forget who you are. Do not forget where the promise is, because he knows when you live somewhere long enough, it starts to feel permanent. When you breathe the air long enough, it starts to feel like home. When the paycheck comes every week, you start planning like this is where you will always be. But Jacob's bones say otherwise. Some of you are in Goshen right now. You're in Goshen right now. You're in a place God used to preserve you for a time. And deep down you know this isn't the final chapter. Maybe it's a job. And you should and you are grateful. You should be, and you should, and and and you are grateful for the income. But somewhere along the way, you stop praying about the next steps. Started planning for comfortable retirement there. The paycheck became your peace, became your shalom. Maybe it's a living situation, a city, a neighborhood, arrangement that God clearly opened. But you can feel yourself taking root where God only planted you as a seed. Hey, look, maybe it's a medical diagnosis that has kept you functioning. And you're grateful. But you have started to let the diagnosis become your identity more than your citizenship in his kingdom. Listen, that's me. I'm just gonna tell you, that's me. Hey, maybe it's a survival story. Something you went through that God redeemed. But you've been living in that story so long that you've started to define yourself by what you survived rather than the one who brought you through. Hey, maybe it's political comfort. The right government, the right laws, the right protections, and slowly, almost without noticing, you moved more of your hope there than into the covenant-keeping God who ruled before any of those governments existed. Do not despise Goshen. Thank God for it. God put you there. But don't worship it. Egypt may feed you, but only God can name you. And how do we obey that in a concrete way? How do we take this into our lives of faith? This isn't dramatic. This is discipleship. Here's what this looks like today, where you're living, in your actual life, not in theory, in your actual life. Name one provision in your life that you've slowly started treating like your identity. Maybe it's your job, maybe it's your income, maybe it's your reputation, maybe it's your survival story, your role in the family, your political alignment, your platform, your health, your pain. Then say this out loud right now, wherever you're listening or watching. Father, thank you for providing this. But this is not my God, and this is not my home. Then take one concrete action today that proves it. Pray before you check the account. Open the word before you open the news. Tell the truth somewhere you've been quietly blending in. Listen, I've got to tell you, when you open your news app more than you open this book, this precious beloved book that so many died to bring to you. Your life will be turmoil. I don't care how wealthy you are, your life will be turmoil. Your heart will be turmoil. Listen. It might be pray before you open your bank account. It might be open the word before you open the news. Maybe open the word more. And you open the news. Tell the truth somewhere that you've been quietly blending in. Serve someone before you protect your comfort. Somebody at work. You say, Wow, I don't want to. I don't want to offend anyone. No. If that word and you caring and reading that word is offensive to someone, that's exactly what you need to do. Blending in. You've been quietly blending in. Pretending not to be a covenant person. A child of God. Oh, maybe it's this. Maybe the concrete action of obedience is serve someone before you protect your own comfort. Serve someone. Hey. Let your calendar show that God owns your time. Listen, that's not heroic. That's just faithfulness. That is discipleship in Goshen. Now, I have for you today a challenge and a choice. So here are your challenges. Will you receive God's provision without surrendering your identity? Will you bless Pharaoh without bowing to Pharaoh? Will you live faithfully in Goshen without letting Goshen replace the promise? Jacob received mercy in Egypt. He didn't let Egypt receive him. You can do the same. Gratitude without idolatry, presence without compromise, provision without surrender. Live in the hard land. Keep your heart with the covenant God because Egypt may shelter you, but only God can bring you home. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Yeshua, thank you for every Goshen you have used to preserve us. Thank you for provision, that provision that came when we didn't deserve it and could not manufacture it. Forgive us for turning provision into identity. Forgive us for confusing what you gave us with what you are. Forgive us for letting the hard land slowly rename us. Teach us to receive your mercy without forgetting your promise. Help us live faithfully where we are without letting that place. Help us to live faithfully where you have placed us, right where we are, without letting that place own us. Remind us, as Jacob's bones reminded a generation, that we belong to you. We are pilgrims, we are covenant children, and we are headed home. In the name of Yeshua, amen. Look, if you've never surrendered your life to Yeshua, if you've been living in your own Egypt, under your own Pharaoh, trying to survive on your own terms today, the door is open. Not because you're good enough, I'm not. Listen, he'll save me, he'll save you. Not because you figured it out, I haven't, but because Yeshua already crossed the hard land on your behalf. He went all the way to death and all the way back. So you don't have to keep living as a slave to whatever you can. Look, it can never, none of those things can set you free. And if you want that, pray with me now. Yeshua. Yeah, that's just talk to Yeshua, talk to Jesus. Yeshua, I believe you are the Son of God. I believe you died for my sin and rose again. I turn from my sin, self-rule in every false God. Forgive me, cleanse me, make me new. I give you my life. Teach me to follow you from this day forward. Amen. Hey, if you prayed that prayer today, first of all, awesome. Welcome to the family of God. You don't have to figure all this stuff out. You don't have to figure out your next step alone. Reach out to me, true wordfaith for life.com slash contact or hit the little button at the top. I will personally connect with you and help you take the next step. If you gave your life to Yeshua today, or if you still have honest questions, that door is open. This episode helped you share it with someone who is living in a hard land right now. Maybe they're grateful but feel stuck. Maybe they're surviving but they're not thriving. Maybe that person is you. And you need to listen again. Maybe take some notes. Hey, listen, maybe that person you need to send this link to, maybe they know the provision is real, but something in them still longs for more than what Egypt can offer. Send it to them. It might be exactly what they need to hear today. Now, I want you to hear this. The first part will be in Hebrew, the second part I will translate in English. I verakha adunai. May Adunai bless you and keep you. May Adonai make his face to shine upon you and show you his grace. May Adunai lift up his face toward you and give you shalom. Shalom Bishem Yeshua, the shalom alakem. Peace in the name of Yeshua. This has been True Word Faith for Life. With Dr. Sean. For more teachings, visit True Word FaithforLife.com. Until tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Shalom, Shalom.