Category Archives: Bible Study

genesis 35—Return to Bethel

“God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 

Bethel. “House of El” or “House of God”. It is the place where God revealed Himself to Jacob, the place where Jacob heard God’s voice.

Get up. Go to the house of God and live there. Stop coming and going. Stop visiting. Stop going around it. Make your dwelling in My presence. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Remain in the place of revelation. Stay where you hear My voice.

“So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.'”

Put away your sin. Return to purity. Clothe yourself in Christ. “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires…”  …“put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Change your garments, beloved. You are coming to the place of God’s presence. He is holy and His presence is holy and you have been called to be holy with Him.

“…for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.”

“So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.”

He hid them rather than destroy them. We are not much different. It’s time to dig up what we’ve buried because hidden sin does not stay hidden. Eventually, it will surface and bring destruction with it. We are called to destroy our sin, not tuck it away somewhere, hoping no one finds it. “Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.”  

Jacob’s stay at the physical Bethel was temporary, but our call to the spiritual “El Bethel” is not. I believe we are at a crossroads at the moment, and many of God’s people will be faced with a decision. We cannot continue to keep one foot in two different kingdoms. A line will be drawn and we must choose which side of that line we will take our stand on.

The call is to rise up and return to the presence of God. Put away carnal, idolatrous living. Deal death blows to your sin, put on Christ, and come back to the revelation and the voice of God.

Get up. Return to Bethel.

John 15:4; Ephesians 4:22; 1 Peter 1:16; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:5

Genesis 34—The Lost Victims

Dinah was a young girl that historians say was around 15. Her father was Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, father of the Israelites. Schechem was a prince, son of King Hamor. Gentiles.

Schechem raped Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, and in her culture, it meant she was ruined. King Hamor recognizes that he must act quickly, but it wasn’t with any sort of sorrow for his son’s sin. It was opportunity that he had in mind.

But Hamor said to them… Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.  You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.

Dinah’s brothers wanted something else. They agreed to Hamor’s request, with one condition. Every one of their males had to get circumcised, in keeping with the Abrahamic covenant. No male can be part of that covenant without circumcision. And they know what adult circumcision will do to the men. It will incapacitate them, make them unable to fight when the brothers come for their revenge.

They shook hands or exchanged goats or whatever they did back then to seal a deal, and 3 days later the brothers attacked. All the men, including the king and his son, were killed, Dinah was rescued and brought back home. And then they faced Jacob.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

As I read this story, I sensed that Dinah got lost in the middle of two sides trying to get what they wanted. Lost in the deception, the violence, and greed. Lost between people who made her victimization about themselves.

And now I’m looking at us.

I’m looking at the burning cities, the utter destruction being rained down, and the sounds of voices that are screaming their hatred. I see the fury of a generation determined to eradicate the history of a nation they admittedly hate, burning the flag that covers the coffins of men and women who died defending that same nation, and their right to burn it down. There is no reasoning. No actual conversations taking place. Maybe talking was attempted in the beginning, but not now. Now, an angry Godzilla is seeking revenge for something. Anything. Everything. Violence, hatred, deception, mistrust, and confusion – it’s the air we breathe now.

I wonder if Dinah felt seen. I wonder if she felt that her family cared more about what was done to her, than how it affected them.

I wonder the same thing about the many victims we have today. The black ones. The white ones. The brown ones and those of every other color. The ones in jogging shorts and the ones in uniform. The children. The grieving families.

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
{Mark 3:24}

Genesis 33—Restoration

Jacob was about to see his brother, Esau, for the first time since the “great deception” that cheated Esau out of his birthright and stole his blessing. Jacob was scared and divided up his wives and children to hopefully save some of them if Esau attacked. In Jacob’s mind, he was Esau’s enemy, and for good reason, so he was prepared for the worst.

“But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” (vs. 4)

Jacob came to his brother in humility. Esau came with mercy and forgiveness. Relationship was restored. And in that beautiful picture, I saw another…

And we, who had sinned against Him and became His enemy in our own mind, came with our humility. He came with His mercy and forgiveness. Relationship was restored.

Esau had clearly forgiven Jacob before they even met that day. But had Jacob refused to humble himself, he may never have experienced that forgiveness. A rebellious, arrogant posture toward Esau might have put Jacob at war with him and clearly, it would have been a war he would lose.

