Weekend Genesis 39, 40, 41

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Whenever a family has more than one child, the accusation “You love my brother more than me!” is often flung at parents.  Sometimes, even spouses become jealous of the attention given to their child.   Husbands are known to accuse their wives of giving their children more attention than they get from them. 

I was one of three children.  And, in my family, my youngest sister always enjoyed the closest relationship with my mother.  No matter what my sister did to hurt or bother me, my mother always sided with her.  I was usually reprimanded or asked to take on a broader view of things.  Unfortunately, since I was only a few years older than she, I was no more able to do that than Heads of States are able to overlook grievances against their country.

Beneath the surface, my family was embroiled in controversies and resentments which re-surfaced, on occasion, even years later.  Some things were forgotten but other things remained unforgiven.  But, to put it into perspective of today’s reading, we never desired to kill one another.

In this head, I would likes to reflect on today’s chapters.  Born to Rachel, the wife Jacob truly loved, Joseph was openly his father’s favorite son.  While Jacob relished displaying his love for Joseph, the other sons of Jacob seethed in jealousy, resentment, anger, and hatred. 

It seems that Joseph’s  job, in the family livestock business, was to generate his siblings’ performance appraisals.(Genesis 37:2; 12 -14)  Jacob, who, for twenty years, toiled for his uncle, to build up the livestock he took back to Canaan after leaving Laban,  knew what it took to maintain and grow his flocks.   Maybe Joseph shared his father's diligence and care in work, which could have also drawn them closer together.

A more striking similarity Joseph and Jacob shared was their relationship to God.  Joseph's prophetic dreams, which caused his brothers to hate him even more, probably drew him closer to Jacob, who himself had come to know God intimately.

While on a routine scouting errand for his father, Joseph was bound by his brothers and sold into slavery.  Through God’s providence, Joseph was purchased by Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials.  In a very intriguing verse, Genesis 39:2,

“And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.”

How can a slave be prosperous?  A few verses later, after Joseph refused the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife, he was falsely accused of attempted rape and then thrown into a dungeon.  Again, how is this prosperous?

The Hebrew word used here is a fairly conventional “tsalach” which can mean to go above and beyond or to be good.  But in any case, it implies abundance – more than expected.  Here, the sense of prosperity was used in conjunction with the statement that the Lord was with Joseph.  I wonder of the statement really means that Joseph grew in his knowledge and understanding of God; in his intimacy with God, so that when he could easily have sinned, he was able to turn away from it because he knew God. I believe that prosperity here refers to Joseph’s spiritual wealth which contrasted to his material poverty. 

In Scripture, there is no record of Joseph ranting and cursing his brothers.  Rather, he seemed to enter slavery with grace and equanimity.  He did his job and clung to his knowledge of the Creator; clung to his knowledge of who he was in relation to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Through the many years that Joseph spent as a slave in Egypt, he abounded in godliness, skirting sins with consequence.  Joseph always seemed to have understood that God was Sovereign and that he had a place in his plan.

Day 12: Genesis Chapters 33, 34, 35

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As I am writing these entries, I see just how much of ordinary family strife and discord is reflected here.  Ordinary families don’t always have ordinary conflicts.  In my family, the order in which cars are lined up in the driveway can initiate a major blow-up because someone will be inconvenienced. 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs of Israel, talked to God and knew his plan, and yet, their family dynamics were awful.  An undercurrent of fear ran through the lives of these men.  Accompanying the fear, each of these men made decisions to deal with frightening circumstances by relying solely on themselves.  Unfortunately, the consequences of these decisions impacted their families for generations.   

In an overview,  Genesis  was about God and man; God reaching out to man; God planning for man's eternity; God relating to man; man's rejection of God and of God's provision; man's desire to be a god in his own right.  In Genesis Chapter 32, all of these parameters are captured as the man, Jacob, wrestles with God. I know, this section is not supposed to be about Genesis 32, I felt led to write more about this chapter. So much hinges on how Jacob's relationship with God is defined and established here.

