Tis the season, right? The month of December tends to be characterized by mad dashes to the mall, online shopping, long lines at the post office, and if you’re anything like me, waiting until the last minute to get everything checked off of the list. Truth be told, I’m that girl. I’m the one out on Christmas Eve trying to get everything I need, frantically searching through whatever is left at the retail stores, typically forgetting what this season is truly all about in those moments of frenzy.
Last night, I had a wake up call, but it came in the most unexpected form. I was attending a Bible study on the Torah for the very 1st time. Typically, when it comes to Bible study, I’m the teacher or the leader of the group. Not this time, and I can’t even tell you how thrilling that detail alone was for me! To attend as a student and not as the teacher was truly a breath of fresh air for me. Don’t get me wrong—I absolutely adore what I get to do in teaching God’s Word. Still, there is always wisdom and prudence in remaining teachable and being on the receiving end.
So, I went, I sat, I soaked, I listened, and I learned. I learned so much. As I sat in a living room filled with women of all ages, my heart just about overflowed at a love for God’s Word and for His people. As I sat and listened to the others share what God had taught them this past week in their study, I furiously took notes, writing as quickly as I could so as not to miss a thing. I just couldn’t get enough.
Have you ever experienced that?
Then, the conversation parked for a moment on Genesis 43:2:
So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”
The words you just read fall into the storyline of Joseph. A severe famine had struck the land, and his brothers, who had disowned him and sold him into slavery over a decade prior to Genesis 43:2, found themselves in need of more food. Joseph had now risen to 2nd in command over the entire land, 2nd only to Pharaoh himself. His brothers had already come to Egypt once in search of food for their families, but when they were sent home, it was with one request from Joseph:
They were to bring back their youngest brother, Benjamin.
However, their father, Jacob, was not about to part ways with his only remaining son from his beloved wife Rachel. So, they were delayed in returning to Egypt—until they ran out of food. Although the brothers told their father that they couldn’t return to Egypt without Benjamin, he still did not permit them to go—until they ran out of food. They waited until the last minute. They waited until they were desperate.
I wish I could say that what I’m about to share with you was my light bulb moment of studying this part of Scripture, but actually it came from my friend Dianne Michelle as she shared her take away from this verse.
Are you ready? Here it is:
How often do we wait until we’re desperate to follow through with God’s will?
More than what they needed to satisfy their hunger awaited them in Egypt if they would have but followed through on the request Joseph had made. But, Jacob would not budge. So, they lived off what they had, although plenty and abundance awaited them, until there was nothing left. Every day that Jacob stalled was another day spent apart from reuniting with his son, Joseph—the one whom he thought was dead. Waiting until the last minute.
Like Jacob, I imagine there are many times in our lives when we wait to follow through with God’s will until we are absolutely desperate, not realizing the blessings we are forfeiting in the disobedience of our waiting, not realizing that the reward for obedience awaits us.
While everything in life is not always clear, much of what God wants us to do is. He has asked us to trust Him, to obey His commands (all of them), and to walk by faith, not by sight. We get so tripped up in the not seeing part, that we often don’t move at all. And in our refusal to move, what we’re really doing is rationing the blessings that God HAS given us until they’re gone, and then we find ourselves in places of desperation. When all the while, God has a storehouse of blessing awaiting us (just as He did for Joseph’s brothers in Egypt) if we would but move to action in following His will for our lives.
I never cease to be amazed at how much rich truth is packed into each and every verse of Scripture. Don’t ever forget that, friends. God’s Word is alive and active. Get in it. Spend time meditating on it. Journal your thoughts and reflections about it. Memorize it.
It will change your life!
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