This week’s reading: Genesis 35:1 — 36:43
Hi Friends,
Once again we see that this life does not always go smoothly. Even when God is leading us, this world is filled with sorrow, and sadly, people do not always make the best choices, which brings on more pain. Jacob is still whirling at the dishonorable act of his sons, Simeon and Levi, as they had deceptively killed all the men of the city of Shechem in vengeance. But now there would be more challenges to come. We will read about three deaths, or really four, if you count the betrayal of Reuben. But we will also read about how God is Faithfulness even to those who are not faithful in return. We are in Genesis reading through chapters 35 and 36 this week. I am adding chapter 36, as it is a genealogy which offers only slight insights into the continued story of the Messiah that we have been following. And it is a quick read too. First, let’s hear about one of the heartbreaks that Jacob now must deal with:
“Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.’ As she breathed her last — for she was dying – she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb.” Gen 35:16-20 NIV
Jacob continues on his journey. After the devastation at Shechem, God tells Jacob to go to Bethel. Recall it was there in Bethel, as Jacob ran away from home, that he first encountered God. Jacob had made a promise to God there also. (see Gen 28:20-22) Knowing God had more than kept His part of the vow, to keep watch over Jacob, Jacob knew it was time to go back to this original spot and get serious about following this Faithful God. Jacob tells all those in his clan to give up there idols, to purify themselves and to change their clothes. These were three ways of declaring that they belonged to the God of Abraham. First, giving up their false gods would make the true God the only One they would worship and follow. Second, purifying themselves would get rid of any uncleanliness they had from following those false gods. Third, changing their clothes is like putting on a new, clean outfit and being ready to move forward with life in this new clean state. Can we see the application to our own lives here? We too must go through this routine when we become God’s children. When God grants us Salvation, we must learn to let go of any false gods we used to follow. This includes anyone, and anything, we place above God. When we follow false gods, we act as if they they are more worthy of our time, efforts and resources than God. But God must come first in our lives, then everything else will find its rightful place. This includes our marriage, children, occupations and, of course, our possessions. When God is first, our priorities get put in the right order. We can have healthy relationships because we are listening to, learning from and following God, who is Love. This is the first thing we must do when we become saved, make God first in our lives. I am emphasizing this here because I am not sure every Christian realizes this. Too many continue to live “their lives” as if God is an after thought. As if they reserve Him for when they really get in trouble, like God is their “get out of jail free card”! How dishonoring this is to God who has made The Way for us to be with Him, to live the Abundant Life here, then live for all Eternity hereafter. The planning. The sacrifice. The constant calling out to us. How can we do anything else, but make Him first? Again, when God is first in our lives, when we leave those false gods behind, everything else begins to fall into its proper place and our lives become more fulfilling. And simply because being God’s children, and bringing Him glory, is what we were created to be and do. If God is not first, do not be surprised when your life is not as joyful as you might want it to be. Second, we must purify ourselves. This is learning to think like God does. To control our emotions and use them for good like He does. And to desire His Will over our own. Sin has left us in that MMI mentality, so this is cleansing our soul so we can follow God. Most of us have had years and years of being influenced by those three enemies: the devil and his cohorts, this corrupt world and our own fallen, prideful nature. To be pure inside only takes a moment at Salvation. But to allow this purity, this righteousness that God has given to us to show regularly, on the outside, takes time and effort and a whole lot of Faith. Just like God is the One who purifies our spirit, He is also the only One who can purify our soul. It is as we continually place Him first that we can connect with God and learn to behave more and more like He does, with His selfless Love being at the center of all our thoughts, emotions and will. Third, we must change our clothes. We are no longer the filthy sinners we used to be. God has given us the robes of righteousness…sadly, I think we too often leave them in a closet somewhere and continue to display our old, torn, dirty robes instead. But the more we make God first in our lives, the more our soul aligns with His so we think, feel and want what He does, then the more our outside will display God’s nature too. This change will be displayed in our words and actions, more and more. We will be different than those around us who do not know God yet, and we will be different than who we used to be too. Yes, this is all a process, but the sooner, and more serious we take this New Life, the quicker our lives will reflect God’s Goodness and the richer our own lives will be. At this point in his life, Jacob gets serious about following God…and I hope we will follow his lead.
