A Few Bright Moments     04/13/22

Table Rock State Park, Branson, Missouri

Now the famine was still severe in the land.  So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”  But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’  If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you….” Israel (Jacob) asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”  They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?… Do you have another brother?’  We simply answered his questions.  How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?” ~ Genesis 43:1-7      I don’t know how long it takes to ‘eat all the grain’, but I’m pretty sure it was more than a few days, elsewise, they’d be headed back to Egypt before they’d hardly gotten home.  I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess it’s been at least a few months.  And all this time, Simeon has been locked up.  Probably wondering by now if he’d ever get out.  Do you suppose he had the same faith and trust in God’s watch care as Joseph did?  Again, I’m going to guess and say he does not.  And it’s pretty obvious that Jacob doesn’t really care that Simeon is languishing in prison.  And what of Simeon’s personal family?  Judah has stepped up into the role of firstborn (despite being 4^th), and has begun reminding Jacob of what they face.  Joseph must’ve made quite an impact on them, that the brothers haven’t forgotten the warning.  I mean, step into their shoes for a moment.  They’ve been to Egypt along with hundreds of thousands of people.  Unless they try to get Simeon back, what are the chances that ‘the man’ would even recognize them?  (Remember, they don’t know Joseph is their brother)  If you were Jacob, what would you do?  Try to sneak in and out and leave Simeon where he is?  Or run the risk of losing yet another, and more favored son (is there such a thing??) by sending him along and introducing him to Joseph?  After all, there’s nothing to stop Joseph from keeping both Simeon and Benjamin, or even all the brothers.  If ‘the man’ (Joseph) gets in his head that they’re all spies, then that’s the end of it. It had to be a frightening prospect for the brothers to return.  But less than the prospect of everyone starving to death.

Storms blustered on either side of us all day, but there were none where we were.  A friend texted that she saw the upcoming weather and prayed for us; to which I responded that her prayers were like Moses parting the Red Sea as the line of storms ran along the north and south of us!  We only had rain, which was heavy at times, and some distant thunder.

Because of the weather forecast, we went out before breakfast to get in a short walk, and enjoyed it immensely!  There are over 14 miles of trails in this park, and the partial one we did is paved and designed for biking and hiking.  Very nice! 

We sat inside the rest of the day, until it cleared up around dinnertime.  After dinner we went out and walked the other way on the same trail.  Much nicer weather!

It’s good we relaxed a bit today, because tomorrow promises to be a long one!