You Live in the Land of Goshen!

4.5.2020

Here is some encouragement as we deal with the worldwide corona problem and the economic instability it has produced…

1. We are in a rapid time of change just before the return of Christ.

I want to encourage you today. We’re living in a rapidly changing time.

The Lord is going to take care of you as a dedicated believer during these tumultuous times.

We’re in the time period just prior to what people call the tribulation, a seven-year period of incredible hardship that is coming to this planet just before Jesus returns.

What we are experiencing right now is simply a dry run to prepare for things ahead.

We do not need to be filled with fear and confusion.

Jesus said, Let not your hearts be troubled!

John 14:1-3 – NLT

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.

When I was a boy, my mom would tell me, Grandma is coming this weekend, and I would get so excited!

Jesus has already told us, I am coming back to get you!

One revelation I have from all this coronavirus stuff is that I am too attached to things here. I like my routine. I like the way I live. I like my conveniences. I am just too attached.

Regardless of the challenges ahead of us before Jesus takes us to heaven in the rapture, we can be confident that the Father will shield, defend, protect, and provide for us all of our days! Let me give you the basis for my confidence in the Father to help us.

2. The blessings that God promised Abraham are ours too.

Our Father is a covenant God!

He has covenanted His care for us. He has obligated Himself to watch over us.

Hebrews 8:6 – NLT

But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.

We have a better covenant with God in the New Covenant than the Old Testament saints enjoyed. Our covenant with God has been placed in force by the shed blood of Jesus Christ when He died for us!

 

Galatians 3 tells us that Christ became a curse for us, so that the blessings God promised Abraham would also belong to the New Covenant believer.

Galatians 3:13-14 – NLT

But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14 Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

In fact, Galatians goes so far as to tell us that we actually become sons of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ. And as Abraham’s sons, all of God’s promises to Abraham belong to us!

Galatians 3:29 – NLT

And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Now let me take you back to God’s dealings with Israel during Joseph’s and Moses’ time. In Genesis 12:1-3, God cut a covenant with Abraham and promised that He would bless Abraham and His descendants, and that God would bless the world through Abraham.

Genesis 12:1-3 – NLT

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

3. God’s Covenant with Abraham protected Israel during a famine.

God knew that His promises to Abraham would be tested during a severe famine in Joseph’s time. At age seventeen, Joseph had a dream and saw his family bowing in obeisance before him. Joseph unwisely told his eleven brothers about his dream. They kidnapped him and sold him to a caravan of slave traders. Thirteen years later, Joseph became prime minister of Egypt, second in command over all the land under Pharaoh.

 

A severe famine hit the Middle East in Joseph’s day, and God gave Joseph a plan that would save thousands of people from starvation. In addition, Joseph’s family, Abraham’s descendants, were moved to the land of Goshen in Egypt where they were amply provided for by Joseph during the seven-year famine

Genesis 45:5-10 – NLT

But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. 6 This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. 8 So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh — the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.

(9) Now hurry back to my father and tell him, “This is what your son Joseph says: ‘God has made me master over all the land of Egypt. So come down to me immediately! 10 You can live in the region of Goshen, where you can be near me with all your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything you own.’”

In a severe famine in the Middle East, God provided for His covenant people. He HAD to help them. He had made a promise to Abraham!

4. God’s Covenant with Abraham protected Israel during ten plagues in Egypt.

In Moses’ day, hundreds of years after the Israelites moved to Egypt, the Israelites had basically become slaves under Egyptian leadership that knew nothing of Joseph. God saw the plight Israel was in and remembered His covenant with Moses. That covenant moved God to action.

Exodus 2:23-25 – NLT

Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.

 

Moses was directed by God to approach the Egyptian leadership with ten plaques against their pagan gods if the Pharaoh would not release Israel from slavery in Egypt.

Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to let Israel go free, and the plagues began.

