Genesis 37 -- Watching For The "Just So Happeneds"

My commentary says this chapter “unfolds the destructive dynamics of a family that knew the true and living God and yet sinned against Him and each other by what they said and did … Consider the destructive forces at work in this family, forces that God in His grace overruled for their good.  Where sin abounded, grace abounded more.”

A big question is why Jacob exhibited such favoritism toward Joseph when he knew it would cause problems. My commentary speculated, “Jacob’s first four sons had Leah as their mother, and Jacob hadn’t intended to marry Leah.  The full intent of his heart was to marry Rachel, but Laban had tricked him.  Jacob might have reasoned, ‘In God’s sight, Rachel was his first wife, and Joseph was her  firstborn.  Therefore, Joseph has the right to be treated as the firstborn.’”

God’s providence is evident throughout the story, overruling the actions meant for evil.  Once the brothers had bought into the plan to rid themselves of their brother, he was placed in a dry cistern where he might never have been found, but then a caravan composed of their second cousins “just happened” to draw near.  God knew their hearts and used their greed to keep Joseph alive and God had devised this as a way to get him to Egypt so that later he’d be in position to help them survive the famine.

God’s providence was also seen in the fact that the traders sold him to someone who would later have access to Pharaoh, so that Joseph wouldn’t just get to Egypt, only to die of the famine, but would be right where God wanted him to be to interpret dreams and rise to the top.

There are way too many just so happeneds in this story, and this serves as evidence to us that God was active in the details, and this should help us today to see how we can find God active in our own lives today. 

Father, help my sons to understand that the very fabric of their lives was woven by You  -- not by accident but with great skill in order to get them right where You wanted them, for a divine purpose.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 36 -- The Important Unimportant Chapter

My commentary gave only a short two-paragraph summary of this chapter which details Esau’s family, and that’s because the covenant blessing went with Jacob, not Esau.  By caring so little about his rights as a first-born son and the inheritance it brought with it, and by selling those rights to Jacob for a bowl of soup, Esau had shown utter disregard for his own future.  He’d then married two Canaanite women in an act of rebellion before subsequently trying to circle his way back into the family by marrying a daughter of his uncle Ishmael.  In doing so, the covenant line became even more diluted.

Esau’s sons and grandsons became leaders of the Edomites and one – Amalek – became the father of a second nation that would trouble the Israelites.  That spirit of uncooperation with God’s plan would eventually lead the entire line out of God’s blessing and into oblivion.

Father, what an important picture this chapter paints as it reveals to us the utter cost of rebellion against You and self-centeredness and lack of carrying for one’s own position before You.  I want my sons to be men after Your own heart, who will carry on what You began in my own heart, and who will treasure how You intervened in their own lives to bless them.  Let them not lose sight of it, Father.  Remove blinders as fast as Satan tries to put them on them.  Stoke within them the utter amazement they once felt the day You stepped into each of their lives by bringing me to them.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 35 -- A New Beginning

“Many of the problems in the Christian life and in local churches result from incomplete obedience.  We know what the Lord wants us to do, we start to do it, and then we stop.  When we don’t continue to obey God and accomplish His will, even what we’ve done starts to die,” my commentary said.

God was directing Jacob toward a fresh start.  He spoke to him again, and reenergized Jacob, who then called for a time of cleansing for everybody.  First, the foreign idols had to go.  Next, everyone had to bathe (not an everyday occurrence, or even a weekly one) and change their clothes.  That symbolized making a new beginning.

Then they had to move.  They couldn’t remain in a place of disobedience.  God had called Jacob to Bethel and now he would finally go there.  In the same way, once we realize our own disobedience, we have to make a new start and then go back to where we last heard from God and then obey what He last told us to do.

Jacob then worshiped God and God reaffirmed his new name – Israel.  “Jacob’s restoration was now complete … though he still had much to learn about his walk with the Lord, Jacob was starting to be ‘Israel’ and live like a prince instead of a pauper,” my commentary said.  His twelfth son Benjamin was born, but at the same time he lost his beloved wife Rachel.  But this was only one trial to build his faith in God.  His first-born son Reuben may have been attempting to take over the leadership of the family when he had sex with Jacob’s wife Bilhah.  And after that tragedy, Jacob’s father Isaac died.  Life wasn’t to be a bed of roses.

Father, I’ve seen that my obedience doesn’t insure a carefree life, and I’ve come to trust You and to lean upon You when hard times come, for You are my salvation.  Thank You for being El Shaddai to me – God Almighty and God All-Sufficient.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 33-34 -- Epic Fails That Could Go Unnoticed

My commentary sure pointed out some epic fails here by Jacob and his family members.  First, as he was meeting his brother Esau after 20 years of absence, it said he was scheming instead of trusting – putting his favorite wife and son behind all the rest for extra protection, which would set up new problems in the home later.  

He was bowing instead of limping.  “Jacob’s strength was in his limp, for it was a constant reminder that God had conquered him and he could trust the Lord to see him through.  Had Jacob limped, his brother would have noticed it and asked the cause, and that would have been Jacob’s golden opportunity to tell him what God had done for him.”

He was pleading instead of witnessing.  “Instead of confessing his sins and giving witness to God’s grace in his life, Jacob spent His time begging Esau to accept his gifts.”  He told his brother that seeing his face was like seeing the face of God, but he failed to tell him that he had seen the face of God!

