God Change Me

Read Genesis 43

I hope you have been able to follow this series as we have been going through the narrative of Joseph’s story. We have now arrived at the point of the story where the famine is still very severe in Israel so they must go back to Egypt to get more food. However, the brothers know that they cannot go back without bringing Benjamin as Joseph has requested his brothers (who do not recognize him) to bring Benjamin if they want to face him.

Genesis 43:14 says “And may God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved, I am bereaved! Jacob has finally reluctantly says to God, “If I lose my son, I lose my son.” The way Jacob addresses God is by using “El Shaddai” which means God Almighty or God who is sufficient. God will supply all of one’s needs and therefore Jacob calls us to God in this way.

The desperation that has been brought about because of the severe famine and the lost of his favorite son Joseph has forced him to allow God to be God. Jacob however has no idea that the man in Egypt requiring him to send his youngest son ahead is in fact the son that he had lost, Joseph. God is just about to do an amazing work in restoring everything that Jacob had lost and more, but he is in such a state of depression that he can’t see God’s blessing coming towards him. Even though Jacob has known the LORD for over 100 years, Jacob was a man who had a a lot of trouble walking by faith as we have seen from the other stories before this.

We can quickly judge Jacob and wonder how he just can’t just trust God. However, we know the outcome and we know what will happen if he just trusts God to take care of his son Benjamin. But let’s just take a moment to really understand Jacob’s point of view because he already lost one son. He doesn’t want to lose anymore. What would we do in this situation? Have we faced times when we feel like things get worse and worse? We know that God will take care of us and all God’s promises for us, but do we get to points where we just say we can’t do it anymore God. I mean if we truly feel like it is easy for Jacob to place his faith in God, why didn’t we trust Him last week? Why did I get so stressed out over that little crisis last month? Or why am I not trusting him in really important decisions now? As we live our lives in this world we find out that life brings unexpected changes all the time and our first reaction is to fight them. Most of us like for things to remain the same because change messes with our carefully constructed routines. One of the toughest things to do is to change a habit. The habit of pessimism, cynicism, doubt, distrust and negative thinking is perhaps the most difficult habit to change.

Here we see God was in the process of forcing change on Jacob through his circumstances. God does this because he knows that we can’t become what He wants us to become by just remaining as we are. God wants to teach us to be careful when we find ourselves resisting change in our life because we might just be resisting God. Take some time to reflect because God might be allowing that particular situation that’s bothering you to occur in your life in order to bring about the change He requires? I found this prayer and think we should all pray this way - “Lord, change me because I can’t seem to be able to change myself. I give you permission, no in fact, I beg You to change me to be more like You this day.”