Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 33-35.

I have often heard this passage interpreted as an example of Jacob being a deceiver, tricking Esau into letting him travel alone, but letting him think that Jacob would join his household when Jacob had no such intention.  However, this reads to me as a negotiation between Jacob and Esau.  First, Esau invites Jacob to merge his family into Esau’s household” “I’ll accompany you.”  If Jacob had accepted Esau’s offer, he would have entered into a similar relationship with Esau as he had originally had with Laban.  When Jacob politely declined that offer by essentially saying that he would continue to decide what was best for his family and his possessions, Esau offered to take Jacob under his wing and extend his protection to him.  This would have left Jacob as somewhat independent, but subordinate to Esau.  Jacob’s reply to that was, “Thank you, but I am able to protect my family on my own.”  If Jacob had accepted Esau’s offer, his descendants and Esau’s would have been one people rather that the two they developed into.  The lesson we learn here is that the two brothers reconciled and peaceably lived next to each other, even after burying their father.  Jacob made efforts here to make up for the wrong he had done to his brother, and Esau accepted those offerings in the spirit in which they were made.  Esau could have said, “None of that is necessary,” and refused to accept Jacob’s offer, but that would have left Jacob feeling like he was indebted to his brother.  Esau demonstrated his forgiveness of his brother by inviting him into his household, but also demonstrated his respect for him by allowing him to move independently.  Esau could have attempted to forcibly annex Jacob’s family by leaving his men to escort Jacob, but, again, demonstrated his love and respect for his brother by allowing Jacob to stand on his own.

We can learn two lessons from this passage.  If we have wronged another, when we seek their forgiveness we should make it clear that we acknowledge that we did something which gives them a legitimate grievance against us.  And, when someone has wronged us we should allow them to do that which gives them peace that they have made good the wrong they have done.  I believe that Esau had forgiven Jacob long before Jacob gave him gifts, but by accepting those gifts Esau made clear that their relationship had been restored.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 31-32.

So, when I started to compose my thoughts about what to write about today’s passage I decided to focus on the oath between Laban and Jacob.  In particular I was struck by whom Laban swore his oath: “the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father.”  But, as I reread the passage to fully form my thoughts I was brought up short by whom Jacob swore: “the Fear of his father Isaac.”  I know that the capitalization of “Fear” in this passage is a translators’ interpretation, since Hebrew does not make that distinction the way that English does.  Then I looked and noticed that a few verses earlier Jacob had said, “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. ”  So, either Jacob is saying that Laban was afraid of Isaac (which is not out of the question, but doesn’t seem to fit the context), or The Fear of Isaac is Jacob’s term for God.  As I was looking into this I came across a scholar who says that name of the Edomite (descendants of Esau) god Qos is derived from the word for dread (“Shield of Abraham, Fear of Isaac, Dread of Esau”).  From there I did a quick search for information on the Edomite god, Qos.  What I learned was that many of the archeological records of Qos suggest that he was considered at times to be the same as YHWH, including some which suggests there was an Israelite-Edomite worship center at Beersheba.  Considering that Esau was also Isaac’s son and that one of his wives was a daughter of Ishmael, it would not be surprising that some of his descendants worshiped God (even if they referred to Him as Qos rather than YHWH).

Now, I want to return to One by whom Laban swore.  Laban swore by the God of Jacob’s grandfather (Abraham) and his own grandfather (Nahor), and of their father.  Despite considering the God of Abraham, Nahor, and Terah to be a god of great power, Laban worshiped other gods, gods which Rachel had stolen from him when Jacob took her away from her father’s lands.  How many of us know someone who admits to God’s existence and power, yet worships some lesser god(s)?  How many of us struggle to avoid doing the same?  We need to fear God enough to not do that, and we need to help others feel that same fear.  We also need to see how that fear can be a shield for us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 29-30.

Rachel followed in the footsteps of Jacob’s grandmother Sarah by giving her maid to her husband, hoping he would have sons by her.  It worked out better for Rachel than it did for Sarah, and better for Jacob than it did for Abraham.  However, the whole situation shows us why polygamy is a bad idea.  Of all of the accounts in the Bible where it tells us something about the relationships where a man had more than one wife, Jacob’s circumstances worked out the best, and it is clear that both Leah and Rachel would have been happier if their husband had not been married to another woman.

The first thing I want to note about the deal which Jacob entered into with Laban for his pay after he had worked off his debt for marrying Laban’s daughters was for the less valuable members of the flock.  Sheep and goats with solid color coats would have been more valuable than those with varicolored coats.  Even so, Laban took steps to try to cheat Jacob out of the wages to which he had agreed.  I was struggling to find a real lesson in today’s passage until I wrote that last sentence.  Then it struck me, Laban had made a deal to keep Jacob working for him because he had learned through divination that God had blessed him because Jacob was working for him.  Even knowing that, Laban tried to cheat Jacob.  That is such a human thing to do.  We know that that God has blessed us because of how someone benefited from our actions, but rather than accept whatever blessings God will give us for dealing with them honestly and aboveboard, we try to greedily game the system to benefit ourselves more than it benefits them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 26-28.