It is strange to me that I see myself in Jacob. Even stranger that I see God in Esau. But then again, it’s just like Him to show up in such an unusual place. He wants to be seen. He continually exposes His heart in His Word so that we can find it.

God does not want to be our enemy, He wants to be our Father. If we come with our humility, He will always meet us with His mercy. He will bring restoration.

Genesis 32—Contingency plan

“Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.  But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’” – vs. 11-12

Jacob gave himself the best chance he could. He was afraid of what Esau would do, so he divided his family and his herds into two groups, so that if one was attacked, at least the other group would escape.

For I am afraid. But You have said.

It’s the tension we live, isn’t it? Our circumstance that pulls against the promise of God. The fear that makes us come up with a contingency plan, in case “but You have said” doesn’t happen. It’s a plan to save ourselves from what we fear – having less, loneliness, emotional pain, insignificance, you-name-it-we-fear-it.

In case God won’t save us.

Jacob knew God had made a promise – “I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.“.

But Jacob also knew that Esau had every reason to hate him and want to kill him. His contingency plan was formed from the fear that what could happen would overpower what God said would happen.

Maybe your contingency plan is something you can wrap your hands around, something you can put on paper. But maybe the plan is something way more subtle in its deception.

Resignation.

Why is it so deceiving? Because it looks like surrender and Jesus followers know that surrender is a good thing. But resignation is not surrender, it is actually at the opposite end of the motivation stick.

Surrender is motivated by faith. Resignation (and every other contingency plan) is motivated by fear. And most of us do not know our own hearts well enough to know the motives that are moving us. But God does.

The question is always going to be, are we willing to allow God to reveal what is really going on in our hearts? Our freedom from fear (or anything else, really) hinges on the answer to that question. We have to be willing to look at what motivates us at our core, so that our contingency plans can be scrapped and our resignation can become true surrender to the goodness and faithfulness of a God who keeps His word.

Genesis 31—All That Is Ours

Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

Isaac told his son not to marry a Canaanite woman, but to take a wife from his mother’s family. So Jacob left to go find a wife among his own people. Now, twenty years later, he is finally released to go back. He now has two wives and a lot of flocks- all obtained from a father-in-law who cheated him, tricked him and treated him unjustly all those years.

Oh, now there’s a word for someone ~ You may have arrived empty-handed and had to stay much longer than you planned, and you may have endured mistreatment while you were there, but one day God will call you back out, and you will not leave empty. You will come out with plunder. You will come out with far more than you went in to get.

Jacob obeyed his father and it was harder than he thought it would be. And I want to just go stand next to him and link arms. Because some days obeying my Father is so much harder than I thought it would be too.

But I see something else in this chapter...

Laban’s sons looked at Jacob’s wealth in the form of sheep & goats, and they said that wealth should have been Laban’s (and by implication, theirs) (Vs. 1). Rachel & Leah both believed that their father had spent all of “their” money. (Vs. 14-16) Laban claimed that his daughters and his grandchildren, as well as Jacob’s flocks, all belonged to him. (Vs. 43)

Part of the sin nature we are born with is the desire to “own”, to have, to claim something (everything) for ourselves. To have, to hold onto, to keep. Building our kingdoms, and filling our pockets. Obsessed with what is ours.

Enter Jesus with His salvation and cleansing blood and His upside down ways.

And now we’re invited to give everything away, including ourselves. “Follow Me” means we walk away from our kingdom to help Him build His. Earthly treasures have lost their value. The desire to make more money takes a step back as making disciples steps forward.

Grace and love have changed our minds and our dreams and our destiny. Our inheritance is secure so we are free to decrease, to go low, to open our hands and live that way.

Let us not be found fighting for what is ours. I pray we will be more prone to giving than we are to keeping, because we know that this world has nothing for us.

All that is ours is in Christ.

Genesis 30—Your Victory Is Not My Defeat

They were sisters. Family. And now, this thing between Leah and Rachel has become almost too hard to watch. And let’s be clear about what it is we are watching.

Two women hurting each other because of a desire to have what the other one has. To be fair, we’re not talking about a favorite shirt or a boyfriend. The wants in these women go deep and desperate. One wanted love, the other wanted children. Hard things to want and not have, especially when someone else is getting them.

