Mon.’s Devo - New Wineskins

Read: Genesis 28:1-29:35; Matthew 9:18-38; Psalm 11:1-7; Proverbs 3:11-12 Isaac called Jacob in to bless him before sending him to Paddan-aram to visit the house of his grandfather Bethuel, Abraham’s brother and Rebekah’s father. Isaac told him to marry one of Laban’s daughters. *** Esau knew that Jacob had been sent away to marry a wife from his mother’s side of the family that was not a Canaanite so he decided to do the same thing. He went the other way and visited with his uncle Ishmael from his father’s side of the family and married one of Ishmael’s daughters, Mahalath. Her name means “making sick”. *** Jacob left Beersheba and traveled to Haran and stopped for the night. As he laid his head upon one of the rocks, he had a dream of a stairway to heaven. He saw angels going up and down the stairway. At the top stood the Lord. He spoke and told Jacob who he was - the father of Abraham and Isaac. He promised him the same thing he had promised them. God would make them multiply on the earth and they would be a blessing to the world. He would bring him back to this land and be with him to bring to pass all had had promised. *** The place he was in was called Luz which means “perverse”. When Jacob awoke he realized that God was in that place and changed the name to Bethel which means “house of God.” Jacob vowed that if God did what he had said he would do, then He would be his God. He set up a pillar to mark the place. He would come back and give God one tenth of everything he received. *** When Jacob arrived in the land of Paddanaram he stopped by a well. He saw flocks of sheep waiting to be watered. At the well, he asked why they weren’t watering their sheep and was told that the stone was too heavy for one or two of them to lift so they would wait till all the shepherds arrived and together they could lift the stone. *** Jacob found that the shepherds were from Haran and asked if they knew Laban. They said they did and that his daughter, Racheal was just then walking up. Jacob went to the well and lifted the stone by himself and watered all of Rachel’s sheep. He kissed Rachel and wept. He told Rachel who he was and how he was related to her. *** Rachel ran home and told her father, Laban and he ran out to meet Jacob and brought him home. He stayed with Laban, working for him for a month. Then Laban offered to pay him and asked him what he wanted as his wages. Jacob said he would like to marry Rachel. He agreed to work for 7 years for her. But when the time came to marry her, Laban slipped Leah in at the last minute and Jacob didn’t know till the next morning. He was livid. Laban explained that it was not their custom to marry the second born before marrying the first born and Leah was the first born. Laban told Jacob to just finish out the week with Leah and the next week he would be given Rachel, but he had to work for him another 7 years without pay. Jacob agree. Jacob had met his match on being tricky. He was reaping what he had sowed with his own brother. *** God had compassion on Leah since she was unloved by her husband and opened her womb. She named her first son Reuben which means “see, a son.” She hoped that it would make Jacob notice her and love her. She had a second son and named him Simeon which means “hearkening”. She hoped that with this son, Jacob would not only see her but hear her, also. She had a third son and named him Levi which means “joined.” Through him she hoped to be bonded to her husband. With her fourth son, Judah she finally learned to put her focus on the Lord and just praise him. *** In Matthew, Jesus had just made the statement about putting new wine in old wineskins and how it wouldn’t work when one of the leaders of the synagogue came to him humbly begging Jesus to raise his 12 year old daughter from the dead. What a picture of new wineskin. He was a leader of the synagogue who opposed Jesus and yet he broke out of that mold and he is came to Jesus, asking the greatest miracle of all - to raise someone from the dead. Jesus was going with him to pray for his daughter when a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years reached out and took some of Jesus’ healing virtue. Jesus stopped in his tracks and turned to confront her. He told her that her faith had made her well. She was instantly healed. Having faith was part of this new wineskin. *** The story doesn’t tell us if the daughter had been born with an infirmity or not but the fact that she was 12 and the lady had been sick for 12 years is not a coincidence we can ignore. We just read of two women, Leah and Rachel who would together have 12 sons who would become the 12 tribes of Israel. All of these women suffered to have their dreams come true and to see salvation come to them. *** Jesus did raise the girl from the dead, and healed the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and healed Rachel’s womb so she would have two sons. He did heal Leah’s heart so she could praise the Lord again. *** The number 12 has to do with God’s government. He was establishing his kingdom on earth by all the things he did. He next healed a blind man and a man who was deaf and dumb. When God’s government is set up on earth all who were blind to what was happening will be able to see, and those who couldn’t hear the truth will be able to. *** The religious leaders couldn’t stand what Jesus was doing because it was bad for their business. They said that what he did was because he was working for Satan who allowed him to do all these miracles. They accused Jesus of what they were doing. *** People from everywhere began coming to Jesus, breaking out of their old wineskins, and Jesus told his disciples to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers. *** Lord, how exciting is the time of right now! You are opening the eyes and ears of people who didn’t see the truth. They are now being able to see. Continue to open our eyes and ears to see and hear the truth and give us great discernment and wisdom. May we be your new wineskins.