Allen Chapel Bible Study

Genesis 30:25 to Genesis 32:20

2007-08-08T13:59:43Z

Here's where we left off last week:

25 When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, ‘Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. ²⁶Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know very well the service I have given you.’ ²⁷But Laban said to him, ‘If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you; ²⁸name your wages, and I will give them.’ ²⁹Jacob said to him, ‘You yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me. ³⁰For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?’ ³¹He said, ‘What shall I give you?’ Jacob said, ‘You shall not give me anything; if you will do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it:

He just wants to be let go. He doesn't want anything in the exchange. And meanwhile, somehow, the Lord has spoken to Laban or Laban is putting on some kind of ruse. At any rate, he has noticed that since Jacob has been with him, his holdings have increased considerably. Of course, it doesn't take divination for Laban to see this and to tell that Jacob is skilled in management, in animal husbandry. Divination wasn't even necessary for him to see that ... and he wants to keep Jacob around. But Jacob wants to be a blessing to his own household, too. He has quite a family by now.

You have a sense of how everything Jacob will touch will be increased.

³²let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.

Let's stop right there. Why should he have any expectation that Laban would go for such a thing? Because there are a lot less of them.

³³So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.’ ³⁴Laban said, ‘Good! Let it be as you have said.’ ³⁵But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons; ³⁶and he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flock.

What has Laban done? He's set up the breeding so that nothing will come to Jacob.

37 Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods. ³⁸He set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering-places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, ³⁹the flocks bred in front of the rods, and so the flocks produced young that were striped, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and the completely black animals in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. ⁴¹Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob laid the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods, ⁴²but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, and male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.

Genesis 31

Jacob Flees with Family and Flocks
31Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, ‘Jacob has taken all that was our father’s; he has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.’ ²And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him as favourably as he did before. ³Then the Lord said to Jacob, ‘Return to the land of your ancestors and to your kindred, and I will be with you.’

When Jacob was in that place and had his head on a rock and he had a dream, what did God say to him? "I am with you, and I will bring you back to this land." He didn't say how long it would be, but he made this promise, and now we have the fulfillment of it.

⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was, ⁵and said to them, ‘I see that your father does not regard me as favourably as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. ⁶You know that I have served your father with all my strength; ⁷yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me. ⁸If he said, “The speckled shall be your wages”, then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said, “The striped shall be your wages”, then all the flock bore striped. ⁹Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father, and given them to me.

10 During the mating of the flock I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats that leaped upon the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled. ¹¹Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, “Jacob,” and I said, “Here I am!” ¹²And he said, “Look up and see that all the goats that leap on the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. ¹³I am the God of Bethel,^* where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me.

We're being reminded again of that place.

Now leave this land at once and return to the land of your birth.” ’ ¹⁴Then Rachel and Leah answered him, ‘Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house?

In other words, "Before we leave, what else does our father have that he's supposed to give to us before we go off? We must have some inheritance."

¹⁵Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given for us.

Remember that Jacob asked for Rachel when he first saw her, and Laban said that he could have her if he worked for him, only to deceive him. Then the deal is restruck that Rachel will be his wife if he will serve Laban for another seven years. In exchange for labor, he gets Laban's two daughters. So what has the daddy done? He has sold them. Both these young women have this impression of their father, who sold them, and who has withheld their inheritance, spending it. "He used our inheritance for his own sake." As Bill Cosby would say, these girls are warm!

¹⁶All the property that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.’
17 So Jacob arose, and set his children and his wives on camels; ¹⁸and he drove away all his livestock, all the property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods.

What does that mean? These people are Jewish, which means they are monotheistic. But the institution of the law has not been laid yet: "I am the Lord, thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me." At this point in the Bible, Moses isn't even born yet--in fact, there are many generations to come yet. The Jews have not gone into slavery yet, they haven't gone into Egypt yet. So this is well before the 10 Commandments. When it says that Laban has these household gods, it's referring to these little figures that people had as a kind of talisman. In certain homes, you have to touch something and bless yourself with it. And in certain kinds of Christian homes, there are artifacts on the walls: crosses, crucifixes. Catholics particularly. There are certain kinds of rituals that are performed to maintain the safety and security of the home. So Rachel has stolen her father's household gods.

²⁰And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee.

It's more than a double-cross. It's a double-double-cross. Daughter double-crosses the daddy; son-in-law double-crosses the father-in-law.

²¹So he fled with all that he had; starting out he crossed the Euphrates, and set his face towards the hill country of Gilead.

22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³So he took his kinsfolk with him and pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night, and said to him, ‘Take heed that you say not a word to Jacob, either good or bad.’

Indeed, if God can come to Jacob in a dream, he can come to Laban. And if he can come to Jacob and to Laban, he can come to all of us, any of us.

25 Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsfolk camped in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶Laban said to Jacob, ‘What have you done? You have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword.

Uh oh! What did the Lord tell Laban? "Say not a word"! And who does Laban sound like now? Jacob the morning after his marriage to Leah, who he'd thought was Rachel. "Carried away my daughters"? Didn't they have a marriage feast? And didn't they have confirmation of it by the man going into the woman? Weren't there children born? What's he talking about? Aren't they Jacob's to take? His "household"?

²⁷Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and not tell me? I would have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre. ²⁸And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? What you have done is foolish. ²⁹It is in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, “Take heed that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”

He's doing a lot of speaking for someone who's not supposed to say a word!

³⁰Even though you had to go because you longed greatly for your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?’ ³¹Jacob answered Laban, ‘Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. ³²But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsfolk, point out what I have that is yours, and take it.’ Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.

Don't we very often end up cursing ourselves because we don't have sufficient sight to speak appropriately? We can't see everything, we don't know everything, and therefore we ought not to claim or make promises we cannot keep. Our mouths will get us into trouble. The only kind of vows we ought to be making are the ones we make to God.

33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent, and entered Rachel’s. ³⁴Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt all about in the tent, but did not find them. ³⁵And she said to her father, ‘Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.’

This custom was ancient! When women were in such a state, men were to stay away from them, not to touch them. This custom cuts one way, against women, to say that they are defiled and whoever touches a woman in this condition will be infected by her defilement. But, on the other hand, it's a method well-known to people who are oppressed to use the instrument of their oppression as a way to empower themselves. That has often been done. We have done it in our own history as black people over and over again. How often were slaves in the household privy to information which white folk used in front of them because white folk thought they were so no-count that they wouldn't understand. And black folk would play along with that thing and absorb whatever information they could use for their own purposes. And I don't care what anybody says: House negros ran just like field negros when they had an opportunity.

