A Time of Tension: Waiting (Gen. 43:1-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 01-14-2008

 

My Worship Time:                                                    Focus:  A Time of Tension:  Waiting

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Genesis 43:1-10

 

            Message of the verses:  1 Now the famine was severe in the land. 2  So it came about when they had finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, "Go back, buy us a little food."  3 Judah spoke to him, however, saying, "The man solemnly warned us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’  4 “If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food.  5 “But if you do not send him, we will not go down; for the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.’"  6 Then Israel said, "Why did you treat me so badly by telling the man whether you still had another brother?" 7 But they said, "The man questioned particularly about us and our relatives, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ So we answered his questions. Could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?"  8 Judah said to his father Israel, "Send the lad with me and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, we as well as you and our little ones.  9 “I myself will be surety for him; you may hold me responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame before you forever.  10 “For if we had not delayed, surely by now we could have returned twice.’”

 

            One can see God working in this section, especially in the heart of Judah.  Judah was one of them that wanted to send Joseph to Egypt, and then he ran off from his father and other brothers, which may be the reason that he ran off.  After his adultery with Tamar and realizing that she was more righteous than he this too may have begun to change him to make the statements that he made here.  Unlike Reuben in the previous chapter, Judah did not tell his father that he could kill his children, but that he would be surety for his brother and that if anything happen to him he would bare the blame for the rest of his life.  Judah would later become the royal tribe of Israel and from his loins would come the Messiah.

 

            Jacob’s life seems to be pretty miserable because of the loss of Joseph and the threat of Benjamin being taken to Egypt.  He probably thought that he would never seen him again the way things were going for him, but God was working behind the scenes to complete His plan and Jacob would receive a very great blessing in a short while. 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Trust is what I need whenever I go through trials, and we have been gone through a few in the last few years, yet trust in the Lord to work out every thing in His timing for my good and for His glory, even though it is very hard at times is what God wants me to have. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to continue to trust the Lord through the tests and trials he has sent my way, even though at times it seems that God’s presence is far from me as I go through this test.  God tested Hezekiah and then left his presence while he went through the test, and I also remember from a Founder’s Day Message that Larry Crabb gave, that he told of his father, a very godly man, going through a trial where he too felt that God’s presence was not with him while he was being tested.