Through Jacob's final words we see that the plans of God work out despite the sins and actions of humans. Through Judah's offspring, Christ, we see the original curse enacted due to Adam's sin and impacting all of us, is overcome through Christ's sacrifice. This reconciles us with God and allows us to love a holy life for him.

Jacob believes God and his promise, he relies on the faithfulness of God, and trusts in God's sovereign choice. We are called to walk in his footsteps believing God for tomorrow as well as for the rest of our lives.

We can find our identity in our name, or profession, or the football team we support, but our identity is as a son of God.

God takes our brokeness and mistakes and can rebuild our lives, as we look to him and walk his way.

God has called us to be a church for the nations: to be sent out to bless the nations; and to reach the nations and tribes at the end of our street, and the end of our comfort zone.

Joseph forgave his brothers with weeping and embraces, but years later they weren't totally sure he'd truly forgiven them. We can find it hard to accept God's forgiveness but he has truly forgiven us.

Joseph tests his brothers to see whether they have changed or whether they will allow Benjamin to become a slave. Judah shows that he has changed, and is willing to bear Benjamin's punishment himself - just as Jesus bore our punishment.

Jacob is paralysed with fear, which prevents him from walking in faith and leads to him blaming others. If we don't recognise Jesus then we too will be trapped in fear - it is Jesus who drives out fear.

The foxes represent small things that might be overlooked, but in fact are destructive, distracting or discouraging. We should catch them by staying close to the King (Jesus) and his bride (the Church).

Joseph's brothers have been living with the guilt and shame of what they did to him, and God uses him to bring them to repentance. Jacob thinks everything is against him because he is walking by sight not by faith.