Sometimes the way leads down

Israel on the move - by James Tissot

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 46-47


TO CHEW ON: "'I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again....'" - Genesis 46:4


It was moving time for Jacob. At last he had received the word that Joseph was alive and had in fact invited him and the clan to move to Egypt where food was plentiful. This was a momentous occasion. It meant uprooting many families. It meant arduous travel, and Jacob was old. It meant exposing his family to the idolatrous culture of Egypt.

When he got to Beersheba, where Abraham had called on God (Genesis 21:33) as had Isaac (Genesis 26:25), Jacob "offered sacrifices to God" - Genesis 46:1. Matthew Henry comments:

"He had an eye to God as the God of his father Isaac, that is, a God in covenant with him. He offered sacrifices:

1] By way of thanksgiving for the late blessed change of the face of his family, for the good news he had received concurring Joseph and for the hopes of seeing him.

2] By way of petition for the presence of God with him in his intended journey.

3] By way of consultation. The heathen consulted their oracles by sacrifice. Jacob would not go till he had asked God's leave" - Matthew Henry - Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 65.

God replied in a vision giving Jacob all the assurance he needed: "Fear not. I will make of you a great nation."

Note the directional words in what God said next: "I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again." As well as Egypt seeming geographically down from Canaan, might their use signal to us God's awareness of one of Jacob's niggling concerns?

For by leaving Canaan for Egypt, Jacob was forsaking the land God had promised his family. He had, after all, made the trip back home from his father-in-law Laban's to inhabit it. Perhaps he was questioning, Will I slip out from under the shadow of God's protection by again leaving the land of promise? And would he ever get it back? In that nomadic culture, it wouldn't take long for the land to be inhabited by someone else. Leaving Canaan probably felt to Jacob like he was taking a step down, not up.

But down is sometimes how God directs. Matthew Henry again:

"Whatever low or darksome valley we are called into at any time, we may be confident, if God go down with us into it, that he will surely bring us up again. If he go with us down to death, he will surely bring us up again to glory" - Matthew Henry, p. 65.

The safest place to be is wherever God directs — even if it feels like down to us.


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for being with me in the downs as well as the ups. Thank You for Your promise of being with me always (Psalm 139:7,8). Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 15

MORE: Valley of Humiliation

"Then he began to go forward; but Discretion, Piety, Charity, and Prudence would accompany him down to the foot of the hill. So they went on together, reiterating their former discourses, till they came to go down the hill.

Then said Christian, 'As it was difficult coming up, so, so far as I can see, it is dangerous going down.'

'Yes,' said Prudence, 'so it is; for it is a hard matter for a man to go down into the valley of Humiliation, as thou art now, and to catch no slip by the way.'

'Therefore,' said they, 'we are come out to accompany thee down the hill.'

So he began to go down, but very warily; yet he caught a slip or two.'

- John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, "The Fourth Stage — the Valley of Humiliation" - Kindle Location 1091.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The spiritually alert parent

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 37:1-20

TO CHEW ON: “And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.” Genesis 37:11

Jacob made more than one mistake as a parent. A glaring one was to show preference for Joseph over his other sons. It caused envy and jealousy among the siblings.

Joseph’s brash boasting about his dreams didn’t help. When he told his brothers about their wheat sheaves bowing down to his, they came to hate him. After a second dream, which he told his brothers and his father, even his doting dad rebuked him. But then Jacob did something right. He “…kept the matter in mind.”

This reminds me of Mary, mother of Jesus and her reaction to the unusual happenings around Jesus’ birth when she “Kept all these things and pondered them in her heart” - Luke 2:19.  Again when she saw his obvious giftedness in understanding and expressing spiritual truths at twelve, she “kept all these things in her heart” - Luke 2:51.

As parents and grandparents, one of the things we want most for our offspring is that they find their purpose in life. One of the ways we do that is to watch and then keep in our minds and hearts what we see of their gifts, strengths and weaknesses, and how God is at work in them. I believe this also involves praying into and over these things as we think about how to give them direction.

