Jen

Q1. (Genesis 34) Why do you think Jacob is so silent after the rape of his daughter? What should he have done instead of being silent? What was right about the sons

Q5. Why do we often fail to see God

Another thought I see here an example of conflicts and blessing. I'm sure the blessings were hidden from Jacob many times during the 20 years but after he can see how very much God has blessed him and mostly in his knowledge of God and his own spiritual growth. I wonder if sometimes the blessings are hidden from us for a time so after we can be all the more amazed with our God and the work He is doing in us and for us in the hard times. 1 Thess. 16- 18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q2. (Genesis 32.9-12) What does Jacob's prayer tell us about his fears? About his faith? About his pride? What are the signs of spiritual growth you see in Jacob since he left Canaan to go to Haran years before? Jacob's prayer totally acknowledges his fears within to God. He expresses his faith in God and his promises. He has such humility. He calls God the God of Abraham and his father and calls God Lord. Don't you just love the difference you see in Jacob. I don't think we saw a lot of Jacob while he was serving Laban (just bits and pieces) but now it seems we see a man who has been made into the man God wants him to be. Now I am sure God has more work to be done on him but this is just wonderful. What a difference a day (in this case 20 years) makes. I am sure it is not the outcome Rachel or Jacob expected when he went away but God had so much more planned than they could have imagined out of their "mistakes". Its seems that Jacob has grown from a shallow self-serving liar to a man who now serves the Lord of hosts. He has become a humble faith filled man who inspite of his fears and trepidations (we all have them) sets out on God's assignment confident not in himself but in God, Yahweh, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Doesn't it inspire you with hope to wonder how our God is going to reveal us in time if we will submit to the work needed to be done in us. Love you all! God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q1. (Genesis 32:1-2) Why does God reveal the angel army to Jacob? What is the significance of the presence of this army? Why do you think he calls the place Mahanaim (

Genesis 31:44-55 The Mizpah covenant: A stone pillar (31:45), such as Jacob had set up in Bethel. A heap of stones (31:46-49a) which they named Mizpah (watchtower) and Galeed or Gilead (witness heap). Calling on Yahweh as witness and guarantor of the covenant: "May the LORD keep watch between you and me...." (31:49b). A promise from Jacob not to mistreat his wives, nor to take rival wives to displace them from their status (31:50). A non-aggression pact: "I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you...." (31:51-52). An oath in the name of God (31:53). A sacrifice and fellowship/covenant meal together (31:54). The purpose of this covenant is to remind them that there is a God in heaven who sees and hears and cares what we do to each other. I noticed here that God rebukes Laban when he goes after Jacob but not Jacob for leaving without saying goodbye. There can be disagreements about whether Jacob should have acted differently but seeing the character of Laban I think Jacob acted prudently. Matthew Henry says bad men are more vehement in their anger than in their love. Talking to Laban would be like talking nicey nicey to a petty dictator intent only on furthering his own agenda. There would be plenty of pretty words and then back stabbing. Sometimes there are good reasons to fear and flee. There is a reason God who knows hearts tells Laban he is not to lay a hand on Jacob. I also noticed Laban's "sudden" concern for the welfare of his daughters. He didn't seem to be concerned when he gave Leah to Jacob instead of Rachel about what the outcome would be. It seemed to me that Leah and Rachel were pitted against each other. I have never in this whole account seen any remorse on Laban's part. Just selfish and egotistical concern for himself. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q3. (Genesis 31:17-36) Why did Jacob and his family leave without saying good-bye to Laban? In what sense did they

Q2. (Genesis 30:25-43) At what point do you think Jacob realizes that his breeding techniques are not the cause of his growing wealth? According to Deuteronomy 8:17-18, what danger are we in when our income and assets begin to increase? I don't believe that Jacob believed any of the wives tale but I do think after serving his devious uncle for so many years that he learned a lot about dear Uncle Laban from observation of the man and he learned how to defeat him at his own game. John MacArthur says that Jacob knew a lot about genes after tending his fathers sheep for most of his 90 years and also that there was something in the bark that put a stimulant in the water to promote the mating activity when he desired it. Jacob seemed to be pretty innocent about the whole offer so he obviously learned how to approach his uncle well. Uncle Laban who knew how a trickster thinks should have been a little suspicious but I am sure he was to cocky for caution. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 says that we tend to forget God (hence the warning) when we get wealthy and think that we ourselves did it. There are a couple verses in Deuteronomy (to sidetrack for a moment) that I believe tell us what real wealth is. Deuteronomy 4:7,8: "For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgements as are in all the law which I set before you this day." Apparently many that day and many today have forgotten real wealth is in God and from God. 1 Chron. 29: 11-15 expresses it beautifully. May we all remember who we are and where we come from and give glory to our God. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26 Luke 12:16-21 is a parable about a man who thumbed his nose at the Lord of Hosts to his own destruction. Put together complacency and a sin nature and that is the only end result. We need to pray for each other!!