There's a black man who's a journalist named Terry, who wrote about the Vietnam war, and he had made a name for himself as a journalist because he had gotten information that no other journalist could get. It was about the Pentagon papers, or something like that. He got it because there was an important conference at a hotel with all these senators and congress members. He wanted to get into the room so he could hear what they were saying so he could get it into his report. He went down to the kitchen, put on a servant's jacket, got a waiter's gear, and went up to the room. Do you know the servicemen who were guarding the door let him in? They didn't blink. And if he got information, what the heck would he do with it anyway? He took advantage of the fact that they always see black people in a certain way, and he used it to secure the story. He took advantage of discrimination.

The impression of women can cut both ways. Most usually it cuts against women, but in this case, Rachel uses it to her advantage.

36 Then Jacob became angry, and upbraided Laban. Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is my offence? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? ³⁷Although you have felt about through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsfolk and your kinsfolk, so that they may decide between us two.

Because the search has been in vain and concluded to his advantage, it's made him more brazen. Instead of defending himself, he turns the tables and becomes, rather than the defendent, he's the prosecutor. He's reducing Laban to his own position. Laban was chasing after him to bring him to the right, but now Jacob is saying, "Which of us is in the right?"

³⁸These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. ³⁹That which was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself; of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰It was like this with me: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you for fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. ⁴²If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear^* of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked you last night.’

Now Jacob's an interpreter of dreams? In other words, he's reminding him of what the Lord said to him. Would you be foolish enough to hurt Jacob after the Lord has spoken to you? Do you think Laban believes the Lord has spoken to him? It appears so ... "The God of your father came to me ..." Just wait and see what Laban is going to say next. (When there's this much talk, do you think the hurt will happen?)

43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, ‘The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about their children whom they have borne? ⁴⁴Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be a witness between you and me.’ ⁴⁵So Jacob took a stone, and set it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶And Jacob said to his kinsfolk, ‘Gather stones,’ and they took stones, and made a heap; and they ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed. ⁴⁸Laban said, ‘This heap is a witness between you and me today.’ Therefore he called it Galeed, ⁴⁹and the pillar Mizpah, for he said, ‘The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other.

"Behind my back, you'll do anything. Behind your back, I'll do anything--except that the Lord watches between us."

⁵⁰If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, though no one else is with us, remember that God is witness between you and me.’ 51 Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘See this heap and see the pillar, which I have set between you and me. ⁵²This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

What do you think is the intention of that? In other words, "Don't cross this line, or it's on." So this is the place, the border, the line they won't cross.

⁵³May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor’—the God of their father—‘judge between us.’ So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, ⁵⁴and Jacob offered a sacrifice on the height and called his kinsfolk to eat bread; and they ate bread and tarried all night in the hill country.
55 Early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he departed and returned home.

Laban is protecting his bloodline. And in time, the history of Israel will turn on the children of those who have been born of Jacob. But we're not going to put too fine a point on this, because if you believe your ethnicity is privileged, it can lead to some of the more horrible features of contemporary life: "Let's keep the bloodline pure." That's why it's bothersome even to hear of "pure African blood." Even if we went to certain regions of Africa, the purity of blood means nothing. The notion of ethnic purities leads to an abominable end; it leads to genocide.

But what we know about Esau is that he married four women who weren't Hebrew, so they were a mix between himself and these other folks. And Jacob was purposely sent by his mother to Laban, who was her brother. He took wives of his daughters and had children by them. So there is a certain integrity of the bloodline.

Genesis 32

32Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him; ²and when Jacob saw them he said, ‘This is God’s camp!’ So he called that place Mahanaim.

Now this is the part that's approaching something utterly miraculous.

3 Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, ⁴instructing them, ‘Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now; ⁵and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favour in your sight.” ’

He hopes this might appease Esau: "He'll think twice about murdering me now that he knows I'm wealthy."

6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, ‘We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.’ ⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies, ⁸thinking, ‘If Esau comes to one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.’

He's just got to see what his brother will do, even to the point of sacrificing half of his party. It's like a man who gets real upset, and every time he turns around, he gets kicked in the face, and finally he just decides to give up. A friend says to him, where are you going to go? You have to go home sometime. We're going to hear another form of this story, told by Jesus much later: the prodigal son. That boy made such a mess of things, he eventually goes to his father to ask, please, just let me join your slaves. When he goes home, the daddy throws him a feast. You would have thought he was a conquering hero. No, Jesus isn't born at the time the Genesis story is recorded, but he probably knew of it. So Jacob is returning rich ...

9 And Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, “Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good”, ¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. ¹¹Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. ¹²Yet you have said, “I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.” ’
13 So he spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶These he delivered into the hand of his servants, each drove by itself, and said to his servants, ‘Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove.’ ¹⁷He instructed the foremost, ‘When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, “To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?” ¹⁸then you shall say, “They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.” ’ ¹⁹He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, ‘You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, ²⁰and you shall say, “Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.” ’ For he thought, ‘I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.’ ²¹So the present passed on ahead of him; and he himself spent that night in the camp.

How many times will Esau encounter such gifts before he gets to Jacob? At least three. And each will say, "These are yours." And each time, they will say Jacob is behind, so he'll think Jacob is next. He can get mad over and over again, and be appeased again and again. Have you ever been so angry, and the person you were mad with did you a kindness? You recognized the kindness, and you liked it, and you wanted it, and you said, "Awwwwwww. I'm still mad at you, but ..." Of course you have! It's human nature. And the other person is saying, "Come on ...."

Jacob is saying "Come on" three times. And there's that significant number again. Three can be either a blessing or a curse. Three times and you're out. Third time's a charm. In this case, three is a positive feature.

22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. ²⁴Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ²⁶Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ ²⁷So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ ²⁸Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,^* for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ ²⁹Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. ³⁰So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ ³¹The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. ³²Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.

Do you think that Jacob can wrestle with God and win? No. Your arms are too short to box with God! And surely in a wrestling match ... But this is a mighty struggle, and only because God lets it be a mighty struggle. And it's a mighty struggle for you! It's not a struggle for God at all. But God is getting you to the very limit of your strength, stretching you--stretching Jacob in this instance, to the point where at the end of the night, He blesses him with another identity. He gives him a new name: Israel, by which all of the children who ever can be born to his line will be the children of Israel. And it's a name in connection with promise that God has made. He says, "I won't keep you, but I will remind you." He reminds him by striking him on that hip.

At the end of the night, Jacob says, "I have looked at God face to face, and I have lived." The thing is, if Jacob can do that with God, why would he be afraid of Esau? What would make him think he couldn't see Esau face to face?

Genesis 33

33Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. ²He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.

Look at the ones he put in front and the ones he put in back. The ones he values the most are in back.

³He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother. 4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

Wait a minute! How many different acts do you record there? Esau ran to meet him (one), and embraced him (two), and fell on his neck and kissed him (three), and they wept (four). All these actions! Is any one of them violent? No. Each is an act of love, a demonstration of love. These are the same actions you'll read about if you read the story of the prodigal son.

