LET US GET UP AND GO TO THE BETHEL!

Posted on October 27, 2024 by randscallawayffm

I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered
I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered
I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered
That’s why I trust Him, that’s why I trust Him

(Songwriters: Brandon Lake / Christopher Joel Brown / Mitch Wong / Steven Furtick; Trust In God lyrics © Essential Music Publishing, Integrity Music)

It is God who first calls out to us!  It is God who leads the Way back to him for all the days of our lives.  It is God who tells us like he told Jacob, to “get up and go” to the place where we can hear Him with greater focused attention—at an altar of worship, thanksgiving, sacrifice, and submission. “Come to the place where you can remember what I have done for you,” says God, to all who believe Him so we can live more grateful lives. Come and be blessed by God because that is what God enjoys most—blessing us with his growing character traits within us.  Come and get further directions from God with obedient hearts.  Seek to know God with the assurance from God that He is with us wherever we go.

THIS is what God is telling Jacob to do—and Jacob humbly obeys and leads his whole household to go with him.  Bury the idols, cleanse your bodies, and change your clothes—we getting ready to meet God—the One who answered me when I needed Him most.

I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered
That’s why I trust Him, that’s why I trust Him…

Genesis 35

Jacob Returns to Bethel

Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. 5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.

6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth.

9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. 12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” 13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him.

14 Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. 15 Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.

The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac

16 Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. 17 And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t despair, for you have another son.” 18 As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.

19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb.

21 Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder. 22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it.

Jacob had twelve sons:

23 The sons of Leah:

Reuben the firstborn of Jacob,

Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

24 The sons of Rachel:

Joseph and Benjamin.

25 The sons of Rachel’s servant Bilhah:

Dan and Naphtali.

26 The sons of Leah’s servant Zilpah:

Gad and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

27 Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. 28 Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years. 29 Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God calls Jacob back to the place where He wrestled for Jacob’s fully committed heart, mind, and soul after fleeing from his brother’s wrath from deception.  God wants to meet Jacob there again to remind him of all the ways God has led him and was with him through all his troubles and trials as a result of the deception.  Jacob responds with humbled obedience for He knows God saved him from what Esau could have done to him.  Jacob, “the deceiver” now has a new name in glory—Israel.

God reminds Jacob.  In the middle of life’s continuing problems and challenges, God reminded Jacob of his new name, Israel. Through this reminder, God shows he is faithful to his promises. God’s promises set believers apart.

God’s promise is fulfilled in Jacob with the blessings of 12 sons who will represent the twelve tribes of Israel. 

Jacob responds by hearing and obeying by getting rid of all that could hinder his worship to God.  Jacob buries all household idols and tells the family to prepare themselves for holy worship of God.  Remember Rachel who hid her father’s idols then lied about it?  Rachel had stolen her father’s household idols (Genesis 31:19, 34, 35), and Jacob knew that other false gods were hidden in the camp. Worshiping the gods of the pagan nations was always a temptation to the Israelites.

Jacob cleans up on the outside so God can do His work on the inside.  In God’s Word; washing the body and changing clothes symbolize making a new beginning. Like dirt, sin is defiling and must be washed away (Psalm 51:2, 7; Isaiah 1:16; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 John 1:9). Our old garments typify the old life with its failures (Isaiah 64:6), but God in His mercy gives us “new garments” so we can make a fresh beginning (Genesis 3:21; Isaiah 61:10; Zechariah 3:1–5; Luke 15:22; Revelation 3:18). Before God gave the law at Mount Sinai, He ordered the people to wash and change clothes, for they were about to enter a solemn covenant with Him (Exodus 19:9–15).

Perhaps we have places that are especially meaningful to us because of spiritual experiences we have had there, but a “holy site” must never take the place of the Holy God. To visit a special location and try to recapture old blessings is to live in the past. Let’s ask God for new blessings and a new revelation of Himself!

Jacob’s restoration was now complete. He was back in the place of God’s choosing; he had offered himself and his sacrifices to the Lord; the Lord had spoken to him; and the covenant promises had been reaffirmed. He had come from the house of Laban to the house of God, and though he still had much to learn about his walk with the Lord, Jacob was starting to be “Israel” and live like a prince instead of a pauper.  He was forgiven by Esau and restored to the family.  The proof?  When Isaac, their father died, Esau and Jacob came home to honor him…“And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”

The last sentence of this passage speaks volumes of a restored relationship between brothers as well as with God.

Wow, the story of God in His people has so many twists and turns!  The lessons we learn just never ends, right?  Lean into what God is saying to you…

Lord,

Thank you for your word that teaches us Truth.  Thank you for reminding us of all you have done for our good and for your glory.  Thank you for telling us how you work in and through real, imperfect people to show us our that our own imperfections can be forgiven and our lives restored all because of your relentless compassionate love for us. Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within us.  You called and I’m coming to listen…

In Jesus Name, Amen

Will You meet me here again
‘Cause all I want is all You are
Will You meet me here again…

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REVENGEFUL DECEIT

Posted on October 26, 2024 by randscallawayffm

To get even, take back what was taken from us, while repaying the hurt doled out to us is our natural first response without thinking.  Just watch toddlers in the church nursery to prove this theory!  However, God reminds us that it is He who sees all hearts, all circumstances, and knows who needs His discipline in His way in His time.  God is the judge over all and in all.  His compassions they fail not for His people.  Great is His faithfulness!   

Genesis 34

Dinah and the Shechemites

Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”

5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home.