In his inspiring book Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, George Barna shares this bit of advice on how we give such direction.

“What can you do to help the youngsters with whom you have contact discover God’s purpose for their lives? As you explore their personality, spiritual gifts, passion, intellectual capacity, physical abilities, character traits and resonance with particular biblical characters and stories, funnel that knowledge toward guiding them to a clear idea of the role that has been reserved for them in God’s army. Encourage them to feel neither arrogant nor disappointed by that role. No calling is better than any other, and if it is God’s calling for them, then it is perfect for them" - George Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, p. 66.

PRAYER: Dear Father help me to be a watcher, to observe and pray into the young lives around me and then encourage them in the dreams you have planted in them. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Alone but not alone

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 31:43-32:5

TO CHEW ON: “So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.” - Genesis 32:1

As we read the story of Jacob, we can feel the tension building in him. After years of living by the largesse of his father-in-law (and under the blessing of God), he wanted to make a break and strike out on his own. In fact, God had told him to do so - Genesis 31:3.

There were lots of reasons to stay put. His father-in-law Laban wanted that. And probably at the back of Jacob’s mind was the thought that to move anywhere, especially back to his paternal home, he’d have to deal with the Esau issue. He had left home those many years ago to escape his twin brother’s murderous threats after he (Jacob) stole Esau’s birthright blessing.

Finally, though, it was too much. In the section of Genesis 31 just before our reading is the story of Jacob and his multitude sneaking away from Laban. But Laban would have none of it. He pursued Jacob, caught up to him, and scolded him for not leaving properly.

Today we read how the two families parted ways in Oriental style with ceremony, offerings, memorials, a big meal, promises, hugs, and kisses. Then, at long last, Jacob and his family were officially on their own.

Jacob was, bit by bit, dealing with the roadblocks to what he knew he must do—break with Laban and travel back home. It’s telling that when he was finally alone, God visited him again: “So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him” - Genesis 32:1. His experience reminds us of Abraham’s and how God showed up to him too just after he had parted ways from Lot (Genesis 13:14-18).

Perhaps there’s a lesson here for us. When we’re surrounded by a crowd and all manner of supports, life is too full, too noisy, too complete. We feel we don’t need God.

But when He finally gets us off to ourselves and we face our limitations, past mistakes that still need fixing, fears of all kinds, we find that He is there with us, reassuring us that we aren’t alone at all but in far safer company than when we were in the crowd we just left.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to trust in You more than other people and circumstances. Please give me the courage to obey You and leave my securities when You say so. Amen.
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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tender Shepherd

"The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel" by William Dyce (1806-1864)

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 29:1-18

TO CHEW ON: "Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept." Genesis 29:11


Today's reading paints a very human Jacob. A tent-dweller versus outdoorsman Esau, he was a mama's boy (Genesis 25:27-28). Now, due in no little part to his and his mother's cunning, he (at 40+ years - Genesis 24:34) was forced to leave home due to twin brother Esau's threats to kill him after Dad dies.

Traveling east, he arrived at a well where shepherds were gathered with their flocks. He inquired if they know his mother's brother Laban, and they did! Then, even as they were talking, who should come along but Laban's beautiful daughter Rachel with her father's flock.

Jacob promptly removed the stone from the well (he may have been the indoors type but was obviously no wimp), watered Rachel's flock, told her who he was, and kissed her in a patriarchal greeting, so overjoyed at finding his family he broke down in tears.

We know, from reading the whole story, how his trials were just beginning. But God had big plans for him. To put them in motion, Jacob needed to leave home and live under the discipline of Laban. Laban would give him a taste of his own treacherous nature and Jacob would, as a result, develop into a man of character. Unlike Esau who, intent on instant gratification, sold his birthright to quell hunger pains, Jacob would end up working 14 years for the girl he loves.

The happy 'coincidences' in today's reading did no doubt reassure Jacob, as he thought back on them years later, when he again felt Godforsaken. They would remind him that God had led him, caring for him tenderly and personally—the shepherd of a human sheep, if you will—all that time.

