The People of Blessing
Person in red jacket with hands outstretched
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Last week, we saw that there is a certain restlessness amongst the people of God. The family of Abraham has been wandering the entire book of Genesis, knowing that they will eventually settle in the land that God has promised them. We also, in our own way, are wandering through a strange land waiting for our final, promised inheritance as well. But what do we do in the meantime? Are we just sitting around for 80 to 100 years just waiting to for our lives to really begin? How does God settle His people when they are waiting?
God Faithfully Settles His separate people in a Strange Land
Genesis 46:31-47:6Tearful reunion now settled, it was time to figure out next steps. What is life going to look like after happily every after? The strategy begins! But what is that strategy? Is it pretending to be something they aren’t like Jacob did to Isaac? No.
Joseph isn’t telling them to do anything but tell the truth. We aren’t trying to trick Pharaoh into anything but simply identify what they need: a place with lots of pastureland for their animals to graze. Goshen is just such the place.
Goshen was the most fertile pasture land in all of Egypt, which is how it gets its name. The word comes from the idea of “heart” (A Biblical and Theological Dictionary) or precious. This area is separate from the rest of the mainland of Egypt, so it will be the perfect spot for the flock.
It will also be the perfect spot for the people as well. We can see from verse 34 that shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. The word for “abomination” is the same word we find for God’s view of homosexuality in Leviticus. We aren’t entirely sure why. When the Greeks come along, one writer notes that the Egyptians worshiped the cow, so eating it for its beef was very offensive (Matthews). That’s possible. But whatever the exact reason, their ending up in Goshen is going to be the best for everyone. The Jews won’t assimilate the Egyptian practices, because they will be living in their own, separate culture over in Goshen (Belcher). This is going to continue to be the case until they leave Egypt in the Exodus.
Joseph is also making sure that Pharaoh knows that they are shepherds and want to continue to be such. These are not kings in the making (Matthews). This isn’t Esau’s family. These are humble shepherds who need a little space to practice their craft far away from the rest of the nations so offense isn’t created.
In God’s faithfulness, it works! Pharaoh commands that they take up residence in Goshen, and he even offers them a job looking after the royal livestock! What a kindness of God. Really, not the kindness of Pharaoh, although he is kind here. This is the move of God. What king who has the world at his mercy doles out the best of his land to a wandering band of shepherds? Yes, it is Joseph’s family, but ancient kings aren’t known for their whimsical kindness to foreigners, particularly those who are culturally offensive. So all credit here goes to God. He has taken care of His people to lead them to here to literal green pastures. We note that Joseph doesn’t have to sell this to Pharaoh. They lead with the fact that they are different, even offensive, to the rest of the population, yet God moves in it. No scheming required.
Now I mentioned that part of the advantage of their moving to Goshen was so that they wouldn’t assimilate into Egyptian ways of thinking. The Messiah is supposed to come from the family of Abraham, and it was important that they not get absorbed by another people and disappear.
But how does this work today? Are we as New Testament Christians called to live physically separate lives from those in the world? Do we need to build our own communities in far-flung reaches of the country? Bring back the monasteries? Select the Benedict Option?
I don’t think so. Jesus didn’t tell us to leave the world but to go out into it. Jesus Himself went to eat with sinners and tax collectors. However, in both of those approaches it wasn’t to become just like the world James 4:4 is very clear: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” As is 1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” But the point is to disciple the world. Jesus ate with sinners to call them to repentance. We go out into the world not to learn from it but so that it learns God’s Word.
That begins by being honest with what we believe. God’s people don’t have to apologize for being different. The things that we believe, that we proclaim out of God’s Word are very offensive to our world. The idea that there is only one way to heaven, the idea that God is in control of absolutely everything, the idea that men and women are different and even have unique roles to play in society and in the church. And that’s just the garden variety stuff of Biblical Christianity. We haven’t even gotten to the Sabbath or even the Trinity yet. We’re an odd bunch, but we don’t have to hide that. We shouldn’t. We do no favors when we try to hide who we are as a people united to Christ. But we shouldn’t be surprised by resistance to it. Jesus Himself embodied this perfectly and was killed for it.
It is harder not to be worldly than we think. Even in the ways that present the truth we can fall into the patterns of the world.
There is being offensive for the sake of the truth and being offensive for offensive sake. It is getting increasingly hard to tell the difference these days because of how much the way we talk has changed. Such a change has taken place through the Internet. The Internet rewards saying outlandish things in outlandish ways, but we are here to please the Almighty not the algorithm. Jesus was not in love with the world, and if we are going to follow Him in that, we are going to need to be more careful than ever.
It is very hard not to be discipled by the Internet. Here in our passage, the Egyptians found the shepherds offensive, and the religious practices of the Egyptians were offensive right back to the Jews. However, once they were out of each other’s presences, the influence stops. Not so today. Today the world follows us home. If you check your phone within the first ten minutes of waking up (like apparently 80% of the US population), the world is the first thing to speak to you. Throughout the day, we apparently look at our phone 205 times. (https://www.reviews.org/mobile/cell-phone-addiction/).
We have a great opportunity to be a blessing to the world. But we can’t be that if we don’t even truly know why we are a blessing. We are a blessing by bringing Christ to the world, as we will see more next week, but if we are consumed by the world, it is impossible to accurately, and dare I say winsomely, present the gospel to world.
We can’t be drawn in by the world but neither can we be fully withdrawn from it, so what do we do? We abide in Christ. Recognize the world that you live in and seek out God in prayer and in His Word. It is so easy to assume that because we once knew something that it means we are still living it. I’ve been to seminary and I catch myself living opposite to the what I know. And when I see that, when you see that, run back to God. Remember, God has followed you into this world. Just like placing the people in Goshen, He has placed you here in this time and this place. While it is harder to avoid worldliness, it isn’t impossible. James said not to be a friend of the world well before the iPhone came out. The danger isn’t fully avoided by canceling your connections with the Internet. But you will find the closer you get to Jesus, the worldliness of the world doesn’t have the same shine. Being close to Jesus means you can look at the piece of technology in your hand and praise God that He made a world where you can assemble sand and silicone and make a device that allows you to see the other side of the world live. And then you can put it down because the Giver is more impressive than the gift.
So what is our takeaway here? We are called to be a unique people in our world, as we always have been. Yet we are called to spread that uniqueness by proclaiming the gospel of Christ: full forgiveness of sin by repenting and turning to Christ, union with Him.
So kids: That means for the most part we don’t act like the kids you see on the TV. Almost never are you going to see perfect examples in the movies and TV we see today. We take how we are supposed to act from mom and dad.
Adults: be thoughtful about why you think the way you do. Not just what you think but how you think. Is this conversation, this way of moral reasoning, is this from the Bible or X? Can we minister on these platforms? Yes! Can we find good stuff on the Internet? Of course. Just make sure that this is the majority of your time. Our lives are going fast. The world is changing even faster. Yet the gospel of Christ is always needed. It doesn’t change. The good news is still good news, so don’t let it go to the back of your mind.