Old Jerry

I think that we equate blessings with the lack of crisis in our lives because it is always the crisis that brings us back to God. Without the crisis we would think that we were doing all things on our own. The effect of crises on our faith is bringing us back to God so that we will be able to prosper again. When things are going great and then somebody dies or something else happens and we blame God for what is happening that is when it might destroy our faith.

The reason that Jacob crossed his hands when blessing Ephraim and Manasseh is because God had laid it on his heart which one would be the greatest. Joseph tried to stop him because he was thinking earthly things while Jacob was thinking Holy things. The sense that Jacob’s blessings are an actual prophecy from God is because Jacob knew who was going to be the greater.

The sense that life on earth is like a “pilgrimage” is because we don’t have a permanent home here on earth. It can be taken away in one great big storm. But we still have our savior and that will never be taken away. We can look to a place better than this one where we will have no pain. When we settle down and get too comfortable with our lives we seem to forget what got us here and stop worshiping the one that made it all possible. The way that we retain a “journeying spirit” on our faith is not to put faith in our material things and continue to read and study God’s word so we can stay close to Him.

God spoke to Jacob at Beersheba to quiet his fears and said that He will be with him, that He will bring him back in the land and that He would multiply his people. I think that Jacob stopped believing because of the entire trauma that he has been through. I think that he might have just given up faith in God. There is always a relationship between faith and God’s words. We have to believe that God cares about us that He doesn’t want to harm us.

I think that Jacob’s vision is so bleak, but Joseph’s so broad is because Jacob has lost so much in life where Joseph has just began his journey. Joseph can see a future where Jacob can’t. Joseph had always accepted fear as a challenge where Jacob has let fear conquer him at times. The insight that has kept Joseph from being bitter toward his brothers is that he can see God’s hand in this.

Jacob’s state of mind after the first trip to Egypt is that of not wanting to let anybody else go to Egypt because he keeps losing his sons there. If I were a psychologist I would diagnose him as being paranoid. The thing that have paralyzed Jacob mentally and spiritually is the loss of some family members especially, his favorite wife Rachel. I think that Jacob finally realized that they were going to starve to death if they didn’t get anymore grain therefore it was worth the chance he had to take.

I think that bringing the blood-stained robe to Jacob says that they really didn’t like how their father favored Joseph over them. This might have been a way at getting back at him. This loss had capped off all the grieving that he has had in the past years over his wife and his parents. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. This was also going to make him very cautious about what he does with his other children.

The significance of Reuben’s sin is that he was the first born and should have received the first born inheritance but now he will not. This goes beyond a sexual sin in that he is trying to get control of the clan. This act affected the family dynamics by the other not trusting Reuben. Reuben probably saved Joseph’s life after he had been put into the pit. He offered to protect Benjamin when Joseph wanted to see him.

I think that God appears to Jacob another time because he wanted to assure him that He was still with him and to renew the promises that he had given Jacob. The primary promises that God renews with Jacob is: He is God, to be fruitful and to multiply, that he will be the father to nations and kings and that the land that he had promised his forefathers will become his.

Jacob’s household needed spiritual renewal because they had been worshiping the god’s of the area that they were in. They had idols that they considered god. We must get rid of the foreign gods because if we don’t we haven’t truly repented of our sins. The washing and putting on clean clothes represent us repenting of our sins and getting rid of all that draws us away from our one and only God.

The thing that happens when the Israelites disobeyed God and intermarried with the Canaanites was that they started to follow their religious practices. That is the reason that God commanded them not to intermarry so that their hearts would remain with the Lord the one and only God. Not to intermarry is a spiritual thing because we are to marry a Christian and not intermarry with a non-Christian. That is the way that we can keep God in our marriages.

I find it strange that Jacob is so silent after the rape of his daughter. I think that the old Jacob would have attached them but the new Jacob is a lot calmer than that and he is getting old. I think that instead of being silent he should have brought it to the attention of the town elders and pursued legal action. I think that his son’s reaction was a lot more reasonable but they should have perused legal action instead. Now the threat that they now face is that of war.

The change that was in Esau was one for the better. He had forgiven his brother for tricking his dad into giving him the birthrights that belongs him. Jacob has changed into a more obedient person to God and to be more humble to his brother. This encounter demonstrates that Jacob is still thinking of ways to get the best that he will need. It demonstrated his faith by approaching Esau and that he says that God is the one that provided everything to him. I think that Jacob was humble and “crafty” at the same time.