⁵When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, ‘Who are these with you?’ Jacob said, ‘The children whom God has graciously given your servant.’ ⁶Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; ⁷Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. ⁸Esau said, ‘What do you mean by all this company that I met?’ Jacob answered, ‘To find favour with my lord.’ ⁹But Esau said, ‘I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.’

Isn't this something?!

¹⁰Jacob said, ‘No, please; if I find favour with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favour. ¹¹Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I want.’ So he urged him, and he took it.
12 Then Esau said, ‘Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.’ ¹³But Jacob said to him, ‘My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. ¹⁴Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.’
15 So Esau said, ‘Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.’ But he said, ‘Why should my lord be so kind to me?’ ¹⁶So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. ¹⁷But Jacob journeyed to Succoth,^* and built himself a house, and made booths for his cattle; therefore the place is called Succoth.
18 Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram; and he camped before the city. ¹⁹And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for one hundred pieces of money the plot of land on which he had pitched his tent. ²⁰There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

In the next chapter, we see what happens now in this relationship ...

Genesis 29-30:24

2007-07-25T17:36:12Z

Last week, we concluded by talking about how Jacob ran because he was afraid of being killed by Esau, from whom he had stolen both a birthright and a blessing. So he ran and ran--but you have to sleep sometime. No matter how tough, clever, deceitful you are, you have to sleep sometime. Without it, you'll lose your mind.

If anyone deserved for someone to wait for him to sleep to catch him, it was Jacob! Esau should have followed him! But Esau didn't do that. So here he is, and the sleep has overcome him in the middle of nowhere. He hasn't secured himself against anything that might fall upon him in this place . . . yet he falls asleep. Anyone coming along might rob or kill him, much less take his blessing or his birthright.

But instead of losing everything in his moment of weakness, which is the weakness of us all (sleep), the moment of utmost vulnerability, this thief has a vision. It isn't a vision of hell, but instead a vision of angels going and coming on a ladder between the earth and the heavens. And God makes him a promise--not one he deserves! As if he doesn't have enough already. He doesn't deserve a birthright, but he gets it! He doesn't deserve a blessing, but he gets it! And now he doesn't deserve this promise, but he gets it: The Lord says, "I'm going to stay with you. I'm going to bring you home after a while, restore you to your family, and I will increase everything you have, including your family."

Jacob woke up refreshed and blessed anew, so he decides to consecrate and commemorate the place by pouring wine and oil over a rock, marking the space: "I did not know that the Lord was in this place, but the Lord was here." In the middle of nowhere.

Here's what's important: The Lord needs absolutely nothing to decide to bless you. Doesn't need any special time. Doesn't need any special place. Doesn't need any special conditions whatsoever. If the Lord decides to bless you, you're blessed.

(Compare Jacob's exile to the banishment of Adam and Eve, and of Cain, and of others, a motif repeated time and again in the first five books of the Bible, what we can also call the Torah or the Pentateuch. And each time people are exiled due to their own sin, God remains with them. This teaches us something amazing: That God protects us even while we're being wicked, even while he grieves over our sins.)

Because he decides to bless Jacob, does that mean Jacob now has no responsibility, that he can keep on acting the fool? No. Are we going to find out why he can't keep doing that? Yes.

The Lord is blessing him, but as he has behaved that is how people will behave with him. He's going to his uncle now. Seems like he ought to be safe with him, right? Let's see. (It's all about the family, isn't it? That's the reason we're studying this: because it's about families and how families tear themselves up and how the Lord restores and renews them, because it's always the province of God and faith.)

Genesis 29

29Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. ²As he looked, he saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, ³and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob said to them, ‘My brothers, where do you come from?’ They said, ‘We are from Haran.’ ⁵He said to them, ‘Do you know Laban son of Nahor?’ They said, ‘We do.’ ⁶He said to them, ‘Is it well with him?’ ‘Yes,’ they replied, ‘and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with the sheep.’ ⁷He said, ‘Look, it is still broad daylight; it is not time for the animals to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.’ ⁸But they said, ‘We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.’

Before we go further, what do you notice already about Jacob's relationship with these men? Isn't he already telling them what to do? He's got this tendency; he can't resist taking charge of everything!

9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep; for she kept them. ¹⁰Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban. ¹¹Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and wept aloud. ¹²And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father.

[One of the Bible study class members pointed out that in the version she had in front of her, the King James Bible, the translation read, "And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother," which sparked a protracted discussion of the fallibilities of translation and the rabbinical tradition of commentaries or "midrash." The impediments for "perfect" translations of the original Hebrew text include the impossibility of literal translation--no word for for word transliteration. So we have several versions of the Bible, and we maintain the New Revised Standard Version in our pews as the most accurate one available to us right now. Rev. Scott argues that God can speak to us in any language, and any language is a gift to humankind from God. The fact that we speak at all is a miracle wrought of God. So no one language is any more special than any other. Every single language is significant. And the intercourse of human beings depends on shared speech. Even in this story . . . ]

When Jacob comes across these strange men who he doesn't know, there's already a relationship between them because they share a common language. And as he says to Rachel after he kisses her, which is part of their common language of greeting between kin, "I am the son of Rebekah."

13 When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, ¹⁴and Laban said to him, ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh!’ And he stayed with him for a month.

15 Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?’

Where'd this talk of serving come from all of a sudden? Already it's been determined that there's some work for him to do. Isn't that just the way of families? And especially families who live off the land? The presumption is that everyone must work. Jacob is going to have to make his way by the sweat of his brow.

¹⁶Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷Leah’s eyes were lovely,^* and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. ¹⁸Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.’ ¹⁹Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.’ ²⁰So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

Maybe part of the problem these days is that courtship doesn't last long enough. Most people nowadays don't understand the nature of the work a relationship involves, or the commitment. "For better and for worse ..." all some people hear is "for better." As if "for worse" is an afterthought. Anyway ...

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.’ ²²So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. ²³But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. ²⁴(Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid.)

Everybody would have been gathered. Then, at the appointed time for the couple went to consummate the marriage, they would be seen off. And the next morning, they would check the sheets for blood, both to see that the marriage was consummated and that the woman was virginal.

²⁵When morning came, it was Leah!

We presume that there were no candles, and that he didn't know till morning that it wasn't Rachel. But, after all, Leah is the firstborn, and the benefit of marriage is her birthright:

And Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?’ ²⁶Laban said, ‘This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn.

As if to say, "Are you so stupid as to not know this is what we do?!" It's almost funny.

²⁷Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me for another seven years.’ ²⁸Jacob did so, and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife. ²⁹(Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her maid.) ³⁰So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. He served Laban^* for another seven years. 31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.

Have we been here before? Yes!

³²Leah conceived and bore a son, and she named him Reuben; for she said, ‘Because the Lord has looked on my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.’ ³³She conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘Because the Lord that I am hated, he has given me this son also’; and she named him Simeon. ³⁴Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons’; therefore he was named Levi. ³⁵She conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord’; therefore she named him Judah; then she ceased bearing.

