haar

The significance of Reuben's sin is that he lost the blessing of a first son which he would have received. Defiling his father's wife was a great sin that was beyond a sexual sin.

God appeared to Jacob again to comfirm to him that He is his God, and would surely bless him as earlier promissed. He (Jacob) will be fruitful, multiply and wil be a father of nations and kings. These were the primary promisses made to Abraham and Isaac and later to Jacob.

Jacob household needed spiritual renewal because some of the women including Rachael had idols from their fathers homes. These have contravened the commandment of the Lord. They thus had to get rid of the idols, wash themselves and worship only the Living God. The act of washing with water was a symbolic for spiritual cleansing while the act of putting clean clothes represents putting on a new man, have the holy Spirit clothing us with a new spirit. We all need to confess our sins, get rid of any 'idol' that competes with God for our time and attention.

God told the Israelites that when they disobeyed His command and intermarried with the Cananites, He would destroy them. He did not want the Israelites to intermarry with the Cananites because the Cananite wives would turn them to worship their gods and thus make them poluted and unholy. This was a spiritual consideration to ensure that the children of God remained holy and not poluted by idols. For the same reason the Christians are to marry "in the Lord" so as to have holy union.

Jacob was silent after his daughter was raped probably because of fear as his children were not around and he was old and frail. Jacob should have taken legal action agains Shechem for defiling his daughter. His childrens' anger when they discovered that their sister had been defiled was right. Tricking the men and murdering them was however wrong. The action of Jacob's children exposed their entire family to danger of attak by the community in Shechem and the neighbouring communities.

Esau peaceful with his brother Jacob and his very social conduct demonstrated that he had changed trmendously from a hateful revenger to a forgiving and loving brother. Jacob has changed very much. He attributed his wealth and large family to God and not to his evil schmes of the past. Jacob was however still very crafty by insisting that the brother should accept his gift of peace. Doing so would bound the bother to live peacefully with him. Furthermore, his refusal to go with his brother or allow his brother's men to stay with him was another indication of his craftiness. He wanted to be free from his brothe's dominion and would therefore live with him.

The 'man' who wrestled with Jacob all night was God. The encounter was to humble Jacob so that he would learn to do things right and to depend on God rather than trusting his evil schemes. The encounter was both physical and spiritual. The wound inflicted by the 'man' that resulted in Jacob limping was to be a mark that would always remind him of the encounter and the faithful relation with the Mighty God, the protector, provider and promise fulfiller.

Jacob prayer for God to protect him from his brother showed he was still afraid that his brother would attack him and his family. He however demonstrated faith in God as he reminded God about His promises to him. Jacob dependence on and faith in God showed that he had grown spiritually sinnhe left Canaan years ago.

God revealed the angels army to Jacob to ensure him of his presence so as to calm the frightened Jacob. The army of angels were in a camp. Jacob recognised his camp plus that of the angels army thus the reason why he called the place 'two camps' - Mahanain.

The terms of the Mizpa covenant are: - Yahweh as a witness and a guarantor for the covenat. - A promise by Jacob not to mistreat his wives nor to take rival wives to displcae their status. - A non-aggression pact where none of them will pass the heap of sand to harm the other. - An oath in the name of God. - A sacrifice and feast to seal the covenant. The monument was to remind both Jacob and Laban that God would watch and punish any of them who violates any of the covenant terms.

Jacob and his family left without telling Laban because they knew from experience that he would not let them go with all their wealth. I personally do not think that this was deceipt since telling Laban could have resulted in not leaving with some of their wealth. On the otherhand, since God has promised to prosper Jacob and had really done so by multiplying his flock despite Laban's eveil schemes, He (God) could have prevented Laban from doing any thing that would have thwarted His plans for Jacob. In this case, I now feel that Jacob should have trusted God to deliver him and thus he should have told Laban about his plan for leaving. Based on my later argument, Jacob's plan was unrighteous because he did not trust God's ability to protect him from Laban's evil greed and selfishness.

Jacob became aware that it was not his breeding technique that was causing the increase in his stock when he noticed that his stock still increased even when Laban changed the sharing arrangement. When we become rich and our assets have increased, we could be tempeted to think that it was our effort that caused the increase. We should however always attribute our success to the Lord God, the Great Provider.

God wanted to build a character in Jacob. To let him learn lessons on his previous flawed character. He deceived others and also received the same treatment from Laban. God was also bulding the foundation of the future family he had promise Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; a nation through Leah, Rachael and their slave girls.

Jacob's promise to give tithe to God indicated his submission and commitment to the lorship of God . It was also a demonstration of faith in God's ability to supply all his needs. By this he acknowleged that all thigns needed by him came from God.This incidence at Bethel was a conversion experience for Jacob. From then on, he depended on God for protection, provision and guidance. He no longer was the self centered and selfish Jacob who took advantage of his hungry brother and deceived his father.

