Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them. Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.” Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right towards Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left towards Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm—may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth.”
When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.”He blessed them that day and said, “In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: `May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.Genesis 48:10-21
When you are about to die, what are you going to say? Where will your hope lie? Will you be confused? Will you be afraid? Will you be terrified? Will you be anxious? Will you curse God and curse everybody else? Or will you bless God and bless the people around you?
We want to consider these questions today from the life of our great patriarch Jacob. In Genesis 48:21 we read, “Then Israel said to Joseph, ‘I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.’”
In God’s providence we are here on the last day of the second millennium. Some who were with us in the beginning of the year are not with us now. In this world there is an end to everything. That is why the first question in the Heidelberg Catechism asks this question, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” This question deals with life as well as death. It is, in other words, full of realism. Modern man tries to escape the reality of death through manufactured fun, but no matter what he does, there will be an end for every man. It is appointed by God that man must die once and then face judgment, as we read in Hebrews 9:27. When our end comes, we will either die in our sins or in faith in Jesus Christ.
Background
Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, was born a sinner. His name in Hebrew means “a deceiver.” Jacob represents all of us in this area, for the Bible tells us that all have sinned, meaning all are born sinners because of the sin that Adam committed. But we understand that the Sovereign Lord loved Jacob and chose him to eternal life, and in the Scriptures we also read, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
By nature, Jacob was a bargain hunter. True to his name, he tricked his father into giving him the blessings of the firstborn. When Jacob became a believer, this sin nature was still in him. The question is, would he continue to live in his sin, or would the God who saved him also make him holy?
The Bible clearly teaches us that the justified will be sanctified. Jacob experienced a life of discipline of the Lord, which finally produced in him holiness. Thus, when the the time came for Jacob to die, he was a saint of God, hoping and trusting not in anything in this world, but only in his God and Savior.
“I am about to die,” he told his son Joseph in Genesis 48:21, “but God will be with you.” In other words, Jacob was saying, “Yes, Joseph, I will die, but God who lives forever is my Savior, and he will be your Savior also.” I pray that God will help us to say this to those around us when our time comes to die. To do so, we must first experience God as Jacob experienced him in his life.
God with Us in the Present
At the end of his life Jacob realized that God had been with him in the past, he was with him in the present, and he would be with him in the future. Thus, when the end came for him, he was able to say to others, “God will be with you. I know this is true because I myself have experienced God as my Defender, Protector, Savior and Shepherd. He is with me now, he has been with me in the past, and I know he will be with you in the future.” How could Israel tell Joseph that God would be with him and the other children of Israel in this way? He could do so because he himself had experienced God in his life for one hundred and forty-seven years. He was speaking from his own experience of God, not from some theoretical belief. He personally had experienced God’s presence.
The first point we want to examine is that God was with Jacob in the present. In Genesis 28:15 the Lord himself told Jacob, “I am with you.”
Jacob was the grandson of the patriarch Abraham, who was known as a friend of God. Long before Jacob was born, God made a covenant with Abraham in which he promised by a self-maledictory oath that he would give Abraham not only children but the land of Canaan. Abraham wanted to make certain that this would be true, so he asked God, “How can I know that this will come to pass?” In Genesis 15 we read that God confirmed his promise with an oath, which he then ratified by passing through the divided carcasses of slaughtered animals. This was an ancient covenant-ratifying ceremony in which God, in effect, was saying to Abraham, “If I do not fulfill this promise to you, let me be destroyed.”
We know that God cannot lie and God cannot be destroyed. He is eternal, almighty God, the self-existing and self-sufficient God, who is without beginning or end. He did this to assure Abraham that his promise was true, and Abraham was thus assured that he would have children and inherit the land. Additionally, he realized that one of his offspring will be the Savior of the world. Jesus Christ himself made reference to this promise in John 8:56, where he said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
Abraham communicated God’s great promise of Genesis 15 to his son Isaac, who, in turn, communicated with his son Jacob. Later on, God appeared to Jacob at Bethel and made the same promise to him. At the time, Jacob was fleeing his home, having tricked his father into giving him the blessings of the firstborn. Esau began plotting to kill Jacob, so Jacob was encouraged to go to his uncle Laban at Paddan Aram in Mesopotamia. After Jacob had traveled about sixty miles, he came to a place called Luz, which he renamed Bethel. There we find him alone, tired, afraid, and fearful of the future. Yet, despite these problems, we are told that he fell asleep there.
In Genesis 28:12-14 we read,
[Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised to you.”
“I am with you.” There is nothing greater that God can say to us than those words. In that statement God is saying, “I am with you—to protect you, to provide for you, to save you, to defend you, to guide you. You have nothing to fear when I am with you.” In those words God was telling Jacob, “Jacob, you are not alone. I—the God of glory who appeared to your grandfather Abraham and your father Isaac—am now with you. I who am the Almighty God am with you. Yes, your father may not be with you, and your mother may not be with you; your friends may not be with you and your enemies may want to destroy you. You may be afraid, anxious and concerned, but do not worry: I am with you. I am your God, the One who passed through the divided carcasses and confirmed the covenant to your grandfather Abraham. You can depend on me and my promise. I am with you wherever you go, and I will save you and bring you back safely to this land.”
In the same way God tells us that God is with us in every aspect of our lives—in our infancy and in our old age, in our school, in our work, in our marriage, in our family. He is with us in our going and coming, in our sickness and our health. He is with us when our father dies, when our mother dies, when our wife dies, when our husband dies, when our children die. “I am with you,” God is telling us.
We must depend on God now. When we are weak, we can be bold and confident, knowing that God is with us now.
God with Us in the Future
The second point is that not only God was with Jacob in the present, but he was also with Jacob in the future. In Genesis 31:3 we read, “Then the Lord said to Jacob, ‘Go back to the land of your fathers and your relatives, and I will be with you.’” In other words, God was assuring Jacob he would be with him in the future.
After Jacob arrived in Paddan Aram, he lived there for twenty years, working for his uncle Laban. It was a hard life, and God used this time to discipline Jacob severely, but God was also with Jacob throughout that time, blessing him spiritually and materially. At the end of twenty years, God spoke to Jacob, telling him, in effect, “I want you to return to Canaan now, but don’t worry, I will be with you.” In other words, God was saying, “Don’t worry about your future. I will be with you.”
God was saying, “I want you to go back to the land I promised your grandfather.” But Jacob asked God, “O Lord, what should I do? Here Laban and his sons are against me. They are envious of my prosperity and want to destroy me, and they will certainly oppose my returning. But if I go back, I must face my brother, Esau, who wants to kill me.” Jacob was between a rock and a hard place.
God understood Jacob’s situation, so he told him, “I will be with you.” In other words, God was saying, “Don’t worry about these things, Jacob. I will interpose myself between you and all your enemies. I will be behind you, before you, and around you. Do not worry about tomorrow, for I am the God of your future, and I will be there with you.”
Now, we know that our eternal God has no tomorrow or yesterday or today, but we do. God says, “I’ll be with you in your tomorrow as I am in your present. I will be with you as your God, your Savior, your Defender, and your Shepherd. I will be with you, and you shall lack nothing. I will protect you from all your enemies. You shall be safe and your children shall be safe. I will destroy your enemies or make them to be at peace with you. Trust me!” That is what God was speaking to Jacob and that is what he speaks to us today. God will be with us in our tomorrow.
Jacob believed God and left Paddan Aram with his family, and we are told that God protected him. Laban pursued Jacob, wanting to humiliate and destroy him. But when he finally caught up with Jacob, he could do nothing because God had intervened, as we read in Genesis 31:29. Laban told Jacob about this intervention: “I have the power to harm you, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’” The God of tomorrow showed up and told Laban, in effect, “Don’t you ever do anything against Jacob.” That took care of Laban and he went home.
Not only that, God also protected Jacob from his brother Esau, who came out with four hundred strong men to meet him. When Jacob heard Esau was coming, he became very afraid and began to lean onto his own understanding. He figured out a way to try to pacify Esau through gifts.
What happened? God intervened again, and all of a sudden Esau was no longer an enemy. The God who was with Jacob changed Esau’s heart. He who had been at enmity with his brother was now at peace with him.
When Jacob finally reached Canaan, he met further opposition. In Genesis 34 we read that the Canaanites wanted to destroy Jacob and his family because Jacob’s sons had killed a lot of Canaanites for what their prince did to their sister Dinah. But God was with Jacob, and in Genesis 35:5 we read, “Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.”
I hope we will believe in this God who tells us, “I will be with you.” Yes, he tells us to go and he warns us there will be problems on the way. But he also tells us, “Don’t worry about it; I will be with you.” The God of our present is also the God of our future.
