Genesis 46-50 To a New Journey
Finally, the story of Genesis has come to an end. And it also means the end of Jacob and Joseph's lives and which signifies the beginning of a new era. A era of hardship, pain and sweat but full of miracles and God's grace.
In this story God spoke to Jacob again and reassured him about the plan of moving his whole household to Egypt for the famine was severe and there was no food left anywhere else. God also promised him that one day He will bring them all back to the promised land. I wonder why exactly it is important for them to go back to that place. In the beginning it was a place Abraham was ordered to move into. And ever since then it was deemed as their promised land.
That land might mean a lot to the Hebrew people in the bible, but seemingly, it really doesn't mean much to the rest of our readers as we might not even set foot on it in our lifetime, let alone to reside there. But everything starts to make sense when I look at it metaphorically. The promised land means a state of our life that is at its best. And to be more precise, it is more about the inward state. Things happen in life and they don't always go in our ways. There will be times of challenges and times of sorrow and pain. But the promised land is always there within ourselves. We need to go back and look within us to connect to that promised land. Promised land also means Jesus and the Kingdom of heaven. It is easy for us to get caught up in life and feel lost in our ways but Jesus is always there within us to remind us who we are. With my new found perspective, now I can understand better why God insisted that the people of Israel must go back to Canaan. It was never really about the physical place even though it was depicted as so in the story as a metaphor.
Furthermore, it was hilarious that Joseph tried to put Jacob's hands on the heads of his sons in correct order. Despite his body was frail and eyes were dim, Jacob still managed to put the younger son, Ephraim as first for blessings. It was almost like a tradition in this household because he did the same thing when he stole the first born blessings from his brother Esau.
God surely was humorous when it came to choose an heir for the Israel people. It was always either the younger one or the one who clearly committed sins and errors. I always thought Joseph's offspring would be the one to continue the bloodline to Jesus. But I was so wrong about it. God chose not the oldest Reuben nor the youngest, Benjamin. He chose the fourth son Judah who had an affair with his daughter-in-law and gave birth to him two sons. And one of the twins, Perez, would go on to continue the bloodline to Jesus. Who would have thought thing would have had turned out this way? The relation between Judah and Tamar could be considered incest even. Everyone with their right mind would've chosen Joseph, the very talented, forgiving and righteous man. Yet, God wrote a plot twist on this part of story. Maybe it was to show that anyone, whether you were born of royalty, or born under inferior circumstance, God would choose you to play a part in this Great Story. And there is no need to be ashamed or prideful over where you were raised or born.
So the end of Genesis is not an ending, but the beginning of a new journey. A journey resonates in my personal life. I cannot wait to embark on the ride to also discover the way out of the desert.
In this story God spoke to Jacob again and reassured him about the plan of moving his whole household to Egypt for the famine was severe and there was no food left anywhere else. God also promised him that one day He will bring them all back to the promised land. I wonder why exactly it is important for them to go back to that place. In the beginning it was a place Abraham was ordered to move into. And ever since then it was deemed as their promised land.
That land might mean a lot to the Hebrew people in the bible, but seemingly, it really doesn't mean much to the rest of our readers as we might not even set foot on it in our lifetime, let alone to reside there. But everything starts to make sense when I look at it metaphorically. The promised land means a state of our life that is at its best. And to be more precise, it is more about the inward state. Things happen in life and they don't always go in our ways. There will be times of challenges and times of sorrow and pain. But the promised land is always there within ourselves. We need to go back and look within us to connect to that promised land. Promised land also means Jesus and the Kingdom of heaven. It is easy for us to get caught up in life and feel lost in our ways but Jesus is always there within us to remind us who we are. With my new found perspective, now I can understand better why God insisted that the people of Israel must go back to Canaan. It was never really about the physical place even though it was depicted as so in the story as a metaphor.
Furthermore, it was hilarious that Joseph tried to put Jacob's hands on the heads of his sons in correct order. Despite his body was frail and eyes were dim, Jacob still managed to put the younger son, Ephraim as first for blessings. It was almost like a tradition in this household because he did the same thing when he stole the first born blessings from his brother Esau.
God surely was humorous when it came to choose an heir for the Israel people. It was always either the younger one or the one who clearly committed sins and errors. I always thought Joseph's offspring would be the one to continue the bloodline to Jesus. But I was so wrong about it. God chose not the oldest Reuben nor the youngest, Benjamin. He chose the fourth son Judah who had an affair with his daughter-in-law and gave birth to him two sons. And one of the twins, Perez, would go on to continue the bloodline to Jesus. Who would have thought thing would have had turned out this way? The relation between Judah and Tamar could be considered incest even. Everyone with their right mind would've chosen Joseph, the very talented, forgiving and righteous man. Yet, God wrote a plot twist on this part of story. Maybe it was to show that anyone, whether you were born of royalty, or born under inferior circumstance, God would choose you to play a part in this Great Story. And there is no need to be ashamed or prideful over where you were raised or born.
So the end of Genesis is not an ending, but the beginning of a new journey. A journey resonates in my personal life. I cannot wait to embark on the ride to also discover the way out of the desert.
Comments
Post a Comment