There are times when we move from one episode of grief to another. Israel (Jacob) has just buried the love of his life, but what followed was perhaps the twisting of the knife further into his heart.
“Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder. 22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it.” (Genesis 35 v 21-22)
“Israel moved on …” It is hard to do that at times, isn’t it? He had just buried the love of his life, Rachel and now he moves on to Migdal Eder, Hebrew for ‘Tower of the Flock’. Here, there was a watchtower, a place for sheltering flocks (Micah 4 v 8). Located in the hills of Bethlehem, it could be in the vicinity of the shepherds at the time of Jesus’ birth; if so, those shepherds would have understood the significance of the place.
Sometimes we move on from an episode of grief only to another chapter of pain, thinking the worst is behind us and finding it’s not. Only a few verses before, Rachel, the love of Israel’s life, was buried, and now we read that one of the wives of Jacob and the mother of Dan and Naphtali, (when Rachel was barren), is visited by the firstborn of Jacob and a scandal is written similar to Absalom who did the same to his father David (2 Samuel 16:22).
“Israel heard of it.” Nothing else is said. Maybe nothing else was needed. But Israel never forgot and, on his deathbed, told Reuben in no uncertain terms, “You will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed” (Genesis 49:4).
Why was nothing more said? Maybe it was because he was just too broken and wounded to say anything. The man who was renamed because he struggled with God discovers that the greatest struggles can be the disappointments from those we have loved.
Some news can force us to stay silent. We lose our voice.
But God has seen, and He has heard.
We may have to continue to limp into the next chapter, but we do so knowing that, though we cannot speak of it, His love is stronger than our grief.
Missions Paul 