Rev. Daniel E. Pilarczyk

When Moses became an adult he took the law into his own hands and became a guerilla warrior, defending his Hebrew kinsmen against the power of the Egyptians.

Genesis recounted the earliest times of the Israelites’ history and their migration into Egypt. Exodus tells the story of their return to the land God had promised them.

Joseph makes his brothers promise to take his bones back to Canaan with them when the time comes for the Israelites to return from Egypt. God’s plans seem to be reaching a conclusion.

God promises that he will bring Abraham’s family out of Egypt and back to Canaan in his own time, in his own way.

God had been secretly at work the whole time. To provide safety to Jacob’s family, God had arranged to bring Joseph into Egypt, followed by the rest of the family.

The hand of God works not only in visions and dreams, but in the seemingly detached decisions of men which God weaves into his divine plan.

The Lord’s messenger gives Jacob a new name–Israel–which he would bear from then on. The new name shows that Jacob was to be the ancestor of God’s chosen race.