Full Circle Moments: Embracing God's Faithfulness and Transformation

And God did that. He was faithful to his promise. And Jacob did come back to Canaan and to the promised land. And now 60 years later, we're in our text again, chapter 46, and Jacob is leaving. He's leaving the promised land. He's leaving Canaan. He might have had some misgivings about it, even though he was desperate to see his son Joseph again, whom he loved. He wanted to rush to meet him, but in his heart, should I leave? Should I leave? And so this is what God says to him in chapter 46. [00:46:12]

I am the 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. I will go down to Egypt with you and I will surely bring you back again. Of course, Jacob is going to die in Egypt. His bones get brought back. But when he says, you, Jacob, you, Israel, he's talking about all of his descendants, his whole family, all of them will come back in God's time. [00:46:56]

He is faithful to his character and to his promises. He says, I'm going to do this and he does it. And in this story of Joseph, we get all these changes and all these ups and downs and different circumstances. But one thing is constant. God is faithful. He remains the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And that's one good reason to read these epic stories over long periods of time is that they show us God's unchanging faithfulness to us that gives us strength and courage in the moment. [00:47:26]

That was the reality of their hearts. God is faithful and unchanging. But the people were unfaithful. This is a challenge to us, isn't it? To inspect our hearts. Am I faithful? Now, is my heart divided? Or is it undivided? And that's not just a matter of 50 -50. Even if our heart is 90 -10, the thing is, God wants all of our heart. [00:49:55]

He wants all of us. Have I relinquished all to him? Have I surrendered all to him? And I've seen this full circle moment in my life happen repeatedly. Is I've had to come again and again and again to the point where I say, God, I relinquish my agendas, my plans, and I give my heart fully to you. I trust in you for salvation. I believe in you. [00:50:20]

And we already experience, you know, unification with Jesus through faith. That already happens. And yet it's not the full and final reunification. We still have a longing in our hearts for that. This is what Jesus said to his disciples on the night before he died. He said, now is your time of grief, but I will see you again, and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. They thought they had lost him. He was gone. He was dead. And then he resurrected. And they could touch and hug and see him again, their Lord and Savior. [00:56:28]

And that is when we die or when Jesus comes, when we can actually see him face to face and become like him and to live in the glory and the beauty of his presence. And then all the longings of our heart will be completely satisfied. Because in this world, we have disappointments. We have unfulfilled longings. We have pain and we have suffering. And we can fixate on that or we can be reminded that our longings will be satisfied completely and wholly someday when we are able to see Jesus. [00:57:27]

And then we get the big plot twist in the whole story related to blessings. We get a huge plot twist because something totally unexpected happens. Jacob calls in all his sons, and he's going to bless all of them. That's chapter 49. Although some of the blessings look a lot more like curses. Okay, Reuben and Simeon and Levi really get curses, not blessings. [01:02:15]

And so, but he's going to bless all of his sons. He says, Joseph is the prince among his brothers. But the person who gets by far the greatest blessing isn't Joseph. It's Judah. What? We thought this was the story of Joseph. Maybe we should call it the rise of Judah. Judah gets the blessing. Joseph's called a prince among his brothers. But God says, Judah's descendants will be kings who will rule over his brothers and the nations of the world. [01:02:41]

King David will be the first king in the line of Judah. And God will make a promise to King David that one of King David's sons will rule from his throne forever over an eternal kingdom of peace, righteousness, and justice. That's a huge promise. Now, Judah is exalted because of this blessing. But this descendant, we know who he is. It's the Messiah. It's Jesus. [01:05:25]

And he has resurrected and is now exalted above all. And he will return and set up his eternal kingdom. And this is, we already get glimpses of this and praise and worship towards this. Look at the end of the story. This is kind of the, this is kind of an ultimate full circle moment, right? This, this is a praise and worship service in heaven in the book of Revelation. See the lion of the tribe of Judah. That's the descendant of Judah. The descendant of David who will be king. It's Jesus. [01:05:58]

God can change our hearts. He can. He gives us hope. And it's through Jesus Christ. Who was the faithful son. The one who went to the cross. The one who now offers us new life through faith in him. [01:08:02]