Longing

Yes, it is Tuesday again. For one thing, it is time for another post dealing with depression. For another, it was dog park day but we did not go. It was about 35 degrees and the flurries were flying. The dogs will need to find a way to deal with their own cause of depression today.

This devotion has the dubious distinction of being written while I myself am suffering from the blues. Therefore, I need feedback. Tell me what helps you deal with this issue. If you don't want to post your comments publicly then send them to me privately at Karabeth6@gmail.com. Send me scripture passages that you've found to be the balm for your aching soul.

I almost let this cause and its associated personality go by without comment as I made a hasty exit from the book of Genesis. The Lord decided that I needed to stop and smell the sauerkraut. German heritage aside, I do not like the taste of sauerkraut, let alone the pungent odor of it cooking. So instead of moving on we are stopping over, backtracking actually, for two more lessons from the book of Genesis that I find particularly unsavory. The second lesson will follow next week.

So here I am in the doldrums. Longing has taken over my emotions. I want . . . Well, it doesn't really matter what I want. Ahab longed for Naboth's vineyard. Rachel and Hannah each longed for a child. The disciples longed for Jesus to restore the kingdom to Israel. Longing in and of itself does not seem to be sinful. It isn't wrong to long for God or for Heaven. It isn't wrong to long for promises to be fulfilled. It isn't wrong to long for better days.

As mentioned, Rachel had a longing for a child. I don't need a family tree to suggest that I am descended from Rachel - I might actually be descended from Leah or one of the servant girls since I don't have a clue from which son of Jacob my Jewish branch descends - but I suspect that tempermentally I am a daughter of Rachel.

Childlessness is not my situation but that was the cause of Rachel's longing. This caused her much despair. She cried to Jacob to give her a child or she would die. If you are familiar with the story you know just how ironic this statement was and also how much literary foreshadowing it contains.

This is how I know I am very much like Rachel. Sometimes whether God grants my petitions or not the objects of my affection reach the point of squeezing the life out of me. If I do not get what I want I might despair of it and if I do get it I might even regret that I longed for it, especially as I clean it, feed it, pick up after it, or begin to loathe it for one reason or the other. I think sometimes God teaches me lessons just by granting my requests. Be careful what you ask God to give you. You just might get it.

I am not too deeply into this study and I already see part of the answer to the problem. It would seem that sometimes longing is nothing more than a polite word for envy. This can be seen from Genesis 30:1 where it is plainly spells out that Rachel envied Leah because of the children that God had given to her sister.

I find it interesting that Jacob had very little sympathy for her. Her husband did not seem to understand why Rachel had any complaint. Jacob's thoughts might have been similar to those of Elkanah who years later asked Hannah, "Am not I better to thee than ten sons?" (I Sam. 1:8) Frankly, no. That is not comparing apples with apples. It wasn't that Rachel didn't love Jacob or that Hannah didn't love Elkanah. It was that Jacob and Elkanah each had children by another so they were not lacking the thing that was important to their barren wives.

I have very little respect for Jacob's response. His quick retort of "Am I in God's stead . . .?" fell well short of comfort. At least he didn't quip, "Go help Leah care for her children. She could probably use it."

No, Jacob was not the God who could put babies in wombs, but a more sympathetic and Biblical response would have been to take the request to the very God who could. This was the example of Jacob's own father, Isaac, who had offered a prayer after his own 20 childless years of marriage to Rebekah. Genesis 25:21 tells us that Isaac prayed and that God granted his request. In Rachel's case Jacob neglected to petition God but instead agreed to a similar "solution" to that of his grandparents, Sarah and Abraham.

According to Psalm 50:14-16 Isaac's example would have been the proper one for Jacob and Rachel to follow. It says, "Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High: and call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?"

The thing that Rachel desired was not evil. The sin was not in wanting something good. The sin can be found in the fact that she allowed her desire to manipulate a sinful solution in an attempt to acquire the desired baby. The end does not justify the means. Her envy of another's children came between her and God.

It is also true that impatience sometimes creeps in while waiting for the desired petition to be answered. Proverbs 13:12 says, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."

If longing has occupied your heart I pray that you will not resort to sinful behavior to obtain it. I pray that you will be able to wait with patience for the Lord to answer in His way and in His time.


The first lesson: Perfectionism.
The second lesson:Futility.
The third lesson:Idolatry.
The fourth lesson:Worldliness.
The fifth lesson: Guilt.
The sixth lesson: Victimization.