6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”

11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. 12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”

13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. 14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. 17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”

18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. 19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s family, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city. 21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 22 But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.”

24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.

25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The defilement of Dinah was a sin of abusive, selfish behavior delivered by a spoiled son of a leader who demanded to have all he wanted even if that meant hurting someone else to satisfy his own desires.    

Dinah’s older, protective brothers, Levi and Simeon immediately sought revenge from the offending perpetrator.  It is certainly the first thought of most humans—to seek revenge.  Even though women were thought of as less than men with little to no rights, the defilement of Dinah was considered an “outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done. But, as foreigners passing through, Jacob sought to deescalate the situation while broken hearted over what had been done to his daughter.  Before Jacob could do that, Simeon and Levi took matters into their own hands with a deceptive scheme to “get even,” escalating the matter which resulted in murdering the innocent along with the perpetrator.

Taking matters into our own hands is a sin unto itself.  Revenging and avenging means we don’t trust God and think we can do better than God.  When we “play God” we make always make matters worse.  We fall back on our sinful natural as our first instinctive response to our anger when offended. “Don’t sin in your anger” is written in God’s Word to warn us where anger can lead us. (Ephesians 4:26)

Righteous anger led to unrighteous responses.  Levi and Simeon’s out-of-control rage led them immediately to deceit for the purpose of murder of the offender along with all the people in the offender’s world.   “You have brought more trouble…”, says Jacob to Levi and Simeon who took the matter too far leaving a mess to clean up by God through his chosen leader, Jacob, their father.  

God will speak to Israel often about who is in charge over them and who will take care of their enemies;

“Have I not kept this in reserve
    and sealed it in my vaults?
It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
    In due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
    and their doom rushes upon them.”  Deuteronomy 32:34-35

Believers in Jesus must not play God and try to avenge themselves. Returning evil for evil, or good for good, is the way most people live. But Christians must live on a higher level and return good for evil. Of course, this requires extreme love of God in us; because our first inclination is to fight back. It also requires faith, believing that God can work and accomplish His will in our lives and in the lives of those who hurt us. We must let God sort it all out—all the wrongs, injustice, persecutions, and defilements, for only He can bring holy resolution.  Only God, not us, can see and know all the details of the matter.

Certainly, the rape and abuse of anyone should be brought to justice—in a court of law–but not by our own hands or we become just as guilty. 

In the day-to-day ways of life, Jesus tells us how to deal with our enemies of the faith: “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.” –Jesus, Matthew 5:44, MSG

Paul follows up Jesus’ teachings with how to respond to daily offense:  “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  Romans 12:17-21, (referring to Deuteronomy 32:35)

The only way to live this is effectively and successfully is by the power of God’s Holy Spirit living in us.  We cannot do life without His leading and His power to transform us. The first words in Romans 12 tells us how to yield to God in our on-going transformation:  “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  Romans 12:1-2 (Read all of chapter 12 for specific behaviors that please God and helps us mature in His love.)

There’s more to this story…stay tuned!

Lord,

Lesson learned.  You are God.  We are not.  Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls with your new tender mercies given daily, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within us as we look to you to help us be overcomers of evil in this world.  Help us to seek your justice, love your mercy, as we walk humbly with you in the lead.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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RESTORING WHAT WAS LOST

Posted on October 25, 2024 by randscallawayffm

There is no human on earth that has not experienced a broken relationship with another human.  Maybe it was a close friend who was like a brother or sister, but one of you moved away and you didn’t keep in touch.  Maybe you moved because a family member expected way more than you could give back to them.  Maybe it was because you wanted to do life on your own without help from anyone else; so, you left all other relationships behind that you felt hindered your freedom.  Or maybe, you deceived them and had to leave town before you were caught and had to pay for the damages down.  For whatever reason, relationships are worth restoring.  But it all begins with our relationship with God.

God has done a great work in Esau. But Jacob doesn’t know that—yet. Jacob dreaded to see the brother he had deceived twenty years earlier.  But Jacob was led by God to go home and face all that he had left behind.  Jacob knew God was with him; but he plotted a “plan B” just in case meeting with Esau didn’t go well. Was a backup plan necessary, though?

Isn’t that just like us?  We worry ourselves sick over what the worst that might happen; discounting the fact that God has gone before us to prepare the Way to restoration.

Genesis 33

Jacob Meets Esau

Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two female servants. 2 He put the female servants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear. 3 He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept. 5 Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children. “Who are these with you?” he asked.

Jacob answered, “They are the children God has graciously given your servant.”

6 Then the female servants and their children approached and bowed down. 7 Next, Leah and her children came and bowed down. Last of all came Joseph and Rachel, and they too bowed down.

8 Esau asked, “What’s the meaning of all these flocks and herds I met?”

“To find favor in your eyes, my lord,” he said.

9 But Esau said, “I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.”

10 “No, please!” said Jacob. “If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably. 11 Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.

12 Then Esau said, “Let us be on our way; I’ll accompany you.”

13 But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die. 14 So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the flocks and herds before me and the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”

15 Esau said, “Then let me leave some of my men with you.”

“But why do that?” Jacob asked. “Just let me find favor in the eyes of my lord.”

16 So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir. 17 Jacob, however, went to Sukkoth, where he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is called Sukkoth.

18 After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city. 19 For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. 20 There he set up an altar and called it *El Elohe Israel. 

(*El Elohe Israel can mean El is the God of Israel or mighty is the God of Israel.)

