Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster, mystery, intrigued, theft, reunions, and all in three chapters.

We wrapped up with Jacob agreeing to move his family to Egypt on the King's tab to ride out the last five years of the famine

When we opened today, Jacob is packing up all his stuff even though Pharaoh told him not to, to start out their 450 mile journey.

But I suppose I wouldn't want to leave my goats to starve in the famine either, so whatever.

Their first stop for his massive caravan is in Bearsheba, where he offers a sacrifice to God.

Both his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham lived in Bearsheba at one point in their lives.

So this may have been some kind of nostalgic, final farewell to his homeland, especially since he expects to die in Egypt.

While he's in Bearsheba, he makes a sacrifice to God, and he has a vision where God tells him to go to Egypt.

This is noteworthy because Egypt is generally regarded as a terrible place for Hebrews

to go. The Egyptians were enemies of God's people, they were racist

and they enslaved them, so it could be really terrifying. But God comforts Jacob and promises

to be with him.

This is a good place for me to mention the difference between God's general presence

everywhere, which is called omnipresence, and his special presence, which is called

manifest presence.

Saying God is everywhere, is different than saying God is here.

Even if God hadn't made this promise to Jacob,

since he is omnipresent, we could easily conclude that God is in Egypt regardless.

But when God promises to be with Jacob in Egypt, that's a nod to his manifest presence.

Here's how I like to think of it.

Have you ever used the filters on Instagram

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