It's so good to be home. New Orleans was interesting, but COLD!!! And I am in love with my granddaughter, Audrey. My son's wife is a lovely lady and I am happy to know her. I was thrilled to attend their wedding on New Year's Eve.
I love NFL playoff weekends because I get to see every game played! My team isn't in the playoffs, so I can enjoy the games more than usual. I made a board to keep the Divisions straight and because I do better with pictures than verbal explanations of how the Wildcard system works. I'll try to get a photo of it posted so yous can see it.
Genesis 27 is all about family feuds. It's sad really. Jacob and Rebekah scheme to steal Esau's birthright (even though he sold it for a meal earlier.) Now, I have been known to try to make things happen. I call it "pushing" - I push the situation to what I think is to my advantage only to discover that if I had just been patient and allowed things to unfold themselves everything would have worked out better. This is a lesson I have had many opportunities to learn. I am hopeful that I am finally beginning to believe that I can pray about a situation and give it to God every time I catch myself worrying about it. Neither Rebekah nor Jacob bothered to talk to God about his promise. God had promised that the younger of the two (Jacob) would be the leader. But they had to push and couldn't wait for God to do His own work in His own way. So they play a trick on a blind old man who also happens to be their husband and father, and steal the blessing from their son and brother Esau. I never cease to be shocked at the stuff people do to each other. Naturally, Esau planned to kill his brother as soon as their father died. Rebekah decided that Jacob needed to "get out of Dodge" until Esau cooled off. Conveniently, Jacob needed a wife. But Rebekah didn't like the local Hittite women at all and decided they weren't good enough for her son. Isaac told him to go to his grandfather and uncle Laban's to find a wife from among his cousins. So Esau finds out that his brother went to visit the relates to find a wife. Then he realizes that they REALLY don't like his wives, so he marries two more women from his own family.
Jacob has a dream about a stairway to heaven (good song) and God is at the top of the stairway and angels are going up and down. God tells him again how he will give him all the land under him and to the north south east and west, how his descendants will be like the dust of the earth (many) and that God will be with him always. In the morning Jacob took the rock he used as a pillow, set it up and poured oil on it and called the place Bethel (the house of God).
Chapter 29 tells about Jacob finding his wife. He comes to a well and meets Laban's daughter (his cousin) Rachel. He falls in love with her and asks her father (his uncle) for her. Laban says he can marry her after he has worked for seven years. So he worked for seven years (which seemed like only a few days) for the privelege of marrying Rachel. Laban tricks Jacob - what goes around comes around - by giving him Leah instead of Rachel. Then he says something about how they do things differently, that the older sister marries before the younger. After a week Laban gives Jacob Rachel, but he has to work another seven years. Now Jacob loves Rachel but not Leah. Leah knows this (ouch!) So God gives Leah four sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Rachel doesn't get pregnant.
Tomorrow we'll pick it up with Genesis 30-31:42
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