Today's Bible Commentary GENESIS Daily Bible Readings   Commentary, Cross Reference Bible, and Bible Dictionary Books on Genesis from Amazon.com

MALACHI | Romans | GENESIS | 1 Corinthians | EXODUS

In the beginning GOD

Jan 1: Genesis 1-3	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	* The promised Messiah Messiah Revealed
Thought to apply today: New beginnings often bring our focus back to the Lord God.
PROMISE: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (3:15)
Earlier today around the world, people switched their calendars from the last day of the last month of last year to the first day, first month of the new year, measured from near the time of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. New beginnings often bring us back to the Lord God. We want to know Him better, spend more time with Him, hear and understand things from His perspective. Who are You?, we wonder. Where did You come from? Do you really know the names of ALL the stars? There's so much we don't understand. Like eager children we enter chattering, full of questions. What was it like before You created the Earth? What was it like to create time, space, and matter with your word and your spirit? What will we learn reading this time that we haven't seen before? You are so organized! You are so amazing! Silent now, we listen to His story of creation, and then to how He specifically made the first man from dust. He put the man into the Garden of Eden and taught him how to take care of it. The Lord God gave the man one rule (don't eat the fruit of what the Lord God had named the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) and one consequence (when you eat of it, you'll die). The first thing the Lord God saw that wasn't good was that the man had no suitable helper. So He let the man name all living creatures on Earth as He had named created things before and, still finding no suitable helper, the Lord God created the woman out of the man. One of God's created beings, a serpent, encountered the man and woman, and spoke to the woman, questioning her about God's eating rule. The woman apparently repeated the rule as the man had told her, by location and adding a new rule of his own. But the serpent's version was more appealing, and with her husband standing right there, she decided to believe the serpent, not God. Both ate, and something changed. Not the benefit she expected, the Knowledge of Good and Evil showed they were now lacking something. When they heard the Lord God in the Garden, they hid from Him. The man blamed the woman for giving him the fruit, and the woman blamed the serpent for deceiving her. Both had eaten. Both had disobeyed the Lord God who now cursed the serpent. He promised more than physical dislike between women and snakes. The Lord God promised that one of the serpent's offspring would strike one of the woman's offspring (yes, now she would go through the pains of childbirth) who would crush the deceiver's offspring. Because of the man's choice to obey his wife and not the Lord God, survival would now be hard work. The Lord God sacrificed an animal to make skin garments for each, then banished them from the Garden and from access to the fruit of the Tree of Life, to live forever. Oh Lord, we were wrong. Please don't leave us.

Rebellion and Obedience

Jan 2: Genesis 4-7	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	The Bible for the Clueless But Curious, Aish.com
Thought to apply today: Do right, and master sin.
PROMISE: "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." (4:7)
Adam and Eve brought their children up to know their history with God. First born son Cain, a farmer, and Abel, a shepherd, knew that when their parents ate a particular fruit in outright disobedience to God, He had killed an animal as a blood sacrifice and to clothe the couple. So when Cain brought a fruit offering to God and Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock, the Lord knew the connection with the past, and was pleased with the meat but not with the fruit offering. Still speaking with these humans, the Lord explained to Cain that he must do right and master sin. Rather than being sorry, Cain turned his anger toward Abel, and killed him. Just as had happened to Adam his father, the Lord cursed the ground for Cain and sent him away. Neither Cain nor his descendants were in the Lord's presence again and at least one of them was also a murderer. When Adam was 130 years old he and Eve had another son named Seth. Number of years after God created Adam - Event (age at event)   130 - Adam (130) had Seth   235 - Seth (105) had Enosh   325 - Enosh (90) had Kenan   395 - Kenan (70) had Mahalalel   460 - Mahalalel (65) had Jared   622 - Jared (162) had Enoch   687 - Enoch (65) had Methuselah   874 - Methuselah (187) had Lamech   930 - Adam died (930)   987 - Enoch (365) taken away 1042 - Seth died (912) 1056 - Lamech (182) had Noah 1140 - Enosh died (905) 1235 - Kenan died (910) 1290 - Mahalalel died (895) 1422 - Jared died (962) 1556 - Noah (500) had 3 sons 1651 - Lamech died (777) 1656 - Methuselah died (969) 1656 - Noah (600) at the flood All this time, nothing stopped God fearing men of Seth's line from marrying beautiful daughers of Cain's ungodly line. As evil and terrorism increased, God's Spirit contended with them, and the Lord shortened life spans to 120 years. The heroic Nephilim were also on Earth at this time. Like Enoch years before, Noah walked with God, and obeyed God's instructions for building and stocking an ark with food and certain numbers of animals. During the five months of flooding, everything and everyone outside the ark who breathed air and lived or nested on dry land died. Everything God commanded Noah to do, he did.

