Date: 17 Jul 2002
Time: 12:46:38
Lot's of things here to bring out. The King of Cons gets conned! But let's look at leah and Rachel, Leah fair eyed (nearsighted) Not as loved by Jacob, but loved by God, favored,The worker Hey she mothered 10 boys and 1 girl. And Rachal, more beautiful supposedly, only had two boys, and died givinglife to one. And her son was a great leader and savior of the people of the world at that time. Leah-homemaker, worker; Rachel-more spiritual . Compare these two to Mary and Martha Martha-action, worker, cook...Mary-sit at Jesus feet learning. If any had to be woman of action was Leah- 11 kids to raise, busy soccer mom LOL. and Rachel- spiritual side, waiting for a long time for blessing from God. Pastor Mary in OHio
Date: 22 Jul 2002
Time: 06:40:08
Pastor Mary, Interesting focus on the productive Leah/busy Martha v. the beautiful Rachel/spiritual Mary.
Compare to the Gospel lection parables of divesting all for the pearl of great vaue and sorting out the good fish from the bad.
What is the Godly criteria for determining value? It is early in the week. I'm all questions and no answers. tom in TN(USA)
Date: 22 Jul 2002
Time: 08:59:59
It is fun to watch Jacob meet his match in Laban. I will probably include further readings where haggling between Jacob and Laban over livestock produce some humorous results. The application of these stories, I think, is simply to reinforce the saying "Honesty is the best policy." -Dale in Chattanooga
Date: 22 Jul 2002
Time: 19:01:53
This is an interesting passage. Working for a wife, or two... Men can relate to this passage...Keeping your wife secure, etc Could one play the rock song "Working for a living" Or if you are more of a Olivia Newton John Fan---Torn between two lovers---and let's get physical---to Their giving (Jacob ) A Heart attack!! I bet with two wives he had a VELCRO FLY-ZZ TOP! OK OK I 'll stop!!! Hyper preacher Girl from OH
Date: 23 Jul 2002
Time: 05:30:57
Remember the parable of the farmer and the mule? A farmer's mule fell into the well. After some deliberation, the farmer felt that neither the mule nor the well were worth saving, so he began to shovel dirt into the well to bury them both. The mule was greatly distressed and at first began to panic... then he had a thought, "If I just step up upon each mound of dirt that comes down upon me I will get closer to the top." That is what he did. As each shovel full of dirt hit him, he would "shake it off and step up." The mule persisted until finally he reached the top of the well and stepped out... alive and well. The moral: When life throws dirt on you, shake it off and step up!
Lots of dirt being flung in these stories... Jacob, the trikster being tricked. Leah and Rachel each disappointed and hurt in her own way... But, something is happening, God is at work and each steps up and comes closer to the glory of God.
Revpen
Date: 23 Jul 2002
Time: 11:15:15
Check the chapter about Jacob's children again..the two maids gave birth to some of those kids...Leah didn't have all 10.
Date: 23 Jul 2002
Time: 19:30:00
I beg your forgiveness for this in advance, but I simply cannot resist...
For all the women who get frustrated thinking their mate doesn't notice them - Jacob spent the entire night with Leah and didn't notice it wasn't Rachel until morning???????
Sorry, I just had to say it! :-)
pastorkat, PA
Date: 23 Jul 2002
Time: 19:50:32
"Deceiving the Deceiver"- I believe it is a quote from a literary work by Horatio dealing with military strategy: "O the tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." Only God could lead Jacob out of his web of tangled lies and change his name from scoundrel to a Israel. TN Mack
Date: 25 Jul 2002
Time: 05:22:18
So we've got the whole "Life's not fair, but God will make something good come of it" thing going on with Leah, and I can agree with that, but we also have to be cautious with it because it's thoughts like that that kept slavery going and today that keep us from stepping in to fight for the oppressed and disenfranchised today. Life's not fair by our standards, sure, bad things happen to good people, but life is also not fair in our favor - If God used our standard of fairness I don't think one of us would be the redeemed children of God that we are. None of us qualify; God doesn't treat us "fairly" by our standards and THANK GOD - from the Romans text, nothing external can separate us from the love of God, but neither can anything internal. It wasn't fair that God sent the son to die for us, but thank God God did. I end up in the not-lectionary-now parable of the workers in the field who all get paid the same for working different amounts of time, but I can't seem to get back to my original Genesis text too easily. Sure Jacob the deceiver doesn't deserve to become great because of how he got there, but I'd like to look at Leah more maybe because I feel like I identify with her as the overlooked sister! :) Well, here's a lot of unorganized rambling. It's been a rough week with 2 funerals, Vacation Bible School, Wednesday night worship, and an in-town mission project all on the senior pastor's first week of vacation. I'm behind and I'm struggling!
Date: 25 Jul 2002
Time: 14:21:44
I've committed to preaching on the matriarch/patriarch series this summer and initially wanted to avoid this one. But then I realized that the disappointment of Jacob and Rachel and maybe Leah is related to the current economic situation in the United States. Many who worked for much longer than 7 years are seeing their savings for retirement wiped out and now need to continue working or are facing an uncertain economic future. How do we as people of faith deal with disappointment? We first need to acknowledge our rage, grief, fear, etc. But we can then use disappointment as an opportunity to "grow our souls." We can practice living in trust; we can experience our connection with most of the world that has no hope of financial security. We can use this time of uncertainty to remember that the Holy One is our true source of security. Rev. Lois in Oakland
Date: 26 Jul 2002
Time: 06:13:37
On the theme "Deceiving the Deceiver," I am also thinking about looking a connection between this Old Testament story and the salvation story surrounding the crucifixion. Satan was obviously at work in the crowd and among the San Hedron in calling for Jesus' crucifixion. However, the Deceiver was deceived into thinking that the cross would defeat the efforts of God in the redemption of humankind. God deceived the Deceiver. TN Mack
Date: 26 Jul 2002
Time: 10:48:27
Again, we see this dysfunctional family pass on its stuff to another generation. Jacob is in love,that's beautiful, but his marriage to Rachel does not magically make his life (or anyone else's) wonderful. The family dysfunction of playing favorites repeats itself in his treatment of Leah and Rachel. Take a look at the names of the kids. What misery! One big unhappy family!
Of course it's easy for us to say "what goes around comes around". The trickster got tricked, in the darkness of his wedding night, blind Jacob could not recognize his beloved, just as blind Isaac could not recognize his beloved Esau. The next day Jacob asks Laban for an explanation and finds out that it all has to do with the rights of the first born. Now he tells him! Haven't we seen this movie before? Generation to generation!
Yes, God will keep Jacob wherever he goes. But he has to come face to face with the family sickness before he can return to Bethel and face Esau with new self knowledge. And no, I'm not giong to use Romans 8:28. Too glib, too easy to say.
Shalom, Larry cny
Date: 26 Jul 2002
Time: 17:59:53
v. 30 "...and he loved Rachel more than Leah."
Yeah, it's not fair -- or maybe it is! (Anyone preaching this from the point of view of one of the women?) Hey, but look what God does with this con-job: It's LEAH, the unwanted one, the unlovely one, who became the mother of Judah. It was out of Judah's tribe that Jesse came. And it was out of the stump of Jesse that Jesus came! All because old Uncle Laban gave Jacob a taste of his own nasty medicine.
Wonder what God can/will do with the mean sneaky things that folks do to me?
Yell"Arose!"nTx
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Time: 12:29:27 PM
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