God is the same with us. For if we examine our histories we will see how God's hand has been with us too, moving the pieces on the game boards of our lives in the big things, like meeting our spouse, to the little, like reminding us that we need to drop by the store. As Jesus put it:

" ' My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.' " John 10:27,28.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for watching over me as closely as you watched over Jacob. Help me to remember this and be reassured when I feel alone and afraid. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Is He your God?

"Jacob's Dream" by Salvatore Rosa (Source)

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 27:46-28:22

TO CHEW ON: “Then Jacob made a vow saying, ‘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 so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.’” Genesis 28:20,21

As I read this bit about Jacob realizing that God could be his God, I am reminded of Abraham’s servant. His interactions with God began, at least, at arm’s length as well. In his prayers and storytelling, he always referred to Yahweh as the God of his master Abraham - Genesis 24:12, 27, 42.

My Bible’s study notes have this explanation of Jacob’s words in Genesis 28:20,21:

“Jacob was endeavoring to grasp the promise and to adopt the LORD as his God by formalizing a relationship such as his father had enjoyed. His words are nether cynical nor a bribe” - R. Russell Bixler, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 43.

We have no further insights into the relationship between God and Abraham’s servant. But Jacob, here, responded to God’s reaching out to him.

I would submit that our experience of God is not so different. It is He who makes the first move. After we sense His awareness of us, His knowledge of us and our circumstances, His reaching out to us (however that happens—through the perfect-to-our-situation scripture, song, podcast message, words of a friend etc.), we are undone. As undone as Jacob was:

“‘Surely the LORD is in this place and I did not know it.’
And he was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! this is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.’” - Genesis 28:16,17.

After such encounters, it’s up to us, like it was up to the two Old Testament men, to respond. Will we, like Jacob, move closer? Will we claim the Lord as our God?

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for taking the initiative in Your relationship with humans as a whole and with individual people. Thank You for all the times you’ve shown yourself to me as my God. Help me to always respond to Your overtures in a way that will deepen our relationship. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Night wrestling

"Jacob and the Angel at Peniel" 
by William Brassey Hole

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 32:13-32


TO CHEW ON: "And He said, 'Let Me go, for the day breaks.' But he said, 'I will not let You go unless You bless me.'" Genesis 32:26

The mysterious story of Jacob wrestling with a Man (God) needs a little context.

Jacob and his family had finally broken free of Laban. Jacob's entourage of flocks, servants, wives, and children were making their way back to the home of Jacob's youth. Their trek took them into Esau's territory. Why Jacob dreaded meeting the brother he had cheated, and because of whose death threats he had left home, is obvious.

As he neared the land of Seir, he sent messengers ahead to tell Esau of his approach. The messengers returned with the news that Esau was coming to meet them — with four hundred men! (Fighting men?!)

Jacob in a desperate attempt to placate his brother sent ahead a lavish gift (Genesis 32:13-15). In today's reading we see how he separated his troupe, putting his family on the safe side of a body of water, and then went out alone to face his fears.

I wonder what was going on in Jacob's mind. No doubt he was reliving his treatment of Esau and their last interactions. Was he feeling undeserving of the blessings God had showered on him, knowing that deception had characterized his life? Did he fear that the day of reckoning was here and Esau would get his revenge?

Sometime during the night a mysterious Man appeared. He and Jacob wrestled and Jacob, sinewy creature that he was, managed to hold his own. As dawn paled the horizon, the Man asked to be released but Jacob wouldn't let Him go until He gave him His blessing.

The Man asked Jacob his name, made him say it: "Jacob" = supplanter, deceiver. Then He gave Jacob a new name/identity: Israel = prince with God, "...for you have struggled with God and with man and have prevailed." But the altercation left Jacob with a limp.

Some things this story says to me:

1. Unresolved issues from the past have a way of reappearing.

2. The best way to deal with any troubling issue is to wrestle it out before God in prayer. When we do this, we show that we're at the end of our own devices. We don't know what effect Jacob's night of prayer had. Maybe Esau was coming with bad intentions. Maybe Jacob's night of contending changed more than just him.

