Esau might be referred to as a wild child of ancient Israel. Yet, God blessed him beyond measure. Think about this. If God blesses so abundantly those who are not believers, what is the magnitude of His blessing for those who are? If non-spiritual people experience such outpourings of God’s gifts, how great must the gifts be for believers! Get ready to be blessed.
Top cats and bottom dwellers. Bottom dweller is the default position, but top cat is a choice. Which will it be?
June 29, 2022
God gives people special graces for what some call the sunset years. His enabling can transform any sunset into the first glimmerings of eternal day. Jacob’s final years were like that. His life had been filled with troubles, almost all of his own making. Yet, as he entered upon the last years of his life, he returned to Bethel and experienced a fuller measure of the presence and joy of God than at any time previously. You can too!
Christians can be quick to see the sin of the openly wicked but slow to see the evil of good people, and that kind of evil is actually worse because it often goes unrecognized and even denied. Remember, it was not the prostitutes and drunks who crucified Jesus — it was the good, righteous people. We live in a wicked world, but wickedness is not something on which the world of unbelievers has a monopoly. Often, there is evil also among the believing community. Beware.
Genesis 34 is a chapter in the Bible that reveals such heinous acts by the people of God that it’s difficult to know how to address it in preaching or teaching, much less just reading it and attempting to reconcile it to the remainder of the Bible. Genesis 34 records the rape of Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, and the merciless blood-stained revenge of her brothers on the city of Shechem. It is disgraceful and embarrassing. So, what are we to do with this narrative? Perhaps, ignore it and hope that no one notices or asks us about it. However, we cannot. Are you ready for the fray?
From the moment God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, the name Abram was never used again. Yet, after God changed Jacob’s name, his old name was employed twice as much as his new name in the remaining chapters of Genesis. Jacob became a changed man as the result of wrestling with God at Peniel. Yet, he also remained unchanged. Apparently, there remained a lot of the old man in the new patriarch, just as there often remains a lot of the old man or woman in us.
When the chickens come home to roost, being optimistic is almost impossible. How often Jacob had thought of the very moment that now came upon him. Would he survive? Would he have a future? He wanted to be flush with hope, but the regrets had piled so high they seemed to hide even the possibility of hope. Yet, God used this precise event to produce usefulness in Jacob. It is at the Jabbok River that he left behind the immaturity of the past and, at last, took a huge step toward spiritual adulthood. Your Jabbok may be just ahead.
When we work for God, His purpose is going to be accomplished. This makes it essential to continue following Him in perfect obedience no matter what. God did not spell out every detail to Jacob, nor does He spell out every detail to us. God requires that we, too, walk by faith. That means believing without always knowing.
Many wives are neglected and even despised by their husbands. Sometimes, they are innocent of wrong doing. Sometimes, they have acted wrongly and not only bear a sense of reproach but also guilt. Yet something good happened to Leah in all of this, and something good can happen for you.
What are principles that guide your life? Jacob had to learn the hard way that God’s guiding principles had to be chiseled into his head and heart. The chiseling, as you may imagine, did not come instantaneously but required years of training and struggle. The amazing thing is not so much that Jacob stayed the course but that God stayed the course with him. If your life is a train-wreck, stay the course, and you will discover that God will stay the course with you to the end.