By setting uo the stone, Jacob was raising a memorial that recognised ( and would always remind him him)of the God of Abraham and Issac as his own God too. By anointing the stone, Jacob was consecrating it as an alter for worshiping God. It was a symbolic of his personal consecration or setting himself apart for Go. His promise, that if God be with him throughout the journey (and back to his father's house), protected him and provided food and clothing for him, then God would be his God, he would build a house for God at the place where he had errected the the stone. He also promised to give a tenth of wht he had to God.

To Jacob, his dream of seeing angels coming from and going up the ladder showed an access to the Kingdom, presence of God. He was in contact with the Great and Mighty Awesome God. God's blessing at this time to Jacob signified that he has been approved by God to be the 3rd generation beneficiary of the blessings God promised first to Abraham and then Isaac. The experience was a spiritual revival or conversion to him (Jacob). He was acquiring things by deceipt and manipulation before but could now see God delivering such (blessing) directly to him. He was also at this point God concious than before.

Isaac blesses Jacob because he still loved him despite his (Jacob's) deception. Furthermore, Isaac became more aware that Jacob was the son God had promised to produce the nation of Israel. Isaac's blessings to Jacob are similar to the ones of Abraham & Isaac because they contained the same elements- possession of land, producing many descedants and being a blessing to the world. This confirms the sequential fulfilment of God's proghesy.

The character flaws that is applicable to me and I think to many Christians is the tendency to go for benefits of the moment at the expense of bigger rewards of the future. Indulging in any sin is an example of that. God promises us future glorious rewards and crowns for righteouness, service and obedience but we tend to get entangled with one sin or the other in oder to satisfy our lustful flesh at moment. My prayer is that I will know Christ more and more and to become more like Him in all my ways- will, desires, actions etc.

When one child discovers that other children are loved more than him, he develops an attitude of hostilty and jealousy to the others who are loved more than him. He could also develope hateful attitude to the parents. He may withdraw to himself and could join some bad guys. I did not experience discrimination when I was growing. As humans, we find it difficult to love every child equally. We tend to react according to the attitude of each child. Thus a child that is well behaved will be shown more love than the others who are not so good to the parents. However, we can go to God to give us the grace and the ability to love as He does.

Isaac could not reverse the blessings pronounced on Jacob because he had actually just fulfilled God's plan for Jacob. Isaac's role in the blessing was that of a channel as God was the source of the blessings.

The fact that Rebekah knew God's plan for blessing Jacob should not have been a good reason to acquire it for Jacob by deceipt. Jacob coluded with her mother to obtain God's blessings by deceiving his father Isaac. He actaully was more responsible for the dedceipt because he carried out all the plans his mother laid down.

Rebekah was spiritual only to the extend that she remembered God's declaraition that Esau shall serve his younger brother Jacob. However, she tried to help God to accomplish what He had planned. This was not spiritual because it was an act of unrighteousness. Isaac was spiritual because he still remembered that God requires that blessings be imparted on a first son. However, he either forgot that God had instructed that the blessing was to be for Jacob and not Esau or he loved Esau more than Jacob and wanted to favour him. If the latter is the case, then he was not spiritual. The evidence of spirituality in Esau was his knoledge that he was the first son who should be blessed.

The New testament condemned Jacob for selling his birthright because he was more intrested in satisfying his immediate need than his God's ordained future benefits- his inheritance as a first son. This was described as ungodly, godles, unholy or profane by different translations of the verse. The act of selling his (Essau)birthright reprenseted a legal transfer of his future inheritance as a first son to Jacob. The transaction shows that Essau was a man who was interested in benefits/ values of the moment and therefore could sacrifice the huge future benefits. Jacob on the other hand could invest his present benefits for a grater future harvest of dividend.

Diotrephes exhihibitted self centred, domineering and manupulating spirit. A leader can be a strong leader without these character flaws if he submits to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Those of us who have a Diotrephes spirit should commit ourselves to God, ask Him to fill us with His Holy Spirit who will help us to be leaders that build the congregation.

The reasons given for supporting Christians in their ministry are: a) Doing so has a reaward from God, the reward is now and when we meet the Lord in the last day. When we assist ministers in their ministry, we are co- workers with them in the vineyard of God. thus we are also serving God. c) When we help such needy ones, we are indirectly doing it to the Lord. d) It is an obligation for Christians to support Christian workers beacuse they are not expected to get assistance from non Christians for their ministry work. The ministry of full time Christian workers will not be successful without the financial and other types of support from us.