If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31
“This morning I thought I was worth a great deal of money; now I don’t know that I have a dollar.” Former US president Ulysses S. Grant said those words the day he was swindled out of his life’s savings by a business partner. Months later, Grant was diagnosed with incurable cancer. Concerned about providing for his family, he accepted an offer from author Mark Twain to publish his memoirs, which he completed a week before he died.
The Bible tells us of another person who faced grave hardships. Jacob believed his son Joseph had been “torn to pieces” by a “ferocious animal” (Genesis 37:33). Then his son Simeon was held captive in a foreign country, and Jacob feared his son Benjamin would be taken from him as well. Overcome, he cried out, “Everything is against me!” (42:36).
But it wasn’t. Little did Jacob know that his son Joseph was very much alive and that God was at work “behind the scenes” to restore his family. Their story illustrates how He can be trusted even when we can’t see His hand in our circumstances.
Grant’s memoirs proved to be a great success and his family was well cared for. Though he didn’t live to see it, his wife did. Our vision is limited, but God’s isn’t. And with Jesus as our hope, “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). May we place our trust in Him today.
29 When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said, 30 “The man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spying on the land. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. 32 We were twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan.’
33 “Then the man who is lord over the land said to us, ‘This is how I will know whether you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, and take food for your starving households and go. 34 But bring your youngest brother to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade[a] in the land.’”
35 As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his pouch of silver! When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened. 36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!”
INSIGHT
- How have you seen God bring good out of difficulty?
- Where do you need to trust Him?
Genesis 37–50 tells the amazing story of Joseph, Jacob’s son, who dreamed that family members would bow down before him (37:5–11). The narrative takes some providential turns but finally the dream is fulfilled: “So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground” (42:6). Far from God being against Jacob and his family, His bigger plan was to preserve them in accordance with His promise to Abraham to multiply his descendants to be “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (22:17). What was meant for harm humanly speaking (see 37:12–28) was, in the end, used by God for His good purposes (50:20).
PRAYER
Beautiful Savior, please help me keep my eyes on You and not on my problems. You’re always faithful! In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: GENESIS 42:29-36 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: PSALMS 146-147; 1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-28
