Wrestling with God – Genesis 33:22-32

I have a particular fondness for this portion of Genesis because I sure wrestled with God in my time. God and I have had many vivid debates, I struggled with concepts, and had a lot of hard-heartedness and stubborness. God is so patient, and He kept showing me through others and through His Word the truth, until I could accept it.

Speaking of hips out of joint – I could use some prayer for that as my left hip joint hurts and at times I limp when I walk, old age I guess.

Back to Jacob – remember, he is quivering in His sandals because Esau is coming to greet him with 400 men. Jacob has decided to send massive amounts of gifts before him, so that when he finally comes face to face with Esau, that maybe Esau will think more kindly about Jacob.

We will see that in his courage, Jacob sends over his wives and children before him. Verse 22-23 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had.

Then Jacob will be all alone. I have to be honest, some of my best times I have had with God have been when I was all alone with Him. No distractions, just God and me. Verse 24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. (Most probably the preincarnate Messiah). verse 25-26  Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”

Why did Jacob hold onto God? 1. To receive a blessing. 2. for relationship, 3. Destiny-change, 4 Healing.

So often when we have a need we do not hold on long enough. We let go too soon. Jacob held on, even when his hip was made out of joint – and trust me an out of joint hip hurts. It is funny, but whatever our hurt, sometimes it is so tempting to just let go and run from the pain. Unfortunately that will not help us go through the trial, and we can miss a blessing. Best to hold onto God in the midst of the hurt and pain. It is in this holding on that God can change us.

I love what happens next.

Verse 27 And He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.”

Do you really think God doesn’t know Jacob’s name? Of course God knows Jacob’s name, he just wants Jacob to honestly realize who he is – the heel snatcher. God wanted Jacob to recall the times that he cheated his way into and out of situations, grabbing things, rather than trusting God. It must have been with a bit of shame that Jacob would answer, “Jacob.” because of what the name meant.

Then the Man  says, verse 28 “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.” Wow, Israel means Prince with God! What an elevation in rank: heel snatcher to prince with God. What a difference a name makes! We will see in the rest of the story about Jacob how, when Jacob is acting in the flesh, God calls him “Jacob” but when he is acting the way God would want him to act, God calls him “Israel” so we will be able to see the mind of God and how God views Jacob/Israel’s actions.

Hosea 12:3-4 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his strength he struggled with God. Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; he wept and sought favor from Him.

Jacob, like us at times, was in tough straights, was scared and he needed a blessing. There are some interesting parallels though. Remember Isaac, when Jacob stole the blessing, was blind and had to ask who Jacob was – Jacob lied and stated that he was Esau. Here the angel held Jacob accountable, and asked his name – and Jacob had to answer honestly.  I am Jacob, the heel snatcher, the conniver, the con man.

Of course, then Jacob wanted to know the Man’s name. verse 29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there. Jacob called the name of the place Peniel (Face of God): “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

After this encounter with God, Jacob crosses Peniel, and the sun rises. How awesome that when we have a real encounter with God, the darkness around us lifts and we see the light. But Jacob/Israel carried a rembrance of this encounter – he limped. From that day forward the children of Israel do not eat the muscle of that shank, because it is on the hip socket.

We need to rely on God, not do things in our own strength. The pain in our walk lets us know that God is more concerned about our eternal state than our present comfort. Although Israel walked with a limp, his spiritual walk was strengthened by that encounter – he got a new name, a new identity, and a real relationship with God that he carried with him.

Beth Moore adds some thoughts to this. Page 149 which is the video worksheet for her video about Jacob’s wrestling.

“Jacob had to make an honest appraisal of himself. He was entirely alone, and when we are without our friends around us, we are more who we really are.” I can agree with this, so often I hide from myself by activities and people. “People help to cover ourselves when we blow it. We play games with ourselves, deceptions. If we do not deal honestly with the games we play with ourselves, we will keep falling prey to them. God has made honesty a big deal, and we have to honestly accept where we are before we can make any real, lasting change.”

The Man gave Jacob an Honest fight. In this struggle with the Man, Jacob learned how to face up and fight honestly. Beth says that “sometimes in the dark of our night seasons we don’t know with whom or what we are struggling until the light begins to dawn. When God allows or invites us to wrestle with Him, His constant goal is to make us overcomers. Even when God appears to be against us, He is for us.”

Because Jacob honestly faced up to what he needed to face up to, he got an honest blessing. Beth counsels that in every struggle, don’t let go until the blessing comes.

“Few things define us more than how we struggle. When we struggle through the crisis with God all the way to the blessing, we are gloriously redefined.”

What kind of fighter are we? Do we fight dirty? Going to a person’s weakness. Do we fight in the mud, having to get the last word in, to best another person, scheme and shame a person. or do we as Paul tells Timothy, to fight the good fight of faith.

Heather’s comments.

Remember Revelation 2:17, that the person who overcomes will be given hidden manna and a new name written on a white stone.

I am so hoping that my fights are the good fight of faith, not the kind that puffs myself up at another’s expense. I want to be a blessing to people, not an obstacle. I want them to discover for themselves the wonderful nature of God, to learn to walk in faith, to grow in strength. To walk alongside of them – and if I have a limp that is ok because we can limp together. Sometimes walking alongside a person can do more good than lording over a person. Helping a person discover on their own is an incredible gift. Pastor Don has that gift, for he wants people who walk in their own faith, not just blindly listen and follow him. I am wondering what name God has for me and you.

Hoping your week is blessed,

Heather

Here is the rest of Friday’s Bible study, continued from yesterday. Pastor Don mentions his testimony during this portion of Bible study. If you want to read it, it is included in the book mentioned above.

Isaiah 46

Isaiah 46:1-3 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops: Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; They could not deliver the burden, but have themselves gone into captivity. Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb:

From birth God is a covenant keeping God. Pastor Don talked about infant baptism, and stated that infant dedication is biblical - one example is Jesus being brought to the temple, but baptism is more than sprinkling on of water, but whole immersion symbolizing the death, burial, and resurrection. It has to be a voluntary action of the heart, made by someone who is old enough to know the decision they are making. God requires simple obedience as a token that there is something in you. Often the obedience is a bit inconvenient (i.e. wet clothes from baptism), but the action symbolizes something deep within your heart.

In our church baptism, is followed by baptism of the Holy Spirit, and then Holy Communion.

Pastor Don talked about communion and how it relates to the Jewish wedding ceremony, where, after the covenant marriage contract was drawn up that detailed all the groom was to do in preparation for the bride, the bride was called into the room and her acceptance of the groom was sealed by sharing the cup of wine and eating bread. She was then betrothed to the groom and awaited his coming to take her as a bride once the marriage contract requirements were met.

When we take holy communion we are accepting all the promises that Jesus has for us, and we are his betrothed, waiting for his coming to take us to the marriage supper of the Lamb. We belong to Jesus now, and He belongs to us, we are not to court other idols.

Isaiah 46:3-4 Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth. Who have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs (Pastor Don mentioned partially bald heads too) I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

Just a side note, besides the obvious that God is there for us all the time, upholding us. It mentions that God will DELIVER us, in order to need to be delivered you have to be in a position to need being delivered – that is a pretty good indication that our lives will not always be smooth sailing, and we will need to lean on God and be delivered by Him. There are going to be some traps that we fall prey to, some pits we fall into, and some troubles in our lives.

Verses 5-9 To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal and compare Me, that we should be alike? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; they prostrate themselves, yes, they worship. They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stands; from its place it shall not move. Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble. Remember this, and show yourselves men; Recall to mind, O you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me.

