Counterintuitive

 Then he said, "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.
Genesis 46:3 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.46.3.ESV

Sometimes God asks us to do counterintuitive things. He had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's descendants. Yet here he was telling elderly Jacob to go down to Egypt.

Clearly God knew He was asking something difficult of Jacob, because He seeks to reassure him. He tells him not to be afraid, which is a common refrain in Scripture. When we fear the Lord, we have nothing left to fear.

God promised to make Jacob into a great nation, even within Egypt. God makes His people into a mighty spiritual Kingdom. He does so even within this lost and dying world.

God doesn't promise to make each of us individually into great nations. Yet He does invite us into the greatest collective of all, the Kingdom of God. We enter through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

'Our Lord and God, we ask that You would help us to seek first Your Kingdom and Your righteousness, and so to find all we need in You. For Your eternal praise we pray, amen'

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