“Here's a little song I wrote You might want to sing it note for note Don't worry, be happy. In every life we have some trouble But when you worry you make it double Don't worry, be happy” You might recognize those lyrics from the song released in 1988, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” According to this song, why shouldn’t you worry? Because it just makes things worst. As popular as this song is, I don’t think this song is going to make it into the new hymnal. Yet, I think that this is the way that many people portray Christian’s or maybe even the Bible’s teaching on worry. Don’t worry. It will all work out. Is it true that Jesus tells us not to worry? Yes. We heard it repeatedly in our gospel lesson from Matthew 6. But our not worrying does not come from a fatalistic view of life that says, “Whatever will be, will be. So why worry about it?” or a denial of the very difficult and dangerous things in life. So what DOES the Bible teach us about worry? How does a Christian address worry without being fatalistic, reckless, or denying reality? Let’s look to Jacob, a man who knew worry well and learned from God how to address it.
In Genesis 32 we meet two elderly brothers who hadn’t seen each other for over 20 years. Esau and Jacob were twins who from little on were very different from each other. Jacob was more of a homebody while Esau was more of the adventurous, outdoor type. Jacob was a bit of a shady character. He was very good at manipulating situations to his own advantage. Instead of depending on the Lord and his plans, he relied upon his own devious ways and cleverness to get what he wanted. For example, when Esau came home hungry from hunting, Jacob agreed to sell him a bowl of stew in exchange for Esau’s birthright. A few years later, Jacob tricked his nearly blind father into giving him the blessing that belonged to his brother Esau. That was when Esau decided that he had enough of his brother’s devious ways. Esau made it clear that he was going to kill Jacob the first chance he got once his parents were dead and gone.
Jacob’s parents saw Esau’s hatred and decided it would be good for Jacob to go away for awhile to let Esau calm down. So Jaco left home with literally the staff in his hand and the shirt on his back and travelled around 350 miles to a place called Paddan Aram, where he stayed with distant relatives that he had never met.
Over the next 20 years the Lord taught Jacob patience and trust as Jacob met his match when it came manipulation. Jacob’s Uncle Laban repeatedly tricked Jacob time after time. Still, the Lord blessed Jacob. During those 20 years Jacob married, had children, and became an extremely wealthy man. Finally, the time came for Jacob to go back home. In Genesis 31:3 the Lord says to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you” (Genesis 31:3). How do you think Jacob felt when he heard that command? Probably a mixture of emotions. Glad to get away from shady Uncle Laban. Excited to see his parents. But NOT so excited to see his brother Esau who had made it clear that he wanted Jacob dead. But did you notice what accompanied the Lord’s command? God promised, “I will be with you.”
So, Jacob set out for home – 350 miles. That was a lot of time for Jacob to think as he slowly made his way back home with everyone and everything that God had given to him. You can only imagine how often in his mind he played through the possible scenarios of how his homecoming was going to go. Esau comes to hug him followed by a sharp pain the back from the dagger that Esau plunges into Jacob’s back. Or maybe Esau ambushes Jacob and destroys everything that Jacob had worked so hard for. Uncertainty is so often the cause of our worry.
I think that we’ve all been there. The worry that comes from uncertainty. What if this happens or what if that happens? The Lord has not told us every detail that is going to take place in our life, but that does not mean that the Lord does not know every detail. The Psalmist wrote, “You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely” (Psalm 139:3,4). While we might like convince ourselves, “If only I had known…” But what? If you had known, what? What would you have done? The truth is probably more times than not, that if we had known we would have worried even more. And that worry would have robbed us of enjoying the good things that God does gives us to enjoy for however long that may be.
That does not mean that we live in reckless fatalism, throwing caution to the wind and excusing, “God will take care it!” God also gave us brains and tells us to use them. Did you notice how Jacob uses common sense throughout this account? It begins in the verses leading up to these. As Jacob gets closer to arriving home, he sent a messenger ahead of him to announce his return to Esau. This way Esau would not be surprised by Jacob’s return. Later, Jacob sent gifts to Esau with the thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me” (Genesis 32:20). However, when the messengers returned from Esau, they delivered to Jacob some very frightening and distressing news. Esau was coming with 400 men to meet Jacob. What did Esau need 400 men for? The only conclusion that Jacob could find was that Esau was going to attack him. So what does Jacob do? Jacob divides his household and property into two groups. If Esau attacked one, at least the other group would have a better chance of getting away and surviving. Was there anything wrong with what Jacob did? Not necessarily. Jacob was simply trying to protect the property and the lives of the people that the Lord had entrusted to his care.
After Jacob did everything that HE could, what did he do next? “Then Jacob prayed…” (Genesis 32:9). And what did Jacob pray? He began be recalling who it was that told him to return home. “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper, I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant” (Genesis 32:9,10). Jacob begins by remembering the God to whom he prayed and the God who had promised to be with him. This was the God of his grandfather Abraham, the God who had brought him on this same journey from Paddan Aram to Canaan about 100 years earlier. This is the God who promised his protection and blessing of Abraham while living in that foreign country. This is the God of his father Isaac who had blessed him with a wife and children, with wealth and safety. This was his God, and this is our God.
What a good reminder for us that when we go the Lord in prayer, to stop and consider who this God is that you praying to and what he has already done for you. Jesus said something similar in Matthew 6. Jesus asked, “Are you not much more valuable than they [the birds]?” (Matthew 6:26). These words immediately take us back to the love and faithfulness of our God, a God who so highly valued every person so much so that he was willing to give his own Son’s life in the place of ours. This is the God who faithfully provides not only for our spiritual needs, but also for our physical ones, the ones that we so often take for granted or worry about when God does not provide in the amount or at the time, or in the way that we think he should. This is the God whose power prevails even over death, yet we still worry that he won’t be able to do the things he has promised to us because they just seem so unlikely from our point of view. This is the God who faithfully forgives us for our sinful worrying and doubt, a God who says to us like he said to Jacob, “I will be with you” not only promising his presence, but his powerful protection and blessing.
Jacob then prays, “Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted” (Genesis 32:11,12). Jacob does not live in denial of what he was facing. This was a dangerous situation and he knew it. But did you notice how his fear was tempered and his worry relieved? He went back to what God promised to him. He trusted that the Lord would do what he had promised, but he did not tell the Lord HOW to do it. He simply trusted that the Lord would.
Isn’t that really the key to addressing worry? It’s what the Apostle Paul pointed to when he wrote, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:12,13). It always comes down to trusting God is not only CAN, but he WILL do what he has promised. And what has God promised you? NOT a life without the scary things, or hard things or dangerous things. NOT a life where everything goes as you had expected. No. He has promised us a life where worry is relieved in knowing the God who has already given you all that you need to have a life after this life, a life forever away from the sad and scary, the dangerous and the difficult, a life with Jesus your Savior who so highly valued each of us, that he was willing to give his life so that we might have that perfect life. Amen.
