Genesis 46:1-7: a reflection

1Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. 2God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” He said, “Here I am.” 3He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation. 4I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again. Joseph’s hand will close your eyes.” 5Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt—Jacob, and all his offspring with him, 7his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and he brought all his offspring with him into Egypt.

Old Jacob is about to make a momentous and frightening journey: leaving the promised land to go down to Egypt, where his long-lost son Joseph now rules. It is a huge transition for an old man, uprooting his whole family and moving into an unknown future in a foreign land. On the way, at Beersheba, he stops to offer sacrifices, and God speaks to him in the night with words of reassurance perfectly suited to his fear.

Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, God says, for there I will make you into a great nation. I will go down with you, and I will surely bring you up again. God does not remove the transition or make the journey unnecessary; instead he promises his presence in it. I will go down with you. Jacob would not face this daunting move alone; God himself would go with him into Egypt and would bring his descendants back again. The presence of God transformed a frightening journey into one Jacob could make in peace.

You may face your own daunting transitions, moves, changes, journeys into an unknown future that frighten you. God's word to Jacob is the promise you can hold: do not be afraid, for I will go with you. God does not always remove the hard transition, but he promises to accompany you through it. When you must step into something big and uncertain, remember that you do not go alone. The God who said to Jacob, I will go down with you, goes with his people still, into every unknown. Do not be afraid.

Lord, when Jacob faced a frightening journey into an unknown future, you told him not to be afraid, for you would go down with him and bring him up again. When I face my own daunting transitions and journeys into the unknown, speak that same word to me. You may not remove the hard change, but you promise to go with me through it. Let me not be afraid, for you go with me into every unknown. Amen.