After Jacob's death, the brothers feared Joseph would enact vengeance due to the suffering they had caused him. In humility, the brothers pleaded for forgiveness, and Joseph, in compassion, extended forgiveness and promised to provide for them and their children. From this passage, we learn about the characteristics of seeking and extending forgiveness and see how this story ultimately points us towards Jesus Christ.

As Jacob’s life is coming to an end, he is looking both backward, reflecting on God’s promises and faithfulness in his life. He also looks forward to how God will fulfill his promises to his sons, turning them into a great nation and giving them the land God has promised him and his fathers. In an act of faith, he adopts Ephraim and Manasseh as his own, giving Joseph a double portion. Believing that God will fulfill His promises.

After Israel settled in Goshen, the narrative returns to the famine in the land. Our passage contrasts the people of Egypt and the people of God (Israel). The people of Egypt struggled to survive the famine and sold their livestock, land, and themselves. In contrast, the people of God are acquiring land and becoming fruitful and multiplying. The people of Egypt come to Joseph to save them from death (starvation). In contrast, Jacob comes to Joseph to help him deal with his body after death.

The momentous reunion of Joseph and Jacob that has been long anticipated in the story is all but swallowed up in the larger context of the nation of Israel’s descent into Egypt. Through Joseph’s wisdom, God preserved Israel physically and spiritually in Goshen, where they lived in Egypt and remained distinct. Under Joseph’s administrative wisdom, and Jacob’s blessing of Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s honoring of Israel, Israel and Egypt survived the grievous famine and prospered.

Jacob, named “Israel,” is marked by prevailing in the struggle of life. Leaves Canaan to be reunited with his son, knowing the dangers and challenges ahead. Stops at Beersheba to remember the Lord and offers a sacrifice of worship and reliance on the Lord. In the middle of the night, the Lord reveals and reassures Jacob that the Lord is the “I will God”. Just like Jacob, the Christian life is marked by prevailing struggle. How do we prevail in the struggle of life?

After his brothers respond to his test in Genesis 44, Joseph is overcome with emotion and finally reveals himself. Shocked and scared, the brothers sit in dismay as Joseph reassures them that God is ultimately in control and used their sinful actions to bring about His will for His glory and their good. He further urges them to bring this good news and testimony to their father Jacob so God can open up his heart to receive and believe it that his son is alive.

Joseph puts the brothers through the final test. If the first test was designed to retrieve Benjamin, the second test is designed to expose their genuine attitude towards their youngest brother, Benjamin. In this final test, we continue to see evidence of the Lord’s restoring work.

All the brothers, including Benjamin, are returning to Egypt on their second journey. As the Lord is restoring this broken family, we begin to see the Lord’s transforming grace in their lives. Where their hearts are changing, they are concerned for one another and are willing to lay down their lives for one another, and they are slowly turning from fear to trusting the Lord.

In our text today, the Lord, through Joseph, will put his brothers to the test. He will put them in the same situation where they failed and decided to sell their brother into slavery for personal gain, and lied about it. Will they do the same again? We will learn that through the testing of our faith, the Lord continues his restoration work.

Starting with chapter forty-two, the author will draw our attention to the condition of Jacob and his sons. What we will immediately discover is that this is still a very broken family. Over the course of their journey to Egypt, the Lord will begin his restoration work on this broken family. We will learn this restoration work occurs in the middle of a famine, it is a deep and slow work, whereby the Lord will humble them and expose their hidden sin.

If the Lord was with Joseph, and if Joseph remained faithful and persevered, why does it seem like things went from bad to worse in his life? Throughout the Bible there is a paradoxical principle, before exaltation comes humiliation. As we take a closer look at Joseph’s exaltation and Pharaoh’s humiliation, we will see that the Lord is the one who exalts the humble and humbles the exalted.

We find that despair sets in for Joseph whose been left in jail for years, and Pharoah who receives multiple disturbing dreams. But their desperate paths will soon collide as Pharoah is recommended to find the meaning of his dreams from Joseph, who is pulled from prison to sit before the king. Joseph points Pharoah to see how only God can provide the knowledge to find the diagnosis of one’s real problems and how only God’s wisdom can guide one’s actions towards the only cure!

Joseph was a victim of his brother’s hatred, of the false accusations of Potiphar’s wife, and now the forgetfulness of a cupbearer. It is easy to rush through the story where Joseph exchanged his prison clothes for the crown of Egypt. But what we must understand is that the events in chapter forty make possible the advancement in chapter forty-one. In chapter forty Joseph is called to persevere. Just like Joseph we are called to persevere.

