Jacob's Dream at Bethel
Genesis 28:10-15
10-12 Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it. 13-15 Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you."
Mike’s Thoughts:
This was a start of things to come. Our faith in God is based on his character and dealings with people in the past. Follow the story of Jacob and you will see a God that keeps his promise. It does not always seem that way, but in the end we see God honoring Jacob and the promise he made him. For our purpose in this reading we won’t go into details. The purpose of this reading is to get an overview of the bible. From this just know that you are a part of God’s story and this is a part of your story. God provides and keeps his promises. God has promised you a home in heaven and a life on this earth that is better than you can imagine or dream. The question for you is, will you wrestle with God to understand what that life is or will you wrestle with yourself?
Jacob Wrestles With God
Genesis 32:22-28
22-23 But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions. 24-25 But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint.26 The man said, "Let me go; it's daybreak."Jacob said, "I'm not letting you go 'til you bless me." 27 The man said, "What's your name?" He answered, "Jacob."28 The man said, "But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it's Israel (God-Wrestler); you've wrestled with God and you've come through."
Mike’s thoughts:
Can you imagine wrestling with God? For many of us we have done this. We have been through tough times in our lives and had to deal with the question, “do we believe in the God of the bible and do we believe he will do what he says he will do.” For many of us we have avoided wrestling with God. We avoid it because we would rather wrestle with ourselves, so that either way we do what makes sense to us. Remember yesterday’s reading, God created “sense”. Take some time to wrestle with God in prayer, and reading his word and let that lead your life.
Prayer:
God, thank you that you can be trusted. Thank you that you revealed yourself to us in the bible. Thank you for the struggles you sent Jacob through and how you brought him face to face with you. I pray you make that kind of impact in our lives. I pray that you call us to deal with you and put us in a position to trust in you.
No comments:
Post a Comment