And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: All these things are against me. Genesis 42:36.
All things are against me—Jacob says these words when actually deliverance had been provided by the Lord: Joseph was the regent in Egypt and had sent the brothers back to bring the father down so that he could enjoy plenty during the time of famine.
So what does he say? He says, “I’ve lost Joseph, I’ve lost Simeon, and now I’m going to lose Benjamin—everything is against me.” It is so easy for us to misinterpret the circumstance. We come to the place where we look at it and everything is all finished, everything is against us, and it isn’t.
Let’s contrast this with what the Word says in Romans 8:28; And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Do you believe that? Do you believe in the providence of God?
Simply stated, I think the providence of God means this: That God does not work things automatically; but that no matter what happens to you, the grace of God makes a provision so that no oppression, no devil, no problem within, no circumstances out in the world can successfully keep you from the blessing of the Lord to work things out.
And in everything that you face, you always have this one thing that you remember—there’s no hold upon you, there’s no oppression that comes against you, demonic or in circumstances, that you cannot shake loose. It cannot keep its hold on you, you can shake it loose and attain to the will of God; that’s the providence of God, all things work together for good.
When Joseph had gone through those things, he knew that the hand of God was in it, but Jacob did not. Jacob said, “Everything’s against me.” He didn’t see that God in all circumstances still makes one little provision that you can come out all right in the will of God if you just believe, just keep moving right on.
This way into the perfection of God and into the deliverance of God isn’t a few people just saved and then they are marching up sunshine ladder, coming right up. That isn’t the way it is done. You take three steps forward, you fall back two, then you fall on your face, then you get up and you go forward another step or two. That is the way, the path to grace.
That is the way the saints are made; that is the way God brings His men and women forth. And many times when we go forward a little way and we fall on our face, we fall back and say, “Oh, everything’s against me; God isn’t in it.” God may not be indirectly causing it, it doesn’t happen mechanically. The devils get in the picture, and your own stupidity gets in the picture as much as the devil. You blame him sometimes for your own stupidity. A lot of other things get in the picture, but just the same that doesn’t handicap God.
He has an overruling providence that says none of these things are going to be sufficient to throw you out of the will of God. By the grace of God you can still make it, and that is what we come here for on Sunday morning, the grace of God.
We come, but we don’t come to sing the blues like Jacob, “Well, I’ve lost Joseph, I’ve lost Simeon,” you can see the old fellow crabbing, “and now I’m going to lose Benjamin. Oh, woe is me. Everything is against me.”
That’s an illusion, because there is an underlying providence—that God says, “I’ll make it work for you, for your good, if you just love Me, and if you are called according to My purpose. That is all!”
Jacob had forgotten that the blessing of God that rested upon him with Laban still was with him. He’d come to the place where he wasn’t contending for it any longer, and when passivity enters into your spirit, the greatest of unbelief possesses you. When he was ready to wrestle for the blessing of the Lord, “I’ll not let you go except You bless me,” then there was great faith within him.
“Lord; for what I am responsible, I stand before thee with repentance, but I am thankful to the Lord that the ultimate will of God and the perfection in the Lord is not dependent upon the best of judgment, or that I walk without any errors, or that I don’t make mistakes, because I’m going to stumble along.” God is in that stumbling, God is in that coming forth. He is in it to determine that it will not be destructive. How many times can a righteous man fall? “And the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.” We trust in the living God. He is our God and we believe Him.
Don’t be hung up on the things of the past. Don’t be bothered by them, just go before the Lord and say, “God, forgive me today and minister to my spirit and help me,” because this is a communion where you gain new strength. Like an old ship sailing along, all week long, you collect so many barnacles that by Sunday morning sometimes you are slow, just plowing through it. At the Communion Table, you need to get all the barnacles off so that you can begin to sail a little clear, move along a little faster. Lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset you, because we’ve got a race to run; we’ve got to move on in the grace of God.
Lord, we look to You because of these things that accumulate, sometimes through our fault, sometimes through a conspiracy of circumstances, satanic pressure, sometimes through the intent of those about us. But Lord, still we are aware that You can free our spirits and bless us and bring us into a new position in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray You’ll forgive us where we need this forgiveness, this we need very much. Forgive us, cleanse us and help us to participate with real faith in this means of grace, this fresh expression of the body and the blood of our blessed Savior and O Lord, our very life. For we would eat of Thee, we would be refreshed, O Lord, in our spirits this day. Amen.
This is a day in which the stirring of the Lord is upon thy heart, when He turns again to the people in whom He has deposited His gifts, and He doth move upon them that the House of God shall see a flow. The fountains shall be opened up again, the wells that the Philistines have filled shall be dug again that they may flow for the flocks of God. Oh rejoice today, for the Lord hath made anew the House of God. He hath refreshed His inheritance when it was weary. He hath caused thee to rejoice and to sing His praises now in the hour of worship. Glorify the Lord together, for shall not this House become mighty in the moving of the Lord? Shall not the fountains flow, for the Lord hath ordained it so? Yea, they shall flow and they shall be a joysome thing in the sight of thy God because the Lord hath brought them forth to His praise and glory. Amen.