God Remembered Noah

Jan 3: Genesis 8-11	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	Genesis, the Method of Faith Ray Stedman
Thought to apply today: How do I prioritize spiritual over physical?
PROMISE: "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." (8:22)
God remembered Noah and all the animals in the ark, and after a few days over a year in the ark (1657 after Adam's creation), God told Noah to bring everyone out. He did, and then built an altar to the Lord where Noah sacrificed some of all the surviving clean animals and clean birds. Noah realized what sin had cost mankind - measured in the lives of his relatives - and all the animals and birds. Human sacrifice is not God's way. Noah's choice to sacrifice burnt offerings to God was like saying , "I love these animals, but I love You more." Noah's children were fruitful and multiplied. Sometime before his death, Noah had cursed Canaan, son of Ham, to be Shem's slave. He blessed the Lord, God of Shem. He asked God to extend the territory of Japheth, whose descendants traveled the seas. When Noah died, he was 950 (2006 years after Adam's creation.) [Also see Sons of Noah]. Japheth's sons: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras Descendants: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah; Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, the Rodanim They apparently settled north, along the coasts of the Black and Caspian Seas Ham's sons: Cush, Mizraim, Put, Canaan Descendants: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca; Sheba, Dedan; Nimrod (mighty hunter and warrior before the Lord). Nimrod built up cities and his kingdom included Babylon, Erech, Shinar, Assyria, and more. The Philistines descended from Mizraim. Canaan's descendants included Sidon, the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivitess, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites. They scattered from Sidon to Gaza and toward Sodom and Gomorrah as far as Lasha. Shem's sons: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, Aram Descendants: Uz, Hul, Gether, Meshech; Shelah; Eber; Peleg (lived when the earth was divided), Joktan; Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, Jobab. This clan lived in the eastern hill country, from Mesha toward Sephar. Shem's and Ham's descendants came together to build a city and high tower making brick and using tar in Nimrod's area on the plain of Shinar. Their intention was to centralize there and not scatter. God intervened and confused their language. The building stopped, and the city was called "Babel" since other languages sounded like babel or babbel. When Shem was 100 years old, he and his wife had a son named Arphaxad, 2 years after the flood, and 1658 years after Adam was created. After the flood, men matured and had children at a much younger age than before the flood. Number of years after the flood - Event (age at event)     2 - Shem (100) had Arphaxad   37 - Arphaxad (35) had Shelah   67 - Shelah (30) had Eber 101 - Eber (34) had Peleg 131 - Peleg (30) had Reu 163 - Reu (32) had Serug 193 - Serug (30) had Nahor 222 - Nahor (29) had Terah 292 - Terah (70) with 3 sons 340 - Peleg died (239) 341 - Nahor died (148) 350 - Noah died (950) 370 - Reu died (239) 393 - Serug died (230) 427 - Terah died (205) 440 - Arphaxad died (438) 470 - Shelah died (433) 502 - Shem died (600) 531 - Eber died (464) Terah lived in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans. His sons were Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died sometime before his father died 427 years after the flood. Haran's wife's name is not given, but Abram married Sarai, and Nahor married Milcah, daughter of Haran, whose other child was Iscah. Terah took Abram, Lot, and Sarai on a move from Ur of the Chaldean's to Canaan. But for some reason, Terah stopped short of his goal, and settled in the city of Haran. Aged 205, Terah died in Haran, leaving his 75 year old childless son (12:4) and daughter-in-law Abram and Sarai and younger nephew, Lot. (Maps of the Fertile Crescent and of Babel and Abraham)