So often we forget all the things that God has done in our lives or try to rationalize it as chance, or good fortune. But so often God has delivered us, and we need to remember that. (Heather’s note: when we are faced with a problem we need to remember what God has done in our lives, and remind our problem and satan what a great God we have). The idols are made by human hands and are impotent to help us, only a living God, who is sovereign holds power over our troubles. It is to the living God we must come.

Verse 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand. And I will do all my pleasure.”

The reality is, whether we like what God does or says, He is God. Whether we like the way life turns out, we do not want God to be different. We accept God as He is, and know that He is God, there is no other. God is sovereign. Pastor Don says that when he dies and goes to heaven he may ask God why this situation occurred the way it did, and he knows that God has a good reason that encompasses more than what Pastor Don would know in the flesh. We will see that God had everything in control, and that there was a purpose for everything we don’t understand now. Much of what needs doing, if we are patient we will see occur. There is a supernatural aspect that we don’t realize is behind the scenes. Our weapon is the prayer of agreement.

One woman talked about how she bumped into a woman from her past that she used to study yoga with. This woman is now a Buddhist. And she is taking massage from someone else in our church. Pastor Don pointed out that the masseuse and she should get together and pray a prayer of agreement about this woman’s salvation. For where two are three are gathered in His name, He is present. God knows the end from the beginning, and there are interconnections that we don’t always know in or physical being.

Then we were talking about how God intervenes in our lives, protecting us in dangerous situations. Pastor Don went to Hebrews 1:1-4 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed  heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right and of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

There are cults out there that claim that Jesus is only the Archangel Michael, or an angel like Moroni, and deny His divinity. They are in error. Here it clearly shows that Jesus is more than an angel.

Hebrews 1:5-7 For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten you?” And again: “I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son?” But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” And of the angels He says, “Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.”

How many of our ministers are such flames of fire – many fizzle out, seeking to blend in with culture. This shows that angels are not the same as Jesus, and then we got into a discussion of ways angels have intervened in our lives.

Isaiah 46:11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it.

God is in charge, and we need to recognize this in our lives.

Then we started talking about Jehovah Witnesses and how they come to the door, how do we deal with that?

1 John 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you now the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

If a person’s theology denies the divinity of Jesus, and denies that Jesus is God, but also came into the flesh, died and resurrected for our sins, it is a counterfeit theology.

1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

2 John 7-11For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

Someone asked what it meant by greet and Pastor Don told her that it meant something entirely different from a simple “Hi.” In those days visitors met at a table and often a person would come to the table and and the master of the home would pour him a glass of wine. If the master then takes the empty glass and turns it upside down, the meeting is over. If the cup overflows in that the master pours more wine into the glass, again and again it means that the guest is greeted and welcome.

But the answer to this person’s question was not to let them in your house, but to meet them on the doorstep if need be and not take their literature. Before Pastor Don’s wife got saved, Pastor Don would go to church and like clockwork the Jehovah Witnesses would drive up and talk with his wife. He finally, after consulting his pastor at the time, told her to talk with them outside. Then when He was home, he would say, I’ll give you five minutes, but then you have to listen to me for five minutes. He would look at his watch and say “go” and the person usually did not take five minutes.

Pastor Don would then share his testimony, about how God healed him from a disease after the doctor had told him to go home and set his affairs in order. He then told the person to wait, and went in and got the doctor’s records, and showed them to the person. The JW kid was so impressed and Pastor Don told him I’ll take your literature if you take mine. By that time the elder in the car came up to see what was going on. The kid tells his elder about the testimony and the elder decides to talk with Pastor Don. The kid says, he’ll listen for five minutes, but you have to listen to him and he has a fantastic testimony. Pastor Don told the kid he could come back as the elder had taken the kid by the arm and retreated to their car. Pastor Don doesn’t seem to get JW’s anymore at his house.

Pastor Don says that you should not argue Bible theology with them because they are schooled in that and can argue toe to toe with you. But rather share your testimony, share how God is moving in your life, how real God is, what a relationship you have with God. They do not have that in their theology and they cannot argue against your testimony.

Then Pastor Don reminded us that the Spirit and the Word must agree. If there is something in our tradition that does not agree with the Word, we must change our actions to comply with the Word of God. If someone is preaching, or teaching and something grates against your spirit, check things out to make sure that the teaching is Biblical. Your Spirit will protect you from unsound theology.

It was getting to be about 3:00 so we had to stop. Most of us would have loved to continue on. Before I got saved, I never knew how exciting Bible studies are. The Word is so rich and fun to learn.

Hope you have a blessed Sunday. I get to drive Katherine to a Field Hockey camp in Pennsylvania, about 2 1/2 hours away. She is psyched.

Have a great day.
Heather

Friday’s Bible Study was a continuation of the previous studies in Isaiah. I will cut this Bible study into two entries. You should know that our Friday Bible studies include a pot luck lunch and around 1:00 we then dig into the Word. Our studies can last anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours depending. We usually are finished after two hours of study, that is why some of my entries are so long. We just love the Word.

Isaiah 45 – I am going to be quoting much of this chapter for it is sooo rich in content, and so important.

Remember, God mentioned a King that came from the Medes and Persians by name – CYRUS. God named this name through Isaiah, the Prophet, over 140 years before Cyrus was even born.

(Heather’s note) Not only did Isaiah predict Cyrus, but also Jeremiah predicted him. And I thought you might be blessed by another passage. 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me, And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up!

And then you can flip the page and read a detailed account of Cyrus’s work in Ezra Chapter 1 and some of the rest of the book. It is an incredible account. You may wonder why Jeremiah and Isaiah stated the same prophesy – often in the Bible the same truth is taught in many places – that is because you need the word of two or three witnesses to proclaim the truth. And God does that often in his word, having two or three speak the same thing. We can get in big trouble if we try to build a philosophy or theology on an isolated passage. It is better to check out the idea in many passages of the Bible, and if the Word and the Spirit agree then you can find the truth.

Back to Pastor Don’s Teaching:

Isaiah 45:15-17 Truly You are God, who hide Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior! They shall be ashamed and also disgraced, all of them: They shall go in confusion together, who are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; You shall not be ashamed or disgraced forever and ever.

How long shall Israel be saved? An everlasting salvation, forever and ever. Those who say Israel had its chance and failed and will be no more are in error. God does not go back on His Word – if He says forever, it is forever. Have you noticed that Hezbalah (sp) has been lopping hundreds of rockets into Israel, and have hit virtually nothing. It is the Hand of God that deflects the rockets from doing too much damage. The same thing happened in the 67 War. We need to keep our eye on this area, for someone will come forward with a peace proposal that will seem to work, but it will be a false peace.

The Assyrians and other nations, in Cyrus’s day were rising up against Israel, and God raised up the Medes and Persians to reinstate Israel. In the Bible some prophesies are near and far prophesies – meaning that there is a fulfillment close to the time the prophesy was made, and the prophesy is also for the later days, the end times. We have seen Israel scattered for almost two thousand years, only to come back to the land, reestablish itself as a nation, and also begin speaking Hebrew – a language that has been dead for thousands of years. This has never happened with any other group of people who have been decimated. We don’t know anyone who speaks Jebusite, Hittite, or any of the other dead languages. Only Hebrew has come back. God still is bringing about the part of the prophesy of Israel being saved with an EVERLASTING SALVATION. (Heather’s note – in other prophets we see that they will get into a tight situation and cry out to God, and God will come to save them – God is waiting for Israel to call out to Him).

