I remember growing up, there was a retailer that had a slogan that would be sung at the end of each of its advertisements: “A promise we make is a promise we keep.” I don’t know if they kept every single one of the possibly thousands of promises they made to customers. But the use of the slogan said, “Trust us. We’re reliable.”

We all want promise-keeping people in our lives. We want to marry a promise-keeper. We want to work with promise-keepers. We want pastors and fellow church-members who are promise keepers. We want government officials who are promise keepers.

Promises and promise-keepers are vital because they bring the future into the present. They say, right now in this moment, I tell you how I will act in the future. On that basis, you can enter into some kind of relationship with me, you can give me responsibility, you can entrust me with certain privileges.

The ultimate promise-keeper would be a person who not only told you what he would be in the future, but could tell you how the future would unfold, because he would control the future.

God is the ultimate promise-maker and promise-keeper. God tells us, who live in time, in the present, what He will be to us in the future, and in some cases, He even tells us what that future will be. Believing Him, that he is trustworthy to keep His promises, is at the heart of faith.

The whole Bible is based on God’s promises to His people. And the Joseph account is part of a much bigger and more ancient promise that God made to Joseph’s great-grandfather.

Genesis 15:1-7
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. 7 Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”

God had made a promise to Abraham. He had said that he would multiply his seed like the stars in the sky, like the sand on the shore. He had said He would give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants as a perpetual inheritance. He had said that He would bless Abraham, and in Abraham, the whole world would be blessed.

Now that’s a fairly tall order, when you think about it. Here is a group of nomadic shepherds. They aren’t multiplying quickly. Abraham has only one son by Sarah, when he is 100, Isaac. Isaac doesn’t have a huge brood, he has twins, and the older twin sells his birthright. Jacob is around 84 when he starts having children, and he is the first one to have many children, twelve sons and one daughter.

But still, a good 100 years after the promise to Abraham, it doesn’t look much like descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. It doesn’t look like an army of people ready to colonise the land of Canaan. They are a pitiful, tiny minority in a land of thousands of strong inhabitants.

Moreover, there is a second problem. As this rather small family lives in Canaan, they are in the minority, and the majority culture begins to affect them. Reuben becomes immoral. Judah goes looking for a temple prostitute. Simeon and Levi massacre a whole town. The longer this family stays in Canaan, it seems the more the smell of paganism, idolatry, and worldliness is beginning to stick on them.

How can God make a nation out of this family, in a short space of time, without the nation losing its holy separation from the idolatrous nations? Well, God actually told Abraham in the next few verses how He would do it.

Genesis 15:12-16
Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

The answer is one of the threads in the story of Joseph. For Joseph is not only an amazing example of godliness, a picture of Christ, and a wondrous example of providence. Joseph is the key link in understanding how God set his plan for Israel into high gear. Joseph is how God is going to take this nomadic tribe, this rag-tag family of shepherds, and turn them into a nation, that will colonise a land.

We’ll follow how this unfolds by seeing Israel’s Invitation, Israel’s Immigration, Israel’s Separation.

I. Israel’s Invitation

Now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” So it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. 17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and depart; go to the land of Canaan. 18 Bring your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. 19 Now you are commanded—do this: Take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives; bring your father and come. 20 Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

After Joseph had told his brother to go back to Canaan and fetch their father, it is now Pharaoh himself who gives the official blessing and permission. Notice that even the Egyptians don’t refer to Joseph by his Egyptian name, Zaphnath-paaneah. They call him by his Hebrew name. And once Pharaoh hears that Joseph’s brothers have come and that their households are still in Canaan, he commands a complete emigration from Canaan and immigration into Egypt. He offers them more than Joseph had, telling them they will have the pick of the best of the land. He not only tells them to do it, but sends all the moving equipment to make it happen, telling them not to try to bring unnecessary goods which they will get once in Egypt. And why should Pharaoh not be this generous, considering that Joseph has quite literally saved the empire from catastrophe?

21 Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them carts, according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. 22 He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments. 23 And he sent to his father these things: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey. 24 So he sent his brothers away, and they departed; and he said to them, “See that you do not become troubled along the way.”

Joseph equips them with provisions, including what would have been something of a luxury to these shepherds used to sleeping outside – extra clothing, and silver. We aren’t told why Benjamin is given the money, but more than likely it was to assure Jacob that this was true, and it was his other son by Rachel who was sending all this goodness. Now the last time we heard about robes and pieces of silver were mentioned together was when Joseph was stripped of his and traded for thirty pieces of silver. Now Joseph is giving them extra clothes, and giving them silver.

He provides needed provisions, and then he gives them an instruction: no quarrelling, no arguing along the way. Joseph knows that these changed men are still prone to argue. He saw it before his eyes in chapter 42 when they began arguing in front of him in Hebrew as to whose fault all this was.

So off they go, recipients of grace, recipients of favour, the chosen people out of all the earth, singled out to be sheltered and protected during this famine. There must have been joy in their hearts, not only because they now had hope during this famine, but because finally the deepest and darkest regret of their lives had turned out for good.