"Leave...And Go"
Today in Jerusalem: Jan 4, 2004: remembering Tevet 10: Jerusalem under seige

Jan 4: Genesis 12-15	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	Birth of a Covenant, Rabbi Shai Held
Thought to apply today: Learn to make obedience to God a habit.
PROMISE: "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. And all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (12:2-3)
Whereas the Hebrew Bible doesn't show this, the NIV says, "The Lord had said to Abram..." (past tense) Scripture doesn't say why Abram waited after the Lord told him to leave and go to a land He would show him. Maybe there was a process of details to take care of. When the Lord told him to leave not just his country but also his people and his father's household, did this mean the Lord had spoken to Abram when he was still living back in Ur? Why did Abram take all the possessions and people he and his father had acquired in Haran as he left there for another country when he was told to leave his father's household? Was he only partially obedient, or maybe learning to be obedient? And why does this book of Genesis bring out at least as many new questions as it answers? When Abram, Sarai, Lot and the rest came through the land of Canaan (Palestine), they explored the land living in tents, with Abram building altars to the Lord. Note that the Lord appeared to Abram and promised another "I will" ("To your offspring I will give this land"). No problem that he was 75 years old and had no children. Abram believed and built an altar to the Lord at Shechem (about 30 miles north of current Jerusalem). During a severe famine, Abram moved his group south to Egypt and plotted a way with Sarai to use a "half truth" to stay alive when the Pharaoh saw how beautiful she was. By the time the Pharaoh realized the truth and kicked Abram out of the country and back to Bethel, Abram was so wealthy that his herdsmen and Lot's were fighting over grazing space. Abram let Lot have first choice. He took what appeared to be the best for himself: the whole plain of Jordan. Trouble followed. A battle ensued. Lot was rescued. Abram tithed to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High and King of Salem. Taking no share of the spoils from the King of Sodom, Abram hears again from the Lord. Abram has been courageous through all the battles, but the Lord sees Abram is afraid of remaining childless. Yes, Abram believed the Lord (and that was credited to him as righteousness), but Abram wanted some way to know he would get the land promised to his heir. The Lord provided Abram with a view of the future. No, you will not possess this land, Abram - you will die in peace, an old man. But after 400 years, your descendants will return from slavery in another country and defeat the Amorites. Your land will reach from the Nile to the Euphrates. Turning to the internet for more commentary, one pastor sees Abram as an example for believers in transition (M. Anders). People continue to discuss the Lord's Call and Promise and the delema of Abraham and Sarah. Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky explains more about Sarah in Egypt Genesis 12, a Long Distance Call Gen 14:13, Mission Impassable Gen 14:22, what happens if the visionary falls asleep Gen 15:1-5, attempts to count the stars and Outsiders, both on Gen 15:5. And Greg Burnett asks in his article First Mansions: "Is it too much to hope for the thing that Abraham received: that God Himself can be our reward if we desire to walk consciously with Him day by day, (Gen. 15:1)? Here is a Bible study on Sarai

