After 21 years of believing Joseph was dead, Jacob has come to understand that he is, in fact, alive! Moreover, Joseph had asked his father, through his brethren, Jacob’s sons, to come with all he had and live with him in Egypt. However, instead of behaving, as we might think he would, vis-à-vis pack up immediately and go to Egypt to see his long-lost son, Jacob packed up and went, first, to Beersheba. There, he sacrificed to the Lord, and inquired of him, what he should do! Imagine! He realized that Joseph was alive and asked him to come to Egypt, so Joseph could see his father and provide for him and his family, to keep them alive in the famine, ensuring that they wouldn’t come to poverty. Yet, Jacob wanted to know what the Lord thought about all this, and how he should react! That’s faith! None of his sons have ever shown this kind of faith, except for Joseph. We don’t know much about Benjamin at this point, but we do know some of the history of the other brethren, and they don’t express even a superficial concern to behave properly before the Lord their God. Yet, the Lord calls them his covenant people! How should we understand this?
Abraham had many sons, Ishmael (Genesis 16:15), Isaac (Genesis 21:3) and six sons by his concubine, Keturah (Genesis 25:1-2). However, not all the sons of Abraham fell under the Covenant umbrella, which the Lord had made with Abraham. Only his son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob and his sons were considered in a covenant relationship with the Lord, vis-à-vis heirs of the Covenant, which he made with Abraham (Genesis 17:21). Although, ultimately, faith is important, in the beginning, it wasn’t individual faith that brought one into a relationship with the Lord, it was the faith of the fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Their faith acted as a blanket that covered the behavior of their descendants as long as they didn’t outright rebel against God.
God has always been patient in all manner of behavior, except for rebellion, the behavior that pushes God out of one’s knowledge and one’s life (Romans 1:28), vis-à-vis the desire to be independent from God, is the only matter that ended one’s relationship with him. This has been so from Eden until this very day. Therefore, the behavior of Jacob’s sons, although sinful and disrespectful, was not rebellion. Judah comes close, when he leaves Jacob in Genesis 38, but he returns. I say these things, because we need to be careful about judging one another’s behavior. What is sinful, may not be rebellion, and sin, in itself, is not enough to end one’s relationship with the Lord.
So, Jacob made himself ready and journeyed to Beersheba in order to sacrifice to the Lord. There he inquired of God, as that pertained to his leaving the Land of Canaan, the land which the Lord promised to give the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to go and live in Egypt (Genesis 46:1).
There in Beersheba, the Lord appeared to Jacob in a dream (Genesis 46:2), and told him he was the God of his fathers, and he should not be concerned about journeying to Egypt. The Lord promised Jacob that he would go down with him and be with him in Egypt and make him a great nation there, but he also promised to bring him back to the Land of Canaan, but first his eyes will see his son Joseph, whom he thought was dead (Genesis 46:3-4). Therefore, Jacob rose up from worshiping the Lord and permitted his sons to take him and his family in the carriages that Pharaoh had provided, and together with all his belongings they journeyed to Egypt (Genesis 45:5-6).
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