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"Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” (Genesis 42:36)
Do you ever have those days, weeks, or months when your whole world seems to be crashing down around you? The times when where everything you do seems to go against the way you want. Everything seems to go wrong at that time.
A newspaper reported an accident like this; "Driver gets in a wreck, sees his home catch fire, gets a ticket and ends up in hospital" (ROCK ISLAND, Tenn.Fri May 9, 2008) - Justin Hill, 42, got into a crash after turning into the path of an oncoming car Tuesday evening, said Tennessee Highway Patrol Officer Monte Terry. Hill's wife heard the crash and ran outside, leaving the kitchen stove, where she had been cooking, unattended. Within minutes, their Rock Island trailer was on fire, and firefighters who had responded to the accident found themselves fighting the blaze. The rural central Tennessee home had extensive damage. Hill was treated at the hospital and released, but he was cited in the accident for failure to yield.
One moment, Justin Hill was turning into his driveway. Minutes later he was being flown to a hospital as his home went up in flames. Then he got a traffic ticket on top of everything. We may have stories like this that may not be so much dramatic like Justin. There are people in the Bible who had similar situations. Job is a great example if when all things were going wrong, even his wife was talking against his faith. Jacob found himself in such a situation.
The story begins in Canaan - modern-day Palestine, Syria, and Israel - around 1600 to 1700 BC. Jacob had issues at home and fled for his life fearing his brother Esau to Haran, where he got married and settled with his father-in-law. One day he decided to return home to his brother and father. On his return home from his father in-laws house, he had a boxing night with God. He became lame after that. He met with his brother Esau who welcomed him very warmly and they settled their issues peacefully.
On the way Jacob and their family settled in Shechem, Gen 33:18, but there his problems were just beginning. Because of his daughter Dinah, two of his own sons killed all the men in the town of Shechem. Because of their actions, Jacob would have to flee from that area on a painful hip. Gen 34, 35. He took his 11 sons, his daughter, his two wives Rachael and Leah, and their maidservants. Of all that he had, he loved his wife Rachael the most. And because of his love for her, he loved her son Joseph more than all his other children. Rachel passed away on the road to Bethlehem as she gave birth to Jacob's 12th son Benjamin. Gen 35:16-19.
His father Isaac also died around that time. Jacob, the strong man, started noticing that the control he had over his life was slipping now through his fingers. First Jacob lost Rachael, the wife he loved, and then he lost his father Isaac.
And in the next years, he lost everything that he had attained for himself. First, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers and they cover up their deed by convincing their father that he was eaten by a wild animal. Jacob's favorite son was gone. His grief was so heavy that he felt he would mourn for him till the day he died. Then a famine came to the land and because of the famine, he started losing his grip on his possessions. First, the barns went empty, then his cattle started to go hungry, eventually, even his family was starting to feel the pangs of hunger.
But there was food in Egypt, so he sent all his sons to go and buy some, except the only son that he loved deeply because he was Rachael's son, Benjamin. He would have to stay home with his Father. When they reached Egypt, Joseph was the ruler there. They did not know that or recognize him. The same brother that they sold to foreign merchants became the ruler there. We see that how the puzzle pieces of Joseph’s life from the hatred of their brothers, as a slave in Egypt, then a prisoner with no crime against him, and he rose to the power in Egypt, in a foreign land, became the second in command to the Pharaoh.
Then came a big famine in that whole part of the world. Because of Joseph’s planning and strategies, Egypt had plenty of grains and food that he stored up in the barns. They did not recognize Joseph, but Joseph recognized them. We see some interesting developments here. Joseph did not reveal himself to the brothers right away. He treated them a little rough and gave them some stress on their way. He told them that he thinks they came to spy on the land. He put them in confinement for three days for questioning.
He asked them many questions about their family. They told him that there were 12 brothers. Genesis 42:13 But they replied, “Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.” Then he asked about the youngest of their brothers, Rachel’s son Benjamin, Joseph’s brother born to his own mother. Jacob did not send him with the others. Joseph wanted to see him badly. So he suggested that they go back and bring Benjamin. But they needed to let one brother, Simeon stay back as a guarantee that they will return with Benjamin.
The brothers came home with grains but left Simeon as a hostage in Egypt. Jacob's sons have just returned from Egypt with a report of rough treatment. Accused of being spies, brother Simeon is held as hostage, and Benjamin must go with them on the next trip to verify their story.
As they open their sacks of grain, there are bundles of money in each sack.
Joseph asked his servants to put all their money back in their bags which they just noticed. They were afraid that they may be accused of stealing now. But to get more food from Egypt, an Egyptian authority insisted that the youngest son come also. So when the hunger pangs of the family became too severe. They needed more food. But they would have to take Benjamin in order to go back to Egypt. Their brother Simeon is held as a hostage there. He needed to be freed as well.
The only option is that Jacob needs to let Benjamin go. At that point, the intuitive, sometimes deceitful Jacob had nothing left for he knew that letting Benjamin go might mean Benjamin's death. First Jacob lost Joseph, then Rachael, then his father, Simeon is held in prison in Egypt and now they are taking even Benjamin. It was as if everything and everyone he loved and had worked for all his life was being taken out of his hands one by one. Jacob himself cried out in Genesis 42:36 "Their father Jacob said to them, You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me."
If he would lose his last beloved son is like losing his very own life and everything that he had ever strived for. He is being forced to give up everything he had worked for all his life. If there was a life that came apart at the seams, it was Jacob's!
Is Everything really against Jacob? If we start looking at the events closely, we can see God is knitting a plan together that would ultimately become the greatest blessing of the family.
1. "Sometimes Good Things Fall Apart So Better Things Can Fall Together"
Remember these wonderfully wise words from the past. Every problem, every obstacle, and every heartbreak… when you experience the ‘bad’, do you ever stop and ask yourself what good may come out of it? While it may not feel like it at the time, sometimes, the universe takes things away from us to make room for bigger, better things. It happens in nature all around us on a regular basis. Old leaves fall off, to make room for newer and healthy ones.
2. ‘Pain Is Inevitable, Suffering Is Optional’. Pain is part of being human; however, it is how we choose to think and act both during and after that experience of pain that determines our happiness. Many of us are feeling like not only our lives, but our bodies are also falling apart. Unexpected diseases pop up and our organs are going the wrong way one by one. Isaiah 46:4 – Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
3. ‘Yesterday Is History, Tomorrow Is A Mystery, Today IS…’
There is no greater gift than the here and now. Sometimes you have to let go of the past and things that we have been holding dear to advance to the future. Instead of saying, "Benjamin shall not go down with you." Jacob needed to let him go. The only way to experience growth is to leave the comfort zone behind. Sometimes you need to test your limits and throw caution to the wind in order to know your true capabilities. You might unearth newfound passions and totally new sides of yourself that you never knew before by conquering your greatest fears. The next time you feel swamped by the pressures of modern life, just remember that you and millions of others are in the same boat. The best thing to do is to actively create a life you love, and the pressures won’t seem so enormous anymore.
Keeping calm in such situations and carrying on is difficult. But that is the choice that works better. God is for us. He is the God Who is almighty, the God Who is all-wise, the God Who never makes mistakes, the God Who knows and sees all things, the God Who governs all things, the God Who loves us in Christ, the God Who is faithful forever, the God whose loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him. If this God is for us – and He is – then all things must be for us too!
Things were really not against Jacob but for him, though he – because of blind unbelief – could not see this. And, things are not against us either. Because we are dear children of God, the fact is that God is for us. And, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).
As it turns out it was the best thing that could have happened to Jacob. He didn’t know it even as we sometimes fail to recognize it that all these things were working together for his good and the good of his family. Here he thinks them all against him. Through our ignorance, misunderstanding, our mistakes, and the weakness of our faith, we often consider things to be against us that in reality are really for us. We are afflicted in body, finances, name, and relationships; and we think all these things are against us, whereas these are really working for us an eternal weight of glory.
Psalm 46 is said to be the favorite Psalm of Martin Luther, the great reformer of the 15th century. This psalm inspired him to write "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." God is a stronghold and a tower, a bulwark (strong wall or fortress) never failing! Luther faced numerous dangers and threats on his life from the pope and his forces. At one point he spent 11 months in hiding in Wartburg Castle. In the face of opposition, excommunication, and pressure from every side to back down, he stood firmly for the truth of salvation by grace through faith alone. When he had occasion to fear or grow discouraged, he would say to his friend and co-worker, Philip Melanchthon, “Come, Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm,” and they would lift their voices: "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper He, amid the flood, Of mortal ills prevailing." Luther wrote, “We sing this Psalm to the praise of God, because God is with us, and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends His church and His word, against all fanatical spirits, against the gates of hell, against the relentless hatred of the devil, and against all the assaults of the world, the flesh of the body, and sin of the world” (in The Treasury of David [Baker], by C. H. Spurgeon, II:384).
Paul writes: "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). The key to victory and overcoming is found in the next verse. He says, "Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (vs. 18).
It is Well with my soul - is a well-known hymn that was written out of the tragic experiences of a man of God. Horatio Spafford was a great Christian businessman in Chicago who knew about sorrow. He had lost his only son, 4 years old, to pneumonia. He lost part of his life savings in the Chicago fire. When he started to get his life turned around In November 1873, someone told him to go to England to hear a preacher in Revival there. So he got tickets to take a ship there with his family, but at the last second, someone told him he needed to stay an extra day and clean up what the fires had destroyed. So he stayed while he sent his family to England.
On the way, the ship his family was on collided with another ship and sank in 12 minutes. All three of Spafford’s four daughters were among the 226 who drowned. Mrs. Spafford was miraculously saved. He got a telegram from.his wife two words…" Saved alone, what shall I do?"
But he found true comfort with the Lord. On his way to England to be with his wife, he told the captain to let him know where his daughters had died. After he saw the place, he went to his room. Spafford received sustaining comfort from God that enabled him to write: “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll-Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and shed His own blood for my soul. And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll: The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, "Even so" it is well with my soul.”
Preacher Dwight L. Moody once said, “Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment. Trust in money and you may have it taken from you. Trust in your reputation and some slanderous tongue may blast it. But trust in God and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity."
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