Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.
Jacob reaches Beersheba, the last stop on the southern edge of Canaan, and pauses there before leaving the promised land. God answers with a word that names Himself, forbids fear, and turns the move into a promise — yet God had once told Jacob's father to stay out of Egypt.
Why Egypt frightened Jacob
Jacob's hesitation had a history behind it. God gave his father the opposite instruction in the same kind of famine. Jacob remembered it at the very spot where Egypt came into view.
J. G. BellettMany years before this the Lord had said to Isaac, "Do not go down into Egypt" (Gen. 26:2); and He said it in a time of famine, like this one. Jacob remembers it as soon as he reaches Beersheba. That was the last place in the southern part of the land, on the way to Egypt. From there Egypt lay stretched out before him — the country the Lord had warned Isaac not to enter.
God's permission here stands out all the more against Abraham's own failure in Egypt.
William KellyWhat grace on God's part! Abram had gone down into Egypt under the pressure of famine, and failed badly there, whatever riches he gained. … Israel needed God to tell him not to fear going down there — and God did. He would make of him a great nation there, with special comfort nearer still to his heart.
Called by his old name
God speaks to a man whose faith has just revived, yet He does not address him as Israel. The doubled call, "Jacob, Jacob," is deliberate.
F. B. HoleBeersheba too was closely tied to his father Isaac, and Jacob's wanderings had begun from that spot — see Genesis 28:10. Jacob had now come full circle, if we may put it that way, and was back at his point of departure. So we find God Himself stepping in and dealing directly with him. He had responded in faith. Yet God knew that the old Jacob nature was still strong in him, and addressed him as such. The repetition of his name added emphasis to the revelation God gave.
A word shaped to his real fear
The message does two things at once. It settles his dread of Egypt, and it answers his old longing over his lost son.
J. G. BellettWhen we think about this for a moment, we may well say, what a communication this was! How fully it let Jacob know that the Lord had read his whole heart! The Lord knew his present fears and his older affections. He knew the mind of the father and the mind of the believer, the desires of nature and the sensitivities of the spirit. "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt" calmed the present uneasiness of his renewed mind. "Joseph shall put his hand upon your eyes" satisfied the earlier longing of his heart over his long-lost child. How full all this was!
The same tenderness is heard in the choice of name and the plain command that follows it.
William KellyGod spoke to Israel in the vision of the night, after he had offered sacrifices to his father's God, who called him by his name of natural weakness and told him to go down to Egypt without fear… God entered into the anxieties of His feeble servant and knew how to strengthen his tried heart.
A nation made in Egypt, not Canaan
"There I will make you into a great nation" fixes the location. The making would happen under pressure.
F. B. HoleFirst, God so ordered the stay in Egypt that Jacob's family and descendants would grow there and be welded into a great nation… The troubles of Egypt worked like a furnace of iron and welded them into a nation that God took for His own. The hour had now come for them to face that testing, though at the start everything looked favourable.
Egypt also supplied conditions Canaan could not.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWithout doubt the Lord directed this move to Egypt. He meant to guard the family from scattering, and from mixing with strangers. The important period had now come in which the family was to grow into a nation. In Canaan both of these harms would have been unavoidable. In Egypt neither could happen. Goshen gave ample room for their growing numbers, and the Egyptians' dislike of shepherds (46:34) prevented ties of intermarriage between them.
An old promise, now confirmed
The words to Jacob are not a fresh plan. They line up with what had been told to Abraham long before.
L. M. GrantJacob was leaving the land of promise, and he might have felt some anxiety. However, God told him, "I am God, the God of your father," and gave him the encouragement of knowing that God approved of his trip to Egypt at this time (vv. 2-3)… This confirms God's word to Abram in Genesis 15:13. Abram's offspring would be a stranger in a foreign land, and there, as servants, they would be afflicted 400 years.
Summary
- Fear had reasons. Abraham failed badly in Egypt, and God told Isaac to stay out of it. Jacob's hesitation at Beersheba came from memory, not superstition.
- Fear got an answer. God named Himself the God of Jacob's father, told him not to fear, and called him by his old name — the name of the nature still strong in him.
- Fear and longing. One short message calmed his dread of Egypt and satisfied his longing over Joseph. God had read his whole heart.
- Fear became a nation. In the land he dreaded, God kept his family from scattering, kept them from intermarriage, and welded them into a people.
- Fear met an older promise. Jacob heard God confirm His word to Abraham — the great nation, and the affliction that would come first.