Joseph wasn’t the only one forced to live with pain for a season. Jacob, Joseph’s father, was also forced to live with pain. He’d experienced loss for an extended period of time—the loss of his son Joseph. This incident was completely outside of Jacob’s control. However, he was forced to live with unanswered questions. What exactly happened to my boy? What if I had not sent him to his brothers? Would he still be alive? Did I do enough to protect him?
He’d also lost his wife, Rachel, mother of his son Joseph. The only child he had left of his wife was Benjamin. Jacob had to pass the test of living with loss. Would he trust God enough to still be okay if he’d loss Benjamin too? This was the test being presented to him from his sons when they shared with him that the overseer in Egypt, who was Joseph, unknown to Jacob’s sons, had requested for Jacob’s son’s to bring their youngest brother back with them to Egypt or else one of their brothers, Simeon, would not be released from prison. Joseph had accused the brothers of being spies and the only way they’d prove they weren’t would be to bring the youngest, “Benjamin.”
Jacob shares the below words as he battled within himself over whether he could open himself up again in such a way as not to hold too tightly his last remnant of his wife Rachel which was his son Benjamin.:
But Jacob said, “My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.” – Genesis 42:38 (NIV)
Sometimes when we’ve dealt with pain for so long, the questioning, the why, the how can I prevent this again because it hurts; we fail to move in faith again. We get stuck, and immobile. We put up protective mechanisms that shield us from our fears instead of moving in faith. These are some of the things that even Jacob, one of the fathers of the faith, struggled with.
However, when Jacob finally agreed to resolve the fact that yes he had been through the pain of loss, and he turned out okay, and if it happened again to his son Benjamin, he’d still be okay because his comfort, trust, and joy of life is not in things always being comfortable and/or avoiding loss; it’s in God. The God of his fathers Abraham, and Issac. This is a point that we have to get to in our trusting the Lord. Our trust in the Lord has to be beyond the pain of our circumstance.
Jacob began to move in faith again, once he became resolved. His moving in faith was sheer evidence of his inner resolve that he had come to. Look at what Jacob says below:
Then their father Israel said to them, “if it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved. – Genesis 43:11, 43:14 (NIV)
Little did Jacob know, his inner resolve, and actions in faith to send his beloved Benjamin to Egypt would result in the reviving of his spirit. To revive means to restore to life or consciousness. Some synonyms for revive are below:
resuscitate, bring round, bring to life, bring someone back to their senses, bring back from the edge of death (Google Dictionary.)
I don’t know if any of my readers have ever been in a state of grief, loss, or depression where it has felt as if you’ve experienced a death, but there comes a time where God will allow our spirits to be revived. As many of us are aware, there was a great ending to this story. Benjamin was bought to Egypt, and Joseph revealed himself. Joseph sent his brothers back with great caravans and provision to bring his father’s entire household to live with him in Egypt. Jacob could hardly believe it when he heard it. That’s how unreal it was.
The Bible says that Jacob’s spirit was “Revived” when he saw the great carts Joseph had sent back with them:
But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” – Genesis 45: 27-28
Joseph was not the only one who was forgetting his pain. God was moving on Jacob’s behalf to cause him to forget his pain. What can we learn from this story?
We see that even though hard circumstance in life can stop us; we have a choice to press past the fear of only experiencing sorrow and loss in our lives. We have to make up in our minds to continue in faith in spite of.
Also, we see that God used the father, Jacob, and his son’s need to bring things full circle. If they had not had the famine; they would have never been reconciled with their brother. It was their need for food that drove them outside of their comfort zone to get what they needed and what God had intended for them to have all along. That was reconciliation with their brother and for Jacob with his son as well as provision.
Finally, we have to choose not to live in the fear of loss or things getting worse; instead, we need to come to a resolve of trusting God no matter what happens. In doing so, we will find that no matter what happens; we will be okay, and we too will experience the reviving of our spirits like Jacob and Joseph.
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