DON’T BE AFRAID

“[Adonai] said, ‘I am God, the God of your father. Don’t be afraid to go down to Egypt. It is there that I will make you into a great nation.’”
Genesis 46:3

Have you ever been in that place where you find yourself fearful of what is to come, but knowing that you will be better because of it? For me that was college. I grew up in Southern California and at the age of 18 found myself venturing east to Oklahoma. I had never been away from home without some other family and close friend, and here I was now with a feeling of fear. I knew the going to college was right for me, and I knew that this college was where I was supposed to go, yet still I was afraid of all that was unknown.
Ya’akov knew that same feeling. The wagons had come and were prepared to take him and all his family to Egypt. Yet, Ya’akov seemed to have a little fear. Yes Yosef was alive and residing in Egypt, but the promise from Adonai had always been that the line of Avraham would be given the land of Kena’an. Now he was being moved from the promise to a foreign place. Adonai, knowing Ya’akov’s fear, spoke to him in a dream and said, “Don’t be afraid to go down to Egypt. It is there that I will make you into a great nation.”
A new promise was now being given, not to override the promise given to Avraham, but to confirm the promise given to Avraham. It was in Genesis 15:13 that Adonai first shared what was now coming to pass. The line of Avraham would find themselves foreigners in a land not theirs, as slaves for four hundred years. Now Ya’akov was packing up and moving to a land not his. The first day of the four hundred years was beginning.
If Ya’akov had not allowed himself to go, then Adonai’s promise to Avraham would never have come true. And the same can be said of me. If I had not gone to the college I felt Him leading me to, then the promises He gave me concerning my education at this institution would not have come true. Too many times we allow fear to paralyze us. But in these moments we should remember the words of Adonai. Don’t be afraid to go.

Genesis 45:28 – 46:27