Time Passes

25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”
27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” 28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
31 “What shall I give you?” he asked.
“Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
(Genesis 30:25-33)

Time had passed for Jacob. What had happened with the passing of the years? Jacob could examine his life with the benefit of hindsight.

He had successfully gotten his brother’s birthright and blessing. But because of that success, he was in a far-away place and the faces of his father, mother and brother were a fourteen-year-old memory.

With regard to possessions, Jacob had so far not been successful. He had not grown in wealth because he had to ask, “when may I do something for my own household?” (Verse 30) And he started making plans to increase his prosperity.

In terms of family, he was probably successful beyond his dreams. Jacob had come to Laban as a single man in search of a wife. Now he had two wives, two concubines, a daughter, and twelve sons.

But if he looked farther back, he would realize that there was something special about those sons. They were the beginning of the twelve tribes of Israel. They were part of God’s plan to make Abraham a great nation, to give him descendants like the stars.

For a Christian, the passing of the years brings clarity. The most important blessing is not to look back and see what has happened with our plans. Instead, it is to be able to look back and see what has happened with God’s plans.

Prayer:
If you look back at the past, how can you see God’s plans in your life?
Whose plans are better: yours or God’s?
Give thanks for God working out His plans in your life.