3. Whatever flaws he had, Jacob was a fighter. The Man commended him for his determination. This story of Jacob wrestling with God became part of Israel's legacy. Hosea refers to it as an example of how his contemporaries should prevail with God: "...he struggled with the Angel...He wept and sought favor... So you by the help of your God return / Observe mercy and justice / and wait on your God continually" Hosea 12:2-6.


4. The incident left Jacob permanently changed. He received a new identity, along with a new humiliation. I love how my Bible's footnote explains "He limped: This symbolizes that character transformation costs God's people in terms of ego death" -R. Russell Bixler, commentary on Genesis,  New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 49.

Let's let Jacob's example mentor us in how to handle our issues from the past, how we need to  bring them to God, wrestle with them before Him, and accept the changes that He instigates - especially within us - in the process.

PRAYER: Dear God help me to deal with unresolved issues by working them out with You in prayer. Please help me to be teachable and learn the lessons You have for me. Amen.

MORE: Battles of the Secret Place

"The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends me and I am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle out before Him. Until this is done, I lose every time. The battle may take one minute or a year, that will depend on me, not on God; but it must be wrestled out alone before God, and I must resolutely go through the hell of a renunciation before God. Nothing has any power over the man who has fought out the battle before God and won there" - Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest, December 27th reading.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Angels along the way

Jacob flees Laban - Artist unknown

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 31:43-32:12

TO CHEW ON: "So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him." Genesis 32:1


Jacob was between a proverbial rock and hard place. If we read the part of the story between yesterday's reading and today's, we see that Jacob was restless and wanted to leave Laban's compound. But when he had tried to leave some years earlier, Laban hadn't let him go. Now he sensed a fall from favour with Laban and his sons (Genesis 31:1,2). And he heard from God: "Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you" (Genesis 31:3).

In typical Jacob fashion he sneaked away—if a cavalcade of camels, sheep and goats can be said to sneak. Of course Laban soon found out and went after him.

God intervened on Jacob's behalf with Laban, warning him to treat his son-in-law neutrally. And so when they met there was an attempt at explaining on Jacob's part, some scolding on Laban's, an accusation of idol-stealing and an unfruitful search, a formal good-bye meal, a pile of memorial stones/border marker set up, hugs and kisses all around, and then Laban said goodbye and left. The strings were cut. Jacob was on his own.

But not really. For at this point we read the short statement: "So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him."

He would recognize them for he had seen them twenty years earlier on a heavenly ladder. How reassuring it must have been for him to know that though his father-in-law was displeased with him and he now had his estranged brother Esau's territory to cross, God hadn't forsaken him.

I believe we will experience the same sense of God's presence, know the comfort of His companionship when we obey. It may mean cutting ties to family (in a variety of ways), leaving the comforts of the familiar, setting out on what seems like a lonely journey. But God will also send His messengers, His angels (perhaps in the guise of other people, in words heard or read, in the lyrics of songs, or any number of ways) to meet us on the road of obedience.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that when we're obedient, walking under Your direction, You accompany us and send encouragement and strengthening along the way. Amen.

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Subscribe to my newsletter coming September 1st. 

Get book recommendations, Bible study tips, author news plus a full-colour 18-month Pathways Scripture text calendar when you sign up!  

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

God's blessings > man's defraudings

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 30:22-43

TO CHEW ON: "And Laban said to him, 'Please stay, if I have found favour in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.'" Genesis 30:27

In today's episode between Jacob and his father-in-law Laban, Jacob attempted to get his family's independence by suggesting it was time for them to go back home. But Laban would have none of it.

"Please stay," he begged. "God is blessing me because of you. Name your wages and I'll pay them."

Jacob devised wages that separated the flock by markings. He would take all the spotted, streaked and mottled animals.

"Jacob offered to take the least desirable of the animals, but those so easily identified that there could be no accusation of stealing" - Footnote - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 45.

Laban agreed to this but, cagey man that he was "...removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons" - Genesis 30:35.

