GLEANINGS - GenesisSample

Life begins when you give in to God’s plan

No man has ever been so eager for death to come as Jacob. For years he had spoken of it. We read about it in Genesis 37:35; 42:38; 45:28 and 46:30. Why was Jacob so eager to die? Jacob’s confession to Pharaoh provides us with a clue to his preoccupation with death: So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning” (Genesis 47:9).

It was late in the life of Jacob, that he came to a significant turning point in his life when he came to grasp the essence of knowing God and serving Him.

When Jacob gets to hear that Joseph whom he has not seen for 22 years is alive, before he sets out for Egypt, he puts God back in the centre of his life. Jacob knew that his grandfather, Abraham, had gotten into trouble in Egypt and that God had forbidden his father, Isaac, to go there during another famine (26:2). Jacob also knew that God’s promise involved Canaan, not Egypt. So he stopped in Beersheba to seek the Lord and did not move on to Egypt until the Lord gave him a green light.

He determined to be in the centre of God’s plan and not take one step further until his doubts were resolved. Consequently, it was at Beersheba that Jacob offered sacrifices to the God of his father. It is here now that he secures God’s promise and reassurance that God is with him. God promises him “I will make you a great nation there.’” God also assures him of His abiding presence “I will go down with you to Egypt.” God also assures him not to worry about death because “I will also surely bring you up again;” “and Joseph will close your eyes.” Death would be peaceful surrounded by those he loved.

The man that was constantly talking about dying outside the will of God is now assured by God that even in Egypt God was going to be with him in death. Life began for Jacob at 130 years when he entered Egypt knowing full well that this was God’s plan for his life.

It is enlightening, though, that God's timetable for Jacob's death isn't the same as Jacob's. God still has work for him to do. He lived for another 17 years.

No matter how old you are, whatever has happened in the past, get back to God, get back into the centre of His will, and see and experience His plan and purposes being fulfilled in your life.

APPLICATION QUESTION:

Are you willing to wait for God’s timetable for your life?

QUOTE:

"God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

PRAYER:

Lord, help me never to give up on life, but to constantly seek to do Your will till the very end. Amen