The Covenant Confirmed

Story:  The Covenant Confirmed

Passage: Exodus 24

Characters:  God, Israel, Israel’s leaders

Summary:    God has Moses and Israel’s leaders come close to the mountain and He shows Himself to them.  Moses reads the law to the nation and they commit to follow it.  Moses goes up the mountain into the presence of God. 

  

Notes:  God requested that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu along with seventy elders come up to the Lord to worship Him.  This is a pivotal moment in Israel’s history and God wanted to make His covenant with all the leadership of Israel.  These were to be the leaders of Israel over the coming years.  Before they approached the mountain, Moses read the law to the people of Israel.  The people answered in unity that they would do everything the Lord told them to do.  Moses wrote down the law and then set up an altar and twelve pillars.  This represented the twelve tribes of Israel under the leadership of God.  Moses had young men sacrifice oxen to the Lord and half of the blood was poured on the altar.  Blood is hugely significant in the covenant we make with God.  This is because blood represents life.  Our covenant with God is one of sacrificing our life and accepting His life.  Moses once again read the words of the law to the people of Israel and once again they promised to obey.  Moses threw the other half of the blood on the people and declared it the blood of the covenant the Lord made with Israel.  Then Moses and the leaders of Israel went up and saw God standing on a clear sapphire floor.  God spared them and let them see this vision of Him.  The passage says they beheld God, and ate and drank.  This was not a purely spiritual experience; there was a physical aspect to it as well.  Moses was summoned up the mountain by God to receive the stone tablets with the law.  Moses and Joshua approached the mountain.  Apparently, Joshua was allowed to accompany Moses.  This is rthe first we hear of Joshua in the Bible.  Joshua was not one of Israel’s leaders at this point, he was Moses’ assistant.  When Moses left, he put Aaron and Hur in charge.  I don’t know who Hur was, but obviously Moses respected his wisdom and leadership.  Moses entered the mountain and waited.  He waited six days and on the seventh day, God called Him into the cloud.  The glory of the Lord is described as a devouring fire on top of the mountain.  Moses was in the presence of God for forty days and nights. 

Questions:  What did Moses eat for forty days?  Did the people think he had died?  Why was Joshua allowed to accompany Moses?  Why did God require blood for the covenant?

Lessons:   This is a huge moment.  This is possibly Israel’s highest point.  They are given the law and they respond positively.  They make a covenant with God and their leaders see God.  This is a moment where God comes down to Earth and meets His bride, Israel.  His holiness and glory required that His primary interaction with Israel was through a priest.  Today, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and sometimes this very personal connection to the God of the universe makes us forget that holiness and power and we take our relationship with God for granted.  We need to remember that God is holy and powerful and we are only able to connect with Him through the blood of the new covenant shed by the perfect Lamb of God.

Conquest of Canaan Promised

Story:  Conquest of Canaan Promised

Passage: Exodus 23:20-33

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God promises that Israel will conquer Canaan and He will greatly bless Israel in the Promised Land as long as they obey Him and stay faithful to Him. 

  

Notes:  God promised several things in this passage.  The main point I see is that the success and blessings of Israel would not be their own doing.  Not only could they not take credit for it, but it gave them no reason to worry or be afraid of the nations in the promised land.  God says He is providing an angel to guard them and lead them.  They are to be careful to obey his voice and not rebel against him because he will pardon transgression.  This is because God’s name is in Him.  I believe this means that this angel is God in some form.  I honestly don’t know exactly what this looks like or means, but it appears God personally guided them and protected them on their journey.  If they were to obey though, He would be an enemy to their enemies.  God doesn’t set a condition for what happens next.  He says that WHEN His angel brings them to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Canaanites and He blots them out, Israel is not to bow down to their gods, but rather they are to completely overthrow them and break down their pillars.  First off, God says He will blot these people out.  It is not an if, but a when.  Second, He reiterates again the importance of not following their gods.  Honestly, it would be utterly stupid to start worshipping the gods whose nation was just destroyed and abandoning the God who destroyed them, but God felt He needed to remind Israel anyway.  If Israel serves God, He will bless their food, keep them healthy, keep them miscarrying, and give them long lives.  God says He will throw their enemies into confusion and they will run from Israel.  God says He will send hornets ahead of Israel to drive out the nations in their path.  I don’t know what this means, but it is obvious that this conquest would be blatantly supernatural.  Israel was going to be protected and fought for by an all powerful God.  Why wouldn’t God just destroy them all at once?  Why take so long if He is able to conquer them completely?  He explains it is so that the land will not be overgrown and wild beasts won’t take over.  God is intentionally moving slowly to protect His people in the future.  We sometimes question why God doesn’t just act all at once.  This passage shows that sometimes God just has the big picture in mind, and the very thing that you want gone right now is actually keeping you safe in the future.  God is infinitely wiser than any of us could ever be.  He will slowly drive them out before Israel until they possess the entire land.  God finishes by once again reiterating that they are not to make a covenant with them or their gods.  They are not to dwell in the land because they could tempt Israel to sin.  God is very very concerned with Israel worshipping the native gods.  God is indeed a jealous God.  He does not want His creation to get the praise and worship that He deserves.  The purpose of His creation is to point us to worship the creator.  We are far too easily sidetracked into worshipping the created.  God knew that was our weakness and He commanded Israel over and over and over again to avoid that at all costs.  We will see how they do.

Questions:  Why was God going to destroy so many people?  Why the emphasis on not serving the foreign gods?  What are the hornets God mentions?  Why couldn’t God just wipe out everyone at once and also keep the animals from overtaking the land?

Lessons: I would say the theme of this passage centers around our dependence on God and the proper reaction to His blessing and protection.  Israel was supposed to take a relatively passive role in the conquest of Canaan.  Most of the driving out would be done by God directly in some form.  Israel was to trust that and not serve the foreign gods they find.  As Christians, we are not of this world.  We are strangers making our way to the Promised Land of a New Heaven and a New Earth.  What are some of the foreign gods which easily ensnare us?  It is vital that we do not worship these gods at all!  

Water from the Rock

Story:  Water from the Rock

Passage: Exodus 17:1-7

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel, random rock

Summary:    There was no water for the people to drink.  They got angry at Moses.  They were about to stone him when he cried out to God.  God told him to take his staff and strike the rock at Horeb.  He did so and water came out of it.

  

Notes:  Oh Israel.  Once again, they lose their trust in God quickly.  Last time it was lack of food, now it is lack of water.  Moses identified the problem immediately.  He told them they were testing the Lord.  He knew that by complaining about him they were complaining about God.  The people accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them.  They were ready to stone him.  Think about this for a second!  They are slaves in Egypt.  A man comes to them saying that God wants to use him to deliver them from slavery.  This is what they have been looking for for years!  God does ten amazing things through this man.  After these plagues, they get to just walk out of Egypt.  They cross a sea on dry ground, following a visible portrayal of God in a pillar of cloud and fire.  They run low on food and God supplies a daily supply of sweet bread.  Now they are low on water and their conclusion is that God is not with them and Moses just wants to kill them.  How slow are these people?  God’s solution is for Moses to hit a rock with his staff.  Now this must have been a huge rock since Moses would have known what God meant by the rock at Horeb.  It is interesting that the passage does not actually give a description of what happened or the effect it had on the people.  It just says that Moses obeyed.  Ultimately, this is an issue of the people not trusting God.  They are basically assuming that if God is with them, they will always have plenty of food and plenty of water.  While it is true that they are surviving thanks to the provision of God, they are not content with that.  They want a surplus.  Keep in mind a surplus is coming once they reach the Promised Land, but for now, they are to live with the day to day provision from God.  In a similar way, we are not promised a surplus in this world.  When we get to heaven, we will have a surplus, but in this life, our journey, we are to trust God to sustain us day to day.  We have no reason to expect Him to give us wealth or plenty, but rather we can fully trust Him to give us what we need to live and serve Him. 

Questions:  What was the people’s reaction?  How did they think stoning Moses would help them?  How long had they been wandering at this point?  Were they really completely out of water?