Before even being born, God designated Jacob as the one to whom God would entrust the covenant promises.  And yet, Isaac, the promised son of Abraham, loved Jacob’s twin, Esau, more than he did Jacob.  When it came time to bestow the blessing, he wanted to give it to Esau, even though Esau had already sold his birthright and had married Canaanite women, thus showing that he didn’t really care for God’s covenant with Abraham.
Instead of praying, Rebekah sought to “help” God by deceitfully procuring the blessing for Jacob.  But this introduced a web of discord that rippled straight through the history of Israel.  As was required of him, Jacob willingly found the love of his life in Laban’s daughter, Rachel.  However, because of his circumstances, he was forced to acquire three other women whom he did not love.  As the family grew, the sons of the unloved wives knew that they were not as dear to their father as were Rachel’s children.  In this family, strife, jealousy, anger, rage, vindictiveness, deception, superstition, etc. began to flourish.

In vying for Jacob’s heart, his sons and their mothers were pitched against each other.  While they lived in Laban’s compound, God was not clearly manifested to them.  I think that when God spoke to Jacob, to tell him to go home to his father’s house, God was also reminding Jacob of his place in God’s plan.  Before Jacob and his family fled from his Uncle Laban, Jacob knew that God would protect him, but he still felt the need to leave without hurriedly, without a celebration or good byes.  Jacob was still afraid of Laban and he still didn’t fully trust God to protect him.
When Laban learned that Jacob had fled, he and his men went in hot pursuit of him.  When he met up with Jacob, he did tell him that God had warned him to leave Jacob alone.  So, they set up a memorial boundary between their lands.

But, as we read on in Genesis 32, Jacob was not much reassured by Laban’s communication about God’s protection for him and his family.  Jacob was terrified of his brother Esau, who twenty years earlier had sought to kill him.  He divided his family up into group so that not everyone would be slaughtered at once.  Then, Jacob prayed to the God of his father Abraham and to the God of his father Isaac.  After asking God for deliverance, Jacob took the situation back into his own hands; he acted in his own wisdom.  He sent lavish gifts of livestock to Esau in the hopes of appeasing his brother’s wrath.

After sending his gifts, his flocks, his family ahead of him, he remained alone on the other side of the Jabbok River.  He was alone, in the darkest night of his soul, when a supernatural being, who looked like a man, wrestled with him all night.  As the day began to break, this man touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh, and crippled him.  This being could have conquered Jacob within seconds of meeting him, yet he allowed Jacob to struggle.  I feel that Jacob was allowed to really understand the extent to which he was vulnerable; to completely comprehend that his resources and strength are limited; that God did not want to function as Jacob’s assistant.  Rather, God wanted Jacob to understand that God is God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.

Jacob, whose name meant deceiver, was at that moment changed to Israel, which is derived from the Hebrew word, “to fight” and can be understood to mean, “ God fights for “, in this case,  for Jacob and his descendants.

Even though Jacob could not equally love and protect his family, with the name change, God stepped in and told them all that he was now their sovereign protector and defender.

Day 11: Genesis: Chapters 30, 31, 32

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Whew! So much happened in these condensed, action packed segments of history.  There is no depiction of an idyllic, pastoral married life where everyone is pleasant, agreeable, and kind.  The prior chapter ended with Leah, who knew she was the unloved wife, bearing four sons.  Rachel, who was loved by Jacob, was jealous of her sister who bore children.  Rachel ranted at Jacob who, in turn, became angry with her, hurtling sharp, stinging words at her.  I can almost hear the yelling, the insults, the squabbling children, the crying that emanated from this patriarch's house.  No, there was no peace or happiness there.

I am certain that no-one could believe that they even had any special relationship with God.

These chapters are filled with people who used their own resources, their self-willed ingenuity,  to accomplish God's will.  Discord, deception, superstitious beliefs, enmity between sisters, suspicion amongst brothers dominated the interactions in Jacob's family.  Each sister also gave Jacob an additional wife/concubine as they competed to produce more children.