What It's Like To Be Chosen

Jan 5: Genesis 16-18	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	Grasping the Great Truth of God, Deffinbaugh Sarai becomes Sarah, Sween
Thought to apply today: Learn to wait on the Lord and His timing.
PROMISE: "I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what He has promised him." (18:19)
In what she thought must be the fullness of time, after waiting on the Lord's promise for 10 whole years, Sarai still had no baby and wasn't pregnant. Her husband, Abram, was 85 years old. Had she misunderstood how the Lord would give Abram a multitude of descendants? Was her being barren standing in his way? Sarai decided the solution would be for her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar, to take her place and try for a child with Abram. It worked, sort of. But the pregnant Hagar didn't want to serve Sarai in the same way as before. She was carrying the master's child, for goodness sake. And wasn't it obvious there was something wrong with Sarai, not Abram, in childbearing? With Abram's permission, Sarai mistreated Hagar, until she ran away. The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring by the road to Shur. He knew her well enough to call her by name and job description, but asked where she came from and where she was going. Hagar had no plans. She could only answer that she was running away from her mistress Sarai. The one she thought was an angel let her know that He is either the Lord himself or speaking directly for Him. He told Hagai to go back and submit to Sarai, promising to increase her descendants beyond counting. She will have a son to be named Ishmael ["God hears"]. He will be a wild man, hostile to all his brothers. In response to meeting the God of Abram, Hagar names the Lord "You are the God who sees me". She obeyed Him, and the 86 year old Abram had his first child, son Ishmael, as promised. Thirteen more years go by before the Lord speaks to Abram again. This visit overwhelms Abram. The Lord renews His covenant with Abram, changes his name to Abraham, and lets him know this is an everlasting covenant between the Lord and Abraham plus generation after generation of his descendants whose God is the Lord. Now an alien, Abraham would be father to nations and kings. But this is important - keep this covenant with the Lord. The sign of the covenant was to be circumcision of all males living among Abraham's people, Hebrew or not, 8 days old on up. The Lord gives Sarai a new name: Sarah, and promises to bless her and give Abraham a son by her. She will be mother of nations and of kings. Abraham fell down before the Lord and laughed. A son conceived now would be born to a 100 year old father and 90 year old mother. Out loud he said, "If only Ishmael might live under Your blessing." "Yes, but" said the Lord. This covenant agreement is for Isaac who will be born within a year. Yes, 13 year old Ishmael will be blessed, will be fruitful, and the father of 12 rulers of a great nation. But the Lord's covenant will be established with Isaac, born of Sarah. Immediately obedient, that same day Abraham and all the males with him were circumcised. Soon after that, one hot day Abraham was hospitable to 3 men who appeared by his tent. Providing water for their feet, he had Sarah, inside the tent, bake bread and had a servant prepare a calf to eat. Wanting Sarah to get the news directly about her future son, the men asked about Sarah. Within a year she would have a son. Eavesdropping from inside the tent, Sarah laughed, fully realizing her own and her husband's limitations, then lied and denied it. Part of what it means to be chosen is that the Lord doesn't hide His plans from Abraham. The three are on their way to check out complaints of awful sin in Sodom and Gomorrah. What if there were some righteous residents (believing God), like Lot's family? Abraham felt the responsibility to plead and bargain for the cities if at least 10 believers could be found. God agreed.

Rated "X"

