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Genesis 32-36

To understand Jacob’s name, you have to see him at the moment of birth.  His twin brother Esau is born, and like a drowning man, Jacob is immediately pulled from his mother’s womb clinging as hard as he can to his brother’s heel.  So he was given the name Jacob which means “he grasps the heel” or figuratively, “he deceives.”  And up to this point, that is what Jacob’s life has been, one of deceit, with Jacob being both the exploiter and the recipient.

But now, now that he has become wealthy, and is surrounded by wives, children and possessions, the results of everything gained by deceit no longer satisfy.  He longs to go home, to the place he left in haste because he stole his brother’s birthright and blessing.  All of a sudden, relationships have become more important to him than anything else, and he has put possessions first for so long, he doesn’t know any other way to gain his brothers trust except by possessions.  So he sends an offering; a major portion of his cattle ahead to his brother Esau.  He craftily sends the cattle in groups, so that if Esau decides to destroy the first offering of appeasement, or the second, he may soften his heart towards Jacob by the time he gets through all of the peace offering to where Jacob and his family are following behind.

As a last desperate act, Jacob sends his wives, children and all of his possessions across the ford of the Jabbok and remains on the other side totally alone.  As dark falls and he is all by himself, a man appears and wrestles with him all night long.  It is not his brother Esau whom he feared, it was a stranger.  Jacob put up a tough fight and the man had to wrench Jacob’s hip in order to get the best of him. Finally at daybreak, the stranger tries to leave and the following conversation takes place:

And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
So He said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
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.- Gen 32:26-29 NKJV

The important thing was not the Lord’s name, but the change of name for Jacob.  He went from being “one who grasps” to “one who struggles with God.”  It’s all in what you try to grab hold of.

Genesis 27-31

These chapters read like the script for a soap opera.  Something is always going on behind someone else’s back.  Rebekah and Jacob conspire to get Isaac to bless Jacob rather than Esau, his favorite, and as the first born the one who should have received Isaac’s blessing. Esau is so angry that Jacob has to run away to keep from being killed.  He runs to Laban, Rebekah’s brother.  After he has worked seven years to win the hand of Rachel, the woman he loved, he wakes up the morning after the wedding to see that it was Leah, the weak eyed sister he has bedded instead.  Laban then extracts a promise from Jacob to work an additional seven years for Rachel, After that time, Laban will still not let his daughters go, so Jacob performs his own trickery, promising to give Laban all of the unmarked goats and figuring out a way to make sure that all of the goats born are speckled or spotted. 

In the meantime, The women are having jealousies, each sending their servants to sleep with Jacob so he will have their children and constantly taunting each other;  Leah taunts Rebekah because she can have children and Rebekah cannot, and Rebekah taunts Leah that she is loved by Jacob rather than Leah.  Then there is the story of the mandrakes, a supposed seasonal aphrodisiac.  When Leah’s son Reuben finds mandrakes, a plant that was said to provide soothing sleep, heal wounds, induce love, and facilitate pregnancy,  Rachel trades Leah a night with Jacob for a portion of the mandrakes.  It didn’t do Rachel any good, Leah was the one who became pregnant again.

Where does all of this conniving end.  With the one who ran away from his brother now running away from his father-in-law.  Jacob may have prospered; he has many wives and children, great herds of cattle, but he is still running.  He is trying to move a large company with Laban in hot pursuit and one of his wives has stolen Laban’s gods.  Each act of cunning has resulted in an even greater act of conniving.

Genesis 22-26

Negotiating and bickering weave their way through the stories of the Old Testament. The negotiating that Abraham underwent to get a tomb in which to bury Sarah is one example.  Another is seen in the life of Laban. The story of how the Lord provided a wife, the beautiful and kind Rebekah, for Isaac from among Abraham’s relatives still living back in Nahor is well known. If you look more closely, you might see the seeds of jealousy planted in Laban, Rebekah’s brother, that would give Jacob such grief when he tried to marry one of Laban’s daughters.  Did Laban think that Rebekah was given away too easily?