Honor our faithful servants. God continues to display His Faithfulness as He keeps Jacob and his people safe as they embark on their journey. God causes Jacob’s neighbors to fear the power of God over his life, and even though his sons had caused all that unrighteous havoc at Shechem, none of these surrounding nations lift a finger to war against them. (see Gen 35:5) As they come to Bethel, Jacob builds an alter to God and worships Him. Then we hear about the death of Deborah, the nurse of Jacob’s mother, Rebekah. This is the first time she is mentioned by name, although we know that Rebekah left her father’s household with her. (see Gen 24:59) Yet from the amount of sorrow ascribed to her death, we can tell Deborah must have been of great significance to Jacob and his family. Commentaries speculate about her, yet it’s possible she might have been sent along with others to tell Jacob to come back home in fulfillment of Rebekah’s promise to let Jacob know when it was safe to return. (see Gen 27:45) Interestingly enough, we never hear about Rebekah’s death, but honor is given to Deborah’s passing by placing it in Scripture. It seems like Jacob’s mother had already died at this point and perhaps Jacob gives special honor to this faithful nurse as a motherly figure and in gratitude for everything she did for his mother. What’s the lesson for us? We can learn that giving honor to those who have been faithful and a blessing in our lives is of great importance. We should do likewise with those that have brought godly influence into our own lives too. Death is a sorrowful part of this fallen world, yet we can use it as an occasion to honor those who have blessed us. But there is no need to wait until they die. We can, and should, show our gratitude to anyone who has helped us along life’s journey. Perhaps track down a teacher that was a real encourager in your life and let them know that their compassion has made an impact. Or perhaps write thank you notes to some who have helped you get through a tough situation. You get the idea. Let’s find ways to show honor and gratitude for the godly influencers in our lives. Deborah. This is the first death we read about this week.
The power in a name. As this group continues their journey, making their way towards Hebron where Jacob’s father still lives, we read for the first time that Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife, is pregnant. While still too far from the next big town of Bethlehem, Rachel goes into labor, and a very difficult one at that. Sadly, it was often the case in our past, that women would die from the struggles of giving birth and Rachel’s fight seems to much for her to bare. As she is dying, the midwife gives her the good news that she is having another son. Too weak to be able to rejoice, she gives the innocent child the name of Ben-Oni which means “son of my trouble.” Names had great significance and power over the lives of people then…and they still can now. So Jacob quickly changes his name to Benjamin meaning “son of my right hand” instead. What’s the lesson for us? Names. That old saying about sticks and stones is completely wrong! Names can really hurt, can’t they? In her distress, Rachel prophesies poorly over her child. Do we sometimes, in our distress, give others a name that is meant to hurt them too? Do we attempt to pass our own suffering onto them by giving them an unfavorable title? Do we falsely believe this will alleviate our own hurts? Bullies do this, don’t they? And the sad thing about bullies is that they are usually in a great deal of pain themselves, and do not know how to deal with it. They have very low self-esteem and try to belittle others to lift themselves higher. But this only perpetuates the problem. The subconscious thought is: I hurt, so I will hurt others. But if we do not stop and take note of what we are doing, this will never end. For example, if you are hurting and you treat someone else poorly because of your pain, then you are hurting them. Now if they are hurting and cannot handle it, they, too, will go hurt someone else and on and on this can go. So what do we do when someone calls us by a demeaning name? Exactly what Jacob did. We change the name! We turn to God and remember what He calls us. Wonderful names like beloved, accepted, forgiven, redeemed, cherished. We can get our confidence back knowing who we are in Christ. We must come to realize what someone else may say about us is just their opinion, not truth. Since it is not truth, it does not define us. If we are born again, we are who God says we are, not who this world tries to make of us. Also what we have done in the past does not define us either. If we have failed in some aspect of life, that does not mean we are a failure. It means we are human! Everyone is going to fall down somewhere in their lives. But because God calls us His children, we can get back up and continue to move forward, learning any lessons we need to learn, and leaning on the Holy Spirit a bit tighter so we may have victory next time. Names are important in the Bible, and they still are important today. Rachel is literally in trouble and names her baby according to what she is experiencing. But Jacob comes and gives this son an uplifting name. The right hand is considered the strength of an individual. Let’s find ways to uplift others by granting them names of strength as well. This includes what we call ourselves too. Rachel. This is the second death we read about this week.