Lessons:  We need to trust God to sustain us and provide our needs, but we can’t get too wrapped up with blessings in this life.  Rather, we need to focus our attention and our energy on the blessings we will receive in heaven.  We must be careful when we complain and grumble.  When we grumble, we are complaining about God without realizing it.  We are saying we aren’t content with what He has already done for us and we want more.  In fact, we often feel we deserve more!

Bread from Heaven

Story:  Bread from Heaven

Passage: Exodus 16

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel

Summary:    The people traveled for another month and a half.  They grumbled against Moses and Aaron about the lack of bread.  The Lord said He would rain bread down from heaven.  Moses and Aaron told the people this.  God showed His glory to the people and told Moses what He was going to do in the presence of the people.  In the evening, He provided quail, and in the morning He provided manna, a bread like substance.  They were to only gather about 2 quarts per person per day.  However some people disobeyed.  They were to only gather 6 days a week and rest the seventh.  A sample of manna was kept in a jar to be a testament to God’s provision.  The Lord provided manna to the people for forty years. 

  

Notes:  There are some interesting things happening in this story.  We begin to once again see Israel’s stupidity, but once again, we have to remember that we are as bad as they are!  The people are complaining again.  They seem to be blaming Moses and Aaron for their lack of food.  They even claimed to prefer having died by God’s hand in Egypt while they still had food.  This is ridiculous in my opinion!  It shows how shortsighted the Israelites were!  They would rather have food but die than be hungry and live.  They were focused more on their comfort than on the purpose of their life and following God.  God tells Moses He is going to rain down bread from heaven for them every day.  He even says His reason to do this is to test if the people will walk in His law or not.  If I was told that God was doing this to test whether I would obey or not and this test was going to involve me eating food, I would be all for that!  Maybe I would slip up and mess up months into it.  But Israel couldn’t follow God’s command for 24 hours!  I’ll get to that in a minute.  Moses and Aaron knew what was really going on though.  They knew the people were actually grumbling against God.  God showed His glory to the entire congregation.  This is impressive and shows that the root of the problem was that the people did not believe that He was God.  After all of the wonders and provision they had already seen, they still did not understand His holiness!  I just don’t get that!  God does specifically say that He was going to provide bread and meat so that they may know that He is the Lord their God.  Sure enough, God covered the camp in quail in the evening and with a flaky fine honey tasting bread that the people called manna in the morning.  God’s instructions were to gather an omer, or about 2 quarts, per person per day, and to leave none of it until morning.  As it turns out, an omer was a perfect amount of manna for one person in one day! What do you know! Some people kept it until the next morning though.  Moses was angry with good reason.  This showed not only a lack of obedience, but also a lack of trust that God would continue to provide for them the next day!  The manna rotted and smelled and bred worms if it was kept until the next morning.  God provided double on the sixth day.  The people were told to keep half of it until the next day and to rest the next day.  This is the first occurrence of the Sabbath.  It is not just a day of rest, it is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.  However, some people tried to gather manna on the seventh day! These people could not listen to instructions!  They obviously found nothing!  The cool think is that the manna did not rot on the Sabbath.  This was just another obvious sign that God was behind all of this!  When people disobeyed by trying to gather manna on the Sabbath, God got angry at Moses.  Then the people obeyed!  God wanted them to keep a sample of the manna.  He knew the people needed visual affirmation of His provision.  This manna was to remind them that He is capable and willing to provide for them and help them survive!  Interestingly, Christ is the bread of life provided for us when we were starving in the wilderness.  God is in the business of provision at every level of life!  That said, we are not to depend on the provision, but rather on the provider! 

Questions:  What did the people think of the manna?  Did some people dislike it?  How quickly did people get tired of it?  Why could the Israelites not just obey! 

Lessons:  God will provide!  And when you get angry about your circumstances, try to remember that God put you in those circumstances.  You are ultimately complaining about Him.  I highly recommend not doing that!  I also think we can learn from this some of the dangers of relying too much on comfort.  The people would have rather been comfortable while they died, than alive and following God.  That sounds so ridiculously rebellious and like a slap in the face of God, but we do that all of the time!  We put our comfort or our image above God constantly!  Following God should be the number one and the number two priorities in our life!  Nothing else should even come close, not even our own comfort or image.  

