Genesis 32-34
Friend or Foe?
Psalm 7:1-5, 8
A Plea From Pure Heart and Hands
1."Yahweh, my God, I take refuge/have put my trust in You. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,2.lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.3.Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,4.if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, if I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),5.let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah..6.Arise, Yahweh, in Your anger. Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.7.Let the congregation of the peoples surround You. Rule over them on high.8.Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge/vindicate me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.“Observation
7:1-8.Psalm 6 asked God for help while reaping consequences of one's sin. In Psalm 7 the person is persecuted without cause. Note the four things this guy didn't do (with four consequences).
Application
When difficulties arise, you don't want them to be through your fault. That way you can confidently look to see how God plans to bless you through the tough time. Can you make the appeal of verse 8?
Prayer
O Just Judge of the Universe, help me always be in a place where You can bless me, even if that means suffering for doing what's right. Amen.
Proverbs 2:14-17
Rejoicing in Evil
14.who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil;15.who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths16.To deliver you from the adulterous woman...17.who...forgets the covenant of her GodObservation
2:14-17.The fruits of Proverbs, wisdom ...understanding, are designed to deliver the one who develops them from evil and evil men (and evil women in the next verses). The author describes the characteristics of the evil men, who haven't changed in thousands of years. They are those who left the light to slither in the dark. Their joy and delight is not just in acts of evil, but in the fact that it is perverse. Pushing the envelop for the sake of rebelling against civilization-building norms is the essence of perverseness. Their highest good is bad. Their value system embraces that which contributes to their temporal happiness and eternal demise. Perhaps they never walked far enough along the path of uprightness to experience it's benefits, or perhaps their lust for the temporal has blinded them to their condition and fate.
Application
Those who have trained themselves to develop wisdom will not walk with those headed to destruction.Prayer
Lord, help me embrace Your values and paths, and deliver me from those who rejoice in evil and value perversity. Thanks. Amen.
Genesis 32–34
Friend or Foe?
Genesis 32 Praying and Wrestling with God
1."Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.2.When he saw them, Jacob said, "This is God's army. "3.Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau5....I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'"6.The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "...he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him."7.Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed.9.Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,'10.I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses (hesed loyalty), and of all the truth (faithfulness), which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.11.Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.12.You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can't be numbered because there are so many.'"13.He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother:20....For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."
24.Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day.25.When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled.26.The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."27.He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob."28.He said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed."29.Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him there.30.Jacob called the name of the place Peniel for, he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."31....he limped because of his thigh.32.Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip."
Observations
32:9-11.In his first recorded prayer, Jacob does well to remind himself (and God) that he is in this situation because of obeying God in returning. A little humility and reminding God of His promises probably don't hurt either.
32:24.
Whatever is going on here, Jacob was persistent, and got: blessed, a new name, and a limp. He says his opponent was God.
32:28.
Jacob (supplanter-who takes the place of another by force or treachery) gets a new name Israel (struggles with God).
Question
Jacob is a guy who's been incredibly blessed by God; he knows it, and everyone knows it. God guides him directly; angels appear to him; and he and God roll around in the dirt together. Yet he can't trust God to protect him from his big hairy brother. What is Jacob's problem? (It's a problem faced by a lot of self-sufficient, hard-working types. Think about it, then check out the Application below.)Application
Failure to depend daily upon God results in panic when facing problems beyond our strength.
Prayer
God, help me walk with You every day, so the stormy times will be a walk in the park. Amen.
Genesis 33 Peace with God...then Man
1."Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men.4.Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.5.He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, "Who are these with you?" He said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."10.Jacob said, "Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.11.Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." He urged him, and he took it.12.So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.17.Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth (Booths)18.Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.19.He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money.20.He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel."Observations
33:10.It's better to have God pleased with us, than be pleasing to man.
Proverbs 16:7 "When a man's ways please Yahweh, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."
33:20.
El Elohe Israel = The Mighty God of Israel. Altars were for making sacrifices, in this case, of thanksgiving.
Application
It's good to regularly remind ourselves of God's mighty help and protection. A heap of stones or a journal or diary is preferable to a limp.
Prayer
Mighty God of Israel, may I be pleasing in Your sight every day. Amen.
Genesis 34 Violations
1."Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.2.Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.3.His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady.4.Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, "Get me this young lady as a wife."7.The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; a which thing ought not to be done.8.Hamor talked with them, saying, "The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.9.Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.10.You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it."
14...."We can't do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us.15.Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised.25.It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males.26.They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away.27.Jacob's sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.
30.Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house."31.They said, "Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?"
Observations
34:1.Lesson to Exodus generation: Mingling and intermarrying with pagans leads to defilement.
34:2.
Lesson to parents: If you don't take pains to parent properly, your children will cause you pain. Choose wisely. Shechem was another guy whose parents didn't train him to control his passions, and who consequently brought permanent pain to the entire family. Jacob had the same problem (in 34:30), and will be reaping the sorrowful consequences of failing to father properly for the rest of his life.
34:7-9.
Hamor makes a tempting case for doing what “ought not to be done.” Separation from sinners is a condition of blessing.
34:24-31.
Unfortunately revenge, not separation and purity was the motive for Simeon and Levi. They defiled themselves (losing out on blessing and getting cursed Genesis 49:5-7) by indulging their passion for revenge and honor, adding breaking covenant with Hamor to their sin.
Application
Master your emotions or they will master you.
Prayer
God save me from the folly of following my feelings unguided by Your Word. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: God blesses His people (surprise, surprise); lets us reap painful consequences of independence; orchestrates and initiates circumstances beyond our resources because He desires us to live in dependence upon Him.
Us in a nutshell: We think everything depends on us (obedience and wise choices do); tend to follow our feelings, pleasing ourselves and others rather than God. Reap consequences, but are slow to learn.
Where to go for more
Truthbase.net
Can God Meet Emotional Needs? (best-seller!)