"All these things are against me!" (Gen. 42:36). "The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads!" (Gen. 48:16).

What a checkered life was Jacob's! As one reviews his career he is startled to notice the promise of the black smudges of failure silhouetted sharply against the white background of God's care and patience. The life of this patriarch is one of continual ups and downs. But how often we have seen in his conduct a true-to-life picture of ourselves. In fact, we are continually meeting ourselves in this story. This applies especially when it comes to circumstances similar to those that provoked the first of the above exclamations.

Notice the setting. Many months have passed since the shocking news of the sudden disappearance of Joseph, Crushed and broken, the old man has been mourning the death of his beloved boy. But a further sorrow has recently descended upon the family:the specter of famine has entered the home and threatened them with starvation. In desperation the sons have resorted to the supplies of Egypt's granaries. And now they have returned, but what strange tidings they bear! The harshness of the governor, his accusation of them as spies, his demand of the presence of Benjamin, his imprisonment of Simeon, and the return of the money in the sack's mouth, all come as hammer-like blows to Jacob. The thunder of adversity crashes about his head, and in a surge of deep emotion he cries out, "All these things are against me!" It seemed as though all the forces of evil had conspired in one common purpose, and that for his undoing and before this furious onslaught of apparently untoward circumstances Jacob throws up his hands in utter discouragement.

And have not we also experienced like situations? On how many occasions have we, in our course down life's highway, come to the unwelcome detour sign and been forced to some bumpy side-road, and have borrowed Jacob's language and said, "All these things are against me!" And in making such detours we have quite forgotten that they are very necessary if the main road is to be kept in repair.

The disciples in the storm-tossed vessel on Galilee's lake might have joined Jacob as they felt the fury of the storm, and cried in despair, "All these things are against us!"

Paul, lying in the chains of the Roman prison-cell, might have voiced the same gloomy sentiment.

And has not each believer been in similar straits? Sickness has invaded the home, financial reverses have overtaken us, cherished hopes have been blasted, and disappointments have been experienced. The winds have been contrary, and in spite of all our toiling in rowing little progress has been made, so we have murmured, "All these things are against me!"

But look again at Jacob. He is now at the sunset of his life's day. More than seventeen years have passed since he gave vent to the cry we have been considering. What a change now! What revelations the intervening years have brought! The discovery of his beloved Joseph as governor of all Egypt, the return of Simeon, the recovery of Benjamin, the well-stocked wagons with their abundance of food, the migration of the family to Goshen, and the friendly attitude of Pharaoh all combine to shed upon the dying patriarch a glory which betrays the patient, over-ruling care of a loving God.
Now he calls to his bed-side his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And in blessing them what a beautiful testimony he gives! He reviews his own life. He thinks of his zig-zag course, of the failures and of the triumphs, of the sad days and of the glad days, of the hallowed memories associated with Bethel, and of the unpleasant recollections of days spent in Syria. As in vision he sweeps over his whole pathway he exclaims, "The God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads!"

Ah, yes, in his rapturous reviews he can discern the Angel's presence. God had been his unseen Companion, and in infinite love had been making all circumstances work out to Jacob's blessing.

Have we not right here a striking illustration of that familiar verse in Romans 8:"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose?" It was so in Jacob's case; it is so in ours. A loving Father is over all our seeming adversities. So that instead of all things being against me, all things are really for me. And at the end of the journey,

"We'll bless the hand that guided,
We'll bless the heart that planned,
When throned where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's Land,"

as we realize in a new way those wonderful words of Isaiah:"In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them:in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old." C. Earnest Tatham