How quickly the year has progressed! 2024 has delivered different outcomes from expectations that we may have desired. Our limited vision causes us to reach conclusions that are more often out of sync with what God is working out in us and for us behind the scenes. Consider our text for today.

And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan and told him all that befell unto them; saying, The man, who is the lord of the land, spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. And we said unto him, We are true men; we are no spies: We be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone: And bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffick in the land. And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack: and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me. Genesis 42:29-36

Was Jacob’s conclusion in alignment with what God was working out! Such is our frailty and as true as our text scripture was for Jacob; it may have been the same for Joseph (Gen. 40:8-15). Yet every perceived setback, like in both the cases of Jacob and Joseph, may be putting us another step closer to the fulfilment of God’s promise. What looks like the end of your dream is not the end! Taking Joseph in particular, Joseph’s circumstances seemed random or even designed to destroy him, yet there is no record that he ever judged God, neither did Jacob. That’s the challenge for each of us, that amid the ragged and seemingly senseless events occurring in our lives and country today, accepting the end of our story as promised by God requires faith, not blame.
 
The song writer put it perfectly, “judge not the Lord with feeble mind but trust Him for His grace… God is His own interpreter, for He will make it plain…Oh, ye sons of God fresh courage take, the clouds you so much dread…”

Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 55:8-11 what should direct our prayers!

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:8-11

Paul wrote similarly in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10

For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. 2 Corinthians 1:8-10

When we get to the point where our utterances are in the same vein as Jacob’s, know that deliverance is close by. “When our backs are against the wall, and it looks like all is over, He makes a way.” What (then) shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:31). We can trust Him when we can’t see His hand in our circumstances. Selah.

Pastor Afolabi Oladele