What do you want? Matt 20:21
What do you want God to do for you? Matt 20:32
Jacob asked the question.
The mother of the Sons of Zebedee asked the question.
And I asked the same questions this very day of our Good God.
Gen 33:1 ~ Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. What did Jacob want God to do for him? I mean, he placed his most important wife, his most adored son, at the back of the caravan. Why? What kind of move was that? That didn't come from a good place in his heart.
It's a beautiful snapshot seeing Esau run to meet Jacob. God was working in Esau's heart. Esau knew Jacob wouldn't give him the cold shoulder but that Jacob would let Esau stand on his shoulders and move on.
And God was at work in Jacob's heart making him into Israel. Jacob heard that Shechem had violated his daughter, Dinah. And Jacob "held his peace," Gen 34:5, until his sons came back. How could he?
Yet in the very next breath, Jacob is listening to God Who tells him to arise and go back to Bethel. Jacob leads his whole family to put away the idols and Arise and Go Up to Bethel to build "an altar to the God Who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone." Gen 35:3That's the kind of God we follow.
A Very Present Help in our Days of Distress
No matter how we live or linger in all of our mess.
A God Who is with me all the places I have gone.
Working while I'm unaware to do me good not harm.
What do you want God to do for you?
A Messed Up Family
ReplyDeleteSo much is going on in these chapters! Esau and Jacob do this dance of “reconciliation” yet neither trusts the other. Jacob returns to his first Love at Bethel, God reminds Jacob of his chosen lineage, Benjamin is born, Rachel dies, Reuben, the firstborn son, sleeps with his father’s concubine, Isaac dies, and of course, the tragic story of Dinah’s rape. We have no account, no voice at all from her. We can only imagine her devastation, shame, lost hope for a future husband. Was she glad her brothers came with such vengeance and violence to “save her” or didn't they throw her to the wolves again before they poured out more violence? What a mess.
Because of their sins, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi disqualified themselves from Abraham’s blessing. It was through the fourth son, Judah, that the Messiah was born. Not because this family was a pillar of character obviously, but because of God’s faithful Grace alone that the lineage of Jesus would be through Jacob.
“Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” 3They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” This is our prayer this day, too, Lord. Open our eyes like you did the blind men and Jacob’s, and purge injustices, flaws in my character, idols in our lives. Give us new garments of praise to worship you, a revival in our hearts, and return to that place where we first met you, our very own Bethel, to serve you again in purity and entirety. In the Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.