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Restoration with others begins with possessing, growing, and nurturing the most relationship of all—our relationship with God.  This requires “walking humbly with God,” (Micah 6:8). A relationship with God means truly listening to what He has to say with a willing obedient heart with a desire to do what He says because of our committed love for Him.  Our relationship with God is believing that HE knows what is best for us.  It means leaning not on our own human abilities to problem solve or relate to others; but to wholly lean on His wisdom, insight and understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

This holy relationship with God means giving up what we think we want; to gain everything God knows we need—and more! 

God loves with a love that is beyond human thinking.  God loved us before we knew to love Him back.  His love never fails and is relentless and unchanging.  His love “covers over a multitude of sins.”  His love cost us nothing but our willingness to love Him back.  But His love for us cost Him his One and Only Son who loved us and gave his life to redeem us from all our sins while removing them “as far as the east is from the west”!

Without Jesus redeeming us, a restored relationship with our loving God would not be possible.  “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins,” writes Peter who is a disciple of Jesus who was forgiven often and completely by Jesus.  God’s work in Peter transformed him to love like Jesus loved him.  God’s work in all who believe in Him, over countless generations, has transformed our relationship with Him and with others.  As we grow in His love we begin to scratch the surface of what love means. 

John defines the love of God as “knowing God” who is Love.  1 John 4:7-8  (Read all the writings of John to get the full picture of the love of God!)

Paul clarifies what God’s Love does and doesn’t do: 

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”     1 Corinthians 13:4-13

In restoring relationships, will we seek God first and follow His leading?

Will His love lead us to reconcile?

Will we run to those who broke our heart with open arms or plot their demise?

Esau showed us what real forgiveness looks like when he welcomed Jacob back into his life. God did that!

Lord,

Thank you for this story of forgiveness and restored relationship that represents what you have done for us.  Thank you for forgiveness of all our sins. Thank you for making us whole and holy is your presence. Thank you for being with us always. Thank you for guiding us to higher thinking with restored relationships with others. Restoration begins with You in our hearts.  Help us to love and forgive like you did for us.

In Jesus Name, Amen

From the cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  Luke 23:34

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WRESTLING RIGHTEOUS RELATIONSHIPS

Posted on October 24, 2024 by randscallawayffm

To come back home means facing Esau, the twin brother Jacob deceived and ran away from twenty years ago to escape the wrath of anger and retaliation from Esau.  Fear seeps in and overcomes Jacob.  Jacob’s emotions of dread in seeing Esau for the first time overwhelms him. So, God sends a team of angels to help him form a plan of reconciliation. Jacob’s anticipated fear may have guided this plan of pacifying Esau with gifts of wealth with a backup plan for escape. But most of all, Jacob is hoping for a welcome but expecting a war between them. 

God wants a right relationship between two brothers and with God, Himself.  God will wrestle Jacob to the ground to prove His will and purpose in and for Jacob whom He has called.

Genesis 32

Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

32 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”

6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”

9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

17 He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”

19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” 21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles With God

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Confrontations are difficult at best between people who have wronged each other and seek the justice of revenge and restitution. But God will intervene with His plan that supersedes our wisdom when we seek Him first.  Wrestle with what God has to say, but ultimately, obey God.  A right attitude, with a humbled heart, and opened mind, led by God’s Holy Spirit should be the first step toward approaching reconciliation.  God will prepare the heart of the one being confronted when we prepare our hearts to do His will to reconcile.

Gifts to pacify was part of the culture then to promote peace and avoid war between to opposing factions.  Today, our offenses are not easily pacified with gifts, especially if trust has been shaken.  Gifts might raise our eyebrows as we wonder if this is just another way gain control over us and take all we have.  No one likes the bait and switch method of relationships.  Be honest and sincere in what ever God tells us to do.

“Anticipating a difficult reunion with Esau, Jacob took the wise approach and sent messengers ahead to inform his brother that he was coming. But instead of committing the whole matter to the Lord, who had protected him from Laban, Jacob adopted a condescending attitude that wasn’t befitting to the man God had chosen to carry on the Abrahamic covenant. Sending the messengers was a good idea, but calling Esau “my lord” and himself “your servant,” and trying to impress Esau with his wealth was only evidence that Jacob wasn’t trusting God to care for him.” –Warren Wiersbe, Study Bible

A believer who is walking by faith need not fear the enemy or whatever bad news may come. Where can we look for help in such times? In the face of the most terrifying calamity he could imagine, the Psalmist was confident that God was ultimately in control of the world. He writes; “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Psalm 46:1–3, ESV).

Jacob was “greatly afraid and distressed” (verse 7) and therefore reverted to his old policy of scheming.  God sent a “man” to wrestle Jacob’s emotions and dread to bring these feelings of fear under His control while leading Jacob which is the best blessing of all we could ever imagine or dream!  This blessing is the sweet, holy reconciliation between God and humanity made is his image, between brothers, sisters, fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, who belong to God.  Jacob’s limp will remind him of God’s relentless love and faithfulness to him. 

God meets us at whatever level He finds us in order to lift us to where He wants us to be. Jacob had spent most of his adult life wrestling with people—Esau, Isaac, Laban, and even his wives—so God came to him as a wrestler. But he doesn’t leave Jacob where He met Him; God renamed Jacob, Israel, with more challenging work to be done.

At Bethel, God had promised to bless Jacob, and from a material point of view, the promise was fulfilled, for Jacob was now a very wealthy man. But there’s much more to the blessing of God than flocks, herds, and servants; there’s also the matter of godly character and spiritual influence.

