Troubles

     What are the reasons for troubles in a life? Some people will even justify their lack of belief in God based upon troubles. There are several causes for trouble given in scripture, but perhaps this week's Sabbath reading portion will offer an additional view that we may not have considered.  We will see that Jacob, as well as experiencing God's blessings and witnessing supernatural angelic activity several times, had troubles. The Hebrew word for "trouble" that we are going to look at here is sara/sar/sarar, meaning "straits, distress, trouble, vexer, rival wife, affliction, adversity, anguish, tribulation/enemy, oppressor, adversary, foes, narrow, tight, sorrow, a stone [as being hard]/to bind, besiege, shut up, show hostility, be scant, harass".

     This week's Sabbath reading portion is titled Va-yishlach, which means, "And he sent". This reading portion covers Genesis chapters 32 through 35. Jacob, with his wives and children, and all of his possessions were returning to his homeland in Canaan after being in exile for over twenty years in Mesopotamia. He will have to face his brother, Esau, who had sworn to kill him. With humility and gifts, Jacob, whom God had renamed Israel (Gen. 32:24-29), met his brother, Esau, and both men embraced and wept. (Gen. 33:3-5).  The threat and danger were still evident with Esau, but Jacob and his wives and children successfully avoided it. After settling peacefully near Shechem (sekem/sakam - back, shoulder, the back of both shoulder blades, the place of burdens/rise up early, see Isa. 9:6), Jacob/Israel built an altar to the LORD and called it El Elohe Israel, meaning "God, the God of Israel".

     At this place, however, Jacob suffered a tragedy involving his daughter Dinah, and the prince of Shechem, a Hivite, who violated Dinah, but desired to marry her. Two of Jacob's sons, after lying to the people of Shechem, killed all of the males of the city in revenge. Jacob was greatly troubled by what his sons had done (Gen. 34), and God told Jacob to "arise" and return to Bethel where God had first spoken to him, build an altar there, and dwell there. God again spoke a blessing to Jacob/Israel there (Gen. 35:10-15).

     Although God told Jacob/Israel to dwell at Bethel, or "house/household/family/temple/descendants of God", we read that Jacob and his family left Bethel and journeyed toward Ephrath (fruitfulness, increased, branched off, to bear fruit, to bear [a burden]), later called Bethlehem. Jacob's beloved wife, Rachel, "labored in childbirth, and she had hard (qasa - severe, fierce, harsh, make burdensome, cruel, grievous, show stubbornness, afflicted) labor...And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called (the child's) name Ben-Oni ("son of my sorrow"); but his father called him Benjamin ("son of the right hand'). So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is Bethlehem).  And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day." (Gen. 35:16-20). This must have been a sorrowful and troubling event for Jacob.

     Then Jacob/Israel and camp travelled to the tower of Eder (migdal-eder: "tower of the flock"; shepherd's watchtower near Bethlehem): "And it happened, when Israel (Jacob) dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah (bilhah/balah/bahal - the mother of Jacob's two sons Dan and Naphtali, "troubled"/to trouble/trouble, vexed, dismayed, afraid, be anxious, terrified) his father's concubine; and Israel heard about it." (Gen. 35:21-22). Here is more trouble and heartbreak for Jacob/Israel. Up to this point, Jacob has experienced murderous plans of a brother, exploitation and deception by an uncle (Laban), a devastating death in birthing the son of sorrow/son of the right hand, and the intimate betrayal of a son. Later in scripture, Jacob will experience more trouble and heartbreak.

     The prophet Jeremiah gave us a look into the reason for the troubles that happened to Jacob. Jeremiah wrote: "For thus says the LORD: 'We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all   turned pale? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it." (Jer. 30:5-7).  The phrase "Jacob's trouble" would bring to mind to the people of Israel all of the dangers and heartbreaks that Jacob suffered. Jeremiah was telling us that the troubles of Jacob were prophetic. Jesus also prophesied of this future time of suffering saying, "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." (Mt. 24:21).

     In another reading portion from this Sabbath, Jeremiah refers directly to an event in Jacob's life that the LORD uses prophetically: "Thus says the LORD: 'A voice was heard in Ramah (ramah/rum - hill, high place, town in Benjamin near Jerusalem/heave offering, exalt, rise up, to raise children), lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.' Thus says the LORD: 'Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded', says the LORD, 'and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future', says the LORD, 'that your children shall come back to their own border." (Jer. 31:15-17). The LORD used Rachel's tears of grievous trouble to prophesy hope and restoration to her descendants when all would appear hopeless for them.

     There are other examples in scripture where a troubling situation has been used to establish a prophetic warning or promise to the people of God. Isaiah the prophet had to walk naked for three years to prophesy the future shame of Egypt and Ethiopia when they would be marched naked into captivity. Isaiah's trouble was also a warning to Israel. Israel would rely on a military alliance with Egypt to protect them from the attack of a powerful Assyrian Empire. They would rely on this alliance instead of listening to the warnings of the prophets calling them back to God, to Jacob's "Bethel". Ezekiel had to cook his meal over a human/later cow dung-fueled fire to prophesy of how God's people would eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles where the LORD would drive them. Jeremiah was imprisoned in, and then rescued from, a waste-filled cesspit. Hosea had to marry and have children with a harlot, and then repeatedly had to buy her back, or redeem her, from the men to whom she had sold herself so that God could show His people how they also had been a repeatedly redeemed harlot in their relationship with Him. Elijah fled in terror and hid in a cave from an evil king and queen so that God could teach him and His people about His "still, small voice", and about a remnant that remains faithful to Him. Jesus told the parable of the wheat and the tares about a man who suffered trouble at the hands of an enemy. However, the man's trouble had a prophetic application. The man's field represented the prophetic time of harvest into the kingdom of God, when the tares would be gathered and burned, but the wheat would be gathered into the barn (Mt. 13:24-30 ). On another occasion, Jesus assured His disciples that a certain man wasn't born troubled by blindness because of anyone's sin, as the disciples had assumed, but for the glory that would be given to God years later on the day of that man's healing and deliverance (John 9). The religious people of the day did not rejoice and give God glory for this miracle, but we do when we read his account. It is still prophesying to us.

     While we know some of the reasons why troubles may be visited upon men, as God's prophetic people, we should also keep in mind that the LORD may use the troubles in a believer's life for good - to teach and prophesy to His people. One thing that we may be sure of, as the LORD told Jacob, we can return to the place in the Spirit called "Bethel", the house of God, where we can rest in His appearance and miracles. Many times it is written in God's Word that He can deliver His people out of their troubles regardless of what created those troubles: "Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses." (Ps. 107). "He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him." (Ps. 91). Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me." (Jn. 14:1).

     If you would like to know more about God's prophetic purpose through us, you can pray with me: "LORD God, by Your Word, Jesus, and by Your Holy Spirit, help me to learn and understand more about Your prophetic purpose through the events of my life. You have ordained everything concerning my life for Your glory, and to reap the praises of men. Use even the troubles that may come for Your purpose and glory, and remind me, Lord, to return to "Bethel" where You first spoke to me. I ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN."