“Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of you, “ But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.” (Genesis 33:12-14)
In Genesis 33 Jacob returns to Canaan and is reunited with his estranged brother Esau. They had not seen each other for over 20 years. Jacob returns with obvious evidence of God’s blessings – flocks, herds, wives, children, etc. However, he’s also coming back with an injury. In Genesis 32:24 we are told, “And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” Jacob survived the encounter but only after his hip was supernaturally ‘put out of joint’. As a consequence, Jacob would have a limp for the rest of his life.
Upon their reunion, Esau pleads with Jacob to return with him. Jacob declines. He tells his brother in essence, “You go on ahead. As for me, I can’t go any faster than the weak and the frail that are with me. “
In the kingdom of God there will always be people who for one reason or another, lag behind. They are weaker, slower, and frailer than the rest. Jacob’s injury brought him to a place of humility. Never again would he forge ahead in youthful pride and power. Instead he would limp alongside the weak and the feeble.
Yes there will always be those who lag behind, my prayer is that we who are forging ahead, never become impatient but instead reach reach out to help, even as it says in the word of God.
Margaret
thank you for that blog it encourages me to be patient with myself and others. I happen to be one of those who is slow to learn. But thanks be to God who is patient,slow to anger and full of mercy and grace.
I know he sees what he wants us to be even if we can’t.
Thank you. I am limping myself and it is a very humbling place to be. But it is in this very place where God dwells.
God Bless
Jerry
I’ve found my pace ebbs and flows. Nevertheless, by God’s grace I am gradually but certainly moving closer to Christ when taking a larger sample of my walk (2 Cor. 3:18). Consider this quotation from a wise, older seminary professor to a young, struggling disciple:
“Since becoming a Christian, you have become more and more aware of the sin in your life, and you are discouraged by it. But what discourages you, I see as a sign of life-not the sin itself, but the fact that you are discouraged by it. If you professed faith in Christ and it did not make any difference to your values, personal ethics, and goals, I would begin to wonder if your profession of faith in Christ was spurious (there are certainly instances of spurious faith in the Bible-for instance, John 2:23-25; 8:31ff.).
But if you have come to trust Christ, then growth in Him is always attended by deepening realization that you are not as good as you once thought you were, that the human heart is frighteningly deceptive and capable of astonishing depths of selfishness and evil. As you discover these things about yourself, the objective ground of your assurance must always remain unfalteringly the same: ‘if anybody does sin we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One’ (1 John 2:1). Let your confidence rest fully in that simple and profound truth.
What you will discover with time is that although you are not as holy as you would like to be or as blameless as you should be, by God’s grace you are not what you were. You look back and regret things you have said and thought and done as a Christian; you are embarrassed perhaps by the things you failed to think and say and do. But you also look back and testify with gratitude that because of the grace of God in your life, you are not what you were. And thus, unobtrusively, the subjective grounds of assurance also lend their quiet support.” (From Letters Along the Way, D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, p. 23.)
Hi Paul,
It is so true that we are “gradually but certainly moving closer to Christ” when we take the “larger sample” of our progress. Despite the failures and seeming setbacks – Christians are always taking possession of our inheritance in Christ Jesus.
Also, thanks so much for that D.A. Carson quote. I have grown to really appreciate him in recent months.