God's Blessing of Jacob Pt. 2
Notes
Transcript
**TURN TO GEN. CH. 30… PICKING UP in V. 25
Recap:
Recap:
BEEN INTRODUCED to JACOB:
HEEL-GRABBER//CHEATER
CHEATED HIS BROTHER ESAU TWICE
BIRTHRIGHT
& BLESSING...
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ESAU PLANNED to KILL JACOB
JACOB = SENT AWAY
(Q) Where’d we LEAVE OFF last time?
MESOPOTAMIA—FINDING WIFE....UNCLE LABAN’S HOUSEHOLD...
1. Meets RACHEL—FALLS in LOVE
works 7 years
**DECEIVER is DECEIVED! MARRIAGE NIGHT—LEAH = SUBSTITUTED FOR RACHEL!
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AFTERWARDS,, JACOB GETS RACHEL TOO....
THEN: MESSY BATTLE,, 2 SISTERS...
JEALOUSY:
LEAH WANTED LOVE
RACHEL WANTED KIDS
SERVANTS GIVEN as WIVES...
Leah bears 6 sons and a daughter
Her servant: Zilpah bears Jacob two sons
Rachel’s servant: Bilhah bears Jacob two sons
Rachel eventually bears Jacob one son—Joseph, and later on in chapter 35 will bear a second son.
12 SONS—12 TRIBES of ISRAEL...
STORY = FILLED WITH SIN...
MANIPULATION
ALL SORTS of PROBLEMS...
YET GOD = AT WORK.
GOD = FULFILLING PROMISE to ABRAHAM of “GREAT NATION” of OFFSPRING…THROUGH MESSY SITUATIONS
(T) Now...With all these kids in Jacob’s life,, we’ll see what he does next...
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Text Pt. 1 Genesis Ch.30:25-43 “Jacob’s Prosperity”
Text Pt. 1 Genesis Ch.30:25-43 “Jacob’s Prosperity”
READ (V25-28): 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.”
JACOB = READY to GO BACK to CANAAN…
LABAN DOESN’T WANT HIM LEAVING… JACOB’S LIFE HAS BROUGHT BLESSING to LABAN!!
CONSISTENT THEME in SCRIPTURE—GOD’S PEOPLE BRINGING GOD’S BLESSING UPON OTHERS...
**KEEP EYES OPEN for GOD’S ACTS in TODAY’S TEXT...
(T) MAKING ANOTHER DEAL— NAME YOUR WAGES…
HOW’S JACOB RESPOND?
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READ (V29-36) 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.
JACOB—REALLY WANTS to LEAVE
**JACOB ALSO RECOUNTS: GOD’S BLESSING CAME UPON LABAN TOO!
.....THEY GO BACK & FORTH & BACK & FORTH....
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THE DEAL:
JACOB’S WAGES = THE SPECKLED, SPOTTED, GOATS & BLACK LAMBS...
NORMALLY SHEEP = WHITE—NOT BLACK
NORMALLY GOATS = DARK
**JACOB REQUESTS the ANOMALIES**
(Q) How’s Laban respond??
JACOB—THE DECEIVER/SUPPLANTER/HEEL-GRABBER = CHEATED AGAIN!
**NOT ONLY MISSING OUT on INITIAL ONES—BUT LESS LIKELY to SEE THESE COME IF PARENTS W/ GENES = GONE...
(T) What will he do about this??
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READ (V37-43): 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
SCHOLARS HAVE DEDUCED: IN THOSE DAYS— BELIEVED THESE THINGS WOULD AFFECT OUTCOME of BIRTHS...
JACOB—FOLLOWING SUPERSTITIONS of HIS DAY—ACTUALLY FINDS IT WORKS (WE’LL SEE WHY LATER)
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JACOB = USING TECHNIQUE to GET NICER ANIMALS FOR HIMSELF...
LUCKY the GOAT’S TURN?? JACOB SKIPS!
MOST IMPORTANT: LOOK @ CONCLUSION in V.43...
JACOB = ABUNDANTLY BLESSED & INCREASING
LABAN MEANT it FOR EVIL… BUT IT WAS TURNED AROUND!
(T) HOW’S LABAN FEEL ABOUT THIS??
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Text Pt. 2..Genesis Ch.31:1-55 “Jacob’s Flight”
Text Pt. 2..Genesis Ch.31:1-55 “Jacob’s Flight”
READ (V1-3) : 1 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. 3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
TIDE TURNS...
LABAN’S SONS — PROBABLY JEALOUS! — LOSING OUT on INHERITANCE
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MESSAGE COMES FROM GOD:
JACOB GO HOME
GOD SAYS HE’LL BE W/ JACOB! (BIG DEAL)
**SIMILAR to HOW ABRAHAM WAS ONCE CALLED to UPROOT!**
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READ (V4-16): 4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was 5 and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. 9 Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. 10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’ ” 14 Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house? 15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. 16 All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”
Family meeting:
JACOB RECOUNTS SITUATION
(V5) MOST IMPORTANTLY: JACOB RECOUNTS,, GOD HAS BEEN WITH ME!! (EM: HEBREW)
GOD’S PRESENCE W/ JACOB = SECRET SAUCE to HIS LIFE & SUCCESS!
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IMPORTANT BACKGROUND: FULFILLMENT of PROMISE...
GO BACK & READ (GEN. CH.28 V.15): Genesis 28:15 ESV “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”[1]
GOD HAD PROMISED—HE’D BE W/ JACOB
NOW WE SEE the FRUITS of THIS:
(V5) GOD = WITH JACOB
(V7) DESPITE LABAN CHANGING WAGES....GOD DIDN’T PERMIT HIM to HARM HIM...
(V9) GOD TOOK AWAY LABAN’S LIVESTOCK & GAVE to JACOB
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AMAZING TRUTH:
IN the MIDST of:
FAMILY TROUBLES
ABUSIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT
JEALOUS COUSINS
DAY-TO-DAY MUNDANE TASKS of CARING for SHEEP & GOATS, ETC...
GOD WAS AT WORK!
GOD’S in the MIDDLE of the MESS— AT WORK on JACOB’S BEHALF!
Romans 8:31 (ESV)
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
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WE MIGHT NOT BE the PATRIARCHS...
BUT WE’RE the SPIRITUAL OFFSPRING of ABRAHAM… SURELY GOD is at WORK in OUR STORIES AS WELL
IN THE EVERYDAY & MUNDANE....
James 1:17 (ESV)
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
EVERY GOOD THING in MY LIFE COMES FROM HIM! & is FROM HIS GRACE...
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WE SAW the BRANCHES & ANIMALS MATING… SKEPTICAL? COMING BACK to THAT...
(V10-12) HERE’S the BACKGROUND WE NEEDED
JACOB HAD a DREAM— SHOWING HIM WHAT KIND of OFFSPRING the ANIMALS WOULD HAVE!
BASICALLY a CHEAT CODE!
GOD WORKS to SPARE JACOB & BLESS JACOB & BRING JACOB THROUGH
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FINALLY…JACOB & FAMILY CONCLUDE: LET’S GET OUT of HERE,, JUST LIKE GOD TOLD US TO!
(T) We’ll see how this goes...
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READ (31:17-21) 17 So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. 21 He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
JACOB—GOT PLANS to LEAVE
LABAN = AWAY SHEARING…
PERFECT OPPORTUNITY! GET OUT of DODGE!
HOW HAVE NEGOTIATIONS GONE W/ LABAN in PAST? NOT GOOD.
LEAVE WITHOUT ASKING!
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HERE: RACHEL STEALS “HOUSEHOLD GODS”
ZIBBC: “The household gods (terāpîm) were images that represented deceased ancestors in order to venerate them.”[1]
ZIBBC: “We can therefore conclude that Rachel’s interest in the terāpîmhas more to do with family and inheritance than with the issue of worshiping other gods. The spirits of the ancestors were not substitute deities, though some uses of them were certainly proscribed in ideal Yahwism as it eventually took shape.”[2]
NOT TYPICALLY DEITIES…BUT SOMETIMES COULD BE USED/SEEN THAT WAY— PERHAPS HOW LABAN VIEWED IT...
TYPICALLY WOMEN WOULD FOLLOW HUSBAND’S RELIGION
RACHEL TAKES as a MATTER of INHERITANCE,, RATHER THAN WORSHIP.
(REMEMBER: V.14-16) LABAN HAD DEVOURED THEIR INHERITANCE
STEALING = STILL WRONG…BUT AT LEAST IT’S NOT IDOLATRY
(T) HOW’S LABAN RESPOND?
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READ (V22-24): 22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
GOD APPEARS to LABAN in DREAM
(Q) REMEMBER WHAT GOD PROMISED to JACOB??
BACK in CH. 28:15… GOD NOT ONLY PROMISED to BE W/ JACOB…BUT ALSO to KEEP HIM!
HE WOULD BRING JACOB BACK to CANAAN…PROMISE FROM GOD
GOD SPEAKS to LABAN to FULFILL HIS PROMISE to JACOB!
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READ (V25-32) And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? 28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. 29 It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?” 31 Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32 Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
LABAN CATCHES UP—POINTS OUT HOW GOD SPARED HIM!
OFFENDED/UPSET
BUT STEALING HIS HOUSEHOLD IDOLS…SENSELESS!
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JACOB RESPONDS—HE DIDN’T TAKE ANYTHING! (REOCCURING THEME!)