God with Us in the Past
Third, the God who is with us is also the God of the past. In Genesis 31:5 we find Jacob taking a backward look of his entire life, specifically the twenty years that he spent in Paddan Aram. He told his wives, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before. But the God of my father has been with me.” Jacob realized that, in spite of the enmity of his uncle and the hardships that he had suffered for twenty years, the God of Bethel, the God of his fathers, had been with him throughout it all, saving him, defending him, protecting him, blessing him and guiding him.
In Genesis 31:6-7 Jacob said, “You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.” Jacob realized that God was with him in the past. In verse 9 he said, “So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.” In verse 11 he related a dream, saying, “The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob!’ I answered, ‘Here I am,’” and then the angel told Jacob how God was taking care of him.
At the end of his life, Jacob also looked back upon his life, and in Genesis 48:15-16 we find him telling his son Joseph, “May the God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd”—or, in the King James Version, “the God who fed me”—”all my life to this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm—may he bless these boys.” I urge you to take a look at your entire past life. If you do, and if you are a Christian, you must acknowledge that God has been with you, saving you, protecting you, providing for you, shepherding you, guiding you, feeding you, and clothing you, and not only you, but your family. The promise is unto you and to your children. I pray that you will receive it and thank God for his provision.
God Sanctifies Jacob Through Discipline
We must also acknowledge that God does all these things for us despite our sins, our failures, our prayerlessness, our unthankfulness, and our stubbornness. God was with Jacob, not only in saving him and justifying him, but also in his sanctification. Do you think the God who justified us will also sanctify us? Do you think he is capable of dealing with our sins? Yes, and he accomplished that in Jacob’s life through painful discipline.
In Genesis 47:9 Jacob said, “My years have been few and difficult.” He was not exaggerating, for he encountered many troubles and hardships in God’s plan to sanctify him. PGM First, there was the enmity of Esau, whom Jacob had deceived. Jacob had to flee his father’s home, in fact, because Esau was planning to kill him.
Then there was the deception practiced on Jacob by his uncle Laban. Do you remember how Jacob had worked for seven years for Rachel? Yet, at the end of seven years, the woman given to him by Laban in the middle of the night was not Rachel but Leah, and Jacob had to work another seven years to obtain Rachel as his wife. God knows how to deal with our crookedness. If we are a Jacob, there will be a Laban out there somewhere, and God will use him to deal with us.
Not only did God use Laban to deceive Jacob in terms of Rachel and Leah, but he also used Laban to deceive Jacob several times in reference to his wages, as we read in Genesis 31:7. Then we read that Laban pursued Jacob and his family, intent on destroying them when he caught up with them. Oh, what anguish, what stripping, what dealing, what discipline, what punishment God was inflicting on Jacob through all of this!
After the threat of being destroyed by Laban went away, Jacob was faced with a new threat: He heard Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred strong men. The Bible tells us Jacob was filled with great fear. Once again, this was God’s discipline in Jacob’s life. God will do everything he needs to strip us of our self-confidence, self-sufficiency, arrogance, and reliance upon our own understanding.
The night before Jacob was to meet Esau, he found himself all alone, wrestling with a man who seemed to be not a man. This man so accommodated himself to Jacob in terms of strength that Jacob was winning until the man touched the center of Jacob’s strength, which was his hip. This one touch put Jacob’s hip out of joint, and it is my judgment that Jacob fell. In Hosea 12:4 we are told he wept and prayed and began to cling to him.
I hope you now believe that God knows how to sanctify his people. Jacob told the angel, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” He clung to this man, maybe to his feet, because he could not stand anymore, and he was praying, “I recognize that you are greater than I am.” The Bible says only the greater can bless the younger, so Jacob told the angel, “I am not going to let you go until you give me a blessing.” What was the blessing? His name was changed to Israel, meaning one who struggled with God.
This, however, was the not the last discipline God had for Jacob. Far from it! Jacob had one daughter, Dinah, who was raped by Shechem. What anguish! What trouble! And because of this, his sons killed many of these Canaanites, and from then on, the neighboring peoples opposed Jacob and wanted to destroy him.
In Genesis 35 we read that the family nanny, Deborah, died. Well, that was not a big problem for Jacob. But in Genesis 35:19 we read that Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel, also died while giving birth to Benjamin. What a blow! What pain to Jacob’s psyche! We are saying that the God who justifies us will also sanctify us. He will use all his powers to deliver us from our arrogance, self-confidence, and own wisdom.