In our text today, we are going to see Joseph confronted by temptation. Unlike his brother Judah who gave into temptation, Joseph resisted temptation and overcame temptation. How did Joseph overcome the temptation? The Lord’s presence.

In the highs and lows of Joseph’s life in Egypt, the key point hammered home repeatedly is God’s presence with Joseph. This was the reason for his endurance and diligence as a slave in Egypt, the success in his work and being a blessing to others, and how he could have victory over the temptation of sin. Christians can take heart, for like Joseph in the highs and lows of life, the Lord is with us.

We come to an obscure story that seems like an interruption from Joseph in Egypt. Yet this interruption is important, because through the evil actions of Judah, his two sons (Er & Onan), and Tamar, the Lord, executes his divine judgment, shows mercy to Judah, and redeems the broken situation by providing the continuation of the promised seed.

As we are introduced to the sons of Jacob, it becomes very evident of the dysfunction of their family. Jacob loved Joseph, while his brothers hated him more and more. This familial relationship breeds destruction and death. Yet the Lord is working in the destruction of their sin, accomplishing his purposes of salvation. That means our only hope when we find ourselves entangled with sin, is the work of God.

Encountering God Almighty changes everything. God – through His calling, revelation, and promises – is the source of transforming grace and sustaining grace. We'll see how that is true in Jacob's life as his story in Genesis comes to a close, and we'll see how we must live our lives in light of God’s transforming grace, by the power of his sustaining grace.

God has come through marvelously for Jacob – restoring his relationship to his estranged brother and restoring him to the land of promise. But as soon as he found himself settling in, disaster strikes. Things quickly escalade from bad to worse. When the story seems to end with only tragedy, God speaks.

As the night had passed and the day had begun, Jacob emerged as a transformed man. When he faces his brother Esau, he is a completely different man. As we look at the evidence of Jacob’s transformation, we will learn how God can transform us.

In the tense anxiety of the night, Jacob is waiting to see if his plan will succeed and if his brother will accept him. While waiting all alone in the night, God appeared in human form and wrestled Jacob throughout the night. Depriving Jacob of his natural strength, making him weak and yet declaring him the victor. What was the purpose of this wrestling, what did it mean for Jacob and what does it mean for us?

Jacob is on the doorstep of the greatest trial of his life. He has an angry brother ahead of him and an angry father-in-law behind him, and all his family and accumulated wealth is at stake. His conniving has cornered him into imminent disaster. His only hope is divine deliverance and out of fear and desperation he turns the Lord in prayer.

The conflict between Jacob and Laban continues and will come to a head. Laban’s animosity towards Jacob begins to grow. In more deceit Jacob sneaks away from Laban. Laban pursues and overtakes him and the two finally come to terms with each other. Yet, Jacob’s prosperity, protection and preservation are not a result of Jacob’s cleverness, wit or strength, but a result of the Lord’s intervening work.

The cunning Laban and Jacob the deceiver will enter a duel of attempting to outsmart one another through tactics of deceit and trickery. Yet Jacob will prevail at the expense of Laban. Not because he outsmarted Laban, but because of the Lord’s grace and the Lord being faithful in fulfilling his promises to Jacob.

A major theme in the life of Jacob is conflict, conflict with his brother Esau, his father-in-law Laban and now we will see conflict surrounding his two wives. Two rival sisters competing with one another over their husband’s affection, utilizing their power to conceive and using every scheme possible to gain the upper hand. What is the Lord doing in all this dysfunction? We will learn that when sin is rampant, God does His greatest work.

Jacob receives a taste of his own medicine, when his uncle Laban takes advantage of him and deceives him. Over time the Lord would use this painful experience to expose and remove his sin and mold him into a man that is both humble, submissive and dependent on the Lord. We learn that the Lord is committed to transforming His people.

In today’s message, we see that God’s will is always accomplished even in spite of our sins. God’s covenant blessing is from God, fulfilled by God, to bless His people and we can trust in Him.

A theme in the life of Isaac is that the Lord protects and provides in adversity. Isaac must learn to trust the Lord in adversity, and at times he will stumble in fear, but the Lord will remain faithful in providing and fulfilling His covenant promises.

In our text today we will be introduced to Isaac whose life is filled with struggles, the struggle to conceive, the struggle between two brothers and the struggle for the birthright. In these struggles, the text is pointing us to look ahead in how God is working in fulfilling His covenant promises and how God in His sovereign grace is choosing His covenant people.