Q1. (Genesis 29) Why do you think God allows Jacob to be tricked into 14 years of labor for two wives? What purposes do you think God is working out through these circumstances? Why does God allow any of the things that go on? He gives man free will and man abuses it. Maybe in this case we can just say it was in the genes. Jacob had something in common with one of his relatives. Trickery but Laban had the advantage in being older and wiser in the ways of trickery. I suppose as Jacob served for 14 years he had many times to reflect on the home he left and how his actions hurt his brother and his father. He had time to reflect on his mother's encouragement of tricking her husband into giving the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau. Isaac trembled with anger and I believe Jacob probably trembled with anger when he realized he had been tricked. We can say what goes around comes around but it is a sad commentary on the human condition. The very wretchedness of our sin I believe has had God trembling with anger. So we are so much more indebted to His total and complete mercy. I wonder if God allows so much so that we can see for ourselves just how very despicable we are capable of being and would never believe it if we did not see it for ourselves. So it seems to me we can't be told much of anything either. We are blind to our own sin until it is done to us. And then we see ourselves for who we are. It seems to take the hard lessons of life to mature us and I am sure God is maturing His child and teaching him His ways as he serves this man who seems to get away with anything while Jacob is fortunate to be under the heavy hand of God. After all who wants to be left in this dreadful and fatal condition called sin. It is interesting that Jacob's own sons deceived him most cruelly about Joseph years down the road. It seems so very tragic for this man but God had such good plans that came out of it all. In the end we can only thank God and praise Him for His faithfulness in the good and the bad. " We leave it to Himself to choose and to command. In wonder filled we soon shall see how wise, how strong His hand." God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

It suggests to me the seriousness which Jacob places his commitment. It also tells me that he is not in it just for what he can get out of it. There is a verse in James 2:19, 20 that says "the devils believe and tremble. But do you want to know that faith w/o works is dead". It is one thing to believe and another to put God where He belongs in our lives as King of Kings and Lord of Lord's. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q3. (Genesis 28:18-21) What did it mean to Jacob to set up the stone? What did anointing the stone mean to him? Why does he do these things? What does he promise God in his vow? I believe he sets it up as a memorial to God and the dream he had. It seems to me for the first time Jacob's eyes are not on Jacob. They were looking to God. Annointing the stone was dedicating the memorial and all it stood for to God. He does these things to show his new belief in the Living God and as the place where he met the Living God. He promises God will be His God. That the pillar will be God's house. That he will give God a tenth of all God gives him. Sometimes I wish I had set up more "memorials" of times in my life when I saw God's hand working. I used to put Bible verses on the backs of quilts that reminded me of what was going on in my life at that time. I think it is good to have some tangible reminders of God's goodness and mercy to us that we can go back and look at and praise Him for the faithfulness He has shown. It's so easy to forget when difficult times come and as time marches on our memories fade. Maybe it's not eath shattering but when I look at the verses on those quilts I can remember what was going on at the time and I see how God worked things out and it is comforting to remember His presence even if I didn't "feel" it at the time. I hope what I have just written is taken in the context it was meant. God Bless!! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q2. (Genesis 28:12-15) What did Jacob's dream of the angels ascending and descending from heaven signify to Jacob? What did God's blessing mean to him? In what way was this a conversion experience for him? In a sense this was a vallidation for Jacob, who was probably a little overwhelmed and asking himself "is this supposed to be happening", that God Himself was doing this and that He would be with Jacob throughout. God's blessing must have been a very comforting one and must have been a sustaining force in the difficult years to come. When God reaches down and touches man nothing is the same ever again. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26 "I know not what awaits me God kindly veils my eyes But on each step of my onward way He makes new scenes to rise." Jacob is not expecting what is awaiting him but he does know that God is with him and He is here with each of us.