And yet, they must have wondered, “What are we going to tell our father?” Yes, they will tell him that Joseph is alive. But now the truth will also have to come out. He ended up in Egypt through their selling him into slavery. They showed him Joseph’s robe covered in blood as an act of deception, one which they now have to own, twenty years later. Their consolation is that Jacob’s anger and pain over their actions will be overwhelmed by the thought of seeing Joseph again.

25 Then they went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father. 26 And they told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.” And Jacob’s heart stood still, because he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. 28 Then Israel said, “It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

The only words we read them saying is, “Joseph is alive, and governor of Egypt.” To poor Jacob, these words must have seemed like someone toying with him, opening an old wound. He had long ago buried Joseph, in his heart, perhaps only remembering how old Joseph would have been on his birthday, or certain places, certain smells, bringing back an old memory of Joseph. To hear that his boy, the boy he lost at seventeen is alive leaves him in a kind of shock. The Hebrew of verse 26 means that Joseph was numb. He does not believe it. Jacob believed his sons when they gave him the false bad news that Joseph was dead, and now he does not believe the true good news that Joseph is alive.

But as he sees the Egyptian wagons, the extra donkeys, the clothes, the money, and Benjamin returned safe and sound with five extra changes of clothes, he knows that it is Joseph.

Jacob’s words are really like words of fulfilment. As if to say, Amen, God has been good, if I can just see him one more time, I will feel I can die and go to be with God.

II. Israel’s Immigration

46:1 So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.” 3 So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. 4 I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.” 5 Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives, in the carts which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6 So they took their livestock and their goods, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him. 7 His sons and his sons’ sons, his daughters and his sons’ daughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt.

Jacob sets off for Egypt, and arrives at a very significant place – Beersheba. It was here that God had appeared to Isaac many years before, and here Isaac had set up an altar. Jacob shows his gratitude and devotion to God, and it is then that God speaks to Jacob.

Now the text doesn’t tell us that Jacob was having doubts within himself about going down to Egypt, but he almost certainly was. He wanted to see Joseph, but probably was thinking of seeing Joseph and heading right back to Canaan, in spite of all the invitations to come and reside there. After all, the promises to Abraham and Isaac are tied to the land of Canaan. Isaac was explicitly warned to not go down to Egypt.

So while Jacob is trying to understand these circumstances – his precious son is in Egypt, there is famine in Canaan, there is food in Egypt, now comes some direct, special revelation assuring him that this is all in God’s plan. Look at the assurance in verse 3. God says, I will turn your family into a nation down there. Now that is important new information. How long does that take? More than one generation. God is telling Jacob that his plan to multiply the seed of Abraham like the stars of the sky is going to take place, for a time, outside of the borders of Israel. Egypt is going to be a womb for this family to grow into a nation. But that means that Jacob will die in Egypt. Perhaps he is worried that he will not be buried in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Isaac were buried.

But God says, I will be with you on the way down, Jacob, and I will bring you back. What God means is that he will bring Jacob’s bones back, and bring the nation back. And God promises that Jacob will see Joseph.

Now what follows is a list of all Jacob’s descendants. The list is divided into the descendants of Jacob through Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah. Genealogies, particularly in Genesis, are often more summaries than they are exacting biological records, and often for poetic reasons, to make them memorable. This is not an exacting account of everyone who went from Canaan to Egypt because Joseph and his sons are mentioned, are they were already in Egypt. The list doesn’t mention the wives of the sons of Israel. It’s my belief that Benjamin’s children were all born in Egypt. And certainly, there were many, many other menservants and maidservants who were part of the household. The goal here is simply to point out that the Jacob who had fled to Laban with nothing, who had returned to Canaan with much, is now a father with a good 70 descendants already. Apparently Judah has now taken the place of the head of the household, because Jacob appoints him to lead the way, to be the mediator in the reunion between father and son. Once before, Jacob sent a party ahead of a reunion, when he sent a gift before reuniting with Esau. He does it again here. We then can only picture the emotion of what followed.

28 Then he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out before him the way to Goshen. 29 So Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; and he presented himself to him, and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. 30 And Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive.”

We have to imagine the Egyptian entourage arriving with all its pomp and regalia, all the footsoldiers, the cavalry, the accompanying chariots. And when this sight of power, churning up the dust of Goshen finally met up with the slow moving wagons Jacob’s family, we imagine both parties halting. The brothers then helping their 130 year-old father down from one of the wagons. Then Joseph, in all his royal regalia, walking, and then faster, until running, and then literally flinging himself into his father’s arms, embracing him. He is not here the governor of Egypt. He is Joseph the lad again, with his father. And Israel repeats what he said to the other brothers. His life is complete. He sounds like Simeon – now let your servant depart, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.

III. Israel’s Separation

Now what happens next shows that Joseph has not been assimilated into the Egyptian culture or religion. He is still very much aware of the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Look at what he says to them.

