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Tuesday's Trust
Years and Years of Grieving...
~Angie and Tommy Prince
Tommy and I were talking about the Bible the other day, and as we were talking about the story of Joseph being taken from his father and seemingly left for dead only to end up as second to the Pharaoh in Egypt, yet everything that is described about Joseph's father Jacob in thinking he had lost Joseph forever, described a man who had been grieving for years and years. He was so grieved that when Joseph's half-brothers asked their father if they could take Joseph's only full-blooded brother Benjamin with them to get grain from Egypt so they all wouldn't starve, Jacob refused and said if anything happened to this son, the only brother to his son he had lost, that he would surely be brought down to the grave in his grief.
In walking through this story, Tommy heard me say the words, this father, after "years and years of grieving," and stopped me cold. He said,
"Do you hear what you are saying?"
And then we both exclaimed, Jacob, the man of God who fathered all the children that make up the twelve tribes of Israel, was certainly a godly man, and yet his grief over one of his twelve children had consumed him for years and years, and years!
This icon of the Jewish and Christian faith, having had Abraham as his grandfather, and Isaac as his father, and then Jacob himself, God called "Israel"! Yet Jacob, the father of all the tribes of Israel, had been consumed with grief over his child for almost his entire lifetime.
And these modern-day Christians think we are to be touched by fairy dust and zap, we should be OVER our grief? It is not going to happen… that is, until we see our child again… in Heaven. Jacob was bereaved his whole lifetime until he was rejoined with his son Joseph whom he thought he had lost forever.
Think about it! God leaves these stories in His Word for our edification. No one needs to apologize for their life-long grief. Life-long grief is just what happens when we lose our child...
~~~
Scriptures Revealing Jacob's Deep Grief:
~Genesis 42
3 Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. 5 So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also.
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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 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!”
37 But Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back."
38 But Jacob said, “My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.”
~Genesis 43
{After their grain had run out, and they were afraid they then would starve, Jacob remitted from his stance…}
13 Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. 14 And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.
~Genesis 44
19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
….
25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
~Genesis 45
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25 So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 26 They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
~Genesis 46
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29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.
30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”
~Genesis 48
11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”
Pictures, thanks to ~Angel Graphic Corner and ~SafeHaven For Widowed
