Over the course of about two years, Jacob would go through at least eight major grief-producing events. So severe was the shock to his mental and emotional state that I believe he went into a severe depression for the next 20 years (Ge 37:33-35; 42:36,38; 43:3; 44:20-34; 45:26-28). Hopefully few of us will ever have to face such an intense concentration of tragic events, but all of us, in going through life, will experience seasons of grief. It's a painful reality we must learn to deal with properly, or it can become a very destructive force. Today, with Jacob's sorrows as a back drop, we will look more closely at the subject of grief. We'll try to understand what it is; I'll share some of my pastoral obsenrations about how to deal with it; we'll let Scripture remind us that God can comfort our grief; and we'll look at how we can avoid despair in the future.

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