Genesis 26-28
Perils of Prosperityand the Stairway to Heaven
Psalm 6:1-4 The Prayer of Faith when You've Failed
1.A Psalm by David “Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in Your anger, neither discipline me in Your wrath.2.Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.3.My soul is also in great anguish. But You, Yahweh—how long?4.Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul, and save me for Your unfailing (a) / faithful (b) / steadfast (c) love." Versions: a=NIV b=HCSB c=ESVObservation
6:1-4.It looks like someone is reaping the consequences of wandering away from God. They don't think God is that happy with them either. It takes a lot of faith in God's character and revealed purpose to call out for help when you know you probably don't deserve it. But then who else are you going to call?
Lexical Light
6:4 Hesed is the Hebrew word frequently translated “mercy” or “loving kindness” in some older versions. But that meaning misses the boat. The essence of love is loyalty, self-sacrificially doing what is in another's highest interest. When you're in great danger/trouble, would you rather someone be kind or loyal to you? God is always loyal to His people, even if that involves disciplining them. Note how the three translations above handled the concept, viewing hesed as a type of love. All good choices, but I like “loyalty” as it contrasts well with being unfaithful to one's covenant obligations to protect and defend another.
Application
If God seems far away, guess who moved? Trust in His loyal love (hesed).
Prayer
God, it's me...I'm sorry. Help! Thanks. Amen.
Proverbs 2:9-10 Pleasant Pursuit and Paths
9.Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.10.For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.Observation
2:9-10.These verses need to be understood in the included context. We must seek what God has revealed to understand the fear and knowledge of God. Our fear of God develops when we grasp the consequences of obeying or disobeying Him (blessing or cursing). Our knowledge of God develops as we discern the things He likes and dislikes, and why. When you learn to look at things from God's perspective, you can understand what is right and just and fair (NIV translation) and every good path to take, and what to avoid. It's not some incomprehensible mystery, we just need to dig for it. In the process of digging, God's principles get ingrained in our heart, then our soul will be pleased with knowing what God wants (His will) because we will understand why that is best, and will value doing it.
Genesis 26-28 Perils of Prosperity and the Stairway to Heaven
Genesis 26 Same Story, Second Verse
1."There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.2.Yahweh appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.3.Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.4.I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,5. BECAUSE Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My requirements, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”6.Isaac lived in Gerar. 7.The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife,” lest, he thought, “the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at.”12.Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.13.The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.14.He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.16.Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go from us, for you are much mightier than we.”23.He went up from there to Beersheba.24.Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.”27.Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you HATE me, and have sent me away from you?”28.They said, “We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,29.that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.’ You are now the blessed of Yahweh.”34.When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.35.They grieved Isaac’s and Rebekah’s spirits."Observations
26:5.Exactly why did God say He was blessing?
26:7.
God passes on the blessing and reassures Isaac, even though his confidence /faith in God's protection isn't perfect. God's blessing causes persecution, but God prospers the obedient (Isaac didn't go to Egypt) even in the midst of persecution.
26:27.
Love and Hate. To Hate, in this context, is to not have covenantal treaty relationships with someone. To Love (loyally=hesed) is the opposite. See Malachi 1:2 (about the nations from them; cf Romans 9:11).
26:35.
Prosperous yet pained parents. Apparently Isaac and Rebekah weren't proverbial parents. They had not trained Esau to submit his will to God. (To be fair, Proverbs wasn't written yet. See Parenting Principles from Proverbs in TOYL on Truthbase.net)
Application
Listen to God's voice; keep His will; and prepare to be blessed out of proportion to your efforts (no sow, no reap).
Prayer
God of Abraham and Isaac and me, keep me blessable as I trust and obey You. Amen.
Genesis 27 Peril of Prosperity: Pleasure Trumps Promises
1."It happened, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son...4.Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”5.Rebekah heard...Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.6.Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau...'that I may eat, and bless you before Yahweh before my death.’8.Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you.9.Go now to the flock, and get me from there two good young goats. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves.10.You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death...”13.His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”28.God give you (Jacob) of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.29.Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”34.When Esau (returned and) heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “ Bless me, even me also, my father.”35.He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.”36.He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”37.Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?”41.Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”42.“Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.43.Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran.44.Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away;45.until your brother’s anger turn away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”46.Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”Observations
27:1-45.God had purposed that Jacob would inherit the blessing (Genesis 25:23). Isaac focused on pleasures rather than promises. Rebekah focused on her plans for her son, rather than God's promises. Esau, ruled by his passions sold whatever promises he had for a pot of pottage (KJV). Jacob lies, cheats, and steals, reaping lots of negative consequences, rather than trusting and obeying God. Not a pretty picture of the Patriarchs. Too bad they didn't have Psalm 11. If Isaac was doing his job as spiritual leader, the family would have had peace and prosperity. Pass the venison and the remote.
27:46.
Rebekah never saw Jacob again. This sets up Isaac sending Jacob to get a wife with his blessing. (See Truthbase TOYL Marriage and Parenting Tools if you want to live happily ever after.)
Application
God doesn't need our help, just our obedience, and we need to obey.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, may my passion be Your promises. Amen.
Genesis 28 Stairway to Heaven
1."Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.2.Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.3.May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples,4.and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham.”6.Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,”7.and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan Aram.8.Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan didn’t please Isaac, his father.9.Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.12.Jacob dreamed. Behold, a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.13.Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed.14.Your seed will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.15.Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.”16.Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.”17.He was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”20.Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,21.so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and Yahweh will be my God,22.then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give the tenth to you.”Observations
28:1-5.God personalizes the Abrahamic promises to Jacob.
28:6.
Since they didn't break Esau's will, he deliberately breaks their heart. Nice guy.
28:12-22.
Jacob responds by personally accepting Yahweh as his God. Worship is a Response to Revelation (vision).
Application
Don't marry a pagan wife. Make Yahweh your God. Worship Him with all you have.
Prayer
God, you are my God, and I will ever honor, trust and obey You. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: God blesses in spite of our imperfections, but He lets us be pained by them.
Us in a nutshell: We lose focus when things are going well and get lost on short-cuts to blessing. So it takes longer, and is harder, and we might not ever get there. We need to personally embrace God and His promises, and then not let go.
Where to go for more
Truthbase.net
Fun Family Life Outlines in TOYL Tools
Marriage and Parenting Sermon series on Truthbase.net