The world in which we live is marred by hurt and fear, imperfection and injustice, brokenness and frustration. Some people don’t merely notice this, they experience it. So, the big question is, how does God invite us to change it?

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The world is hurting. How do we change it?

This week I did what many of us do when facing such a significant question: I Googled it. I sat at my computer and typed into the search engine, “How to change the world.” It won’t surprise you to hear that the internet has no shortage of answers to that question. Pages and pages of ideas and claims on how humanity’s wounds can be treated and its brokenness fixed.

Trying to avoid being overwhelmed, I quickly clicked on one of the top suggestions, an article entitled “10 Things that Even You Can Do to Change the World.” Here are the instructions the author provided:

1. Share Positivity
2. Plant a Garden
3. Meditate
4. Speak Up, and Take Action
5. Clean Up (litter)
6. Stop Polluting the Water
7. Reconsider Your Eating Habits
8. Find Out More About What You Buy/Wear/Use
9. Volunteer
10. Be Kinder

We can all empathize and sympathize with the heavy-heartedness that motivates articles like that to be written. Looking around us we see hurt and fear, imperfection and injustice, brokenness and frustration. Some don’t only see it, they experience it. And knowing the flaws of this world, something inside of us aches for real peace, true justice, and perfect goodness. 

Now, as Christians, we understand where that ache comes from: It flows from the fact that we are made in the image and likeness of the one true God—the God of peace, justice, goodness. And while that image is marred by sin, it remains, even in those who reject the God that put it there. We were not created to live in chaos and we won’t always do so. 

Because of this, every human being can look around and recognize what should not be and long for something better. We want change, even just incremental change so long as it’s real and sustainable and good.

Will meditation do the trick? Will spreading positivity make a lasting difference? Will recycling cure what truly ails us?

I’m not saying suggestions like these are bad things. Planting a garden is great. I am saying, however, that they are bandaids on cancer. They may give the ego boost of a participation ribbon, helping us feel like we’re contributing in a meaningful way but, in actuality, we’re far out of our depth.

The world is hurting. How do we truly change it?

Instead of turning to people for answers like I did online earlier this week, today we are going to turn to God for answers. If you have a Bible please make your way to Genesis 46 and 47. In these two chapters we’re going to find an example of how God changes the world through his people and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, you and I are going to pray we have the conviction and clarity to do the same today, a day in which, no less than in Joseph’s day, needs divine intervention.

Let’s follow along as a handful of people from our church family read the text for us keeping in mind that what we’re about to hear read are the very words of the living God. 

As you heard that passage read, did you notice how it described worlds being changed; how life was altered for so many people in dramatic and life-giving ways? Consider, first, the people of Israel.

In our text today, they’re en route to Egypt. Verse 1 says that, “Israel set out with all that was his,” and verse 7 reiterates: “Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring.” 

Moses, the author, then provides a long list of their names and concludes in verse 27 by once again highlighting the scope of this clan-wide move: “the members of Jacob’s family, which went to Egypt, were seventy in all.” 

This week will mark the two-year-anniversary of my acceptance of the invitation from Oakridge Bible Chapel to come and serve as pastor. 

That means two years ago, my family began the relocation process from the sprawling farm fields of Saskatchewan to the sprawling metropolis of the Greater Toronto Area. Those of you who have moved before will know it’s no small ordeal. To pause life, pack up, ship out, re-settle, and re-start life is a dramatic shift, a significant transition.

And I’m confident that the Boyd family’s modern-day relocation to Oakville was nothing compared to Israel’s ancient relocation to Egypt. 

It was a huge change for the whole family. Israel was leaving behind the known and marching toward the unknown. They were departing a familiar land and approaching a foreign nation. And it wasn’t as though they were moving during a time of economic security. This is famine time. Desperate times for many and Israel had not been immune. 

I’m sure that, along the journey there were some in the convoy who were nervous and skeptical and uncertain: “Is this really the wisest decision?” 

But, as the text makes clear, God took care of this family. From the moment they arrive in their new home country we see God blessing them (46:28b–29).

