Genesis 46:5

Beersheba was a memorable spot to Isaac. He built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, who had appeared to him there. This was some time after he had been forbidden to go down into Egypt, even under the pressure of famine, as Abraham had wrongly done. But now God spoke to Israel in a vision of the night. Jacob had offered sacrifices to his father's God, and God called him by his name of natural weakness and told him to go down into Egypt without fear... Jacob was not to hesitate. "I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes." God entered into the anxieties of His feeble servant. He knew how to strengthen his tried heart.

On his way he stopped at Beersheba (the well of the oath), which shows he remembered the promise of God that he depended on.

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

The king suggested the wagons, and left Joseph to supply them. Those wagons played their part in persuading the father to believe the report that at first made his heart fail — that Joseph was still alive... there it was, in the means of going down into Egypt that his sons could not have provided.

Does all this not teach us that the power by which we make the pilgrimage to our Joseph — our heavenly Isaac — comes from the place where He is? Did He not, after His ascension, send us the Holy Spirit to live in our bodies? It would be a great gain if we believed this simple but deeply important fact, that ALL our power for life and journey comes from our risen Lord.

Those rough wooden carts were evidence of a brighter horizon and a new and glorious world, still unknown and unseen. Jacob could see them and touch them. The sight of them settled his wavering mind.

It is not to our credit when some passing gift from God's hand, or an answer to prayer, encourages us more than the sacred words of Christ Himself. It shows a low spiritual condition. That is the difference between faith and gullibility. Faith rests on the strongest evidence in the universe — the word of God.

But they also took their livestock and the goods they had gained in Canaan, and came into Egypt. Jacob and his sons had no intention of entering that land as mere dependents of its ruler, whatever his wish to honour Joseph, and whatever the promise that the best of all Egypt would be theirs.

The reconciliation, as we have now seen, is complete. Joseph has received his brothers, and so everything is ready for Israel's full blessing. Restoration must follow conversion... The aged father, with his household and flocks, is brought from Canaan.