Genesis 46

And God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob! And he said, here I am. And He said, I am God, the God of your fathers. Do not fear to go down into Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again. And Joseph shall put his hand on your eyes.
(Gen 46:2-4)

Once again the Lord shares His great promise with Jacob. “I will make you a great nation.” We will see that this promise was incredibly true, but it wouldn’t come without some real pain and heartache. It wasn’t instant, this process of becoming a nation, nor was it pretty. There would soon come a time (we will see it at the beginning of Exodus) when they would be slaves to Pharaoh, doing HIS bidding, facing HIS awful laws… At one point all of their baby boys would be obliterated. This didn’t change the promise, nor the faithfulness of God.

The lord will keep His promises, but He never promises that the road will be easy. These people went from a family of 70 to a nation of about 2,000,000 while in Egypt. It was something only the Lord could accomplish. During those many years in Egypt I am sure there were many times when people doubted the promise, maybe even forgot it… but that never changed the fact that God would keep it. Difficult times will come, and we will be tempted to just say that God isn’t there and blame it all on Him. Don’t cave in to these kinds of feelings… The Lord knows the end from the beginning! We see it right here in this chapter, the fact that the Egyptians HATED shepherds and considered them an ABOMINATION, is the very thing that kept the Israelites from inter-marrying with the Egyptians. Often, the very trials that cause us to doubt the Lord in our flesh are the very means by which He accomplishes His promises in our lives…

So, if you feel hated, abused, attacked… If you look at the circumstances of your life and think, “how could God be working?” just remember the Israelites and what they went through… and the glory that was there’s in the end!