From a Family to a Nation

The first verses of Exodus name the sons of Jacob. Every name was a person God loved and a family He had promised to grow.

Twelve sons. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher and Joseph (1:2-5). Their families became the twelve tribes of Israel.

Only seventy. “All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy” (Genesis 46:27). That is about the size of two classrooms.

The first promise. Hundreds of years earlier God told Abram, “I will make you a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). At that time Abram had no children at all.

Said again. God told Jacob, “Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you” (Genesis 35:11).

Why Egypt? There was a terrible famine in Canaan. God had sent Joseph ahead to Egypt to keep the family alive. Joseph said, “God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth” (Genesis 45:7). A posterity means children and grandchildren.

Joseph believed. Before he died, Joseph told his brothers, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here” (Genesis 50:25). Joseph trusted God to keep His word, even after Joseph was gone.

A promise for the move. As Jacob left, God said, “Do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there” (Genesis 46:3).

The promise kept. “The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7).

Growing in hard times. Even slavery could not stop it: “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew” (Exodus 1:12).

Told ahead of time. God had told Abram that his family would be “strangers in a land that is not theirs” and would one day “come out with great possessions” (Genesis 15:13-14). Nothing took God by surprise.

A nation with a job. God said to Abram, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Israel would be the nation through which God would bless the whole world.

A king from Judah. Jacob said of his son Judah, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah” (Genesis 49:10). A scepter is a king's rod. Jesus was born from the family of Judah.

What we learn. God keeps His promises, even when they take hundreds of years. He knows every person by name, and He can grow His people even in hard places.

What to do. Write the names of your family and your church friends. Thank God for each one, and ask Him to grow His family in your town.

God grew Jacob's family into a nation. But God's plan was always bigger than one nation. He wanted a family from every nation on earth.

The gospel to Abraham. “The Scripture… preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed’” (Galatians 3:8).

The Seed. “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made… who is Christ” (Galatians 3:16). A seed here means a descendant. Jesus is the descendant God promised.

Born into Israel. Jesus was born into Abraham's family, from the tribe of Judah, in the town of Bethlehem. The nation God grew in Egypt was the nation Jesus came from.

How we join. We are not born into God's family by being good. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).

A gift, not a prize. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Abraham's family. “And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). Heirs are people who receive what was promised.

No longer strangers. Israel was a stranger in Egypt. But in Jesus, “you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

A holy nation. Peter wrote to Christians, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” (1 Peter 2:9).

Called out. God called Israel out of Egypt. He calls us “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Too many to count. Egypt was filled with Israelites. Heaven will be filled with “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues” (Revelation 7:9).

Known by name. Exodus 1 began with a list of names. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows His people the same way: “he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:3).

What we learn. God's family is open to anyone who trusts Jesus. It does not matter where you were born or what language you speak.

What to do. Pray for a child in another country to hear about Jesus. Ask a grown-up to help you learn about missionaries your church supports.