Jan 6: Genesis 19-21	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	The birth of Isaac, David Guzik
Thought to apply today: The Lord works His promises even through families with serious relationship problems.
PROMISE: Sarah said, "That slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac" (Gen 21:10b)
Remember how Lot chose what appeared to be the best grazing area for his flocks when his uncle asked him to pick? Below the surface appearance, this area had an ugly, hidden secret. Because of the men living in Lot's adopted home town of Sodom, that name came to describe same sex or animal copulation or other noncoital sex, lust, and rape - sodomy. The town was run by evil men, lawless and immoral, like stories we hear of the American west during frontier times or the terror of the Klu Klux Klan in the south. Lot's experience is an example of how the righteous do not automatically "rub off" on evil neighbors. A movie made today of the Lord's destruction of the people in the two cities plus the vegetation of the plain with burning sulphur from the sky, Lot's reluctance to leave, his wife's disobedience, and his daughters' incestuous scheme (resulting in the Moabites and the Ammonites) would be rated X. Leaving the ruined land behind him, Abraham moved his tents to Gerar in the Negev area. As was their practice, he and Sarah told the king of Gerar they were brother and sister when the king showed interest in this 89 year old woman's beauty, and king Abimelech took her as his wife. Before the king had slept with her, God warned him in a dream that she was a married woman, and got his attention by making him and his whole household temporarily infertile. The matter was cleared up with the king paying Abraham in sheep, cattle, human slaves, and silver, and Abraham asking God to heal the king and his household. Is this how Sarah came to become fertile? Unknown, but when she returned to Abraham, she became pregnant with Isaac, meaning "he laughs". In due time, he was born, circumcised, and weaned. The teenaged Ishmael mocked Isaac at his weaning feast, and made Sarah, meaning "the princess", mad. She insisted that Abraham get rid of "that slave woman", Hagar, and her son. Upset and hesitating, Abraham was loyal to his eldest son, but God told him to listen to Sarah. "That slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac," she said. [See Romans 9:6-9] So the next morning, Abraham gave Hagar food and water, and sent her and Ishmael away. After the food and water were gone, Hagar and Ishmael were both distraught, fearing death. But God intervened, hearing their crying. God was with Ishmael as he lived in the desert and became an archer. Later, his mother got him an Egyptian wife. Even later, Ishmael and Isaac came together to bury their father. King Abimelech and Abraham made a treaty at Beersheba, with Abraham giving sheep and cattle to the king. Abimelech recognized that God was with this alien Abraham in all he did. They negotiated a problem of well ownership, and Abimelech and his forces commander, Phicol returned to the land of the Philistines. At Beersheba, Abraham called upon the name of the Lord, the Eternal God. And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time. [More on Abimelech]

Faith & Sacrifice by Theophilus

Jan 7: Genesis 22-23	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	Father and Son, Akaida, Aish.com
Thought to apply today: When the Lord asks me for a great sacrifice, remember Abraham and Isaac.
PRINCIPLE (Why did Abraham pay for the burial land?) Later David used the same principle, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." (2 Sam 24:24)
A special "Thank You" to Theophilus, our guest commentator today, who blogged - in 2004 - at theophilus.lifewithchrist.org. One of the more familiar passages in Scripture, Genesis 22 tells the tale of Abraham's testing. In it, we see a man of faith who followed God even when asked to do the impossible--kill his own. What father could face this decision easily? How many father's could even face this decision at all? Not only was Isaac his son, but the only son from his wife Sarah. This was the son promised to him by God. This was the son granted to him, miraculously, in his very old age. This was the son who was promised the inheritance of the convenant. How great a sacrifice God asked of Abraham! Abraham knew what God had promised concerning his son Isaac. If he sacrificed Isaac, those promises would be void. That didn't stop Abraham from being obedient. He prepared for obedience -- an obedience that took days, not a brief moment -- as he traveled to the mountain, scaled it, and built the altar. The sorrow in him must have been enormous as he placed the wood for the fire that would consume his beloved son's body. Isaac too demonstrates faith in this story. He was old enough to understand the concept of sacrifice and to question where the needed lamb was. Scholars suggest that Isaac was likely entering adolescence; regardless, he was old enough to resist his own execution. But there is no evidence of it. He too remained obedient. He even carried the wood upon his back and he approach the place he was to die. As we learn in Hebrews 11, Abraham knew who God was, considered Him faithful, and simply trusted. Abraham didn't know God would work it out -- he understood that God could even raise Isaac from the dead. He knew his God and obeyed. The magnitude of it the requested sacrifice underscores the worthiness of God. God deserves the absolute best there is to offer him. More imporantly, we see foreshadowed the sacrifice of our heavenly Father, who "gave his only begotten son" as a sacrifice for our sin. We see the obedience of the Son of Man who knew what was coming yet walked forward in faith and humility. How great and merciful is the LORD who withholds nothing, not even His son. We serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords who made a way to redeem mankind and fashion for himself a beautiful and unblemished Bride, the Church.