As we come to the end of Abraham’s life, the account of his death and burial is in between two “rejected genealogies”. The genealogy of Keturah’s sons and Ishmael. Twice we will be reminded that Isaac is the one blessed by God, who will inherit the covenant promises. The natural questions are, what is the purpose of mentioning these “rejected genealogies”? What makes Isaac so special? What is the Lord revealing about Himself?

As we turn to scene 3, the author transitions us from the well to the family’s house of Rebekkah. The question is would Rebekah answer the call. Would she trust the Lord, and leave her family, country and all that she knows to go to a land where the Lord will show her and become the wife of a man she had never met and become part of the family of God?

As Abraham reaches the end of his life, he needs to find a wife for Isaac, so that the Lord will fulfill his covenant promises. The task of finding a wife for Isaac was so important that he sent his most trusted servant under an oath. What we learn is that both Abraham and the servant’s confidence and actions were rooted in the covenant promises of the Lord.

After the death of Sarah, Abraham looks for a burial plot to bury his wife. Amazingly though, Abraham doesn’t return to his homeland of Ur of the Chaldeans, but instead rests in God’s promises that one day his descendants will inherit the land he is currently a sojourner in. As such, he stays and buys a plot of land in Canaan to bury Sarah in, that one day his entire family will also utilize, showing how God’s promise of Abraham’s descendants inheriting the land comes true.

God’s command that Abraham should sacrifice his son is highly unusual. This narrative raises many questions that remain unanswered. But what becomes very clear in the beginning of this narrative that behind this command, God is testing Abraham. Does Abraham truly trust God in fulfilling his promises to him? What we will discover in this test is the outcome of the matter that reveals as much about God as it does about Abraham.

A constant theme of Genesis 20-21 is the Lord’s provision, protection and presence in accordance with His divine promises. That did not mean Abraham was passive, but rather Abraham had to learn to trust in the Lord’s provision, protection and presence. As a sojourner the Lord was teaching Abraham to rely on and trust Him.

God’s covenant promise comes true as Abraham and Sarah joyously conceive their only child Isaac. Their joy quickly turns to distress, as Abraham is forced to send Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness trusting God’s promises to care for them, to which God miraculously does as He shows how He is the ultimate promise-keeper!

Again, Abraham fails to trust the Lord for protection and resorts instead to deception. Despite Abraham’s failure, God preserves the covenant line of promise, just as He had in Egypt. The preservation of Sarah and the blessings from the Gerarites illustrate again the surprising grace of God, who ensures that the promise will come to pass.

After the Lord rescued Lot, we to come to the end of Lot’s life in a dark cave hiding in fear with his two daughters. With good intentions they want to preserve their father’s line, but with deplorable means of incest. How do we make sense of the story, and why does Peter refer to Lot as righteous? We will discover that the Lord can redeem from the darkest cave.

After the Lord revealed His plan to Abraham, we see the unfolding of the Lord’s plan in rightfully judging the evil cities, and in His mercy rescuing Lot from the coming destruction of the evil cities. As we look at the story, there are two questions we need to answer from our text: Why does God destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Why does God rescue Lot?

While Abraham and Sarah are struggling to trust the Lord and His promise of a son. The Lord appears to them in visible form, giving them assurance for keeping His promise. In Sarah’s pain and disappointment behind closed doors, the Lord saw her, heard her, and knew exactly what was going on in her heart and in His grace told her that nothing was impossible for Him.

The Lord established His covenant with Abraham and provided both a sign of the covenant and an obligation to the covenant for Abraham and his descendants. In our text we will discover that the true people of God are not from natural birth, but from a miraculous birth that comes from the promise of God and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

Thirteen years have passed since the birth of Ishmael and the Lord appeared to Abram again. In the Lord’s appearance, He identifies Himself as God Almighty, gives Abram a command to follow and reconfirms His covenant with a sign and a seal. We learn five truths about the Lord’s covenant with Abram and see how it finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ.

As we continue to follow the life of Abram, you will notice the “ups and downs” of Abram’s faith. In our text today, Abram’s faith is at an incredible low, where both Abram and Sarai doubted the word of the Lord. Sarai complains, Abram complies, and Hagar ended up a casualty. Yet the Lord in His grace intervened and revealed Himself to Hagar giving her an instruction and a promise.

In our text today, the Lord revealed Himself to Abram in a vision, where the Lord identifies Himself in terms of His relationship with Abram. Reaffirms His promises to Abram and seals His promises with a covenant. Abram responds to these promises, by believing in the Lord to fulfill these promises. As a result, the Lord credited it to Him as righteousness.

