Jacob’s Children: 12 Benjamin

At The Right Hand of God

Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, "Do not fear; you will have this son also."
And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.
[Genesis 35:16-20 NKJV]

Sheep walking on the high ground, Scalpay, Harris, Western Isles

We hear about eleven of Jacob’s twelve sons in Genesis 29 and 30, yet we must wait until we are I nto Chapter 35 to hear about Benjamin. It seems that The Lord has to see a lot happening before He could complete His plan, not the least of which was Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel ...

Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. [Genesis 32:24 NKJV]

The Lord’s purpose always takes precedence over the affairs of men, and certain things had to be in place before He revealed Benjamin. And we have to see that Benjamin represents the culmination of what God has for us. Even now, we have yet to realise the amazing extent of the fulfilment of His promises.

Benjamin is the son of the right hand and yet, counter-intuitively, many of the tribe of Benjamin were noted for their left-handedness. However, if you were standing beside Father God at His right hand (i.e. rightly related to Him), what else would you do but to hold His right hand with your left!

We also see that Benjamin had two names. The name his mother gave him, and the new name to which his father changed it. Benjamin could have remained ‘Son of my sorrow’, but instead he was elevated to his father’s right hand.

We too have been given a new name by our Heavenly Father. We have our name in the natural, but Father God sees us as His sons and daughters.

PRAYER: Lord, draw us more and more to Yourself, that we may enter Your kingdom and sit at Your banqueting table and partake of the feast You lay before us. Father, we are in Your hand.

---

“The Lord’s Prayer” - Andre Bocelli

---

OSWALD CHAMBERS - RUN TODAY’S RACE
Thursday 21st May 2020
There are disasters to be faced by the one who is in real fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has never promised to keep us immune from trouble. He says “I will be with him in trouble”, which is a very different thing.

---