Check out the picture below (of Jacob's ladder) in the January 10th entry...
There's another set of scriptures below... check them out too!
Jacob had dishonestly taken Esau’s blessing and had the family birthright and inheritance, but he was not able to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his dishonesty because he was having to run away from his family. He had been manipulating everything and trying to do it himself. He tired and weary and it is getting dark. As he stops to rest, he finds God – not that he was looking for Him. He is in the middle of nowhere, it is dark, he is weary – and God shows up. God directly gives Jacob the promise, and Jacob makes a monumental observation: “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
Isn’t this where many of us find ourselves today? Don’t we often go through each day unaware of God’s presence?
Do you feel like spiritually you are in the middle of nowhere?
Are you trying to do everything yourself?
Is the pathway dark?
Are you weary?
Be ready …. God will show up.
And our response should be that of Jacob’s. He worships God and makes a promise of faithfulness to Him, and God began a transformation in Jacob.
Wow... is this happening in Arkansas?
Obviously many years pass in these two chapters – two wives, many children, and more deception. But this time Jacob is on the losing side of the deception, and instead of answering it with more manipulation and trickery, he handles it as a man of God … and God blesses him.
think about it:
Can God use you and bless your life even when you are not following Him?
Does God hold to His promise to Abraham? Inspite of what his descendants are doing?
When someone asks you to take a short cut to a "better (whatever - you name it)" other than what God has promised... do you take it?
Does the short cut make things better? Complicate things?
Is the short cut a sign of unbelief that God can come through?
Did you stop and think to yourself while reading these parts today "these are some strange family dynamics"?
first, i have a question... when Jacob had his dream, it says that the LORD was there and he told him... well u know, so does that mean that Jacob SAW God, or what does that mean?
ReplyDeletesecond, don't u just LOVE it when God shows up when ur all tired and sick of the world, or maybe when u forget him... he just comes out of nowhere, or something happens to u and u have no where to go, and then u turn around and its like he's there waiting for u with arms open!!!! i LOVE that!!!! :)
I think that the shortcut is easier at the time, but it starts complicating things as time goes on. I also think that often we take shortcuts because we do not plan ahead; that we only think of the present instead of the future.
ReplyDeletewhat was going on between Leah, Rachel, and Laban with Jacob, And if Jacob was a relative to Laban, wouldnt Jacob be marring into his own nieces, because it says that Jacob is Laban's own flesh and bone, like brothers?
ReplyDeleteThen 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.
ReplyDeleteHey anonymous... check out genesis 28:6 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.
they both ended up marrying cousins. jacob is mom's brother's daughter. essau his dad's brother's daughter.
i don't know what the population of the earth was then... but, surely that played into it.
gives a whole new perspective to "knowing someone in the FAMILY WAY".
you know, it's amazing that even through that and them swapping wives and maidservants, or multiple wives... God doesn't show dissaproval. do you think the population size may have played a part? isaac seems to be very intentional about not marrying outside "our people". but you can see that he doesn't trust them for their customs. they didn't like the people they were around. that's what happened and why isaac was chosen, because abraham and sarah didn't want him to marry the local women... check it out.
so, is that racism?
is that being a purist?
is that wise?
should parents have a say in your marriage partner?
hey morgan... good question. i've read several versions... but i think the bible says that God was at the top of the stairway (v 13), and not necessarily that he saw God. also, he may have seen Him, but it makes it clear that this was in a dream... just a thought.
ReplyDeleteyes... i love it when God shows up... because what He does is awesome. i find myself doing every thing i can to not be "in need", to be self sufficient. so i won't be a burden. that sounds like pride to me. and if we don't need help, then why would we need a Savior?
if we don't need help and we can do it all on our own, that doesn't sound much like what Jesus was talking about in John 15:5 does it?