“…because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel…” (Genesis 49:24, NIV)
What? How? Why?
In golf, these are essentially the same question. They come after an awkward missed shot. We find ourselves begging for an explanation. Partly because we cannot see our own swing, partly because everything happens with split-second timing, and partly because most of us don’t possess eyes trained to pick up minute differences even if we could see them, we’re mystified. And let’s be honest—sometimes our swing coaches are, too. They just hope that resetting our basics can cause something to click again.
Life isn’t so different. Stuff happens. We wonder why. So just like confused golfers, we go to the magazines and the books and the sages in hope of finding an answer.
We should probably interrupt ourselves at this early stage and confess that these desperate searches of ours nearly always follow bad stuff. When the engine of life is purring along, we count ourselves smart or lucky and pay too little mind to our blessings. It’s only when they disappear that we demand an explanation.
Well, I have great news. I have the explanation. For all of it.
Perhaps God provides the only explanation that matters, and it comes in the singular.At the end of his long life—147 years!—Jacob followed the tradition of blessing his children. In Scripture, such blessings are typically poetic and often hard to understand. With 11 sons to bless, some of Jacob’s words are shrouded in their meaning. But when he comes to Joseph, his favored son, his words ring clear. All that Joseph had experienced could be explained in a word: God.
Now let’s consider Joseph’s life. It included the good stuff and the bad. Privilege and power. Slavery, false accusation, prison. What all of these accomplished was to build a person of character, one whose “bow remained steady” and whose “strong arms remained limber.” He was, in terms closer to what we might plainly understand, “a fruitful vine.” Joseph outlasted the stuff.
But neither Joseph nor Jacob let the explanation rest with Joseph himself. Not for his strengths, not for the circumstances, not for the outcomes. This, Joseph told Pharaoh and Jacob echoed in his blessing, was the work of God. It all came to Joseph “because of the Almighty, who blesses you with the blessings of the heavens above” (Genesis 49:25).
Friend, where do you see God in your life today? Does he provide the explanations you’re looking for? Perhaps not in the plural sense. Perhaps he provides the only explanation that matters, and it comes in the singular. He is the one who ordains the stuff that comes your way. He is our explanation.
This is grand news, for even the shanks are in his hands, whether or not we can ever figure out how to get rid of them!
—
Jeff Hopper
June 5, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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