Deliverance

Read Genesis 49:16-28.

Tucked in the midst of all these blessings (did you notice that the one for Joseph is the longest? He is still his father's favorite!) is a simple little prayer: "I look for your deliverance, Lord" (49:18). I wonder how that snuck in there! Is Jacob praying to be delivered from his sons hovering over him? Or is that simply the way he has tried to live (at least the faithful part of) his life? Is he recognizing that without God's presence over these last few years, he would have had no hope? (That's true for all of us, by the way.)

Deliverance—it's a word (or variations thereof) that occurs over 1,200 times in the Hebrew Bible. Sometimes it refers to objects, as in, "I deliver this book to you," meaning you are giving a book to another person. More often, though, it refers to God doing something on behalf of human beings. God rescuing them from danger. God helping his people escape. God leading them out of trouble (which they, like us, seem to be good at finding).

Could it be that as Jacob is praying for his sons, he knows they will, at one time or another, find themselves in trouble, in danger? "Boys will be boys" and all of that, but this is more than that. Jacob knows that, as his descendants grow into a mighty nation, as they spread out and return to Canaan someday, they will inevitably come into conflict with the people around them. This simple verse, then, becomes a prayer for the nation that will take Jacob's other name, Israel. Deliver my people, God. Deliver them from trouble. Protect them and provide for them. Jacob won't live to see it, but he trusts in the God who will provide it.

What a great prayer for us to pray in these days that challenge and sometimes confuse us. When the world seems to be against people of faith: "I look for your deliverance, Lord." When people seem to speak ill of the church or of you in particular: "I look for your deliverance, Lord." When there is evil afoot: "I look for your deliverance, Lord." When politics seems to get so nasty and there is little hope we can come together: "I look for your deliverance, Lord." God has done it before, and he can (and I believe will) do it again.

"I look for your deliverance, Lord."

Amen.