We are in chapter 41 of Genesis with our word for today. נָגַד to tell, propose, announce, inform, give evidence, be conspicuous, be in front, be in sight, put forward, report, give an explanation. It is used 370 times in the Old Testament. We find our word used to identify God making himself and his will known. God speaks through creation itself. Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies מַגִּ֥ידproclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. And God speaks more specifically through his written word. Deuteronomy 4:13 He וַיַּגֵּ֨ד declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. Deuteronomy 5:4-6 The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. (At that time I stood between the Lord and you to לְהַגִּ֥יד declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
The first time it is used in the Bible is by God talking to Adam right after he and Eve sinned. Genesis 3:11 And he said, “Who הִגִּ֣יד told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” This helps us understand our word in that it is something that was not previously known but has now been revealed. This is definitely how it is used in our chapter today. Genesis 41:24-25 And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.” Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has הִגִּ֥יד revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. I love the contrast between the wisest people Pharaoh had that could not help him and God himself who was the only one who could. God allows Pharaoh and all of us be find ourselves in situations where only He can help us. Why? Because he wants us to have a relationship with Him.
We find this also in the New Testament. Ephesians 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. This is a great verse because we have God himself who wants to help us understand what to do with things we already know which is what wisdom is and also to make known to us things we don’t yet know. God does all of this because he wants us to know him better. And what is truly wonderful about this is that Paul is praying for the Christians in Ephesus to experience God in a closer way. This is also how we see Jesus praying his heartfelt prayer to God the Father as we close today. John 17:20-23, 25-26 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me… Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.
