Minding the Gap

UV 1676/10000 Minding the Gap
And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.
Deuteronomy 33 v 12

Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob and the son by his favoured wife Rachel. Jacob bestowed a special paternal blessing in his dying moments as a parting gift to his twelve sons and of Benjamin, he prophesied that he shall dwell in safety by the grace of the Lord, that the Lord shall be his covering or protective shield all through, that he would be like a child that lies between the Father’s shoulders. The Lord God has no favourite son but Jesus is His most beloved son and all those who place their faith in Jesus are His favoured sons and daughters and He would cover them by His grace.

No human being can mind the gap: the gap between what he knows and what he does not know, the gap between what he is and what he ought to be, the gap between his goals and dreams and their fulfilment, the gap between his thoughts, words and deeds, the gap between his needs and his abilities, the gap between death and eternal life, the gap between intentions and performance, the gap between the reality and the ideal, the gap between the strength and guile of our adversaries and the chief enemy of our soul and our own, the gap between God’s character and man’s. It is only the grace of God that can fill this gap. Every day every human faces this yawning gap. It fills him with fears, with a sense of frustration, with a sense of inadequacy and failure, with guilt and a sense of insecurity. The Greek word for gap is “hamartia”. But when we are believers in Jesus, the Lord fills the gap with His grace and it becomes “hyperbole” or exceeding the goals. This is the reason, Abraham, the father of faith or the first person to taste of a personal relationship with God, affirmed, “ He is my shield and my exceeding great reward.” The Lord covers us as He shields His beloved children. He rewards us exceedingly, or in excess of our expectations, in excess of what we deserve.

People talk of a “prosperity gospel” or doctrine but why is there no mention of the “ security gospel” or doctrine that we have absolute safety and security in the Lord. His unseen but felt presence is the shadow that shelters us from all our insecurities, personal, psychological, financial, emotional, social, relational. All our fears are quelled and calmed. We trust that the Lord has the best reserved for us. We can lie like a child lying weaned, resting and satisfied between his mother’s shoulders. Our restless urge to do more, have more and be more will cease and we will be filled with the blessed assurance that we are the beloved of the Lord and He is our beloved. We are carried by the Father like a shepherd carries a young and vulnerable lamb cradled upon his shoulders. We acknowledge that we are not able to handle our vulnerabilities and surrender both our positive desires and our weaknesses to the Lord. It is up to Him to fill the gap with His grace.

Prateep V Philip