All of these people knew the promise which was the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God promised Abraham the land of Canaan and he promised him descendants as numerous as the stars.   But each man, when faced with a great trial, failed to rest in God's promise.  Instead of resting in the knowledge that God was sovereign and that he would bring about about what he had promised, Jacob countenanced his wives competition for his affection.  

It's a good thing that God's promises are not based on how much man deserves God's favor.  While Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed God to varying degrees, God never wavered from his everlasting covenant agreement with them.  Although each of these men would probably have had a happier, easier life if he rested in God's ability to make good on his promises rather than try, on their own, to make them happen,  it is comforting to see how God blessed them in spite of their shortcomings.  Men will always fail, but God remains Sovereign and constant.

Day 10: Genesis 27, 28, 29

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Have you ever gone to a high school reunion maybe 30 years after high school graduation?  Did you have a chance to meet up with someone labeled "The Most Popular" or "The Most Likely to Succeed"?  In my friend's  high school yearbook,  the photograph of the young man "most likely to succeed" smiled boldly as he imagined his certain glowing future.   At the reunion, he was a slightly pudgy,  balding man with dropped shoulders who stuttered and complained about all of the bad breaks he got in life.  His forced smile was a muscular caricature of mirth.  Not only did nothing go right, but now he was poised on financial ruin.   In high school he had everything peers thought was necessary for success, but still he did not succeed.

In this Bible narrative, Isaac is somewhat in this camp.   Forty years have elapsed since he had married Rebekah in a fairy tale setting.

Isaac's father, Abraham, was a man who knew God, talked to God, and called on God.   In contrast, Isaac is recorded as calling on God only once, when his wife of 20 years remained barren.

 God answered Isaac's prayer and Rebekah conceived.  Troubled by the jostling in her womb Rebekah inquired of God about the meaning of this.  God then told her that the older son would serve the younger.

Even though God made known to Rebekah and Isaac that the younger son would be favoured by him, Isaac  loved his older son Esau more.  By the time he was forty years old, Esau already sold his birthright to Jacob, the younger son, and  married two Canaanite women, thus showing that he did not honor the special family line.  Even though Isaac wasn't happy with Esau's wives, he still wanted to give him a special blessing that God had empowered him to give.

It appears that Isaac himself lost sight of God.   In his old age, Isaac was also loosing his sight.  Maybe that was a physical manifestation of a spiritual ailment.

While both Isaac and Rebekah knew the oracle Rebekah heard from God regarding her children, it's interesting to note that neither Rebekah nor Isaac called on God to effect his prophecy.  Isaac sought to overturn God's prophecy by blessing Esau anyway and Rebekah sought to foil her husband's plan by disguising Jacob to appear like Esau.  While Jacob did receive Isaac's blessing, the ill will, resentment, and anger that it caused split the family apart.

Rebekah arranged for Jacob to flee from home to her brother Laban's homestead under the pretense of seeking a wife.  In stark contrast to how Eliezer, Abraham's servant, left Abraham with a caravan of gifts and wealth to present to Rebekah's family, Jacob had nothing, not even a change of clothing.

It appears that he left in such a hurry, that no provision was made for his journey.  Rebekah counseled him that when it was safe to return, she would send for him.  Unfortunately, she died before it was safe for him to come home.

After Jacob left Beersheba, where his parents lived, he camped in the desert.  One night God appeared to him in a dream and affirmed that the promises made to Abraham and Isaac are now made to him.  God also assured him that he would be with and that he would watch over him.  When Jacob awake, he vowed that if God would provide for him and be with him during this journey, he would give God a tenth of all that God gave him.

It's interesting to me that Jacob fully understood that he really had nothing.  While Isaac, his father, had blessed him, he, maybe in anger, with held all earthly goods from Jacob.  I don't know what Isaac was thinking but it could even have been that he hoped Jacob would perish in the desert so that Esau would have the blessings.   So, Jacob talked to God and fully confronted his poverty.

