The Good Resting Place

A resting place sure does seem like the thing to look for on a summer day. Could there be a consequence to this? Do we still live in this world? In Genesis, Jacob lay down and had a few words for his twelve sons about the last days. To one, Issachar, he spoke this interesting verse:

He saw that a resting place was good,
and that the land was pleasant,
so he bowed his shoulder to bear,
and became a servant at forced labor. (Gen 49:15)

This is not the most comfortable of prophecies! It starts out good enough, who wouldn't look for a resting place from our labors now and then? A pleasant land, yes, we can relate to finding a place like that. Working on that place we have found, bowing the shoulder to bear, sounds like just the thing. But, became a servant at forced labor? How did that happen? Sounds like that slavery thing we all very much want to avoid.

Consequences are not always intended and they do not always mean that we did the wrong thing. Laboring to fix up that nice resting place in the country we found to buy is right and proper. But in this world we may end up with a lifetime of seemingly endless laboring to get that country home just so. In putting our shoulder to the labor of making our dream resting place, we may set in motion a sequence of gotta-get-this-other-thing-done-first laborious tasks that enslave us to the overall project - probably a lot longer than we intended at the first.

This prophecy may warn us to not put our hopes of an eternal resting place in our own work. Jesus remains the one answer God gives to one of those unfortunate consequences of the Fall of Adam: toiling at hard labor.

A great thanksgiving to the Lord for the cooler day yesterday! Yours in Christ Jesus,

Bucky