Genesis 30

30When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister . . .

And look! The tighter the relationship, the greater the enmity. Against whom did Jacob sin? Father and brother. Of whom is Rachel jealous? Sister, with whom she shares the same man, so they are sister-wives. And she yells at Jacob, as if it's his fault,

. . . and she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I shall die!’ ²Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’ ³Then she said, ‘Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her.’ ⁴So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her. ⁵And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶Then Rachel said, ‘God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son’ . . .

Today we have a word for this: surrogacy. Anyway, Rachel's barrenness: Is it her fault? No, she didn't do anything. Does she deserve to be barren? No, she didn't do anything. This doesn't say she had done anything wrong. Was it her fault she was born second rather than first? No. I whose hands is this? God's hands.

. . . therefore she named him Dan. ⁷Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸Then Rachel said, ‘With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed’; so she named him Naphtali. 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

They're trying to outdo each other!

¹⁰Then Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹And Leah said, ‘Good fortune!’ so she named him Gad. ¹²Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³And Leah said, ‘Happy am I! For the women will call me happy’; so she named him Asher. 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.’ ¹⁵But she said to her, ‘Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?’ Rachel said, ‘Then he may lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.’

That is to say Jacob may lie with Leah so that Rachel can have the mandrakes.

¹⁶When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, ‘You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.’

What? When you pay someone, what's that called? Prostitution. Moreover, this is between a husband and wife. Just when you thought "The Young and the Restless" was as trashy as you could get . . .!

So he lay with her that night. ¹⁷And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸Leah said, ‘God has given me my hire^* because I gave my maid to my husband’; so she named him Issachar. ¹⁹And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰Then Leah said, ‘God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honour^* me, because I have borne him six sons’ . . .

Now, if he wasn't pleased after the second, third, fourth, or fifth, why would the sixth be any different? But she hopes so.

. . . so she named him Zebulun. ²¹Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb. ²³She conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘God has taken away my reproach’; ²⁴and she named him Joseph, saying, ‘May the Lord add to me another son!’

You see where we're going? If Isaac had preferred Esau . . . if Rebekah had preferred Jacob . . . and the contrary preferences meant a contrary spirit in the family, what would make you think that by the next generation or even the one after that, it will have gone away? So all the way now, in the third generation, we have Joseph coming along--and you all know what's going to happen to Joseph! Because Jacob will prefer Joseph. And look at how late Joseph is. Is he the first one? No. Not by far!

Join us in person any time ... Bible Study is held on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.

Genesis 27-28

2007-07-17T12:44:28Z

Last week we talked about the deceit involved in stealing the blessing from Esau--and not only from Esau, but also from the father, Isaac. Jacob was assisted in this by someone who was particularly critical, his mother. That Rebekah would set her sons against one another in this way . . . what might have been the reason? See if this scripture helps explain why she might have been upset with Esau and better disposed to Jacob.

Genesis 26

34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite; ³⁵and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

It's just two verses, and that's all it says. It's the end of chapter 26 of Genesis. Sometimes in the Bible, it has a title for the two verses, "Esau's Hittite Wives." Of course, what these verses suggest is that the wives are not children of Israel, but they're somehow related. Take a look, too, at the end of chapter 27:

Genesis 27

46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?’

She is really distressed. Here's the thing: Esau is married to two wives before Jacob has married even one. As long as he's not married, he kind of belongs to his mama. So she's looking after him in a way she wouldn't look after Esau, because Esau's married. She's taking care of baby boy.

Genesis 27

27When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, ‘My son’; and he answered, ‘Here I am.’ ²He said, ‘See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. ³Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. ⁴Then prepare for me savoury food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.’

This sets up the whole exchange. You might have wondered why Jacob went at the time he did to get the blessings. But, as it turns out, Isaac has set it up. It's because Isaac is anticipating: He wants to get his house in order before he goes. Despite his best effort, what he manages to do is make it worse, to derange the house. In his own mind, he wants to bring his life to a proper closure. He wants to give each of his sons what he thinks each of them is owed.

Something interesting happens when Esau discovers that Jacob has gone to the father before him to steal his blessing: He's upset with Jacob twice. But before we look at that, let's see how the mother helps Jacob in carrying through this deceit of his father.

5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, ‘I heard your father say to your brother Esau, ⁷“Bring me game, and prepare for me savoury food to eat, that I may bless you before the Lord⁸Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. ⁹Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savoury food for your father, such as he likes; ¹⁰and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.’ ¹¹But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, ‘Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. ¹²Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.’ ¹³His mother said to him, ‘Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me.’
before I die.”

This woman is willing to bear her son's curse for him to have this blessing. If it is the Hittite women, they must be some horrible women that she can't abide them and she would be willing to do this rather than live with more Hittite women!

¹⁴So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savoury food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau,

Now, before you starting that maybe they weren't brothers, notice that it says, "her elder son Esau," and that she goes to get his clothes that were presumably there in her house. So she has these things, which she gets for Jacob, and then says, "Here, put these on."

. . . which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; ¹⁶and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷Then she handed the savoury food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob. 18 So he went in to his father, and said, ‘My father’; and he said, ‘Here I am; who are you, my son?’ ¹⁹Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.’

One almost has the sense that he's in a hurry!

²⁰But Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?’ He answered, ‘Because the Lord your God granted me success.’

Uh oh! It's a deepening of the treachery. Now, not only has he relied on the assistance of his mother in his treachery, but now he's also insulting the name of God!

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.’

Which suggests that he knows something's up! He's not altogether certain he should trust the word of this person. But it's also because he knows and understands the blessing he's going to give. The blessing is invaluable. It's beyond earthly value. It's not replaceable.

²²So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ ²³He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

Perhaps he's suspecting that his ears, like his eyes, are betraying him. Of all the senses you have, which do you trust the most? Which would you least want to lose? It's easy to fool someone through touch, perhaps also through sound, perhaps also through sight. None of the senses are completely trustworthy! In this case, Isaac decides to trust his feeling. Then he says,

²⁴He said, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’

Isn't it too late to ask this question after he's blessed him?

He answered, ‘I am.’ ²⁵Then he said, ‘Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.’ So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near and kiss me, my son.’ ²⁷So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said,
‘Ah, the smell of my son
   is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
²⁸May God give you of the dew of heaven,
   and of the fatness of the earth,
   and plenty of grain and wine.
²⁹Let peoples serve you,
   and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
   and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
   and blessed be everyone who blesses you!’

There's the blessing! The blessing has stages.

The first one has to do with what God will be able to do for him.
The second stage has to do with his relationships with other people, political authority.
The third stage has to do with his relationships with his own family, his brothers bowing down to him.

Now check this out:

30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. ³¹He also prepared savoury food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, ‘Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.’ ³²His father Isaac said to him, ‘Who are you?’ He answered, ‘I am your firstborn son, Esau.’ ³³Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, ‘Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!’

It says that Isaac trembled violently. Why did he do that? He's upset because he suspects . . . when he says, "Who are you?" does he really not know who it is? No! Now he knows he's got the right son before him. There's the smell of him, the voice of him, all of it is there, and it's all done in a way that seems to resonate with the instruction that Isaac gave to him earlier.

The problem is that he's already blessed the brother, "and blessed he shall be!" If you give two of your sons a gift, one a baseball bat and the other a glove, and one takes the gift from the other, what do you do? You tell the one to go get it back. But what's going on here? Isaac can't take it back. The blessing cannot be revoked. Why not? Words, once you've pronounced them, are hard to take back. They're out there, and you did it! You can say different words, but that doesn't take away the first ones. Here, it's the spoken word of the sort that something is going to transpire on your behalf. If you invoke God, you cannot take it back. It's irrevocable.

So a blessing is both invaluable and irrevocable.

Realizing the mistake, Isaac goes on to explain exactly what he's done.

³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, me also, father!’ ³⁵But he said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.’ ³⁶Esau said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob?

Jacob, the name, literally means "the supplanter."

For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright;

Wait a minute! Esau gave it to him, right?

and look, now he has taken away my blessing.’

What's the difference? How often have you heard this story and taken both the birthright and the blessing as one and the same? But they aren't. Esau gave away the birthright, and his father gave away the blessing. But surely they're related: Birthright has to do with Esau being the firstborn and what he's supposed to receive, the material things. And the blessing is spiritual, although it involves material things, as well as a certain position, bearing and station among others. According to Esau, Jacob has taken both things.

Then he said, ‘Have you not reserved a blessing for me?’ ³⁷Isaac answered Esau, ‘I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?’ ³⁸Esau said to his father, ‘Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!’ And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. 39 Then his father Isaac answered him:
‘See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be,
   and away from the dew of heaven on high.
⁴⁰By your sword you shall live,
   and you shall serve your brother;
but when you break loose,
   you shall break his yoke from your neck.’

What does that suggest to you? The enemies of his brother shall be his enemies, and he'll use his sword to kill them. But his own brother has made himself an enemy of Esau. Doesn't it look as if the enmity that has been sown is inevitable? Isaac can't do anything about it? And then he's put a sword in his hand. We need to think that the relationship is so ruptured that murder is a real possibility. People, when they tear up families, they tear them up so completely that the only way to put them back together is by the work of God. And I think the story will confirm that.

Because what will Jacob do? He runs away because he thinks his brother's going to kill him. In fact, he stays away so long--and when he comes home, he's running away again because he's afraid someone else is going to kill him. He'll have even greater reason to think Laban will kill him. On his way back home, he's filled with trepidation, afraid that Esau will kill him.

Look at the very next verse.

41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’ ⁴²But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, ‘Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. ⁴³Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, ⁴⁴and stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— ⁴⁵until your brother’s anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him;

Is that likely? Both the birthright and the blessing . . . and the blessing involved this: "Those who bless you shall be blessed; those who curse you will be cursed." Nothing's going to help Esau. If he decides to follow through with killing Jacob, he's cursed as he can be. The only thing he can do according to the blessing is to bless Jacob. That's all he can do. Because if he blesses Jacob, he'll be blessed.

The very nature of the blessing contains the seed of reconciliation.

He stole that man's blessing. But what he stole contains a blessing for the one from whom he stole it. Because all Esau has to do is to bless Jacob and he is blessed. And in order to bless Jacob, he'll have to do what? Forgive him.

Do you see a pattern? When the disciples ask Jesus, "How often must I forgive my brother?" He tells them they must do so "seventy times seventy." Over and over again, we ask, "Why Lord?" Because the Lord makes himself present to sinners to redeem and to restore, which is a blessing unto them of grace. If you bless the sinner, you yourself will be blessed. This is so difficult for us to do. But the narrative sketch for that is right here.

So Rebekah says,

. . . then I will send, and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?’

Both of whom? Both sons. Jacob has to go away. And if Esau curses his brother, he'll be cursed. Plus Esau has done something: She cannot abide her daughters-in-law. Their ways are not her ways, they don't speak the way she speaks--no telling what they do. She simply can't stand these women who are married to her son. And see, the end to this chapter, as pointed out earlier, like the end to the previous chapter, belongs to Rebekah:

46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?’

Genesis 28

28Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him,

Wait a minute! Didn't he already bless him? And the way he went on, it was as if he had only one blessing to give! When Esau was distressed, all Isaac did was lament with him. But now it seems that once you've been blessed, you just keep on being blessed.

. . . and charged him, ‘You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women. ²Go at once to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father; and take as wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³May God Almighty^* bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may become a company of peoples. ⁴May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien—land that God gave to Abraham.’ ⁵Thus Isaac sent Jacob away; and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.

It's all still in the family. Jacob is to marry his cousin. The blessing to be received now is not just the blessing that a father gives to his son, but now he extends to him the very blessing that was made to Abraham by God himself: "May your numbers multiply."

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he charged him, ‘You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women’, ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please his father Isaac, ⁹Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, and sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

The Hittite women are out of the family, that is to say out of the house of Israel. But Ishmael is part of the lineage of Abraham, and in the family. Notice how the scripture works with this. He has seen what his father has done, and he has heard what his father has said. And he has drawn the proper conclusion: "So you don't like my wives? I can't have these wives?" He wants to please his father, if not his mother. So he goes on to Ishmael to get another wife.

Keep in mind that Isaac was the son of Sarah, who had given her husband, Abraham, a maidservant so that he could produce offspring with someone else, since she thought herself barren. Now, when they did conceive, and Isaac was born, Sarah asked Abraham to put the maidservant and her son out, into the wilderness. So then how could Isaac get himself upset with Jacob when he, himself, had not been firstborn but was given the birthright?! This displacement of the maidservant and her children is perhaps one of the cruelest things to be read in all of scripture. We're just as wrong as we can be! And the whole time, God is watching all of it. And still he honors his promises to us no matter what we do.

Also notice that what the scripture tells us is that these fights--between sons with a common father--the conflict between Jews and Muslims (descendents of Ishmael)--are family conflicts. It's a mess! The only way it can be fixed is if God intervenes. If each of them insists upon their own perogatives and their own blessings, then it's lossed. If they don't read the part that says, "Bless those, and you will be blessed; curese them and you will be cursed."

So now we have Isaac agreeing with his wife: Jacob will go away, and he's to go to Laban and get some wives. And at the same time, he tells Esau, "We don't like your wives." Now what about all the children Esau will have by the wives that Isaac and Rebekah don't like? Everything is generational. Blessings are received intergenerationally; curses are received intergenerationally. Not only that, but we pass along the best of ourselves and the worst of ourselves. And scripture reminds us over and over again that's what we do. "The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third generation."