Birthright

Jan 8: Genesis 24-25	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	Gen 24 and Gen 25, Stedman Messiah, Christ - Anointed One
Thought to apply today: What am I hungrier for - food or God's word?
PROMISE: The Messiah would be a descendant of Isaac
Until the end, Genesis 24-25 reads like a normal historic account of Abraham's family after Sarah died. Abraham had told his experiences and shared his faith in God publicly with his family, with members of his household, with those he dealt with wherever he lived. The Lord blessed Abraham, his chief servant (Eliezer from 15:2?), and Isaac not just financially but with help and insight, asking and receiving God's choice of - and plan for - finding Rebekah. Abraham knew his relatives were no longer at Ur, but were north of Haran in Mesapotamia. [Note: The trade route called the "Kings Highway" stopped just south of Aram Naharaim (Assyria), at Resafa - map.] If the chief servant acted strangely in worshipping the Lord for a successful mission, perhaps he had had lots of experience in being strange among the Canaanites. Rebekah was well behaved, hospitable to strangers, and beautiful. Perhaps her brother Laban based his hospitablity upon the apparent wealth of potential guests at his house. Scripture doesn't say what Laban and his father Bethuel knew of the Lord, but they acknowledged Him and let Rebekah, her nurse, and maids go with Abraham's servant. And Isaac loved her. Soon, Abraham took another wife, and had more 6 sons. They would not inherit anything from him, so during his life time he gave things to them (and to sons of his concubines???) and established them elsewhere -- to the land of the east (see Gen 4:16 and Job 1:3b). Thirty-eight years after Sarah died, Abraham - 175 years old - died. Seventy-five year old Isaac (his sons then 15) and 88 year old Ishmael buried him near Mamre where Sarah was buried. True to the Lord's word, Ishmael had had 12 sons who were hostile toward all their father's brothers. When Rebekah couldn't have children, Isaac sought help praying to the Lord, and she later conceived. Hers was a hard pregnancy, and she went (it doesn't say where or to whom) to inquire of the Lord. He told her critical information about the twin boys she was carrying. The boys, Esau and Jacob were quite different, and split the affections of their parents. Esau the older, was the more robust and would have appeared to be the Lord's chosen warrior. But the Lord knew Esau's weakness even before his birth, and hated him. One day Esau was hungry and twin brother Jacob took advantage of having some stew bubbling on the fire. Jacob would not give it to him, but offered to sell it for Esau's birthright. More interested in the immediate needs of his stomach than his far off inheritance, Esau swore his oath and sold his birthright. From the Lord's point of view, Esau was godless. He had what mattered most reversed in his thinking. Perhaps he thought his oath was just words, and he could take them back later. (see Hebrews 12:16-17) The Weekly Torah Portion indicates that Esau wanted the stew because he was preoccupied with death.

Isaac's Life Story

Jan 9: Genesis 26-27	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	Digging Our Parents' Wells, Dreyfus
Thought to apply today: Am I living on the Lord's promises or on visible circumstances?
PROMISE: "Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham." (Gen 26:3)
Isaac had caught the vision from the Lord of the importance of living by His promises for the future as opposed to current, more instant, gratification. Through Isaac's current life trials, like a famine in Canaan, he listened and obeyed when the Lord spoke to him. "I will be with you," the Lord promised. Isaac and his family were still living among the Philistines near the coast of the Mediterranean a little south of Gaza. The Philistines had a sense of right and wrong that included guilt for sleeping with another man's wife, but perhaps not for killing the husband of a beautiful woman. As Isaac's wealth increased through crops, flocks, herds, and servants, the Philistines started filling up wells Abraham's servants had dug years before. Controversy followed, and Philistine king Abimelech told Isaac to put more space between them. As Isaac and his people moved their tents further inland, they opened and dug more wells until finally, no Philistines contested them over a new well at Rehoboth. From here, Isaac moved on to Beersheba, and that night the Lord appeared to him, confirming the promises again. Like a husband who doesn't just tell his wife he loves her once, the Lord confirmed His relationship with Abraham's son Isaac regularly, at important times in Isaac's life. This time it was that Abimelech, his personal adviser, and the commander of his forces had come to Isaac's camp. Abimelech asked for - and got - a treaty for peace with this people living in his land. The same day after the Philistines had left in peace, Isaac's men reported they had found and dug another well at what is now Beersheba. By the time Isaac was 100, he was blind and had a situation at home. Forty year old Esau had just married not one but two Hittite women, who antagonized their in-laws. But Esau was Isaac's first born and still his favorite son. Wanting to get his affairs in order, Isaac prepared to bless Esau. His mother, whose favorite son was Jacob, intervened. Not above deceipt himself (telling Abimelech his wife was his sister), Isaac was deceived and gave Jacob the blessing. When Esau found out, he was devestated. Isaac expected the Lord's promises to go through Esau, but deceived is deceived. There was no taking back the blessing that had become Jacob's. Esau was furious, and planned to kill Jacob after their father died. Rachel used the awful Hittite daughters-in-law situation to get Isaac to send Jacob away to her father's house for a wife among the cousins.

