Backward and Forward--God is Faithful!

 אַֽעַלְךָ֣  
’a-‘al-ḵā 
Verb: Imperfect Hiphil
"​I myself will continuously bring you up"​

       Have you ever felt yourself to be in a place of confusion, where it seems like the way that God is leading you and your family is backward or contrary to the purpose He has for you?  When perhaps where you are being led now is the direct opposite of where you know God has promised you that He wants for you—and yet His leading is undeniable in your circumstances.  Maybe you have prayed, been in the Word, and the two opposites of the direction in God’s leading just seem like they could never combine to make a positive in your life. 
       When God calls us to follow Him, sometimes we find ourselves going backward to go forward.  We can trust God’s faithfulness!  He has promised to continuously be working to bring us up to where He has His plan and purpose for us!
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Let’s Trust God with our Backward Steps.
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So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” Genesis 45:25-28 ESV
 
So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”
​Genesis 46:1-4 ESV
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        In Jacob’s story, we find ourselves stepping into an intricately played out drama between jealous and now repentant and forgiven brothers who had sold Joseph away as a slave into Egypt and that of a heartbroken father who had just learned that his favored son was still alive after many years of mourning. 
        In God’s omniscient foreknowledge, He had known that there would be a seven-year, worldwide famine in Joseph’s time.  Using the jealousies of Joseph’s brothers, God had arranged for Joseph to arrive in Egypt in time to plan a massive food storage event and to save many from the impending death caused by the famine.
         After years in the pharaoh’s dungeon, Joseph was miraculously raised to power, takes the opportunity God provides him to confront his brothers about their hurtful actions, and walks through a powerful repentance and reconciliation with them. 
         It is at this point that we find ourselves back with Jacob: Joseph had just sent his brothers back to tell Jacob the good news that He was alive as if from the dead, and that Jacob and his family would all be able to stay in Egypt in the best of the Egyptian agricultural land. 
            But Jacob, though happy to hear of his son’s prosperity, is afraid to go to down to Egypt.  He was living in the land of the Promise—the area of Canaan that God would one day give to Abraham’s descendants.  And Jacob knew there was more to that prophesy.  It was “more” that filled him with dread: 
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As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Genesis 15:12-16

     Could Jacob trust God’s promise, that even if their family went into slavery, God would bring them back to Promised Land?  Could God take care of their family through many harsh years of slavery?  These are the questions that Jacob must have had as he contemplated such a drastic move back to Egypt.  
     What about you?  Have you ever wondered if God could possibly have a good plan when it seems like He's leading through back into something scary or away from the final goal and purpose that He has for you? 
      I know these things are difficult for me at times.  In these times, God's promise to Jacob brings me peace.  He will go down with us into these places and seasons.  He will never leave us alone: He will not abandon us.  As surely as He himself will go down with us, He also promises to continuously be bringing us back up!
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Let’s multiply while we wait.
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     In Exodus chapter 1 we find the story zooms back in on a greatly multiplied Israel under a new pharaoh—one who did not know of Joseph.  This pharaoh found himself greatly afraid of such a massive amount of a mighty group of people, and—just as God had foretold—he began to enslave and even kill their children in order to prevent their imagined revolt.  Rather than reduce their population, all of Pharaoh’s efforts to prevent the blessing and multiplication of the people resulted in greater blessings and multiplication!
     Do you find yourself in a place of waiting, when you cannot move yet into what you know God has for you?  You may find that you cannot make the changes you need to step out into freedom in a physical sense.  In these moments of waiting for God to work for us, there is something we can do:  we can trust God to do His work, and we can share the good news of Jesus to everyone around us! 
     We don’t need to passively wait on God, we may actively wait! In doing this, we are standing on the promise of His faithfulness to us.  God’s blessing and favor rest on us when we produce fruit in these seasons of waiting on God to do the work that only He can accomplish.
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Let’s watch God bring us Home.
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     It was during this time in the book of Exodus that God raised up Moses to deliver the people out of slavery, through the wilderness, and back into the Promised Land. At the very moment that their time in the place of preservation was over, God brought them out.  On the very day that fulfilled the end of the prophecy, the Israelites were delivered to freedom by the sovereign God on whose promises they could place their absolute trust: 
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The time that the people of Israel
lived in Egypt was 430 years. 
At the end of 430 years, on that very day,
​all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. 
​It was a night of watching by the LORD,
to bring them out of the land of Egypt…. 
Exodus 12:40-42a
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​            We can watch peacefully through the night in which God works because of this:  He Himself is watching out, keeping vigil, all the night while He works to accomplish this work for us. 
​      One thing that brings me comfort in the backward seasons is knowing that when it’s time for God to work, it is His power alone that does the job. When we are walking in the will of God, there is nothing and no one on earth that can prevent God’s plan from being accomplished in our lives.
 
​        In that moment, all that we need to do is stand in peace...                                                     
​                                                                      and watch.  

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