I am not sure what to make of something that caught my attention in today’s passage.  First, I noticed that Isaac was caught out for lying by saying that Rebekah was his sister because Abimelek saw him caressing her through a window.  That suggests that Isaac was living in town (after all, if he was telling people Rebekah was his sister, he wouldn’t caress her unless he was at home, or, at least close to home).  Second, Rebekah had some of Esau’s clothes to give Jacob because the clothes were “in the house”.  Yet, in between, after Isaac left Gerar, the passage tells us that he pitched his tent near Beersheba.  I want to note that God appeared to Isaac there before he pitched his tent.  The way this reads the phrase “pitched his tent” seems to have a more long term implication than just setting up a tent to stay for a night or two.

I mentioned God appearing to Isaac in the last paragraph because I want to connect it to God appearing to Jacob at Bethel, where He had previously appeared to Abraham.  It is when God appears to Jacob at Bethel that Isaac is put on the list of those who belong to God.  When God begins speaking to Jacob He introduces Himself as the Lord, the God of Abraham  and the God of Isaac.  Here God promised Jacob that He would be with him wherever he went and would bring him back to this land.  Jacob then affirmed that if God did that, God would be his God.  One thing is interesting, and is easy to miss, when Jacob says this he modifies the “deal” God was offering him.  God promised that He would bring Jacob safely back to this land.  Jacob promised to make God his God, if God brought him safely back to his father’s household.  And yet ,even though Jacob put a condition on taking God as his God, he acknowledged that it would be God who gave him everything he would gain.  Jacob promised that if God brought him safely home, he would give back to God a tenth of everything which God gave him.  Jacob acknowledges here that everything he would gain would be given to him by God

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 24-25.

I usually write about the servant of Abraham seeking, and finding, a wife for Isaac when I read this passage.  However, today I want to focus on what it says about Jacob and Esau.  Until today, it never occurred to me that Rebekah’s difficulty in having children might be related to Sarah’s difficulty in having children.  After all, Rebekah’s father was Sarah’s nephew (we normally think of him as Abraham’s nephew, when we think about it, but Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister, and thus either the full sister or half-sister of Nahor).  I am not sure that is significant, but it never crossed my mind before that Rebekah was related to Sarah.  More importantly is the reason we know that Rebekah had difficulty having children: Isaac prayed to the Lord on her behalf.  Two sentences later, the writer tells us that Rebekah went to inquire of the Lord.  I never thought about how important those two sentences, one about Isaac’s relationship with God, and one about Rebekah’s, are.  Genesis has a lot about Abraham’s relationship with God, and a lot about Jacob’s, but it tells us very little about Isaac’s relationship with Him.  Yet later, especially in the New Testament, people identify God as the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”.  Isaac is every bit as important to them in understanding who God is as Abraham and Jacob.  And what do we know about Isaac’s relationship with God?  Isaac prayed for his wife!

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 21-23.

The account of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away by Abraham reads to us as if Ishmael was a young child.  However, a careful reading shows that Ishmael was fourteen years old when Isaac was born.  So, he was older than fourteen when Isaac was weaned and he got himself in trouble so that Sarah insisted that Abraham send him away.  Realizing that Ishmael was a teenager when he mocked his baby half-brother puts a different light on the situation.  And, perhaps we should use the account of Ishmael as an object lesson for teenagers.

Every year I try to find something to write which does not involve the obvious points about the account of Abraham taking Isaac in to sacrifice him to God, but that story is just too important to avoid.  So, I usually fail.  We know from other records that the people Abraham lived among believed in child sacrifice.  Abraham had to be feeling that the people among whom he lived were judging him because he had not sacrificed Isaac to his God.  Abraham must have felt like they thought that if he truly had faith in God the way he said he did, if he truly served his God the way he claimed, why hadn’t he sacrificed his son to his God?  He hadn’t sacrificed Ishmael, but, to a degree, Ishmael was only the son of a slave, not his “real” heir.  So, God, who had no desire for child sacrifice, pushed Abraham to act, to go into the wilderness to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  God had a plan to show Abraham that He had no desire for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, that He had no desire for His people to sacrifice the children which He had given them.  On the way, Abraham made a prophecy, although he did not know he was doing so as he did.  When Abraham told Isaac that God would provide the lamb for the sacrifice, he thought he was misleading his son, that he was hiding from Isaac the fact that he intended to sacrifice him.  However, God was speaking through Abraham at that moment.  So, when the angel of Lord spoke to him at the same moment he noticed a ram caught in the thicket, he realized that God had indeed provided the lamb.  There are really two lessons here.  First, God does not want us to sacrifice our children.  We are to cherish the children God gives us (whether our biological children, or the children He gives us to train up in His service) and train them to love and serve God.  Second, He does not need or want us to sacrifice our children because He has provided.  In Jesus’ death on the cross, God sacrificed His own Son for our sins so that we would not sacrifice the children He gave us.  So, when people kill their children, God is heartbroken because they have not understood the depth of His love.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 19-20.

