Gen. 32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.
Gen. 32:11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.
Gen. 32:12 For You said, “I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”
Every once in a while we face situations that cause us to be afraid. There are many things in life that can cause us anxiety, and nothing, perhaps, quite so much as when our life or the lives of our loved ones might be in physical or mortal danger. In fact, it often doesn’t have to be anything nearly so dramatic. It might be a change of job or moving to another place that raises our level of anxiety. It might be an “unknown” that stresses us out. In fact, there is a list of things that have been identified as causing life stress and anxiety. It is called the Life Stress Scale and it was developed by Holmes and Rahe, and it rates the stress related to both negative and positive events going on in a persons life. A person that scores high in this test might be a good candidate for developing a stress related illness. A lot of the items on the list we would probably agree with as being true stressors. They are things like, the death of a spouse, divorce, moving, changing work, change in financial status, etc, and can include things like vacation and Christmas (which may carry almost no stress for a child but great stress for the parents). However, I think that most of us would not necessarily place “following God’s will” in that list of life stress units. To many of us the idea of knowing God’s will and following it would mean lack of stress, yet this is not necessarily the case.
This is where we find Jacob. God has come to him and told him to leave his uncle’s land and return to the land of his fathers. He is to take his family, his flocks, his servants and all he has with him, and go back to Canaan. As he leaves Laban, he is pursued by him for several days, and had God not intervened, there would have been conflict. Then they travel on and as they approach the land of Canaan, Jacob sends messengers to his brother Esau to tell him of Jacob’s return. When the messengers come back they have news for Jacob. Esau is coming and with him are 400 men! If anything is likely to cause stress and anxiety I guess this time in Jacob’s life would rate high on the life stress scale. He is moving. He is leaving the security of all he has known for the past 20 years. He has trouble with his Uncle. His living conditions are changing (at least to a degree). He doesn’t know where he will live or how he will be received in Canaan. And now his brother (whose last attitude toward Jacob was to console himself with thinking about murdering him) is coming with 400 men. However, he is also in the center of God’s will because this is where God told him to go ... what God told him to do. Yet, facing this situation, he is not much comforted.
How often is it that God call us to something but the circumstances surrounding it carry a lot of opportunity for ... stress. Well stress, sure, but also faith. As we look at Jacob in this situation we see a man that has started out in faith, but when the going gets tough he starts to doubt. He begins to wonder. He begins to draw back. He begins to design his own schemes and escape plans. The problem is that Jacob doesn’t have many options and perhaps he did not like what he saw. Perhaps he began to see that this time he was not likely to be able to deceive his way or run his way out of this one. He has left a land that he can’t return to and he is entering a land in which he is afraid that death might await. If fact, it may be coming to meet him with 400 men.
It is a shame that we often wait until such times to call out to God and rely on Him, but we can also be thankful that at such times we still can call out to Him and know that He will hear. And so we see the prayer of Jacob
He is going where God has called. Jacob can have the peace of knowing that He is in the center of God’s will. God has told him to go and Jacob has followed. It was not exactly what he perhaps had pictured (in fact, nothing like it probably), but still at least he can know that he isn’t here from his own bad choices. Even if he were he could still call out to God, but that he is in the center of God’s will is at least some consolation.
He knows that all he has and all he has experienced in the past 20 years has been a matter of God’s grace. He recognizes God’s provision in all he has and all that he is. God has built his family and fortune out of nothing and if God can give it then God can also sustain it. He knows he doesn’t deserve it.
He asks God’s protection (somehow) and lays his greatest fears before God. He is open and honest and he pours out his heart to God.
He remembers and comforts himself with the promises of God, who has already told him that He will bless Jacob and make him into a great multitude. Even though Jacob is now wondering how that might look.
Unfortunately, and despite his beautiful and theologically correct prayer, Jacob continues to wrestle with God and man rather than resting in God. Despite his prayer he continues to fear, scheme and plan until God comes and takes away the last of Jacob’s options except for faith. Only then does Jacob finally go forward responsibly as appropriate to the leader of a family and a nation of promise. Yet, even then with fear.
We all find ourselves in these situations at times to one degree or another. We find our faith is small and our prayers are lacking. Yet, God is ready, as we cry out to Him, to answer, teach, bless and lead us through the situation, and our anxiety by His grace and mercy. We find that, in reality, we had no reason to be frightened. God is gracious to us and He hears our prayer. He remembers His promises. The question is will we pray and walk in faith or will God have to humble and hobble us as we wrestle with Him. Will we grow in our faith and learn to lean on God’s promises and faithfulness or continue to struggle with fear and anxiety.
Prayer Request
*That God would supply our needs ... the prayers, opportunities, resources, finances, strength, health & safety (especially for Julia and Christian), guidance and wisdom. That we would not be dependent on our own plans, but that we would walk in God's way. That the work would be done in the Spirit and not in the strength of the flesh.
3 comments:
This article was extremely interesting.
Good point, though sometimes it's hard to arrive to definite conclusions
Hi there
Great share, thanks for your time
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