A LIFELONG WALK WITH GOD

During a recent study of the life of Joseph, I also took a new look at the life of Jacob, his father. Jacob’s life not only influenced his son, Joseph, and prepared Joseph to become a great leader and a man who trusted God completely, he also shows the way for us to walk with God through the highs and lows of life. As such, he can also help us show people in the church and seekers that we influence for Christ how to have a lifelong walk with God.

Jacob certainly had some issues in his life. It began with his name which means “the one who deceives.” He lived up to his name as a liar and a cheat. Jacob deceived his father into giving him the family blessing that by all rights belonged to Esau. He then had to run from Esau, and ended up with the family of Laban who would deceive Jacob into a marriage with Rachel. Laban and Jacob would deceive each for years until Jacob finally deceived Laban one more time and then took his family and returned to Canaan. Even on that journey, Jacob’s family had plenty of tragedy.

To put it in contemporary terms, Jacob had a dysfunctional family. He reminds me of the people who come to God because their lives have been torn apart from difficult marriages to troubling children, from job difficulties to bad business decisions and relationships, from financial woes to hurt feelings. Even we who follow Christ face these challenges.

Yet Jacob had four memorable encounters with God that shaped his life:

(1) When Jacob fled from Esau and stopped for the night at Luz, he had a dream of a stairway reaching to heaven. There the Lord spoke to him and told him he would give Jacob the land on which he slept. The Lord promised Jacob, he would be with him and watch over him wherever he went. Jacob’s response was to name the place Bethel, “the house of God.”

(2) As Jacob brought his family to Canaan after leaving Laban’s household, he spent the night alone. That night a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, leaving him with a permanent limp. Jacob would not let the man go until he blessed him, and the man changed his name from Jacob, “the deceiver,” to Israel, “the one who struggles with God.”

(3) As Jacob and his family moved into Canaan, God appeared to him and told him to settle at Bethel. Once again God appeared to him at Bethel and told him again that he would bless him. Then Jacob changed the name of the place once more to El Bethel, “The God of the House of God.”

Despite the difficulties Jacob faced all through his life, I imagine these encounters with God stayed with him. Joseph surely learned about them, took them to heart, and determined to walk with God himself.

Yet Jacob continued to face his own troubles, including losing Joseph, his most-loved son, through the deception of his other sons. He finally had to make two decisions to send his sons to Egypt for food. The second one is especially difficult because the “prime minister” of Egypt demands that they only return if they bring the youngest son. Jacob sends Benjamin with them, making the difficult decision to trust God. The text in Genesis tells us he was once again called Israel.

(4) Then Jacob has one more encounter with God. He has found out his son, Joseph, is alive and is the “prime minister” of Egypt. When Joseph sends for him to move the family to Egypt, he sets out and spends the night at Beersheba, the southern-most point in Israel. There God appears to him again and promises that he will go down to Egypt with Jacob and will bring the nation that will come from Jacob’s family, back to the land of promise.

Most of us and most of the people we minister to will face difficulty and tragedy in life. We may face those things after we have walked with God and had some great moments with him. When the difficulties come, we need to remember those experiences. We need to teach people to remember how God has changed them. Our early days with God do not need to fade as distance memories. They need to constantly remind us, as they did for Jacob, that God will walk with us through all of life. Teach people to have a lifelong walk with God.