Jacob leaves to Protect His Life

12/12/2006

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Jacob leaves to protect his life

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 27:40-45

            Message of the verse:  “40  ‘By your sword you shall live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall come about when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck.’

41 ¶  So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’  42  Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, ‘Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.  43  ‘Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban!  44  ‘Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury subsides, 45  until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?’”

            As spoken of by Isaac concerning Esau to live by the sword, he first plans to use it on Jacob because he feels that Jacob stole his blessings, which were not his in the first place.  Rebekah, who seems to find out all of the family business hears of this and then sends Jacob to her brother Laban for what she thinks will be a short visit and then when the anger of Esau subsides she will send for him to take him back home.  The sad truth is that she never sees Jacob again on this earth, for Jacob would spend twenty years with Laban and Rebekah would be dead by that time, and the irony of this is that Isaac will still be alive when Jacob returns.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I read this story I wonder why it is that Rebekah did not just sent Jacob a short ways away for a little while, and why she would send him that long journey to where Laban was living, but of course the answer is that this was all in the plan of God and although there was sin involved in getting Jacob to live with Laban it is what the Lord had planned in order for the twelve sons to be born and continue the process that would have the Messiah to be born.

I see Romans 8:28 being fulfilled a lot in this story, and also in my life too.  It was for sinful reasons that I went to Florida in 1974, yet God called me to Himself during that trip and changed my life completely, and continues to change it even as I grow older, to change it so that I might be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, for He has a plan for me too.

The Word of God has been a challenge to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  To continue to trust the Lord in the storm that He has sent me out into, along with my wife, that He will bring us in from this storm in His due time, and we will be changed forever so that we both will be more like the Lord Jesus Christ.