City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

¹¹ Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. ¹² Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. ¹³ Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man. ¹⁴ May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” ¹⁵ So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

Genesis 43:11-15

²⁵ So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. ²⁶ And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. ²⁷ But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. ²⁸ And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Genesis 45:25-28

Reflection

From the womb, Jacob had been holding tightly to things. First, he held his twin brother Esau’s heel (Genesis 25:26), later he refused to let go of God while wrestling overnight by the Jabbock (Genesis 32:26), and now he’d been holding on tightly to his youngest son Benjamin.

Yet, for all his physical grasping, Jacob’s spiritual grasping leaves a lot to be desired. Unlike his grandfather Abraham, who, at God’s command, relinquished Isaac, his only son and the heir of God’s promise (Genesis 22:1-19), Jacob couldn’t let go of Benjamin after losing Joseph, even though he had ten other sons. Jacob seemed to lack Abraham’s faith that God was powerful enough to bring back his son from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). His attitude was “may God grant you mercy, but whatever happens, so be it.” Jacob still hadn’t fully realized that God was entirely in control of fulfilling His own promise.

This time, unlike when he was trying to make peace with Esau with a caravan of gifts on his way back from Paddan-Aram (Genesis 32), since it was in the middle of a famine and there wasn’t that much to be gifted to this prince of Egypt to spare Benjamin’s life, all he could do was wearily relinquish Benjamin.

Peaking ahead in this story – we see Jacob’s shock when his sons tell him that Joseph is alive on their return from their second trip to Egypt! By God’s power, Jacob didn’t just get Benjamin and Simeon back, he also got Joseph back! God was steadfastly keeping His promise and Jacob’s grasp onto his plans didn’t have to be so tight.

Application

Are you holding tightly to your plans and ideas of how your life ought to go in relation to God’s promises? Does it usually take an impossible situation to let go and lay down your plans in your Father’s arms? God has kept every promise and because of His faithfulness we don’t have to keep striving in our effort, we can trust that He will keep His promises to us.

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, please help me by Your Holy Spirit, to deeply trust that because You keep Your word, I can let go of my grasping and striving. I thank You that You are wholly trustworthy and that You will keep every promise that You have made, amen.