Facing a Brick Wall?
And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.” – Genesis 42:36 NKJV.
Have you ever felt like you were facing a brick wall in life? Felt like you were between the proverbial rock and a hard place? At the end of your rope and your fingers are slipping? It happens to most people in the course of a lifetime at one point or another. It may be finances. It may be an illness. It may be our children. It may be something else and most likely it will be a combination of things that brings us to the point of collapse.
The pressure on Jacob had been building for some time. His beloved wife had died. His sons were rebellious. He thought his next to youngest son Joseph had died a tragic death at the hand of a wild animal. There was a famine threatening to wipe out his entire family.
Jacob had heard there was grain in Egypt and had sent his sons, all except Benjamin, to go and bring back some of the lifesaving food. Now they had returned without the grain, and without Simeon. Jacob had come to expect the worst and believed he would never see Simeon again. Not only that, but the Egyptian in charge of the grain wanted his beloved Benjamin as well. How could Jacob go on? Jacob cries out, “All these things are against me!”
Jacob could not know what God knew. He could not see what God could see. God knew Jacob’s son, Joseph, was alive and well. Joseph was now the second most powerful man in the most powerful country of the world. Joseph controlled the food supply for all of that area of the world. Joseph’s brother was also alive, well, and safe. As Joseph later pointed out to his brothers: “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive (Genesis 50:19-20).”
Jacob and his family could tell you that Romans 8:28 is true. They did not have the promise written out as we do today, but they experienced the truth of the verse lived out in their lives. All things did appear to be against Jacob and his family. But to “those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose,” “all things work together for good.”
The next time “all these things are against” you, keep on loving God. When all appears lost, keep on following, and seeking, and pursuing His will, His purpose to be done in your life. It may be the brick wall is just a mirage. It may be that when you let go of the rope that the solid rock is only an inch below. When you are between a rock and a hard place, the hard place may turn out to be the greatest blessing of your life!