Pam Padgett ... teacher
Isaac and Jacob each lived during a time of famine, yet God gave them
very different instructions.
God told Isaac not to go to Egypt during a famine ...
Genesis 26:1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first
famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech
king of the Philistines unto Gerar. 2 And the Lord appeared unto him,
and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall
tell thee of: 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will
bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these
countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy
father; 4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven,
and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5 Because that Abraham obeyed
my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. 6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:
As God instructed, Isaac did not go to Egypt. He stayed in Gerar, receiving an
hundred fold when he sowed in the land, and God blessed him ...
Genesis 26:12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and
received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. 13
And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very
great: 14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and
great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.
The instruction given to Jacob when famine came was very different. God
had prepared a way of deliverance for Jacob and his sons in Egypt,
causing Joseph to go there before and be set in authority, and given
wisdom from God in how to prepare for the famine before it came. When his brothers came to Egypt to get food the second time,
Joseph made known who he was to his brothers. He told them to bring
their father and for all of them to come dwell near him in Egypt ...
Genesis 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near
to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your
brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor
angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me
before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years hath the famine been
in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall
neither be earing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve
you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great
deliverance. 8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and
he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a
ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. 9 Haste ye, and go up to my
father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me
lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not: 10 And thou shalt dwell
in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy
children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds,
and all that thou hast: 11 And there will I nourish thee; for yet there
are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that
thou hast, come to poverty.
Joseph's brothers returned to their father in Canaan, telling him Joseph was still alive and what Joseph had said. God spoke to Jacob (Israel) as he journeyed to Egypt, telling him not to fear going to Egypt and that HE would go with him and make of him a great nation ...
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. 2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the
night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. 3 And he said, I
am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I
will there make of thee a great nation: 4 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.
In Egypt, Joseph's father and brothers were given the best of the land, and they were nourished by Joseph ...
Genesis 47:11 And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and
gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in
the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph nourished
his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with
bread, according to their families.
Although they were not told to do the same things, Isaac and Jacob were both fed and kept by God as they obeyed what HE told them to do.