31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and those of my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32 And the men are shepherds, for their occupation has been to feed livestock; and they have brought their flocks, their herds, and all that they have.’ 33 So it shall be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 that you shall say, ‘Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

Joseph says, “Look, I am going to meet with Pharaoh, and tell him about you. I am going to tell him you have always been shepherds, and are still shepherds, and plan to be shepherds and have brought your animals with you. Pharaoh is going to interview you, and he will ask you what you do. Make sure you say, the only thing we know how to do is be shepherds. Don’t put on airs or try to impress Pharaoh and tell him you are agricultural consultants, or livestock project management.

Why? Joseph gives what seems like a funny reason. Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they were. Shepherds were the lowest caste in Egypt, truly frowned upon. Hieroglyphics found in Egypt portray shepherds with angry, contorted expressions.

Why does Joseph want these men to self-identify with shepherding? Surely that is going to be an awkward moment in the throne room. Shouldn’t the brothers of Joseph be diplomats, magi, seers, captains, poets? When they admit to that, there will be a nervous clearing of the throats in the throne-room, so nervous side-glances, a bit of a shocked look from Pharaoh. So why does Joseph do this? The answer is, Joseph believes the promises to Abraham and wants to make sure Israel remains separate. He knows that Pharaoh will gladly give Joseph’s brothers government positions, and happily give them estates in or near the great Egyptian cities. They will become part of Egypt and assimilate into Egypt. And within a generation or two, they will be Egyptian, and the promises to Abraham will have failed.

So the only way to preserve Israel is if the Egyptians, in a sense, find them detestable, and quarantine them. And that will only happen if the brothers of Joseph make it emphatically clear that they are unemployable in any other vocation than that of shepherd, that they are determined to continue to be that group of people that the Egyptians frown upon. Joseph knows that when his brothers say they are shepherds, Pharaoh will be a tad uncomfortable, but then in deference to Joseph, his solution will be to give them a tract of land away from mainstream Egypt, with the kind of pasture land conducive for herding.

With the best land for herding, and a land away from Egypt, two things will happen. Israel will grow and multiply, but Israel will multiply without losing their Hebrew identity. Israel will grow into a nation, while being distinctive as the Hebrew nation, the nation of Israel. They will be a nation hosted by another nation, a nation living in Egypt without becoming Egyptian.

Indeed, it may even play a part when plagues are rained down on Egypt, but do not afflict Israel. He does not want the promises of Abraham to be assimilated in Egyptian wealth and culture. Joseph knows that the only way God’s ultimate purposes for Israel will come true, which are bigger than Egypt and bigger than this famine, is if Israel is preserved. Isn’t it amazing that though Joseph may have an Egyptian name, and an Egyptian wife, he has retained his distinctive identity as one of God’s people.

So Joseph’s plan plays out exactly as he had thought it would.

47:1 Then Joseph went and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan; and indeed they are in the land of Goshen.” 2 And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh. 3 Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers.” 4 And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to dwell in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.” 5 Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6 The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock.”

Pharaoh is generous and responds to the request of the with a situation that would benefit them and suit the Egyptians. These shepherds could dwell in Goshen. Some believe Goshen was the land east of the Nile Delta, essentially between Egypt and Canaan. But it was where pastureland existed, and Pharaoh is even willing to give the brothers the position of royal herdsmen.

Now Jacob is brought before Pharaoh, and notice who blesses whom.

7 Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?” 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” 10 So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

Pharaoh knows what the occupation of Jacob is, because it passed from father to son. But seeing all these descendants, and perhaps his appearance intrigues Pharaoh. The Egyptians of this time thought of the ideal human lifespan as 110 years. So he asks, Jacob, how old are you?

Jacob tells him he is 130, and he has not attained to the age of his fathers – Abraham who lived to 175, and Isaac to 180. In fact, Isaac had only died about ten years before this, when Jacob was 120. Jacob doesn’t know that he is going to live for another 17 years, he feels he has already reached the end. He has had a life full of hardship and grief.

But he is not bitter. He is thankful for Pharaoh’s kindness to his family, and he blesses Pharaoh at the beginning and at the end. The book of Hebrews tells us that the lesser is always blessed by the greater. So if Jacob, a lowly shepherd is blessing the supreme leader of the world’s greatest empire, who is greater?

11 And Joseph situated his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 Then Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread, according to the number in their families.

So what has just happened? The nation of Israel is now being nursed with the milk of Egypt, while remaining a separate nation. A group of seventy is now going to begin to multiply. Do you know that if four people each have four children, and those children all have four, you only have to repeat that ten times, and you have 1 million people. Ten periods of 40 years – or 400 years, and you will have a nation of a million. Add another few years, increase the fertility, and you will have a nation of 2-3 million, which is what Israel was by the time of Moses.

Furthermore, you will have a nation of people speaking Hebrew, keeping the Abrahamic covenant, being aware that their God is not one of the gods of Egypt.

Can God keep His promises? Can God make a nation out of a family? Can He preserve their identity? Can He get them to remain Israelite, and yet grow big enough to conquer a nation?

Can God keep his promises to us? What if the situation looks bleak? What if the resources seem slim? What if the prospects don’t look good?

2 Corinthians 1:20
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

Christ is the ultimate proof that God keeps His promises, and the ultimate ground of God keeping all His promises. Joseph reminds us that there is only One person of whom we can infallibly say, “A promise He makes, is a promise He keeps.”