The God Who Reveals

"Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. ¹¹  And Israel said to Joseph, "I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring!"

Genesis 48:10-11

As Israel's days drew to a close, Joseph brought his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh to be blessed by their grandfather.  Israel's eyes had grown dim, yet God allowed him to see something beyond his wildest dreams.  Many years earlier Israel was deceived by his elder sons to believe Joseph had been torn by wild beasts when he had actually been sold by them to slave traders.  Israel was shocked when it was revealed Joseph still lived and was a ruler in Egypt.  In the twilight years of his pilgrimage, Israel rejoiced to spend time with his beloved Joseph again.

Whilst in Egypt, Israel's long-lost Joseph had two sons.  Genesis 48 conveys the touching scene when Israel kissed, embraced, and blessed Joseph's sons, adopting and blessing them as his very own.  Blind though his eyes were, I cannot imagine Israel speaking without a twinkle in his eyes when he said, "I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring!"  This is how our amazing, awesome God works.  Israel was resigned to never seeing Joseph again with his eyes, yet God allowed him to see Joseph and his sons!

Our eyes are naturally dim like Israel's, for we see as in a mirror dimly.  Even when we have "perfect vision" according to optometrists our range of vision is limited in scope, and our ability to see images and colours is dependant on light.  The things God reveals to us are greater than we could ever ask or think, more astounding than our wildest dreams.  The things we cannot fathom God simply does, and He opens our dim eyes to see it.  The light God shines drives the darkness away.  God brings hope to the hopeless.  For decades Israel mourned the loss of his son Joseph, but he later received his two sons and treated them as his own.

Things which are improbable, even impossible, God does. The miraculous is common for our God, the great Revealer of secrets, the One who brings the dead back to life.  God is able to melt hearts of stone and restore souls.  He opens blind eyes and brings reason to corrupt minds devoid of understanding.  God has done amazing things for us, but He is not finished.  He has more in store for you in this earthly pilgrimage, things you would not dare verbalise for the sheer impossibility of the thing.  As we continue trusting the LORD, He will bring to pass things beyond our imagination.  Israel's heart longed for his son, but God gave him two grandsons which never came into his mind.

The truth of 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 seems an appropriate conclusion:  "But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." ¹⁰  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹  For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."  What an impossibility, that finite man could know an infinite God!  Yet God has revealed Himself, and has opened our hearts and minds to know Him and appreciate all He has freely given us.  Hallelujah!