Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.” Genesis 32:9
In August 1989, I pulled into New Bedford, Massachusetts, bankrupt, foreclosed, and driving at 1973 Volvo with a rusty steel bed frame in the back seat. Like Jacob I had used my blessing and my inheritance poorly. Idiocy is not a requirement for blessing, but many of us can relate to squandering opportunities and being dependent upon ourselves for successes that ultimately become hallow. Prior to my bankruptcy and foreclosure I was a staff sergeant in the United States Army. I owned a home, had a wife, two cats and a dog named Jake. Oklahoma was my Paddam Aram, I would come home and be restored to the faith of my ancestors.
Like Jacob I have a large family from several sources. Yours, mine, ours and adopted, and like Jacob, God has shown me kindness and faithfulness unworthy of this servant.
Jacob learned a great deal in his place of labor and exile. He learned how to be a father and a pastor and a person who loves more than just himself. Listen to the care in these words recorded in Genesis 33. “But Jacob said to him, “My lord (Esau) knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die. So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the flocks and herds before me and the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
The man that was only concerned about himself is now concerned about two camps of people and children and ewes and their health and safety. The Lord will often drive us to a place of labor and order that we might know peace in the midst of being overwhelmed. He does this so we might turn to him for his assistance and not depend on our gifting and talents for success.
The scriptures are full of history that reflects this truth. Mosses leadership in the flesh leads him to murder, but he delivers the people of Israel through the staff of a shepherd. Peter the expert fisherman fishes all night in based on his skills and knowledge but his nets are filled to the point of tearing and he must share his wealth with others just to contain the blessing. Joseph’s dreams divide his family when they are expressed as a boast but they are his family’s deliverance when they are expressed as a prison, slave and then servant of pharaoh.
The Lord wants to bless us early in our life and often. However he is faithful to bless us when we are older and wiser as well.
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