Genesis 45:27

Back to Jacob they went with news of Joseph, astounding and to him almost unbelievable. But there were the wagons sent from Joseph with their full supplies. They were to him a foretaste and pledge of the good things to be found in Joseph's presence, and that produced conviction and revived Jacob's heart. His nerve returned and he was ready for the journey. The first gifts Joseph sent backed up his words.

The men returned and told Jacob that Joseph was still alive. He had in front of him the combined evidence of the eleven, and no doubt many servants too. Still, "his heart failed and he did not believe them," even when they told him "all the words of Joseph." But when "he saw the wagons," his spirit revived, and he said, "It is enough, I will go." Those rough wooden carts were visible, touchable evidence of a brighter horizon and a new and glorious world, as yet unknown and unseen. The sight of them settled his wavering mind.

How true this is in the life of an "unbelieving believer." He is more convinced by some slight and unimportant outward evidence, some touchable, material gift from the Lord, than by the combined testimony of the eleven Apostles and all their followers. It does us no credit that a passing gift, or an answer to prayer, should encourage us more than the sacred words of Christ Himself. It shows a low spiritual condition. That is the difference between faith and credulity. Faith rests on the strongest evidence the universe affords — the word of God. But credulity, while not receiving that, will swallow any absurd claim that comes with a geologist's chip of stone. Faith floats, resting only on the waters of life. Credulity grasps at a straw, and sinks.

And what convinced him? What decided him? It was the wagons... It was the word and the wagons. And as we take the wagons as a figure of the Holy Spirit, the meaning is beyond question. Sinners are convinced not by the word of the gospel alone, but by the Word and the Spirit. And the Spirit on earth is the evidence to men that Christ has been received up into glory, that He is alive and at the Father's right hand in the heavens.

Joseph not only wants his brothers near to him, he also provides the means to bring them to himself. No exhausting march lay ahead for Jacob in his weakness and old age, no long, hard journey for the little ones and their mothers. No — they were carried every step of the way in the wagons. In other words, the power that carried them to Joseph came from Joseph.

Notice the way the record introduces Jacob's new name, Israel. Jacob's heart had fainted because of unbelief, and then his spirit revived. But when his faith had revived, it is Israel who said, "It is enough." Again, at the start of Genesis 46 the faith of his heart turns into action. It is Israel who gathers his possessions together and travels, stopping at Beer-sheba to sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac. In these things he was acting in a way more worthy of one who was "Prince of God" than of one who was "Supplanter."

Not only is faith kindled in the heart of Jacob. Love also goes out in longing towards Joseph — "I will go and see him before I die." This is the language of love that is satisfied with nothing less than the one it loves. The heart won by the grace of Christ will not be content at a distance. The test of love is this: does it want the company of the one it loves?