This was the end.
Or at least the end of a very significant section of this story.
As usual, endings come with taking stock. What had been lost, what had been gained, and what everything amounted to was now perfectly clear. It was also at this conclusion that God showed up in a way that was unexpected and thus easily missed.
Jacob’s days on earth were winding down.
This was a pretty calm end for a man whoose life had been plagued by drama and chaos.
By the time we get here, Jacob had had to deal with some very difficult circumstances.
He had not only lost his favourite wife[i]; he had lost his favourite son[ii].
As if that wasn’t bad enough, his other sons had gone to Egypt in an attempt at survival and had come back less one son[iii]
Now they wanted to take away his last son[iv] by his late wife.
If Jacob said yes, he possibly was condeming a third son to the unknown. If he said no, he was embracing certain starvation for his entire family.
The man God had promised to be with, was now stuck between a rock and an unbelievably hard place.
In the face of these circumstances, Jacob proclaimed that everything was against him[v].
Small wonder, considering everything that was happening.
Fast forward to Jacob’s completion chapter and this patriatch of faith was getting ready to bow out.[vi]
This picture was now considerably different.
Jacob was now the father of the second most powerful man in the biggest civilization at that time. He didn’t just have his favourite son back, he had Simeon back, and nothing bad had happened to Benjamin after all.
By this time, all of Jacob’s children were doing very well, a blessing Jacob recognized when he said to Joseph, “not only am I seeing you, I am seeing your children.[vii]”
This was the full circle moment; the moment Jacob recognized that God had been true to his word of being with him and had actually blessed him exceedingly and abundantly above what he had been able to think.
As an interesting aside, Jacob ended up imparting an abundant blessing to the children of Joseph after this revelation.
In that one moment when he felt overwhealmed by God’s goodness, he ended up giving a double blessing that resulted in two major sub-tribes for the nation of Isreal, i.e., Manasseh and Ephiram.
If only Jacob’s story had stopped in the middle of his trouble, he would have been right on his assessement that everything was against him.
Those of us on this side get to see God work behind the scenes of Jacob’s life as He worked out even the traumatic seasons into an end that favoured Jacob. Without seeing the end, Jacob’s story would just have been that of a man who got the promise of Abraham handed down, faced obstacle after obstacle after obstacle including becaming a refugee from his own brother, fleeing a cheating boss who doubled up as his father-in-law, and getting robbed of his son by his other sons.
Without the end of the story, it made sense that Jacob would be and remain depressed. Without the end of the story, it would have made sense that perhaps God had forgotten all his promises to Abraham and had started over with a new family. That wasn’t what happened at all. God had everything figured out and tied it all up with a beautiful bow at the end.
This is a reminder I need because I get stuck in the middle quite often.
I look at the snapshot that’s my situation or someone else’s situation and like Jacob I think everything must be against me. The difference is, I’ve seen God remove unmovable mountains and bring beauty out of more ashes enough times to believe in a beautiful climax.
There will come a time when we see what God was up to all this while. And that’s often when exceedingly abundantly comes in. Jacob at the point of his death was more grateful than he had ever been in the middle of his life.
Sometimes it’s really hard to see the forrest for the trees, but God really has a good plan, even when it looks like His plans have gone awry.
I would guess that there are some things you don’t expect to work out.
God will surprise you not just by having those things work. He will bring things to you that you can’t even begin to think about or imagine.
Once you’re His, exceedingly abundantly is just part of His package for you.
Trust him.
[i] Gen 35 v18
[ii] Gen37 v 34
[iii] Gen 42 v 24
[iv] Gen 42 v 34
[v] Gen 42 v 36
[vi] Gen 48 v 1
[vii] Gen 48 v 11