God appears to Jacob in a dream and confirms His covenant with Abraham. Gods words are positive and encouraging, yet Jacob was afraid. Understanding the awesome power of the one true God. And after this encounter with the Lord, he erects a monument to God, and to mark a place of worship. There are times... Read More →
Esau goes out hunting and come home famished. He asks his brother for some stew and Jacob – as brothers do – needed something in return. Jacob asked for Esau’s birthright and Esau, evidently a drama queen, says he’s going to literally die if he doesn’t eat. So he trades his birthright for some stew.... Read More →
This is a little piece of wisdom from my wife. She always laughs at it, but I’ve always thought it was profound in it’s obvious simplicity. I think this is what we see in God’s method of bringing his covenant with Abraham to fulfillment. Sarah had trouble conceiving, but Hagar had no such issues. Even... Read More →
Abraham is worried about who his son, Isaac, will choose to marry. And so he sends out his oldest servant to find his a wife — not among the Canaanites in the foreign land they inhabited, but from among his own people, Israel. The servant arrives and sets 3 criteria when he prays to find a... Read More →
Influence. We are all affected by it. Whether we are subject to it or exerting it. Such is the case with Lot and his family. When two angels of the Lord come to Sodom to test Lot’s righteousness, he takes them in offering to wash their feet and house them for the night. But the... Read More →
God made two promises to Abraham. The first, that his descendants would out number the stars in the sky. The second, that he would be given the land of the Canaanites to possess. Abraham and Sarah wanted a son so badly they could almost taste it. So when God promised them that they would get... Read More →
Some will read this and assume unmerited blessing, some will read this and assume unmerited cursing. Solomon tells us that both come from the Lord (Ecc 7:14), so we should seek to learn in every circumstance. In the case of Abram and Sarai the Lord has chosen out two to bless and make a covenant... Read More →
Just before the flood would begin to recede we see a wind (the Hebrew word ‘ruah’) move across the earth. This is the same word for the Spirit of God we see moving across the formless, nascent earth in Genesis 1:2. This also remind us of God breathing life into Adam in Genesis 2:7. We... Read More →
We are all the hero of our own stories. But sin is eager to counsel us — and we are eager to listen, because the counsel of sin so often aligns with our existing desires. But God knew how hard-headed our free will would make us and so he made a way out; a way... Read More →
God has given us the earth and its inhabitants to steward and the universe as a witness of the power and majesty to which we are accountable. No amount of lying, denying, and/or blame-shifting will bring relief when we are required to give an account of how we did. Let’s take our responsibilities seriously and... Read More →