“‘I am God, the God of your father, “he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.’”
~ Genesis 46:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Your grandpaa believes that it is important in order to obtain an understanding of the Bible that you know people who are talked about in the Bible. Your grandpaa believes that Jesus is the most important person to learn about in the Bible. Your grandpaa believes that men like David in the Old Testament and Paul in the New Testament can really be a help to a guy, gal or kid who has become a Jesus-follower. Your grandpaa believes that the Bible is a guidebook for why and on how a guy, gal or kid is led to make a decision of faith to become a Jesus-follower. Your grandpaa will let your ma and/or dad explain to you what is involved when a decision of faith is made to become a Jesus-follower, what is expected of a Jesus-follower and what it means having become a member of a body – the body of Jesus or of Christ, with other Jesus-follower guys, gals and kids. Your grandpaa knows that there are times when you do not know what your grandpaa is saying to you. When you do not know what your grandpaa is saying to you, please ask your ma and dad to explain to you what your grandpaa is saying. The Bible has a lot of hidden truths recorded in the different books that make up the Bible. There are a lot of things that are written in the Bible which your grandpaa knows that he will never understand clearly. Studying the Bible can be like looking at a picture. The more time that you spend looking at a painting the more you will see in the painting. The more time that you spend reading and studying the Bible the more you will understand what the Bible is saying to you. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are very happy that your ma and dad are reading to you regularly from the Bible.
Your grandpaa has already told you – in other letters, about a land that God had promised His specially chosen people. Your grandpaa has already told you – in other letters, about the family which God chose to be His specially chosen people. God first made the promise to Abraham that his extended family would always have their very own land for a place to live. God told Abraham what land it was. The land was called Canaan. God would then make the same promise to Abraham’s kid – Isaac, that his extended family would always have their very own land as a place to live. It was the same land. Abraham and Sarah’s only kid was Isaac. Isaac became the father of twin boys. The names of the two boys were Esau and Jacob. Even though Esau was born before Jacob, it was through Jacob that God would begin to make His family of specially chosen people. God would even change Jacob’s name to Israel. Israel means having strived or struggled with God and having survived that fight – which was with an angel of God. Jacob – which you are to remember as also being Israel, had a family who you will get to know very well. The land of Canaan – which you are to remember as also being Israel, is a place that you will get to know very well. Jacob’s sons all had families. The families of Jacob’s sons became known as tribes. Genesis 46 talks about Jacob leaving the land that God had been promised to his dad and to his grandpa – who were Isaac and Abraham, to move to Egypt. Why do you think Jacob decided to move to Egypt if he was already living in the land that God had promised to him through his dad and through his grandpa? God makes or allows things to happen on planet Earth that are a part of His perfect plan that He is unfolding nanosecond after nanosecond. God at times will have what you might think of as a bad thing to happen in order for a good thing to happen. A good number of years before it stopped raining in the land that God had promised to His specially chosen people, one of the sons of Jacob – Joseph, was sold by his bros. Joseph ended up being taken by a camel caravan to Egypt – where he ended up becoming a leader. Joseph had a lot of grain stored up so that when rain stopped falling in Egypt, too, the people in Egypt would still have plenty of food to eat. Joseph got his bros to take their dad – Jacob, to Egypt to live. Jacob’s move to Egypt gave Jacob the chance to spend time with a son who he had not seen for a long time and to live in a country where there was plenty of food.
You may sometimes wonder how your grandmaa and grandpaa ended up in Guatemala. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had been with South American Mission for nearly nineteen years. After your grandpaa was asked to be the South American Mission’s Executive Director for the Canadian South America Mission mission’s office that was located in Guelph, Ontario, your grandmaa and grandpaa moved to Canada even though . . . your grandmaa and grandpaa could not find a good reason for not doing what their mission wanted them to do. After living in Canada for two and a half years, your grandmaa and grandpaa were ready to move again. A real good friend who had been your grandmaa and grandpaa’s church planting team leader in Bolivia asked your grandpaa if your grandpaa would help him in his mission. Your grandmaa and grandpaa’s good friend lived in Colorado. Good friends several years earlier had asked your grandmaa and grandpaa for their thoughts about their leaving South American Mission. These good friends lived in Brazil. They decided to become OC International missionaries. Your grandpaa wrote these friends to ask them for their thoughts about your grandmaa and grandpaa leaving South America Mission to go with another mission. It just so happened that someone from the OC International’s office was visiting Brazil when your grandpaa’s friends received your grandpaa’s letter. Your grandmaa and grandpaa now live with the same promise today that God gave to Jacob which is found in verse 3 “‘I am God, the God of your father, “he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.’ Your grandmaa and grandpaa have not been afraid of where God has asked them to go as missionaries as they know that they have always God’s blessing.
Genesis 46 (23)