I was reading Genesis 46 tonight and the story of Jacob finally meeting his “favorite” son Joseph after not seeing him for so many years is quite touching. Considering, first of all, Jacob’s first words after seeing Joseph: “Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.” I get that Jacob, or Israel as he is called here, has experienced such an amazingly satisfying moment that he feels he could “die happy.” Indeed, perhaps, he thought that anything after that moment was just “gravy,” so to speak. What could top his experience he just had? After all, he lived most all of those many years after Joseph was sold into slavery thinking that Joseph was dead. Reading it as an outsider, I’m thinking, “NO! Now, you want to live and enjoy time with your son!”
Now the interesting part: Chapter 47 verse 28 says that “Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years…” 17 years! 17 years AFTER he requested that the Lord take his life and take him home to glory. Those were his years of Goshen. It sounds like to me that Goshen treated him quite well.
How many believers are living out there days outside of Goshen thinking that their best days are behind them and that there is nothing to live for? And maybe, just maybe… there might be some believers out there that are quite content with the life that God has given them, and yet, God has something in their twilight years stored up for them to enjoy. For Israel, Goshen’s 17 “twilight years” must have been amazing as he got to not only see his son, but meet his wife and kids. He had the chance now to get to know them and see them grow up, basking most likely in waves of fathomless gratitude and satisfaction. What about you? Maybe you feel you have lived your life, but God is saying, “No, son. I want you to go to Goshen.”
Right off the top of my head, one of the attributes of spiritual Goshen for me that is most intriguing is that God is able to show off for you what he has done in your life and in the lives of those you know. This is where your heritage comes in and the familial spiritual baton is passed from you to those you love in that wonderful land of Goshen. Have you been there?
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