Q1. (Genesis 28:3-4) Why does Isaac bless Jacob, especially after Jacob

Q6. Extra Credit. Whose character flaws most remind you of your own? Isaac's, Rebekah's, Esau's, or Jacob's? Why? How is God working to improve your character? I would have to say Rebekah's. On one of our moves I spent the first three years trying to manipulate to get us back to New England which I considered home base even though I am not from New England. Then I got a job teaching quilting at a Bible study elective course and a job at a store down the street and then the transfer came. I believe it would have anyway and even though my manipulating was done out of a feeling of helplessness where living in a place where new people were not wanted (I was shunned)I was not putting my trust in God as I should have. I was looking at the circumstances and not Him. I am still learning. More moves were ahead and more periods of uncertainty. I have grown in the moving, I came to know Him! and learned that God knows what is best and His timing is perfect. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q4. (Genesis 27:33) Why couldn't Isaac reverse his blessing once he discovers Jacob's trickery? What is Isaac's role in this blessing? What is God's role in it? I wondered about this. If it was by trickery would it still count. I liked what Matthew Henry had to say about it. 1 How carefuly he (Esau) sought it. When he understood that Jacob had obtained it surreptitiosly, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry, v. 34. Those who will not so much as ask and seek now, will knock shortly, and cry Lord! Lord! Slighters of Christ will then be humble suitors to him. 2. How he was rejected. Isaac, when first made aware of how he had been deceived, trembled violently, v33. But he soon recovers himself and ratifies the blessing he had given to Jacob: I blessed him and indeed he will be blessed. Having found himself more than ordinarily filled with the Holy Spirit when he gave the blessing to Jacob, he perceived that God did, as it were say Amen to it. Isaac followed the Holy Spirit and God's will even though it conficted with his hopes. God allowed the deception for His own purposes. There were serious consequences that were paid on everyones part. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q5. (Genesis 25:28) What happens when your children sense that you love one child more than another? Did such discrimination happen to you when you were growing up? If so, how are you finding healing? How can we as parents love our children equally but differently? I think all my kids have probably felt that way one time or another. When I have detected that I have made efforts to communicate my love in one way or another. I had one who pushed my buttons (not to hard to do sometimes) so I didn't spend as much time with that one. When it was voiced to me, I spent more time with that one as I realized the effects of my actions. I felt many times growing up especially as a middle child that I was not loved as much. I was rebellious but it made knowing the Lord when that happened all the more sweet. He grows sweeter every day. Each of my kids has such wonderful personalities. It makes loving them as individuals such an adventure. I learn so much from them including how I have related to the Lord. By how they relate to me I often see how I am responding to Him as my Heavenly Father. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

