I’m sure you know that feeling of waiting for something that doesn’t come. At first, it is as if you are waiting at the door or picking up your phone every minute to see if you have received that message. Then, eventually, you stop expecting.
This is where Jacob had been living. Until he received news that he may have stopped dreaming of receiving.
“Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, 29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his fatherand wept for a long time. 30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.” (Genesis 45 v 28-30)
Some people have to learn to live with very difficult circumstances. Like Jacob, they have to learn to live with a shadow. Jacob endured what many believe to be over 20 years of constant silence from his beloved son. These long periods of time can cause our expectations to die before we physically do. Living with grief with hope is one thing, but living with grief and a permanent loss is another. He was dead, and Jacob lived under the shadow of that death. So much so that after Joseph had stopped weeping, after ‘a long time’, then Jacob is ready to die. He can die in peace. His heart is now healed. Some people stay alive because of the wound. That would be true of Jacob. But now his life is complete.
Notice that ‘Jacob’ sends Judah, but ‘Israel’ meets Joseph. Is that written on purpose? If so, it could be that the name ‘Israel’ given after the wrestling match, as the name of the promise, the name which is now revealing the man God made through the suffering of life?
The last two words are powerful – ‘still alive’. Sadly, in our lives, there are people and things that are very much dead, yet, look again, perhaps something of their legacy is still alive. If that is the case, then life has not defeated you.
(https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
I am posting this link for a few weeks to ask you to contribute to a cause that is so important and to spur me up a hill in June!
Missions Paul 