Jan 15, Gen 34-36

Wow, Dinah must have been one hot chick for all these men to agree to this!! Now it's one thing for the man who was in love with her (bad enough) but for the rest of town to agree to it?? More significantly, Jacob seems to be maturing at bit and though he is very unhappy with what his sons have done, he finally makes everyone get rid of the foreign gods they have.

I found it intersesting that Jacob and Esau buried their father together. There was not further mention of any relationship between them since Jacob went a different way after meeting Esau.

They buried him in Hebron and this town is still in existance. Those of you from Cornerstone, may remember the Pastor telling us that it is the second Holiest place in Israel and is completely off limits to tourists. It is under Arab control and is heavily gaurded. When I googled Hebron, I found this interesting site:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron.html

A most interesting statement: Hebron, located south of Jerusalem in the Judean hills — is home to approximately 130,000 Arabs, 530 Jews, and three Christians.

((Do you ever feel outnumbered? Think of the 3 Christians living in Hebron!!))

Jan 14 Gen 31-33

Well, these are not your 'flannel graph, Sunday School' Bible stories and it's about to get worse!

My sister says it's worse than a Soap Opera. Indeed! The world in need of a Savior!

To me the most significant thing today was the name change from Jacob (meaning the deceiver) to Israel (God fights). It put me in mind of how when we are saved, we have a 'new nature' but the 'old nature' ('deceiver') is not dead and buried, it raises it's ugly head all the time and it doesn't take Jacob long to be deceiving his brother and taking a route other than what he said he was going to.

Jan 13 Gen 29-30

The common understanding is that Genesis is written by Moses. He hasn't even been born yet. So we have to assume that this was all given over and over again by oral history. So as the story is told over and over about Ishmael being born of a handmaiden....wouldn't you think, "Hmm....I don't think that giving my husband a handmaiden is such a good idea". It must have been sooooooo common in that culture that they didn't even give it a thought.

One thing I noticed, and I'm not sure of it's significance, is that when Abraham's servant went to get a wife for Isaac, he came in what I assume would be the customary way: bearing a lot of gifts as dowry. There is no mention of the this when Jacob goes to get a wife. And he does 'call upon the name of the Lord' and say that if he was given success that then the Lord would be his God and he would give would give God a tenth (28: 18-22)but he does not pray for success as Abrahams servant did. IF the Lord gives me success then I'll serve Him?? Laban always gets a bad rap for 'bait and switch' and changing the wages but perhaps some of this is all Jacob's fault-maybe it was really God who made him work that hard for a family.

I think we are like that sometimes too, we see something that has been successful before and charge ahead with it thinking it must be right. We don't seek the Lord because it worked well the last time.

Jan 12 Gen 26:34- Gen 28

Blessings. I'm sure you've said to people before, "God bless you". But what does this really mean? Starting with Abraham, it seem that the "blessing" was truly a prophesy. And once spoken, it is somehow irrevocable. In that culture, the 'best blessing' was 'supposed' to go to the oldest. It is somewhat understandable that Isaac being the youngest was blessed, because he was the son of Sarah, not a handmaiden. But now we have twins- can't get much more 'equal' than that except that one is born first. God has chosen the younger however, and through him the line of the messiah will come. Interesting that these people believed every word of blessing made by a human, but they didn't always believe God. Jacob would not have had to steal the birthright or the blessing. They were his! I wonder if this is a picture of us 'working' for our salvation?

This is a little off subject, but I heard a TV program yesterday where they talked about the angels that encircle the throne in heaven. They continually cry "Holy, Holy, Holy". The speaker explained that it is not that they are just repeating it over and over it's that they are continually discovering new things about God and they are continually seeing a new revelation of His holiness which makes them cry, continually, Holy, Holy, Holy.

Jan 11, Gen 25:1-Gen 26:33

I was struck today that Esau sold his birthright. The same thing is happening today. We are all God's children and He offers us all the same inheratance of eternal life but we get get distracted by the here and now and reject things of eternal significance for things that can not possibly last. Esau was stuck with his decision forever. Luckily today, because of Jesus and His sacrifice for us, as long as we are alive it's never too late to make things right with God.

Of course, I can't help but comment that Isaac did the same stupid thing with the same king!! For heaven's sake!! Yet, the King was perceptive enough to notice that the "Lord was with him". Luckily, Isaac copied the good things that Abraham had done also. He built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord.

The Mayan Calander

Nothing new under the sun...Jan 10 check the other blog

And the more I look the more I realize that there really is nothing new under the sun.... there are more Daily Bible blogs than one would think. This is all new to me, but I think I'm catching on to the fact there is a whole world of bloggers out there. I remember when my daughter had to do a blog for class and I said WHAT"S THAT? Anyway, this latest link, the 2009 one, has a great commentary for today's reading. Better than anything I could have come up with!! Check it out

New blog on the list

I happened upon a blog of a group that did the same thing we are doing but they did in 08. They have set it up pretty much the same- the thoughts are listed by day (and include the scripture reference which I will now do- good idea). It gives one more perspective.

Start a Blog!!

Start a blog and we'll link it together!! We'll put it on the right, there where it says My Blog List. You don't even have to use your real name if you prefer not to! Get a gmail account if you don't have one and start it up!

Jan 9 thoughts

Of course this is the most dramatic story yet. Not much I can add to it but some things did strike me-
- I never really noticed that 'salvation' was the same as it was for Hagar and Ishmael as it was for Abraham and Issaac, they looked up and it was there. Presumably, it had to have been there before, but they had not seen it.
-I have heard that under the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is the very rock where they believe this took place. Of course they believe that the son of the 'almost sacrifice' was Ishmael and I'm sure we will not see it ourselves. As a matter of fact, I think a pic I saw on the internet said "a rare look at the stone". I'll try to research before or while I'm there if it truley is the stone or if it is legund.
-God had already made all these promises to Abraham, he didn't 'need' to do this to obtain God's promises but he acted in humble obedience and thus gave us a beautiful foreshadowing of God giving HIS own son.
-Interesting that right after the sacrifice is talk about the cave/tomb. Of course it's not Issaac's but it struck me.