In other words, Laban stacked the deck against Jacob, starting him off with an unspotted (and pure black?) flock.

So Jacob devised a way of influencing conception using peeled rods. "Jacob was not practicing superstition," explains my Bible's footnote. "He was exercising faith which he somehow associated with the rods. God, having designed the laws of genetics intervened and honoured Jacob's faith - Genesis 31:9" - NSFLB, P. 46.

And God did honour Jacob's faith. For the final verse of our reading says, "Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys" - Genesis 30:43. I love what my Bible's footnote says about this: "God's blessings are always able to exceed man's defrauding."

God's blessings are still available for us today. A quick overview of Scripture gives us some instances and promises of God's blessing.

• When confronted by a large enemy army, Jehoshaphat encouraged the army: "Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall prosper." Then he positioned worshipers to go in front of the warriors and God went to work on their behalf. Read the story in 2 Chronicles 20:20-24.

• When faced with opposition to rebuilding the Jerusalem wall, Nehemiah, confident in God's direction and leading said, "The God of heaven Himself will prosper us" - Nehemiah 2:20. Of course we know that wall got built.

• John pronounced the blessing of prosperity in all things on those whose souls prosper - 3 John 1:2.

• David promises God's blessing when people support God's chosen people, the Jews - Psalm 122:6.

• And the Bible abounds with promises of prosperity and blessing for those who live according to God's ways and instructions. A few examples: Deuteronomy 29:9; Joshua 1:7-8; Psalm 1:1-3.

So let's position ourselves under the spout of God's blessing, and then no matter what our situation looks like on the outside, take that encouraging thought with us: "God's blessings are always able to exceed man's defrauding."


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for Your promise of blessing. Help me to recognize barriers in my life that would obstruct the flow of Your prosperity and blessing. Amen.

MORE: Shepherd of Life - Steve Bell

An inheritance of deception

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 29:15-30

TO CHEW ON: "So it came to pass in the morning that behold it was Leah. And he said to Laban, 'What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?'" Genesis 29:25

Isn't it ironic that the very thing Jacob perpetrated on his father and Esau (identity deception) has now been visited on him? My Bible's footnotes say about verses 22-25:

"An ancient lamp provided little light, and the bride was always veiled, as Jacob's mother Rebekah had been (Genesis 24:65). Further, Leah must have been eagerly cooperating in the deception. Our sins have a way of catching up to us. Jacob pretended to be Esau and disguised himself thus. The whole idea of Jacob's deceiving Isaac had been his mother's and Jacob discovered, to his grief, that Laban was as scheming and dishonest as his younger sister Rebekah" New Spirit-Filled Life Bible p. 44.

It makes one wonder what went on in the home of Bethuel (their father - Genesis 24:15). Was it the unnamed mother or Abraham's side of the family (for Rebekah and Laban were grandchildren of Nahor who was Abraham's brother) that planted that seed of deception?

It could well have come from Abraham's line. Abraham himself had lied to Pharaoh and Abimelech King of Gerar about his relationship to Sarah (Genesis 12:11-13; Genesis 20:2). Isaac did the same thing (Genesis 26:7).

This generational dysfunction reminds me of a sermon series on the family that our pastor recently preached. One Sunday he pointed out that Satan is often active in the family setting. He finds a way into our households by sowing disrespect, disunity, drift and coldness, time pressure, unforgiveness, unwise priorities, infidelity, heavy debt, secrets, anger.

Another Sunday he asked: "What is the verbal climate in your home?" I think another good question to ask would be "What is the moral climate in your home?" For if we are deceitful, slanderous, rebellious toward authority, apt to run up enormous debt or any other number of things, we shouldn't be surprised when we see these behaviours reflected in our kids.


PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to see my family as You see it. Show me what I can do to put a stop to destructive generational traits. Amen.

MORE: Brent Cantelon's series on the family

You can watch my pastor's series on the family online. Go to CLAChurch.com/ media and scroll down to the family series — dates: May 29, 2011; June 5, 2011; June 12, 2011 and June 19, 2011.