Betrayal. After Rachel passes away, they continue on their journey stopping to live in the region near Bethlehem for a while. For reasons of which we are not told, Reuben, Jacob’s eldest son, decides to sleep with Bilhah, one of Jacob’s concubine wives. Remember how Rachel had given Jacob her maid when she was not able to have children of her own? This is the Bilhah who Reuben decides to bed. So what could be going on here? Could it be that Jacob is so grieved over the loss of his favorite wife, Rachel, that Reuben thinks he can just take over the leadership of the whole family? We can read about an incidence in the book of 2Samuel chapter 16 where Absalom is trying to usurp his father, King David’s throne, so he sleeps with some of David’s concubines out in the open. (see 2Sa 16: 21-22) Reuben seems to do the same thing here, but in secret. Yet the Bible says Jacob finds out. Whatever his reasons, this is a huge way to dishonor your father and Reuben ends up losing his birthright. Remember birthrights were not automatic, although they should belong to the firstborn son. Here is the order of Jacob’s sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Side note: it is interesting to me that the line of the Messiah comes through Judah, the fourth child. And why I do find this interesting? Because we can see the reasons for this. Reuben royally messes up here. But the next two sons, Simeon and Levi, had already messed up by killing all the men of Shechem. All three were impulsive and reckless and did not seek any counsel from their father. They did whatever they thought was right in their own eyes. They dishonored Jacob. So the next in line, then, was Judah. And it is from this Lion of Judah that Jesus eventually comes into his world incarnate. Ok, so what’s the lesson for us? We must understand that it is a child’s duty to honor their parents. Yet for too many children, in our desire to be autonomous, our own person separate from our mom and dad, we end up causing our parents lots of heartache. This is such a common problem for humans that God thought it best to make sure this duty was one of the Ten Commandments! After the first four commands to love God above all people and things, keeping His Name and His Sabbath sacred, the fifth command is to honor your father and mother. (Ex 20:12; Dt 5:16) And yes, even if the parent does not deserve any honor. I think the point is to be grateful to God for the people that He used to bring us into the world. If there is nothing else we can thank our parents for, it is surely this. Yet God wants us to respect these humans by showing them our gratitude too. Whether you have, or had, loving parents who always encouraged you and provided for all your needs, teaching you the godly way to live, or whether your parents were, let’s say, less than stellar, it is our duty, our obligation and our privilege to show them love. The Bible never, ever tells us to treat people the way we have been treated. (see The Golden Rule in Mt 7:12) Sadly, some will point to the idea of “an eye for an eye.” But this talks about unlawful acts and how the punishment should fit the crime. (see Ex 21:23-25) This has nothing to do with personal relationships. (Here’s a great article from gotquestions on this matter if you are interested https://www.gotquestions.org/eye-for-an-eye.html) Jesus makes this more clear in the Sermon on the Mount when He commands us to “turn the other cheek” and to “love our enemies.” (see Mt 5:38-48) The key to the beginning of healthy relationships is forgiveness. We must forgive our imperfect parents, for we too are imperfect humans. Whatever his reasons though, Reuben dishonors his father here in a very real and disrespectful manner. Their relationship dies, in a way, as Jacob never forgets the offense. We will read later that the birthright ends up going to Joseph, Jacob’s beloved son. Reuben loses his place in the family. Let’s not follow Reuben’s poor and ungodly example. Let’s find ways to honor our father and mother. Reuben. This is the third death we read about this week.