OOps Sorry I meant a bride for Isaac and not Jacob in my reply. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q3. (Genesis 27:6-29) God had told Rebekah that Jacob is supposed to rule over Esau (Genesis 25:23). To what extent does this excuse her plan to deceive her husband Isaac? How much responsibility does Jacob bear in the deception? I noticed that Rebekah prayed about the babies in her womb but she must have "forgotten" to pray when it came to her favorite son getting the blessing. There is no excuse for this deception. God had already told her that Jacob would rule over Esau. It was already Jacob's. This is certainly a very sad ending to what was a beautiful story of a bride for Jacob. Jacob was very complicite in the matter. He knew it was wrong (Gen. 27:12) and he went along with the plot, deliberately lied to his father and hurt those he should have loved. Once again the scary thing is I believe we each have it in us to go along with what we know is wrong. On our own without the Holy Spirit we seem to be very weak willed and unable to stand up to those in power. This is a very sad commentary on the human spirit. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q2. Was Rebekah a spiritual woman, that is, interested in spiritual things? Was Isaac a spiritual man? Which do you think was the more spiritually sensitive? What evidence of spirituality do you see in Jacob? In Esau? I see some degrees of spirituality in all of them at some point although not all at the beginning and not until they made some good and bad choices. Rebekah went immediately with the servant to go to be Isaac's wife. That could be seen as interested in doing God's will. Certainly required some faith to whatever degree she had. Certainly her brother was a very fleshly person. The Bible doesn't say why. It says she prayed about the children in her womb. Was she interested in spiritual things? I don't see it. But maybe she was just doing what was protocol for a woman in that day and time. She also used deception to get Jacob the blessing meant for Esau and as a result she had to send Jacob away and never saw him again. I think Isaac was a spiritual man and interested in spiritual things. He was the son of Abraham and I believe that had a profound effect on him. He was still human though and did make some wrong choices. In his early life I don't see any spirituality or interest in spiritual things in Jacob (except acquiring the birthright by I think guestionable means) (Did Rebekah tell him what the Lord told her?) but I do as the Lord worked on him. Esau recognized too late the importance of the birthright but he seems to have prospered. There seems to be a problem in his choice of wives and the reasons for the choices. I do not in Esau see a desire for spiritual things. I see a desire for instant gratification of the flesh. We need to pray that we make wise, godly, spriritually discerned choices. It's very easy to get caught up in the here and now and the deception of small lies or coloring the truth. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q1. Why does the New Testament condemn Esau for selling his birthright? (Hebrews 12:16-17) What did selling the birthright represent? What does this transaction say about Esau's character and values? What does it reveal bout Jacob's character and values? The Bible says it was sin and it was unholy. The birthright was ordained by God, and Esau essentially thumbed his nose at God when he sold his birthright. Esau didn't see the long term. He was in the here and now and that is all that mattered. In this case it was his hunger. Jacob's character was flawed also. He got what he wanted by trickery and deceit. In both cases I see a lack of gratitude toward God. The scary thing here is I wonder if we don't all have a bit of Esau and Jacob in us lurking beneath the surface. WE NEED TO PRAY FOR OURSELVES AND EACH OTHER! Once again I know I need prayer. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q3. (3 John 5-8) What are the reasons given in these verses for supporting Christian workers in their ministry? What reward comes with becoming a "co-worker," by assisting Christian workers? How effective can Christian workers be without those who support them? 1. Missionaries go forth delberately to serve Christ. 2. They go out in Jesus name. 3. They don't seek funds from non believers primaily but from believers. 4. Helping missinaries makes us coworkers. We are serving Christ and loving our brethren. They can be effective to a certain point depending on the mission. It is more encouraging to the missionary to know that the support and prayers of his family in Christ are behind him. Fellowship even if only a few is very important to prevent discouragement during trials. Also people look at the Christians who represent the Lord and wonder why there is so little love. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q2. (1 John 5:11-12) What is the difference between saying "this life is in the Christian Church" and "this life is in his Son"? What should we be doing differently so that we teach a faith relationship rather than a religion? What is the difference between "faith" and "faith in Jesus"? We are the church. If we have the Son who is the giver of life then the church (us) has life. If we have not the Son than we have no life in the church (us) because He alone is the giver of life and we are not the church if we do not have Jesus living in us. The Christian faith is all about relationship based on the redeeming blood of Jesus for us. We are now sons and daughters by faith in the blood of Jesus shed for us. Religion is works oriented, trying to do the right things to earn salvation or favor. We are totally dependant on the work of the Holy Spirit in those who are redeemed for that relationship to grow and become mature. We can have faith in many things but faith in Jesus and Him alone is for our salvation. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q4. Read Matthew 8:5-13; 21:33-44; 22:2-13; 24:14; and 28:19. What do they have in common? What relation does the visit of the wise men have to Matthew's theme of bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles? How should we be applying this mandate in our own lives? They all have in common that all have been called. The sad thing is that so few respond. The Wise Men probably had open hearts to listen to the testimony and faith of some of the Jewish exiles, went to find the Christ child and then returned to their own people to spread their faith. We should live lives that spread the faith or are a testimony to Christ who Himself bore the shame and reproach of the cross for the joy set before Him. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q3. (Matthew 2:11b) Why was it appropriate for the Magi bring gifts to the Christ-child? How does the extravagance of their gifts reflect their heart attitude? What kinds of gifts are appropriate for us to bring? It was the custom to honor kings with gifts. We are to give our best to our King and these gifts represented the best. I believe God choose the Magi for a reason, I believe that God had prepared them for years for this, I believe they knew in their heart of hearts that this was the Christ-child and while maybe they did not comprehend everything at the time they knew what they were to do. Gold for Christ's royalty Frankincense for His deity Myrrh for His humanity and death Everything we have is His and He wants our hearts. If our heart is in the right place the rest will fall into line. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26

Q4. (3 John 9-10) What character flaws does Diotrephes exhibit? Can a person be a strong pastoral leader without developing these traits? If you have tendencies in yourself towards pride and a controlling spirit, how can you fight against them? Diotrephes was not into serving Christ but himself. He used the church to boost his ego. I think he was probably insecure. He did not have a selfless spirit but a selfish one. He wanted to control everything so he would not be threatened by anyone elses God given gifts and talents. I have met some like this and they tend to stifle all life. Personally I don't think Diotrephes was a strong pastoral leader because of these tendencies or flaws. If you have these traits they should be dealt with so that you can be a godly pastor with a servant spirit. There is a tendency in the human pschy to have these traits and that is why we need to humble ourselves before the Lord and pray that He search us and find those things that He doesn't like and cleanse us from them. God Bless! Jen Numbers 6:24-26