This rivalry – the envy, and jealousy- it isn’t just a bible story, it’s a human story. Because someone will always have something we want, something we can’t have.

Let’s pull in a little closer. I see some things and I think I want you to see them with me.

Leah saw Jacob’s love for Rachel as her (Leah’s) failure to be worthy of love. So she did what women do – she tried to become worthy. She had no way of knowing that Jacob’s love of Rachel had nothing to do with Leah. That boy was destined to be smitten with that girl and nothing was going to change it.

On the other hand, Leah’s ability to bear sons was seen by Rachel as a glaring reminder of her own inability to do the same. It made her desperate. How much healing would happen if we understood one simple truth –

Someone else’s abundance is not my lack. Their victory is not my defeat. Their blessing is not my curse. Their good fortune is not my bad luck. (Seriously. I could go on all day, but I think we get it.)

Envy and jealousy are the children of comparison and those kids take everything personally. For most of us today (Sister Wives excluded), we aren’t comparing ourselves to our husband’s other wife. You know, the pretty one. It’s not that up close and in our face, unless we put it there. Oh Lord, can we stop putting it there?! The younger women in my life – here’s my Titus 2 moment for you:

If you can’t scroll through social media without comparing, delete your social media. Because comparison is destructive to your soul, to your home, to your relationships. Deal with it like the enemy it is.

We are rarely the only victims of our comparisons. I wonder if Leah’s sons knew that her hope of being loved was pinned to them. Or that they were the source of Rachel’s pain.

Love wasn’t enough for Rachel and children weren’t enough for Leah and their story is our story. We continue to compare because we continue to measure our worth by what we lack. The collateral damage can be heartbreaking.

Jacob surely felt the sting of knowing his love wasn’t enough for Rachel. And don’t you think Leah’s sons knew they were not enough for Leah. Each woman longed for something other than what was in front of them.

This too is our story, and we’re the only ones who can change the narrative. Maybe we should look around at those who are with us, the ones who are loving us and serving us and putting up with us and let three words. And they are not the ones you think they will be..

Jesus is enough

You probably are not, nor were you meant to be. But Jesus will always be enough in you, and through you.

Genesis 29—When We Have What We Are Chasing

Such an intriguing chapter. It’s a love story, payback story, and kindness of God story all rolled into one.

Jacob met the love of his life in Rachel, and paid a steep price to marry her.

“Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” …

...Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

Seven years is a long time. But not as long as fourteen, which is what he ended up serving, because, well, weak-eyed Leah.

Jacob found his true love but his father-in-law pulled a fast one on him and he eventually ended up with both daughters as wives. The deceiver was deceived and I have to say, “touche, Laban, touche”.

If you’re a bit behind in the story, Jacob tricked his brother, Esau, into giving up his inheritance for a bowl of stew, and deceived his father into giving him the first born’s blessing. So I can’t help but smile as justice is served up by Laban.

But all of that pales next to what God did for Leah. The unloved, unchosen Leah.

I know how that feels, and the desperation it births. I think there’s a lot of us who know exactly what Leah may have felt, and her thoughts of maybe now I’ll be loved. Maybe this time. Maybe I’ve done enough, maybe I’ve been good enough. Maybe now.

But I also know this next part. The unfathomable goodness of God. The wonder of Him who knows my thoughts and my feels and my pain. I know the God who moves on my behalf to show me a love I could not have imagined.

In a culture that scorns a barren woman, God opened Leah’s womb wide. In a culture that values sons over daughters, God gave her six sons. The tribe of Judah would become the worship leaders, and the line of priests would come from Levi. The others would become the heads of their own tribes.

Leah never received the love she wanted from Jacob, but she was lavished with love all the same. The love of a God who looked down on a woman who was no one’s choice, and chose her.

Yet with each son, she hoped for Jacob’s love to be hers.

Sometimes, the thing we want the most we will not possess until the love of God becomes what we want the most. Until we realize that we have a champion, a Father who loves us. A God who has chosen us.

Until finally, we come to rest in the love of God.

“And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.”

We wear ourselves out chasing down something that will never be ours, until finally, we see that what we already have is so much more than what we’ve chased after.

This is the story of us, and the God who sees us, who loves us, who chooses us.