Bitter Water Made Sweet

Story:  Bitter Water Made Sweet

Passage: Exodus 15:22-27

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel

Summary:  The Israelites went into the wilderness.  After three days they couldn’t find water so the people complained to Moses.  They found a source of bitter water.  The Lord showed Moses a piece of wood that he threw into the water and it became sweet.  The Lord promised to keep the Israelites healthy if they follow the Lord.  They camped by the water at Elim. 

  

Notes:   It takes very little to pull our focus from God.  It generally just takes a little bit of discomfort.  When discomfort gets to us and pulls us away from God, it shows that our focus was on ourselves the whole time!  To be fair on Israel though, three days with little to no water is tough to deal with.  And with the thousands and thousands of people they had, it probably looked grim.  Can you imagine the emotional rollercoaster they went through when they came to Marah and saw water?  They were probably overjoyed!  Then they realized the water was “bitter”.  It wasn’t drinkable!  The people would obviously have been upset.  But instead of praying to God for deliverance from this next obstacle, they complained about Moses!  Moses then asked God for deliverance.  Apparently, the fact that not even a sea had stopped them so far did not cross their minds!  God showed Moses a branch, or a tree depending on how you translate the word.  Moses threw it into the water and it became healthy to drink!  The passage says that the Lord tested them and gave them a statute that day.  He promised to heal them if they followed His commandments and diligently listened to His voice.  God calls Himself the Lord, your healer.  God is a healing God. He can heal physical, emotional, and mental brokenness.  Diligence is careful and persistent work or effort.  After this incident the Lord led them to Elim.  Elim had 12 springs of water and seventy palm trees.  God never intended them to die of dehydration; He just wanted them to trust Him to provide water.  Now that they had sort of passed the test, He led them to a huge source of water! It should also be noted that while God could have fixed the water Himself, He appears to have wanted Moses to do a tangible act of obedience to Him.  We will see that consistently throughout scripture.

Questions:  Was God still leading them with a cloud and fire?  Did the people carry water with them on the journey?  How did Moses know to throw the wood into the water?  What made the water bitter?

Lessons: The promise God made to Israel is worth noting today.  We need to diligently listen to His voice!  We need to try to do what is right in His eyes and not our own.  We need to believe that God is a God of healing and trust Him to deliver us from any brokenness that comes as a result of our fallen nature.  Just like God turned the water from being useless and bitter to sweet and useful for consumption, He can transform us from being polluted and worthless to clean and useful for doing His will.

Pillars of Cloud and Fire

Story:  Pillars of Cloud and Fire

Passage: Exodus 13:17-22

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:  God did not lead Israel to the Promised Land in the most direct way because He thought they would turn back if they faced war.  So they went towards the Red Sea.  Moses took Joseph’s bones with him.  The Lord led them as a pillar of cloud in the daytime and a pillar of fire at night. 

Notes: It is interesting that God thought that Israel would go back to slavery if they faced war.  His solution was to march them through the wilderness to a huge body of water where they would be attacked by Egypt.  If I were God, I would not have thought of that as a better alternative to a more direct route with war!  But thankfully, I am not God and He knew what He was doing!  The fact that Joseph’s bones were taken out of Egypt shows that he was never buried.  This shows his great faith!  He had such a strong belief that God would deliver Israel that he never was buried.  Here we see that his faith paid off!  God surely did come through!  The people of Israel were no wandering alone though, God led them in a very visible way in day and night so that they could keep moving!  I wonder when they slept?

Questions:  How tall were the pillars of fire and cloud? Would the Philistines have really attacked? When did the people sleep?

Lessons:  God knows what is best.  It made no sense to not take the most direct route, but God had a very legitimate reason to lead them that way!  Sometimes we feel like God is not with us, but maybe He is leading us by the harder route so that we will end up closer to Him!  I know that has been true in my life!