God made a covenant with Israel. (Heather’s note: as we have seen with the covenant of Abraham, God has made covenants with the people, but it is only God that cuts the covenant, so that only God is held accountable for his covenant. God knows that we are fallible and cannot keep our word, but God can and does keep His Word to His people. It is presumptuous to think that God would make a covenant back in Abraham’s day and not keep it in this day and age. Frankly, I don’t think I could trust God if God did not keep His Word, and we see in scripture that He holds His Word above Himself).

Back to Pastor Don: God has established a covenant He cannot break, but in the process of fulfilling the covenant He will test and try you, just as He tested and tried the nation Israel. But God will not allow your enemies to destroy you.

Verses 18-19 For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.  I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’: I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

Pastor Don mentioned that it is difficult, at times, for us to see that with so much wrong in life that the sovereign will of God gets done. We all never want to suffer, but God has not promised us that we will not suffer. Pastor Don mentions how our kids treat us as parents – that they want what they want. They often are not thankful, and often bring their parents grief through disobedience. They bring us joy, but often not happiness, because having kids is a tremendous responsibility and we have to look out for their best interests even when it conflicts with their wants and desires. We, who are God’s kids, treat God the same way.

A false theology which is also preached today on TV is that if you are righteous, if you tithe, if you do all God wants you to do, no trouble will cross your path. Pastor Don said to tell that to Paul or David. Paul was beaten, left for dead, shipwrecked, imprisoned and ultimately killed. David was told he would be king, and spent many years in the backside of the wilderness, spent time being chased by Saul, and treated very disrespectfully. Satan will come at you by a certain prescribed path that is your weakness. If you resist him there, he will wait until a moment of weakness or study you for the next path of weakness.

We have a warped view of life if we believe that tests and trials will not include tests and trials. If we do not have the sensibility to obey and believe in the midst of our tests and trials we will lose a divine opportunity.

Pastor Don mentioned a story Jack Hayford told about missionaries in a country that was bent on destroying Christians. The missionaries were walking on a path, and a man came and made a gesture of finger across lips to indicate be silent. And he motioned for them to get off the road. The missionaries obeyed, and although they could easily see the road and were not that far off of the road. And if God did not protect them, they would have been discovered. A few minutes later a band of armed men walked by. The missionaries could feel their breath, and see them, but the armed men who were out to kill the missionaries did not see them. Pastor Don pointed out that if those missionaries were not instantly obedient, if they had questioned the motives of the man, they would have been dead. By the way, when the missionaries turned to thank the man, the man was gone so they think it was an angel of God. We have to learn to be instantly obedient to God.

What we need to realize is that we need to be singing Hallelujah BEFORE the victory, we need to be praising God in the midst of the trial. We need to praise God through the trial. To pray without ceasing. We need to be thanking the LORD, when when we have no idea if He will deliver us.

Isaiah 45:20-25 (Heather’s note – This is such a beautiful passage I am going to quote it all.) Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, Who carry the wood of their carved image, and pray to a god that cannot save. Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me. Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other, I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, ‘Surely in the LORD I have righteousness and strength, to Him men shall come, and all shall be ashamed who are incensed against Him. In the LORD all the descendants of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory. 

How many descendants of Israel shall be justified? ALL. Are those who are in Israel today descendants of Israel, YES- again who are we to say that God has washed His hands of Israel?

This is a powerful promise. God has declared Himself, based on the accuracy of His own prophesies. How all of history unfolds and happens according to the Word of God. The written and the spoken Word, all of God’s Word that He has given us lets us know God, so that when we hear the spoken Word we can ascertain if it is of God or not. God has put a Word in each of our hearts – a special word that sustains us through all our trials. We would have to deny ourselves in order to deny the Word that is in our heart. When we are in the midst of trials we need to bring back to our remembrance the Word that God has put in our hearts.

To effectively witness to people, we need to talk with them and find out what Word God has put in their hearts and help them come to remembrance of that word. If we can get people to find that point where they once knew God, then the rest will follow.

We then went into chapter 46, but I will save that for you tomorrow. I apologize that my entries are so long, it is just that the joy of sharing God’s word bubbles out of my fingertips.

Hoping you have a blessed day. Tomorrow we drive Katherine to another Field Hockey Camp – it turns out that they had room and about six of her team will be attending. She is so concerned if she will make the Junior Varsity team, and we want to build up her confidence.

Have a blessed day. I have been visiting your sites, and will continue to do so today. Know that I am so blessed by what you share.

Heather

Pastor Don has asked me to teach Bible study on August 6. I typed out the notes to give him for his input, and thought I would share them with you. I welcome your comments – this is more in note form, but I think you will get the gist.

Heather

Bible Study for August 6, 2006 – Heather Marsten

 

GOD’S TESTS

 

I have never loved tests. Just the thought of tests can send me into fits of panic. Doesn’t matter if I have studied well or been surprised, I tend to break out in a cold sweat at the mention of tests. Yet, God uses tests in our lives.

 

I used to think it was bizarre that God would have to test us. Doesn’t He already know if we will pass or fail the test? Of course He does. His tests are not for his information, but for our information. The tests clearly show us where we are in the walk of faith. The best part of God’s testing of us is that he wants us to ace the test, and He will keep giving us the same test over and over again until we finally get it right.

 

What we can know about God’s tests in our lives:

1. Our tests have our names on them.  We will not have to take someone else’s test. The Hebrew word for test means to try, to prove and carries the meaning of testing the quality of a person through stressful circumstances.
   
2. Our hardest tests often involve our dearest loves. Those closest to us can test our walk of faith far more than a stranger can.
   
3. We are not powerless in our tests. How we take them is up to us.
   
4. Obedience is not the hardest part of our most trying tests, keeping the faith is.
   
5. The harder the test, the more far reaching its ramifications.

 

 

I thought we would look at the tests that Abram had in his walk with God. And then show you God’s report card about Abram’s tests. Perhaps we can learn a bit about ourselves and some of our tests. I really am beginning to realize that it is better to learn some of my lessons from the Word of God rather than learning them in the School of Hard Knocks.

 

ABRAM’S TESTS:

 

1. Abram’s fervor – would he leave his homeland and move to an unknown place, believing God. Genesis 12:1 The Lord tells Abram to get out of his country, leave family and father’s house. How did Abram score –maybe 50% .  He did leave his country, but brought his father and Lot with Him. Genesis 11:31It might be interesting to note that His father’s name is Terah which means delay. Abram will first travel about ½ the way to Canaan and reside in Haran which means parched and desolate. He will stay there with Sarai and Lot until his father dies. So often, we settle where we are until something dies, and that then causes us to move forward. Abram moves forward and ends up residing between Ai (which means heap of ruins) and Bethel (which means house of God), in the land of Canaan. But it took the death of his father to get him to this land promised by God.
   
2. Reliance on God –Genesis 12:10  famine, stress of circumstances. He failed this test. There was a famine in the land. Although God had promised Abram that He would provide for him and his family, the famine drove Abram down to the land of Egypt (which is another type of the flesh). In Egypt Abram will end up lying, pretending that his wife is his sister, and after the famine come back with more property and a maid – Hagar. We are still dealing with what Abram brought back from Egypt in this day and age, for Hagar will give birth to Ishmael, from which the Arabs are descended.
   
3. Humility – Abram and Lot, Abram passed with flying colors. Genesis 13:8-9  He allowed Lot to pick out the territory he wanted to live in. Lot chose to live near Sodom and Gomorrah, And God gave Abram all the land for him and his descendants forever. Genesis 13:14-18. Lot picked the land that looked the best, but Abram trusted God and received the best land. Note the promise AFTER Lot separated.
   
4. Courage – boldness with the kings of the north and south to rescue Lot. It took courage to go against the armies that took his brother.
   
