Bibledoorajar Praises God's Love

     Jacob has been forced to leave home, to leave Canaan, the promised land. This is something his father, the son of promise, never had to do. At this juncture, one wonders if Jacob can "live up to" the heroism of his grandfather, Abraham, the man of faith, and walk in sonship like Isaac who received completely from his father. But we will see that Jacob, though chosen by God to walk in faith and sonship will have to leave home and seek his aspirations in life. We can identify with him because we who learn to serve God have to also learn to love Him. But here is an important point in the story: For God, faith and sonship come first in the progression. We usually want to reverse things and say when we have completed the aspirations of our life, then God will make us his son. But this is never the order of God. We are his children first and seekers of a better knowledge of Him and His plans for us secondly. Just take a moment and remember this Divine Order. The gifts of faith and sonship are already ours. This heavenly order can easily slip from the conscience and have a terrible result as we encounter trials and tribulations in this life. For the most of us reading this blog, we have left home and have been making our way, struggling to keep our existence and find an identity for ourselves. There is no better story in the Word that describes this journey than that of Jacob.And although a leading character, Jacob is not the star. The star is, and ever shall be, His God.

"The Wanderer said:

One adequate support
For the calamities of mortal life
Exists--one only: an assured belief
That the procession of our fate, however
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
Of Infinite benevolence and power;
Whose everlasting purposes embrace
All accidents, converting them to good."

                          William Wordsworth

God says that one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. Perhaps we have much to learn from the story of this lonely exile.