 
Isaac loved Rebekah and their union was blessed by God.  As he watched her as she dealt with the inability to bear children, Isaac took that burden to the Lord and his prayer was answered.  Rebekah became pregnant with twins and even before they were born, they wrestled with each other. The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. – Gen.25:27-28 NIV

Divided loyalties as far as their sons were concerned, may have resulted in friction between Isaac and Rebekah.  The constant bickering with Abimelech, the king of the Philistines may not have helped.  It seemed like Isaac’s servants were always going around opening the wells that Abraham had built and Abimelech’s servants had stopped up.  Then there were the Hittite wives that Esau married who were a source of grief to both Isaac and Rebekah.  Did Laban foresee all of this, when he tried to detain Rebekah for ten days before she went back with Abraham’s servants to become Isaac’s bride, or was he just practicing the art of the deal as he would do years later with Jacob? It really didn’t matter.  None of the bickering or negotiating of Laban or any of the neighboring tribes would change the blessing that was on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The art of the deal is nothing compared to the blessing of God.

Genesis 18-21

Abraham entertains three visitors and they tell him that by the same time next year, Abraham and Sarah will have a son.  At this Sarah laughs, as would any woman in their nineties.

And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”  Gen 18:13-14 NKJV

As an aside, just as the men were leaving Abraham’s tents, they looked over and saw Sodom and Gomorrah.  There had been rumors of what was going on in those fair cities…rumors may have even reached Abraham’s ears.  Abraham knew the Lord and his demand of righteousness.  He may have feared for Lot before, but now his ears really perked up.  Something was going to happen, and it probably wasn’t going to be good. And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it?  Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”  Gen. 18:23-25 NKJV

After a bit of haggling, God promised Abraham that if only ten righteous people could be found in Sodom, he would not destroy it.

These two incidents may seem unrelated, but they are not.  Earlier, when Abram and Lot’s herds grew to be more than their land could support, they went their separate ways, and Lot chose to live among the cities of the Jordan plain while Abram remained in Canaan.  The plain was like a well watered garden with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah shining as the crowning jewels.  If you looked closer, you would see that their prosperity barely covered the stench of their wickedness, but they were beautiful to look at.  Their beauty and prosperity was so attractive that when the angel of the Lord told Lot the cities would be destroyed and to get his family out of Dodge, Lot could not even convince his two son-in-laws that they should leave.  Abraham might have been counting on Lot and his family to be the ten who had not succumbed to the cities charms, but even they had been caught up in the prevailing lifestyle. All Lot could muster to leave with him were his wife and two daughters.  Even then, after they left the city, Lot’s wife could not resist looking back with longing at all she was leaving behind and you know what happened to her.

 
There is a recurring theme in the New Testament that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.  (Romans 4, Galatians 3, James 2) Abraham certainly wasn’t perfect, He was always lying about Sarah being his wife, he had a child with his wife’s servant, and his wife laughs at emissaries of the Lord.  But he believed God and that set him apart from all of those in the beautiful cities who had chosen to believe in their own works and prosperity.

Genesis 12-17

Now the LORD had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  – Gen 12:1-3 NKJV

Part of this blessing was very evident to Abram shortly after the Lord spoke to him.  He began to wander.  He went from place to place and back again, building altars along the way.  Abram could see in his wanderings that blessing and curses went with him.  He saw Pharaoh’s house become diseased when Pharaoh took Sarai for his wife.  He rescued Lot and a host of others when they were captured by the four kings who took Sodom and Gomorrah.  Sometimes when he stopped wandering long enough to build an altar, the Lord would speak to him again as in Genesis 15 when God tells Abram “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”.  But by this time, Abram no longer believed the Lords promise that he would become a great nation.  It seemed that the only possibility of descendants lay with Hagar, his wife’s servant.   

That was not what the Lord God had in mind  He said he would make his name great,  but in order for Abram and Sarai to have offspring, their names would have to be changed.  Their new names, Abraham and Sarah, retained the roots of their former names, but Abram which means ‘father’ became ‘father of many’ and Sarai which means ‘princess’ became ‘princess of multitudes’.  A slight  change of name and the whole of their story would be different.

