Reading notes

Week 5

Genesis 24-37

I don’t know if this new approach to “Wednesday’s word” is working for you but it is causing me to focus more and dig in deeper so I plan to continue for a bit more, at least. If you have an opinion either way, I’d love to hear from you (and be honest :) )

This week’s reading was like a novel full of drama and intense scenes! WOW! I just love that God includes the moral failures and wretched character traits of His people in these stories - He has no need to whitewash Scripture in order to make it “acceptable” to us. What a reassurance of His Glory - He is I AM and is not concerned about what things look like to His readers - He is Truth and we can trust Him, even though we don’t understand His ways sometimes.

I had many thoughts from these chapters -

  1. Rebekah was very brave! She must have had an adventurous spirit to be willing to go with these strangers to marry someone she had never met!

  2. Issac repeats the sin of his father - deception! What a lesson for us parents…

  3. If I were Jacob, I’d have been furious at the swap!! Rachel must have been quite the catch!

  4. Jacob’s unique breeding program….I did some research on t his because it was very confusing to me (in addition to being extremely irritated at Laban’ s continued trickery!) There were differing views on Jacob’s approach. The bottom line was one of agreement that God is the one who blessed Jacob and multiplied the speckled, spotted, and black sheep and goats! But I discovered some intriguing suggestions. Like perhaps the trees placed in the watering troughs weren’t the result of Jacob’s hope for a magic trick but rather a reflection of his experience in breeding and an understanding of Mendelian genetics and botanical chemistry. It’s intriguing to consider!

  5. The wrestling match between Jacob and the angel - lots of questions I can’t answer but what I do know if that this event changed Jacob’s identity. It produced in him a reliance on God that had not been there before. Instead of resorting to deception to get what he wanted, he trusted in His Heavenly Father. What a great lesson to learn!

I’ll close with the verse that stood out the most to me - Genesis 32:10 -

I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which Thou has shown to Thy servant

AMEN. Amen. AMEN.

I love you, my friends. Thank you for reading!