Jacob, the "disinherited" son of Isaac arrived in Paddan Aram with a promise from God and with the ability to work.  Laban was shrewd and no doubt saw that something was amiss.  He allowed Jacob to work for him for seven years so that he could make up his mind about him and watch.  He wasn't going to give up his daughter that quickly.  As Jacob proved himself to be an honest and diligent worker,  he acquired two wives, Rachel and her sister Leah.  Laban obviously began to think better of him.

In this episode of his life, God had talked to Jacob and comforted him.  I feel that God wanted to show Jacob that God's way of doing things is the better way and more efficient way.  Man's way is often cumbersome and filled with hurt, even when man wants to do God's will, but in his own style.

Day 9: Genesis 24, 25, 26

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When my daughter was still an infant, I began to pray for the boy who would become her husband.  I prayed for blessings upon him and upon his spiritual development.  When my daughter went to college, I prayed even harder for her and for this special young man who would one day walk beside her through life.

Praying for your children, for their future, for their happiness, is something many parents have done over the ages.  Yet there is something especially powerful about the God ordained love story between Isaac and Rebekah.

When Abraham's chief servant, Eliezer, left Abraham's camp,  he knew that he had to get a wife for Isaac from Abraham's relatives and he knew that the girl had to come to Isaac; that Isaac was not to leave Canaan to go to her.

Though Abraham's servant knew that Abraham had already prayed for a successful journey for him, he too prayed when he reached Nahor's town.  He prayed that God would clearly reveal to him who was the right girl for Isaac.   When Rebekah came to the well, she unknowingly met all of the criteria that the servant had prayed about.

After talking to her, Eliezer met with her family, explained all to them, and asked if she could be the wife of Isaac, to which they agreed.  Rebekah then willingly and eagerly left with Eliezer in order to be wed to Isaac.  She chose not to spend the extra ten days celebrating with her family before beginning her married life.

One evening, as Rebekah's caravan approached Abraham's camp,  Isaac was in the fields meditating.  In Hebrew, meditating is sometimes synonymous with praying.  If we re-phrase it a little, he was praying, communing with God, maybe wondering about the direction his life would take. And suddenly he looked up and saw Rebekah. Their eyes locked.  Then Rebekah asked the servant  about the young man's identity.   Probably relieved that this was in fact Isaac, her intended husband,  she slid off her camel and  modestly covered herself with her veil.

 As the sun was setting,  Rebekah and Isaac,  strolled together to his mother's tent.   Rebekah became Isaac's wife and he loved her.   Communal fires hosted dinner preparations as Rebekah and Isaac began to kindle the fire that fueled their marriage.

What is most beautiful is that this marriage was covered in prayer.  Abraham prayed before the servant's journey began because he knew that his son's wife had to come from his family.  God had impressed upon him the holiness of his line.  Abraham probably prayed for a safe journey; for a successful journey;
for Isaac to love the young woman who would be brought to him to wed.

Abraham's servant prayed that he make the correct choice in selecting his young master's wife.  He also prayed that Rebekah's family would agree to let her go to wed Isaac.

Isaac was probably praying that his bride be beautiful and pleasing company.

In that peaceful sunset, where Abraham's tents were nestled, I can almost hear the concert of prayer in Genesis 25, for this new generation to whom God's everlasting covenant would be entrusted.

Day 8: Genesis 21,22,23

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Later in life, I remarried.  By that time I knew that I wanted to start a family immediately.    Nothing happened.  Month after agonizing month, I despaired.  The suddenly, year and a half later, I  got pregnant.  I was overjoyed -

In some ways, because my pregnancy didn't happen so quickly, I've been able to identify a bit with Sarah, Abraham's wife.


So, what about Sarah?  Yes, you may ask, what about Sarah?  In Genesis 23, we read that Sarah dies at the age of 127 in the land of Canaan, the Promised Land.