God Promises Deliverance

Story: God promises Deliverance

Passage: Exodus 6:1-13

Characters:  Moses, God

Summary: God told Moses He was going to lead them out of Egypt.  He said He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but He did not tell them His name.  He promised to give them Canaan and now he heard the Israelites crying out and He remembered His covenant.  God told Moses what to tell the Israelites.  God was going to redeem them with great acts judgement.  God would take them as His people and they would take Him as their God.  The people did not listen though because they were broken.  God told Moses to tell Pharaoh to let the people out of the land.  Moses objected but God gave Moses and Aaron a charge to bring the people out of Egypt.

Notes:  There are a few interesting things in this passage.  God started this dialogue by outlining His history with Israel.  Now He was going to fulfill His covenant.  He told Moses exactly what to say to the people.  Interestingly, it sounds like Moses did not argue this time.  God promised the people that He would deliver them and redeem them with acts of judgment.  He would take them as His people and He would be their God.  You get the sense that God is a husband telling His girl that He’s chosen her and He’s committed to her.  In fact, in the context of the rest of the Bible, this is exactly what God is telling Israel!  He speaks of His delivering them as if it had already happened.  Moses told them that, but they didn’t listen.  The passage even explains why they didn’t listen.  They had broken spirits and harsh slavery.  Sometimes, when we are extremely oppressed and discouraged, it is easy to get caught up in our own problems and not believe God is really there.  This is exactly what Israel was doing.  God was unfazed though and he told Moses to go to Pharaoh next.  Moses felt that if his own people didn’t listen to him, why would Pharaoh?  The passage says the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.  I don’t know exactly what God said here, but apparently it gave Moses and Aaron the confidence they needed to obey.


Questions:  What did God tell Moses and Aaron?  Did anyone in Israel believe God was going to deliver them?  Why did God still love these people?

Lessons:  Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in our circumstances and lose trust in God.  The Israelites did this and so did Moses.  God knows what to do to wake our hearts up to Him again.  It is vital that we trust Him, but when it is hard, we need to pray that God will give us the ability to trust Him.  He knew what to say to Moses and Aaron to give them purpose again and He can do the same for us.

Moses Returns to Egypt

Story: Moses Returns to Egypt

Passage: Exodus 4:18-31

Characters:  Moses, Zipporah, God, Aaron, Israel’s elders

Summary: Moses asked Jethro to let him return to Egypt and Jethro agreed.  God warned Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, but He still wanted Moses to do the signs in front of him. On their way to Egypt, God tried to kill Moses, but his wife circumcised their son and God let him live.  God told Aaron to meet Moses and Moses told Aaron what had happened.  They went before the elders of Israel and Aaron spoke the words God had given Moses and did the signs and the Israelites worshipped God for remembering them in their trouble.

Notes:  At this point, Moses had more than one son.  Moses remembered to take his staff with him to Egypt.  It is called the staff of God because it would be used to do the signs God had given Moses to do.  God’s warning to Moses is interesting.  God knew that His signs and words would be ineffective but He still wanted Moses to obey Him.  Moses was given a task that would not accomplish anything and he was told such up front.  This is the first time God predicts His killing the firstborn children of Egypt.  The reason given here is that Israel is God’s firstborn and since Pharaoh wouldn’t let them go, He would kill all of Egypt’s firstborn.  This implies that there were going to be others born to God.  Even here in Exodus, we can see hints of God’s plan to redeem the entire world.  Israel was not to be the only nation of God, but the firstborn.  I am not really sure why god wanted to put Moses to death, but I imagine it had to do with not circumcising his son.  It is interesting that Zipporah did this.  Moses was apparently incapable of circumcising his son and it was left to his wife, who was not even Hebrew, to keep their covenant of separation with God.  Zipporah seems to have been bitter towards Moses as a result of this incident.  Maybe she was just now realizing the seriousness of God’s call on their family.  Aaron met Moses, just as God had told him he would.  Moses filled Aaron in and they both gathered the leaders of Israel.  Aaron seems to have accepted Moses’ story with no problems.  The people listened and believed Moses and worshipped God.  As God had promised, the people believed Moses. 

Questions:  Why did God want to kill Moses?  Why did his wife have to perform the circumcision?  How old was his son at this point? Why was his wife bitter towards him?  Did Moses’ father-in-law know why Moses was returning to Egypt?  Did the people reject Moses at first?  What was Aaron’s reaction to his brother’s story?

