The Vision (2.14.25): The LORD protects fallen saints in a fallen world

Note: Devotion take from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 31.

“God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands…” (Genesis 31:42b).

The account of Jacob’s flight from Laban in Genesis 31 teaches us that the LORD protects his fallen saints in this fallen world.

One commentator noted that this account of Jacob and Laban is “a disturbing vignette of human history,” adding, “It reflects the human predicament in a sinful world. It declares… the brokenness of creation and humanity” (Currid, Genesis 2:110).

This is not some idealistic portrait of Christian family life. This is a family ready to go to war against one another, withholding and taking from one another, accusing and attacking one another. But all the while the God of the Bible is there, and he is protecting Jacob.

God intervenes through special revelation to direct the path of Jacob, telling him to flee from Laban and return to the promised land (vv. 3, 13). The LORD intervenes also in a dream to restrain the hand of Laban (v. 24).

We might look on with real encouragement at the final scene of reconciliation that is worked out here between Jacob and Laban, despite their conflict, through a covenant and a covenant meal (vv. 43-55).

And what does God do today? He speaks to us through the special revelation of the Word to direct our path, and he works in ways, ordinary and extraordinary, to protect his people. He sees our affliction and the labor of our hand (v. 42).

I read this week an account of John G. Paton (1824-1907), Scottish missionary to the New Hebrides islands in the South Pacific. He woke one night to hear a mob of armed and hostile natives burning down the church next to his house and urging one another to strike a blow at him as well. Just then a sudden storm arose, with rushing wind, thunder, and rain. The mob became silent, lowered their weapons, and withdrew terror stricken, saying, “That is Jehovah’s rain!” (see Currid’s account, Genesis 2:120).

Sometimes the LORD intervenes like that. But even when he does not do so temporally, he will do so ultimately. As Paul said in Romans 8: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (v. 31), and nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).

God will protect his fallen saints in a fallen world, providing for them a life that can never be taken away from them, through Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle