Genesis 42:36

God promised to Jacob’s grandfather Abraham that his *descendants would be as many as the stars. (See Genesis 15:5.) God repeated this promise to Jacob’s father Isaac. (See Genesis 26:3-4.) And God promised to Jacob, ‘Your family shall become a nation and a group of peoples.’ (See Genesis 35:11.) But Joseph was dead. (That is what Jacob thought.) Simeon was a slave in Egypt. (That too is what Jacob thought.) And people wanted to take Benjamin away. It seemed to Jacob that he was losing all his sons. God’s promises were failing.

Jacob probably thought of how God tested Abraham. He probably compared himself with Abraham.

• God had promised that Abraham would have a son, Isaac. Then God told Abraham to kill Isaac as an *offering. (See Genesis 22:1-2.) Abraham obeyed because he trusted God. And God saved Isaac.

• God had promised that Jacob would have sons. But God could not save Jacob’s sons. One was dead and one was a slave in a foreign country. (That is what Jacob thought.) And Jacob could not obey God as Abraham did. God had not told him what to do. And so he could not obey God.

We may sometimes be in a situation that is similar to this. It seems to us that God’s promises are failing. It seems that God’s plan is not working. And God has not told us what to do. And so we cannot obey him. We must trust him, especially when it is difficult to trust him.

Actually, God’s plan was working well. All Jacob’s 12 sons lived and they had large families. And Joseph was ready to save them all from the *famine. And God was ready to move them all to Egypt. Egypt was the place where their *descendants could learn to become a nation.