Jacob's Family

Jan 10: Genesis 28-30	Genesis Commentary Dictionary, and Books	Matthew Henry commentary: 29 and 30 * History in a Nutshell
PROMISE: "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." (28:15)
Jacob's Children   1. Reuben (by Leah)   2. Simeon (by Leah)   3. Levi (by Leah)   4. Judah (by Leah)   5. Dan (by Bilhah)   6. Naphtali (by Bilhah)   7. Gad (by Zilpah)   8. Ashur (by Zilpah)   9. Issachar (by Leah) 10. Zebulun (by Leah) 11. Dinah (by Leah) 12. Joseph (by Rachel) (several years later) 13. Benjamin (by Rachel) On this Isaac and Rachel agreed - Jacob was not to marry a local Canaanite woman. He was to go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Rachel's father, Bethuel, and take a wife from the daughters of her brother, Laban. By the time Esau heard anything, Jacob was gone, perhaps following a trade route. Not quite getting it, Esau reasoned that if his parents wanted family in-laws, he would marry one of Ishmael's daughters along with his other wives. On the other hand, the Lord contacted Jacob on his first night out, through a dream. The Lord introduced Himself personally to Jacob and reconfirmed His promises of land, descendants, and blessings to Abraham and Isaac through Jacob. With all his faults, this experience overwhelmed Jacob. He marked the location with the stone he'd slept on, anointed it with oil, and renamed the town of Luz, Bethel (house of God). Jacob vowed, "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 so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God 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." Genesis 25:27 described Jacob as "a quiet man, staying among the tents". Genesis 27 describes him as a deceiver and liar. Today's reading shows him as a strong man using a stone as a pillow and single-handedly moving a heavy stone when he meets Laban's shepherdess daughter Rachel, his cousin. So much for the "mama's boy" concept. It's love at first sight with Rachel and, by contract, to marry her Jacob offers to work seven years for his uncle. But after seven years, Laban adds "fine print" common law to the contract, and deceives Jacob into marrying older daughter Leah who apparently had no prospects for marriage. For working seven more years, Jacob gets to marry Rachel the next week. Over the next years, Leah has 4 sons and Rachel has none. Leah hopes with each son that her husband will love her because of them, but praises God for her fourth son and stops trying. Rachel fights with Jacob for her being barren, and rather than either of them asking the Lord, she gives him her maidservant Bilhah for getting children. (She likely hadn't heard of how this plan backfired for Sarah.) Now in heated competition between sisters, Rachel has 2 sons by proxie through Bilhah, then Leah's maidservant Zilpah has 2 more. Over mandrakes, Leah is rewarded with a night with Jacob and has a fifth son, then a sixth, and then a daughter. Finally, God listens to Rachel's pleas, and she has a son. Now Jacob asks Laban to let him take his wives and children back to his homeland. Noting how much he has prospered since Jacob began working for him, Laban requests that he stay. "Name your wages," Laban says again. Claiming honesty (30:33), Jacob requests certain animals from Laban's flocks, and uses a way to make them particularly plentiful and strong. More details on this agreement tomorrow...