Jacob Receives Isaac’s Blessing

When Rebekah learned that Isaac was preparing to bless Esau, she quickly devised a plan to trick him into blessing Jacob instead. Although God had already told her that Jacob would become the family leader (Genesis, Chapter 25:23-26), Rebekah took matters into her hands. She resorted to doing something wrong to try to bring about what God had already said would happen. For Rebekah, the end justified the means. No matter how good we think our goals are, we should not attempt to achieve them by doing what is wrong. Would God approve of the methods you are using to accomplish your goals?

When Esau lost the valuable family blessing, his future suddenly changed. Reacting in anger, he decided to kill Jacob. When you lose something of great value, or if others conspire against you and succeed, anger is the first and most natural reaction. But you can control your feelings by: (1) recognizing your reaction for what it is, (2) praying for strength, and (3) asking God for help to see the opportunities that even your bad situation may provide.

The verses that have touched our hearts while reading the chapter are as follows:
May God give you of the dew of heaven,
and of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and wine.

Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

Let’s Pray: Heavely Father, we know that you have a plan for each one of us and that at times, infact many a times we have relied on our understanding and potential to make the plan work in our favor that was in real your plan for us. Our Father, guide us in every way of our life. We falter at every conjecture and ask for your pardon and mercy. When people deceive us or hurt us we tend to get angry and do the same. During our anger times, Lord, we pray earnestly that you guide us through it and not our anger. Amen.

Chapter 27: Jacob Receives Isaac’s Blessing

1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.”
2 He said, “See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.
3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me.
4 Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it,
6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father say to your brother Esau,
7 ‘Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food to eat, that I may bless you before the LORD before I die.’
8 Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you.
9 Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he likes;
10 and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”
11 But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin.
12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”
13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me.”
14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved.
15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob;
16 and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
17 Then she handed the savory food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob.
18 So he went in to his father, and said, “My father”; and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”
20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.”
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
22 So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
23 He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.
24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”
25 Then he said, “Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.”
27 So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.
28 May God give you of the dew of heaven,
and of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and wine.
29 Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting.
31 He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”
32 His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your firstborn son, Esau.”
33 Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? — yes, and blessed he shall be!”
34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, father!”
35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.”
36 Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”
38 Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39 Then his father Isaac answered him:
“See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be,
and away from the dew of heaven on high.
40 By your sword you shall live,
and you shall serve your brother;
but when you break loose,
you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.
43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran,
44 and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away —
45 until your brother’s anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send, and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

 

Lot’s Capture and Rescue

When Abram learned that Lot was a prisoner, he immediately tried to rescue his nephew. It is easier and safer not become involved. But with Lot in serious trouble, Abram acted at once. Sometimes we must get involved in a messy or painful situation in order to help others. We should e willing to act immediately when others need our help.

Also, we read in the end verses that Abram did not accept anything from the king of Sodom. He choose to reject it for more important reasons- he didn’t want the ungodly king of Sodom to say, “I have made Abram rich.” Instead, Abram wanted him to say,, “God has made Abram rich. In this case, accepting the gifts would have focused everyone’s attention Abram or the king of Sodom rather than on God, the giver of victory. When people look at us, they need to see what God has accomplished in our lives.

The verses that have touched our hearts while reading the chapter are as follows:
When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

Then he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his nephew Lot with his goods, and the women and the people.

He blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth;
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything.

But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the LORD, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth,

Let’s Pray: Lord, give us the conviction to ever follow You; help to say no to any pursuits or possessions that does not come from you. Help us to live for You always. Amen.

Chapter 14: Lot’s Capture and Rescue

1 In the days of King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim,
2 these kings made war with King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of
Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).
3 All these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea).
4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
6 and the Horites in the hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the edge of the wilderness;
7 then they turned back and came to Enmishpat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.
8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim
9 with King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of
Ellasar, four kings against five.
10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country.
11 So the enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way;
12 they also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram.
14 When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
15 He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.
16 Then he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his nephew Lot with his goods, and the women and the people.
17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
18 And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.
19 He blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything.
21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.”
22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the LORD, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth,
23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, so that you might not say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’
24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me — Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their share.”

 

Reading Bible to know God

We all are too busy in this fast paced world with our work, friends, family, being successful in all that we try and do. But somewhere in this fast paced and jam packed life we have forgotten completely about our Creator- our God. We all come or draw near to God in our troubled times. And as soon as the situation improves we are back to being busy again.

Let’s join together to this small initiative of reading God’s word and spending a little time with our Creator.

To begin with read a chapter from the Bible. You can choose to begin from Old Testament or New Testament. It is up to your convenience. We shall be beginning from the Genesis.

Here’s how you can let the Spirit of God guide you through God’s eternal words:

Read: Prayerfully listen to what God is saying to you.
Think: What is the main hint of this passage? What does God- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit- reveal of Himself? Is there an example or a warning to heed? What does Christ require of me now, in thought, word or action
Pray: Use the reading as a basis for praise, confession and prayer for yourself and others.
Share with others, by words or deeds or by both, what you learn each day.

We wish you all the best for your new endeavor and we will be happy to have you and your family and friends to join in our small initiative as well.