(Gen. 42: 36) If God be for us, who can be against uls - Rom. 8: 31

There are times when things seem to be against us, yet they turn out to be for us just as in Jacob's case. The old saying is that "Appearances are deceitful". It is the temptation for all of us to judge by appearances.

Jacob was an old man when he said, "All these things are against me". His beloved wife Rachel had died. Joseph, a child of his old age and evidently his favorite son, had an evil thing happen to him. Then to add to the sea of troubles there came upon the land of Canaan a terrible famine. Jacob's sons had to go to Egypt to buy food. Now the sons have returned with the request that Benjamin must go to Egypt too. Jacob cries out, "Me ye have bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me".

Yet, as Jacob discovered later, Joseph was at this very moment prime minister of Egypt. He was planning to save his father's house. Simeon was in the safest possible hands. And when Benjamin shall be brought to Egypt, Joseph will place all the resources of Egypt to take care of Benjamin. Through these very things against which Jacob was crying out in his despair, God in His infinite wisdom would bring to pass some very wonderful and far reaching purposes. In God's mysterious providence, Joseph had been sent ahead to Egypt to preserve the life of the Israelites. There are times when everything seems to be against us, yet they turn out to be for us. Blessings are often wrapped in disguises. Sometimes we welcome a thing as a blessing and it turns out to be a curse. At other times we look upon a thing as a burden, an evil, a limitation, and it turns out to be the best thing in the world for us.

We can triumph even in life's hard experiences if we cling to God. "If God be for us, who can be against us" is the great challenge of the Apostle Paul. Whatever may be the Christian's experiences he has abundant proof that God is for him. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also freely give us all things?" God went the limit at the Old Rugged Cross. He gave His best. Therefore we can say, "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly".

Whatever may be the mysteries of God's providence - sickness, sorrow, loneliness, hardship, disappointment - still the Christian looks up in faith and says, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God".