“Then Jacob called his sons and said, ‘Gather around, and I will tell you what will happen in the days to come.'” – Genesis 49:1
None of us can be certain what our final moments will be like or what the next hour of our lives hold, but one thing we can be sure of is that God’s faithfulness will not let us down. Here is Jacob upon his deathbed gathering his twelve sons to him. He must be remembering trial after trial, heartache upon heartache, and with each face he sees praise must erupt out of his heart. How dire the circumstances appeared not long ago with Joseph gone, Simeon held hostage and his youngest son, Benjamin, at risk of never seeing his father again—yet here they all are. As Spurgeon comments, “What a quiet answer this was to his former unbelief.”
With every son accounted for, there stood a stark reminder to him of God’s promise to His grandfather Abraham, and father Isaac, and now to him. What God has promised He will fulfill, our hearts hope not in what we see. God will remain true and the darkness cannot overcome the completion of His word, rather it carries on unhindered by our chaos and confusion. As we know, even the darkness is not dark to Him. Our God works through our darkest of days, holding fast to His covenantal promise made to us.
Are you standing amidst the fog and uncertainty of life? What stills us is not what appears before us, but our heart’s faith in the fixed hope promised to us.
As Jacob’s faint eyes scanned across the room, the fears that plagued him in the past were put to shame with every son that stood before him— each were a manifestation of God’s goodness, grace and steadfast love. Gathered around him were his sons, more than that, standing before him was evidence of the grace of God carrying out His perfect plan for Jacob’s life, his children’s inheritance, and further down the line, our salvation (Genesis 48:4). The promised Messiah was coming, nothing would thwart what God set in motion.
Christian, remember by whose faithful hand we have been been called and the surety of His prevailing word! What you see right now cannot compare to the glory yet to be revealed to you; in light of the revelation of the steadfast love of our God working in us, all wickedness must shut its mouth (Psalm 107:42). We, like Jacob, will one day be deeply humbled at the unmerited blessings our Lord has handed to us—we will all have our Jacob moment, in this life or the one to come.