Scripture and Observation:
Things come to a head for Jacob under Laban’s house. Laban’s sons are complaining about Jacob’s success and Laban isn’t so fond of his son-in-law. God, in dream, tells Jacob to go home. So he calls his wives out to the field to let him know what is going on. The sisters agree it is time to go, but Rachel steals the family idols before departing.
Laban finds out they left and sets out after them. Before catching up with them, Laban has a dream of his own. God tells him to be careful in how he speaks to Jacob. When they meet again, Laban asks why they left without saying goodbye and why his idols were stolen. Jacob knows nothing of Rachel’s pilfering so rashly swears that whoever has stolen from Laban will die. He opens his belongings to be searched. Laban goes through everything but the cushion Rachel is sitting on. She announces she is on her period and cannot rise. Jacob get angry and lists his acts of faithfulness to Laban for the past twenty years through afflictions. He says that without God he would surely be leaving empty handed. In response, Laban relents. He can’t help but claim everything, but basically pleads no contest.
They set up stones and call it Mizpah and pray that the Lord watch between them while they are absent from one another. Laban says that while he may not know about Jacob mistreating his daughter, that God will. they agree to not pass the pile of stones to harm one another.
They depart after spending the night and Jacob sets his sights on home. He sends some servants ahead to let Esau know they are coming. Jacob is shaken with fear when he hears the response is Esau coming to meet him with 400 men. Jacob prays in utter humility to the faithful God for deliverance. He is so transparent and honest about his fear. He splits his people into two companies, hoping that if Esau attacks, at least one group will escape. He spent the night and began selecting from what he had to make presents for Esau. He sends in small groups each set of gifts to wash over Esau as both move to reunion.
Jacob stays behind with his family and send them just across the stream. He is alone. There he wrestles with someone until dawn. He hip is dislocated and at dawn he tells Jacob to let go. But Jacob says not without a blessing. He is now Israel. His blesser says that Israel has ‘striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’ Israel named the place Peniel for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.’
In chapter 33 Jacob finally meets Esau. He arranges his wives and their children to approach Esau according to their importance to Israel, I presume, with Rachel in the rear. He went ahead and bowed to his brother. Esau embraced him. Esau eventually accepts the gifts and returns home. Jacob sets up home with some distance from Esau.
Jesus tells us that we need to repent or we will perish. He tells the story of the fig tree that does not bear fruit. It is give one last chance to bear fruit. Next Jesus heals a woman who was bent over for 18 years. The synagogue official is angry because Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Jesus asks if it is really wrong to free a woman whose been bound for 18 years if it is not a sin to unbind an ox each Sabbath so that it may drink.
Jesus says that the kingdom of God is a mustard seed, growing large and becoming a home. It is like bits of yeast that leavens much flour. Jesus tells a passerby that we must stay on the narrow path. Many will be left out in the cold, while other are welcome and will live with God. Jesus is told to leave because Herod wants to kill him. Jesus answers that basically Jesus is in charge and will reach His own goals, but agrees to travel on. He says he will return to Jerusalem to be killed.
Application and Prayer:
When God tells Jacob to leave Laban’s house, He identifies himself as the God of Bethel. This is the name of the pillar made from Jacob’s rock pillow he used while dreaming of the angels on the ladder. God, you are faithful. As we walk with You, we cultivate a history on which we can both recall. Like an old married couple remembering the initial sparks that brought them together as a couple to reignite the flame, we can recite your blessings when we feel lost so that we are built up in faith.
As a girl, I got a Mizpah coin for myself and a girlfriend, thinking it was so cool. I’d not realized at the time that this was a cautious truce between two conmen. They are agreeing to not hurt one another, they are assuring that God is watching them, not as a loving thing, but with a distinct Big Brother feel. Why on earth did that become a marketable item for jewelry??
The conversation between Esau and Jacob is one on which I have heard many sermons. I wish I hadn’t, though. In fact I feel that way about much of this portion of Genesis. Even as I hear my own thoughts while reading the entire story of Jacob, I tire of my jaded viewpoint. I see ugliness everywhere, and this conversation is no exception. Esau want to bring Jacob home with him, but Jacob resists, citing the slow travel that the young children and animals need. Esau suggest leaving his own people with Jacob to accompany him home and again Jacob resists. The sermons I have heard have said that there is still great mistrust between these brothers and Esau’s offer is really a politely veiled desire to leave behind either ‘muscle’ or spies. Jacob suspects that and never actually goes to Esau’s, but settles a home away from him.
Perhaps this is true. I have trouble reading it any other way now. But the prayer that Isaac offers when full of fear is the Isaac I knew in my childhood. A patriarch. I know God chose sinful, flawed men for important roles, but sometimes I tire of my eyes seeing only the flaws. I would like to see them with promise, striving for God. I would like to see them with God’s eyes.
I don’t know if my mind is not focused or if there is another problem. The Luke readings have been difficult for me to write about in the observation stage of this devotion because it feels so disjointed. I wonder if it was Luke to which I was most exposed as a child, because I remember thinking the life of Jesus was just a collection of unrelated stories. This reminds me of something my daughter said last month while watching a movie on the life of Christ. My son came in and asked her what she was watching. She said, “it is a bunch of the different stories about Jesus all in one movie!’ She must feel as I did when I was little!
Lord, help me to see your Word as a whole. Help me to see your life on earth as a whole. Help me to teach my children that your life is real, that you are alive and that it all connects. There is meaning, in pieces and overall to all that you did while walking this land. Help me to see, to understand and to share.
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Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!