Take a look at what happens next.

10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. ¹¹He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. ¹²And he dreamed that there was a ladder^* set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³And the Lord^* and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; ¹⁴and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. ¹⁵Know that I am with you and will keep you . . .

stood beside him

What have we concluded about Jacob already? He's a sinner.

. . . wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ ¹⁶Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ ¹⁷And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’
18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. ²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, ²²and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.’

This tenth that Jacob vows to give becomes a kind of staple in the expression of response of our faith to the promise of God. God has made a solemn promise, and in response, Jacob has made an expression of his faith: "I'll give you one-tenth of everything."

The problem here is this: How did Jacob choose a tenth? Why not a fifteenth? Why not a twentieth? Or a fifth? Or any other number?

Jacob is running away, in the middle of his sin, when God promises never to leave him, to restore him, to bring him back home. Does that mean there are no consequences? No. Have we even heard Jacob say, "Thank you," or "Forgive me"? No, he's still in the midst of his sin. The career of sin is not over: "As often as I can get for me at someone else's expense, that's exactly what I'm going to do." This guy is a classic example of "looking out for number one." And the thing that's so striking is that God won't leave him.

So that's what's perplexing: When he gets this amazing promise for God, he responds with what? "I'm going to give you a tenth." And a tenth of what? Only what God gives to him. What kind of deal is that? In fact, that tenth sure isn't going to hurt Jacob. It's more like a token. Here's what Christine calls it: a tip. People are "tipping God." And people think they're doing something. Which suggests something to us: If you think this is cheesy of Jacob, then when you read it, you're not supposed to be saying to yourself, "That Jacob's a miserable fellow." You're supposed to be looking at who? Yourself. If you think that he's pitiful . . . what about you, if you don't give a care? And if God has made the promise to Jacob, what makes you think he hasn't made the promise to you? After all, the promise includes you, anyway, because he says, "All people's will be blessed through you." Everybody. And surely that includes us.

It's a miraculous vision! It's an angelic, heavenly visitation in the middle of the night! And he pours the oil on the rock and names it . . . it's wonderful! People can go a whole lifetime without having a vision like this. This is a grand vision. And yet, at the end of the transaction with God, he's giving him what? A tenth! Here's a stingy brother!

But, now. Didn't you know someone in school who was a bully? And you just could not wait for what to happen? You couldn't wait for the comeuppance. Because if you couldn't do something about the bully, you knew there had to be somebody somewhere who could.

When Rev. Scott was a boy, there was a fellow named John Taylor. He had a handsome, almost sweet face. So his face didn't say he was tough. He was tall and rangy and athletically gifted. As boys, they used to watch him play flag football on this hard field (no grass with stones everywhere). This other fellow who had grown up and left the neighborhood, joined the service and come back--he had a reputation. And he was a loudmouth. And they were playing on opposite teams once, and John kept getting the better of this guy, with this sweet-looking face. And this guy, who had a rough-looking face and a mouth that was even worse--"you don't want to mess with me." Now, the boys knew that John was kind of rough, too, because at school he had punched a teacher who'd grabbed him in tenth grade.

Anyway, this fellow kept mouthing off and saying if John touched him again, he was going to do this and that. John didn't say a word except, "Come on, man, let's play." Finally on one play, he had his excuse--this guy had been looking for a fight the whole game--and all the little boys watching just knew something was going to happen. The game stopped. He ran up to John and was all up in his face, shouting. John just stood there, looking at the guy. Never said a word. And this guy said something, and it was about the last thing he should have said to John, and before anyone knew it, he clocked this guy straight in the face, and the guy collapsed like a bag of leaves. Just laid out. Once punch. And everyone was shocked! And still John hadn't said a word. But the foul-mouthed bully had been silenced with one punch.

After all these years, Rev. Scott admitted, he had the deepest sense of satisfaction. "Bet you won't say that to someone else!" None of us was bad enough to shut him up, but when John laid him out . . . ooooooooh. Of course, John's reputation just shot through the roof, so much so that people from other neighborhoods would come into John's just to see if they could take him. And no one ever did.

There's something in us that makes us desire to see someone get theirs. And boy, Jacob is crusing for a bruising! Is he going to meet his match? Can he be deceived? Sure! Will he be mad? Sure! What's funny is, if anybody has less right than to be mad at being deceived it's Jacob. This guy deserves what he gets.

Yet what outstrips all of it is the promise of God to stay with him. Even when he gets his just desserts, is that the dessert he gets from God? The blessing trumps everything. A blessing is what Esau deserves by rights. Yet it's delivered to the undeserving: Jacob. It isn't grace if people deserve it. Got it? There's no grace if people deserve it. Grace by its very definition is given to those who do not deserve it, in spite of what it may appear they deserve.

Join us in person any time ... Bible Study is held on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.

Genesis 25-26

2007-07-17T09:32:04Z

We're starting at Genesis 25, a "narrative kernel," which is a self-contained narrative whole. This kernel is about families. Our church is made up of families. There isn't a church that isn't! A church itself constitutes a certain kind of family, doesn't it? A church family is a specific kind of family that embraces all the other kinds of families that we might mention, such as blood families or friend families, for example.

So it's not unusual that in the context of church worship and work that we talk about each other as "brothers" and "sisters." It's hard to imagine that a fellowship between brothers and sisters could be exceeded by any kind of relationship--and probably no unions are sweeter, prior to marriage, than the relationship of siblings one to another.

Families are our first picture of what it means to have relationships of care, love, mutual concern, and mutual recognition. And here's the thing: The worst crimes are committed in families. And the conflicts in families are the hardest ones to fix, because the people we love the most, we often hurt the most. The hurt can be so intense and deep that it can be hard for people to forgive one another.

Do you know any families where people haven't spoken to one another in years? Or haven't shown up at family reunions and no one has seen them for years?

The problems we have with other people out in the world are only symptomatic of the problems we have within our own families. How well can anyone live in the world without a family that's supportive, respects your integrity as a human, loves and respects you? The one thing we all hope to count on is the love of family. What if you're in the middle of a conflict and you can't go home? What do you do? Let's see how this plays out in Genesis ...

Genesis 25

Earlier in the Bible, we are incensed by this story of Jacob and Esau ... How dare Jacob lie to his daddy! How dare he do to Esau what he did to Esau! And we should have known from the very beginning this was how he would be when he came out of the womb! Because when he was born, he didn't want Esau born first, so he grabbed him by the heels so he could be first. Why would he care? There's a "law of primogeniture," which the Hebrews had and which declared that the firstborn gets it all. The idea is that the firstborn will exercise proper stewardship over what he receives for the rest of the family. If the firstborn receives it then doesn't do right, then he has violated part of the law. So to receive it comes with responsibility.