Jacob had a new name; he had a new walk (he was limping); and he had a new relationship with God that would help him face and solve any problem if only he would exercise faith.

Avoid scheming and manipulation to get others “on your side”; instead may we be led by the love of God in us.  May God lead our responseto Him and to others with honest and complete forgiveness. “Love keeps no record of wrong.” (1 Corinthians 13) Love like God loves us who forgives and forgets our sins. 

To God be the glory for providing the perfect One who reconciles us to Him! Be reconciled to God by believing in Jesus, who One and Only way to the heart of God in relationship with God.  Only Jesus. 

Lord,

Thank you for teaching us what it takes to build our faith in you.  Help us to avoid human scheming and plotting our plan; but to seek you instead for wisdom, insight, and understanding in all our relationships and circumstances.  May our focus be keenly fixed on You—the greatest relationship of all!

In Jesus Name, Amen

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GOING HOME

Posted on October 23, 2024 by randscallawayffm

Goodbyes are most often packed with all forms of emotions.  Long-lasting relationships can be solidified or broken over goodbyes.  God teaches Jacob, and us, that we must not wait until death or a tragic occurrence takes away the ability to reconcile a broken family relationship.  Forgive and be at peace.  God provides a way for Jacob and Laban to make peace after twenty years of deceit between them.  

God tells Jacob to go back home.  Jacob readily obeys!  Jacob cannot leave soon enough!  But watch as God prepares Jacob and Laban for reconciliation.  Laban does not want to let him go because Jacob brought prosperity to his household while he was in service to him.  Laban can’t bear to see his daughters and grandkids go with Jacob but that seems secondary to the wealth Jacob had accumulated for Laban over the years of servitude.   

What else can we learn from God?  There are hidden gems of God’s sovereignty and presence if we look closely for God in this story of “going home.”

Genesis 31

Jacob Flees From Laban

31 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” 2 And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been.

3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

4 So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. 5 He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.

10 “In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’”

14 Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? 15 Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. 16 Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.”

17 Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels, 18 and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

19 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. 21 So he fled with all he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23 Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

25 Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. 27 Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? 28 You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. 29 I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”

31 Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. 32 But if you find anyone who has your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.

33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.

35 Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods.

36 Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? 37 Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.

38 “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. 40 This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 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. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”

43 Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? 44 Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.”

45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.

48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed. 49 It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”

51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. 53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.”

So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.

55 Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jacob walked with God so he heard God when He spoke with an obedient heart.  If Jacob was not walking with God this story would have taken a different road.  But God in His Sovereignty led Jacob through all his trials and tests and provide success in all Jacob did as a servant to Laban.  Jacob listened to God.  God was indeed “with” Jacob in relationship.

Jacob’s faith in God, along with the love of the family, gave him the strength, patience, and wisdom to endure serving Laban for twenty years until God told him to go home.  All those who knew Jacob knew God was with him—even Laban.  That’s why Laban did not want to let it go!  What a testimony to God in the life of Jacob who was once a “deceiver” himself, but was transforming because of God was now directing his life.

Goodbyes are harder when reconciliation with forgiveness needs to be accomplished. God commanded Jacob to return to his homeland after years of being mistreated by his father-in-law Laban. After running, hiding, chasing, and one more deceptive move by Rachel, peace is made between Jacob and Laban.  God did that!  God spoke to both men in preparation for peace to be accomplished.  God does that for us, today, too!

SIDE NOTE:  On the road home to his father, Issac; Jacob now nervously prepares for his meeting with his brother, Esau, whom he’d wronged years ago. God will work on Esau’s heart so that reconciliation and peace can be made with his twin brother, Jacob. Yes, there’s even more to God’s story of reconciliation through forgiveness.

We must respond to God who brings peace to situations and family relationships that seem beyond our reach.  When He says go, we must respond quickly with, “Yes, Lord, I will go.  When God says wait, we wait, even if it takes twenty years!

But when God arranges a meeting for the purpose of reconciliation; we must be a willing participant with an open heart and mind ready to say and do what God directs. Only then will His peace, that goes beyond human comprehension and understanding, can be accomplished.  Forgiveness from both parties is key to reconciliation and real peace.

Our response begins with being still before God, letting go of the score card of offenses, while listening for God’s command to reconcile at just the right time, with the right words, given in the right spirit of love and forgiveness. 

So, how about it? Would you like some peace? We all do!  Then we must quit giving our neighbors or those who serve us at places of business such a hassle with grumbling attitudes. Are we seeking God’s generosity? Then let others enjoy ours.

Would we like assurance that God forgives us? I think we know by now what we need to do. 

What keeps us from reconciling with family and friends on earth? Base our ability to forgive on God’s reconciling us to himself through Jesus Christ. An inability to forgive will hinder our relationship with God and others. Take the steps that will provide us with inner peace—forgive and love like our Father loves and forgives us.

Lord,

Help us to readily forgive while seeking the forgiveness of loved ones.  May your peace guide our thoughts, words, and actions.  Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  May your will be done.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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GENERATIONS OF JEALOUSY

Posted on October 22, 2024 by randscallawayffm

Jealousy is a sin that hampers all relationships.  Jealousy comes from comparing ourselves to others which turns all our thoughts, words, and actions into a competition for affection, worth, and value.  Leah and Rachel are two sisters who are extremely jealous for the affection of Jacob who was fooled into marrying both.  Laban created this competition of comparison from the moment Jacob came into their lives.  Laban used Jacob as a way to solve a cultural issue—marrying off both daughters. 

