(Genesis) Genesis 46:29-34

Verse 29, Now Joseph made ready his chariot, and he went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him. And he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. What a picture we have here.

We have the picture of the prodigal son coming home. Well, he's not a prodigal son. Joseph is not.

Actually, it's almost the other way around. His dad was an old prodigal, but Joseph wasn't quite like that. But here, oh, what a marvelous meeting this is.

He fell on the neck of his father, embraced him, and he wept there. And the Word of God says it was a good while. I don't know how long a good while is, but I mean it just wasn't a brisk handshake that may be meaningless.

This is quite real. Verse 30, And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive. What a joy this was to old Jacob.

And frankly, friends, I think that the old man was about ready to die. And you're going to notice that he lasts a few more years down in the land of Egypt. He barely made this trip, but he made it and got down to the land of Egypt.

And now we find that Israel and Joseph brought together. And you notice he's called Israel here. Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.

And Joseph said unto his brethren and unto his father's house, I will go up and show Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren and my father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, have come unto me. And the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle. And they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.

And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What's your occupation? That ye shall say, Thy servant's trade hath been about cattle from our youth, even until now, both we and also our fathers, that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen. For every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians. Now, they had the same problem in that day that they had in the West in the early days.

I remember when I was just a boy in West Texas, I tell you, the man that tried to raise sheep in that area, he was in trouble, and I mean real trouble. He found out he didn't have any neighbors at all. And the Egyptians just didn't care for shepherds.

It's interesting that the Word of God has had so much to say, because these people were shepherds. They raised sheep. They still do it in that land.

And this is the figure of speech that is taken to speak of our Lord. He's known as the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

He's the Great Shepherd of the sheep today. He watches over them, and he's the Chief Shepherd. He's yet to appear.

He is the shepherd. He calls himself that, and the shepherds are still an abomination to the world. He's not received today, of course.

I mean the Lord Jesus as He is, not the one that liberalism has concocted. They've made an idol that doesn't even look like the Lord Jesus of the Bible. The one they talk about is not virgin born.

He never performed miracles, and He never died for the sins of the world, and He wasn't raised bodily. Now, may I say, that's the Jesus of the liberal. Now, He never lived, never lived.

There's no record of a Jesus like that. The only one we have record of, He died for the sins of the world. He was virgin born.

He performed miracles, and He rose bodily from the grave. That's the shepherd that the world doesn't like. The one they've made, they like Him very much.

But this is now the shepherd that is not accepted. But here, the shepherds were an abomination unto the Egyptians. Now, Joseph's just a nice little word of caution.

He says, when you come in before Pharaoh, tell him you raise cattle. Well, is that accurate? Yes, they were cattle raisers. They had cattle and sheep.

And you're going to find out, though, later on, that after they give them the land of Goshen, that they also turn over their sheep, because they didn't want to take care of sheep. The children of Israel were the shepherds for the sheep in the land of Egypt. And we are going to see next time something quite wonderful, and I'd like to prepare you for that, because we find that the family of Jacob is now dwelling in the land of Goshen, and that's going to be their home, and it's going to be their home for a long time.

And we find that Joseph is going to introduce his family now to Pharaoh, and we're going to find out that they are going to stay down in the land of Goshen, which actually is the richest land down there, and that they will eventually, of course, after the death of Joseph, will become slaves in the land of Egypt. But all that time, God is with them. They become a great nation down there, and then it's Moses who's going to lead them out.

Now, God has not appeared to Joseph at all up to this point, and I just might add, He's not going to appear to him. It's the providence of God that you see in the life of Joseph now, and we can see that He has come ahead to prepare the way for these people to come down into the land of Egypt.