The Lord Is My Shepherd

Then he blessed Joseph and said "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm--may He bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth."

Author: Beth Donigan Seversen

Final words intrigue me.  Especially those of men and women of faith. At first, I viewed Jacob's words increduously.  He refers to God as He "who has been my shepherd all my life to this day." How could Jacob have called God his shepherd?

Wasn't it Jacob....

+ who suffered a broken relationship with his brother?

+ who lived as a fugitive in a foreign land for at least 26 yrs?

+ whose own children's treachery caused him to become a stench to the Canaanites?

+ who was repeatedly treated unjustly by his father-in-law?

+ who lost his beloved wife Rachel?

+ who provoked his children to such hatred that they severed him from his favored son Joseph, so that he believed the latter dead for most of his life?

+ who lived under famine conditions so desperate that he sent his sons to Egypt for aid?

+ who suffered the anguish of losing not only Joseph, but also Benjamin?

+ who died in Egypt, on foreign soil?

Yet, in spite of all this, Jacob still called God his shepherd. As I have wondered about Jacob's faith and declaration, I believe God has directed me to these conclusions:

First, God shepherded Jacob by rescuing him from himself. Jacob brought about his own impoverished spiritual state. But God met with Jacob at Bethel and blessed him.

Second, God restored Jacob's broken relationships with both Isaac and Esau, despite the mess Jacob had made of them through his own greed and deception.

Third, God righted the wrongs in Jacob's life. In the end, God prospered Jacob and gave him his beloved Rachel--despite Laban's injustices--and returned to him both Joseph and Benjamin.

Now I realize that Jacob had many reasons to call God his shepherd. May God, my Father, rescue me from myself, restore my broken relationships, and right the wrongs in my life.  I thank Him for what He did for Jacob and for what He will do in my life.