In the separation of Lot and Abram we are going to see the foolishness of Lot looking around and seeing the lushness of the land on the other side, not knowing that evil was lurking nearby. In contrast we are going to see the faithfulness of Abram looking up, trusting the Lord, and waiting for the Lord to fulfill His promises to him.

At times Abram displays great faith as He is trusting the Lord to fulfill His promises, but then in our story today Abram displays a lack of trust in the Lord’s protection and provision. Yet, despite Abram’s lack of faith, the Lord remained faithful in keeping his promises. For the Lord’s faithfulness in keeping His promises to Abram did not depend on how Abram behaved, but on the fact that the Lord called Him and made those promises to Him.

In Genesis 3-11, all we have read is God’s curses upon humanity, but now starting in Genesis 12 we read about God’s blessing. We learn that the Lord is the source of this blessing, Abram is both the recipient of, and the conduit of this blessing and the nations are the beneficiaries of this blessing.

In chapter 11, we discover both the source and the reason for the forming of the nations. One of the things we are going to discover in our passage is how it mirrors the first human family in the Garden of Eden. Yet despite man’s wickedness, the Lord graciously intervenes to restrain their wickedness, and continues His rescue mission through the promised seed.

Chapter 10 presents a panoramic view of an expanding human population in terms of clans, languages, lands, and nations. Rather than skipping over it, we need to pause and see the forming of nations, and what it reveals to us about God.

The Bible is the story of how God rescues His people from sin and death. In Genesis 9, God continues to unfold his redemptive plan through Noah and his sons for the hope of a savior to be realized in the eventual coming of Jesus Christ.

Throughout the narrative of the flood, we continue to see the Lord’s mercy and provision. In our text we see how Noah responds to the Lord’s mercy and provision, and the Lord making a promise to Noah and his descendants.

As we read the narrative of the great flood, we are reminded of the Lord’s judgment. The reason why the Lord is executing His judgment is because the Lord has declared based on substantial evidence that the earth is corrupt, and every creature has corrupted its ways and that humans have filled the earth with violence. The Lord is not executing judgment on an innocent world, but on a guilty, corrupt, and violent world. In our text, we will discover five truths of the Lord’s judgment.

If God has declared the world to be corrupt and God has announced its impending judgment, what hope is there for man to escape the corruption of evil and God’s judgment? It is only by God’s grace through His provision that He makes for us that we can be saved from the corruption of evil and God’s impending judgment. For Noah believed in God’s promises and provision and Noah obeyed God’s instructions and commands.

If man is corrupt and evil all the time, and God sees and grieves over man’s wickedness, and declares to destroy man because of his wickedness, what is man’s hope to escape corruption, the spread of evil, and God’s just judgment?

Following the account of human sin and death, we come across a unique genealogy. The genealogy of Seth stands in contrast to the genealogy of Cain. In this genealogy we see the continuing effects of sin, and the faithfulness of God’s promise of providing a seed from the woman to defeat their enemy.

After sin is introduced into creation, we see in the story of Cain and Abel how it takes deadly effect. Despite multiple warnings from God, Cain becomes consumed by sin and kills his brother. With Abel’s innocent blood calling for justice, sin seems to have secured its victory over creation as it spins further out of control. But when all hope seems lost, the Lord reminds us how one day sin will be conquered.

Before the entry of sin, the man and woman enjoyed the presence of God without shame, enjoyed the gracious provision of God, whereby they were exercising their dominion over it and the garden was flourishing because the man was caring for it. The man and woman enjoyed their relationship with one another, since they recognized their distinctive identity and roles. But once sin entered through their rebellion it would fracture these relationships.

The man lived with his wife in harmony in the beautiful garden that God had provided, fulfilling the commission of God, enjoying the provision and presence of God, and obeying the command of God. In the deception of sin everything changes, as man begins to believe a lie about God, and focuses on what he can gain and neglect on what he will lose. He acts on that lie and rebels against God by wanting to be like God, declaring what is good and evil for himself.

As we looked at creation in general, we now transition to a narrow focus of creation, namely the forming of man, the provision, commission, and the command for man. As the Lord is at the center of all these activities, we see that the Lord God is deeply personal.

In the final day of the creation week more space and details are given, which indicates whatever God created on that day is special. We discover that the crown of God’s handiwork is human life, and how God created us.

As we begin to read the opening chapter of Genesis, it reveals to us God. How God has organized the world and commissioned humans to rule over His creation. How God has structed space and time. We will be the most productive in our study of the creation narrative if we focus on the main subject – God and learn seven truths about God.