Genesis 32:6-12
Most of us have had our plans go amiss, we had a good plan, we did our homework, and then it all turns bad, that’s the story of Jacob’s return home. Jacob has sent messengers to Esau telling him what a great success his baby brother has become, and that he will be home soon. When the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”
Do you identify with Jacob? I do, and Jacob is listening to the voice of fear, why would Esau come with so many men unless he intended to harm him? The first thing he did is what you and I might do, come up with a plan to protect the family. The next thing he did was much smarter, he began to have a conversation with the Lord, the one who had promised to go with him and provide and protect him. This is Jacob’s side of that conversation; “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good, I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of Esau, for I fear him that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”
Often when I’m in trouble and am having a conversation with the Lord, it goes much like the one Jacob prayed, “Lord, who am I, that You should bless me? I am not worthy of Your love and faithfulness that You have shown to my family and me. Lord, you know that all I have You have given me, and the only thing I bring to the party is Your blessing. Father, You know me, and You are aware that often I walk in fear and not on Your promises; my prayer is for the faith to trust You in this encounter.
In 1983, I was in Houston, Texas, in a hotel room, I was lonely and somewhat fearful, and God spoke to Joyce Ray in Burleson, Texas, with this message, call Bob and give him this verse. The verse was Jeremiah 29:11 and I acted on faith believing God and His word, it goes like this; “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I’ve always been thankful that Joyce believed and obeyed God’s voice, because I was in need of a word from God, and that night I trusted in His message and fear had to leave.
From the Back Porch,
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