Isaiah 31:1,  Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!

Revelation 11:8,  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Genesis 45:25-28, And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

The plan of God is now fulfilled.

God had used the jealously of brothers, the dreams of Joseph, a caravan bound for Egypt, a life of adversity by Joseph, anger of a Pharaoh against his officials, their dreams, Joseph's interpretation, a famine of great proportions, the elevation of Joseph to rule Egypt, to bring about this event.

God's will will be done.

Note that there is nothing mentioned about his sons' repentance before Joseph but no doubt Jacob was told.

Forgiveness was extended by Joseph and as far as the past is concerned it is not worth mentioning.

The old saying: Least said, soonest mended!

Genesis 46:1,  And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.

So Israel, again the man of faith leaves his home in Hebron and journeys to Egypt.

But first he must go to the place of sacrifice, Beersheba, about 30 miles to the south.

This was the same Beersheba where Isaac his father had received the covenant from the Lord

Genesis 26:23-24,  And he went up from thence to Beersheba. And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.

Here Israel offers sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.

For he is not about to go to Egypt against God's will as Abraham, his grandfather did.

He remembered also that his father was forbidden to go to Egypt.

Genesis 46:2-4,  And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. And he said, I am God, the God (El Elohim) 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.

Interesting contrast: What God told Jacob's father Isaac when there was famine in the land: Genesis 26:2,  And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

It is interesting to see that God called Israel by the name Jacob.

Perhaps Jacob did not yet see himself as Israel and would have only answered to the name Jacob.

But he receives what he came to receive.

He has from the God of his father direction to go to Egypt and he also learns that his going is not to merely be saved from a famine but to be the seed of a great nation.

Perhaps Jacob remembers the prophesy to Abraham that prophesied that his seed shall be a stranger in a land:

Genesis 15:13,14,  And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

Things are beginning to fall into place.

The plan of God may be slow in our eyes but remember a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is but a day in God's eyes.

In the minds of the sons of Israel they were going for relief from the famine but God's thoughts are higher thoughts then man's thoughts.

God was about to take this little band of believers and separate them in a land where they would have a separate consciousness of being a nation.

Egyptians would have nothing to do with them.

Intermarriage was out of the question so there was no danger of amalgamation as there was with the Canaanites.

It is interesting to note that God's people were separated from instead of God's people separating themselves.

As they did not voluntarily separate themselves in Canaan God would separate them in a land that would have nothing to do with them.

In this new land they would be outside the reach of the Canaanite immorality and idolatry.

And at the same time they would be influenced by probably the most advanced culture of the time, the Egyptians.

In this way God was to make of them a great nation out of which would come our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But this making of a great nation would take affliction.

It would take the heat of God's furnace as stoked by the Egyptians.

and (ye) shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

But the promise also contains a promise that after 400 years they shall return to Canaan.

Genesis 46:5-7,  And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him: His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.

God in the visions to Jacob had told him that He would make of him a great nation.

Jacob also knew from Abraham that this sojourn into a foreign would be for 400 years.

After God's direction at Beersheba Jacob made no hesitation to take all that he had and leave for Egypt.

He also did not heed the Pharaoh's command to regard not your stuff for he took all his stuff with him.

A typical move of our day for Jacob probably said he would have a garage sale in Egypt when he got there.

But he left nothing behind because he had no intention of returning.

He knew that the rest of his life would be spent in Egypt so he therefore took his sons, his grandsons, his grand daughters and his cattle and his goods.

There appears in this account no hesitation in carrying out God's command to go to Egypt.

He was at last to see his son Joseph but he knew that he was going into a land where his people would eventually suffer great oppression for he knew what God had told Abraham.

Israel, prince with God and a man of faith, was doing God's will regardless of what lay ahead.