Genesis 25:21-23 And Isaac prayed to Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. And Yahweh answered his prayer, and Rebecca his wife conceived. And within the children struggled together, and she said, “If all is right, why am I this way?” So she went to ask Yahweh, and Yahweh said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your body. And one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.”
“and the older shall serve the younger.” That was a promise from Yahweh. One that was ignored by both Rebecca and Jacob, and they would both pay dearly for it. Rebecca would see her beloved son move away to another land for his safety and would never see him again. Jacob would live a life where the promise still came true, but at a huge cost to him personally and with much pain attached.
I relate a lot to Jacob. His impatience with waiting for Yahweh to move and taking matters into his own hands. I’ve done that more times than I can count over the past 60 years. Call me a slow learner; it has taken me much too long to “be still and know that I am Yahweh”. I’m a charge the hill kind of girl and that trait has not always served me well over the years.
In the adoption arena I saw a need and rather than ask Yahweh how He wanted me to act, or what, if anything, He wanted me to do, I jumped in with both feet and did what I thought He wanted. I never actually waited around for His answer. In fact, I didn’t even give Him a chance to answer.
Jacob grew up with the promise that his older brother would serve him. That was a big deal promise in those days because the older always had first dibs on the best of the inheritance. To Jacob it seemed that his father Isaac was soon to depart this world and since Yahweh had not acted on His promise yet, Jacob felt compelled to follow his mother Rebecca’s lead and use trickery and lies to make it happen. He didn’t trust Yahweh to follow through on His promise.
It’s easy with our hindsight view to look at what Rebecca and Jacob did as not trusting Yahweh and being impatient, however, looking at it through the lens of my own life I am more compassionate. I, too, have been impatient with Yahweh and have taken matters into my own hands because I was convinced He was not really going to do anything, or maybe he was taking too long, or maybe I was supposed to do something after all.
There is something I have learned about Yahweh though, in these last few years of adoption hell, and that is the fact that He is a God of the last moment. I seriously think He loves waiting and watching us to see if we are going to really trust Him or not. Will our impatience get the better of us? And, why should He act on something if we really can do it for ourselves? Why is there a need for Him to jump in with a miracle if there really isn’t a need for a miracle? I believe He loves doing things at the last possible moment when all other avenues have been tried and there we are, still trusting Him. In a way, it’s His way of being glorified. If we can take the credit, then we can shrug it off as coincidence, or hard work, or something we’ve done.
“Be still and know that I am Yahweh.” It comes down to trust. Having the patience to wait and trust that He knows best and that He will answer us, one way or another. All down through the centuries of the Bible and in the 2000 years since there are plenty of stories of impatience with Him and big mistakes made because of the impatience.
I think if we truly want to see miracles done in our lives we need to give it to Him and not take it back. To have patience to see the thing through to the end and quit putting our fingers in the mix. To trust Him no matter how dark it seems or how long we’ve been in the darkness. To know, somewhere deep in our soul, that He is there and He knows exactly the right moment to act.
Because that’s when we will lift our hands and raise our voices in praise to Him. And give Him the glory.
To Him be the glory in all that I do.
Kathe
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