5. Greed – Abram refused the reward of the king of Sodom, choosing instead to tithe to Melchizadek. Genesis 14:18-24
   
6. Trusting God to do what he said. Abram believed that God would provide him with offspring. But instead of waiting for God’s timing, Abram and Sarai decided to help God out, by allowing Hagar to birth a son from Abram. Although Abram loved Ishmael, his son, it was not the son God had in mind. God waited almost 25 years but provided Sarai and Abram with the son, Isaac. Genesis 18 Abraham was 100, This son was born when both Abram and Sarai were far too old to produce offspring, but God was able to do this miracle. All these tests helped Abram to grow in faith until
   
7. The ultimate test – God told Abram that he was to sacrifice his son, his only son, Isaac. Abram walked toward Mt. Moriah, believing that God would provide. Abram bound his son, placed him on the altar, and raised his knife, but his hand was stayed, as an angel showed Abraham a ram caught in the thicket. Abraham was allowed to enact the most important substitutionary  sacrifice of all, the death of Jesus for our sins.

 

What kind of grade did God give Abraham? Lets look at Hebrews 11:8-12 – Notice, no mention of the detour, no mention of bringing his father with him. No mention of the trip to Egypt or Ishmael,  And Hebrews 11:17-19 . God recorded the acts of faith that Abraham did, not the mistakes. In fact, if you study the people’s lives mentioned in Hebrews 11, comparing them with their stories in the Old Testament, you will see that in God’s grade book only the successes are recorded. God takes these records out and points out where people acted in faith, where they believed Him. He probably would put the acts of faith prominently displayed on his refrigerator for all to see.

 

Now turn with me to Hebrews 11:41, that verse hasn’t been written yet. Beth Moore, in her study, Believing God had us write our own verse for that. By faith (fill in your name) did….. What will God write about you in Hebrews 11? I know he is faithfully recording every step you walk in faith.

 

Our tests can become part of our testimony as we learn to walk in faith.

I can just imagine Jacob breathing a sigh of relief after his encounter with Laban, but probably facing some dread for the upcoming meeting with Esau – Remember, Esau had vowed to kill Jacob for “stealing” the blessing. Jacob must have had somewhat of a guilty conscience, after he tricked his blind father with skins of goats. But God is so good, He will strengthen Jacob for this encounter, and He will keep His promise to Jacob – even though Jacob’s actions were less than exemplary. We really do serve an awesome God. And we will see Jacob still at his old tricks.

GENESIS 32 – Esau Comes to Meet Jacob

Verse 1 excites me because the angels of God meet Jacob. I have not seen an angel personally but do believe that several times angels have intervened to save my life. One time I was a teenager, still living at home after my father’s death with my alcoholic mom, and hanging out with a wild crowd. I was riding in a car, on a highway to a pagan meeting. The car went on the wrong side of the road, ultimately sliding off the road due to snow and ice. We were laughing so hard at the adventure, but when more sober realized that we could have not only lost our lives but the lives of many others on that highway. I now know God intervened in that. And more recently after I was saved, there was a time when a car was coming toward me on the wrong side of the road and without thinking, the steering wheel in my hands jerked and the wheel turned with a maneuver that I would not have been able to do in the flesh, and I really knew that an angel had helped. I thanked God profusely.

I suspect that angels protect us more than we realize, and that God has provided them to help us. I do not agree with these people who seek to contact their guardian angel or focus so much on angels to the exclusion of God, but all the same I do believe that they are there helping us unawares. Angels would want us to thank God, not focus on them.

I love Jacob’s reaction. First of all JACOB SAW THEM. So often in the Old Testament the angels were visible to people, but he took it calmly, as if it was a normal occurrence. Jacob says in verse 2 “This is God’s camp.” And he called the name of that place Mahanaim. Which means double camp or two hosts.

Jacob sends messengers to Esau in the land of Seir, in Edom (we will hear much about Edomites as the history of Israel progresses.) Jacob is requesting peace, he is coming back rich and will not be wanting anything, just to come home. He tells the messengers to tell his brother that he has oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants, and that he wants to find favor in Esau’s sight (the word favor here is akin to grace).

When the messengers return in verse 6 they say, “We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

YIKES – that sounds rather scary -400 men – I bet Jacob shook in his sandals, because 400 men could mean an army and Esau making good on his promise, although Esau did say in anger after losing his blesing that he would wait until their father died before killing Jacob, and Isaac is still living.

The “brave” Jacob comes up with a plan. He divides the people, flocks, herds and camels into two companies, so that if Esau attacks one, the other may survive.

Jacob makes a great prayer here – one that is a good model for praying when we are in need. Here is the prayer, then we can look at it in a bit of detail.

Verses 9-12 Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant: for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’

First Jacob panics, then he reacts in panic and divides up his company into two troops, then he finally resorts to prayer. I wish I could say that when panic hits I first resort to prayer, but often I panic, react, then think about prayer. I am hoping that as my faith grows that I will reverse that trend and go to prayer first – I bet I would save myself from a lot of foolish mistakes..

Jacob is praying with insistence – first he names God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac (later we will also hear the God of Jacob), but now it is the “LORD who said to me”, and Jacob reminds God of his promises.

God likes us to remind Him of His promises – not because God is forgetful and doesn’t remember them, but in reminding Him of the promises, we are also reminding ourselves and drawing faith from the memory of what God has shown us. We are convincing ourselves, not convincing God. I love the humility of Jacob. He points out that he is not worthy of  the least of God’s mercies (as none of us are), and again reminds God/himself of the promises of God.

Jacob is very much like me, there are times when I pray, turn things over to God’s hands, and then get on with my figuring out how to solve the problem. Basically taking the situation out of God’s hands and trying to do what seems right to me. Too many times I give a problem over to God only to snatch it back when the situation isn’t responding the way I had hoped it would respond, not daring to trust that God might have a bigger and better plan than I can conceive of.

So, after that heart-felt prayer, Jacob resumes plotting.

He lodges where he prayed, and takes what came to his hand as a present for Esau – 200 female goats, 20 male goats, and 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milk camels with their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 foals. He delivers them to his servants and divides these into droves and tells the servants to come before him, putting some distance between him and the servants with the droves. One by one the servants were to deliver the gifts to Esau saying: verse 17-18 “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these in front of you?’ then you shall say, ‘They are your servant Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord Esau: and behold, he also is behind us.’

There will be three droves. Jacob’s plan is, verse 20 “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” So these went before Jacob and Jacob stays in the camp with his family.

Jacob is so like me in this. Many times when I am in a difficult situation with a person I rehearse what they will say, what I will say, then they will respond and I will say…..And often what is said is nothing like I envisioned. Sometimes I gnaw at a problem like a dog with a bone. It drives my husband crazy. He is so much more pragmatic than me. He is calmer. So often I talk with him about the problem and he gives me much calmer advice. I take his advice (and worry still in secret).

I think I want to hold off on the rest of this chapter until tomorrow for it is so rich in meaning.

But I think it is important to note that Jacob, who won his father’s blessing, who was told he would rule over Esau, that he was to have the double portion is not acting very much like the patriarch here. He is sending gifts, hoping to appease Esau, and calls himself Esau’s servant. And all the animals that he is sending to Esau represents a lot of his profit from Laban. I think that instead of taking back the burden, Jacob should have kept on praying and letting God handle the situation.

But I am not in Jacob’s sandals and I do not know what I would do when faced with an insurmountable problem. I do still find that even with smaller problems I pray, but take the burden back.

