“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” (Hebrews 11:1-6)

As we reach the end of our long journey through Genesis, we also reach the end of Jacob and Joseph’s lives. This final chapter records how Jacob’s body was returned to Canaan, and later, how Joseph requested that his bones also be returned to Canaan to be buried there.

If faith is confidence in what we hope for, then both Jacob and Joseph demonstrated amazing faith. Although the Israelites were well settled in Egypt, they both fully believed until the end of their days that God would fulfil his promises and would restore them to the land he had promised to Abraham.

This future was something they could not see with their own eyes. It would be hundreds of years before it was fulfilled. Yet both Jacob and Joseph knew, and acknowledged, the goodness and faithfulness of God in their own lives, despite all the hardships they had endured. On this basis they were able to have faith in the promises that God had made and acted with complete assurance that every word would be fulfilled.

Throughout the book of Genesis, we have become familiar with a God who is both infinitely powerful and infinitely trustworthy. The story of each of the major characters in Genesis is a story about man coming to understand the faithfulness of God, and then experiencing God’s blessing.

It is perhaps easier to see this when we consider a great sweep of history, but the same faithful, powerful God of Genesis is working in your life today. He is no less powerful; no less faithful. The journey towards trusting God that each of the Patriarchs made is the same journey that we must make.

As we stand in the middle of our lives, sometimes on a mountain, sometimes in a deep valley, it can be hard to see the hand of God, but nevertheless, he is faithful. May God grant you the gift of faith through his Holy Spirit.

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NEWBOLD COMMUNITY CHURCH