Lessons:  In this passage we see God keeping his promises to Moses.  We also see his justice as he tries to kill Moses for not obeying Him.  He had big plans for Moses and Moses could not afford to stray from God’s plan.  We need to remember that God is Holy and Just.  In the presence of a Holy God, we deserve to die instantly.  We need to keep this in mind constantly rather than take it for granted.  If we keep an accurate perspective of God, it is much easier to walk with Him.

Israel Increases Greatly in Egypt, Pharaoh Oppresses Israel

Story: Israel Increases Greatly in Egypt, Pharaoh oppresses Israel

Passage: Exodus 1

Characters:  Pharaoh, Israel

Summary:  Jacob’s sons settled in Egypt and eventually all died.  Israel however thrived and grew.  The new Pharaoh did not know Joseph and he was intimidated by Israel’s strength.  He forced Israel into slavery.  He told the Hebrew midwives to kill all of the baby boys, but two of them refused and got away with it.  God gave them families to reward them.   

Notes: Egypt was filled with the Israelites.  God took Joseph’s adversity and used it to turn Israel into a great nation, theoretically devoted to Him and separate from the nations around them.  Pharaoh obviously saw Israel as a threat.  He saw them as a resource and he didn’t want to lose them, so he enslaved them.  Pharaoh’s order to the midwives was cruel, but I imagine many of the midwives obeyed.  To disobey was to most likely forfeit your life.  We are given the names of two of them however who were faithful to God.  Shiphrah and Puah were their names.  I feel like if your name is mentioned in the bible, you did something special.  I try not to glaze over names when they are mentioned.  I may not know their significance, but God does and I like thinking about it.  These two women disobeyed Pharaoh and then lied to him about why.  Apparently Pharaoh believed them.  Ultimately though, they were favored because of God and not Pharaoh.  The passage says that because they feared God, He gave them families.  This blessing is a direct result of their obedience to Him.  Pharaoh saw the Israelites continued to grow so he then commanded the entire nation to throw any son born to Israelites into the Nile.  Apparently, he decided that the midwives were not reliable but the people would obey him.  I imagine it would have been scary to be a Hebrew mother.  Any Egyptian you met was allowed to take your son from you.  I see no age limit on this and the fact that the order went out to the people in general implies they were targeting children old enough to be seen by the public.  It should be noted that while the midwives disobeyed and lied to Pharaoh, we are told in the Bible to obey those in authority over us.  We are caught in a dilemma though when our obedience to the government compromises our obedience to God.  Obviously the midwives’ actions were rewarded by God.  Unless your earthly authorities command you to directly disobey God, we are supposed to respect and obey those authorities. 

Questions:  How many midwives obeyed Pharaoh?  Did Pharaoh really believe the midwives?  When is it okay to disobey the government and lie? 

Lessons:  The midwives were not afraid to risk their lives to obey God and they were rewarded.  The rewards were not their motivation, but rather the result of their living their lives for the glory of God.  It is important for us to live our lives for the glory of God and not the blessings of God.  The ultimate reward we as Christians will receive is being able to fully experience the glory of God and worship Him for eternity.  Let’s not get caught up in Earthly blessings which are fleeting, but rather in the ultimate blessing we will receive from God.   

God's Good Purposes, The Death of Joseph

Story: God’s Good Purposes, the Death of Joseph

Passage: Genesis 50:15-26

Characters:  Joseph, Joseph’s brothers

Summary:  Joseph’s brothers were afraid Joseph would kill them now that his father dead.  They told him that Jacob told them to ask for forgiveness.  They begged for forgiveness and offered to be his servants.  He told them he had forgiven them and God had used their evil for good.  He let them know he would provide for them and their families.  Joseph died, but he lived long enough to see his great grandchildren. 

