Genesis 27-29
That Jacob and Rebekah sure are tricky - but like we saw before, Esau kind of asked for it. He carelessly traded away his birthright for some soup. He married Hittite women. God planned for Jacob to be the blessed one from the beginning and they made sure it would work - even though it took outright lies to make it happen.
Jacob is sent away from his family to live with his Uncle Laban because he feared for his life - Esau was pissed and wanted to kill him. On the way, Jacob had a dream of a stairway to heaven with angels climbing and descending. The Lord was standing at the top and reiterated the oath he had made with Abraham to Jacob.
Jacob awoke, understanding the significance of that dream. He made an altar to the Lord there, calling it Bethel, and then made a vow to the Lord. This vow said that if the Lord protected him in his journey and allowed him to return to his father's house, Jacob would give the Lord "a tenth" (Gen 28:22) of all that Lord gave him.
So here is the basis of 10% tithe. So I will digress a little on tithing. I actually did not know where the initial call to give a tenth to the Lord came from until I read this today. My family tithes a minimum of 10% to whatever church we are attending. On top of that, we support and give many other places. I have always been taught that 10% is the magic number. I have also heard that the Jews, once you add up all the other sacrifices and gifts they gave throughout the year, gave quite a bit more than 10%.
So what are we as Christians supposed to do and how much are we supposed to give? GIve sacrificially. Give consistently. Be faithful in your gifts and I think God will be pleased. Able gave his best and Cain didn't and we know what happened there.
Jacob meets Rachel in chapter and she must have thought he was some weirdo. "Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud," (29:11). Imagine if that is how I had greeted Faydra the first time we met.
My teachers of the word were quite deficient - I now learn by reading the stories themselves. I had always thought that Jacob didn't get Rachel until after 14 years of work. He worked for 7, got tricked into marrying "weak eyed" Leah, and then had to work 7 more to get Rachel. That, however, is incorrect. After spending the night with Leah, Jacob confronted Laban about the deceit. Laban admitted to the treachery but said it was not custom to give the younger before the older. So...
"Laban replied...Finish this daughter's bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work. And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife... Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years." (Gen 29:22-30).
So Jacob had one heck of a first week of marriage. He married Leah and slept with her. Then he married Rachel and slept with her.
God ultimately rewarded Leah for the way Jacob treated her. "When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren," (Gen 29:31). He also rewarded her with the line of Christ as Judah was one of her sons. God blessed her with four sons - Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Each time she hoped this would change her husband's opinion of her but it didn't.
January 22 - 30-31
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