When Circumstances are Overwhelming

God is to Blame

Genesis 42:25–34 (NIV)

Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man’s silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them, they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.

At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of his sack. “My silver has been returned,” he said to his brothers. “Here it is in my sack.”

Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said, “The man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spying on the land. But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. We were twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan.’

“Then the man who is lord over the land said to us, ‘This is how I will know whether you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, and take food for your starving households and go. But bring your youngest brother to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.’ ”

The brothers look at their circumstances and can only see the Lord’s punishment for their past sins. We are quick to view God as a divine judicator who is responsible for maintaining the cosmic balance of good and evil. We see our circumstances in response to our remorse over past sins and failures. We know that we are not leaning in as we should so we view our circumstances in light of the negative view that the Lord must have of our devotion.

God on the other hand is a loving and patient God. He is a good father who desires what is best for his children. God does not delight in punishing his children but rather he desires to point them in His ways, ways that lead to life and meaning.

The brothers as they arrive home try to lessen the blow to their father of all that they had endured. They omit the details like imprisonment. In doing so, they failed to communicate the grace shown them by Joseph as he shifted the terms of their test. This show is grace may have revealed to Jacob the heart of who they were dealing with.

The low view of the brothers removes the possibility that the Lord is using their circumstances to accomplish His good work.

Relying on Our Own Reasoning

Genesis 42:35–38 (NIV)

As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his pouch of silver! When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened. Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!”

Then Reuben said to his father, “You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back.”

But Jacob said, “My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.”

Jacob responds as his sons did, with a low view of the Lord and a high view of the judgment that they deserved for their past sins. Jacob’s story has been a chronicle of running from the judgment of one sin after another. In Jacob’s heart, ill has befallen Simeon as it had Joseph and now he is down two sons. He is unwilling to allow any harm to befall his youngest and most beloved, Benjamin.

A low view of God and an inflated view of our circumstances will always lead to the futile attempt of control. We will always forsake the possible unknown for the diminished here and now.