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

Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster, mystery, intrigue, 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 write out the last five years of the famine. When we open today,

Jacob is packing up all his stuff, even though Pharaoh told him not to, to start their 450-mile

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

so that makes sense. The first stop for his massive caravan is in Bersheba, where he offers a

sacrifice to God. Both his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham lived in Bersheba 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 Bershiba, 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 time 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's 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

where you can increase the saturation? You didn't invent the red in your picture. It was already

there. But when you dial up that saturation, it sure does make

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