But God Didn’t Give Up on Jacob

Ready to Release Control?

 Then [Jacob] said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.” Genesis 48:21

If you’d asked Jacob’s brother, Esau, and or his uncle, Laban, to describe him, they may have said, “Deceptive and manipulative.” Jacob may have preferred the adjectives clever and ingenious. But everyone, including Jacob, probably would’ve agreed that he liked to be in control, managing people and circumstances in ways that profited him: obtaining his brother’s birthright and his father’s blessing, earning the wife he wanted, and accumulating wealth.

Clever as Jacob was, however, he couldn’t control everything—as illustrated in painful events such as the death of his beloved Rachel, the immoral behavior of his adult sons, and the apparent death of favored son Joseph. Perhaps that lack of control prompted Jacob to say “everything is against me” when his older sons wanted to take Benjamin to Egypt and buy more grain (Genesis 42:36). Even after the reunion with Joseph, Jacob’s words to Pharaoh were laced with bitterness: “My years have been few and difficult” (47:9).*

But God didn’t give up on Jacob, who lived 17 years in Egypt, watching his children and grandchildren prosper, watching his son Joseph rule Egypt at Pharaoh’s side. Nearing death, Jacob called Joseph to his bedside and spoke these words of hope and faith: “God … has been my shepherd all my life to this day … [and] has delivered me from all harm … [This God will] take you back to the land of your fathers” (48:15-16, 21).

What changed Jacob’s perspective? We don’t know. Maybe age, maybe illness. But at age 147, Jacob had finally learned to release control and allow God to be God. As a result, God assured the elderly patriarch of a glorious future for his descendants, which Jacob later revealed to his sons and grandsons in prophecies.

Like Jacob, I try to arrange circumstances and people to suit me. I shove God aside and say, “Let me handle this.” I then end up miserable—also like Jacob. Everything seems to be against me. Does that happen to you too?

Fortunately, God will never give up on us. If we release control, God will lead us into blessings we never imagined. And all the good he has planned for us will come to pass—either here or in eternity. Is there something you need to release to God? Open your hands and heart to him, then watch for the wondrous things he will do.

DIG DEEPER

The biblical account of Jacob wrestling with God is another illustration of Jacob’s unwillingness to yield. Read Genesis 32:22-32. What do you think God was trying to teach Jacob? What do you think Jacob learned or failed to learn?

Jacob’s prophecies regarding his sons and their descendants are recorded in Genesis 49:1-27. Can you see a glimpse of Jesus in the prophecy about Judah? How does that encourage you to trust God with your future? (You may also want to read Jacob’s Prophecy.)

Do you have trouble yielding to God? Consider what Paul wrote in Romans 6:11-23. What are the rewards of yielding? What are the costs of resistance?

Denise K. Loock

This devotion is part of a series on the But God events in the Bible.

*The Hebrew word ra, translated difficult in the NIV, can also be translated evil, unpleasant, and painful. “H7451 – ra` – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (KJV).” Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 5 Aug, 2017. https://www.blueletterbible.org//lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7451&t=KJV