Beth Moore had a few words to say about this situation. She pointed out that the NIV version says, “I will pacify him with these gifts:” “I may cover his face.” The word Kapar means cover and is also a word for atonement – just like the blood covers our sins.

Another time Jacob says, the gifts go before my face, and then later, when I see him, when I face him, perhaps he will receive me, he will raise my face. Jacobs gifts went on ahead of him, the gifts went on ahead of his face. Beth puts the problem so succinctly – “THE POINT: JACOB WAS TERRIFIED TO FACE HIS BOTHER.

Then she goes on and says Genesis 32:22-31 – Peniel means “the face of God” when we dread facing something or someone what we need most is to honestly face God.

We will see just how Jacob honestly faces God in the second half of the chapter.

Thank you for coming on this Bible journey with me. There is so much that I learn from your comments, and I value your friendship so much. I have grown quite attached to my Xanga family.

By the way, my daughter is back from Field Hockey camp, sore but feeling like she has learned a few new moves.

Have a blessed day.

Heather

Genesis 31

Jacob overhears Laban’s sons say in verse 1 “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has acquired all his wealth.”

Not only Laban’s sons were muttering, but Laban’s countenance was (understatement of the year) not favorable towards Jacob.

It is so incredible how God takes our situations and uses them to help us get where God wants us to go. Verse 3 “Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”"

Remember when we looked at Abram going to Egypt, and how that time in Egypt was wasted.  Because of the trickery of Jacob and  his taking the blessing, Jacob had to go to Ur, and the 20 years spent there were wasted in God’s economy. We will see this even more when he meets Esau and ends up giving away all that he “earned” in Ur. I often wonder what would have happened had Rebekah and Jacob waited on God to make things happen.

Jacob calls Rachel and Leah to the field and tells them that he has perceived the change in Laban’s countenance and makes a case for them for uprooting their family and moving back to the land of his fathers. Jacob points out that he has served Laban will all of his might, and (this is priceless), verse 7 “Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.”

Funny how, when we are the deceiver we justify our deception of others, but when we are on the receiving end of deception it doesn’t feel so good. Jacob does not realize that Laban is kind of like a mirror for Jacob, that shows Jacob a reflection of his own flawed character. Genuinely nice people don’t look at the flaws in others. Often the flaws we spot in others are the very ones that we have within ourselves.

Jacob tells Rachel and Leah that if their father said speckled were to be Jacob’s then speckled were born, if Laban said striped, then striped sheep were born. Jacob concludes in verse 9 “So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.”

Apparently Jacob had a dream where he saw that the rams leaping on the flocks were speckled and gray-spotted. I wonder if this is where Jacob got the idea of making the striped and speckled wood in chapter 30.

Jacob was a dreamer. If you want dreams to come true you have to get out of bed and partner with God, this is what Jacob tried to do. Here is what the Angel of God spoke to Jacob in a dream, Genesis 31:11-13 Then the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.” Just like with Abram in Egypt, Jacob has to return where he had his last encounter with God in Canaan, in Bethel.

Rachel and Leah realize the truth of what Jacob is saying and realize that they will gain no portion of Laban’s inheritance. They realize that they are treated as strangers, that Laban has sold them, and consumed the money received for them. They realize that God gave Jacob the riches, and respond, verse 16 “whatever God has said to you, do it.”

Jacob takes his sons and wives on camels. He takes all the livestock and his possessions which he has gained and acquired and plans to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

Unfortunately in Ur, Jacob’s wives worshipped idols, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jacob didn’t resort to some of this type of worship too. In leaving the land, Rachel steals Laban’s household idol. Jacob stole away (just like he stole away from Esau), and did not let Laban know that he was going to flee. Jacob and his family and possessions are on the lam going toward the mountains of Gilead.

Beth Moore in The Patriarchs, Page 145 says, Surely we have been in situations where we were genuinely mistreated; but in the process of gaining our freedom, someone in our camp did something foolish. Have you ever noticed how hard remaining blameless can be in a conflict? I have.”

I have too, our human nature is such that we want to distort and rationalize our actions. We carry roots of bitterness, and feel “justified” in doing what we do. I know that in my past, with all the abuse I received, I also did things that were not right to do. Taking my sister’s medicine to numb pain, my walking away from my family for so long that they didn’t know if I was alive or dead, my actions of active rebellion, turning to paganism. Those were not spotless actions, and although I spent years rationalizing them, they were sins, and I had sunk as low as those who abused me. Fortunately we have a wonderful God who forgives us, who helps us to remedy our rebellion and turns our lives around.

Laban is going to realize that Jacob has fled and pursue him – remember Laban is an idol worshipper and his household idol is missing. Jacob is going to be accused and feel he is purely innocent – which he is because Jacob did not take Laban’s idol. Jacob will make a statement, that could have had disasterous results. Reminds me of the king who offered to sacrifice the first thing that came to him – only to find that instead of an animal, it was his daughter. We have to be so careful what we say.

Laban was told on the THIRD (again the third) day that Jacob had fled. Laban puirsues Jacob for seven days, and overtakes him in the mountains of Gilead.

God came to Laban (a pagan) in a dream and syas, verse 24 “Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”

The master manipulator, Laban will now try to keep Jacob when he asks Jacob why he fled, and carried away his daughters like captives taken with a sword. (That was not what happened, the daughters saw the need to leave with Jacob, who spoke with them and gained their consent).

Here is another untruth. Verse 27-30 “Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp? And you did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have done foolishly in so doing. It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’ And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods? 

Let’s look at the above a bit more closely. Would Laban have really sent Jacob away with a party? Probably not – last time Jacob told Laban that he wanted to go home, Laban convinced him to stay because he was blessed by God, and that blessed Laban. I cannot see selfish Laban letting Jacob go with his wages and possessions, he would have tried to keep them with him. It is not in Laban’s power to do Jacob harm – God intervened in a dream instructing Laban not to speak good or evil to Jacob. I cannot imagine God allowing Jacob, through whom the Messiah would come, to come to harm at the hands of Laban and his men. The only sad and true thing is that one of the household gods was stolen – and that was done by the one Jacob loved the most – Rachel, and Jacob did not know Rachel did this. It is not told to us in the Bible, but I wonder if Jacob ever discovered that Rachel had stolen the idol.

Jacob, who believed that his family was innocent of stealing the idol, answered Laban, verses 31-32 “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force. With whomever you find your gods, do not let him live. In the presence of our brethren, identify what I have of yours and take it with you.”

Well Laban searches all the tents and does not find the idol. He comes into Rachel’s tent – she is the idol thief – and she had put the idols in a camel’s saddle and sat on the saddle, telling Laban that she could not get up because it was her time of month.

Jacob is angry and rebukes Laban – pointing out that he did not trespass, and there was no reason for Laban to pursue him.

Jacob points out that in the 20 years that he stayed with Laban, Laban changed his wages ten times. And in verse 42 Jacob says, “Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

Several times Jacob has said that Laban changed his wages 10 times, I am not certain about this – He bargained for Leah and Rebekah (two times), then there was a few bargainings for the sheep – but it doesn’t add up to ten times. Although maybe God did not think it necessary to elaborate on all the times the wages were changed. Ten is the number of the commandments, so maybe it is a reference to the law verses God’s grace.

Laban asserts himeself claiming that these are his daughters, and the flock is his flock and all that Jacob sees is Laban’s (That is not entirely true because Jacob worked 14 years for the wives and agreed upon the wages with Laban regarding speckled and striped sheep.)

Laban offers to make a covenant as a witness.

