Jacob And Joseph Series

If the strong-willed child is the greatest challenge for

parents, the strong-willed adult is the greatest challenge for

God. The greatest obstacle to God's will being done on earth

as it is in heaven is the strong stubborn self-will of man. All of

the judgments of God through the Bible and through history

are due to man's stubborn will. Over and over the story is

repeated of Jesus in sorrow saying, "I would but you would

not." Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let God's people go, and

the result was that Egypt suffered great judgement. Then the

people of God stubbornly refused to take the land God

provided for them, and they were condemned to wonder in

the wilderness until all the stubborn people died. One of the

Proverbs most often illustrated in the Bible and history is

Proverbs 29:1. "A man who remains stiff-necked after many

rebukes will suddenly be destroyed without remedy."

The stubbornness of men is the primary cause of the

judgment of war. Stubborn dictators have forced us into

many costly wars, but Christians have their share of guilt as

well. DeWitt Talmage, one of the great preachers in

American history during the Civil War, tells of how Christian

leaders came up with a plan to avoid that tragic war. The

plan was for the North to pay for the slaves and set them free.

This way the South would not suffer the economic loss and

slavery could be ended without great instability in the

economy. The leaders of the North laughed and said they

would not pay, and the leaders of the South said they would

not sell. The result of their stubborn refusal to except this

Christian compromise was the worst war in our history. The

North ended up paying not only all it would have taken to

buy the slaves, but it paid in the blood of half a million of its

men. The South paid even more in blood and money, and the

end result was far greater instability. Everybody lost because

of stubbornness, and many of these leaders were Christians.

There are wars that are necessary, but this worst one was

total folly due to the stubborn refusal of men to listen to

Christian advisers. Their plan could have prevented it all,

and made both sides winners without a war. In our text we

are focusing on one of the most stubborn men in the Bible,

but one whom God used greatly. He illustrates that godly

people can still be obstacles to the will of God. Good and

godly people are often part of the problem. It is good to see

this so we do not pretend that it could not be us who are

hindering the will of God. We have the biographical accounts

in the Bible to challenge us to look at ourselves in the light of

their lives, and learn to avoid their mistakes. Jacob's life is

loaded with lessons, for he made so many mistakes.

Jacob had lost his favorite son Joseph and thought he was

dead. This loss had an impact on his emotions, and it was still

affecting him 21 years later. It made him over protective of

his younger son Benjamin. He is not little Benji any more.

He is a grown man with a good size family of his own, but he

is the only son left which was born to him by his first love

Rachel. Jacob will not let Benjamin out of his sight. He sent

his other 10 sons off to Egypt to face the dangers of thieves,

war, and the unknown, but not his baby Benjamin.

The older boys have apparently adjusted to their father's

favoritism by now. They hated Joseph for being his favorite,

and they got rid of him by selling him into slavery. But there

is no hint that they had any hostility toward Benjamin. He is

still alive and well and being treated royally. Dad says that

the rest of you guys can go and risk being lost or killed, but

not my boy Benjamin. If you are a child of Rachel, you are

exempt from risk from this family. As the story unfolds the

brothers go to Egypt and encounter their long lost brother

Joseph, but they do not recognize him.

Joseph, however, knows them, but he does not

know what has happened over the last two decades. He does

not know if they have found a way to eliminate his brother

Benjamin as they did him, or if he really is safe at home.

Joseph has to find out if his brother is alive before he reveals

himself, and so he demands that they bring their youngest

brother to Egypt to prove they are not spies. Simeon is kept in

prison until they return with Benjamin.