[00:00:09] Welcome to Gracious Words. Gracious Words is taken from the Weekly Women's Bible Study
[00:00:14] taught by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
[00:00:19] We're behold to glory God in the face of Christ. It shows us who you are. We're feeling who you are.
[00:00:34] On today's program, we'll see the goodness and faithfulness of God as we watch Jacob and his family travel to Egypt for a sweet reunion with his estranged son Joseph.
[00:00:49] Lord and wonder, what easy surrender we surrender to you.
[00:01:13] And now here is Part 2 of Cheryl's message titled Pilgrimage.
[00:01:19] He felt that he had to bribe his brother with livestock in order to bring that peace that God had promised him that he would have in Canaan.
[00:01:31] He felt like he had to move from Shechem because of what Levi and Simeon had done lest he be wiped out.
[00:01:39] In other words, Jacob felt like he had to take care of himself.
[00:01:44] And the time that he trusted and sent his son, who was supposed to be the patriarch, who had these dreams from God, what happened?
[00:01:53] The report was given to him that his son had died.
[00:01:57] I believe Jacob thought I have got to take care of myself. I'm responsible to make the promises of God happen.
[00:02:07] The death of Joseph, or the supposed death of Joseph, I believed had left Jacob feeling so vulnerable.
[00:02:18] When somebody who is very close to you dies, it leaves you with this feeling of vulnerability.
[00:02:24] I remember after my father died, I felt like I had a target on my back.
[00:02:30] I felt like I was vulnerable to all of nature, to every device of the enemy, to every evil thing.
[00:02:39] I just felt so vulnerable.
[00:02:41] And I started having these panic attacks and I didn't know why until a sweet friend said to me,
[00:02:48] Cheryl, didn't you know that one of the repercussions of losing somebody you love is fear, is anxiety?
[00:02:57] And then I was able to trace back this feeling of abject vulnerability to the death of my father.
[00:03:04] Something so precious, something that I treasured, someone who I treasured so much, a relationship that I absolutely adored was gone.
[00:03:14] And I felt so vulnerable.
[00:03:18] Death has a way of doing that.
[00:03:20] This treasure, this person that Jacob had loved with all of his heart, that he had prioritized above anything else had been taken from him.
[00:03:32] And he felt vulnerable.
[00:03:34] So Jacob needed the assurance that he did not need to squat on the land to have it as an inheritance.
[00:03:41] He didn't have to hold it so tightly.
[00:03:45] He was not responsible to make the promises of God happen.
[00:03:49] Oh, how many times do we feel so responsible?
[00:03:52] Oh God, probably not going to do that for me because I didn't pray hard enough.
[00:03:55] I didn't pray enough.
[00:03:56] I didn't pray eloquently enough.
[00:03:58] I didn't pray the right prayers.
[00:04:00] I remember when my daughter was getting married and she got married young.
[00:04:04] I didn't expect her to get married at 18.
[00:04:05] I thought I had, you know, five, six more years.
[00:04:08] And I remember when she was getting married, I all of a sudden had this thought like, oh no.
[00:04:14] Everybody else I know has prayed for the right spouse for their daughter.
[00:04:18] I never prayed that prayer.
[00:04:19] I thought I had five years.
[00:04:21] It was one of those prayers.
[00:04:22] I was going to start praying.
[00:04:23] I was going to start it like in a year or two years.
[00:04:26] That was going to be the next prayer, the next object of my prayers.
[00:04:32] And all of a sudden this thought came to me, he might not be the right person because I haven't been praying.
[00:04:40] And maybe God couldn't send the right person because I wasn't praying.
[00:04:43] And all of a sudden I felt like everything God was supposed to do was dependent on me praying the right prayers at the right time.
[00:04:51] And here she's getting married and I don't even know because I haven't been praying for this particular subject.
[00:04:57] Isn't it crazy how God sometimes blesses us in unexpected ways?
[00:05:01] Ways we haven't even prayed.
[00:05:03] I mean seriously, I have gotten two of the best sons-in-law in the whole wide world.
[00:05:07] Sorry for all of you who thought you had them.
[00:05:10] No, God gave them to me.
[00:05:12] Seriously, the best sons-in-law, like they've even, you know, willing to take care of me when I get aged.
[00:05:19] The best.
[00:05:21] But you know sometimes we feel so responsible to make the promises of God happen.
[00:05:27] Like if we don't pray just right, if we don't read the right portion of scripture, if we don't apply the right scripture,
[00:05:34] if we're not nice, if we have an irritable day like none of you have, but I have.