Genesis 9-11

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:  I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.  Gen 9:12-13 NKJV

The word covenant is first used in Chapter 6 when God tells Noah he will keep his family safe through the flood, but in Chapter 9, the word covenant is used repeatedly.  And to seal the deal, God puts a rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant.  There are several uses of the word covenant.  According to Wikipedia, “a covenant is, in its most general sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. A covenant is a type of contract in which the covenantor makes a promise to a covenantee to do or not do some action.” 

A covenant therefore is a contract, a vow, just like a marriage vows is a contract, a contract that is forever binding.  In our day and age, though, we treat covenants more like resolutions, vows that are made to be broken. We go into a new year full of resolve to lose weight, exercise more, be a better person, but two or three weeks later we’re back to our old ways.  But not God.  The covenant in Genesis 9 was with the whole of his creation and he promised that never again would the world be destroyed by flood.  So that begs the question, “How big is God?”  Is he bigger than the threat of global warming.  Will cities be flooded by man’s influence on the environment, by melting ice caps, or will God’s promise remain.

Genesis 7-8

This is not the simple story that we learned as children in Sunday School where all of the animals went two by two into the ark.  This is a story of finality.  God had given his creation the best including long lives and as it says in the previous chapter: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”  Gen 6:5-6 NKJV

God had finally had it with his creation, and determined he would close the door on all of his creation with the exception of Noah, the only godly man left.  And that is what he did…he shut the door tight on the party goers and revelers, on the people building their barns, cooking their gourmet dinners, moving money in and out of their IRA’s and visiting Disneyland.

Genesis 4-6

God has always given his people refuge, a place to hide from the storm.  In Noah’s time, it was the ark.  God gave very specific instructions on how the ark was to be built.  This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. (Gen 6:15-16)  In the same way, he gave the Children of Israel specific instruction as to how they were to build the tabernacle, the place where he met with Moses to enable him to lead the children of Israel.  Later, he gave Solomon all the details for building the Temple, the place where sacrifices were made to ward off God’s wrath against his ever unfaithful people.   God is interested in giving us refuge and it matters to him how we build that refuge.  As Jesus said:  Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” – Matt. 7:24-27 NIV

The wise men of Noah’s day must have looked at him with derision as he built his behemoth of a boat for no apparent reason.  But Noah was not interested in what man thought.  He looked around and saw the degradation that all of man’s efforts had produced.  He knew that once the waters rose, there would be no place of refuge.  He trusted only in God, in the rock…the rock that has always been a firm foundation for those who trust in God and a stumbling block to those who refused to take God’s instruction. 

So the question becomes, ‘What do I take refuge in?  Do I trust in my own wisdom to carry me through the storms?  Do I trust in my bank account?  Do I trust in all of the possessions I have accumulated?  Do I trust in my friends or family?  Do I trust in my church and the pastors?  Do I trust in all the self-help books I have read?  Or, do I trust in the rock:  the one that is higher than I.”

For you have been my refuge,
 a strong tower against the foe. – Ps. 61:3 NIV

Genesis 1-3

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. – Gen. 2:7 NKJV

 I read this verse and I think of the chorus to the Amy Grant song “Breath of Heaven” or “Mary’s Song”

Breath of heaven, Hold me together,

Be forever near me, Breath of heaven,

Breath of heaven, Lighten my darkness,

Pour over me your holiness, For you are holy.

We had the opportunity once, back at creation, to be what God intended us to be.  He had given us the Breath of Heaven, and everything that we could possibly ever want or need lay before us there, including the tree of life sitting right next to the tree of knowledge.  

The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.  And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Gen 2:8-9  – NKJV

But, we chose the tree of knowledge instead of the tree of life, and we’ve been chasing after knowledge, of both good and evil, ever since, as if it would compensate for life.  We should know by now that knowledge is a second rate substitute for life, but we continue to pursue it at any cost.  It doesn’t matter how much knowledge we have about cancer, diabetes, or heart attacks, our knowledge will never be able to stave off death.  And in our quest to prolong this physical life, we risk the possibility of losing our eternal life.  Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  He knew what he was talking about.  He was there at the creation and knew the difference between the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.  We can choose between the two, but we have to go back to the very beginning of ourselves, we have to be re-created, reborn in order to partake of the tree of life.

Welcome to my world.. Stay a while, pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea and walk with me as I journey through God’s word…