They pile stones and make a heap and eat by the heap. Laban calls the place Jegar Sahadutha but Jacob calls it Galeed -both names mean Heap of witness. It is also called Mizpah (which means watch), and Laban says, verse 49 “May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent from one another. If you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us–see, God is witness between you and me.”

They covenant that neither of them will pass beyond the heap to harm the other. Jacob swears by the Fear of his father Isaac. This is kind of like drawing a line in the sand.

Beth Moore adds the following about the fear of Isaac, page 147 “Can’t we imagine Isaac intimately knew of the fear of God through both terror and reverence? After all, it was Isaac who encountered God while strapped to an altar and his father’s hand raised to slay him. Surely Isaac was terrified of the One who sent him to Mount Moriah, yet he reverenced the One who spared him. I have no trouble picturing that the name of God most closely associated with Isaac is fear. By calling God this name in front of Laban, Jacob was reminding his father-in-law that God isn’t to be taken lightly or disobeyed flippantly.”

Jacob offers a sacrifice, and shares bread on the mountain, staying together all night. Early in the morning Laban rises, kises his sons and daughters and blesses them, departing.

Notice, It doesn’t say that Laban gave Jacob a kiss (as in a kiss of friendship), it was a parting but not without some ill feeling on both sides. We do not hear another word about Laban in the Bible.

I can just imagaine Rachel giving a big sigh of relief, and feeling a bit of triumph at having the houshold gods. I just wonder how much enjoyment she got from her spoil. Perhaps she would not be able to display them prominently because then Jacob would know what she did. Perhaps there was a bit of guilt at what she took.

I suspect that after the sigh of relief that Jacob has, his next experience will make him feel he has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Regarding the covenant, Beth states on page 148 “Although God’s Word teaches us to forgive and to seek forgiveness, I don’t believe Scripture counsels us to reconcile relationships God despised. He loves people, but make no mistake–He can despise relationships. Some relationships are nothing less than an abomination. Sometimes two people who need God to stand between them weren’t in an illicit relationship. They simply can’t keep from doing one another harm. Too much anger still rages. They need to be sent to opposite ends of the boxing ring with the referee firmly planted between them. I think Laban and Jacob offer us a prime example of restoration in terms of forgiveness and goodwill—but not togetherness. Sometimes God restores two people to one another on the basis of the cross. Other times He restores them to Himself but stands between them as a witness for their protection and accountability.”

I wish I had had a chance to talk with my parents regarding my abuse, but by the time I was emotionally fit to talk with them, they were both dead. I suspect that like Jacob and Laban, God would have helped us to verbally reconcile, but would have stood between us. It is so good to know that we can forgive, and just get restored to God, even if we still have to stay away from those who hurt us. For then, we do not carry the burden of the past around with us. We can get weighted down so much with emotions, anger, rage, roots of bitterness. But God can give us liberty in the midst.

Have a blessed evening,

Heather

Ok, Ok, Ok, this chapter does stretch my credulity about what we as humans believe we can do to affect the physical things in our lives. Genesis 30:25-43.

Of course, my background in the occult makes some of Jacob’s actions seem “reasonable” from the background of man trying to change things. Often ceremonies in the occult involve substitutionary things that are prayed over or chanted over, and represent what needs changing. I remember leaving eggs on corners of sidewalks to break negative things, consuming foods to bring about certain attitudes. And when I learned the art of talisman making, carrying around things to feel their effects so that when we combined the ingredients in a pouch we would know what the various ingredients would do. Oh, how we humans trick ourselves into believing lies, thinking we can do anything to affect our universe in our own power.

I remember once when the book of Romans finally hit home and I realized that my, “thou art god” and how I was the master of my destiny, was in control, cast spells to control circumstances, fell to the ground. Who am I to think that I affect anything in my own power? I can’t even tell myself to breath in, breath out for a full 24 hours without being distracted, and then who would make my heart beat, my brain think, my nerves function, and that is just within my own body. I can control NOTHING in my own power.

Yet, often when we deal with God and His blessings, we feel we must DO something, to make something happen. I guess at times God appreciates our initiative. He doesn’t want us to sit back and wait for things to happen – he does want us to step out in faith and act. But when we step out in faith we can sure go a lot further if we wait and listen for His instructions, not do what we think is the way God wants us to do it. To obey God will produce more effect for less work.

Anyway, God had already agreed to bless and prosper Jacob, all he had to do was to obey God, worship God, relate to God, and daily order his steps according to God’s will. But I smile when I see what Jacob did, and God loved Him so much that he allowed what happened to happen.

Genesis 30:25-43

Now we are going to see that the “good-will” of Laban is going to undergo a change, nothing like seeing another prosper to do that.

After Rachel gives birth to Joseph (you will see much of Joseph later), Jacob says to Laban, Verse 25-26 “Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my own country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

Laban, although not a believer of God, realizes that he has been unnaturally blessed because of the presence of Jacob, replies, verse 27 “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.” It must have been here that Jacob realized that Laban would not let him go easily. Laban has been very unreasonable with Jacob, and unreasonable people tend to try and make things work out for themselves, at other’s expenses.

Two shrewd businessmen will now dicker over price, I suspect both will learn from this experience. God is so good that he can take the same experience and give lessons to everyone involved.

Laban offers wages to Jacob. Jacob reminds Laban how he came to him with nothing, and has served him. Jacob tells Laban how God has blessed Laban, and Jacob tells Laban, verse 31-32 “You shall not give me anything. If you do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: Let me pass through your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and those shall be my wages.”

Speckled and spotted sheep are rare, usually they are a singular color. So Laban thought he got the best of the bargain here, and agreed. Laban removed the speckled and spotted sheep and gave them to Jacob’s sons. Jacob puts three days distance between himself and the sheep in his son’s care so that there would be no hint of cheating. Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks. (three days, think of Jesus and three days). In this bargain,  Jacob seems to be the loser, but Jacob comes up with his first odd plan.

He takes rods of green poplar (a tree) and almond and chestnut trees and peels white strips in them, and sets them before the flocks in the gutters, where the sheep water. When the sheep conceive, they bring forth flocks of speckled and spotted sheep.

Jacob then separates these animals and does not put them with Laban’s flock. When the stronger livestock conceived they were put near the striped rods, the weaker sheep were not placed near the rods.

Beth Moore, in The Patriarchs says on page 143 “Have you ever experienced an undeniable act of God then tried to figure out your part in it so you could repeat the formula? In terms of today’s lesson, have you ever tried to set God up for success? The plan sounds ridiculous when we put it in these terms, but most of us have tried it nonetheless.”……”We don’t set Him up for success. He sets us up. We’re not worthy enough for Him to bless. He’s worthy and has the grace to bless. God is not about to let us come up with a formula for blessing. If He did, we’d stick to our formula rather than sticking to our God. Yes, God blesses obedience…and prayer…and fasting…and faith…and certainly a pure heart, but the way He manifests His blessing can differ dramatically from one time to the next.”

I bet God would have produced the sheep without Jacob’s manipulations.

Laban’s flock became weaker, and Jacob’s stronger because Jacob only let the strong sheep breed by the speckled wood. It is important to realize that God blessed the flocks because at Bethel he told Jacob that he would bless him and bring him back to the land. The blessing had nothing to do with the striped wood.

Beth Moore says, “Save your trees and bow down to a sovereign God.”

I know that there have been times when people have had a spiritual victory through a certain prayer or method of worshipping God. They then assume that that is the way to attain the same victory if they meet another person with the same problem. Unfortunately, this is not always so. God works with us INDIVIDUALLY. What works for you may not be what will work for me. Only God and the Holy Spirit can tell us the best way to achieve our victories. We can sometimes do others a disservice by laying our spiritual plans on them, because many times those plans will not work for another, if they were tailor made for us.

