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Thursday, January 14, 2010

January 16 ... Genesis 46 - 47 "I'm Listening God"

Genesis 46:2 - such a sweet verse. "Jacob! Jacob!" And Jacob replies: "Yes, God I'm listening." And our Beautiful God says: "Don't be afraid. I am going with you down to... ." You know it's our oldest son's wedding weekend to the love of his life. In just a few short hours he will take a vow before God and leave us forever. He will be indelibly marked for life. And the prayer of my heart every day before God will be 2Tim 4:7 for both of them! There are parts of me that doesn't want this to happen. I have to let him go. And God is behind this! And more than anything I want to listen to God this day and what HE is saying to me! I wonder what HE will say...

2 comments:

  1. God will go with you, Bev. And He will make you strong this day. You're in my prayers for much joy and His blessing. Like Jacob, may you find a new land and prosper in it. And may your son rise up and call you blessed and remain loyal like Joseph.

    Letting go is forever my challenge. I was just reading a quote from the book, "Absolute Surrender," by Andrew Murray that gave me pause this morning:

    "What is it that keeps us from trusting Him perfectly?

    Many a one says: "I believe what you say, but there is one difficulty. If my trust were perfect and always abiding, all would come right, for I know God will honor trust. But how am I to get that trust?"
    My answer is: "By the death of self. The great hindrance to trust is self-effort...and if you will bow down in nothingness and wait upon God, He will become all. As long as we are something, God cannot be all."

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  2. Meaning of Goshen - a place of comfort and plenty

    Meaning of Canaan - humiliation, promised land

    I focused on the "Where" of these verses.

    Jacob is moving on...from Canaan to Goshen.

    Jacob as the patriarch, living in Canaan, is starving. He has his family and his livestock, but no grain and no food for his livestock.

    Humiliating, don't you think? I mean, Jacob belongs to God. The famine has hit them so hard. And all of this humiliation (here in his promised land) must have been hard to explain. God keeps saying I'll bless you. But they are starving.

    His wife whom he loved the moment he set eyes on her...has died in childbirth. No one will ever take her place in his heart. His eldest son by his beloved has vanished at the age of 17...presumed dead. Of course he has other children, but Rachel was his beloved...

    Just like you and I are God's beloved.

    God has many children. The Bible says He forms us in our mother's womb. But not all of God's children obediently believe Him and come to Him through Christ...the ONLY way.

    Christians are His beloved.

    So Jacob, starving, has an offer to come to Goshen in Egypt. He is leaving the promised land to go to a foreign land. Kind of like leaving "heaven" and coming to the "world." Canaan can be viewed as a type of heaven and Goshen as a type of the world.

    Goshen is defined as a place of comfort and plenty. Look how appealing it is in these verses!

    But it will soon turn into a place of bondage for these children of Abraham. And God will raise up a man, Moses, to bring them out of their bondage!

    Canaan and Goshen.

    How often are we spiritually starving ourselves through our spirit-nature...?

    and entering Goshen...our physical world...to meet our needs (comfort and plenty)?

    As we read through these verses, remember that we are spiritual pilgrims in this world. And that our spiritual needs are met in Christ.

    I'm still pondering all of this. It is too much to take in! But what a picture of our human struggles with our spiritual/physical battles.

    Right now, I am in tears over Rachel and Jacob's deep love for her and their offspring. I know it appears so tainted. But if you view that as the relationship God has with His Bride, the Church, it just makes me cry. Rachel wasn't perfect...but she was loved perfectly by Jacob.

    Interesting that her great sin was the hidden idols. The church needs to listen to that one.

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