Genesis 33

Jacob lied again. He told Esau he'd meet him in Seir, then headed west for Shechem. At this point it was probably a habit for him.

Unfortunately,God recreates us but doesn't remake us. We're the same people we were after we surrender to Christ as before. This is bad because we have the same habits we always did. It's good because it means that there are no such things as cookie-cutter Christians,

Anyone who thinks there are hasn't read the story of Jacob.

Genesis 32

Jacob still depended on himself, and God still came through for him.

Just look what he sent to butter Esau up. Jacob was afraid of his brother, especially when he heard that Esau had 400 men with him. But God had already worked that out. I'm not sure why Esau brought 400 men with him, but it wasn't to kill Jacob. He'd already forgiven him, and was just happy to have his brother back.

Yes, Jacob had lied, but he was also God's chosen, and God took care of him.

Genesis 31

Once again, there's a choice between doing better and lowering the bar. Once again, people made the wrong choice.

Laban's sons were lazy. Rather than be not-lazy, though, they decided to blame Jacob.

God blessed Jacob. There's no doubt about that. The whole stripped stick thing was just Jacob's superstitious way of explaining things. In that way, he was a lot like the sons of Laban. All of them looked for something other than Yahweh to credit for Jacob's success. The sons of Laban credited Jacob's success -- and their own failure -- to his stealing from their father.

As Cain learned, it's easier to bring theLord's chosen down to your level than try and reach his. At least at first. 

Genesis 30

There's no no reason to think that Rachel even liked Jacob, much less loved him.

Of course we're told that Jacob was in love with her, a fact of which Laban took advantage. But what does the Bible actually say about Rachel? She whined and complained. She bossed him around. She was jealous, not only of her sister but also of their servants.

We in the modern West have so identified love and marriage that it's hard to remember that for most of humanity they simply haven't gone together. For better or worse, children married who their parents told them to. I don't doubt this was the case with Rachel.

Genesis 29

Laban was always looking for a deal. He sold his sister to a rich man. Now it turns out that he was willing  to give both his daughters away to get control of an heir. In short, he was what Jacob would have been had God not stepped in.

Jacob was a liar; Laban was a better liar. Jacob cheated people; Laban was better at that, too. Jacob had always lived by his wits; Laban was smarter, or at least more experierienced. The main difference between the two was that God had big plans for Jaco, he was contending to let Laban be Labn,

Ironically, being around someone worse made Jacob better.

Genesis 28

In this chapter Jacob is sent far away, ostensibly to find himself a wife.

I have no doubt that was part of Isaac's plan. He could get Jacob away fromEsau and out of his own hair, as well as ensure that the line of blessing would remain uncontaminated. I also have no doubt that that's where God wanted him, too. I don't know if God planned everything that way or not -- the text doesn't say -- but however you look at it, it's strange how often man's plans serve God's purposes.

Genesis 26

I've always thought of Isaac as a placeholder. He's the least-mentioned patriarch,and the little he does just makes him a rerun of his father. There's evidence that he wasn't even a worshiper ofGod.

Yet he got the same promise Abraham did. The exact same one. God took this otherwise undistinguished man and not only blessed and protected him, but tied their names together. Later in the OT, he would be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Genesis 27

This is the chapter with the famous story about Jacob tricking Isaac.

In verse 7, though, Esau notices something: "Jacob had obeyed their father." Make no mistake; Jacob was a liar, a cheat, and a thief. But he was also obedient. Esau wasn't a terrible person; he was just impulsive and did whatever he wanted. He too was obedient, but only to his own desires.

In God's eyes, submission to those in authority is more important than just about anything else.

Genesis 25

Being a descendant of Abraham was never the issue.

There are several million Jews in the world, most of whom tradiitionallytrace their lineage to Abraham through his son Isaac. There are hundreds of millions of Arabs, most of whom are Muslim, and likewise claim descent from Abraham, this time through his son, Ishmael. Now, according to this chapter, there are tens of millions more, through his second wife, Keturah.

But why should it surprise us that it was Sarah who was barren? The Bible tells us that it was God wh kept her that way, for his own purposes.

But man, that's a lot of kids for an old man.

Genesis 24

From a worldly standpoint, Eleazar did everything wrong. He stood to inherit everything; with Ishmael gone, he was the onlyremaining heir to his ,master's wealth At least until Isaac came along, but Abraham's world was a dangerous one, where anything might happen.

From a Christian standpoint, he was even worse. He pretty much dictated terms to God, and there's no reason in this or any other chapter to think that he even believed in Yahweh.

Yet God still listened to him.

Genesis 23

Maybe it's just the current political and religious atmosphere in this country, but as I read the story of Abraham I keep noticing the theme of blessings in Abraham's life. Whenever he gives up something he has a right to, he's blessed.

This chapter is mostly about him buying a cave in which to bury Sarah. Why was this seemingly minor event in Abraham's life not only given space, but given a whole chapter?

