This morning, you are going to read names that will make you speed-read. Hanok, Pallu, Hezron, and Karmi are names that make you want to move quickly to the point. A family is on the move. An old man has climbed into a cart sent by Pharaoh, leaving behind everything he has known in Canaan, heading toward a son he thought was dead and a land that is not his own.
Travelling with him are seventy people whose lives are held in the hands of a God who is keeping a very careful count of the overall number and the individual names.
“Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. 6 So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. 7 Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring. 8 These are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt: Reuben the firstborn of Jacob. 9 The sons of Reuben: Hanok, Pallu, Hezron and Karmi. 10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. 11 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. 12 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez and Zerah (but Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul. 13 The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashuband Shimron. 14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon and Jahleel. 15 These were the sons Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram,besides his daughter Dinah. These sons and daughters of his were thirty-three in all. 16 The sons of Gad: Zephon,Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi and Areli. 17 The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi and Beriah. Their sister was Serah. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malkiel. 18 These were the children born to Jacob by Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah—sixteen in all. 19 The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 20 In Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. 21 The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard. 22 These were the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob—fourteen in all. 23 The son of Dan: Hushim. 24 The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer and Shillem. 25 These were the sons born to Jacob by Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel—seven in all. 26 All those who went to Egypt with Jacob—those who were his direct descendants, not counting his sons’ wives—numbered sixty-six persons. 27 With the two sons[ who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family, which went to Egypt, were seventyin all.” (Genesis 46 v 5-27)
A long list of names, and this is one of those many passages that we are tempted to skim past or even not read at all. But of course, this morning we are not going to do that. We are reading what appears to be an important point: a large family is on the move. All of them.
The list looks boring, yet they are there because these names are important to God and His story. Even names we would rather forget, like Er and Onan, who died in Canaan. God knows these names, and that’s the point. Even people like Hushim? Serah? Malkiel? All of them, no one is anonymous to Him.
Seventy members of the family went down to Egypt. It seems to be a number of completeness and mission in the Bible. Seventy nations in Genesis 10; seventy elders appointed by Moses and seventy sent out by Jesus. Here, on the way to Egypt, is a significant number, seventy, that is a seed of the great nation God had promised Abraham. From this family of seventy, including an old man on a cart, comes a nation and through the tribe of Judah, whose sons Perez and Zerah appear quietly on this very list, the name above all names, Jesus.
God is faithful in the details. Behind every unfamiliar name is a life held in the hands of a God who forgets nothing and loses no one. Seventy went down to Egypt. Not sixty-nine. Not seventy-one. He numbers the stars and calls them each by name, and He numbers His people too. I’ve heard many people in my life suggest that God is not concerned with church attendance numbers. I understand the point being made, but the truth is God is most definitely concerned with numbers, every single one, you and me included.
(https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
I am posting this link for a few weeks to ask you to contribute to a cause that is so important and to spur me up a hill in June!
Missions Paul 