Scripture Passage For Today
GENESIS 30:25-31:55
”Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.” (Genesis 31:3 NLT)
Observation
If ever a couple of chapters of Scripture were filled with deceit…
You do have to read between the lines a little bit. You do have to imagine Jacob and Laban as the shifty, manipulative characters they were. But the thing about today’s passage is that you can hardly trust any thing either one of these guys says!
“Hey,” says Jacob. “I want to start providing for my own family.”
“Sure,” says Laban. “Tell me what I owe you.”
And then Laban immediately arranges to cheat Jacob out of the terms they agree to—payment in the form of the spotted, speckled, and black sheep from Laban’s flock.
So Jacob arranges to outmaneuver Laban’s maneuver through the use of “peeled branches” during mating season. This is either superstitious magic on Jacob’s part, or a tangible expression of faith that God could honor. (I tend to see it as the latter.)
Later, Jacob takes off under without saying goodbye, and Laban rushes after him, protesting that if he’d only left properly, Laban would’ve sent him off properly—with all the bells and whistles! Rachel gets in the mix by stealing the household gods, and then lying to cover her theft!
The only one to be trusted in this whole mix is the Lord, who said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.” (Genesis 31:3). And that’s the way it is some days.
Nobody wants to go around trusting nobody, but it does seem (some days) that honesty and transparency in relationship is in short supply. Genesis 31-32 reminds me that—even if I’m feeling spotty in every other relationship I’m part of—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has always been true to His word…and remains trustworthy even to this very day. 2 Timothy 2:13 comes to mind:
if we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
(2 Timothy 2:13 NIV)
I have learned that God will always be there for me. i am still learning and will always be learning. God has taught me in recent days that faith will not get me around trouble it will get me through it. God will never give up on me and i will not give up on him. He remains faithfull to me and will guide me through.
ReplyDeleteIn Genesis 31:10-12, God had spoken to Jacob by way of a very unusual dream. With the Lord directing our ways (thoughts and actions), even ‘strange visions’ may give birth to opportunities to take us out of our own ‘Paddan Arams’ to the place where God desires for us to be…
ReplyDeleteThese chapters were almost like a suspense movie and when it came to Rachael (the favored lady) who took her fathers household gods and Jacob says, "whoever took them dies". I thought “oh, oh!” Well nothing ever seemed to come of that at all which surprised me.
ReplyDeleteGen 31:48-50 mentions Mizpah (Watchtower) those words are Jehovaha's Witness people's chosen words now. Don't know quite how to put that together. I guess all religions pick what they want from the bible but I sometimes wonder the underlying meanings.
Greg’s 'Paddan Arams' confused me so I looked it up. Couldn't find it in a couple of books I had so on line I did find this.
Padan Aram
by Wayne Blank
Padan Aram (also variously rendered as Padanaram, Paddan Aram and Padan-aram), meaning plain of Aram, was the name for the region around the northern-Syria city of Haran, located at the northernmost reach of the Euphrates River (the territorial definition of Syria has varied over the course of history - see Syria). One of the greatest ironies of Bible History is that two of modern-day Israel's most persistent enemies have been Syria and Iraq. Why is that so ironic? Abraham was born in what is today Iraq, and all but one of the Israelite patriarchs were born in what is today Syria. The language of Aram (see the Fact Finder question below) was also one of the languages spoken by Jesus Christ.
Padan Aram
Isaac's wife Rebekah was a "Syrian" from Padan-aram
I love the comment. "faith will not get me around trouble it will get me through it"
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that comes to my mind through all this is how thankful I am for His grace and mercy. My heart is deceitfully wicked - who can know it, but God's grace is sufficient for me. Praise God, he is never changing and we can ALWAYS rely and trust in Him. He is the potter and I am the clay. Lord mold me and make me what you want me to be.
ReplyDeleteEven though they were cheating each other Gods will was still being done its good to know that faith in God can take us through anything even through the trouble times.
ReplyDeleteI look at these issues we have been reading about as selfishness. It's a "today" problem also. If we could only be more like Jesus, with love in all our actions, boy, would the world be a better place.
ReplyDeleteLove gives while selfishness takes.
I don't want to be a greedy gut, I want to be more like Jesus!