Jacob’s past was also filled with jealousy.  This trait is not new to him.  Jacob was the twin brother to Esau. The two of them, with different interests and abilities, were in constant competition of their parents’ favor—and blessing!  “Issaac loved Esau, Rebekah loved Jacob.”  God loved them each one of His created; but chose Jacob to carry on the promise He gave to Abraham. 

This chapter in the story of God shows His amazing wisdom as He sorts through all the jealousies, competitions, and comparisons of sinful souls while accomplishing His will in them.  Jealousy still exists today—in my family and probably in yours when we pause to admit it. 

RECAP:  Jacob left his home and started a four hundred-mile trip north to Harran to search for a wife. Jacob married, secured work, and had twelve sons.  Jacob’s wives knew that children were one way that God blesses his people. The meaning of many of the children’s names reflect this understanding: Judah means “praise;” Gad means “lucky;” Asher means “happy;” Zebulun means “honor.” More than merely status symbols, these children became the patriarchs of Israel.

Genesis 30

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”

2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”

4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.

7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.

9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.

12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.

14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

15 But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”

“Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”

16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.

17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.

19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.

21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Flocks Increase

25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”

27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” 28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”

31 “What shall I give you?” he asked.

“Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”

34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Since the fall, jealousy (and all related sins) is a generational curse that is birthed and expanded from self-will.  Jealousy destroys our relationships with each other and in turn with God.  Jesus came to reverse the curse!  While on earth, Jesus taught the opposite character traits to desire and obtain so that we may live with each other in peace and unity. (See Matthew 5-7 as a reference to this teaching) We are “blessed,” Jesus teaches, as we grow to be more and more in every way like Him.  Jesus is the one who modeled a life of following God’s will and purpose.  Jesus came to serve, not to be served.  Jesus was sent to seek and to save the lost—all the lost of the world.  Jesus did exactly what His Father in Heaven told him to do—even willingly obeying God’s plan to lay down His life for our redemption.

What Jesus was not—

Jesus did not sin.  He was never jealous of the priests, teachers of the law and the scribes.  He did not seek position for He was God, the Word of God in flesh but did not seek equality with God while He walked the earth among humanity.  Jesus did not manipulate the thoughts of the lost; He saw their hearts and grieved over their hardening arteries and told the Truth of how to turn from their wicked ways.  Jesus did not hold a grudge or become bitter over being slandered, beaten, and hung on a cross; instead He forgave them.  Jesus could have called down thousands of angels to rescue him—but He did not.

We are not Jesus, the one sinless, who saves us; but we are the saved to tell others who Jesus is and what He did and does for us!  We are commanded to point the Way to leaving sin’s darkness to live as children of the Light of God’s love, mercy, and grace!  All because of Jesus, God’s Son.

“Get rid of it,” says Paul!  “It” is sin.  We need Jesus to do this for us.  We cannot do it without Him.

“That, however, is not the way of life you learned…when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:20-32

Looking ahead…

Rachel conceived and gave birth to a son whom she named Joseph. The mandrakes had nothing to do with this pregnancy; it was God who blessed her in answer to her prayers. The Hebrew word qsaf means “take away,” and yosef means “to add.” God had taken away her “disgrace” of being childless and had added to her blessings. Her declaration “The LORD shall add to me another son” (v. 24) was eventually answered in the birth of Benjamin (“son of my right hand”), but the delivery led to her death (35:16–20). Many years later, it was Joseph whom God would use to save the entire family during the time of terrible famine.  Yeah, “spoiler alert”.  But we need to connect the dots in God’s story through His beloved.

Lord,

Thank you for helping to see how sin can corrupt not only us but our relationships with others as well as with you.  Forgive us our sins as we forgive others who sin against us.  May our first thought be your love in us when faced with difficulties as humans.  Even today, guide and and provide all you know we will need as we walk with you, relate to you and others, while seeking Truth in all things. May your will be done.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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WHAT WE DO FOR LOVE!

Posted on October 21, 2024 by randscallawayffm

May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, he is with you

In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, he is for you
He is, He is

Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen

(The Blessing by Songwriters: Chris Brown / Steven Furtick / Cody Carnes / Kari Brooke Jobe; Blessing lyrics © Worship Together Music, Capitol Cmg Paragon, Be Essential Songs, Kari Jobe Carnes Music, Writers Roof Publishing)

What would we do for the love of our lives?  To what lengths would we go? Would our love be so great that we would do whatever it takes?  Would we work without pay for seven years for the privilege of marrying the one we loved?  And then, after being cruelly fooled, work another seven years to have and to hold the one we loved “at first sight”?  Only God working in and through the life of Jacob will his true love be obtained.  But obtaining the “one” brings a multitude of circumstances that challenge him. 

God is with Jacob. God is teaching Jacob His character traits while giving him wisdom, strength, and patience with plenty of opportunities to display these traits in challenging circumstances!  The Blessing plays in the background as we read the love story of Jacob and Rachel.  We hear the music swell as these two meet for the very first time!

Genesis 29

Jacob Arrives in Paddan Aram

Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 2 There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

4 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?”

“We’re from Harran,” they replied.

5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?”

“Yes, we know him,” they answered.

6 Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?”

“Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

7 “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”

8 “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”

9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. 12 He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.

13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. 14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”

19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”

22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. 24 And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.

