Dear Saints,
In John 10:10 our Lord Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” This is surely one of the most life-changing declarations in God’s manifesto for our salvation. The confidence of the Father, operating through the Son. What joy! Journey with me as we see this victory loudly echoed through the life of the patriarch Jacob.
Jacob’s Journey to Promise
We are all familiar with the story of Jacob, who later became Israel, and of the promises He inherited from his father and grandfather. From his seed, the nation of Israel would be birthed, and every one of his sons would have a role to play in the foundations of the nation. Yet there was a process involved in getting from these promises to their fulfilment. Jacob would taste the abundant life, but he and his family had to pass through a place of great brokenness to get there.
As we know, Jacob had 12 sons, and that of all his sons; he loved Joseph the most (Genesis 37:3). Yet Jacob went through terrible heartbreak the day he heard from his other sons that Joseph had been devoured by a wild beast (Genesis 37:20), even though this was not true. Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery because of their jealousy towards him and in fact had no idea whether he was alive or dead.
In the fullness of time, there was a famine in Israel and the remaining brothers needed to go down to Egypt to buy grain for the family. Jacob allowed 10 of the remaining 11 brothers to go, but he kept Benjamin with him. Benjamin was extremely significant to Jacob as he was the youngest of the brothers and the only other son to have been born to Rachel, Joseph’s mother, who had died while giving birth to him. Jacob was clearly still hurting badly over the losses of Joseph and Rachel and keeping hold of Benjamin was his way of shielding himself from even more brutal trauma and heartbreak.
By the time the brothers arrived in Egypt, Joseph had become the governor in charge of all the grain in the land, and although they did not recognise him, he recognised them. Joseph saw that Benjamin was not with them, and after interrogating them, demanded that they bring Benjamin to Egypt as proof of the things that they had said. He took Simeon as a prisoner until they did so.
Now these circumstances, which seemed to be characterised by brokenness on every side, were in fact the platform for a series of life-changing events that would bring about redemption for the whole family, and prove the unimaginable goodness and glory of God.
From Brokenness to Breakthrough
Looking at the demand that the Egyptian governor had made about Benjamin, the brothers soon began to speak to one another, and for the first time truly acknowledged the injustice that they had done to Joseph all those years ago. A spirit of repentance began to move amongst them, and a powerful process of deconstruction was underway. They could clearly discern the sins that had come back to bite them, and where they had gone wrong.
This in turn began to transform the way that they dealt with their father. In the past, they had dealt with him in a spirit of falsehood, deceiving him by telling him that Joseph had died. Now, when they pleaded with him to let Benjamin come to Egypt, they did so from a place of sincerity and truth. And whereas in the past they had conspired to take one brother’s life, they were now the opposite. They truly and genuinely committed to preserving Benjamin’s life. Without even knowing, they were setting right the mistakes of their pasts in God’s sight and being transformed into His image.
Their sincerity brought out the best in their father. Their authenticity reached his heart, and he trusted them, and God, in a way that he had not at the time of the first trip, irrespective of his wounds and fears. Trust and faith were being rebuilt and restored. Not only this, but Jacob was also inspired to make a further sacrifice in order to make the trip successful.
Songs of the Land
Jacob, with the eyes of a sage and understanding of the prophetic patriarch, instructed his sons to carry gifts to the governor of Egypt. We read in Genesis 43:11:
“And their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down a present for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.”
The phrase ‘best fruits of the land’ is translated from the Hebrew phrase ‘zimrat ha’aretz’ that literally means ‘the song of the land’. The offerings included had significance for Jacob. He had used almond rods by the watering troughs to increase the size of his flock in the days when he laboured for Laban, and pistachio trees are known to be the most challenging to grow of all nut crops. These offerings symbolised the challenges and difficulties that Jacob had worked through to achieve growth in the hard times of his life with Laban, and the song of praise that had built up within him as he saw God turn one circumstance after another to his favour. They were symbols of the testimonies in his life through by which he knew he could trust God.
