Genesis 28

So, Jacob gets the blessing.........by lying and cheating.  Then Essau gets mad and marries into Ishmaels family. (the result of Abrahams mistrust of God).  The the Christian line follows Isaac and Jacob, and the Muslim line follows Ishmael and Essau.  The thing that really bothers me is that the Christian side is the one that is not acting with pure heart.  Is there something else going on here that I'm not getting?  It doesn't feel right in a lot of ways.  I have to keep reminding myself that this is the history that God is giving to Moses, and Moses is giving to the Israelite people.  Does that change the meaing here?  There must be something right, and noble about how all of this is happening.

I don't know.

Genesis 27

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.”


well I struggle to understand what to learn out of this but I do see the continuity to the story from the time of their birth.  Rebekah knew her second son was to receive the inheritance and the blessings and she was helping this occur.  But I don't understand how it is ok to deceive.

no real takes from me, you got this?
knut

Genesis 26

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.”

Didn't we read that Abraham did this same thing with his wife?  I wonder if this was a common thing?  It seems really strange to me.  If you have a beautiful wife, in todays world, you are really proud of her and the fact that she has chosen you.  In those days, it sounds a little more dicey.  It brings a very different mindset to the table, when you think that I could be killed because someone thinks Kim is so beautiful!  We should probably treat our wives more like the prizes that they really are.

These chapters are entertaining to me, and I like reading thru them...but, I am struggling a little bit to grab something to write about.  It reads more like a historical record of events.  But, the stories are crazy!

Genesis 25

My first impression about todays reading.....and I read it last week, but didn't have anything worth writing about.......is that we moved very quickly from the death of Abraham to the birth of Jacob/Esau.  There really isn't a lot written about Isaac.  After all the hub-ub about him being born, and how God commanded Abraham to kill him, and everything else.....there really isn't much between that, and now he's really old.
The lesson in that for me is this;  you can be an important link in the chain of God's plan, and not have TREMENDOUS things happen to you. 
Sometimes I fall under the impression that I need to single-handedly solve the hunger problems of the Pokot tribe in the Africa or something along those lines.  This chapter is telling me that perhaps the thing I need to be focussed on is making sure Max and Ben are on the right path, and that they are the ones that are going to do great things.  Or perhaps is one of their kids.  I know this can be a little touchy.  And I could use this as an excuse to do nothing....but, I think its an important realization that I'm not a failure in God's eyes, if I serve him, and nothing extraordinary happens.

weird take today

Genesis 24

I don't have anything too earth shattering today.  I like the faithfulness that Issac's servant and Rebekah both show in the story.  One thing that drives me crazy when I read some of the stories in the bible is how repetitive it can be.  Its almost as if they write down what they are going to say....then they write down what they say, and then they summarize it, but with the exact same words as the other two.  I find myself glossing over it.  This story does it by telling you the story, and then the servant tells the story again when speaking to Rebekah's family.

⁶⁶ Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. ⁶⁷ Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

this is proof that without a good woman in your life........times can be very difficult.  I'm lucky to have the one I tricked into marrying me.  hahahaha

Genesis 23

I could be WAY off base here.....but something is ringing significant here.  Up until now, Abraham has been a very wealthy man...but I think he has been nomadic, in nature.  This represents the first time he actually owns land.  This is the beginning of the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham, to own all the land that he has seen.  So, its interesting that Abe is so forcefull about paying the worth of the land to Ephron, even though God has already made a covenant with him, saying that all of this land will be his anyway.
Does that make sense, what I just wrote?  It seems a little confusing.
The covenant says that all the land will belong to Abraham and his descendents, but Abraham insists on paying for land that will wind up being his anyway.

It is sad to lose your beloved wife.  I can't imagine it.  And, I don't want to.
It says that she lived to 127.  Didn't we read in the last chapter that Isaac was born when she was 100?
That would mean he's almost 30 when she passes.

peace

Genesis 22

10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.


I can't even imagine how this moment must have felt.  Though it says nothing about it their must have been tons of emotions flowing for both Abraham and Isaac.  There must have been screaming and weeping as Abraham  bound his son then reached for the knife.  Probably thinking I cannot believe I'm about to do this, but some how being so connected and faithful to God that he was willing to do it because the instructions were clear.

Not only would I have trouble  being faithful enough to execute the instructions, I think I do poorly hearing them but I'm sure He gives me some.

14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”


Gina and I just exchanged emails last week about how he provides for us.  This is small in the grand scheme but a few weeks ago our motorhome generator broke.  Then I went to BIR to race and on a single round win made a perfect run and received a special bonus that a vendor pays $2k.  A few days later the shop diagnosed the problem for the generator, the bill $1,963.56.  Just felt more than a coincidence that he provided me an offset.

He has more than provided for my family.
knut