Pamandken's Blog

Genesis:38 “After five wrongs, God made it right.”

pamandken — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:46:00 +0000

It was God’s will that Judah was to have heirs. However, meanwhile back at the ranch:

1) Er, Judah’s son, was evil and God killed him. (wrong one)

2) Onan, Judah’s second son, did not follow tradition and conceive with Er’s wife (wrong two)

3) Judah did not give his son Shelah to Er’s widow as promised (wrong three)

4) Judah did the hokey-pokey with his daughter-in-law thinking that she was a temple ‘hoe (wrong four)

5) Tamar tricked Judah into conceiving with her. (Wrong five)

In the end, God’s will prevailed. Twins were born to Judah’s seed.

Bottom line: God’s Will will prevail. It can be easy or hard….it is up to you.

Genesis 36: “If there is bad blood, then there must be good blood.”

pamandken — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:15:13 +0000

If there is a black sheep in the family, then there must be a white sheep. If there is a bad penny in the family there must be a good penny in the family. If you follow any family tree, there will be those that jump the fence of the sheep-hold and become an outcast of the family bloodline. In this chapter, God wanted us to know that there are two distinct bloodlines that began with Isaac, just as there were two from his father Abraham. As for Isaac, there was the line from Jacob named Israel and from Esau named Edom. The Jacob line is still intact today within the children of Israel and those of us who are adopted into that family through the blood of Christ.

Esau started off on the wrong foot by marrying Hittite women..out of the bloodline of Abraham ,father of the promise. they became Edom. The additions of foreign gods to the line of Esau diluted their heritage to the point that they have no distinct identity. Sort of like the Universalist, liberal churches of today that compromise the Word of God and loose their Christian identity.

Unlike the Israelis who have kept immaculate record of the purity of their bloodline, we Gentiles are more the Heinz 57 variety. Yet, we can claim the purity of our bloodline through our faith in Jesus Christ as joint heirs with Him. And we can also pass on this heritage to our children and grandchildren, so that they may enjoy reading about their adopted great grandparents to the sixtieth

Lord, help us to keep our bloodline pure, without compromising who we are in Christ.

power.

Genesis 35: “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and….who?

pamandken — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:21:30 +0000

⁹ Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. ¹⁰ And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.

Now, I am confused. God told Jacob that his name from this point forth would be Israel. I like that because it clarifies for me that the children of Israel are God’s chosen and blessed children. However, I am disturbed by the scriptures that continually refer to Israel as Jacob and Jacob as Israel. We did not have that problem when Abram became Abraham or when Sarai become Sarah!

Perhaps that is why we have some fuzziness today regarding the preeminence of the children of Israel in God’s plan. We are reminded in scripture many times of the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”, but how many times have you heard of the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel’?

The light came on for me.

Genesis: 34 “Our every action triggers totally independent reactions.”

pamandken — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:06:50 +0000

¹ Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. ² And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her.

Obviously Shechem had choices: 1) Ask his father to approach Jacob 2) do a little flirty flirty and then ask his father or 3) rape her! Whatever his choices were,there were consequences, good or bad.

Although he tried to mitigate the results by claiming unfailing love for Dinah, his actions had already set into motion a reaction. A reaction of consequences that was completely out of his control.

If we weighed the possible consequences of our choices, then added the surprise factor that is completely beyond our control, we’d all be a lot wiser.

Genesis 33: “It is not how you start, but how you finish that counts.”

pamandken — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:32:44 +0000

Being a free spirit, Esau gave up his birthright to Jacob on a whim….or more specifically, a bowl of stew! But, then again, “what is a birthright among brothers?” It appears that is a lot more important than we might think. Especially when Esau threatened to kill Jacob for stealing his rightful blessing from his father. Jacob received the blessing….and the guilt! Esau did not receive the blessing, but he also did not receive the guilt.

Isaac’s blessing was important from the human perspective, but God’s blessing on both Esau and Jacob preempted Isaac’s blessing.

Let’s look at the two brothers after about 20 years had passed. Jacob, still consumed with guilt and fear, sent an abundance of offerings ahead of him to Esau, hoping for forgiveness. In the meantime, Esau had been blessed materially by God to the point that he was, perhaps, even more wealthy than his brother. How easy was it for Esau to forgive Jacob, when he was more successful in the eyes of the world than his brother? Remember God’s words, Genesis 25:²³ And the LORD said to her:

“Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”

God never intended Esau to be a slave to Jacob. “Two nations are in your womb”. In my opinion, God did not want Esau to be a beggar. God wanted him to meet his brother Man-o, Man-o! Hey, Bro’, it looks like God has blessed us both! Let us forget the past!

God has a glorious plan for each of our lives. And it is not how we start….but, by faith, trusting the Lord, we will finish in His blessing.