Esau is the oldest, and he's supposed to receive it. But Esau isn't thinking about the rest of the family. He's thinking about his stomach.

Think about this: If someone has been hurt, and the power of forgiveness is required for there to be restoration and reconciliation, and if the power to forgive is a gift, the gift must be received from someone. The someone who powers the gift of forgiveness must be someone who has powers greater than that which humans possess. They must have a kind of "superhuman" power. It comes as a consequence of divine power, God's power.

You can forgive when you've made yourself receptive to the grace of God.

The reason this story is in Genesis is that it's one of a series of stories of families that have scarcely survived conflict. The first was the curse in the Garden. "She did it!" Right away, Eve becomes Adam's scapegoat. Even if she gave him the fruit (it wasn't an apple; the Bible just says, 'fruit from the tree of knowledge'), he accepted it of his own will. With sin, we look for a way to blame someone else. Let somone else carry the guilt.

Sin is there from the beginning. That's why the book is called "Genesis." Although some people talk about how this is the book of creation, it is also the book about the beginning of our sin, the need for salvation. What if Adam and Eve had rejected the fruit? What would we have? No Bible! No Moses, no prophets, no burning bush, no Jesus, no text, no Word.

But they did fall.

And in time, one brother killed another. But weren't we just talking about how tight brothers are supposed to be? This is the first murder in the Bible, and it doesn't occur between strangers, but between brothers. What does God do? He doesn't kill the murderer; he says, "I'm going to put a mark on you, and everyone will know what you have done--but they should also know they aren't going to lay a hand on you." Already you have a picture of divine favor, grace and repentance. God hated the sin and loved the sinner.

(Sinners sometimes get this wrong: "The Lord loves me, so I can do whatever I want! The Lord will forgive me, anyway." What they don't know is that the Lord grieves over their sins--hates the sin, loves the sinner, wants to call the sinner to redemption.)

So, little by little, there comes so much sin in the world that the Lord thinks, "Why did I create this?" He decides to wash it all away without destroying the creation. He wanted to save two of everything, male and female, just as He created them ... so that they might be able to reproduce themselves after their own kind.

When dry land appears, Noah comes out to make a prayer of sacrifice and thanksgiving. After, he falls asleep, and the sons, seeing the father's nakedness, decide to have sex with their own father. (A lot of folks haven't heard this before, because most preachers won't preach from this text.) The flood had come to wipe out the sin, but the sons defied God's plan. But God doesn't scorch the earth; He forgives.

So when Abraham's Sarah couldn't have any children--in the next story we hear--we have a repeated motif of barrenness. Note that both women and land can be barren, that is to say, lacking the ability to produce, incapable of multiplication. Yet when the Lord entered into a relationship with Abraham, he promised multiplication with a wife who is incapable of multiplying. So here's Sarah, and though she's advanced in age, she produces a child. Even though she's barren, which human beings of their own accord can do nothing about, the Lord does this for her.

Does this mean men are excluded from barrenness? No! This is a powerful metaphor for anyone. There is a much more profound kind of barrenness that doesn't have to do with having children: It's about the soul and spirit.

What makes the land barren? No rain. And isn't it funny how often we use "rain" as a metaphor for blessings? What else? Too much or too little sun. And the land has got to have nutrients, something in the earth that predisposes it to be receptive.

The soul, if not properly nourished (just like land, just like a woman's womb), will produce nothing. But in the case of that kind of barrenness--the land may not be responsible for its barrenness, and a woman may not be responsible for her barrenness--in the soul's condition, that barrenness is on you. It is on you. There's a way to fixt it, though: All you need is to be in relationship with the one who will supply the power of multiplication, the one who crosses out barrenness: God.

You ever notice how someone who has something to give always seems to have more to give? They always are saying, "Take this!" And the more they give, the more they seem to have for others. They never count the cost. "What did you say you needed?"

Remember the woman who came for Missionary Sunday, who said that she was crying on her stoop and her neighbor came by and said, "What's wrong?" She said, "I don't know what to do about my son. If I keep him in the public schools, he's going to be killed or join a gang." And the man went back to his house and came back and said, "I'm going to pay for your son to go to a private school." And he paid the whole thing. And it so radicalized her that she decided to start a program whereby they could raise scholarships for other kids like hers to go to private school. She had more and more to give.

Okay, here we go . . . Genesis 25. (That was a long intro, wasn't it?)

7 This is the length of Abraham’s life, one hundred and seventy-five years. ⁸Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. ⁹His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, ¹⁰the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with his wife Sarah. ¹¹After the death of Abraham God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.
12 These are the descendants of Ishmael . . .

And now it goes through a genealogy.

. . . Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave-girl, bore to Abraham. ¹³These are the names of the sons of Ishmael . . . [It goes through a whole series of generations.] ¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes.

But these aren't the tribes of Israel. Somebody else claims Ishmael as an ancestor: the Muslims. They draw back to Abraham like we do, and they say we have have him as a common ancestor. They say, "You all are the sons and daughters of that other child. We are the sons and daughters of Ishmael."

¹⁷(This is the length of the life of Ishmael, one hundred and thirty-seven years; he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.) ¹⁸They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled down alongside all his people. 19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, ²⁰and Isaac was forty years old . . .

So Abraham was his father; who was his mama? Sarah! (Why don't they just say that?)

. . . when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean.

There's the first mention of Laban. He married Rebekah, sister of Laban. So any of the children Isaac will have by Rebekah will be Laban's nieces and nephews. Let's keep the family straight, now.

²¹Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren . . .

Remember, Isaac is the son of the woman who had been barren. This is the same Isaac about whom, though Sarah was advanced in age, the Lord had made a promise and the Lord had delivered. And the same son, that when the Lord said to Abraham, "How much do you really love me?" Abraham said, "Oh, you know I love you!" And God called on him to sacrifice Isaac! And Abraham made that trek up onto the mountain to give Isaac back to the Lord. Just as he was about to plunge the knife into Isaac's chest, his wrist was staid just a centimeter. Isaac saw the knife come to his chest! And even if he didn't see it, he was bound, and he was conscious, and if he was conscious, he knew his father intended to kill him for the Lord. The father was going to kill his son. Now, don't you tell this lie that everyone likes to tell, because scripture doesn't say this: "Abraham knew that the Lord was going to save him from this position." No, he didn't! The Lord presented it as a test!

And now Isaac, born to Sarah who had been barren, turns around, and out of all the women he could have married, he picks Rebekah, who happens to be barren, too. It probably wasn't all that common for someone to be barren--with all the "begats" in this book, people were getting busy! So not everyone is barren . . . but he found and chose her. And the Lord granted his prayer. His wife, Rebekah, conceived because the Lord responded to his prayer.

