Thurs.’s Devo -Jacob Meets Esau

Read Gen. 33:1-20

Today is D-day.  Esau is here!  Jacob sees Esau in the distant and as they get closer Jacob bows as he walks toward Esau, giving him homage and respect.  Esau, on the other hand, ran to meet Jacob and hugged and kissed him while they both cried.  When Esau saw all the people with Jacob he asked about them.  Jacob proudly introduced him to his family.  Then Esau asked about all the cattle he met on the way.  Jacob told him they were a token gift to win his favor.  Esau tried to refuse them but Jacob insisted in sharing his blessing with Esau.  This was Jacob’s way of giving back to Esau what he had stolen from him years ago.  Esau finally accepted the gift and offered to accompany Jacob to Seir.  Seir means “rough”.  Jacob had been living in “rough” so what he needed was a little peace.   Jacob explained that his troop was too tired to continue without a rest so Esau went on ahead of him.  Jacob went to Succoth which means “booths”.  Later this would become a festival called the festival of booths or Tabernacles.  Succoth was a place of rest.  The name of the city he stayed in was Shalem which means “peace”.  Jacob had finally made peace with his past and now able to rest.  Shalem later became Jerusalem.  Here he bought some land and set up camp.  He built an altar to God and called it El-elohe which means “the mighty god of Israel”.   

Lord, thank you for being our place of peace in the midst of rough situations.  You lead us beside still waters and you restore our soul.      

Wed.’s Devo - Jacob’s Bout with God

Read Gen. 32:26-32

Jacob sent one group on to meet Esau and spend the night waiting.  He took Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah, and his 11 sons and put them in a safe place, then he went to spend some time alone.  God sent an angel that wrestled with Jacob all night long.  Jacob fought so hard the angel couldn’t get away so the angel touched his thigh and it went out of joint.  How do you wrestle with an angel and all he had to do is touch you to hurt you?  That word “wrestle” in the Hebrew means “to float away (as vapor)” so maybe Jacob was fighting a vapor and spiritually had power to hold him there.  He only touched Jacob when the sun was about to come up and he needed to leave.  I think Jacob was wrestling for his promise that God had given him.  Jacob refused to give up till the angel blessed him.  So the angel made him speak his name.  When he did, the angel told him that he would no longer be called Jacob, the supplanter, but he had fought and earned a new name - Israel, which means “he will rule as God”  When Jacob asked him his name, he refused to tell him.  Jacob had to figure it out himself… he did.  It was God himself.  Jacob left that encounter a new man, with a new name, and a new way of walking.  He limped because God had touched him.  The place that God touched him became a sacred place and his children refuse to eat that part of the meat to this day.  

We are Israel spiritually and should walk as God on this earth because we carry his presence in our spirits.  If we could get this in our minds then we could wrestle with God and be forever changed.  

Lord, help us to walk cognizant of your presence in us and the power we possess as your children.  

Tues.’s Devo - Jacob’s Battles

Read Gen. 32:1-25

Jacob leaves Laban - one battle down -  only to face a new battle.  To strengthen him, the angels of God meet him in great number.   Now we’ll see what kind of man Jacob has become.  The first person he wants to see is Esau.  He and his brother were never really close, but before he even sees his mother that he was very close to, he wants to make things right with Esau.  He sends messengers ahead to let him know he is coming.  Instead of returning the greeting, Esau heads out to Jacob with 400 men with him.  Now we’ll see what kind of man Esau has become.  Jacob is “greatly afraid and distressed”.  He guesses that Esau is still mad and coming out to battle.  So Jacob comes up with a plan.  He puts his people in groups so that if Esau attacks the first group, at least the others can flee.  Then he starts praying 

reminding God that it was his idea that he came back so he’s hoping God is prepared.  How funny that seems, but we do it all the time.  God calls us to do something and when we face opposition, we wonder if God has abandoned us.  He decides to stay right there to think and comes up with the idea of a present to appease his brother’s anger: 200 goats, 20 he goats., 200 ewes, and 20 rams, 30 milch camels with their colts, 40 kine, and 10 bulls, 20 she asses, and 10 foals. That’s over 500 animals!  He made the first group drive the animals so that when they met Esau and he asked them whose they were, they could tell him that they were a present to him from his brother.  

Lord, remind us that the enemy will always come to steal our promise.  But, through you we can run through a troop and leap over a wall!

Mon.’s Devo -Jacobs Flight

Read Gen 31:22-55

On the third day after Jacob had left, Laban noticed he was gone.     (On the third day after Jesus had left, Mary noticed he was gone!)  Laban took his men and went after Jacob.  He found him after 7 days of traveling and would have been violent had not God warned him in a dream not to harm him.  When he caught up with him he asked Jacob why he fled without telling him.  Laban tried to make him feel guilty with sentimental malarky when really he was mad that his household gods were stolen.  Jacob explained that he fled secretly for fear Laban would take his daughters back.  As far as the stolen gods… he was welcome to search and kill the person who stole them.  He didn’t know that Rachel had taken them.  She hid them in the saddle of her camel and sat on top of it.  They started searching all the tents and when they came to Rachel’s she told her father that she couldn’t get up because she was in her period and he believed her.  When they couldn’t find the teriphim, Jacob rebuked Laban for even thinking he would steal from him after the loyalty he had shown him all these years.  Jacob had served Laban 14 years for his daughters and 6 for his cattle having his wages changed 10 times.  So, they decided to make a covenant of peace between them.  This would mark the boundary line that they would not pass it to harm the other.  They had a meal together and Laban went back home the next day.  