I think it's because of what it says about Abraham. He had the right to take whatever he wanted; he was the power in a region that worshipped power. Yet he chose to trust in Yahwehrather than in hisown swords. He could afford to be cheated because it was all God's anyway, and God had always taken care of him.

Genesis 22

Abraham's life  -- and in particular his life with God -- had its ups and downs.  He had his moments of failure, usually brought on by cowardice and unwillingness to trust God, and usually having to do with his wife Sarah.  He also had his mountaintop experiences, in which he grew as close to God as any mortal man ever did.

Genesis 22 details probably the darkest and most heartbreaking mountaintop experience in history, with the possible exception of Christ's crucifixion.

Genesis 21

Guess what?  God keeps his promises.

Genesis 20

I want to confess something:  I like Abimelech.  He's one of my favorite people in the Bible.  There's something very real and appealingly down-to-earth about him.  He's just a king who fell for a 90-year-old hottie -- as I think we all have at one time or another -- and got caught in events bigger than himself.

Genesis 19

Rather than write a lot of stuff, I want to link to this sermon by Leonard Ravenhill.  It is well worth the hour or so it takes to listen to it.  Please take the time to do so.

Genesis 18

Bargaining with God is very common; it's one of humanity's favorite pastimes.  It's not that often, though, that God haggles back.

Genesis 17

No matter how long you walk with God, no matter how well you think you know him, he can still surprise you.  Abram, for example, followed God for 24 years, only to have God give him a new name and tell him to cut a piece of skin off his ... area most of us wouldn't want to cut anything from.

Genesis 16

There were no roller coasters in Abram's day, which makes me wonder what kind of metaphor he might have used to describe his relationship with God.

Genesis 15

Why did God lead the Israelites to the Promised Land?  It was just because he promised Abram he would give it to his descendants, right?  Wrong.

Genesis 14

Genesis 14 has two odd occurrences that a good many people have embraced for various reasons.

Genesis 13

There's a lot of talk these days about rights.  America has always been a place where individual rights have been at the forefront of the national consciousness, but these days it seems that's all anyone cares about.  At the moment, it's gun rights, the right to marry, the right to abortion, the right to display your personal favorite religious symbols ... everyone is concerned with making sure they get their rights.

Genesis 12

Here we reach the point of the narrative so far.  It's important to remember that Genesis was originally written for a reason:  to tell the newly-freed Israelites from where they'd come, and why God had freed them in the first place.  Chapters 1-11 are a record of the entire universe; the rest of Scripture is essentially the story of God's dealings with one family.

Genesis 11

We start with a bunch of people determined to make a name for themselves apart from God, and who are utterly scattered and forgotten.  We end with a man whose only redeeming characteristic is a willingness to obey God, and who is known the world over as the father of nations.

Genesis 10

It's nice to see someone actually obey God every now and then.  Twice in Genesis 9 God told Noah to be fruitful and multiply, and in Genesis 10 we see that he -- and everyone else, apparently -- took that one to heart.

Genesis 09

You know what's neat about Genesis 9?  God promises to never flood the earth again, but he doesn't just promise Noah, or his family, or even all the descendants of Noah who would one day read this account.  He promises all of creation.

Genesis 08

The first bird Noah released from the ark was a raven.  It never came back.  Ravens, after all, are carrion birds, and the whole earth was probably liberally supplied with dead things.  A whole planet full of delicious rot, and he was the only raven around.  I bet it didn't take long before that was the fattest dang raven there's ever been.

Genesis 07

Why did Noah need to carry animals in the ark?  (Other than the fact that God told him to, of course.)  Or to look at it another way, why did all the animals have to die?  If God flooded the earth in order to punish sinful humanity, why kill the animals, who by their nature can do neither good nor evil?

Genesis 06

"And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." -- Genesis 6.6, ESV

This verse is a bit of a headache for a lot of people, i.e., anyone who believes that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, i.e., me (among others).  This fact actually makes me more confident that the Bible is true.

Genesis 05

(Gah, still trying to get caught up.  Who knew you could get too sick to sit and type?)

Genesis 5 is the first of many, many genealogies in Scripture.  In Genesis, these are mainly used to as bridges between the "Bible Stories" we all learned in Sunday School.  (As opposed to their use in 1Chronicles, where they seem to serve primarily as motivation to stop reading 1Chronicles.  I'll probably pay for that remark later.)

Genesis 04

(I know this is a day late.  I've been sick.  Cut me some slack.)

Ah, Genesis 4.  The murder chapter.

Genesis 03

And here it all falls apart.

This is another of those packed chapters, but because I've only got about twenty minutes to write this morning, I'll focus on one just one thing:  the sin.  Or maybe The Sin.  It's pretty important in the grand scheme of things.

Genesis 02

You know, things didn't used to be this way.

Genesis 01

There's a lot that could be said about Genesis 1; there's probably been more written about this chapter of Scripture than any other.  That's understandable, since the theme of the chapter is the creation of the entire universe.