Monday, January 16, 2012

Day 16: Genesis 47, 48, 49 and 50


Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. (Genesis 47:31)

I can envision this old man (even though some might say he seemed young for 130), full of years and full of life, looking out over the land of Goshen, but not seeing the fields or the sheep. He was seeing the years of his life - conspiring with his mother to get his brother's blessing, the twenty years working for his Uncle Laban, wrestling with God (at this point he automatically and without thinking reaches down to massage his hip), his reunion with Esau, the death of his sweetheart Rachel, the loss of his son Joseph; Jacob - an accomplished deceiver - now deceived by his sons, the famine, his astonishment at hearing Joseph was alive, and then seeing him once again, second-in-command over all Egypt.

What a life! There was good and there was bad. There had been things that brought him shame and some that had brought him honor. There were times God's will was accomplished in his life, not in cooperation with Jacob, but in spite of Jacob. It was like a tapestry being woven from the day of his birth, some of the threads beautiful, and some ugly. Only now, in looking back, was he able to see the hand of his God - the God of Abraham, Isaac and yes, the God of Jacob.

Could the things you fret about today actually be revealed as threads of a beautiful tapestry tomorrow?
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4 comments:

  1. Connie HansonJanuary 17, 2012 at 10:34 PM

    Do you think Jacob's life, in regard to the highs and lows, demonstrates our success or failure in our own life when we follow or stray from God?

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2012 at 3:38 PM

    Manna is a natural phenomena,why then is it considered a miracle? Peggy Carr

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    1. tim irwinJanuary 22, 2012 at 7:23 PM

      Hi, Peggy. I know that there are several naturally occurring substances that scientists posit may have been the basis for the manna stories. If any of those are right (and they may be), the miracle would probably be in the fact that there was enough to feed to entire population of Israel traveling through the wilderness for 40 years. Also, the idea that manna kept for a second day was fresh on the Sabbath but not on any other day could be considered miraculous.

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  3. tim irwinJanuary 22, 2012 at 6:10 PM

    I think God worked in Jacob's life sometimes in cooperation with him and sometimes in spite of him. I do think we all have in our lives measures of success and failure, faithfulness and unfaithfulness. If you're asking if success if connected to faithfulness and failure to unfaithfulness, I would have to say there are too many successful (at least as measured by our culture) people who are anything but faithful.

    Deuteronomic retribution theology says if we do good we will be blessed and if we do bad we will be cursed. That seems to form the basis for most of Proverb's teachings. On the other hand I can hear Job saying, "Hey, wait a minute; I read Proverbs! What gives?" And then there's Ecclesiastes that says good, bad, everybody dies.

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