Jacob came to Laban 20 years earlier as a conniving manipulator but God wanted to make Jacob a patriarch so he sent him to serve a man who was an even greater con man than himself.  In the 20 years that Jacob served Laban, God worked all of that characteristic out of him.  God knows just what we need to conform us into his image.  

Lord, thank you for the trials that you bring into our lives to work an even greater work in us.  

Fri.’s Devo - Jacob Flees!

Read Gen. 31:1-20

Jacob heard the way Laban’s sons talked about him.  They saw Jacob as a thief, stealing their inheritance and even Laban had turned against him.  In his dilemma, God spoke.  He told him it was time to return to his homeland.  Jacob had Rachel and Leah brought to the field he was working and told them his plight.  He had served Laban with all his strength, only to be deceived and lied to over and over.  But, God had always turned Laban’s plans against him and turned it so that Jacob always came out on top.  Then Jacob shared with them a dream God had given him.  In his dream, all the rams mated with the cattle and the offspring came out ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.  Then God told him to take his cattle and family and go back home.  Rachel and Leah agreed to go with him.  There was nothing for them here since their father had nothing to do with them and had spent any inheritance they might receive.  So, Jacob got up the next morning and took his belongings and left to return to Canaan.  Rachel stole the household images of her fathers before she left.   These images were idols that you were to pray to for healing.  These were the idols God hated.  Why couldn’t Rachel let these go?  She had grown up with these gods in her family’s house and they had used them over and over.  She somehow had become attached to them and didn’t want to leave without them.  What a pity!  She brought the sin of her idolatry down upon her offspring.  God had told him that he was their healer.  I wonder if that is why she died giving birth to her next baby.  

Lord, help us to let go of past sins and bad habits of our family and choose your way. 

Thurs.’s Devo - Ringstraked, Speckled, and Spotted

Read Gen. 30:25-43

Rachel is finally delivered from her barreness and now it is time for Jacob to break free from his oppressive uncle and find his own land and make his own name.  It is time for Jacob to go home.  He wants to leave the right way so he goes to Laban and tells him his plan.  Laban tries to talk him out of it because he knows that he has been blessed because of Jacob.  They talked about what his wages would be for all his years of work and Jacob came up with a plan.  He would go through the sheep and he would only keep the speckled and spotted cattle for himself and Laban would have the rest.  Laban agreed, so Jacob took what was his and took them a 3 day journey from Laban’s and settled there.  Then Jacob took rods and peeled them back to look like the hide of his sheep and pilled them up around the watering troughs so that they would bear cattle that looked like the rods.  I’m not sure how this works scientifically, but I do know how it works spiritually.  You will become what you behold.  If you are always filling your eyes with worldly things, you will become those things, but if you are always beholding the things of God and the Word, you will become a new creature.  When Laban’s strong sheep came to to mate by the water troughs, they bore ringstraked, speckled, and spotted cattle which now became Jacob’s.  He would take the rods away from the weak cattle so they would have solid calves.  Ingenious!  Jacob had worked for years for Laban and only had wives and kids to show for it.  He was finally going to get the wages that were long due him. 

Lord, you hold the secrets to the universe and you share them with us!! How great is your name! 

Wed.’s Devo - The Continuing Episode of “All My Children”

Gen. 30:14-24

It is wheat harvest.  Wheat harvest is associated with Pentecost.  Pentecost has to do with having a deeper relationship with Jesus.  On the first Pentecost, God gave the law to Moses.  In the New Testament, on Pentecost, God gave his Holy Spirit.  Rueben goes out during the wheat harvest and finds mandrakes.  Mandrakes are natural aphrodisiacs, so Leah could use them to woo Jacob into a deeper relationship with her.  Mandrakes were called the “apple of Sodom” and had narcotic and stimulating principles.  Rachel sees them and wants them for herself.  Leah snaps back that Rachel has stolen Jacob’s heart from her and now she wants his sexual desires too.  Rachel bargains with her.  She gives Leah that night with Jacob for her mandrakes.  God understood Leah’s cry for love and blessed her with another son.  She named him Issachar which means “he will bring a reward”.  I guess she realized she would never have Jacob’s heart so this baby would be her reward.  She got pregnant again and had another son, Zebulun, which means “habitation”.  She thought this 6th son would cause Jacob to move in with her.  I don’t know if he did or not but they had one last child and this time it was a girl named Dinah which means “justice”.  God might not be fair as we count fairness, but he is always just.  Maybe, by having a girl, God was being just to Leah.  She now had a woman on her side that she could love unconditionally.  I bet that little girl stole Jacob’s heart also.  

Then, God opened Rachel’s womb for the first time and she had a son named Joseph which means  “let him add”.  Not only did Rachel have Jacob’s affection and love, but she added a son to their story.  Leah reminds me of the Old Testament mindset.  They strove for God’s affection, not ever knowing if they got it; going through the motions of loveless rituals.  Rachel stands for the bride of Christ that has her husband’s affections and desires.  She may be barren at first but she will add many and be a fruitful harvest in the end.

Lord, there are so many things I don’t understand about this passage, but I do know that I’m glad to be living in a day where your Holy Spirit woos us daily to draw near to you and we know that you love us as your bride.