On of the blessings of reading through the Bible on a regular basis is that, eventually, you start to notice connections between passages which you might otherwise overlook.  Today, I noticed the similarity between the behavior of the men of Sodom and the men of Gibeah as described in Judges 19.  I am quite sure that the similarity was not accidental.  The writer(s) of the Book of Judges intended for us to notice that the men of Gibeah behaved similar to the way the men of Sodom behaved when they brought God’s judgement down on their city.  I will not go into the significance of that similarity today, since it rightfully belongs in the study of the Judges 19 passage.  I just wanted to bring it up as something I would not have been less likely to notice if I did not read over these passages at least once a year.

When the angels had resolved the situation with the men of Sodom who attempted to break down Lot’s door, they told Lot to get anyone whom he valued out of the city before God destroyed it.  Unfortunately, Lot’s sons-in-law did not take him seriously when he told them that God was about to destroy the city.  Perhaps I am mistaken, but it reads to me that they viewed Lot as a religious nut job.  That would be consistent with what the men of Sodom had said to Lot earlier in the night.  Their comment seems to suggest that Lot had previously indicated that he did not approve of the behavior of the people of Sodom, which reflects well on Lot.  We should seek to be viewed by our nonbelieving neighbors as Lot was viewed by his.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 16-18.

I love writing about the account of Abram negotiating with God about how many righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah would be enough to save the city, because it should inspire us to realize how few people of God it takes to transform a society.  However, today I was really inspired to look at the account of how Ishmael came to be conceived.  It starts shortly after God had made a covenant with Abram that his offspring would inherit the land of Canaan.  We have here a clear example of bad interpersonal relationships.  Sarai suggested that Abram take Hagar to his bed in order to have children.  Then when Hagar became pregnant, she became conceited and despised Sarai.  Sarai blamed Abram for Hagar’s attitude.  Rather than do the work to fix things, Abram backed Sarai, allowing Sarai to mistreat Hagar.  Finally, rather than adjust her behavior towards Sarai, Hagar ran away.  God intervened and sent Hagar back.  When I read this, I go back and forth from feeling for each of the three of them, but all three handled this poorly.  Sarai lacked faith, Hagar got arrogant, and Abram failed to take control of the situation.  There was blame to go around in this situation.  Any one of them could have chosen to be the “bigger person”.  In the same way, most relationship issues we face can be resolved if we choose to act with love towards those around us.  It is also an example of the problems with polyamory.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 12-15.

The first thing I noticed in this passage was that when Abraham arrived in the land of Canaan, he set up an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord near Bethel.  Many years later, his grandson Jacob would have a vision, and then many years after that, Jacob would also build an altar there.  It was near Bethel that Abram made a deal with Lot for Lot to take his flocks into the valley near Sodom, while Abraham stayed in the hill country.  It was shortly before this when God told Abram for the first time that He would give all of this land to Abram’s offspring.  Then after Abram separated from Lot, God appeared to him again and told him that He would give the land to Abram’s offspring.  This second time, God told Abram that his offspring would be so numerous that they could not be counted.  Then, after rescuing Lot, God told Abram that He would reward him.  This time, Abram questioned God, saying that he had no children and one of his servants was his heir.  God responded by telling Abram that he would indeed have children and his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (or, perhaps, as uncountable as the stars in the sky).  It was at this point where Abram believed God’s word to him and was counted as righteous for that faith.  Yet, when God told him for the third time that He would give him this land, Abram asked God how he could be sure.  So, even though Abram had faith in God, he still asked God for something to strengthen his faith, something to assure him that he understood God’s promise.  We too may ask God for assurance of our faith.  This Would not be the last time when Abram needed God’s assurance.  Yet, God credited his faith as righteousness.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 8-11.

Whenever I read today’s passage I am struck by God’s promise to Noah and his sons.  Actually, I am struck by what the passage tells us about God’s reaction to the offerings which Noah made after releasing the animals from the ark.

As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.

This should act as a counter to those theories which arise regularly declaring that if we do not change the way we behave mankind will destroy all life on the planet, or perhaps they declare that the earth will become uninhabitable for humans.  In either case, God’s promise here to Himself, along with His  promise to Noah and his sons, should reassure us that such fears are mistaken.  The day will come when God will bring an end to this earth, but until that day seedtime and harvest will never cease.  That does not mean that we should act in ways which pollute this earth or otherwise damage the environment.  It just means that we should not allow anyone to convince us that doom is pending, whether that doom is nuclear winter, hole in the ozone layer, global warming, or any other potential doom.  God has promised that He will allow nothing to interfere with the cycle of life until that day when He brings about the end of this earth.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.