Jacob’s Plenty Is Empty

Let us muse today from Genesis chapters 29-31 and the fact that Jacob got plenty, but he left empty. Jacob’s greatest object of love became his greatest object of detest, because Rachel was barren. In 29:32-34 Leah’s love is rejected and Rachel’s love is detested. In chapter 31:1-35, Jacob becomes very rich with children and possessions, but felt so empty. Deception when unconfessed leaves us so empty. Jacob is left with this idea as he goes home “he got what he wanted, but lost all he had”. Be careful of things we have to struggle to get or keep up. You can rest assured our personal manipulation got them and not His providential manifestation.

Jacob’s Struggle With Possessions

Let us muse today from Genesis chapter 29 and Jacob’s struggle with his possessions. After his deception for the birth right, he is sent by his mother to his uncle Laban’s house to find a wife. He seems to have his own plan and expectations as to how things will turn out. We make plans, but God works with a purpose. In verses 1-17 of chapter 29 we find the labor of deception. Jacob is very froward in going after Rachel. He kisses her after only knowing her a few moments. He is attracted to her outward beauty and has no idea if she has any spiritual inward beauty. In verses 19-20 he works seven years because he loves Rachel. I fear it is more lust than love. In verses 20-25 Jacob the tricker is tricked by his father-in-law Laban. He gets Leah the other daughter on wedding night. I believe love would have talked some on wedding night, but lust always gets tricked because it’s in a hurry.

Jacob And The House Of God

Let us muse today from Genesis 28:17-25 and Jacob’s source of possessions is found in the house of God. In verse 17 at Jacob’s ladder experience from heaven, he senses that this is the house of God and the gate of heaven. It is down at the house of God were we are often confronted with the eternal world and we realize how unimportant are the possessions we call mine. When one has a tight grip here and a loose grip on the world to come, God will come by and make an appearance, and we like Jacob in verse 16 will miss it. It is at this time Jacob begins to tithe.(verse 22) Tithing is an acknowledgement that God owns it all. Let us realize more clearly today that the source of all we have or don’t have is from the Lord.

Jacob’s Source Of Possessions

Let us muse today from Genesis 28:11-13 and Jacob’s struggle with the source of his possessions. I want us  to see that the   source of all our possessions or from the Lord. In verse 11 we see the sunset which is often a picture of all we have the hope in of calling ours, coming to an end. Many speak of their possessions as that which I worked hard to get. Blessed day when the sunset on my thought that nothing I have, I worked for. In verse 12 a ladder appears from heaven. James said it best when he said every good and perfect gift cometh from above. In verse 13 God said to Jacob I will give you the land. He gives thru his Son freely all things to enjoy. Our God is the source of all both good and evil. Job said the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He is the God who gives both good and bad. 

Jacob’s Struggle With Possessions

Let us continue to muse from our theme of Jacob’s life and that is his ‘Struggle With His Possessions’. The area of the things we call ‘mine’ are often the areas of the greatest conflict. It is hard for us to have a lose grip on the things of this world and a tight grip on the things of the world to come. The reason why God could not give Jacob what was already his spiritually was because he had his hands full. May we not be found putting anything before God. They will become the areas of great

Jacob’s Delivered Posterity

Let us muse today from Matthew 1:1-3 and ‘Jacob’s Delivered Posterity’. After all of Jacob’s foolishness and deception, underneath we find a heart for God. We find him included in the geneology of Jesus Christ in verse 2. How can this be? In verse 3 we find his son, Judah, whose name means ‘praise’ is the only son mentioned in this geneology. How can this be? We also find mentioned his daughter-in-law, Tamar, the most deceptive. How can this be that they are included in the line of Christ? I tell you how. ‘There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood loose all their guilty stains.’ None get in that line, except by the blood.

Jacob’s Deceitful Posterity

Let us muse today from Genesis 38 and ‘Jacob’s Deceitful Posterity’. In verses 11-14 Tamar, Jacob’s daughter-in-law, deceives Jacob in to an affair with a harlot. Tamar did this because she was not given the husband of the next son after the death of her first husband. Jacob paid Tamar the harlot with some silver and his staff only to find out later that it was her. (vs. 14-18) Jacob, the deceiver, has been deceived by Tamar the deceitful. Oh, how lying and deception can be reaped over and over again in a family. Oh, let us be a people of truth, no matter the cost.

Jacob’s Dysfunctional Posterity

Let us muse this day from Genesis 38:1-3 and ‘Jacob’s Dysfunctional Posterity’. Jacob’s boy Judah had an appetite for strange women who led him to marry a Canaanite woman. This marriage produced a son by the name of Er. The Bible says in verses 6-7 that Er married a girl by the name of Tamar but Er was so wicked that the Lord slew him. Here, not only were Jacob’s children chasing the vanity of this world but his grandchildren were following in these same steps. I wonder if the principle of Deuteronomy 6:6-9 were ever applied with Jacob’s posterity?

Jacob’s Posterity

Let us muse for the next few days from Genesis 38 and Jacob’s Posterity. How we all want the generations of our family to turn out right but seldom do what the Bible tells us to do. The word for training our children is given in Deuteronomy 6 when Moses says, ‘And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and when thou riseth up.’ These verses give a good argument for family altar, Christian School, and home school. This is the least we can do but even this doesn’t assure a good outcome. God still does with individuals as He pleases. We can plan but He still purposes. I remember a lady in our area became a vegetarian to keep her child from Ecoli. The child caught it at a water park and died. We plan, He purposes

Jacob’s Inferno

Let us muse today from Genesis 34:1-2,24-26,&35:22 and ‘Pride’s Inferno’ because Jacob has failed to head for home. In 34:1-2 we find his daughter, Dinah, is raped by a Hivite whom they were dwelling among. In verses 24-26 her brother kills him and his family unmercifully through a deceptive plan. During these days of pride Jacob’s son Reuben has an affair with his stepmother, one of his Dad’s wives. Disobedience to God’s command, ‘to go’, has lifted the hedge of Jacob’s protection and the enemy has come in like a flood creating an Inferno for Jacob to deal with. You may say, Jacob’s failure to go home seems like a minor infraction. Apparently not to God with the price that is paid in consequences.