When they arrived in the region of Goshen,Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. 

Joseph is waiting in his royal chariot when his family arrives. The scene is almost like a triumphant processional of a celebrity arriving home in victory. Immediately, father and son embrace and weep in joy. This is life-changing, family reconciliation. 

Eventually, with tears still in their eyes and faces hurting from all the smiling and laughing, Joseph arranges a meeting between some of his brothers and Pharaoh, his boss, coaching them on how to respond. 

To me, this sounds like going through airport customs or crossing the border in a vehicle. There’s the tension as you approach the officer, they take your documents, look you up-and-down, and ask questions about where you’re coming from, where you’re going, what you have with you, and what you plan on doing in their country. It’s oddly tense for the simplicity of the questions.

That’s how I picture Joseph’s brothers here, though it isn’t customs officers questioning them, but Pharaoh himself (47:3b–6, 11).

“Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were. … We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.” 

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you,and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. … And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”

… So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land … as Pharaoh directed.Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children. 

While in Canaan, Israel was suffering with grief, family tension, and the threat of starvation. Now, having made the move to Egypt, they’re not only blessed with family reconciliation, but with economic and material blessing as well. 

Though he has his own countrymen to care for, Pharaoh gives Joseph’s family the “best part of the land,” jobs working for the king himself, and all the food they need. 

47:27 sums up Israel’s new reality:

Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen (apparently the Boardwalk and Park Place of Egypt). They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.

The people of Israel were blessed. Who knew that the move to Egypt would alter their lives so dramatically; change their world for the better?

Now, what about the people of Egypt? Do they experience world-changing blessings also? Yes, they do! And it’s showcased for us in 47:13–26, the interaction between Joseph, the one in charge of the grain, and the Egyptians, those in need of the grain (v. 15).

“Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.” 

Hearing this, Joseph offers to take livestock instead of money. The people accept the offer and, handing over their animals they buy another years’ worth of supplies. 

But the famine continues and, running out of food again, the Egyptians return to Joseph in verses 18 and 19, with no money, no livestock, and empty bellies.

“Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.” 

Once again, Joseph agrees. 

Now, Pharaoh has all the money, all the livestock, all the available land, and all the workers in Egypt. To us, this may smell like exploitation; a superpower leveraging real need for sordid personal gain. 

But we need to be careful to allow the text dictate our response to the text. Because the Egyptians don’t see this as unjust. Look at their response in verse 25:

“You have saved our lives. … May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.” 

The Egyptians are grateful to Joseph for delivering them and, in some ways, they speak to him in language that sounds like worship. They revere him for what he’s done. There’s no bitterness here. They consider themselves blessed. Their lives have been spared. Their world has been changed.

Very real, life-threatening needs have been met for both the people of Israel and the people of Egypt. The text shows both distinctly, but it also shows a connection between the two. More specifically, how a blessed Egypt is the result of a blessed Israel. God’s people are blessed and, because of that they bless the people around them, in this case, the Egyptians.

And this connection becomes clear when we notice a pattern that takes place in two consecutive interactions. The first is between Jacob and Pharaoh, a meeting that Joseph arranges after his brothers have have left the Egyptian customs office (47:7–10). 

Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?” 

And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.

Not only is it amazing that this old, foreign man gets an audience with the most powerful individual in the known world, but he takes the opportunity to bless him. It isn’t the king blessing Jacob, it’s Jacob (the lesser) blessing the king (the greater). He does it when he arrives in verse 7 and when he departs in verse 10, bracketing the entire interaction, an interaction that seems to focus on an odd detail. Jacob’s age is the topic of conversation. 

“Pharaoh asked him, ‘How old are you?’” Why would that come up? And, more than that, why is it the only detail of the conversation Moses decides to record?

Well, to understand that I think we need to remember the theological significance of a long life.

Deuteronomy 5:33, “Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.”

Proverbs 16:31a, “Gray hair is a crown of splendor.”

Job 42:17, “And so Job died, an old man and full of years.”