In Genesis 11, as  Abraham's family was preparing for their big move, Sarah was first introduced as his "barren wife who had no children".  The Genesis account underscores and emphasizes her  deficit as a wife.  It's interesting to note that in this society where concubines were not unheard of, Abraham did not take on another wife so that he could have children.

Throughout her life, Sarah was by Abraham's side - effectively the co-recipient of God's promises.  When God promised Abraham that he would be a great nation, it is likely that they understood  God's plan for marriage - that they were one flesh and united in God.

As they continued to move throughout the region due to wars, famine, and a growing household, they may have come  to doubt God's promises; Sarah remained barren.  God's promises were real but somehow confusing.

On two occasions in which he was facing kings and possible extinction, Abraham showed that he was afraid. In one instance, when traveling through Egypt, Abraham was afraid of the Egyptians so he asked Sarah to say  that he was her brother (and not her husband).  From the narrative, we are led to understand that Sarah did as she was asked.   Perhaps, here Sarah simply acquiesced to a poorly thought out scheme while praying and trusting  God for all of the promises he made to her and Abraham.  She understood that Abraham was afraid and hid behind her, exposing her to the dangers of the palace.

 God supernaturally rescued Sarah from Pharoh's harem.  Some time later, after Abraham and Lot split up, after Abraham defeats four powerful kings  and rescues Lot and all his possessions who were seized  as part of the kings' booty, God spoke to Abraham again. In this case, maybe Abraham was too angry to be afraid.   After this battle, twice God affirmed to Abraham that he rescued him from his enemies and that God himself is Abraham's shield.  God also told Abraham not to be afraid.

Again, God  affirmed again that Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the stars and that they would inhabit the land of Canaan.

Sarah knew God's promises; she knew that she was one with Abraham; no doubt, she knew that God intended for her to bear the children of Abraham.   In Genesis 16, we read that Sarah has not yet borne any children.  As she saw her body age and wither,  she must have been agonizing about the prophesies Abraham was hearing from God.  How could he father a nation, if she was still barren.   She was now in her eighties, well past child-bearing years, and she began to trust in her own understanding of God's promise.  She felt that God was delaying or maybe forgot or maybe, she thought that she misunderstood the way in which it would happen.

When Sarah's faith in God's ability to bring give Abraham numerous descendants faltered, no-one was strong enough to counter her.  She convinced Abraham to take Hagar.

Genesis 16:3 says that Sarah gave Abraham Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to be his wife.  Sarah hoped that she could build a family through Hagar.  Once Hagar conceived,  her relationship with Sarah deteriorated so much that Hagar eventually fled from Sarah's presence.  Though God brought Hagar back, he did not bless her son with an everlasting covenant.

Another thirteen years passed.  Both Sarah and Abraham had a lot of time to ponder God's promise to them and to speculate about how it would come about.  Abraham was now  ninety-nine years old and Sarah was ninety.  This was a period of God's silence somewhat like the darkness beneath the soil where  a seed germinates, out of view, and bursts through the soil formed and beautiful.

When God appeared to this ninety-nine year old man,  God again told him of his promise to Abraham to give him numerous descendants and to give the land to his progeny.  This time, Abraham had to accept this covenant by circumcising every male in his household, which he did immediately.  Then God specifically addressed Sarah and told Abraham that she will be blessed; that she will bear him a son; that she will be the mother of nations; that kings will come from her.

Abraham laughed, as though God said a joke.  He actually asked if Ishmael, his son by Hagar, could live  under God's blessing.  While the blessing was granted, the everlasting covenant was reserved for Isaac, the son Sarah would bear Abraham.

After Abraham circumcised his household, the Lord again appeared to him and told Abraham that, this time next year, Sarah would be holding her son.  Sarah listened to God speaking with Abraham, heard the proclamation, and laughed to herself (Genesis 18:11).  She couldn't understand how, now that both she and her husband were worn out, they could  experience the joy of having a child.  Maybe Sarah, looking at her wasted body, couldn't see through God's eyes.  Maybe she could no longer believe that her body could work like that - she lost all hope.