Children united in peace. Jacob and company move again, finally making their way to Hebron where Isaac, Jacob’s father, still lives. We are not told how long they all reside together, but eventually, Isaac dies at the nice old age of 180! (Gen 35:28) Both Jacob and Esau get together to bury their father. There is no more anger and no more lying going on. These two brothers have truly made their peace and are united in the honorable task of placing their dad in his final resting place. What’s the lesson for us? Sadly, too often siblings have all sorts of tensions in their relationships. “Today” is always a good time to forgive one another and make peace, but certainly when a parent passes away? Their should be no squabbling over any past hurts within the family. Here are two men who might have had good reasons to still be rivals, but they knew they were well taken care of and did not need to fight anymore. Jacob knew it was God’s hand on his life. (see Gen 35:3) Esau, on the other hand, seems to still be living life for MMI. But even if they did not believe in the same God, the God of their grandfather Abraham, they still chose to get along. They did not live near each other, but not because they were still harboring any ill feelings. Both had great possessions and huge herds and “the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock.” (Gen 36:7) They got together to say farewell to their father, then they went their separate ways. No arguments. No hard feelings. Peace intact. This is the way all siblings should act. No one is perfect, so forgive and forget should be our motto. But can I take this lesson one step further? If you are born again, you have a much larger family than just your biological siblings. For our Holy Father’s sake, we children need to learn to get along with one another, with other denominations. We don’t need to agree on every single point, except for the core of the Christian Faith. (check out this answer from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: https://billygraham.org/answer/what-is-the-apostles-creed/ )The rest we must peacefully agree to disagree about. If it is not something that keeps you from Heaven, or gets you in, can we just let it go, for God’s Name sake? There is a whole lost world out there watching us, children of God, and what are they seeing? Division and confusion?! We must unite on the vital things and choose to live at peace with one another, spreading God’s Word and Love. Let’s choose to get along like Esau and Jacob did. Isaac. This is the fourth death we read about this week.
God is Faithful. Next, in Genesis 36, we read about the descendants of Esau, three times over, as a matter of fact. And why? Listen to how my study Bible explains it: “Even though the names are repeated, each list has its own geographic and historic significance. The first list introduces the family of Esau and describes how it outgrew Jacob’s clan. The second list gives the wives and sons again, this time as occupants of the land of Sier. The last list defines the sons as chiefs, establishing Esau’s clan as a nation, Edom.” (Quest Study Bible p51) So what’s the lesson for us? One of the things I love about the Bible, and God in general, is that there is always a point and purpose to everything. And there is always something we can learn to increase our Faith and help us live the Abundant Life God desires, and designed, us to live. Again, here we see God’s Faithfulness in this list, as it is a manifestation of the promise given to Rebekah that there would come two nations from her womb. (see Gen 25:23) So we first hear about the 12 sons of Jacob at the end of chapter 35, and now, we read about the many, many descendants of Esau and the kings that came from him. While God was still the King of Jacob and his children, Esau’s godless nature is seen spreading throughout his offspring as they set up humans to be their king, instead. This tendency becomes significant in Israel’s history later when God’s people reject Him as their King, insisting that the prophet Samuel sets a human to govern over them like all the other nations around them. (see 1Sa 8 especially 8:19-20) Sadly, just like it is easier to roll downhill than to climb upwards, it is easier to fall into sin than to remain God’s holy people. Yet regardless of our tendencies to fall, God remains Faithful. If God made a promise, we can be sure He will follow through. Sometimes it is our weak Faith, or lack thereof, that makes our lives more challenging than it has to be. We get set in our idea of how things should work out, and when they should come to be, but it may not be God’s Plan. So when things do not happen as we thought they should, we feel disappointed and let down. But to truly Hope in the Lord, means not writing our plans on stone. Instead we can write them down on paper, with a pencil, so that God can alter them at His Will. It is good to make plans, but it is not good to expect them to happen the exact way and time that we have planned them. Our ways and God’s are different, so we must leave room for God to do what He knows is best, instead of expecting God to do whatever we think is best. Knowing and thinking are two completely different things. We need to use these moments when we do not get what we thought we were going to get, to be times of building our Faith in the God who loves us more than we will ever fully understand. Esau thought he was going to be the head of Isaac’s household, but God had a different plan. It was from Jacob’s lineage that God would bring about the Messiah, not Esau’s. Yet God did not forget this son of Isaac. God blessed Esau with a huge family, as well, and they became a powerful nation. Even though Esau was faithless, God was Faithful to him. We can count on the fact that God will not forget any of us either. Whether God chooses to use us in grand ways by giving us a worldwide ministry, or He chooses to use us as a daily blessing to those around us, either way we are His and we can bring Him glory. I continue to learn these lessons and every time I go through a season of disappointment, it only serves to ground me deeper in my desperation, my dependance, and my desire to follow and glorify God that much more. Life is filled with up’s and down’s. Sometimes we get it right and our plan matches that of God’s. But on those occasions when they do not match…AT…ALL… we can choose to trust God and His Timing and continue living with peace and joy anyway. God is Faithful! As I said before, I continue to learn this lesson, and the quicker I let go of my will and simply trust His, the more peaceful and joyful my life gets. That is a big part of the Abundant Life and I want it more than anything. Do you want it too? Then won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