He was promising but not performing.  He didn’t want to spend time with Esau and saw his farewell as a truce, similar to what he’d done with Laban, not a true reconciliation.  He implied that he’d eventually arrive at Esau’s home, but instead went in the opposite direction.  He was deceiving again.

Jacob was also delaying instead of obeying.  God had sent him to Bethel, but he wasn’t in a hurry to obey.  He built a house and pens in Succoth, then latter settled and bought land in Shechem before finally arriving in Bethel.  Because he tarried in disobedience, his daughter was raped and his sons Simeon and Levi became murderers.  Their vengeance “ruined Jacob’s testimony before the people of the land.  What good was it for Jacob to build an altar and worship the true God before his pagan neighbors if his children were going to act like pagans?” my commentary asks.

Father, help me to apply Your wisdom in this story to my own life.  Keep me from scheming and not trusting you.  Help me to reconcile and not deceive.  Let me know when I’m not obeying, and keep me in Your will.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 32 -- Jacob Wrestles God And Himself

God had told Jacob to return to Bethel, yet on the way he would enter the land of his brother Esau, who he hadn’t seen since stealing Isaac’s blessing twenty years prior.  Despite God’s direction and promise to protect him, Jacob began to worry and scheme.  “He adopted a condescending attitude that wasn’t befitting to the man God had chosen to carry on the Abrahamic covenant,” my commentary said, “Calling Esau my lord and himself your servant.”  He also devised a lavish gift, hoping perhaps to bribe Esau into forgiving him.

Despite all this, my commentary had a lot of good things to say about Jacob’s prayer for God’s protection.  He prayed based on God’s covenant, and God’s command that he leave Laban’s land.  He reminded God of how God had cared for him.  He prayed that God’s purpose wouldn’t fail, and he reminded God of the promises God had made to him at Bethel.

The only negative thing seemed to be that “he was praying in desperation and not in confidence.”

Rather than completely trusting God, Jacob decided to try to appease Esau.  “Whatever we do that isn’t motivated by faith is sin, no matter how successful it may appear.  The real problem wasn’t Esau; it was Jacob, and God was now going to solve that problem.”

Having moved his family to safety, Jacob found himself alone, and that night he met the Lord.  “God meets us at whatever level He finds us in order to lift us to where He wants us to be … Jacob discovered that he’d spent his life fighting God and resisting his will, and that the only way to victory was through surrender.  The Lord cannot fully bless a man until He has first conquered him.”

Father, I’m so glad that You met me and conquered me all those years ago.  I’d been fighting You, thinking I was winning when all I was doing was hurting myself in my pride.  Help my sons to see this and learn it before they reach the same point.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 31 -- It Was Time

It was time.  Jacob had labored for Laban for 14 years for his wives and six more years for his animals.  God had placed a holy dissatisfaction with life in Jacob’s heart six years earlier as a means of showing him the time for breaking away was coming.  Jacob had also noticed through circumstances – his in-laws weren’t as friendly to him as before – that the times were changing.  God spoke to Jacob in this chapter.  The word of God is our most important indicator of change.  Here God said, “Go back to the land of your fathers.”

Jacob consulted with his wives about what he was hearing from God and they agreed.  The one thing he didn’t do correctly was to face Laban with the news.  Instead, he waited until Laban was three days away and then quickly left in a caravan.  “This was an act of fear and unbelief, not an act of faith,” my commentary said.  “It isn’t enough to know and do the will of God; we must also do His will in the way He wants it done, the way that will glorify Him the most.”

Despite the fact that God had warned Laban in a dream not to interfere with Jacob, Laban chased him and confronted him, for his household idols were missing.  Despite God’s blessings over the years, Laban still evidently prayed to idols and feared the loss of them.  Rachel had stolen them without Jacob’s knowledge.  We aren’t told whether she placed value on them and desired to worship them or whether she simply wanted to keep her father from using them. 

The two men recited their relationship over the years while building a memorial that would serve as “a monument to suspicion and fear” and a boundary that neither would cross.  Jacob recalled God’s protection of him and gave honor to the Lord:  “Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.”  I did notice that up to now, God was always, “the God of my father” and not “my God”, despite the fact that He continued to protect him.

Father, remind me to listen for Your directions for my life in the inner directions of my heart, through circumstances, and through Your Word.  Help me to have discernment and to test my thoughts with other Christians I trust.  Then help me to step out boldly when You give me new marching orders.  Let me glorify You in the way in which I respond.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 30 -- When A Win Is Not A Win

It’s sad listening to the conversations in this chapter and seeing the two sisters actually thinking they are winning over each other after giving their slave-girls to Jacob to produce children on their own behalf.  It wasn’t winning at all, but losing.  I saw the very same thing happening with my younger son.  He’s at that pivotal age where he believes he can now do anything he wants and particularly sees rebellion as a win on his part as he breaks away from my rule over his life.  Even failing miserably at it doesn’t seem to be a loss for him.

Once we take our eyes off of God and what He has planned for our lives, that often happens.  And as I told him just the other night, God will not allow His children to sin successfully. 

Father, my heart breaks for the stubborn willfulness that sin produces when we think we know better than You the best things for ourselves.  So often You have to get us to the bottom of the well before we can understand that we’ve been trying to live life upside down. 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford