My Genesis reading is going slowly but it’s going and with every little bit that I read I learn.
One of the things I’ve come to realize is that the Bible really is indeed the best book ever writ.
I often look at it from a reader’s perspective and think that there is not a plot or an idea or prompt one could come up with for a book that you will not find in scripture.
The Bible is not all about holy men of God who were blessed with His presence to the extent that they did or lived through remarkable exploits such as in the case of the Elijahs, and Daniels or Shadracks, Meshacks and Abednego’s.
It’s not even only about the people who got to fall into the inner circle with God like Abraham or David or Solomon.
It is about the grace of God from the beginning to the end always.
It’s about how this grace looks with even the least and sets him in the same place as those who are “the most”.
I thought this as I read through Genesis 34 last week and was moved by something God does in this Chapter. God is merciful….and He is gracious, more than we will ever realize or understand.
His capacity to not only forgive, but to lift us up is beyond human understanding.
Our minds tell us, you get paid your just deserts, not so with God.
I see this is the way God handles Jacob.
When God meets with him the second time, He tells Jacob his name will now be Israel. This is on Jacob’s way home from his self-imposed exile.
- From what I understand the name Jacob means supplunter or usurper: one who wrongfully or illegally seizes and holds the place of another (we all know his story with his brother)
- And Israel speaks to the specific elements of the covenant God made with Abraham him which would be fulfilled through. God has plans for this man.
Moving along, the thing that impresses on me is that Jacob was not a great worshiper of God.
In fact I think he is the person that most accurately represents many of us today. He clearly believed there was a God, and for most of scripture he calls Him the God of his fathers. We also know that he knew God existed, having seen Him at least twice by now. And yet, still he kept mixing himself and his spirituality with the wrong crowd and at this time the bad influence is dwelling in the city of *Canaan.
Here is Genesis 35 he is in trouble after his sons’ perform this mass killing, and he calls on God again who appears to him and tells him to flee.
Jacob wakes up and this is what happens:
Genisis 35 v 2-3
2. So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments;
3. and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me [light]wherever I have gone.”
This is the second time we find idols in Jacobs household and there is no indication in both accounts that he was unaware that his family members (even his wives) were engaging in such practice. In fact one has to wonder if he was not practicing because he only seems to have acknowledged God when the going got tough.
Isn’t that so like many of us?
We know God exists and believe His son died for us and rose again and we see him working wonders in our lives every day, but do we worship Him the way we should, the way he deserves? No, not most of us. When life is good we have too many other things going on, many other desires to worship with our time, our hearts and our money. But when all hell breaks loose, that is when we know where to run for shelter
I think such a man was Jacob, but God…..in his infinite grace looked beyond his shortcomings. He waits and takes this time of travail to remind Jacob of his destiny.
Here in Chapter 35, God reminds him of what he told him a long time ago (back in Chapter 33)….may be a decade or two ago…. we don’t know. All we know is that his children are no longer little as when he made the stop in Canaan on his journey home, but are now men.
It is at this point, when God tells him to rise quickly and go to Bethel, that God reminds Him” You are no longer Jacob. You are now Israel.
This to me is the grace of our God.
That not only are His mercies the light on our path everyday, but He makes it his business to constantly remind us of our destiny. And when we heed his voice, He does not give us according to our just deserts, but according to the full measure of His grace, that catapults us into our destiny.
To the fulfillment of his plan for our lives....
* If you remember Noah curse his grandson Canaan for the sins of his grandfather Ham (Genesis 9:20 through 27) this is what most of us know as the curse of Ham.
