Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

Genesis 29:30-32: The Lord’s compensations.

^“30 Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years. ³¹ When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. ³² Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”” NIV UK

I often think about the quotation that goes something like this: ‘Be kind to everyone you meet, because each person is fighting some kind of battle.’  God is aware of our ‘’misery’’ even though no-one else may be. His kindness to Leah in this sad situation surely touches, and warms, our hearts? For we realise that God is God. He is the same God today, and He looks in pity and kindness upon us.

In life, when we face disappointment and loss, it seems to me that there regularly are the Lord’s compensations to be found. Look out for them. They may not cancel out the losses, but we become aware that He is sending encouragement our way. He loves us, knows where we are, and cares about our needs,

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that I can say, ‘God is good all the time; all the time, God is good.’’ I believe this to be totally true.

Genesis 29: 21-29 Sowing and reaping.

^“21 Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.’ ²² So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. ²³ But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. ²⁴ And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant. ²⁵ When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?’ ²⁶ Laban replied, ‘It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the elder one. ²⁷ Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.’ ²⁸ And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. ²⁹ Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant.” NIV UK

Here is one of the great ironic statements in the Bible: ‘’When morning came, there was Leah!’’ (25). It seems to be a repeated Biblical principle that we reap what we sow. Jacob, the deceiver (27:35, 36), found himself deceived. He more than met his match in his Uncle Laban, who was a wily old fox. He seemed to have Jacob’s best interests at heart, but in reality he wanted what was best for Laban. Sometimes, God may have to give us a taste of our own medicine to bring us to our senses. For Jacob, it was going to be a long journey, and there would be other duels with his uncle. Growth takes time, and it regularly involves pain.

Genesis 29:14-20: A many splendoured thing.

^“14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, ¹⁵ Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.” ¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷ Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. ¹⁸ Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.” ¹⁹ Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” NIV UK

Here is a delightful description of Jacob’s feelings for Rachel (20). Anyone who has been in in love (or who is in love) will recognise the truth encapsulated in such a few words. The marriage between Jacob and Rachel is one of the few truly romantic marriages in the Bible. God’s gift of love between a man and woman is precious, and is something to be deeply thankful for. What a privilege to feel such things. No-one has a right to, but if we are given the opportunity to love like this, we ought to be so grateful.

Of course, these words are true of love in general, not just physical love. Love makes hard things easy. If we love God, we will endure many difficulties if we have to. Such love is heaven already begun in the human heart. It is a foretaste of glory.

Genesis 29: 1-14: The stone rolled away.

“Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. ² There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well. ⁴ Jacob asked the shepherds, ‘My brothers, where are you from?’‘We’re from Harran,’ they replied. ⁵ He said to them, ‘Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?’ ‘Yes, we know him,’ they answered. ⁶ Then Jacob asked them, ‘Is he well?’ ‘Yes, he is,’ they said, ‘and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.’ ⁷ ‘Look,’ he said, ‘the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.’ ⁸ ‘We can’t,’ they replied, ‘until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.’ ⁹ While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. ¹² He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father. ¹³ As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. ¹⁴ Then Laban said to him, ‘You are my own flesh and blood.’  After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month,” NIV UK

The story is set somewhere in modern day Syria. I can’t read it story without thinking about how the stone was rolled away from Jesus’ tomb – not to let Him out, but to allow the church in! What a well of refreshment we find there. The flock of Christ is watered continually, and satisfyingly, by Christ risen from the dead. As with the stone in the garden tomb, this one would probably have taken several men to roll it into place. But Jacob moved it single-handedly. It must have been a feat of almost super-human strength. Can we already say that this is the kind of thing that love does?!

When Jacob met these shepherds, and discovered they were from Haran, and that they knew his Uncle Laban; and then when Rachel appeared, he must have realised that God had led him to that place, just as he had promised (28:15). ‘God’s providence brought Jacob to the well just as Rachel was arriving (see Genesis 24:27).’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.36.

Laban’s greeting sounded promising (14a), but he was going to find that this welcome was not straightforward. Sometimes God brings difficult people into our lives because we are difficult people, and He is going to change us in these interactions. ‘Whether you like people or not, do to them as He would do; let his love flow through you to them; what we manifest to others for his sake we shall come to feel towards Him, and them also.’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Great verses through the Bible’, p.20

PRAYER: Lord, please watch over all my steps, so that I find myself where you want me to be, and I meet the people you want me to know.

Genesis 28:18-22: Responding to God.