25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”

26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”

28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 30 Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

Jacob’s Children

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.

34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.

35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

There are bumps and pitfalls along the way in this love story of Jacob and Rachel because of a meddling father-in-law who is an opportunist. All kinds of sinful feelings of strong emotion explode between Rachel and her older sister, Leah. They both love the same man so their sinful traits grow and expand giving birth to jealousy, envy, greed, bitterness, selfishness, abuse of the innocent, which develops into hate between two sisters as they vie for Jacob’s attention and love.  That’s what sin does best—destroy relationships.  These sinful character traits develop quickly and easily when self-will is our first desire followed by action. 

Fun fact:  The Twelve Sons born to Jacob will comprise the Twelve Tribes of Israel.  It is this story of God that shows us yet again the way God can take a bad human situation and bring good from our mistakes and shortcomings, consequences and circumstances.

God intervenes and shows Jacob once more how deceit is evil and does not yield good results in the life of one who trusts and obeys God.  This teaching is valuable to anyone called to follow God.  If we remember, Jacob, following his mom’s orders, used deceit to get what he knew God wanted him to have, but the way of deceit led to banishment from his home.  Laban used deceit on the former “deceiver” who fooled his brother and father.  Laban used deceit to get both of his daughters married off! Laban was crafty in his methods but at the expense of those involved.  He used “this is our custom” as an excuse but what he really wanted was free labor from a “blessed man” of God!  All Laban’s efforts resulted in broken relationships–with God, each other, others, and Jacob.

But our God, our compassionate, all powerful, all-knowing God works all things good for those who believe, love Him back, with a desire to walk with Him.  God gave Jacob want it takes to live with broken contracts, jealous women in his household, while sons and daughters were born to continue the generational line by God’s hand as promised to Abraham.  The promise lives on through Jacob.  But wait!  There’s much more to the story!

PAUSE TO PRAY

So, if God is leading, the One who loves us most, what would you do for His love and the love of those God puts into our life?  This is a question worth pondering as we spend time realizing the depth of love God has for each one of us.  Spend all the time you need.  I am.  We humans, created in the image of God, himself, are a rebellious lot in challenging situations. We are in continual need of a Savior who wants to be our Lord.  And, know what?  Jesus is Lord, whether we choose Him to be or not.  He will have the last word for He is the Word.

Call on God in Jesus Name, with a desire to follow.  Surrender your will to the resurrection power and awesome leading of God’s Holy Spirit who lives in all who believe.  God, our father in heaven, loves to help us.  That is His unchanging nature and character! 

Lord,

Thank you for these moments in the lives of others that teach us more about who you are.  Your leading of imperfect people teaches us a perspective and view that we might not fully understand at first reading, but when your Holy Spirit speaks, we see and understand a more each time we study Your story of grace and goodness. 

Thank you for your compassionate love that saved us and set us free to love like you love—with gracious kindness. Thank you for your Word that clearly shows us the difference between good and evil thinking and behaving.  Even though the culture and traditions were different then, Your character of love, mercy, and grace has not changed. 

Thank you for you merciful kindness to us as we seek to develop your traits so that we may be more like you who saved us.  We call on your power and leading to transform from our sinful nature to your character.  You are our first love and you are the one I seek each morning! 

In Jesus Name, Amen 

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BLESSED AND SENT

Posted on October 19, 2024 by randscallawayffm

There is nothing we will do that will prevent God from accomplishing His will among His people.  Jacob was chosen from the womb by God to be the one who will carry on the promise He had given to Abraham, “the father of all nations.”  Rebekah’s deception to get Jacob in position to do God’s will was wrong and unnecessary. 

How we carry out the will of God is as important as answering the call of God. God doesn’t need our help, only our obedience.  Jacob is learning what God taught his father and his father—to obey is better than sacrifice.  To manipulate people and circumstances by deceiving others, thinking you know better than God with how to accomplish His will is dishonoring to the God we say we love and serve.  We are only serving ourselves, thinking we can do better. Yikes.  Jacob will learn there is no one like our God!

Genesis 28 

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.

20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The call of God upon the hearts of those He has chosen humbles us or it wells up a pride within us.  This pride nature must be controlled and leashed.  Unleashed, pride blocks our view of how God wants us to accomplish what He has given us to do.  Walk with God, avoid running ahead of God!

Isaac gives Jacob his final blessing with direction.  He is to go to Rebekah’s family to choose a wife from among the clan of the chosen.  Esau, still bitter from the manipulating and deception by his mother and brother; marries a Canaanite woman and adds her to his haram just for spite.  This will not go well for him.

Although Jacob was a reluctant player in his mother’s scheme, but he obeyed his mother and did what she said.  God is now going to put Jacob back on the right path to walk with Him as did his grandfather, Abraham!  On his way to seek a wife; Jacob is not rebuked but humbled and affirmed by God in a dream.  Notice how Jacob responded to God!

Jacob responds in worship in these ways:

  1. Jacob recognizes God for who He is and what He does with a grateful heart.
  2. Jacob hears the message of affirmation from God.
  3. Jacob honors God in that place by turning his pillow into a memorial to God.
  4. Jacob responds with a vow of dedication to God’s provision.

Jacob may have left with only a father’s death-bed blessing and prayer, fleeing an angry brother who wanted him dead, with the command to seek a wife from among “our people,” but God was with Him and God wanted Jacob to know that.

