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Genesis 34 - Day 34 (link to reading plan)
Scripture: Genesis 34 Observation: The depravity of mankind continues to spiral out of control and the Israelites are not immune to the ungodliness. Some would argue that Simeon and Levi's actions were justified because of the circumstances and the culture that they lived in (an eye for an eye). There was no other way for them to rescue their sister. However, the massacre of all the men, the looting of the city, and the kidnapping of all of the women and children can not be rationalized. Application: There are so many things wrong with this story. Dinah "visiting" some women who lived in the area. Shechem raping, then kidnapping Dinah. Jacob's apparent indifference to his daughter's plight. The deception of all the men and their ulterior motives. The massacre, kidnapping, and destruction of the Hivites. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. We can't make anyone do anything that they do not want to do. We can only lead by example. Prayer: Lord have mercy on me a sinner. Help me to love my neighbors as much as I love myself. Genesis 33 - Day 33 (link to daily reading plan)
Scripture: Genesis 33:1-10 Commentary: The Peniel episode has delayed the climax of the narrative, the reunion of the brothers, but has at the same time prepared the way for it. Jacob is now a new man, Israel; his encounter with God has prepared him to meet Esau, as Jacob himself stresses by comparing Esau to God (vv 10–11). The new character of Israel is soon apparent. Courage replaces cowardice as Jacob himself strides ahead of his family to meet Esau (v 3). Humility takes the place of arrogance as he bows down seven times before his brother (v 3). And penitence prompts him to attempt to give back the blessing out of which he had cheated Esau (vv 10–11). Through his Peniel experience, Jacob has been reborn as Israel. Wenham, G. J. (1994). Genesis 16–50 (Vol. 2, pp. 302–304). Dallas: Word, Incorporated. Observation: Jacob is reunited with his estranged brother Esau after 20 years of living with his uncle Laban. Application: Encountering God (Theophany) transforms us. Prayer: Lord, fill me afresh with Your Holy Spirit and have Your way in me. Genesis 32 - Day 32 (click here to read the chapter)
Scripture: Genesis 32:22-30 Commentary: Having safely brought his family across the fast-flowing Yabbok, he finds himself alone struggling single-handedly with an unknown man. The darkness of the scene is matched by the opacity of the narrative. The reader is allowed to see no more than Jacob. The identity of Jacob’s unknown opponent is as obscure to modern readers as it was to Jacob. At first he just thought he was fighting a man, for he seemed to be winning. But when the man touched his hip socket and dislocated it, Jacob began to wonder. Despite his injury or because of it, he determined to fight on, even when his strange opponent asked to be let go, “for the dawn has broken.” Jacob, as quick as ever to make spiritual profit out of other people’s difficulty (or was it because he sensed his adversary’s supernatural power?), insists on receiving a blessing before he will let his enemy go. Throughout his career, Jacob had been determined to acquire blessing by fair means or foul; he had deprived his brother Esau of both his birthright and his blessing. And now on the eve of his first meeting with Esau since that fateful episode (chap. 27), Jacob is portrayed as still anxious to acquire blessing: he does not seem to have changed.But instead of simply acceding to his demand, the adversary asks his name. “Jacob” he replies, thereby admitting his grimy past. From the womb he clutched his brother’s heel (25:26). And later Esau ruefully commented, “Is he not rightly called Jacob? He has cheated me these two times. My right as the firstborn he took away and just now he has taken away my blessing” (27:36). Now, instead of Jacob, he is renamed Israel, “God fights” or “God rules,” “for you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Names throughout Scripture are significant, but changes of name in midlife are specially so (cf. Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah in 17:5, 15). Here Jacob’s new name was to become the nation’s name, and it is fraught with significance. As often in the Bible, the historical etymology of a name does not exactly match the significance assigned it by the biblical writers. Israel, “God fights or rules,” is here reinterpreted as a reference to Jacob’s struggle with God. Yet this reinterpretation captures the paradox of Jacob’s struggle precisely. For while Jacob struggled with God, it was God who allowed Jacob to triumph in the fight. In a similar way, the Lord tested Abraham yet provided a ram for the burnt offering (22:1–14). Later, Moses’ deadly encounter with the Lord prefigured the divine deliverance from Egypt (Exod 4:24–26). Jacob’s experience at the Yabbok, wrestling with God and yet surviving, was in later times seen as prefiguring the national experience (Hos 12:5). Running through the psalms of national lament there is a similar conviction that the nation’s trials are heaven-sent; yet only from heaven can they look for deliverance (e.g., Pss 74, 79, 80, 83). So this story of Jacob’s struggle with God summed up for Israel their national destiny. Among all their trials and perplexities in which God seemed to be fighting against them, he was ultimately on their side; indeed, he would triumph, and in his victory, Israel would triumph too... The church, too, faces testing and struggle. Indeed, we pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” thereby acknowledging that God may allow us to be put in testing situations, but through his grace we may overcome them. So Calvin (2:196) aptly comments on the parallels between our experience and Jacob’s: “What was once exhibited under a visible form to our father Jacob is daily fulfilled in the individual members of the church, namely in their temptations it is necessary for them to wrestle with God. He is said, indeed, to tempt us in a different manner from Satan; but because he alone is the Author of our crosses and afflictions, … he is said to tempt us when he makes trial of our faith.… He having challenged us to this contest at the same time furnishes us with means of resistance, so that he both fights against us and for us. In short, such is his apportioning of this conflict that while he assails us with one hand, he defends us with the other; yea, in as much as he supplies us with more strength to resist than he employs in opposing us, we may truly and properly say, that he fights against us with his left hand, and for us with his right hand. For while he lightly opposes us, he supplies invincible strength whereby we overcome.” The stranger’s explanation of the name Israel, “you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome,” prompts Jacob to inquire about his identity. But he refuses to disclose it. Instead, he blesses Jacob. Then Jacob realizes that he has been wrestling with God, and his demanding pushiness turns to awe, “I have seen God face to face and yet my life was rescued” (v 31). Earlier he had prayed to be rescued from his brother Esau (v 12); now he gives thanks that he has survived the much more dangerous encounter with God, for as the OT repeatedly shows, meeting God unprepared is often fatal (Lev 10; 2 Sam 6). And as perpetual reminders of his experience, Jacob names the place Peniel, “face of God,” and decrees that from henceforth his descendants should not eat the sciatic nerve. Wenham, G. J. (1994). Genesis 16–50 (Vol. 2, pp. 302–304). Dallas: Word, Incorporated. Application: Covenant & Kingdom, invitation & challenge, relationship & responsibility, confidence & competence - however you want to look at it, God's will for our lives is for us to be sanctified. God allows us to "wrestle" with Him to transform us in the struggle. Prayer: Lord have Your way in me. |
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