He Sent Wagons

Reading those chapters with my son (and the other children, too) was very interesting yesterday.  It certainly didn't make for a new child in one day, but the Scriptures we read reminded all of us that we are dealing with a force beyond ourselves.

Genesis 3 tells the story of Cain and Abel.  A story all of us knew, but this time it was different.  Both sons brought an offering to the Lord, but only Abel's was accepted.  This made Cain angry.  My son gets angry - this leads to hitting his brothers, etc.  God noticed his anger and called him out on it.  He could have left him to stew or overlooked it, but he specifically spoke to him about it, "Why are you angry?  What is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?  But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you , but you must master it."

We talked about that for a long time.  If we don't do what is right, sin is crouching at our door, longing to have us fall like Cain.  I said to all of them how we have to rule over it and not let sin rule over us.  The four year old nodded his head and fully agreed though I knew it was going to take a lot more than nodding his head.

Sadly, Cain didn't listen to God.  He tricked Abel into going out into the field where he proceeded to kill his brother, blatantly disobeying God.  Not a happy ending.

Then we read in Matthew about Jesus' temptation in the desert.  Satan was there with Him just before His ministry was about to start.  Jesus fought every temptation with Scripture and finally at the end He said to him, "Satan, be gone!"  I had never noticed that before!  It was the perfect tie-in to the Old Testament reading - sin, or Satan, is crouching at our door.  We must master him.  We can do this by using Scripture, but ultimately by telling him to be gone!  We spoke about how even the little guy could do this.

We then prayed together and funnily enough the morning then went really sour - it was as if sin was crouching outside the family room waiting for us to finish praying and then the attacks started right away, from kids who wouldn't do school with a good attitude, to the little boy running away from me...perhaps they were all attacks directed towards me, to see if I could practice what I preached. Finally by noon, we stopped, ate lunch and everything seemed to go ok after that.

I think the point is, it's not enough to read it or even pray about it - now, the true test is to live it, moment by moment.  Today is another day - thank goodness for restarts.

Last week was a great week of blessings.  Literally a week ago, we were on the verge of, not despair, but hope, telling the Lord we're still in this for the long haul, but, at the same time, we all wondered how much longer as we sometimes feel this could go on forever!  It was at that moment God sent the groceries from heaven (I still haven't been to a grocery store in a week which is unheard of for me - unheard of!)

I heard a sermon by David Jeremiah this week on Joseph.  His brothers had told his father, Jacob, that Joseph had been killed by wild animals and for years he had believed them and mourned.  Then, to his shock, they come back from Egypt where they went to get grain and they told Jacob, no, his son was alive and that he was the head of all of Egypt, next to Pharoah.  The ESV Bible says his heart was numb. The KJV says his heart stopped.  Either way, he didn't believe them and went into shock. Joseph probably knew this would happen and sent proof that he was alive by sending wagons of supplies along behind the sons to Jacob.  Once he saw the wagons, he knew it must be true and it says his heart started again, or his spirit was "revived".

This is kind of what happened with us last week.  We were accepting of our lot in life, knowing we would one day be out of debt, but perhaps not for a long time.  That was the sadness that remained in our lives.  We had hope, for sure, but not knowing how long we'll have to live like this was the discouraging part.  Then, through God's Word and through the reading of Barry Cameron's book, we got inspired again, that, yes, it's going to be tough, but we can do it!  We just have to hang in there!  It was just like having the brothers come to us to say "Joseph is alive!"  At first, we didn't believe it was possible that we could get out of debt.  Reading about it, deciding to do it....all helps, but we had no way of knowing if it would ever happen.  God knew what Jacob would need - proof - so he sent wagons. Guess what God did for us - he sent groceries, in a wagon of sorts, my parents car, which is like a small SUV, so it held a lot of stuff!

But God didn't stop with just one wagon for Joseph and he didn't for us either.  Over the course of the next few days, and I'm not exaggerating, we had one car after another come to our house, literally every day for the next 5 days or so either picking up pork which we were selling or paying us for hay which we were also selling.   It was as if God sent more wagons to our home.  The hay buyers were all completely unexpected and no one we knew, all brand new customers. Some bought hundreds of dollars worth of hay, some just $40, but it was something!  Those pigs which had been such a handful to take care of became a blessing to us and hopefully to others as it is good meat!

It wouldn't stop.  Our hearts, which had been numb, were revived!  It was just what we needed.  We would all look at one another in awe when a new car would drive in.  We couldn't believe it!  Another amazing example of God's goodness to us - why?  Because He didn't have to do that, but He chose to anyway.  That is grace, undeserved mercy.

One interesting note in the story of Jacob is that when Joseph sent for him, he was told to not bring any of his goods.  Joseph promised him that he would take care of everything he needed in the land he was going to be giving him.  Jacob either didn't believe him or couldn't let go of his stuff and he ended up bringing all of his junk with him.  Is that the reason things ended up going so badly for the Israelites later on?  Was it because of Jacob's lack of obedience or willing to trust?

There are a few things I feel we could still give up and sacrifice, but I don't really want to.  I've been convicted that I better.  I think 100% obedience is what God is requiring.  It's a very subtle part of the story, but it clearly says, "So Israel set out with all that was his..."  No doubt he thought to himself, "I can't get by without that, or that, or that....I need this. and this....they probably don't have this in Egypt."  I guess that's how we get caught up with stuff and not being willing to go without.  We just don't think we can do it.  I'm not much different than Jacob.

So, lots going on, as you can see - in my mind, in our lives, with our children....I'm grateful for God's undeserved mercy today....and for wagons.