[00:05:39] If we do that, the promises of God aren't going to happen.
[00:05:43] I am so blessed that the promises of God were not dependent on Jacob, but on God himself.
[00:05:50] In our homework this week we talked about God being our shepherd.
[00:05:54] And one thing I love about the 23rd Psalm is that he does this for his namesake.
[00:06:00] It's all dependent on his goodness.
[00:06:04] He does these things because he is good, not because we're so good, not because we deserve...
[00:06:10] Oh you deserve a blessing today, you've been so good.
[00:06:14] No!
[00:06:15] He does these things because he is so good.
[00:06:19] And he protects his reputation of being a good God, a great God, a gracious God, a glorious God.
[00:06:27] He does it for his namesake.
[00:06:30] But you see when we forget we're on pilgrimage, we start trying to hoard.
[00:06:35] We start trying to hold.
[00:06:38] We start trying to make things happen.
[00:06:42] Jacob did not have to try to make a nation out of his clan.
[00:06:49] God would make him a nation, just as God had promised.
[00:06:54] And it wouldn't happen in the Promised Land.
[00:06:56] It would happen while he was on pilgrimage in the wrong land.
[00:07:02] Isn't that crazy?
[00:07:04] And then God says, I'm going to be with you every step in this journey.
[00:07:09] I'm going to be with you.
[00:07:12] At this word of assurance, Jacob and his sons, grandsons, granddaughters, and all of his household moved into Egypt.
[00:07:22] Lock, stock, and barrel.
[00:07:24] You might say they got on those carts and they began to move towards Egypt.
[00:07:31] Coming into the border of Egypt, Jacob sent Judah and said, go talk to your brother Joseph.
[00:07:37] Tell him, ask him where are we supposed to go from here?
[00:07:40] Because this was a land that Jacob had never been to.
[00:07:45] This was a land that his father had never been to.
[00:07:47] But his grandfather Abraham had been to.
[00:07:51] But Jacob did not know his way in Egypt at all.
[00:07:55] He'd never been there before.
[00:07:56] He didn't know the way to Goshen.
[00:07:59] So Judah goes ahead to ask Joseph, how do we get to Goshen?
[00:08:05] Where is this land at?
[00:08:06] You know, we just at the border, we're just inside the gate.
[00:08:10] Where do we go?
[00:08:12] Now, Joseph not only obviously gives these directives to Judah, but the moment he hears that his father is inside the borders,
[00:08:22] he starts making his way to Goshen.
[00:08:24] He gets on his chariot, which was probably the fastest mode of travel.
[00:08:30] And he wants to see his father.
[00:08:33] I can just see him racing to see his father.
[00:08:38] I think this must have been so off-putting for Jacob, because he doesn't know what to expect.
[00:08:45] The last time he saw Joseph, he was a teenager.
[00:08:49] He was a boy.
[00:08:51] Now this Joseph is the prime minister of Egypt.
[00:08:56] And instead of a young boy coming in a multicolored coat, what Jacob sees is this important personage on a chariot,
[00:09:10] no less rushing towards him, dust clouds coming behind the fast steeds, rushing towards him.
[00:09:18] And as this chariot pulls up to this wooden cart pulled probably by a mule, there's his son.
[00:09:27] There's his son.
[00:09:29] And his son, this great important person, embraces him, hugs him, falls on his neck just weeping.
[00:09:43] I mean, can you imagine?
[00:09:45] This is the most important person in Egypt next to Pharaoh.
[00:09:50] And he's like, Daddy, Daddy, I love you, Daddy.
[00:09:56] I mean, I just, I love this story.
[00:09:58] I love this part of the story of Joseph better than any other part, this reunion.
[00:10:06] Maybe it makes me long for the time when I get to see my earthly father again.
[00:10:11] And I'm wondering, will I fall on his neck just weeping, just so excited to see my father?
[00:10:18] But how much more to see my heavenly father, to see the father who is sent his son?
[00:10:25] I just can't wait for that day.
[00:10:27] I think there is something in all of us that loves a reunion.
[00:10:31] It loves a reunion.
[00:10:33] See, that's part of pilgrimage.
[00:10:35] Pilgrimage is always looking for the reunion.
[00:10:38] The day that we get to the place that we've come from, the day that we come home and we see the whole family.
[00:10:49] All those that we have loved.
[00:10:51] We love a reunion.
[00:10:53] I don't know about you, but I love the stories of a reunion.
[00:10:56] I just read a story about two sisters who were lost to each other.
[00:11:02] And the one was crossing a street in New York and she heard a voice calling her name.
