Casting Pearls before Swine? Or Not?

Matthew 7:6

⁶ “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

I was reading Mark 5:1-20 the other day, and thinking about it a lot. I mean, it seems like a really straight forward story on the surface, but looking deeper into it and thinking about Matthew 7:6 took me by surprise. Here is a bit of background information on the region of the Gerasenes. It was part of the Decapolis, which were 10 cities that during the Roman Empire were under self rule…kind of like city-states. They were Hellenistic in nature and worship…you know Ancient Greek Gods. The Gerasenes were typically eaters of pigs, and used them a lot in Idol worship. Another thing about the Greek Hellenists is that when Alexander the Great conquered the Holy Land, many of the Jews were forced into pig sacrifice to Idols. So when reading about the Gerasenes and their pigs this thought ran through my mind. Jesus knew how they used the pigs, so when the demons called “Legion” that he called out of the demon possessed man in the tomb, wanted to go into the pigs he allowed it. After all, the pigs were going to be used for an evil thing anyway…

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Mark 5:1-20 (NIV)

Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

5 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.^[a] 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. ⁷ He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. ¹² The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” ¹³ He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

¹⁴ Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. ¹⁵ When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. ¹⁷ Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

¹⁸ As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis^[b] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

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So now another thought about the destruction of the pigs….Jesus was removing an obstacle from these people. An obstacle to their getting to know the one true God. Jesus demonstrated his power by casting the demons out of the man. He performed this miracle for this guy who had been so crazed that he was trying to destroy himself. He was wreaking havoc all over the place, screaming, yelling, cutting himself. Obviously, this demon possessed guy was very scary. Jesus healed him by removing the demons. He was sitting there all dressed and sane.

Were people paying attention to that miracle? No, they weren’t. All they thought about was how scary Jesus was that he was powerful enough to destroy their herd of 2000 pigs. They did not want any part of that at all! So they ask Jesus to leave their area, immediately!

Now, in their defense, they were probably in a considerable state of shock over the whole situation. Here comes this guy, who obliterates their main source of food and also sacrifice for worship. In other words, he showed them that their gods could not protect them at all! They completely ignore the miracle in their concern for themselves!

So, the Gerasene man who was healed from the demon possession wanted to go along with Jesus when he left. Jesus tells him, “No, stay here with your own people, and tell them what God has done for you…witness to them!”

Isn’t this amazing?!!! Jesus did not give up on the Gerasene people, even though they rejected him outright! He left them someone to witness to them. The Gerasenes were not Jews, in the eyes of the Jewish people of Jesus’ time these people were dirty, idol worshipping people, who had actually had a hand in tormenting the Jews and forcing some of them into idol worship. You could probably say that the majority of the people of Israel would have considered them to be the enemy of God.

They would have viewed these Gerasenes as “swine” who you don’t cast pearls to. However, we are told in John 12:47

⁴⁷ “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

Jesus came to save the world. He did not give up on these people, even though they were not Jews. He came for the whole world, not just the Jews. This entire story is an illustration of that fact to us! Jesus does not give up, and he came for everyone! We do not have the capacity to judge when a person is “beyond redemption or not”…only God knows what is in a person’s heart.

In this story, we are shown that we should never give up on a person! Now, this doesn’t mean we badger them to death either. (Jesus did not stick around and keep beating the Gerasenes over the head….he positioned someone in their midst to minister to them and left.) It just means that we need to be patient, and understand that for everyone, the journey to know who God is, and turn to him is different and individual. Some journey’s take longer than others.

Ultimately, we are shown in Mark 5:20

²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis^[b] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

They Devour Widows’ Houses…

Being Misled about God

Luke 20:45-21:4 New International Version (NIV)

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law

⁴⁵ While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, ⁴⁶ “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷ They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

The Widow’s Offering

21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

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Many times we see breaks in the Bible between verses or blocks of verses, such as the above heading “The Widow’s Offering”. We should be wary of these breaks as they can make us tend to ignore the verses before that heading and make us think that they have nothing to do with what follows. The headings in the Bible can be useful to us when it comes to quickly finding verses or areas of scripture that we are looking for, but we should not believe that the verses before or after the heading are separated in content and meaning from each other.

To put this in perspective, when we start in Luke 21, and just read until verse 4 we see and get an idea that the poor widow is being applauded because she “put in everything she had to live on” or “she gave it all to God”….I have heard many sermons on tithing and giving it all to God.

The thing is that God doesn’t need anything that we have! It was all and still is all, his to begin with…after all, he created everything! So, now that we have this thinking out of the way…let us go back to Luke 20:45 and read. It appears that Jesus was talking to his disciples, prior to getting to the temple, about how they “should beware of the teachers of the law” because those teachers are pretty much all working for the applause of man. Long public prayers to show that they are “holy”, lengthy robes to command respect, strolling around and putting on airs in the marketplace. In short they are full of self-importance. Jesus taught us to be humble, and in a “right” relationship with God. To love God and love each other.

Yet, these men, who are teachers of the law of God, do none of those things.

Jesus says that they “devour widows’ houses”, then in Luke 21 we see Jesus has been watching the people in the temple putting in their offerings to God. He sees the wealthy people putting in a bunch of money given from their wealth (as in, they won’t even miss what they are giving because they have so much wealth), and then he sees a poor widow (who will be missing every single coin she has put in because in order to live she is counting every coin…she has so little to begin with)…then following the previous conversation with his disciples about telling them to “beware of the teachers of the law”, Jesus says: Look at that widow…she is putting in everything she has to live on!

So is Jesus happy with the widow? Is he angry with her? No, he is not unhappy with the widow or angry with her….he is horrified, and saddened by the fact that these leaders, and teachers of the law, in their greed, had convinced the poor that to be in a “right” relationship with God they needed to give everything they had to live on. This woman was basically going to starve to death in order to meet the criteria she felt she needed to meet in order to be in good standing with God!

Now, then, this is really down right sad! This woman’s perspective of God is nothing like the God that Jesus was teaching his disciples and the people about! These teachers of the law were misleading people about who God was and what he wanted from them!

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God loves us, and he provides for us. We are told that he has good plans for us. The woman was giving up the provision that God gave her to live on, in an effort to appease a God whom she thought must be appeased this way! It is not her fault, but this was what she had been taught, and she was doing her best to be in good standing with God based on that teaching.

This kind of thinking still happens today…people are still mislead about what God wants from them! We still have many wrong headed ideas about what is right and how to be in “good” with God. There are still false teachers today, that is why it is so important to read your Bible and to learn to read in context. The context of this set of verses about the widow is given in the previous chapter of Luke. Many times this is the case in scripture, things are taken out of the context and the meaning is changed to suit what the teacher believes, but may not necessarily be what Jesus was actually intending to convey to his disciples or to us.

There is an excellent book about reading the Bible, which I wish to recommend to you. It is called How to Read the Bible for all its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. It really is very easy to read, and gives very good information on the different parts of the Bible and some pointers to remember when reading them.

When you don’t know what to do…Praise God!

Psalm 34 (NIV)

¹ I will extol the Lord at all times;
    his praise will always be on my lips.
² I will glory in the Lord;
    let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
³ Glorify the Lord with me;
    let us exalt his name together.

The world has been a very difficult place to deal with lately…even if you are the most balanced and peaceful individual. It is stressful when we look around and see and hear of people who are passing away. Although they can be at peace in death we think…what about us? We miss them…we want them back. Asking God (even when you already know the answer) is not wrong! Frequently the way we approach God when dealing with death is the most basic statement of our grief. We just say, “Why? Why? Why?” This is an expression of our misery and pain! God is there to comfort us in our time of grief and pain! He is not judging us for our feelings. It is not wrong to express our hearts to God – after all he knows what is in our hearts anyway! It is right to go to God with our every pain and concern. Even when we already know the answer on an intellectual basis.

We are like children going to cry in our parent’s arms. Except the arms are those of the Almighty. We need to take a page from the book of King David when we are in distress. Go to God and praise him! When we don’t know what to do…praise God!