God is with us.  And God wants US to know that!  God came down from heaven as promised through the preaching of God’s prophets. Jesus, who was God in the flesh left the glory of heaven, moved into the neighborhood of humanity, and became a servant.  God’s Promised Son was called Emmanuel, the Hebrew name, which means “God with us.”

Emmanuel was sent to be the Savior of all who would believe in Him and call on His Name.  To the world; He was to be called Jesus.  Jesus, Savior who is Lord, was a demonstration of God’s love for us who laid down his life for all sinners of whom I am one of them and so are; “for all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and in need of rescue.  (Romans 3:23)

“But while we were sinners, Christ died for us,” a demonstration of God’s relentless, abiding, never-ending, unchanging, love for us!  (Romans 5:8) We join Jacob in worship of our awesome God! “Surely the Lord is in this place” as we read the story of God through his people who answer his call with obedient praise and honor!  Yes, God is with us right now, right where you are!

I pray that we, too, will be attentive and recognize God when He calls.  May we hear God with grateful hearts.  May we worship, believing God when He says;

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go…

I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you—eternal life because of Jesus who by believing gives us entrance into the throne room of God!

Lord,

May we all truly realize the depth of love you have for your created.  Thank you for being with us as we read your story and learn from those who followed you.  May we learn from their mistakes and shortcomings with how to come back to you, learning from our sins’ consequences.  Thank you for your saving grace and amazing mercy.  Thank you for saving me and making me whole.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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DECEPTION DESTROYS RELATIONSHIPS

Posted on October 18, 2024 by randscallawayffm

Relationships that include deception, betrayal, hate, envy, jealousy, and arrogance do not fare well and can lead to avenging thoughts of getting even.  In fact, all unhealthy relationships consistently “keep score” of wrong doings and the stuff accumulated by deceptive means.  The score card of sins between people is hard to overcome unless God steps in to bring an end to the foolishness with His Love, teaching His character traits that are opposite of all the traits of the Enemy. 

Relationships between humans are not perfect.  The sin of selfishness, wanting to have our own way in all things, gets in the way. It is in our nature to grab all we can and possess it for as long as we are can—no matter who it hurts or hinders.  Just watch toddlers at play for a demonstration!

We are born with this generational sin in our DNA. It is in our “nature” which drives our first thought and first response.  This “born into sin” nature began with Adam and Eve, the first humans created “in the image and likeness of God” by God, the Creator of all.  Sin entered into them when they fell for the deception of the Enemy of God. Sin became a part of them when they disobeyed God.  The enemy manipulated their thinking about who God is and convinced them that what God says wasn’t true.  The Enemy still uses the same tricks to deceive us today.  His goal is death.  His scheme is to distract and deceive us so that our relationship with God and others are destroyed.   

From birth, this condition is displayed in Jacob, whose very name means “he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives.”  From the womb, Jacob, the twin of Esau, was determined to be the “blessed one” who would lord over his brothers.  It didn’t help that his mom showed him favor and helped him accomplish his goal through deception.  God is sovereign. God knows our hearts. God knows.

We must keep in mind that this is the story of God working through the imperfect relationships of His imperfect people to demonstrate His unchanging, relentless, loving relationship that does not change, does not take advantage, does not deceive or manipulate.  God is Love who compassionately loved the world so much He sent His Son to save us.  So, observe how God works through all these tedious, challenging relationships to achieve His goal of salvation for His Chosen people.  Our God is amazing!

Genesis 27

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”

“Here I am,” he answered.

2 Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. 3 Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. 4 Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”

5 Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ 8 Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: 9 Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. 10 Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”

11 Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. 12 What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”

13 His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”

14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. 15 Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 16 She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. 17 Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

18 He went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”

19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

20 Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.

21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”

22 Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him. 24 “Are you really my son Esau?” he asked.

“I am,” he replied.

25 Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.”

Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.”

27 So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said,

“Ah, the smell of my son
    is like the smell of a field
    that the Lord has blessed.
28 May God give you heaven’s dew
    and earth’s richness—
    an abundance of grain and new wine.
29 May nations serve you
    and peoples bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
    and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed
    and those who bless you be blessed.”

30 After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. 31 He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

32 His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”

“I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”

33 Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!”

34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!”

35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

36 Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”

38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

39 His father Isaac answered him,

“Your dwelling will be
    away from the earth’s richness,
    away from the dew of heaven above.
40 You will live by the sword
    and you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
    you will throw his yoke
    from off your neck.”

41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

42 When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. 43 Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. 44 Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides. 45 When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Deception and betrayal are not the makings of a healthy relationship.  Manipulation of emotions and taking advantage of the weak is not of God either.  Rebekah manipulated and Jacob deceived.  Now, Jacob must run away and hide from his father and his brother for fear of retribution.  Relationship severed and lost until God is heard and obeyed.  This certainly isn’t the end of the story, there is so much more. 

We learn is that we humans will go to ridiculous measures to get what we want and think we deserve. We even use “righteous reasoning” when we go ahead of God, thinking we need to help God out. Interesting to note—Isaac was about to disobey God’s command. Before the boys were born, God had told Rebekah that Jacob, the younger son, was to receive the covenant blessing (Genesis 25:19–23); yet Isaac planned to give the blessing to Esau.

