Genesis 33-36
Jacob's prayers were answered. Do you see from Jacob's example how the Lord works when you trust Him too? Jacob could have done it on his own. Possible formulated an army, or possibly gone the long way to avoid Esau's land. Instead, he prayed to God to take care of it. And when he and Esau saw each other, Esau ran and embraced his brother whom he had not seen in over twenty years. God worked through Jacob's prayers.
Jacob continued to obey God and he traveled to the city of Bethel which is in the land of Canaan (the land God promised Abraham and Isaac). Along the way, one of Jacob's daughters were captured and raped. However, her captor swore he was in love with Jacob's daughter. So, because the sons of Jacob were too few to launch an army attack, they plotted to get back at Shechem. This however, was in their own planning. They didn't include God in on their decision. So we see Jacob being faithful to God and praying and trusting God in one instance. However, in an instant, his anger gets the best of him (and who could blame him) and they carry out their own plan. But we see him second guessing himself and their actions in Genesis 34:30. But God continues to offer protection for them. And Jacob continues to listen to God.
As they traveled to Canaan, Rachel gives birth to a second son (Benjamin); however, she had great difficulties while in labor. She died while giving birth to Benjamin. We don't read about it; but, I can imagine that this was incredibly difficult for Jacob for Rachel was his first chosen wife whom he loved more than Leah (Genesis 29). Soon after, we see in passing this sentence that said "Rueben (Leah's oldest son) slept with Bilhah, his father's concubine (Rachel's maidservant) and someone told Jacob about it". And nothing else here is said. However, this is not the last time we will hear about this incident. Jacob will see to it that Reuben is punished. Our sins may not always see immediate consequences. But they always will reap their due consequences.
Genesis 36 sums up the genealogy of Esau. We see that Esau marries a girl from the family of Ishmael (Abraham's son from Hagar, Sarah's servant). Remember from Ishmael would come the Arab nations. Therefore, the family line splits again--Jacob is God's chosen one to bear God's chosen people. It is God's chosen people and the Arab people that always have the problems between them. Interesting how the intermarrying occurs. Rebekah sent Jacob off to be married to a woman from their family (Genesis 28). But Esau is left to marry the women of the land. Although we don't find much spiritual value in genealogies, we can find interesting ties to make the story make more sense.
Again, like in Psalm 11, David is crying out to the Lord amidst the evil oppression from his enemies. He lives among a lying generation of people. And so God sees their oppression. You know, maybe our society is not quite this bad yet, but we live in a perverse generation where you lie to get ahead and immorality is quickly becoming an accepted norm. And those of us who try to live righteous lives, we feel that we are slowly fading into the background with an unfair disadvantage because we do "the right thing". The footnote in my Bible about this chapter makes reference to an Old Testament character we will soon read about named Elijah who felt so lonely that he wanted to die at one point. But God told him that there were 7,000 other faithful believers and that he needed to find them (1 Kings 19). We need to understand that we need each other. Church is vital in this day and age because it is a safe environment where we can be encouraged in our beliefs and in our obedience to God. In a world that would rather sleep off the night before, Sunday mornings are important for us to be recharged to be in a world that was like David's--that is a lying and perverse group of people.
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