Praise Him for being their for us and with us in these times. Praise Him for knowing more than we do about the situations we encounter. Praise Him for loving us continually no matter what our state of mind or body. Praise God for his son, Jesus Christ! Praise God for his perpetual forgiveness of our wrongdoings and faults. Probably the greatest wrong doing we have is moving away from God and not coming to him in all things.

John 15:1-8 (NIV)

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

The Vine and the Branches

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

God promises us to always be with us! We struggle to make sense of things that happen around us. We see many “important people” in the world telling us how we should see the things that are happening in the world…how we should respond to these things. It is easy to get caught up in the “who is right, and who is wrong” among these “important people” but the truth is most of us do not know any of these people personally so we cannot attest to their characters or their motives. However, we can know God personally and we can attest to his character and his motives. God’s motives are very simple: He loves us and wants to be in relationship with us…personally, individually, no hidden agenda, no hidden motives. God is a keeper of promises. If he makes you a promise, then you can count on it! It will come true.

Another thing about God, he does not always say, yes, to your every request. God’s goal is to bring as many people back into relationship with him as possible through their own choice of their own free will. So, God as part of our relationship with him will allow us to be contributors and assistants in his plan!

God will always choose the most painless plan to allow the most people to see who he is and to have the opportunity to chose a relationship with him. So, if we trust God, then we must trust that his plan is the best. Otherwise, what we are doing, is judging God from our own limited perspective of things. When that happens, is God really still God in our hearts?

Yes, there are evil people who do evil things, and those evil things impact everyone around us. The thing is we have a promise from God that even in those times he will make something good come out of even the evil, terrible actions of evil people… good for those who remain in Him! For his people, not for everyone!

We want the world to be a perfect place where everyone gets along with each other and loves each other, but it is not. It is a place ruled by the adversary of God. There is a constant state of conflict in the world. However, Jesus offered us all “his peace”. This is a peace of heart that is at odds with what is going on around us in the world. It is a sense of peace that cannot be destroyed by the world. A peace that passes all understanding…to the point where people cannot wrap their minds around it at all…it is a peace that in the world’s view is unreasonable! However, for true believers it is the peace that tells you that you really understand that in all things….God is in charge and in control!

Philippians 4:6 (NIV)

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Praise God for being in control even when you are troubled and don’t know what to do! Even when you know that anything you do will not be perfect! Praise God for being with you and understanding your pain and your mental state. Praise God in all things and at all times, and everywhere!

Presenting Every Person Mature in Christ

Colossians 1:28 (NIV)

²⁸ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

The overwhelming goal of the church that I am currently attending is Colossians 1:28.  It has been repeated as the goal on a regular basis.  This would seem to be a really straight forward and simple goal for a church to have.  Come to think of it…shouldn’t this be the goal of all Christian churches?   I mean, after all, Jesus told his Disciples to go and teach others to follow him, to be like him, so that these new Christian Disciples can also go and teach other people to be like Jesus and follow the teachings and the example of Jesus, and then those new Disciples will also follow the same pattern of living out who Jesus is in front of others, and teaching them to do the same.  Seems pretty simple, right?

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Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)

¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So how do you think we as a church over the centuries have done with doing what Jesus told his Disciples to do?  Do you know that we now live in what is called a “Post Christian Society”?  You are probably thinking…”hmm…what does that mean?” Right?!!  I actually was not aware of this myself, until recently.  So this is what it means.  In the past we could pretty much (at least here in the U.S.A.) count on the fact that every one had at least heard of Jesus, and most people who would call themselves Christian would know at least a little bit about the Bible.  Now, in this modern age, we cannot say that this is true. 

We cannot even say that people want to be Christian.  In a lot of cases there are people who do not wish to be Christian because “Christians are mean hypocrites…they think they are perfect.”  This reputation comes about because in our efforts to be “good Christians” and help people to know God we are often very unloving and critical of others.  The truth is that we cannot expect Christian behavior from people who are not Christians and we cannot expect new Christians to change and know what they are to do overnight.  The changes that we experience as Christians in ourselves and our lives are not of our own doing.  They are changes wrought be the Holy Spirit residing within us as we spend time with him.