I suppose that the “man” that Jacob wrestled with was an angel-God if there is such a thing. The wrestling represented that Jacob was wrestling with the things of the past and that he was going to have to make amends for what he had done. I think that this wrestling was physical thing because it left him with a limp. But it was probably a spiritual thing as well because he was wrestling with his past. The “man” wounds Jacob to remind him of what has happened that night. I think that the limp meant to him that he wrestled with God and came out a better man.

This prayer tells us that Jacob fears his brother because of what he had done to him in the past. But due to fact that is God is calling him back his faith has made him stronger. And he willing to suck in his bride and honor Esau as his lord shows that he is willing to throw his pride out the window. Some of the spiritual growth that I see in Jacob since he left Canaan to go to Haran is that he trusts God more and that he has become humble.

I think that God revealed the angel army to Jacob to insure him that he was not alone and that God was with him. The significance of the army is to let Jacob know that he is not alone and that he will be successful. He called the place Mahanamim because there was his camp and there was the angel’s camp.

I think that the reason that we don’t see God’s blessings during the everyday conflicts in our lives because we are consecrating on the conflict and not on God. Blessings and conflicts so often come at the same time because we need to conflict in order to get the blessing. Our only hope that we have in the midst of our struggles knows that God is with us at all times.

The terms of the Mizpah Covenant was that there would be a monument set up to honor God, that there would be some rocks together and call it Mizpah, Jacob was not to mistreat his wife’s, a non-aggression pact, and a fellowship meeting. And God is to watch over all this.

Jacob and his family left without saying good-bye to Laban because they were afraid that Laban would do something to make them stay. He was a very controlling person and wasn’t exactly honest in his dealings with Jacob and his family. I guess you can say that Jacob deceived Laban because he didn’t move his family until Laban was sheering the sheep and was too busy to watch out for what he thought he possessed. I can’t say that anything was unjust or unrighteous except for Rachel stealing the family God. But by leaving when everybody was busy was the only way that Jacob saw that he could get away.

Jacob may not have ever believed that his breeding techniques were the cause of his growing wealth but figured that it didn’t hurt to try. But I think that after Laban changed the terms of his contract, and the animals changed to the color of what Laban was demanding, then Jacob new for sure that it wasn’t his breeding skills that were helping anything. The danger in our income and assets beginning to increase we take credit for it and don’t think that God has anything to do with it. Then we think that we did it all and start to worship our money instead of God.

I think that God allowed Jacob to be tricked into 14 years of labor for two wives because he has given us a free will. It wasn’t God that provoked the circumstance it was man. God didn’t want this polygamy relationship but He did allow it to happen. I think that God, even though He didn’t like this relationship, is going to make the most of it by showing Jacob that deceiving is the best policy and that a family life is the best.

Jacob’s promised to tithe indicates that he realizes that everything has come from God and that he is willing to give back only 1/10th of it. He is dependent on God and realizes that this is one way of showing his commitment. This incident at Bethel is a conversion experience for him because he got to see God’s angel and he realized that because of that God was watching after him personally. The relationship between tithing and conversion is that we have accepted that everything is God’s and that we are only returning 1/10th of what He has given us. This helps us to put God first and not money.

When Jacob set up the stone it meant that it was the place where he met God in a personal way and that he would always remember him. To anoint the stone was to make it spiritually clean. When Jacob did these things it was an act of dedication of him for worship. He promised God in a vow that God would be his God, that the pillar would be God’s house, and that he would give him a tenth of all that God gives him.

When Jacob dreamed of the angels ascending and descending from heaven he thought that it was the stairway to heaven and that Lord was surely in that place. God’s blessing just reaffirmed Isaac’s blessing but God put in a personal blessing also. This was a conversion experience for him because God had blessed him and made things personal for him.

I think that Isaac blessed Jacob because Esau had disappointed him in marrying Hittite women. These women were a sore spot for him and he didn’t want Jacob marrying any of them. These blessing are the same ones that Abraham and Isaac received and they are the ones that Isaac passed onto Jacob. The main elements of Isaac’s blessing is being fruitful, acquire land and the world would be blessed.