And you shall say before the Lord your God: “My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.” (Deuteronomy 26:5)

In the previous devotion we highlighted the fact that our Heavenly Father keeps His promises to His people, even though sometimes those who received the promise may not live to see it. Still, those who are of faith continue to believe that the promise will come to pass and live in anticipation of its fulfillment. Speaking to this issue, the writer of Hebrews said, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

One of those who died in faith was Jacob. It is he who is referred to above as the “Syrian” who went down into Egypt. Other translations render this as “My father was a wandering Aramean.” As we know, Jacob, along with seventy family members, went down to Egypt during a time of famine. Many years prior to this, Jacob had fled from Esau and journeyed to Paddan Aram in Syria, thus the notion that he was a wandering Aramean. However, in both of these situations, his family grew. It was in Syria that he acquired wives and children. It was in Egypt that those seventy souls multiplied into a nation of millions.

And so it was that Jacob’s descendants, those who inherited the land and reaped its bounty, were to acknowledge that, even though their ancestor endured much and did not live to see the promise come to pass, they were there to testify that God keeps His Word. From a tiny group of people exposed to hardship and suffering, God raised up a mighty nation charged with the mission of declaring the goodness and faithfulness of God. And so it is today: regardless of where and from what we have come, we who are in Messiah are able to declare that God is faithful and that all of His promises are “Yes and Amen!”

Blessings and Shalom,  

Bill 

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