“LABAN IF YOU FIND YOUR GODS— THAT PERSON WILL DIE”
PROBLEM: JACOB DIDN’T KNOW RACHEL STOLE THEM!
**THE FAVORITE WIFE!!**
....SUSPENSE is RISING....
(T) CAN ONLY IMAGINE… WILL LABAN FIND THEM W/ RACHEL??
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READ (V33-42) 33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.
36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37 For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. 38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
LABAN SEARCHES & SEARCHES & CAN’T FIND THEM!
UNDER the STATEMENT (TRUTH/LIE??) THAT RACHEL WAS on HER CYCLE…HER LIFE is SPARED!
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IDOL GODS—DEFILED & HIDING UNDER a MENSTRUATING WOMAN...
VERSUS the ALMIGHTY GOD—
THE ONE WHO BRINGS BLESSING to JACOB & LABAN
THE ONE WHO PROTECTED JACOB
THE ONE WHO CAUSED SHEEP & GOATS to BEAR ABNORMAL OFFSPRING CONSISTENTLY
THE ONE WHO SPEAKS in DREAMS THAT PREDICT the FUTURE & GIVE WARNINGS...
HOW AWESOME is OUR GOD!
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SOME SCHOLARS CONTEND: RACHEL WAS PROBABLY GETTING BACK @ LABAN for WEDDING NIGHT SCANDAL...
BEYOND MATTERS of INHERITANCE...
“It seems unlikely that Rachel was interested in any worship associated with the household gods, particularly since women adopted the gods of their husbands (Walton 2009, 112).”[2]
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AFTER 20 YEARS of LABOR & MISTREATMENT…JACOB FINALLY BLOWS UP.
HE’S STOLEN NOTHING
HE’S LABORED FAITHFULLY
HE’S DONE EVERYTHING RIGHT
YET HE’S BEEN MISTREATED—LABAN CHANGED WAGES 10 TIMES!
(V42) POWERFUL CONCLUSION: IF IT WEREN’T FOR GOD—HE’D HAVE LEFT EMPTY-HANDED.
IF IT WEREN’T for HIS GOD.
ABRAHAM’S GOD
THE ONE WHO is the FEAR of ISAAC—
THE ONE WHOM ISAAC REVERENCED
&& THE ONE WHO INSTILLS FEAR in OTHERS...
HE’S the ONLY REASON JACOB ISN’T LEAVING EMPTY-HANDED.
(T) TEXT WILL CLOSE...
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READ (V43-55) Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? 44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, 54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country.
55 Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home.
IN MIDST of DIFFICULTY & DIVISION— THINGS ARE SETTLED...
MONUMENTS SET UP AS WITNESS....
LABAN & JACOB PART WAYS PEACEFULLY…THANK GOD ALONE!
(T) WE WONDER W/ JACOB & ESAU’S HOSTILITY,, CAN JACOB RETURN HOME PEACEFULLY??
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Takeaways:
Takeaways:
1. In life, GOD PROMISES to BE W/ HIS PEOPLE & HE is the SOURCE of ALL GOOD & BLESSING in OUR LIVES...
· He promised to be with Jacob
· He was with Moses and Israel in the wilderness
· He promised to be with Joshua when they entered the land
Psalm 23:4 (ESV)
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
ISN’T it COMFORTING to KNOW… HE IS WITH US??
HE is the SOURCE of ALL GOOD in OUR LIVES:
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**James 1:17
James 1:17 (ESV)
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
SURELY WE’RE MORE INDEBTED to GOD THAN WE’D EVER REALIZE...
WE TAKE CREDIT for BLESSINGS…THEY COME FROM HIS HAND...
HE ALONE is the SOURCE of BLESSING & SUCCESS in OUR LIVES...
JACOB’S STORY = ONE BIG: “IF IT WASN’T FOR GOD.....”
Surely we can same amen to that in our own lives too???
WE MIGHT NOT BE the PATRIARCHS…BUT WE ARE OFFSPRING of ABRAHAM BY FAITH & RECIPIENTS of the PROMISE!
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2. GOD is an INCREDIBLY FAITHFUL GOD… HE KEEPS HIS PROMISES!
* remember how God has kept His promise from Genesis 28:15
Genesis 28:15 (ESV)
15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
FAITHFULNESS of GOD = THREAD WOVEN THROUGHOUT the PAGES of SCRIPTURE....
AGAIN & AGAIN WE HEAR of HIS FAITHFULNESS
WE APPARENTLY NEED to BE REMINDED of THIS—
WE CAN TRUST in HIM. AMEN?
CLOSE in PRAYER
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 28:15.
[2]Douglas Mangum, Miles Custis, and Wendy Widder, Genesis 12–50, Lexham Research Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013), Ge 30:25–31:55.