Notes: The brothers were right to be afraid.  They knew they had no reason to ask for mercy so they made it sound like their father had asked for their mercy.  They seem to have truly been humble and repentant.  Joseph wept when they spoke to him.  He was overwhelmed with love for his brothers and was probably frustrated that they didn’t trust him.  He was well aware that he was not God and it was not his job to exact justice.  That is God’s job.  He recognized that God had worked through the bad situation his brothers had put him in.  He comforted them and spoke kindly to them. They certainly did not deserve this treatment from him, but Joseph showed his humility and focus on God and on the bigger picture.  Joseph lived long enough to see his great grandchildrem.  When he died, he asked to be buried in the Promised Land.  Joseph also understood that Egypt was only a temporary home.  He was also embalmed by the Egyptians.  He wanted to make sure his family understood that Egypt was not their home.  With this, The story of the Patriarchs dies.  When we rejoin the story, many years will have passed and God will begin another redemptive work.    

Questions:  Is Joseph’s body still preserved as a mummy somewhere in Israel?  When did Jacob make the connection that Joseph had been sold by his brothers to Egypt?  It was never mentioned what his reaction was.  Did he forgive them as quickly as Joseph did?  Why exactly did Joseph weep when his brothers asked for forgiveness?

Lessons:  Forgiveness is modeled here almost perfectly.  Joseph did not need to provide for his brothers.  He had been wronged and the just thing to do was punish them.  Instead he forgave them.  And that doesn’t mean he only ignored their offense, but instead he basically rewarded them.  He provided for them.  Forgiveness is not simply forgetting the wrong, but it involves a total reversal of attitude towards the forgiven. 

God Blesses and Renames Jacob

Story: God Blesses and Renames Jacob

Passage: Genesis 35:1-15

Characters: God, Jacob

Summary: God told Jacob to return to Bethel and live there. Jacob told his family to purify themselves and get rid of foreign gods. As they journeyed, God terrified the people around them and they did not pursue Jacob. Jacob came to Bethel and built an altar. Rebekah’s nurse died. God appeared to Jacob and renamed him Israel again. He repeated the promise of nations coming from him. God gave him the land around him. God left and Jacob poured oil and a drink offering on the pillar and called the place Bethel.

Notes: I suspect that God wanted Jacob to go to Bethel in the first place instead of Shechem. That would explain why Jacob’s time in Shechem was so bad. Jacob shows he had completely turned to follow God when he had his family get rid of idols. They willingly did so which shows how when the head of a house follows God, the family does too. Jacob built an official altar to God in bethel and called it God of Bethel. Bethel means house of God if you remember. We know nothing else about Rebekah’s nurse, but she must have been important to be named in the passage. They obviously mourned for her. I wonder if they picked her up in their group while with Laban. God appeared and reaffirmed His covenant with Jacob now that Jacob was back in Bethel. This was the place Jacob’s spiritual journey had begun and it was where God planned on it ending. God officially named Jacob Israel here. Jacob poured out a drink offering. Drink offerings were usually wine. By pouring that out on the altar, Jacob was giving even his possessions to God and showing that God was his utmost priority.

Questions: How many idols did Jacob’s family have? How willingly did they get rid of them? What made Deborah so important? Was Jacob initially supposed to go to Bethel?

Lessons: The main lesson I see here is the importance of being a spiritual leader. As in the importance of being a spiritual leader if you are a leader in general. Jacob was the head of his family and when he committed to God, his family did. If you are a husband or a father, your spiritual example has a huge impact. If you are a political leader or a manager at work, your example makes an impact. It is important to always conduct yourself in such a way that people can see Christ through

Jacob Meets Esau

Story: Jacob Meets Esau

Passage: Genesis 33

Characters: Jacob, Esau, Rachel, Leah, 11 kids

Summary: Jacob saw Esau coming. He set up his group with Rachel and Joseph in the back. He bowed low seven times as he approached Esau, but Esau embraced and kissed him and tried to return the gifts. Jacob sent Esau home saying he would follow at a slower pace, but he did not follow and settled in Shechem.