. . . and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. ²²The children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If it is to be this way, why do I live?’

"Lord have mercy! There aren't even born yet, and they're fussing like this! I don't even know if I want to live if it's going to be like this." It's one thing for a woman to be pregnant and have one child in the womb kicking and going crazy. But two!

So she went to inquire of the Lord. ²³And the Lord said to her,
‘Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.’
²⁴When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. ²⁶Afterwards his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.^* Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. 27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Oh, Lord! Divisions already. Father favors one; mother favors the other. The trouble between these sons is already pitched for a heavy battle because of it.

29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. ³⁰Esau said to Jacob, ‘Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!’ (Therefore he was called Edom.^*) ³¹Jacob said, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ ³²Esau said, ‘I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?’ ³³Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first.’^* So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

There's an awful lot of talk in scripture about birthright, inheritance, what we are going to be heir to, what we shall receive. What is our portion? Recognize that language? When mamas and daddies die, and especially if they have anything left to leave, what begins to happen? Folk go to battle over what's left! They will fight . . . "It's not fair mama gave you that! I'm going to court!" (There's something to be said about dying broke.) Inheritances, while they're supposed to represent a certain continuity from generation to generation, end up tearing families to pieces. So, rather than everybody getting a piece with which they might be satisfied, everybody gets upset with everybody else. So here's Jacob trying to get everything he can at his brother's expense, looking for the opportunity to find what he can use to do it.

Here's the problem: Esau is afflicted with a fit of hunger, which is temporary. Jacob is to receive land and cattle and . . . just for filling Esau's stomach. There are folk who don't think about what might come; they want to satisfy their needs right now. It's a hard lesson to teach children: If you will forego this, now, you'll have so much more later.

So Jacob says, "Promise me! I'll keep my side of the bargain and give you some of this stew, but you have to give me your birthright." Look at the relationship: Jacob wants what he can get for his own advantage, so he robs his brother of his birthright, and he's robbing him with Esau's eyes wide open.

Genesis 26

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines. ²The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall show you.³Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfil the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

Now, who's the Lord talking to? Isaac.

⁴I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring, ⁵because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.’ 6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. ⁷When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister’; for he was afraid to say, ‘My wife,’ thinking, ‘or else the men of the place might kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she is attractive in appearance.’

Check this out: He's hiding as the husband, not because of the harm that might be done to her, but because of the harm that might be done to him. When people marry, don't they make an agreement? Don't they swear oaths to each other? Don't they talk about how they're going to remain steadfast? Don't they talk about how they're going to honor and respect each other? Don't they say they're going to protect each other? And don't they say, "until death do us part"? A promise is supposed to be unconditional. Not "I'll love if . . ."

⁸When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah. ⁹So Abimelech called for Isaac, and said, ‘So she is your wife! Why then did you say, “She is my sister”?’ Isaac said to him, ‘Because I thought I might die because of her.’ ¹⁰Abimelech said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’

In other words, Abimelech says, "You lied to us! You told us she was available, and anybody who thought she was available might have laid with her, and then your wife would have been exposed! And so would we!"

¹¹So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, ‘Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death.’ 12 Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in the same year reaped a hundredfold.

Now, here's the thing. In spite of the fact that he's done all of this wrong, the Lord made a promise, the Lord is not going to forsake him, the Lord is going to increase his number, and he's going to increase his land. The Lord has a Way.

The Lord blessed him, ¹³and the man became rich; he prospered more and more until he became very wealthy. ¹⁴He had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵(Now the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.) ¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, ‘Go away from us; you have become too powerful for us.’
17 So Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and settled there. ¹⁸Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham; for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the names that his father had given them. ¹⁹But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, ²⁰the herders of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac’s herders, saying, ‘The water is ours.’ So he called the well Esek,^* because they contended with him. ²¹Then they dug another well, and they quarrelled over that one also; so he called it Sitnah.^* ²²He moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rehoboth,^* saying, ‘Now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.’

We talked about water: The land will be barren if it doesn't have water. In order to have water, you must have a well. And "we shall be fruitful" because we have the well.

23 From there he went up to Beer-sheba. ²⁴And that very night the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham’s sake.’ ²⁵So he built an altar there, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army. ²⁷Isaac said to them, ‘Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?’ ²⁸They said, ‘We see plainly that the Lord has been with you; so we say, let there be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you ²⁹so that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ³⁰So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths; and Isaac set them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. ³²That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and said to him, ‘We have found water!’ ³³He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day.

What you're getting here is a sense of the nature of the promise that God makes--and even if you break your side of the bargain, the Lord has this way of staying with you. Because it's the will of the Lord for you to receive in spite of you. Do you think the Lord is aware the Isaac did not do right by his wife? Of course!

Otherwise, we would not be at all. We could not sustain the Lord turning his back on us. The fact that you're still here is evidence that the Lord has not turned his back you you in any way. And it leaves open the possibility, always, for you to be receptive and to recognize that you have been forgiven.

Families tear themselves to pieces. Can they be restored? Yes! Is there power sufficient of divinity in the world for us, that in spite of however much of a mess we make, the Lord may restore us? Yes! (Now, when we say "restore," we mean "after the fashion of God's own mercy." Not restoration to exactly the same condition as before.)

Hear something, though: Some people are better off without some folks. Yes, you can forgive! Just don't be foolish. Sometimes it's wise to forgive and move on.

The Lord intended for us to be healthy vessels for him to do his good work among his children. If you're being beaten within an inch of your life within an abusive relationship, you're better off being out of it! If you're with a person who has so consumed all the resources of your family because they have openly offended your trust, you don't continue to stay with this person, as much as you love them, if it means sacrificing the care of your children.

The point: The Lord does not expect you to stay in the condition of barrenness. The Lord will cross it out and provide something else, instead. Jacob is going to mess up big time, and Jacob, for fear of losing his life, is going to have to leave. And when he leaves, he's going to end up with his uncle, working for him. And his uncle is going to try to cheat him, his brother, and his father. But before you say "what goes around comes around," you need to know something else. When he goes, he's afraid that Laban is going to kill him. So he's leaving her to go home. And going home, he's afraid because he's afraid when he gets home, his brother's going to kill him.

He doesn't even have a right to appeal to his brother, he's done so much dirt. He played his brother. And he knows his brother knows that he played him. And when he gets home, the brother does the thing that's desired of God: forgives him. But that's for next week.

Join us in person any time ... Bible Study is held on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.

Allen Chapel Bible Study

Genesis 30:25 to Genesis 32:20

Genesis 31

Jacob Flees with Family and Flocks

Genesis 32

Genesis 33

Jacob Reaches Shechem

Jacob and Esau Meet

Genesis 29-30:24

Genesis 29

Genesis 30

Genesis 27-28

Genesis 27

Genesis 28

Genesis 25-26

Genesis 26