It is interesting that in Genesis 17:17, when Abraham laughed and asked about Ishmael to be blessed, God didn't reprimand him for it.  Yet, when Sarah laughed, God called her on it and asked "Is anything too hard for the Lord."  But Sarah's response was to be afraid and then to lie to God, to tell him that she didn't laugh.  God corrected her by saying that she did laugh.

This is the only account in which Sarah directly speaks with God.  Up until this point, it's only Abraham and God.  Maybe, while being zealous for the fulfillment of the prophecies, she lost sight of God as Sovereign, as Creator, as One with whom all things are possible.  Perhaps she never quite understood the significance of God's choosing one line of people over another, of Abel not Cain, etc.  While she trusted God to protect her from Pharoh, she didn't fully trust him to give her a child.  Maybe, because she was barren and no doubt prayed for children until she was hoarse, she gave up on the idea that she could bear a child.



In Genesis 21, it is written that the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.  Sarah bore Isaac and glorified God about the joy, laughter, this brought her.

Another interesting aspect of Sarah is how observant she was.  When Isaac was weaned,  there was a great celebration.  But Sarah noticed Ishmael mocking the festivities.  She told Abraham to send Hagar and her son away immediately because Ishmael will not share in Isaac's inheritance.  Though Abraham was distressed by this, God counseled him to do as Sarah told him to.

With Sarah's death, Abraham lost a partner with whom he grew in the knowledge of God.  She knew and accepted how fearful a person Abraham was, and trusted God for deliverance the two times he presented her as a sister rather than as his wife.  God rushed to her rescue and protected her from sin.

In her death, Sarah  was instrumental in bringing about the second of God's promises.  Abraham wanted to buy a cave in which to bury her.  But, the owner wasn't willing to sell the cave alone, because he would still have to pay duties on the entire tract of land.  Abraham finally, to buy the cave, had to buy the entire field around the cave.  Thus he acquired an anchor in the land of Canaan.

Sarah was the conduit through which God's promises came to Abraham - she supported him in his faith in God and didn't let him give up

Day 7: Genesis 18, 19, 20

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  The lesson that Abraham learned about waiting for God to carry out a promise or to answer a prayer, is always new and always difficult.  God always asks us to trust him to do what is best for us; God always asks us to trust in his character.

In Genesis 18, when God visited Abraham,  he was told that within a year's time he and Sarah would have a son.  Sarah laughed because both she and her husband were "well advanced in years and past child-bearing age" (Genesis 18: 11 - 12).  But God responded "Is anything too hard for God?"

I think that this is a question I, and many believers, grapple with constantly.  Genesis begins with the declaration that God created everything that is.  While we agree that God created the universe, we often speculate as to whether or not he really cares enough about each individual person, or about "me" specifically, to change our circumstances for the better.   Often people just don't believe that God has their greater good in mind and they take matters into their own hands.

In Genesis 18, God revealed to Abraham that he was going to investigate the sin of Sodom and Gemorrah.  Abraham understood God's plan and then interceded with God on behalf of the righteous in those cities. When Abraham asked that the righteous be spared sure destruction,  God agreed to that.

As it turned out, the only righteous family in these cities was that of Lot,  Abraham's nephew.  The angels of the Lord finally grabbed Lot, his wife, and his 2 daughters and led them out of Sodom and told them to flee quickly to a neighboring town.  Once Lot was safely way, the "Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gemorrah" and completely destroyed the cities.

Scripture tells us that God is Sovereign over all of our lives.  Because he would rather that none perish in any judgement that may befall the earth or an individual,  God calls out to mankind.  God promises to be with us as we walk through troubles and difficulties thus strengthening us and enabling us to live more successfully.   Through the story of Lot, God tells us that even though they were only a small contingency of four righteous souls, he cared enough for them to spare them from destruction.