Notes: Jacob was very humble and distrustful of Esau. He put those he loved in the very back of the group. He did not hide his favoritism. Interestingly, he associated the servants’ children with the servants and seems to have not seen them as children of his wives, which was the intention of Rachel and Leah. Esau showed no signs of resentment. He had cooled off over twenty years and had apparently built up some wealth of his own. Since he seems to have dwelt in the present rather than looking to the future his whole life, his current wealth was good enough. He saw no need for the birthright or blessing anymore. As a descendant of Abraham, he was probably partly under Abraham’s blessing regardless as Ishmael was. Jacob still didn’t trust him though and he did not follow Esau home. Esau possibly didn’t trust Jacob either for we see he brought four hundred men with him to meet Jacob. Jacob settled in Shechem and built an altar called God of Israel in Hebrew. This is very significant! He used his new name of Israel and acknowledged that God was his god. He kept his promise! God had brought him back to his land safely against all odds, and Jacob made God his god. This is the conclusion of Jacob’s journey of growth. From his dream in bethel until now, he had been basically testing God and God came through! Jacob saw God’s hand in all that had happened and he officially and publicly put his trust in God. The God of Jacob and Fear of Isaac had become the God of Israel! I see this as a pivotal moment in the redemptive history of the world, yet it only receives one sentence.

Questions: Why was Esau so happy to see Jacob? Did Esau trust Jacob? What did Esau think of Jacob not following him home? Did that affect his trust of Jacob? Did God want Jacob to settle in Shechem or was that Jacob’s own thing?

Lessons: God will come through on His promises. If we make the effort to trust Him even when it doesn’t make sense, He will prove Himself worthy of being our God.

Jacob Wrestles with God

Story: Jacob Wrestles with God

Passage: Genesis 32:22-32

Characters: Jacob, God

Summary: Jacob sent his family across the river. When Jacob was alone, he wrestled with a man all night. The man touched Jacob’s hip and set it out of joint. Jacob wouldn’t let him go until he blessed him. God asked for Jacob’s name and changed it to Israel. Jacob asked God’s name but He refused. Jacob had a limp. Jews don’t eat the sinew from the hip for this reason.

Notes: This is one of the more confusing stories in my opinion, yet it is very meaningful. Where did God come from? I wonder if Jacob knew who he was wrestling at first. That would have been so weird! Imagine a random stranger appearing and wrestling with you. This wasn’t a short match either! They wrestled until midnight! God could have won the fight at any moment, but He chose to let Jacob wrestle with Him on even ground. The way this struggle ended has a lot of meaning which I think we miss sometimes. First, God did not prevail over Jacob. Jacob struggled with all his might. When God asked to go, Jacob wanted a blessing first. I don’t know if Jacob knew this man was God, or thought he was an angel or something. All I know is he knew this man could bless him. God asked for Jacob’s name. In that culture, your name was very important and it was tied to your very identity. To give the man his name meant admitting defeat. Jacob gave God his name and God changed his name to Israel, which means He struggles with God. This is amazing foreshadowing to the nation of Israel’s relationship with God in the future. At this point, Jacob knew that this man was God. Jacob wanted to know God’s name though. He wanted a draw. God would have none of it and asked why Jacob would want His name? God was saying that He won. Jacob had struggled with God spiritually and now physically, but God had won and changed Jacob’s whole identity, including His name. It is interesting that God eventually did use His power to win the fight. He allowed Jacob to struggle with Him for a while, but then He revealed His power and drew Jacob back to Him and Jacob left the experience a changed man spiritually and physically. This encounter with God affected every single aspect of Jacob’s identity and is significant since Jacob is about to have to show whether he will keep his vow he made with God about returning safely to his land.

Questions: Where did God come from here? How long did it take for Jacob to know who he was wrestling with? Why did God let him wrestle with him? Who initiated this match? What was Jacob’s family doing this night without him? Was his limp permanent?

Lessons: Many times, we struggle with God. We try to use our will instead of following His. Many times, God will let us struggle with Him. He may even let it look like we are winning, but in reality, He is in total control the entire time and eventually He will show us His power and draw us back to Him and it is hard for us to avoid being changed by the experience. Another example of this is Job. Job argued with God and God let him argue before eventually showing Job His power and holiness and knowledge and Job was overwhelmed and changed. A similar situation happened with Habakkuk. God will let us struggle and wrestle with Him, but He has no intention of letting us win, but rather He will use it to show us His holiness and draw us closer to Him.