Laban the cheater, got bested by Jacob, and very soon Jacob will again be on the run. Laban will not take kindly to the strong striped and speckled sheep that Jacob has been abundantly blessed with. Stay tuned for the exciting adventures of Jacob the son of Abraham….same time….same xanga.

Have a blessed day!

Heather

Here is a list we were instructed to make in the Beth Moore Study of The Patriarchs. This will impact on our Genesis study, I should make you do this yourself,   but figure you can still be blessed with reading what I wrote. This is taken from Genesis 29:31-30:24. What is sad to me is poor Dinah has nothing said over her, she is a girl and in those days girls were not considered the blessing boys were perceived to be.

I don’t know if we can do columns in Xanga so here is going to be the order – the children will be put in order of their birth.

CHILD’S NAME IN CAPS/meaning of name/Mother
The statement made about the child/who made the statement

REUBEN/See, a son/Leah
“It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”/Leah.

SIMEON/Heard/Leah
“Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved he has therefore given me this son also.”/Leah

LEVI/Attached/Leah
“Now this time my husband will become attached to me. Because I have born him three sons.”/Leah

JUDAH/Praise/Leah
“Now I will praise the Lord.” Leah

DAN/Judge/Bilhah (Rachel’s maidservant)
“God has judged my case: and he has also heard my voice and given me a son.”/ Rachel

NAPHTALI/My Wrestling/Bilhah
“With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.”/ Rachel

GAD/troop, fortune/Zilpah (Leah’s maidservant)
“A troop comes.”/Leah

ASHER/Happy/Zilpah
“I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.”/Leah

ISSACHAR/Hire, Wages/Leah
“God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.”/Leah

ZEBULUN/Dwelling/Leah
“God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have born him six sons.”/Leah

DINAH/Leah

JOSEPH/He will add/Rachel
“God has take away my reproach, the Lord shall add to me another son.”/Rachel

Later one more son will be born, but we will deal with that in the future.

Can you imagine sharing your husband with another wife and two maidservants, sigh. I know this is not God’s heart for marriage. By the way, the quotes always come from the wives, not the maidservants.

Genesis 29:31 we see that God opened up Leah’s womb when He saw that she was unloved, and Rachel was barren. So for the remaining part of the chapter of Genesis 29, Leah has many children, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.

Before we move on to Rachel’s offspring, I thought you might be blessed by looking at the descriptions of the first four children – Leah’s children.

Here is Leah’s mindset when she was bearing these children:

Reuben – Surely my husband will love me now.
Simeon – I am unloved.
Levi – I will be loved because of what I did.
Judah – He doesn’t love me, so I will praise the Lord.

Would that Leah would have stopped there – she came to a point we all seem to have to come to in our walk with Christ. Beth Moore on page 140 puts it succinctly, “The human psyche requires love for wholeness. That’s a fact of life. Self-love won’t cut it. Unfortunately, we are born into a world with no guarantee we’ll be loved. We’re all desperate for love, but in some seasons of our lives we become convinced we must have a certain person’s love to be complete. That person doesn’t have to be a spouse or a romantic interest. He or she may be a parent, a relative, a neighbor, a church member, a mentor, or a peer.”……”Leah was desperate for Jacob’s love, so she became obsessed with having his children. If untreated by the love of God, desperation gives birth to obsession. Invariably we learn what Leah discovered. Obsession neither heals desperation or fills its lack. The statements Leah made are like mirrors reflecting her heart.” and then on page 145 “Leah finally—-if temporarily—- progressed to a place where God became the only sense in a senseless spiral, and she gave Him praise. If only Leah could have remained in the mindset of praise for all she had instead of returning to misery for all she lacked, how different her life would be.”……”Haven’t we had similar experiences? Has God ever brought you through a very painful process where you were finally able to think victoriously? Then over time did something happen to catapult you back into the old cycle of defeated thinking? Have we lost ground we worked so hard to gain? Let’s regain the freedom we lost! Our Liberator has not changed. Beloved, let’s allow God to show us our deepest desperation is for Him. The troubled child of desperation is obsession, but the healthy child of desperation is devotion. Our desperation will birth something. What will it be?”

Ouch! this one hit home for me. I have so often grabbed on to someone or something to fill the need, to find out that they could not meet my incredible void of needs. For many years I think I drove my therapists crazy with the needs I had, with the demands for attention and care, far exceeding what was “normal”. Abuse leaves big voids, and no human on earth can fill them, only God can. God is the one that started the healing in me, He is the only one who can fulfill the emptiness.

Genesis 30:1-2 “Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children or I will die!” And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

We have to be sooooo careful what we say. Rachel will end up having one more child not covered in this chapter, Benjamin, and she will die in childbirth. When we pray, we should not demand that something happen, God sees things so much more clearly than us. In a way she is in the same situation as Abram and Sara, waiting, and waiting for her children. She decides to do what Abram and Sara did, the use of her maid, Bilhah.

BILHAH – means troubled
ZILPAH – means to trickle as myrrh

We will now see a frenzied competition between the two wives to bear the most sons. This competition is sort of bizarre to our standards because of the maids being used for bearing children. At one point there will be a competition for mandrake root – mandrakes were believed to provide fertility, guess that is a remnant from their past idolatry. And when Reuben finds mandrakes for his mother, the two women barter for the chance to sleep with Jacob.  Leah will tell Jacob, verse 16 “You must come into me, for I have surely hired you with my mandrakes.”

I guess the one person who probably enjoyed this frenzy was Jacob, but imagine having a household full of women competing on all levels, and hoping to bear offspring. I am certain that God did not have this kind of activity in mind when he made his covenant with Abraham. God has a different sense of timing, and frenzied activity can sometimes delay God’s best plans for us.

Please refer to the above list to see the comments made. It is important to know that Dinah will play a role in the future of this family.

I think we will stop here and deal with Jacob and Laban’s business dealings tomorrow.

Hoping you have a blessed day.

Heather

Rashel asked the following question.

Oh, and for my question:  how do you move past bitterness and anger?

Oh that is a tough one, and I am looking forward to hearing your responses about this. We have a music minister named Joy in our church and she talked about the root of bitterness. Being a gardener she spoke about it being like a piece of crabgrass. If you don’t pull it out and get rid of ALL the roots it grows back. If you leave it alone it grows and chokes out all the good grass.

I still at times find pieces of bitterness in me and try hard to root them out. I think the first step is forgiveness (a process), forgiving those who hurt us. Forgiveness works for anger too.

Before I got saved, I took a good, long, hard look at my life. I thought I had lived a pretty good life, but in a real honest mirror, I saw that I too had hurt people. I had caused damage, I had done wrong. I was not perfect. I wanted God to forgive me, to cleanse me of my sins, and given my sinfulness, who was I to hold onto anger or unforgiveness to someone else.

That does not mean seeing the world with rose color glasses. I know there is hurt and pain, anger, rage, and bitterness. But I have to choose to leave some things behind to move forward toward the good that God has in store for me. I don’t need roots of the past choking my progress, especially bitterness roots. See, what I fertilize will grow. If I stew in my past hurts, I fertilize them and they stay with me. The truth is that most of those who have hurt me in the past are dead, or don’t care, or don’t even know that they caused much hurt, so my stewing over it doesn’t change anything. What does change is God’s transforming of that hurt into something that can help others. I can’t do it on my own, so often I ask God for help. If a bitter thought comes up, I give it to God. He understands and helps. I also have Pastor Don to talk with. The feelings are there, but I don’t have to be controlled by them. I don’t want to be a prisoner of the roots of bitterness.

