God is Good; Life is Hard

TODAY'S READING: Gen. 47, 48; Ps. 10; Luke 19

SCRIPTURE: Gen. 47:9, 10
⁹ And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” ¹⁰ Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.

OBSERVATION: Jacob is one of the three patriarchs mentioned over and over again in the Old Testament. The phrase, "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" is used frequently to identify the God of Israel. Jacob was a blessed man whose significance far exceeded his lifetime. Yet, in his own words, his years on earth were difficult. This man, who had great promises given to him by God, who lived worshiping God his whole life, did not have it easy. He suffered much injustice, was cheated and lied to, betrayed by his own children, and suffered the grief of losing the wife he loved most dearly and the son she first bore to him (he later found that son was alive, but that did not diminish the grief he suffered or the loss of his son's company for the years he thought him dead). A hard, hard life. So why is it that we think if we know God and serve him faithfully that we should have a relatively problem-free existence? Every promise God made to Jacob came true, but it didn't change the fact that he suffered much during his lifetime. Also, the fullness of some of the promises he received from God didn't come to pass until after he was dead. He never got to experience them. So what does this mean for us?

APPLICATION: God, the blessed controller of all things, right? In the face of such suffering, is that really good news if he allows bad things to happen to us? Jacob's life is an example to us of a man who held on to his faith even through much difficulty. Some of his troubles were brought on him by his own actions and some by others over whom he had no control. That is true in the lives of all of us. Pain is still pain whether self-inflicted or not. Shouldn't serving God make a difference in all that? The answer is yes! And faith does make all the difference. Pain is a part of life because Adam and Eve both allowed sin to come into this world. God decided to give us free will and it comes with consequences. The question is not whether or not we will have pain, the question is whether we will allow it to be productive or destructive in our lives. The only way for pain to become productive is to trust God and let him teach us through it. Since suffering is inevitable, I would rather it have some value in my life instead of none.

PRAYER: Father, I thank you for the example of Jacob and others in the Bible who were imperfect and had lives just like ours, and yet trusted you. They are such a comfort and inspiration when our own lives have trouble in them. May I cling to you all the harder when things are not going well, and trust you to work through any suffering that comes my way. I also thank you for the good times for they are all too short-lived. I will rejoice in you and your goodness to me, whether the times are evil or good, for you alone are worthy and you alone can make sense of it all. In Jesus' Name, Amen.