[00:11:06] And she said, that sounds like my sister, but I haven't seen her in nine years.
[00:11:10] I don't even know where she lives.
[00:11:11] And she turned around and there in the middle of a sidewalk in New York, they embraced and began to weep until they were obstructing traffic and had to stop.
[00:11:24] And since that day, which was over 25 years ago, they have talked every single day on the phone.
[00:11:32] Is that like, I love that story.
[00:11:34] It's a true story.
[00:11:35] Reading a reader's digest.
[00:11:36] Readers digest only does true things.
[00:11:38] We know that, but it was so exciting to read that story.
[00:11:43] There's something so wonderful in the story of a reunion after they're reunited.
[00:11:52] Joseph instructs his whole family to tell the Pharaoh that their shepherds.
[00:11:57] Now this is interesting because shepherds, that occupation was all bombardable to the Egyptians.
[00:12:02] In other words, it was detestable.
[00:12:04] It was something that no Egyptian ever wanted to be a shepherd.
[00:12:08] My mom said years ago she was watching a candid camera.
[00:12:12] Some of you remember that show, others of you like I don't know what you're talking about.
[00:12:17] But what it was a show that would kind of play tricks on people.
[00:12:21] And in this show they brought these people in and they had these people take a placement test, a career placement test.
[00:12:29] And the people came in and then they told them, you are to be a nuclear scientist.
[00:12:34] And the person would be like what?
[00:12:36] A nuclear scientist?
[00:12:38] Or they would give them like just this obscure occupation.
[00:12:43] So this person comes in and he sits down and they looked at him and said we've looked through all the data.
[00:12:48] And you know we've noticed you have eight years of college and that's really good.
[00:12:52] But the best career choice for you is shepherd.
[00:12:56] We'll be back to give you a little more information.
[00:12:58] They leave him in the room just to get his reaction.
[00:13:01] And he's like shepherd, shepherd.
[00:13:05] Like what's a shepherd doing?
[00:13:06] He's looking over the data and they come back in and they're like you need to get a flock of sheep immediately.
[00:13:12] And do you have a place where you could raise these sheep?
[00:13:16] And they're telling them all about sheep and this guy's just like shepherd are you kidding me?
[00:13:21] Well this is what, like his reaction, this is what the reaction of the Egyptians was to shepherd.
[00:13:30] Shepherd was disgusting.
[00:13:33] It was below them.
[00:13:34] It was the lowest of jobs and occupations because you're working with animals
[00:13:40] and you smell like animals and you live among the animals and you're safeguarding animals.
[00:13:47] Now in Genesis chapter 47 Joseph chose five of his brothers to present to Pharaoh.
[00:13:55] And again when they were asked what their occupation was, they did as Joseph instructed.
[00:14:01] They said not only are we shepherds but according to verse three we come from shepherds.
[00:14:07] Again this occupation of shepherds though it was a humiliating occupation,
[00:14:13] it was through this humiliation that the tribe of Israel would not become idolatrous like the Egyptians.
[00:14:22] In other words they would practice social distance.
[00:14:25] They would not assimilate into the culture of Egypt and therefore lose their distinction as being Israel and becoming a nation.
[00:14:35] And this way they would continue to hold and to have all the promises of God, the covenant of God.
[00:14:43] So the brothers say that.
[00:14:45] Then Joseph's brothers tell Pharaoh that they have come only to sojourn in the land.
[00:14:51] In other words they're saying to Pharaoh we're not going to settle down here.
[00:14:55] This is just a temporary stay so we won't be taking from your country.
[00:15:01] We'll be giving to your country.
[00:15:03] We're only passing through.
[00:15:05] They have come because there is no pasture land in Canaan and there is pasture land.
[00:15:12] There is land for their livestock.
[00:15:14] The brothers are respectful to Pharaoh.
[00:15:16] Why? They're on his land.
[00:15:18] They're not on their own land.
[00:15:21] They don't have rights in Egypt so they're respectful.
[00:15:26] And they refer to themselves as servants.
[00:15:29] We're here to service you, to bless you while we're here.
[00:15:33] Those who visit a land must be respectful of the authorities that are in that land.
[00:15:40] While you're in that land you live according to the rules of the land.
[00:15:44] You learn the culture of that land but it's not your own culture.
[00:15:47] When I lived in England I remember I was at a farmer's market.
[00:15:50] Now here as you know in America when we go to a farmer's market
[00:15:56] you're allowed to choose your own apples and put them in a bag and then they weigh them.
