Old Testament: Gen 42.38

To read the Bible in a year, read Genesis 42–43 on January 18, In the year of our Lord Christ 2024

By Don Ruhl 

Poor Jacob. He believed that Joseph was dead. An Egyptian was keeping Simeon. The brothers said that they had to take Benjamin with them back to Egypt to get more food and to get Simeon. 

However, Jacob feared that he would lose Benjamin also. I am sure that we can all feel for him with all the things that had befallen him. He did not want to let Benjamin to go: “But he said, ‘My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave’” (Genesis 42.38). 

He tried hard to protect his heart, but later the rest of his sons persuaded him to let Benjamin go, although he believed the worst was about to happen. 

However, the Lord turned things around for Jacob in ways that he never could have guessed. 

That is how we have to live, putting our lives into the hand of the Lord, watching what he will do. 

Questions: 

• Have you had to give up your way of thinking to see better days? 
• What do you do to avoid grief? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com