 

And here is the heart of the entire story: God supernaturally provided for and protected Israel throughout the entire duration of each of these ten plagues that came on Egypt.

Listen to the language in the following verses, and keep in mind that if we are heirs of God’s promise to Abraham, then we today must be provided the same care by our Father God! We have a better covenant!

Exodus 8:21-23 – NLT

If you refuse, then I will send swarms of flies on you, your officials, your people, and all the houses. The Egyptian homes will be filled with flies, and the ground will be covered with them. But this time I will spare the region of Goshen, where my people live. No flies will be found there. Then you will know that I am the Lord and that I am present even in the heart of your land. I will make a clear distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will happen tomorrow.

Exodus 9:1-6 – NLT

“Go back to Pharaoh,” the Lord commanded Moses. “Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so they can worship me. If you continue to hold them and refuse to let them go, the hand of the Lord will strike all your livestock—your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats—with a deadly plague. But the Lord will again make a distinction between the livestock of the Israelites and that of the Egyptians. Not a single one of Israel’s animals will die! The Lord has already set the time for the plague to begin. He has declared that he will strike the land tomorrow.’” And the Lord did just as he had said. The next morning all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but the Israelites didn’t lose a single animal.

Exodus 9:22-26 – NLT

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Lift your hand toward the sky so hail may fall on the people, the livestock, and all the plants throughout the land of Egypt.” So Moses lifted his staff toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed toward the earth. The Lord sent a tremendous hailstorm against all the land of Egypt. Never in all the history of Egypt had there been a storm like that, with such devastating hail and continuous lightning. It left all of Egypt in ruins. The hail struck down everything in the open field — people, animals, and plants alike. Even the trees were destroyed. The only place without hail was the region of Goshen, where the people of Israel lived.

Exodus 11:4-7 – NLT

Moses had announced to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: At midnight tonight I will pass through the heart of Egypt. All the firstborn sons will die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest son of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, to the oldest son of his lowliest servant girl who grinds the flour. Even the firstborn of all the livestock will die. Then a loud wail will rise throughout the land of Egypt, a wail like no one has heard before or will ever hear again. But among the Israelites it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites.”

5. We as Christians also live in the land of Goshen where God has promised His care and protection.

If God in His sovereignty provided for Israel during a drought and during these ten plagues, and if we, as New Testament believers, have a covenant with God superior to what they had, then is not God obligated to provide for us during times of severe worldwide turmoil? Yes, He is!

Today, see yourself as living in the spiritual land of Goshen. Expect your Covenant Father God to take care of you. You’re sons and daughters of Abraham.

Deuteronomy 28 is the best place in scripture for you to see what God promised to Abraham, clearly and concisely written.

Remember that God cut a covenant with Abraham, and that in Christ you also are included in that Abrahamic Covenant!

 

Historically, when people groups entered into a covenant, they had representatives present for each party.

Jesus is our representative in the covenant! Then each party involved in the covenant detailed the blessings the other party would receive from them resulting from the covenant relationship. Lastly, each party would pronounce the curses that would come to the other if they defaulted on the covenant.

 

Here’s God’s pronouncement of the blessings of our covenant with Him. Take these scriptures and meditate on them daily. God has promised to bless you. Expect His blessings each day of 2020.

I’m only showing the blessings and not the curses today! If you want to walk in the flesh in 2020, you may want to check out Deuteronomy 28:15-65 to see how that will work for you

 

The Blessing of Abraham:

Deuteronomy 28:1-14 – NLT

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. 2 You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God: 3 Your towns and your fields will be blessed. 4 Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. 5 Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. 6 Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed. 7 The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! 8 The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. 9 If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. 10 Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you. 11 The Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. 12 The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. 13 If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. 14 You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.

Action Points:

1. Are you ready if Jesus were to come back today?
2. Are you expecting your covenant with God through Jesus to help you through the current crisis?
3. Do you have faith that, regardless of what happens, God will help you and your family in tangible ways with material needs and with health and healing?