[00:16:01] So I go to this farmer's market which is in England
[00:16:04] and I start picking out the apples that I want.
[00:16:08] The guy says, hey what are you doing there?
[00:16:10] And I said I'm just getting apples.
[00:16:12] You don't touch my apples or choose the apples for you.
[00:16:16] Sure not he chose all the bro brews, all the awful apples.
[00:16:21] He puts the nice ones in the front but they're only for show.
[00:16:23] You're not even allowed to touch them and he gave me the awful apples.
[00:16:27] I learned later that that was just that man and not always the condition of the farmer's market.
[00:16:34] But I remember walking through like a cafeteria line, you know how we have our trays
[00:16:38] and so I had a tray and I had gotten a mug of coffee
[00:16:42] and I went to pour myself some coffee
[00:16:45] and again this lady comes rushing up, hey what are you doing there?
[00:16:48] Because I was in Northern England and I said I'm pouring a cup of coffee
[00:16:53] and she says, oh love you're from America aren't you?
[00:16:58] Here you can't pour your own cup of coffee.
[00:17:02] I have to do it for your love.
[00:17:04] And I said well thank you very much.
[00:17:06] I'm so sorry I didn't understand.
[00:17:09] You see there are different rules in England than the rules here.
[00:17:13] Now here you walk through a cafeteria line, you better pour your own coffee.
[00:17:17] If you're waiting for somebody to pour your coffee for you,
[00:17:20] you'll be waiting for a very long time or they'll think you think you're Queen Kamehameha
[00:17:25] and you know you want all that perks.
[00:17:29] It's a different way and you have to learn to live according to the different way
[00:17:34] but you know it's only temporary because you think in the land that I come from
[00:17:38] you'll pour your own coffee.
[00:17:40] It's just the way that we think.
[00:17:43] Again in England one of the things don't ask me why I'm off on this
[00:17:46] but I am it's not in my notes it's just fun.
[00:17:49] But in England you pack your own groceries.
[00:17:52] You know they might give you a bag but you're just come with your own bags
[00:17:57] which is now what we do but nobody packs them for you.
[00:18:00] You pack your own bags and that was something getting used to.
[00:18:05] They're looking at me like why are you standing there?
[00:18:08] You know pack your bag girl and I was like oh sorry about that
[00:18:12] but I was learning what it's like and you know different rules
[00:18:17] and so there I packed my own bags.
[00:18:20] If you're in New Jersey which is kind of a land all to itself
[00:18:25] you're not allowed to pump your own gasoline.
[00:18:27] You have to have an attendant pump your gas.
[00:18:30] You get out and you start to pump your gas they'll yell at you
[00:18:34] and you know if you've never heard someone from New Jersey yell it's not a pleasant experience.
[00:18:39] So the brothers are respectful of the rules of the land
[00:18:43] because they're going to cooperate with these rules
[00:18:46] because it's not the rules of where they live.
[00:18:49] Joseph brings his father then and presents him to Pharaoh.
[00:18:53] Jacob as a sojourner is a representative of God
[00:18:56] and so he blesses Pharaoh.
[00:19:00] He does not complain about the conditions of the land.
[00:19:04] No, he blesses Pharaoh.
[00:19:07] He doesn't talk about the inconveniences of travel.
[00:19:11] No, he blesses Pharaoh.
[00:19:14] What did Jacob say?
[00:19:16] What did Jacob do when he blessed?
[00:19:18] I believe there were two things.
[00:19:19] I believe that he brought a blessing is to bring the attention of God to a person
[00:19:25] and to bring that person's attention to a good God
[00:19:31] and what that God can do.
[00:19:33] That's what it is to bless.
[00:19:35] It's to get God's attention on that person.
[00:19:40] Of all his good things the Lord bless you and keep you
[00:19:44] and causes his face to shine upon you.
[00:19:48] It's bringing the attention of God on a person
[00:19:51] but also showing that person all the good that God intends
[00:19:58] and wants to give.
[00:20:00] Jacob identifies his life as this pilgrimage,
[00:20:04] a long journey away from his homeland.
[00:20:07] He says that the years have been 137 but those are few.
[00:20:12] Those are few.
[00:20:13] Can you imagine 137 days like as few,
[00:20:18] sorry 137 years as few and yet never attaining
[00:20:23] to how long his father and forefathers lived.
[00:20:26] Then something very interesting takes place in Genesis 47,
[00:20:33] 11 through 27.
[00:20:35] What you have then is a comparison between the residents of Egypt
[00:20:40] and the sojourner or the pilgrimage of the children of Israel.