Often in Scripture, length of days is an explicit sign of blessing from God. And, while Jacob sees his 130 years to be shorter than those of his ancestors, it’s a long life nonetheless. Hardships notwithstanding, he has been blessed by God in an objective, quantifiable way.

And being blessed by God, Jacob extends blessing to Pharaoh. That’s the pattern. And as we read the rest of chapter 47 we find that pattern repeated but on a grander scale, extending from Jacob and Pharaoh to the nations they represent—Israel and Egypt respectively.

Once again we find brackets enclosing the interaction. On one side, in verses 11 and 12, we have a two-verse statement of God’s blessings for Israel. And, on the other side, in verse 27, there’s a mirrored statement. In fact, let me read verse 12 and verse 27 together so you can hear the continuity between the two:

Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children. … Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.

Two clear statements of divine favour for Israel. But what’s between the brackets? We’ve already read it, actually. It’s that interaction between Joseph and the Egyptians in which the latter declare their gratitude for the former saving their lives. The blessings of Israel bracketing the blessings of Egypt.

See the pattern? Jacob, being blessed, blesses Pharaoh. The people of Israel, being blessed, bless the people of Egypt through Joseph. God spares countless lives as he works through his own people. In significant, foundational ways for both nations, their worlds are changed.

In different ways than described in Genesis 36 and 37, our world today is hurting. Depression, violence, poverty, racism, infidelity, exploitation, homelessness, insecurity, loneliness. Our world is hurting.

And I think we know, as people—saved and unsaved alike—that things like planting gardens, picking up litter, and reconsidering eating habits, while not in-and-of themselves bad things, will not get the job done.

Those human-centred, human-powered efforts are akin to washing the windows of a building with a sinking foundation. 

So, what can we do? The world is hurting. How do we change it? Well, again, let’s go to our passage and see what the catalyst for change was there. And, for that, we go all the way to the opening verses (46:1–2).

So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” 

“Here I am,” he replied. 

This isn’t the first time in his life Jacob has come to Beersheba, preparing to leave the Promised Land, only to be given a vision from God at night. In Genesis 28, he was sent by his father, Isaac, to find himself a wife and, passing through Beersheba, he had a dream in which God reiterated to Jacob promises he had made to Abraham and Isaac (vv. 13–15):

“I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth … . All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

The promises that had been his grandfather’s and fathers were now his. The Promised Land would belong to him and his uncountable offspring. God would not leave him until then and the world would be blessed. 

Now, in chapter 46, years removed from that fateful night, Jacob’s at Beersheba again, this time about to lead his entire family out of the land God had told him would be theirs. It kind of seems like he’s moving away from the promises, doesn’t it? Is he being disobedient? Is he working against God’s will just because he wants to see Joseph so badly?

And, not only is he leaving the Promised Land, but he’s leaving it for Egypt! Moving to Egypt to escape famine had not ended well for his grandfather, Abraham (Gen 12). And God had strictly forbidden the move to Egypt for his father, Isaac (Gen 26).

And, as Jacob now prepares to move his family to Egypt, we have to wonder if he was aware of the prophetic words given to his grandfather in Genesis 15:13, 

“Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.”

Is that what he’s leading his family into? Are they headed away from God’s blessings and toward slavery and hardship?

This is a big decision for Jacob, one that will impact not only himself and his immediate family, but the countless generations he’s been promised and, ultimately, the whole world that is supposed to be blessed through them. Is he working against God? It’s a big decision with a lot of unknowns.

So, what does Jacob do? He builds an altar and worships. We get the sense that he’s seeking guidance or even permission from God to accept the invitation from Joseph to leave Canaan and settle in Egypt.

Just like he did years ago, God meets Jacob in a dream that night and sets his conflicted conscience at ease.

“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.I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.” 

In this vision, God reaffirms the promises he made to Jacob long ago. This move to Egypt does not cancel them out. God will still go with them. God will still grow them into a nation. God will indeed bring you back again to the Promised Land. This move to Egypt is given the divine stamp of approval.

But God also adds a new promise here—that of Jacob’s death. Whereas Egypt would become the womb for the burgeoning nation of Israel it would also become the temporary tomb for the man, Israel.

