We are fascinated today with people who have more than 2.5 children. John & Kate +8, The Duggar’s with their 20+ kids (Probably 30 by the time you read this!) But if there was a reality TV show around when Jacob was leaving Beersheba to Egypt they would have been fixed on Jacob and his 70 kids and grandkids!

I have a tough time traveling to Disney with my wife and two daughters making it 4 exits down the interstate before somebody has to stop for a potty break! I can’t imagine trying to move 70 kids and grandkids by donkey more than 400 miles!

That is Hebrew for “Are we there yet?” Seriously! Which I’m sure Jacob heard a bazillion times on this long journey with that many kids. I’m not great with math so someone figure this out for me and I’ll buy you a taco and put it in the 10-year anniversary hardback edition of this book. There is an algebra problem hiding here see if you can figure it out. Verse27 says Jacob had 70 descendants and by the time, the Israelites leave Egypt 400 years later they had 2.5 million people all from this one family of 70. So how many kids/ grandkids did each son of Jacob have?

Anywho, that was a big family for Jacob to move to Egypt! As they approached Goshen Jacob asked Judah to do something so vial as a man I can barely bring my fingers to type to recount the horrifying and disturbing details. Verse 28 He stopped to ask for directions! Dunt dunt duuuh! Ha ha, you thought it was going to be something really bad didn’t you. Moses never stopped to ask for directions and that’s why they wandered in the desert for 40 years. Bud dump bump ching! Ok, I’m sorry; I told you I hang around middle and high school guys way too much!

Finally, after a long journey and many years apart Joseph and Jacob are reunited with lots of tears and hugging. What a great story of a son thought dead and now reunited with his father and family. How has Lifetime or Hallmark not made a cheesy afterschool special with this plot yet?

Before we leave this chapter, this last verse confused me at first. Joseph tells his family to tell Pharaoh they are shepherds. Which is fine and good until he says “the Egyptians hate shepherds.” So why would you tell Pharaoh your family is a bunch of shepherds?? Won’t he say “Eww shepherds are gross” and turn them away? No, it wasn’t that bad of a profession, some people say Joseph did this so they would have a bit of privacy and not be bothered to intermarry etc which makes more sense. I also find it Ironic that God chose to reveal Jesus the savior of humanity to who?? Yep, shepherds. (But that’s another story for Volume 34 of this book series due out Christmas 2044, so look for it on your Cranium download.)

We see God calling Jacob to go to down to Egypt and Jacob replies “Here I am” Just like Abraham.

What is God calling you to and is your response the same as Jacobs? Maybe you never thought to commit your future to God’s steady hands. Take a minute to give your future plans to God and ask Him to give you a malleable heart like Jacob so that you can say “Here I am.”