- Bring you up again
Genesis 46:3, 4 And he said, I am God the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
God gives this promise to Jacob as he is going down to Egypt to see Joseph. The Lord assures him that he may go to Egypt even though He promised him the land of Canaan. God promises to make of him a great nation in Egypt, that is, the Lord will grow his family and his descendants greatly when they are in Egypt. Jacob believed God, but he did not know the family would be in Egypt for 400 years as it turned out. During all that time the family of Israel became a great nation, but they never forgot the promise of Land given to the patriarchs.
The best news of this promise is that the Lord promises to bring him up again. This literally happened when Joseph brought Jacob’s body to be buried in Abraham’s burial plot. This figuratively happened when Moses delivered the nation of Israel from bondage in Egypt to bring them to the land flowing with milk and honey. This spiritually happens to us when God brings us up again from the world and our bondage to it. He sets us free from Sin, Death and the Devil and places us in the kingdom of God; or rather, He places the kingdom in us. In our baptism, conversion and salvation by faith the Lord has “surely brought us up again” from the world.
This is truly a great promise for us who believe God for what He did in Christ. It is our own sin and guilt that put us into slavery to the Enemies that rule the world. It is God’s grace in Christ that rescued us from the world and set us free from the Enemy. The Lord Jesus Christ has certainly kept His promise: He “brought us up again” from the land of sin and death to the land of life and righteousness, innocence and blessedness.