In Genesis 35:22 Jacob also found out that his first-born son, Reuben, fornicated with his wife. What tragedy! What anguish to a father who loved God! And then in Genesis 35:29 we are told of the death of Jacob’s father, Isaac—another painful experience.
But that was not the end of trouble for Jacob. In Genesis 37:33-35 Jacob received the news that his son Joseph has been killed. Now, we know that he was not really killed, but Jacob did not know that. What pain! What trouble! Not only was Joseph’s mother, Rachel, dead, but now Rachel’s son Joseph, an upright man who loved God, was also dead.
Even that was not the end of trouble for Jacob. The prime minister of Egypt, who was in charge of dispensing food during a great famine, required that Jacob’s sons bring their youngest brother, Benjamin, to him. He had Simeon held until they could bring Benjamin back with them.
Since the death of Rachel and disappearance of Joseph, Jacob had put all his affection upon Benjamin. Now God was telling Jacob, “No, I am here to strip you of all. I am going to try you with every fiery trial until your faith is purified.” In Genesis 42:36 Joseph told his sons when they came back, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” and he refused to let Benjamin go.
The famine continued, however, and finally Jacob agreed to let Benjamin go to Egypt with his brothers. What intense pain Jacob was feeling at this point! I would counsel that it is better to yield to God than to come under his disciplinary hand and experience such pain. God knows how to deal with us until we surrender fully to him.
Jacob Sees Clearly
After surrendering Benjamin to God, Jacob was stripped of all his own strength. There was nothing left to lean on—nothing! God had tried his faith with these fiery experiences that affected both his body and soul and finally his faith emerged as pure gold. Jacob’s eyes finally became fixed fully on God and his promises, and on nothing else.
In Genesis 48:10 we find Jacob at the end of his life. He was one hundred and forty-seven years old—physically blind, but spiritually sharp. His spiritual vision was twenty-twenty. He had been dealt with by God for so many years that he now understood heavenly realities.
In this chapter we find Jacob’s son Joseph, the prime minister of Egypt, bringing his sons Manasseh and Ephraim to Jacob so that Jacob could bless them before he died. Joseph placed Manasseh, his firstborn, at Jacob’s right hand, and Ephraim on Jacob’s left hand with the idea that Jacob would give the blessing of the firstborn to Manasseh. But here was a man whose spiritual vision was clear. Jacob crossed his hands and blessed Ephraim with his right hand. When Joseph saw this, he became embarrassed and was displeased. He thought that this old man had made a mistake, so he said, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” But Jacob knew what he was doing. In Genesis 48:19 we read, “But his father refused and said, ‘I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.’”
“I know,” Jacob told Joseph. The God who had justified him had also sanctified him, stripping him of all his own understanding and strength, and now he saw God’s purposes clearly. Manasseh may have been older, but Jacob knew that God was choosing the younger brother, Ephraim, to receive the blessing of the firstborn just as he had chosen Jacob rather than Esau long ago.
But not only that, this blind Jacob saw something else very clearly. In Genesis 49:8-12 we find the blessing he gave to Judah. In verse 10 he said, “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.” Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jacob was seeing his great descendant, the Messiah, to whom belongs the submission of the whole world. And in verse 18 he said, “I look for your deliverance, O Lord.” What sanctification! Not only did he see that the Messiah would come through the tribe of his son Judah, and that this Messiah would rule the world, but he also saw that this Messiah would bring salvation to sinners like Jacob. This was the same Messiah whom Simeon saw as the infant Jesus Christ and said, ‘Ah, let me die now. I have seen the salvation of the Lord.”
This is amazing. What holiness! What clarity of vision, to see his offspring, the Messiah, and understand the great work he would do! God had brought about such sanctification in this former deceiver that his vision was now focused solely on the things of God. Through God’s mighty work, this man was no longer Jacob but truly Israel, by the grace of God.
The Fruit of God’s Discipline
The fruit of God’s discipline is our sanctification. I hope that when we look back upon our own lives, like Jacob we can see that everything that has happened to us is God’s doing and recognize how God is conforming our lives to God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. If we are Christians, we are always being changed from glory to glory, and all God’s chastisement has been fruitful in our lives. Romans 8:28 tells us that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God disciplines us with the purpose of making us holy, and that is why some of us have already begun to sparkle with God’s glory as we have been dealt with by God.
Jacob’s experiencing of God’s discipline qualified him to speak words of comfort to those he was leaving behind when he died. In Genesis 48:21 we read, “Then Israel said to Joseph, ‘I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.’”
