WHEN EVERYTHING IS AGAINST YOU

Murphy’s law has become quite well known in America. It says, "If anything can go wrong, it will." Captain Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on an Air Force project, at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, is usually given credit for it. One day after finding some wiring done wrong, he said about the technician responsible, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it." The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" and added this one, which he called Murphy's Law. Shortly afterward a doctor working on the project described the project’s safety record as a result of a firm belief in Murphy’s Law and their efforts to circumvent it. Soon Murphy’s Law was being used by Aerospace manufacturers in their advertising and began to be quoted in many news and magazine articles. It may have older roots than 1949, but the events at that time seem to be what has made Murphy’s Law an American institution.

Despite our belief in the power and work of God, even Christians can feel like Murphy’s Law is at work in their lives and in the church. We try hard to carry out the Lord’s work, but sometimes it seems like everything is against us.

One of the Bible characters who expressed such a sentiment was the patriarch Jacob. He had to run from his brother Esau and was deceived by his father-in-law Laban when he sought to marry Rachel and was given Leah instead. Then he had to give Laban fourteen years of labor to get Rachel. His favorite son Joseph was sold into slavery by Joseph’s sons, who claimed he had been killed. Then the land experienced famine, and his sons went to Egypt to get food, only to return without Simeon and to be told they could only return to Egypt for more food and to retrieve Simeon if they took their youngest brother Benjamin with them.

Is it any wonder when Jacob found out these facts about his sons’ trip to Egypt that he called up Murphy’s Law and said, “Everything is against me” (Genesis 42:36)? Until the family ran out of food again, he would not let his sons return to Egypt and take Benjamin with them. Enough bad already happened. What might happen next?

In the ensuing months, Jacob had no choice; he had to allow his sons to take Benjamin and return to Egypt. By then, he was beginning to face matters with God again at his side. This man had some great experiences with God in his earlier days when he dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven with the Lord at the top and when he spent a night wrestling with God only to have his name changed. Now when everything is against him, his life changes and he begins to let God work in him. There are two clues in Genesis 43 to the change in Jacob:

First, his name Israel is used three times in Genesis 43. His name had been changed by God from Jacob (the one who deceives) to Israel (the one who struggles with God), but he continues to be called Jacob. His grandfather Abraham, on the other hand, had his name changed from Abram to Abraham and was always known as Abraham from then on. Now Jacob is referred to as Israel. When everything is going against him, he learns once again to struggle with God and let God work in his life.

Second, Jacob refers to God Almighty (Genesis 43:14). He asks for God to grant mercy to his sons so that they will all come back to him. Instead of saying again that everything is against him, he says, “If I am bereaved, I am bereaved.” God can do his work whatever happens. Robert Candlish wrote about Jacob at this point: “The pilgrim of half a century is on his feet again with staff in hand, eye fixed once more on God.”

Maybe it seems like everything is against you as you serve God. Maybe it seems like everything is against your church and nothing turns out as it should. Those are the times when we need to struggle with God and remember that God Almighty is the one by our side. Take your “staff” in hand and fix your eyes once more on God. Call the church in times of difficulty to once again trust in the God who has been at work through all these years.