Week 4: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Hello! I (again!) have a short time to write this, so I'll be brief. Swimming against Bartlett today, I'm swimming the 50 free and the 100 breast. It's going to be a fun meet today!
Now to get into this week. Starting with Abraham, you really get a look at how his faith dramatically changed and evolved, in a sense, to put his entire trust in God. It is also pretty powerful to see that he was still faithful to God, even when he didn't have a son for a SUPER long time...disregarding the incident with Hagar. When he did eventually have a son, he also trusted God enough to come very close to killing his son, because he knew that God could raise him up from the dead if He wanted to. Lastly, Abraham set up a marriage for Isaac that would be sure to help Isaac to stay on the path that God directed him in. So, we move on to Isaac...
Isaac is really an overlooked character. I mean, we don't see much about him except his birth, his very close to death experience, and then a few times when he was an adult. What some don't realize is that Rebekah, Isaac's wife, was also barren. Thus, Isaac prayed for TWENTY years for God to give them a child, and then they had twins. That's longer than Abraham and Sarah prayed! However, the thing that we tend to notice the most about Isaac is the favoritism that he had towards Esau... and Rebekah towards Jacob. This is what really started all the strife in the family... all because Isaac and Rebekah picked favorites. That can be a lesson we can all learn from. : )
Jacob is another big figure in Israelite history, not only because he had the twelve tribes, but also because of his name change. His life didn't start out too well, cheating his brother from his birthright, tricking his father into thinking that he was Esau...you get my point. When Jacob had to go away to Paddan-aram to get a wife, his life completely changed. First, he got married to two women, Leah and Rachel...working a grand total of fourteen years just to be able to marry Rachel. His father-in-law, Laban, who was also his mother's brother, gave him some trouble, so Jacob decided to leave during the night and travel back to his father and mother. So he did that, Laban came after him, they had a fight(verbally), then had a treaty, then everything was all better again. Jacob travels on, sending a messenger out to Esau to see if he could come back again. The messenger came back saying that Esau was coming to meet Jacob with 400 men. That night, Jacob wrestled with either God or and angel...it doesn't clearly state it. Jacob got a blessing, a name change, and he got to meet Esau with a joyful reunion. Thus, God has blessed the Patriarchy of Israel... we'll see next week what happens to the next generation. : )
Now to get into this week. Starting with Abraham, you really get a look at how his faith dramatically changed and evolved, in a sense, to put his entire trust in God. It is also pretty powerful to see that he was still faithful to God, even when he didn't have a son for a SUPER long time...disregarding the incident with Hagar. When he did eventually have a son, he also trusted God enough to come very close to killing his son, because he knew that God could raise him up from the dead if He wanted to. Lastly, Abraham set up a marriage for Isaac that would be sure to help Isaac to stay on the path that God directed him in. So, we move on to Isaac...
Isaac is really an overlooked character. I mean, we don't see much about him except his birth, his very close to death experience, and then a few times when he was an adult. What some don't realize is that Rebekah, Isaac's wife, was also barren. Thus, Isaac prayed for TWENTY years for God to give them a child, and then they had twins. That's longer than Abraham and Sarah prayed! However, the thing that we tend to notice the most about Isaac is the favoritism that he had towards Esau... and Rebekah towards Jacob. This is what really started all the strife in the family... all because Isaac and Rebekah picked favorites. That can be a lesson we can all learn from. : )
Jacob is another big figure in Israelite history, not only because he had the twelve tribes, but also because of his name change. His life didn't start out too well, cheating his brother from his birthright, tricking his father into thinking that he was Esau...you get my point. When Jacob had to go away to Paddan-aram to get a wife, his life completely changed. First, he got married to two women, Leah and Rachel...working a grand total of fourteen years just to be able to marry Rachel. His father-in-law, Laban, who was also his mother's brother, gave him some trouble, so Jacob decided to leave during the night and travel back to his father and mother. So he did that, Laban came after him, they had a fight(verbally), then had a treaty, then everything was all better again. Jacob travels on, sending a messenger out to Esau to see if he could come back again. The messenger came back saying that Esau was coming to meet Jacob with 400 men. That night, Jacob wrestled with either God or and angel...it doesn't clearly state it. Jacob got a blessing, a name change, and he got to meet Esau with a joyful reunion. Thus, God has blessed the Patriarchy of Israel... we'll see next week what happens to the next generation. : )
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