“I am about to die,” Jacob said. The end must come to all. Death is God’s order in this age, and it will come to all of us unless the Lord comes back first. The vast majority of people in this world will die in their sins, while a few will die in faith in Jesus Christ.
Jacob was a believer, for he trusted in the God of his fathers Abraham and Isaac, and in God’s unfailing covenant, which promised a Savior. By God’s grace, Jacob became Israel, who walked with God and experienced his salvation. His God took care of him all his life, feeding him, protecting him, guiding him, justifying him, sanctifying him, and disciplining him. God loved Jacob and forgave him all his sins, and Jacob recognized that at the end of his life. So Jacob told Joseph, “I must die.” In other words, he was telling Joseph, “I am not going to be here anymore. I am going to be with God.” How do we know Jacob went to heaven? God himself said he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.
“Yes,” Jacob said, “I am old, blind, weak, and about to die. But God… .” What did he mean, “But God”? Jacob was telling Joseph that he would end but God would continue. God is immortal, almighty, eternal, self-existing and self-sufficient. God has no end. “I will die,” Jacob was saying, “but God lives on, and he will carry out his sovereign purposes in this world, which he revealed to Abraham, to Isaac, and to me. He is going to come, as he promised, and take you back to the land of Canaan in due time.”
God’s purpose will always be fulfilled. When Abraham died, there was an Isaac; when Isaac died, there was a Jacob; when Jacob died, there was a Joseph; when Moses died, there was a Joshua, and when Elijah died, there was an Elisha. In God’s time, the Messiah came, in the person of Jesus Christ. Like those before him, the Messiah also died, but by his death he destroyed death and purchased salvation for those who put their trust in him.
The Fulfillment of God’s Promise
So Jacob told Joseph and his other children, “But God will be with you and will take you back to Canaan as he promised by oath.” He was telling them, “God was with me. I experienced him my whole life. I saw him as true, as God, as Savior, as Shepherd, as Provider, and he can be trusted. He said he would take you back and he will do it.” Jacob was right. God was with his people too. The promise is unto you and to your children.
Joseph believed his father Jacob. In Genesis 50:24 we read that when his turn to die came, he told his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid,” and he did. In Exodus 3:6-7, God himself told Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,” and the Bible tells us that at these words, Moses hid his face. Then the Lord said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people, and I have come down to rescue them.’” Then God visited and delivered Israel out of Egypt, bringing them back to the promised land of Canaan. God was with them.
In the fullness of time God visited his people again in the person of God/man, Jesus Christ. Born of a woman, born under the law, he came to redeem those under the law, that we might become children of God. He came! In Luke 1:68 we find that Zechariah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said the same thing that Jacob and Joseph said: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come.” He has come! He has come and has redeemed his people!
What a privilege it was for Jacob to experience God all his life! Though born a sinner, God justified and sanctified him. When the end came for him, though blind and weak, his eyes in faith saw God, his mouth spoke the word of God, and he told all those around him, “I urge you to trust in God. I have found him to be good. ‘Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!’ Trust in him! Hope in him! Serve him! He will be with you and save you.”
When Our End Comes
The end of the millennium has come, and soon the end of our lives will come for all of us. Hear what the Son of Jacob, the Lord Jesus Christ, is saying to us: “I have received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go ye into all the world… and I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age.” In other words, Jesus is telling us, as he told Jacob, “I was with you in the past, I am with you now, and I will be with you in the future, so that when the end comes for you, you can point others to this great God that you serve.” Though Jesus is in heaven now, he has not left us as orphans, but has sent us another Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, to be with us forever.
In Hebrews 11:21 we read, “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.” Even as Jacob was dying, he was blessing others and worshiping God. What a way to end, when your end comes!
There is an old gospel song which describes this work of sanctification that God had wrought in Jacob and which he is working in us. Can you sing it?
This world is not my home; I’m just a-passing through.My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.O Lord, you know, I have no friend like you.If heaven’s not my home, then Lord, what will I do?The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.May God help us to yield to his sanctifying processes, that we may sing this song! May he order circumstances in our lives that our sins may be purged from us. May our troubles help us to focus on him. May God also help us to see his hand on us in the past and present, that we may trust in him for our future. May we, when our end comes, bless those around us, assuring them that God will be with them also. May our final act will be like that of Jacob—that we will worship God our Savior and praise him for all that he has done, saying, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Amen.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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