^“18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹ He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. ²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear ²¹ so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God ²² and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.’” NIV UK

There was something of the ‘wheeler-dealer’ about Jacob. There had been no ‘’If ‘’ about the things God had promised (13-15). What the Lord said, He said; and what He said, He meant – every word of it. But somehow Jacob felt he had to lay something on the table. It was like he was trying to bargain with God. Of course, if I am understanding correctly, this fits the picture of the Jacob we are getting to know. But what we can applaud is his desire to respond to God’s promise. However imperfectly, he made a response. He wanted to lay hold of what God had said. Each of us must do the same.

‘Jacob didn’t suddenly become a perfect man after encountering God at Bethel; but he was changed. He made important commitments to God. And later, he returned to Bethel and rededicated that place to God (Genesis 35:6-7). Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, pp.173/174

Genesis 28:16-17: Thin places.

^“16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ ¹⁷ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’” NIV UK

I believe they refer to them as ‘thin places’ – sites where the veil between this world and the next seem to be ‘thin’ indeed. Heaven is easily sensed. Some people would regard the Isle of Iona in this way. Truth to tell, I believe this story in Genesis shows that anywhere in the world can be such a ‘thin’ space. How often have we come to realise, after the event, that God was in a place, or situation/experience etc, but we didn’t recognise it at the time?

‘Jacob may have thought that God was local; now he found him to be omnipresent. Every lonely spot was his house, filled with angels.’F.B.Meyer: ‘Devotional Commentary’, p.25.

Genesis 28:10-16: The grace of God.

^“10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. ¹¹ When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. ¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ There above it stood the Lord, and he said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵ I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ ¹⁶ When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’”

This story is not mainly about Jacob. Of course it includes him as a major character. But most of all it is about God. God did not make these great promises to Jacob because he was a virtuous man. We haven’t been given any impression that he was anything of the sort in the story so far. God made these promises because He is God; He is gracious to the undeserving; He is sovereign and He will choose whoever He will to carry out His purposes on earth. No-one can boast. Jacob certainly couldn’t. But God was going to be good to him, and good to the world through him. Thank God for all His promises. We can plant our feet on them. They are rock, not sand. They will hold us in good times and bad.

‘This is the ‘’Ladder chapter,’’ in which a wayward, weak man is seen holding fellowship with the Eternal God who loves us, notwithstanding our unworthiness, and desires to lead us into a life of power and blessedness. It is all wonderful!’ F.B.Meyer: ‘Devotional Commentary’,p.25.

Genesis 28: 10-12: Stairway to heaven.

^“10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. ¹¹ When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. ¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” NIV UK

In many good hotels these days, you will find in your room a ‘pillow menu’, would you believe?!! You actually get to choose just the kind of pillow that will suit you. Well, since coming into contact with the Jacob story as a child, I have felt for the poor man, having to use a stone on which to lay his weary head. How did he sleep? My guess is he was so exhausted from his journey in the hot sun, that sleep came relatively easy.  Peace and comfort are not to be found ultimately in external things, but in knowing the closeness of God. If we but had eyes to see, heaven is near and there are angels all around. Wherever we may be in the world there is that intimate connection with eternity. The Lord is near His people – and not just when they are well-behaved. May He give us eyes to see this.

When we come to the gospel of John, situated in the second half of the Bible, we discover that Jesus Himself is the Ladder between heaven and earth (John 1:51). He is the fulfilment of Jacob’s dream from centuries earlier. He brings heaven to us, and brings us to heaven, as we place our whole confidence in Him.

PRAYER: Lord, wherever you may take me, may I always know that you are with me. And above all, I thank you for Jesus.

Genesis 28:1-9: Marrying wisely.

“So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: ‘Do not marry a Canaanite woman. ² Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³ May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. ⁴ May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.’ ⁵ Then 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. 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 realised 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.” NIV UK

For believers who do marry, it should be clear to us, that spiritual compatibility matters most of all. Culture emphasises superficial and transient things such as appearance. I’m not saying that physical attraction is unimportant. It clearly matters a lot. But the best looking ‘Canaanite’ in the world should not be considered an option for any Christian. We ought to find a life-partner from among the people of God, or not at all. Christians who violate this principle usually live to regret it. I’m not saying that marriage to an unbeliever will never lead to his/her conversion. It can happen. But it is the exception. Regardless of this, don’t let your mind even consider the possibility of becoming ‘unequally yoked’ with an unbeliever. Think about it too long, and you might start to justify it. It’s the top of a slippery slope.