Jacob III: In Sheep's Clothing

Gen 26 & 27

despite the exchange between Jacob and Esau, the birthright did not mean much without the blessing of the father. Since Esau was the firstborn and more favored by Isaac, the blessing would go to him. This blessing would make the heir of the covenant official and put to rest any deals made over red lentil soup.

All would have gone to plan, but Rebekah interfered.

There are two main reasons why Rebekah helped Jacob in securing the blessing. First off, God Himself told her that the younger son would serve the older. But also, there was the matter of Esau's marriages. Esau married two Hittite women. The Hittites were descendant's of Canaan, Noah's grandson. Noah cursed Canaan and his descendents, but that is another story. The point is, the Esau married a couple of women that were seen as ungodly. Genesis 26:35 says that they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah. For the birthright to pass to Esau, would mean for it to also pass to his wives. This would place God's covenant in the hands of a cursed people.

For these reasons, I assume, when Rebekah hears that Isaac is about to give Esau his blessing, she calls Jacob and concocts a plan for Jacob to steal it.

Now Isaac is on his deathbed and is blind. He identifies Esau by feeling his hairy arms and knows his smell. He tells Esau that he is about to bless him and asks that he prepare a meal for his father before the blessing. Esau obeys and leaves to hunt food for the meal. While he is gone, Jacob makes his move.

Rebekah prepares a meal for Jacob to give his father. She tells Jacob to put on some of Esau's clothes so that Isaac would smell his firstborn son. Also, because Esau is a hairy man and Jacob is as smooth as a baby's bottom, Jacob wears goat skins on his arms. When Isaac feels his hairy arms and smells Esau's clothes, he gives the blessing to Jacob.

"Now may God give you of the dew of heaven,
And of the fatness of the earth,
And an abundance of grain and new wine;
May peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you;
Be master of your brothers,
And may your mother's sons bow
down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
And blessed be those who bless you." Gen. 27:28-29

When Esau returns and Isaac discovers what has happened, it is too late to take the blessing away, no matter how angry Isaac is that his son decieved him. He gives Esau a blessing that is less than satisfactory.

..."Behold, away from the fertility of
the earth shall be your dwelling,
And away from the dew of heaven from above.
By your sword you shall live,
And your brother you shall serve;
But it shall come about when you
become restless,
That you will break his yoke from your neck." Gen. 27:39-40

Jacob lived up to his name as "supplanter" and Esau held a fantastic grudge against his brother, who stole everything from his inheritance. He decided that as soon as his father was dead, he would kill his brother.

Jacob II: Food For Thought

Gen. 25:27-34

As strange as the birth of these two brothers seems, and as odd this particular biblical account appears, it defines the rest of their lives. Whether they knew it or not, they were born into a certain destiny that they couldn't change. In fact, it appears as if Jacob embraces the prophesy from God.

Now I'm not sure if Rebekah had told her sons what God had said to her when they were wrestling in her womb. If she did, then I can imagine that it would have caused a lot of strife in the lives of the brothers, in that they would have been expecting a power struggle for their entire lives. If she did not tell them, then it was just destiny playing itself out. Either way, Jacob finds a moment of weakness in his brother Esau and exploits it.

The Bible says that Jacob and Esau chose different careers.

When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. Gen. 25:27

What I find interesting about this verse is the use of the word peaceful. In the original writing, the word used here was tam.

it's primary meaning is complete, whole, entire, not lacking, first used in the Bible here. This statement by the Word of God emphasizes that Esau had worldly skills, and Jacob had God's whole, well rounded, righteous character. (Source: cathedraluniversity.com, page 45)

I find it interesting that the Bible describes Jacob as complete, yet he still takes advantage of his brother.

A day comes when Esau returns from hunting and is extremely hungry. Jacob just so happens to have prepared a nice hot stew when he returned. Jacob sees that his brother is desperate for food, and so he makes a deal with Esau: Sell me your birthright and you will get some stew. Now this sounds like a ridiculous situation, but it happened. Esau must have been close to death, because he agreed to this deal. Esau got some red stew, and Jacob became the new owner of the family birthright, which contained God's promise to Abraham.

The Bible says that Esau despised the birthright after that. Now, when Isaac died, Jacob would become the head of the household and Esau would have to serve him. This is a huge step in a very difficult family situation that develops between these two.

But I still wonder why, if Jacob was said to be complete, he needed Esau's birthright. Perhaps he didn't know that he was complete, perhaps he went beyond what he needed and went for what he wanted. I think we all go after things we want, whether we need them or not, and it may or may not be God's plan that we do so. We need to carefully analyze every decision we make and ask God what His will is concerning those decisions. This is important because, as we will see, every decision we make has its consequences in the future.

This and That

This has been a hard, busy week for me. I've had tons of homework, including a lengthy selection of reading on the Crusades for my Middle Ages class. I'm stressed, I'm tired, and I'm ready for the weekend.

So here it is, my over due blog entry. I usually try to post entries every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but it just hasn't been possible this week. The Jacob series has been lingering in the back of my mind and I intend on getting back to that as soon as possible. I only touched the beginning of that story in the first post, and I'm rather eager to get back to it.

My fantasy football team won this week. In fact, they were the high scorers this week at 124 points. I am in first place in my division and I believe I am currently in second place in the league. This week, the game was won due to my amazing tight end. He caught three touch downs for me.

The Xperience has begun preparations for next year's Mexico missions trip. I'll be one of the leaders, or at least helping out the leader. Call me the assistant to the trip leader. We're going to Queretaro, Mexico. It's located in central Mexico a few hours North of Mexico City. This will be the second trip to Queretaro for the Xperience and for me. I fell in love with that city and the friends I made there.

I've been eating rice every day this week. The Xperience serves lunch every Sunday after service, and this week, we ate Chinese. We ended up having a lot of food left, so I was sent home with a large tub of chicken fried rice. It is delicious. I won't have to go shopping for food this week.

Ha, ha....I said tight end.

Jacob I: Born Into Destiny

Genesis 25:19-26

We all are trying to find out who we are. It is the human condition. This search for our own personal destiny is what eventually makes us who we are. And despite the change of the times - technology, religion, political powers - the search has not changed at all since the beginning of mankind.

Take the story of Jacob in Genesis. His story has always been one of my favorites in the Bible. It is a story of humanity, of one's search for destiny and purpose. It is a story of deception and redemption. It is a story of love and hate.

First, we must go back a couple generations to Abraham. God made a covenant with Abraham that he would father a great nation, and that nation would be given a promised land. Isaac, Abraham's son, inherited this promise. For these two men, this covenant was their destiny. They lived in that promised land, and God blessed them with power and riches.

Isaac's wife, Rebekah, was barren until God interceded and allowed her to conceive twins. The two children wrestled inside of her. When she asked God why this was happening,

The Lord said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb;
And two peoples will be separated
from your body;
And one people shall be stronger than
the other;
And the older shall serve the younger." Gen. 25:23

She gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob. Their names are rather important to their destinies, especially Jacob's. Esau was born first. He was extremely hairy. In fact, he was so covered in thick, red hair when he was born that they called him Esau, which means hairy, or Edom, which means red. Kind of crappy names, if you ask me.

The name Jacob means something along the lines of "one who takes by the heel" or "supplants". He was named this because when he came out of the womb, he was actually clutching Esau's heel. It's important to note that back then, the firstborn was the heir to his father's land and rule. It was called a "birthright", and this particular birthright included God's covenant. So for Jacob to be clutching Esau's heel made it appear that the two brothers were in a power struggle from birth.

Are our destinies decided even before we are born? Is our future something that is mapped out for us to follow, or is it drawn out as we hack our way through the vines to see what is revealed ahead of us? At the risk of sounding a little bit like Forrest Gump, I think it's a little bit of both.

What I Know to be True

There is a God

He loves us.

No matter what has happened to us in the past, no matter what we believe that he let happen to us, he loves us.

He loves us so much that he actually took the form of one of us to die in our stead by our hands, and through this death, we are reconciled to our first love.

God romances us. He uses little things like a sunset or a light rain in the summer. He uses people we come across in life, he uses fate and coincidence. He uses all these things and more to help us to have faith in Him, trust that he is real and that His love is real. And the one thing he wants most in this world is to be with us, for us to love him back.

He is my father, my lover, my comfort, my provider, my counselor.

I am learning how to love because he is constantly showing me how to love.

Jacob and Esau

In the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be posting a series of blog entries on the story of Jacob and Esau. It was inspired by a message that I heard by Rob Bell called "What is it to you?" He used Jacob as one of his examples in his message and it got me thinking about the whole story of the two brothers. This particular story has always been one of my favorites, and I'd like to lay down some key elements that I feel hold a great message for all of us.

The Power of Music

Music has been called the universal language. It reaches out to people everywhere and tugs at our emotional strings. It can inspire rage or love. It is a mystery.

Last Thursday, I went to a concert with several of my friends from college and from home. It was a good time. Third Day was playing here in Kalamazoo, and they were bringing the David Crowder Band and Hyperstatic Union with them. When we heard that Crowder was coming, we knew we had to go.

They put on a good show. I like especially how the DCB had a screen up with their song lyrics posted so we could sing along and worship with them instead of just listening to them.

Third day was good, but I've seen shows of theirs that were better. For me, though, one of there songs really stood out. They sang an old hymn. One that I think I recognized, but didn't really know. We sang along with Mac Powell as he played it on his acoustic guitar, and the song came to a quiet end and the lights dimmed to blackness. For a few seconds, the entire stadium was completely black and completely silent. Then suddenly, the entire stage burst into a brilliant yellow light and the hymn resumed once more, this time with the full rock band playing. In that moment, I gasped and rose out of my seat to praise God with Third Day. It was a fantastic moment and one that will probably remain with me forever.

But the thing that occurred to me as it happened, was that it wasn't the Holy Spirit, or at least, it wasn't just the Spirit that made it so special. The band created a moment entirely from musical arrangement and lighting. It was powerful, it was a God experience, and it was created by man.

That is the power of music.

It has gone on through the ages, ever since God created man, we've been singing songs about Him, about this world, and about each other. Music has a definite power that transcends everyday conversation. Why else would David write the Pslams, singing his prayers to the Lord rather than simply telling Him?

I admire those who have the gift to create music. Whether they have a wonderful voice or a fantastic talent in playing an instrument, it is assuredly God's gift to them and to those of us that can enjoy that emotional experience they've made from their soul.

Winter in Full Blast

Just as I was starting to get into the fall season, Winter arrives out of nowhere. Sure, the weather men have been predicting snow all week, but we expected a light dusting if anything. We did not expect blizzard conditions.

When I walked out of my apartment this morning to find my car covered in several inches of snow, I went through emotional shock. I do have a strange emotional connection to Autumn, but I have no such connection with Winter. I hate snow and I hate driving on ice. I don't like being cold, and I don't like having sleet hit me in the face and slipping on the sidewalk when I'm trying to get to class. I consider it a kind of practical joke from God.

Ok God, that was a good joke. No, seriously, it was hilarious.
Now please, make it stop.

Autumn in Full Bloom

Fall is here. The trees are now bursting with their full spectrum of reds, yellows and oranges we've come to expect every year here in Michigan. Right now it's raining, and the sky was overcast the entire day. It is the type of day that I think of when I hear the word Autumn.

Personally, I like warm weather. I'm a summer type of guy. I typically think of Fall as the season where everything dies and leads into the frigid Michigan winters, full of frozen rain and black ice. But there is just something about Autumn that I feel connected to. Something I can't really explain. It might be because I was born in the Fall. Today, I felt more like myself than I have in a while. I don't know why, and I'm not even sure what that means.

I have a connection to fall. It is a special time for me. When the leaves change, the days get shorter, the clouds cover the sky, and the cold rushes in, it brings me to a very somber emotional state. As much as I say that I hate Autumn, it is the time that I feel most comfortable and thoughtful.

It's now time to pop in some Third Day and embrace whatever strange connection I have with this season. I say Third Day because for some reason, I associate music with different times of the year, as well as a particular mood that the weather creates in me. Third Day just happened to have released a few albums in the fall, especially in November around my birthday. Third Day's album "Time" always brings back birthday and fall memories for me, and therefore I listen to it around that time of year.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the Third Day/David Crowder Band concert here in town. I should be fun. Friends from nearly all areas of my life are going, so it should be interesting.

Blog Site Fixed

Just recently, I became aware that my blog was set so only those with blogger accounts could post replies. This problem is fixed, and now anyone can post to my blog. If I had known that it was set that way, I would have changed it a long time ago. I want to hear everyone's opinions on the things I post, and wish to give everyone a voice.

A Beautiful Collision

This morning as I was driving home from class, I popped the David Crowder Band album A Collision into my CD player. It was just a casual listen at first; some background music to serenade my trip back home. But when the song Beautiful Collision came on, it was as if I was hearing it for the first time again. Almost immediately, I felt strengthened and inspired by this song.

There is something so simple, yet so profound about the idea of you and God colliding. Most of the time, we fumble through our everyday lives, trying to pay our bills and handle our menial responsibilities. But our real purpose and thrill of life comes from our Creator, our Father.

When we collide with God, it becomes and entirely new thing, something profound and mysterious. When we build our relationship with Him, it becomes as it should be - as it was before the fall. There is a joy that is inexplicable, indescribable, that you can only feel when you are in a loving relationship with the one who created you.

Here it comes, a beautiful collision
Is happening now.
There seems no end to where You begin and there I am now
You and I collide

The List

Those of you who know me, may know that I love movies. I like to think of myself as a movie connoisseur of sorts. I check imdb.com all the time - certainly more than is healthy. But I realized about a year back that I had not seen many influential and great movies. To help me remember which ones I still need to see, I compiled what is now known as "The List".

In order for a movie title to get on the list, it must either be a classic or be highly recommended by several different people. These are movies that I have not seen, but I plan to see in the future. Once a movie gets on the list, it does not get removed until I watch it.

The List:

12 Angry Men
Amadeus
American Beauty
An American in Paris
Batman
Boondock Saints
Breakfast At Tiffany's
Bridge on the River Kwai
Bullitt
Casablanca
Chinatown
Donnie Darko
Dr. No
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Easy Rider
Falling Down
Gettysburg
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Gone With The Wind
Goodfellas
The Graduate
The Great Escape
Gross Pointe Blank
Hotel Rwanda
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Jerry Maguire
L.A. Confidential
The Lion in Winter
A Man for All Seasons
Mystic River
On The Waterfront
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Paper Chase
Philadelphia
Psycho
Raising Arizona
Remember the Titans
Rocky
Rudy
Scarface
Shindler's List
Singing in the Rain
Spartacus
The Sound of Music
Taxi Driver
This is Spinal Tap
Training Day
Under Suspicion
Vertigo
West Side Story

Christians and Money

Here's an interesting article sent to me by my good friend Rennie. I'd like to hear some of your responses on it. Warning - this article is a bit long.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1533448-1,00.html

Big Week

It's a big week for television, people. Lost, the best show on television, begins its third season this Wednesday. I can't wait to see the different directions the writers will take the show this year. All I know is that we're going to see a lot more of "the others" and start investigating the more distant history of the island, like that four-toed statue. Lost didn't loose any momentum in its second season and I suspect that the third will take us places that we never dreamed of, while still keeping to the soul of the show: it's characters.

But wait, that's not all. On Friday, Battlestar Galactica begins its third season as well. I'll be very interested in where this story goes, since everything as we knew it changed in the last episode. I'll be honest, it came dangerously close to jumping the shark. However, judging from the previews I've been seeing on the Sci Fi channel, it looks to be another stellar season. The previews are chock full of what makes Galactica great - real human issues: dispair, regret, love, hope, and fighting until we can't anymore.