Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20000521.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part III: God's Ongoing Program Of Countering Man's Apostasy At Babel
II. Round Thirty-Four - Discerning By Faith When God CHANGES His Direction FOR Us
(Genesis 46:1-7)
  1. Introduction
    1. We have often taught from Scripture that God leads us believers in the life of faith through the vehicle of established divine precedents. In other words, there is a consistent pattern we can note of God's dealings with us in our PASTS that is to be used to determine the general direction for our futures.
    2. However, there are occasions when God's plan and pattern is modified, or sometimes even reversed. Peter learned this in Acts 10:9-20 regarding the change in diet for Christians from the Mosaic stipulations.
    3. God's leading for Jacob shifted in Genesis 46:1-7 with signals that we today can use for following such divine changes of direction as follows:
  2. Discerning By Faith When God CHANGES His Direction FOR Us, Genesis 46:1-7.
    1. When Jacob came south into Beer-Sheba as he headed toward Egypt to meet his long-lost son, Joseph, he had reason to feel a bit unsure about traveling into Egypt due to God's precedents of leading:
      1. God had led Jacob's grandfather, Abraham to remain in Beer-sheba indefinitely, Gen. 21:22-34.
        1. Back in lesson "III, L," we learned Abraham had faced the challenge of living among untrustworthy inhabitants. This was seen in his tending to deceive Abimelech re: marriage to Sarah, Gen. 20:1-2.
        2. Accordingly, God arranged for the Gentiles, Abimelech and Philcol to respect God's blessing Abraham so as to make a legally binding deal for Abraham to settle in a plot of land, Gen. 21:22-32.
        3. That plot was Beer-sheba, a place "secure" enough to Abraham that he planted a tamarisk tree in honor of God who was Everlasting, Genesis 21:33. Thus, he stayed a long while there, 21:34.
      2. God also revealed Jacob's father, Isaac, was to stay indefinitely at the same Beer-Sheba, Genesis 26:
        1. Isaac later came into a struggle with the Canaanites over water rights, Genesis 26:13-21.
        2. Isaac backed up to the Canaanites all the way to Beer-Sheba where the Philistines finally made a peace treaty with him regarding his water-rights, Genesis 26:22, 23-31.
        3. On the very day this pact was made at Beer-sheba, Isaac's men reported they had struck water in a new well there, Genesis 26:32-33. Isaac thus understood that he should stay there as his home!
      3. Thus, for Jacob to come by Beer-sheba en route to EGYPT, leaving Beer-Sheba behind meant he was leaving a haven GOD had formerly indicated to his forebears was their indefinite home:
      4. When God appeared to Jacob in a dream at Beer-Sheba, God's "fear not" in reference to his going into Egypt indicates that Jacob probably had some misgivings about breaking with the precedent about leaving the area indicated by God that his family was to use as their home base! (Gen. 46:3)
    2. Apparently unsure of his journey, Jacob sought the Lord, building an altar at Beer-Sheba, Genesis 46:1-2.
    3. The Lord appeared in visions of the night as Jacob would have expected Him to do, and supplied information that would cause him to see God had changed his direction regarding relocating, Gen. 46:2-4:
      1. In the vision, God interacted with Jacob in such a way that Jacob had to speak to God in return, making the event crystal clear in his own mind and full of assurances, Genesis 46:2.
      2. God then told Jacob to fear not his journey into Egypt as it fit the plan of God to make a great nation of him there and later to bring that nation back, something that fit the revelation to Abraham, Gen. 15:13f
      3. Besides, the personally comforting YET Biblically upright appeal to Jacob of news that his beloved son, Joseph would close his eyes in death in Egypt would make him long to travel to Egypt, Gen. 46:4.
    4. Accordingly, Jacob left Beer-Sheba full of confidence, taking his whole family into Egypt, Gen. 46:5-7.
Lesson: When he noticed that his direction was different from God's past leading, Jacob SOUGHT the LORD for help. God then REVEALED His plans were CHANGING by showing the change MET what HIS WORD revealed was right, and that it addressed his PERSONAL desires in a BIBLICAL way!

Application: We can be sure it is God's will to CHANGE direction in our lives that REPEALS His own past precedents to us IF (a) we SEEK His will, and (b) HE responds by using SCRIPTURE coupled with (c) revealing how the change meets BIBLICALLY UPRIGHT needs or wishes we know!