[00:20:48] We read about the residents in Egypt that they continue to feel the famine.
[00:20:54] Their land is affected and subject to the deficiency of food
[00:21:00] and the harshness of nature.
[00:21:05] They're subject, they're vulnerable.
[00:21:08] And then we read that their money fails them.
[00:21:12] The currency of Egypt has failed them.
[00:21:15] Then we read that they lose all their livestock.
[00:21:18] They have to exchange their livestock just to survive,
[00:21:22] just to live.
[00:21:23] And then when their livestock all belongs to Pharaoh,
[00:21:26] all they have left is their lives and their properties.
[00:21:29] So they have to barter these things just for food.
[00:21:32] And they become indentured slaves to Pharaoh.
[00:21:37] They become weakened in poverty, suffer loss
[00:21:41] and ultimately become slaves to the land that they live in.
[00:21:48] For the rest of their days, they will owe Pharaoh one fifth
[00:21:54] of all they grow and produce.
[00:21:57] They will forever be connected to Pharaoh
[00:22:00] and owe him one fifth of anything they gain.
[00:22:06] In the meantime, the tribe of Israel is provided for abundantly by Joseph.
[00:22:15] Meanwhile, the tribe of Israel dwells in the land of Goshen,
[00:22:22] a land with plenty.
[00:22:25] Meanwhile, they are able to hold on to their livestock.
[00:22:31] They're not traded.
[00:22:32] They keep their possessions.
[00:22:34] Meanwhile, the tribe of Jacob multiplies.
[00:22:38] It grows.
[00:22:39] Here is the difference between pilgrims and residents.
[00:22:45] In the end, those who belong to the earth will owe all they have to the earth
[00:22:52] and find themselves slaves to it
[00:22:54] and making payments on all their labor for the rest of their lives.
[00:23:01] But those who are pilgrims enjoy the best of the land.
[00:23:06] They are fed.
[00:23:07] They're taken care of.
[00:23:08] They keep what God has given to them and they cannot lose it.
[00:23:12] They flourish, growing and multiplying.
[00:23:15] This is the difference between visiting Russia and living in Russia.
[00:23:22] That's the difference.
[00:23:23] When you go on a pilgrimage, when you go to visit a land,
[00:23:28] you're usually getting the best of the land, the best treatment,
[00:23:32] the best food.
[00:23:32] I remember visiting Jamaica.
[00:23:35] Our tour guide was telling us how the crime is so bad in Jamaica.
[00:23:43] I just looked at her and my eyes got really big and she said,
[00:23:46] oh, not for you.
[00:23:47] You're a tourist.
[00:23:49] We treat tourists so well.
[00:23:52] It's like an unwritten rule here in Jamaica that nobody hurts a tourist
[00:23:57] because we need your money.
[00:23:59] We want you to love Jamaica and to come back to Jamaica
[00:24:02] and spend money here.
[00:24:03] Now we're only mean to each other.
[00:24:05] That's the difference between being a resident and a pilgrim.
[00:24:10] As a pilgrim, you get the best, not the worst.
[00:24:14] The path to blessing in Jacob's life was indirect and seemingly senseless.
[00:24:19] Jacob had no idea of the ways in which God was working behind the scenes
[00:24:24] to safeguard his inheritance, preserve and protect his family
[00:24:28] and bring them into the blessings he had promised
[00:24:31] In order to inherit God's blessing, Jacob had to lose his most beloved son for a time,
[00:24:38] leave the land of promise and settle his whole clan in Egypt.
[00:24:42] In all of this, God was present and working to fulfill the promises he made.
[00:24:48] In the same way we might not clearly see how God is present
[00:24:52] and working to fulfill his promises to us.
[00:24:55] But we can trust that we'll see the goodness
[00:24:57] and faithfulness of God in our lives as he works behind the scenes.
[00:25:03] We hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study.
[00:25:06] For more information about the Gracious Words Radio program
[00:25:08] and the teaching ministry of Cheryl Brodersen,
[00:25:11] please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:15] Coming up next time on the Gracious Words program
[00:25:17] we'll conclude our look at the life of Pilgrimage
[00:25:19] as we continue our series Our Great Creator
[00:25:22] in the book of Genesis with Cheryl Brodersen.
[00:25:25] We do hope you make plans to join us.
[00:25:29] Again, for more information please visit our website at graciouswords.com
[00:25:33] We will come for you Lord and wonder, wonder
[00:25:42] We will fall on our knees and surrender
[00:25:47] We surrender to you
[00:25:52] This program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel, Coast Amesa, California.
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