Knowing that Jacob was chosen to receive the covenant blessing, Rebekah immediately took matters into her own hands to make sure her favorite son got what the Lord had promised him. Had she and Jacob talked with Isaac while Esau was out hunting, perhaps he would have seen the light and agreed with them. Instead, however, Rebekah chose to control Jacob and deceive her husband.  Isaac’s philosophy was “if it feels good, it is good,” but Rebekah’s philosophy was “the end justifies the means.” She couldn’t trust God to fulfill His plan; she had to “help” God out because it was for a good cause. But there’s no place for deception in the life of the believer, for Satan is the deceiver (2 Corinthians 11:3), but Jesus Christ is the truth (John 14:6). “Blessed is the man . . . in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Psalm 32:2).

How do we avoid this flaw in our sin nature?  Run to God, ask what He wants, really believe what He says, repent, then trust and obey Him!  When we choose to hurt others, God disciplines. God seeks, through his discipline, to save his children from eternal harm. God rescues us and helps get us back on track.  Listen to Him!  Sometimes we head our own way and God disciplines us by allowing us to face the consequences of our actions. We need to look to him for help to find our way back to where he wants us.  This will occur in the life of Jacob and Esau.

Rebekah’s fear, “Why should I lose both of you in one day?” It turned out that Jacob was gone twenty years, and she never saw him again on earth.

Instead of ruling, Esau would live by his sword. The Edomites who descended from Esau (Edom) built their nation at Mount Seir (Genesis 36:5–8) at the southern end of the Dead Sea, and were constant enemies of the Israelites.

Trust and obey for there’s no other way to healthy relationships with God and each other.

Lord,

Thank you for your story as it unfolds through the lives of your people.  May we lean into the love you have for us, the goodness your provide, and the rescue you sent to save us!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  There is no need for deception and manipulation.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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MAKING PEACE AS A STRANGER IN THE LAND

Posted on October 17, 2024 by randscallawayffm

This world will try to shut me down
Push and shove me to the ground but I
I been covered by the blood of Christ
I am His and He is mine
May be hated but this ain’t my town
Persecuted constantly beat down
But there’s a joy in the suffering
Cause He is my identity
I’m not of this world

I’m a stranger in this land
There’s a narrow road ahead
No matter what comes my way
I’ll be okay, okay, okay
I will keep my eyes on you
Knowing You will see me through
No matter what comes my way
I’ll be okay, okay, okay
Cause You got me in Your hand
Cause You got me in Your hand

(By Robert Pierre)

I have learned from God that as “newcomers” to traditions with a culture unlike our own that it is best to follow God’s guidance with every thought, word, and deed.  If we do not follow God’s guidance, quarreling quickly escalates, based on faulty information.  Those who are not like us and we are not like them fosters anxiety caused by the sin of assuming you know but you don’t know. This is followed quickly by the sin of presuming that we must do unto them before they do it to us.  Many disagreements arise from lack of knowledge and misinformation between both parties.  It seems to be human nature to size each other up at first glance and assume they will respond in the way you imagine without really getting to know them.

One thing is for certain, those who know God, believe in God, ask God for direction and follow in His ways, are noticed by those around them—no matter culture!

It’s always darkest before the dawn
But I can see the rising sun as it
Shines bright of what’s to come
My hope will never be undone

I’m a stranger in this land
There’s a narrow road ahead
No matter what comes my way
I’ll be okay, okay, okay
I will keep my eyes on you
Knowing You will see me through
No matter what comes my way
I’ll be okay, okay, okay
Cause You got me in Your hand
Cause You got me in Your hand

There’s a day coming
There’s a day coming
There’s a day coming I’ll see Your face

Isaac has now taken the leading role in the story of God, following in the footsteps of his father, Abraham who believed God and walked with God.  It is interesting to note that Isaac made the same errors as his dad when faced with adversity.  Despite God’s clear promise to Isaac, he lacked faith. But through his encounter with Abimelek, Isaac learned to trust that God would protect him, provide for him, and fulfill his promise.

Genesis 26

Isaac and Abimelek

Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”

8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”

10 Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. 13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 15 So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.

16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”

17 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. 18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.

19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20 But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. 21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”

23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 That night the Lord appeared to himand said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”

25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.

26 Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. 27 Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”

28 They answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.”

30 Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.

32 That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!” 33 He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.

Jacob Takes Esau’s Blessing

34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God protects and provides for people who follow him. Even though we may be afraid, God’s faithfulness does not waver.  Where God guides; God provides. No matter what we face; new job in a new city, new marriage with new traditions for each family, new baby with new beginnings, new church family with customs and traditions, new neighbors down the street who are not like you brings new opportunities to grow in our faith and extend our love.  No matter what—God goes before us, behind us, beside us, while surrounding us with His holiness to lead us where we have never been for the purpose to grow in our love for God and each other who share His creation. 

Issac enters the land God has promised, but he comes as a stranger to its inhabitants.  After a few years the inhabitants realize Isaac is a blessed man who knows God.  “We see clearly that the Lord is with you.”  What a testimony from those who observed the life of Isaac who comes in peace.  What a testimony to God who blessed Isaac and led him to make peace with those with whom he shared the land—and the water!

So, it is important—to know and trust our God who leads us to wherever He wants us to reside.  We’re all strangers in a world of unbelievers who don’t know God, yet.  So, don’t get too comfy in this world we share momentarily; for we are merely passing through.  But on our way through may all know Who we know so they will know.  All who believe God who gave His Son, Jesus to save us and redeem us of all our sins, look forward to the day when we will see Jesus face to face in all His glory in a new land called eternity.

“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  Romans 12:18

Lord,

Give us wisdom and courage to live with others who you have created with the same love you have given to us.  May your love, mercy, and grace flow freely from us to others.  In Jesus Name, Amen

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