Genesis 32: “When my knees knock….I knock”!

pamandken — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:26:22 +0000

⁹ Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: ¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. ¹¹ Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. ¹² For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

Take note that this is the FIRST time that it is recorded that when either Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob was in stress or danger that they got down on their knees and prayed to the Lord for deliverance. All of the other times they tried to solve the problem in the flesh….by throwing their wives under the bus.

This is interesting. Jacob asked God to bless him, yet Jacob appears to have hedged his bet. He sent gifts ahead to Esau i.e., he put Plan B into effect. He also put a stream between his possessions and Esau. It does not sound like he put a lot of faith in God’s promise. So, after the prayer, and all of his strategy for success, he draws a line in the sand. But God did not want Jacob to be a natural warrior, but a spiritual warrior. Hence, the wrestling match. And as we read, Jacob’s reliance on the physical was so strong that God had to break his hip for him to see that that the Spiritual was so much stronger that the physical.

Jacob made a resolve t to God in the flesh with contingencies, but God came to give Jacob resolve in the spirit without contingencies. It was necessary for God to break Jacob’s flesh to enable him to live in the Spirit. Hello? Are you broken yet?

Genesis 31: “If it starts hard…it ends hard.”

pamandken — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:14:38 +0000

A little background here. Jacob worked seven years for Laban for the hand of Rachel. Laban was deceitful and caused Jacob to marry Leah. Jacob then worked another seven years for the hand of Rachel. After which, Jacob wanted his wages. Genesis 30: ²⁷ And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.” ²⁸ Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

⁴ So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock, ⁵ and said to them, “I see your father’s countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. ⁶ And you know that with all my might I have served your father. ⁷ Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. ⁸ If he said thus: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus: ‘The streaked shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked. ⁹ So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

Meanwhile back at the ranch: ¹ Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has acquired all this wealth.” ² And Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not favorable toward him as before.

So the Lord told Jacob to return to the land of his father and Laban pursued him. ²⁶ And Laban said to Jacob: “What have you done, that you have stolen away unknown to me, and carried away my daughters like captives taken with the sword? ²⁷ Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp?

Laban, ever the deceiver and the negotiator. Beware of those that we know who have the soft and silvery voice of entrapment and a face that we trust. And heed the Lord when He says to “return to the land of your father”.

If a relationship starts hard, it will most likely end hard! Heed the voice of the Lord in relationships.

Genesis 30: “God knows how to add, subtract, divide, and multiply.”

pamandken — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:58:00 +0000

God adds: ²⁷ And Laban said to him, ³⁰ For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the LORD has blessed you since my coming.

God divides: ³² Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages.

God multiplies: ³⁹ So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

God subtracts: ⁴⁰ Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

I know that none of us has a problem when God may add or multiply. But do we have the faith to believe that when God subtracts and divides that it will be for our eventual blessing?

Genesis 29: “Sex in the Desert”

pamandken — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:44:22 +0000

Now that I have your attention, my heart really goes out to Leah, who never knew the love of Jacob. Her father tricked Jacob into marrying her and she spent most of her life trying to get Jacob to love her by continually bearing him sons. Reading between the lines it appears that Leah tried her best from the physical perspective to satisfy her need to be loved. It was only when she gave up her physical quest for love and turned to the Lord that she found peace and I can only assume happiness. ³⁵ And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she called his name Judah.^[d] Then she stopped bearing. Judah, means “thanks”, “praise”, and “gratitude” . How often do we chase after the physical for fulfillment in futility only to come to the place where we find the happiness and contentment that we were looking for in our our spiritual relationship with the Lord.

On another note, the beginning of this chapter describes the stone being over the well, the sheep waiting, and then the water was released. I was reminded of the stone over Christ’s tomb that was rolled away. His sheep for all eternity were waiting. And when He was resurrected to sit at the right hand of the Father, that His living water was poured out upon His sheep.

Genesis:28 “When does God have the most time to talk to you…when you are awake or when you are asleep?”

pamandken — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:19:52 +0000

….”and he lay down in that place to sleep. ¹² Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
¹³ And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. ¹⁴ Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Throughout the old and new testaments God spoke to his people through dreams and visions. Why do we think that we are excluded? I have had many practical answers to my prayers while I have been asleep. Something my be weighing heavy on my spirit when I go to bed, and sometime during the night, I dream the answer…..actually seeing it fulfilled!

Also in this chapter is the first “commercial” prayer to God that I am sure that we have all duplicated many times in our lives. “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, ²¹ so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. ²² And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” Sounds to me like Isaac was trying to make a bargain with the Lord. However, we know that God does not bargain with man. God blesses His family IN SPITE of how we rudely use Him. Thank you, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!