Anger scares me. I get angry, at times I rage, but when someone is angry around me I cower. I grew up in a home filled with anger. So I run from anger. Yet there is such a thing as righteous anger, like when Jesus cleansed the temple. And we are told in the Bible not to go to sleep with anger.

My sister and I grew up in a home filled with abuse – I have learned to forgive and let go of anger, she has held onto and cherished her anger and bitterness. To date she has had over 27 major surgeries, and is prone to flying into fits of rage. She remembers every tiny detail of abuse, and I have forgotten so much.

Pastor Don says that we have to face or pasts, look at them, give them to God, forgive and repent and over time they become memories not so charged with emotion. I am seeing that kind of healing from God now, there are still pockets of resistance. When I come across one, I stop and pray and ask God’s help in sorting out the issues. I am by no means perfect, but I have to tell you having God in my life has done more in a few years than many years of therapy has ever done.

Have a blessed night. And I really am looking for all of your input in this topic as it is one that I am still working on.

Heather

Hey, Remember the book of Genesis????? Bet you thought I had forgotten. Wrong.

We have just seen one sneaky guy, Jacob, the heel snatcher, grab away a blessing from his brother Esau. Esau has vowed to kill Jacob once their father dies. Jacob is told to leave the country and go to visit Laban until Esau cools down. Little does Rebekah know that this will be the last time she sees her son, for she will die before Jacob returns 20 years later.

Jacob then has a remarkable dream about angels ascending and descending from heaven, builds an altar, and realized that “God was in this place” and Jacob didn’t know it. So often in our walks with God He is where we are and we do not recognize Him. God gives Jacob a fantastic promise, a gift free of charge, and instead of keeping his mouth shut and saying thank you God, for such an awesome blessing, Jacob has to promise to give God 1/10th of what he gains, and a stone will be a pillar of God’s house. So often God wants to give us of his abundance, and we feel compelled to promise to do things that often we do not keep our promises. What God really wants more than anything else is relationship and love from us. We feel that we have to somehow “earn” God’s blessing. Truthfully, all that we have is His to begin with.

Nope, this is not the current soap opera on TV, it comes straight from the pages of Genesis. Now, after this cliffhanger (One thing to keep in mind is that the Old Testament that the Israelites knew did not have chapter and verses, they were written on long scrolls). We are now up to Genesis 29

I want to know what it is about wells. Too bad there wasn’t a well when I grew up, a lot of meetings and important events take place at wells in the Bible, I suppose because water is so vital to life – water to drink, and the water of the Word for spiritual nourishment.

We are soon going to see a remarkable transformation of this mama’s boy from weak and not a hunter to a man of mighty strength. What brings about this transformation - a girl, and Jacob will flex his muscles.

Jacob comes to the land of the people of the east and sees a well with three flocks of sheep lying by it, and a large stone on the well’s mouth. (Knowing that Jesus is in all parts of the Bible, I think of three days and three nights in a tomb with a large stone).

When the flocks were gathered, the stone was rolled from the well, the sheep watered, and then the stone was rolled back to it’s place.

Jacob greets the people and finds out that they are from Haran. Not only were they from Haran, but they know Laban, Rebekah’s brother. Then they point out that his daughter, Rachel is coming with the sheep. Jacob tries to get the men to water their sheep and moo-ve on for the cattle are coming. And I suspect Jacob was hoping that he would then have some time alone with Rachel, the shepherdess.

Here we get one of those great reversals. Remember that Rebekah watered the camels for the servant, and here Jacob is going to water Rachel’s sheep.

This is an incredible scene – use your imaginations. Remember this is the “weakling” of the family, not the hunter. What a few hormones will do!Verses 10-11 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.

Reminds me of a swashbuckler sort of a movie. I could just see Jacob acting with a flourish, showing off, and ending with a kiss for a flourish.

He then relates to Rachel that he is her relative, and she runs to tell her father, Laban. Remember Laban? Well Jacob stays with Laban for a month as a guest, and then we are going to see Laban outsmart Jacob – Jacob will find someone who is as shrewd as him.

Laban offers wages to Jacob for serving him. Laban has two daughters. The eldest was Leah, and the youngest was Rachael. Leah had an eye problem, her eyes were delicate and Rachael was beautiful to look at.

Jacob loves Rachael and offers to serve seven years to be allowed to marry Rachel. Laban replies, in verse 19 “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.”  (I wonder why it would seem better to Laban, could he have remembered the servant from the rich ruler Abram?)

Rachael must be very beautiful because he worked for seven years and it seemed to be just a few days to him. Haven’t we all experienced that, when we really want something and are focused, time seems to fly by.

Jacob goes to Laban and says he has fulfilled his part of the bargain, and now he wants Rachael.

Poor Jacob. Laban makes a feast for the wedding, and in the dark, instead of Rachel, Laban gives Leah to Jacob. Jacob goes into her, and in the morning, low and behold Jacob finds out that it was not Rachael, but Leah. What a switcheroo.

I wonder what the look on his face was like. Frankly, I am sorry for Leah, can you imagine how she must have felt. Laban certainly didn’t care for her, he just wanted to best Jacob and glean more riches from the blessing of God that follows Jacob.

But, poor Leah, imagine being the wife of a man that you know doesn’t love you. When confronted about the switcheroo, Laban responds in verse 26 It must not be done so in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.”

One thought is that he served a week for Rachael – Daniel talks about a week (seven years), the earth was created in a week. And here we have Jacob getting two girls for two weeks – 14 years. That is a long, long time.

Again, I want to remind you that the Bible tells the whole truth. Just because a practice is mentioned in the Bible doesn’t mean that God approves. Yes, Jacob will have two wives and two maids, but that was not God’s original intent for marriage – which is one wife plus one husband making one family.

Beth Moore in her study The Patriarchs makes a point I had overlooked on page 134 “We will discover that in Laban, Jacob meets his match. Yes, Jacob had an encounter with God in Genesis 28, but God makes very sure that Jacob also reaps some of what he has sown. Otherwise, what will motivate a permanent change in Jacob’s character? Our wise God will often appoint circumstances and consequences to change what a fresh encounter with Him does not.”

I have to tell you, God has certainly manipulated circumstances in my life, and I have faced some uncomfortable circumstances. I now pray that I learn very quickly the lessons God wants me to learn, so that I don’t have to repeat the lessons, or face uncomfortable circumstances.

Laban is treating Jacob more like a servant than family, and Jacob will more and more act like a servant for Laban. But over time, this relationship will not be so compatible.

Even in Jacob’s time, as it is in our day and age, physical beauty seems to be a premium. Unfortunately physical beauty does not guarantee a beautiful soul or spirit. We need to look far beyond the outward appearances to find the one that God has selected for us.

Beth Moore points out another fact on page 136 “When the confetti was gone and the chalice was dry, the deceiver had been deceived. Jacob reaped what he had sown. The Beginning of Wisdom offers profound food for thought: “the story offers a powerfully ironic comment on the love of visible beauty, and shows as well the unreliability of trusting alone to sight. For where is visible beauty in the dark? Jacob with stars in his eyes, is shown here to be blinded, not necessarily by lust or drink but by the love of the beautiful itself. He does not know one wife from the other except superficially.”

Beth points out that we can have stars in our eyes over many things, not just beauty. Paul prayed in Philippians 1:9 that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and discernment. Oh how we need discernment for our lives in all circumstances. While a marriage can be forced, the heart cannot be forced.

I want to leave Jacob’s offspring for another time as there are powerful lessons in their names.

Hoping you have a blessed day.

Heather