Some of us need to continually remind ourselves of the access we’re being granted by the seemingly difficult issues and turns our journeys take and even for some right now, are still taking. Your endurance, right conduct and motives you take through them are not wasted and shall have great recompense of reward. Our ‘songs of the land’ only come from the processes, though inexplicable, that we have navigated through by grace and what we employed in the midst and the many lessons we garner from them. You take what was birthed in these places, as a gift into the places of breakthrough. It’s the humble and fearless realisation of Jacob that, ‘I have something from my struggles that shall satiate one in particular and bring me my breakthrough’. Each gift signifies a chapter and stanza of his journey that when it found the right ground, person and atmosphere, it brought breakthrough, access and multiplication. Your hardship, struggles and warfare of various kinds will never be wasted, but rather bare great fruit.
Praise In The Process
On the back of these, Jacob once again found the sound of trust and praise, and allowed the brothers to take what was dearest to him, his son Benjamin, to Egypt. Knowing that once before he had trusted God to give him growth in an impossible situation, he decided that he would trust Him once again. Jacob stopped practising self-defense and once again believed in God his Rock, and began to move once more in a spirit of praise. Little did he know that releasing what he had held onto so tightly was about to bring back to him something that he thought he would never see again. His beloved son Joseph! His praise was about to hit a whole new level!!
What had seemed like the worst of circumstances, and a pathway of brokenness for Jacob and his family contained all the elements that were about to propel them into an abundant and joyous life.
By allowing the deconstruction to take place they had discovered where they had gone wrong, moved in repentance and truth, restored trust and faith within the family, and rediscovered their songs of praise and legacy. When all these pieces clicked into place, the promises of God for Jacob were breathtakingly fulfilled for him and his family. Suddenly, the narrow and difficult path of deconstruction opened out onto the fields of the abundant life!
Jesus Is Speaking About You
Many of you reading this today, this is truly for you. You have laboured in the hardest and most difficult places, and persevered through the most challenging times. If it were not for God, you would have failed. You would not have made it. And in those places you built up a song of praise and a testimony that testifies of the goodness of God. And yet in what seems like a time of brokenness, the pieces have come together for divine turnaround. Like the sons of Jacob, let the Holy Spirit speak to you and show you where it was that things went wrong, and allow truth and repentance to reposition you. Don’t be worried if it feels like you are in a dry place. Egypt, the place where Jacob’s brothers found him again after so many years, was a desert. God is realigning you and setting you up for a breakthrough in an unusual place. This is the season when God makes a desert into a town.
Also deconstruct the entanglements. Jacob’s sons had been able to govern his emotions with lies, but God’s promises were still at work for both him and them, ready to take hold as soon as the lies were dismantled. Some of you need to shake off the falsehoods that have boxed you in. You may have people around you that haven’t been transparent. You may think that you are leading them, but they are actually leading you because they’ve had you bound with false information. Instead of looking ahead and pressing in for what’s next, you are boxed in; by lies, by the prevailing ideas and notions of today, self entitlement and hanging onto whatever is left as though God was not God anymore. So get rid of the third wheels. Remove the lies. Extricate yourself from those that are happy to wound you for their own benefit.
The reality is that what you thought was lost is there, waiting for you. Deconstruct the lies, right the wrongs, rebuild the trust and faith, and remove the manipulations. Break loose from those who have governed you with ambition and false information. Remember the promises of God, rediscover the songs of the desert, move in your uncommon obedience, and offer the choicest fruit to God once again. Whatever the stage of life you are in, whatever was lost, will be found. With your uncommon obedience, with your choicest fruits, offer and move into uncommon blessing and breakthrough. TRUST HIM AGAIN!
You are the sound of the coming revival and the major move of God! Deconstruct! The seasons of restoration, restitution and reformation are just ahead.
The Scripture says that the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, and that the creation eagerly awaits the manifestation of the sons of God. I declare the pieces have come together for you, in Jesus’ mighty name.
I am His delight,
Rev Betty King