The patriarch wakes from the vision and what does he do (46:5–7)? 

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.So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan.Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring.

God speaks. Jacob trusts. Jacob obeys. Notice the simplicity.

Did Jacob have questions remaining? I’m not sure how he couldn’t. “Are we going to be accepted in Egypt? Will we be jobless and starve? How can we become a great nation while surrounded by foreigners? Will we remain distinct from the Egyptians? How am I going to get back to the Promised Land? When will Joseph close my eyes? How is this move going to bless the world?” 

No doubt, Jacob had questions. But, he had a choice to make as he stood on the border of Canaan looking ahead to Egypt: Is this God who has spoken trustworthy? Do I believe he’s a good communicator and that he means what he says and knows what’s best? Is his character such that I want to and need to trust him? If so, I better obey. 

And that’s exactly what he does. Jacob hears God, trusts God, and immediately takes obedient steps in the direction he’s told to go even though he couldn’t see the whole picture and even though he didn’t have all the answers. 

His trust in God motivated his obedience to God and, as we’ve already seen, that obedience led to world-changing blessings he couldn’t have anticipated, not only for the people of God but for the people around the people of God. 

As Christians today, we rightly see the world hurting. And, motivated by our love of God and love of neighbour, we ache to see change and even participate in that change. 

But we need to understand that real, eternally-significant change takes place when God’s people listen to God’s voice and obediently walk out into this broken world living as he’s called us to live. It’s that simple and it’s that difficult.

Whereas God spoke to Jacob in a dream, he speaks to you and I today in the Bible. And just like Jacob there are things in the Bible God tells us to do that will bring questions to our minds; things we won’t totally understand and commands that run against our culture: Forgiving enemies, submitting to authority, denying ourselves, suffering with joy, standing for objective truth, declaring a message of exclusivity. How can we do those things and affect change? People won’t take us seriously. Some of it doesn’t make sense. It’s too antiquated, too conservative, too risky, too local.

But God has spoken and, like Jacob, each Christian has to ask themselves, is he a good communicator? Is he clear in what he’s called us to do? Is he trustworthy? And, if he is, I need to walk in humble obedience where he’s called me to walk.

I can’t change the whole world. Sin, which is the cause of every bit of it, is beyond my ability to handle. What I can do is obey the One who is able and live a life of trusting obedience in the circles of influence in which he has placed me. And then watch as he, through me, blesses the people around me in my home, in my workplace, in my classrooms, at my gym, at the store, on social media, and in my church. 

As God’s people, when we see brokenness on the news or reported online, we should drop to our knees and call out to the only One who can help, asking him for mercy, peace, and justice. 

And then we should get up off our knees and do what God has called us to do: Model trust-filled obedience for the people around us. 

We may not be able to fix issue-X in this world, but we can raise children who fear the Lord; we can influence grandchildren to be people who seek godly justice; we can impact our siblings and friends with a Christlike view of human dignity; we can model for co-workers what it looks like to be truly loving and forgiving; we can bring people the gospel message, the ultimate catalyst for change. We can be conduits of God’s world-changing power to the people he’s placed around us.

And with that in mind, I want to encourage and challenge you, in a few minutes from now when we’re finished, to do three things.

First, pray for a specific manifestation of brokenness you see in the world—from sex trafficking to broken marriages, from racism to genocide—whatever the Lord lays on your heart, intercede on behalf of the hurting.

Second, take a piece of paper and pen and write down the names of at least five people who are in your direct circle of influence acknowledging that God himself put them there. Five people that you know, interact with, and love.

Finally, pray down that list of names, asking God to change their lives, their worlds, through your influence as you strive to live a life of trust-filled obedience in their presence. 

Brothers and sisters, those are the circles of influence God has given you and me. Those are the arenas in which God can work, through our trust-filled obedience to his word, to change the world in real, lasting, eternally-significant ways. 

It begins with each of us, brothers and sisters, trusting God and walking in obedience to what he has called us to do. May he, by the power of the Holy Spirit, help us do just that for our good and his glory.