I Will Go With You

So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”

Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring. Genesis 46:1-7

Seeing this photo (below) in an online church art site Eastridge uses, I was reminded of a recent conversation in our Wednesday bible study about Corrie Ten Boom.

The prompt was a discussion of Genesis 46:1-7, in our study book on Joseph, “Finding God Faithful”.

God promised to be with Jacob wherever he was, not just where he was living, but where he was asked to move (the land of Goshen) following Joseph’s request in this scripture. We saw similarities with Jacob’s situation in that he was heading to a new land, and Corrie’s arrest and removal from her home to head to a concentration camp. The similarity: trust that God is with us wherever we are, even in the “unlikely” places.

The Hiding Place was a book, made into a movie in the 1970s. From the Amazon blurb (the book is still in print!): Corrie ten Boom was the first licensed female watchmaker in the Netherlands who became a heroine of the Resistance, a survivor of Hitler's concentration camps, and one of the most remarkable ministers of hope in the twentieth century.

In World War II she and her family risked their lives to help Jews and underground workers escape from the Nazis. In 1944 their lives were forever altered when they were betrayed, arrested, and thrown into the infamous Nazi death camps. Only Corrie among her family survived.

Corrie was released due to a “clerical error”, but she knew that God was with her in Ravensbrück and beyond.

Two of the many quotes attributed to Corrie that fit with the Genesis passage above:

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.”

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

Prayer: Lord, thank you for being with us wherever we are, even if it seems far from the beauty of your creation and love. Help us to trust in you. Amen.

Donna Gustafson