So you are probably wondering, how does a person come to really know God?  I  was one of those unchurched people for most of my life.

I learned about Jesus when I was about 4 years old, a neighbor girl who was about 8 told us about how she went to church and learned about Jesus.  She started talking about Jesus and how he sacrificed his life for us, and asked us did we want to know more about him and take him into our hearts.  About 4-5 of us said, “yeah, sounded like fun” and we all went to her house and sat in her bedroom and she read a little tract to us about taking Jesus into our hearts and how Jesus came to save us.  Then she asked us if we wanted Jesus to come and live in our hearts.  I remember thinking that it sounded like a good idea, so I said yes.  Then we all prayed a prayer together, and that was how we were saved by Jesus. Now, I had and still have no idea what denomination she was from, I cannot even remember her name, but that girl had a most profound impact on my life.

Okay, so as a 4 year old, I really did not understand much about Christianity overall, but I was really serious about my nightly prayers of blessing for myself and others, and I believed that God was up there watching out for me.  I moved a lot growing up so I did not have a lot of opportunity for church worship, but I took every chance I got to go.  That being said I probably only went about 20 times the whole time I was growing up. 

The thing is that Christianity is a journey that lasts a lifetime, yet we often treat all Christians the same…we have an expectation that they will have “Christian knowledge” and teaching beamed into their heads along with their salvation.  We think that a person who is 50 and is a Christian has 50 years of Christianity under their belt…this is almost never true.  Although I was saved when I was 4, I continued to “drink the milk” of the word until I was in my 20’s (that is a polite way of saying that I did not grow much in spiritual knowledge).  When I got into my 20’s things started happening in my life that made me want to draw closer to God and learn more about him.  This is known as “eating the meat” of the word….many Christians, as sincere as they are in their dearly held beliefs never get into the deep teachings of the Kingdom of God….largely because churches are failing to teach them how to grow and that growth is how you draw closer to God.  It is a truth that spiritual growth can only come from time spent with the spirit, but how does a person who is a newly minted Christian learn to spend time with the Spirit?  How do they learn how much God loves them?  How do they become so full of the Holy Spirit that people around them are drawn to them and want to know what they know about God?

Modern churches are teaching people about the after-life, but not about the life they are living here.  Sure they teach what to do and not to do, but it is not the same.  A person can spend many years in churches and be sincerely believing the wrong things about God because they have not spent personal time with the Holy Spirit.  They have not truly been discipled by a disciple who was discipled by a disciple.  

I have attended many churches over the years, and each one taught me something that helped me to grow.  Sometimes the things that they taught were more on the lines of my coming to understand the errors in their methods and doctrines…other times the growth has been more positive. 

The church I am in now is very small, I mean about 20 people on any given Sunday.  It doesn’t have a bunch of social programs, it is pretty simple, we go and worship, and learn about God, and then we go out and “do the stuff” that God directs us to do.  We draw close to God and he draws close to us, and so we listen to the Holy Spirit tell us what we should be doing in our service to him.

The thing that most churches seem to have lost is that most of the work of the Holy Spirit is not within the doors of the church …it is done after we leave the church during the course of our daily lives. 

Going to church should be about learning about and worshipping God, and giving and receiving love from other Christians, and connecting with people who are also following Christ.  We see this in the Bible also, the Disciples went out among the population and shared the good news of Jesus, and they wrote letters to continue to disciple the people that they had shown “the Way” to through letters, and messengers, and return visits….they also rejoined each other occasionally to discuss things, as in Acts 15 where there was a discussion about whether newly converted Gentile believers should be circumcised and had to become Jews or not.  (Take a look at Acts 15…it is an amazing debate, which is ended by James the brother of Jesus stating his opinion based on scripture that everyone who is saved is saved by grace.) 

Many modern churches have put so much “institution” and “structure” into their beliefs that people come away with a burden; much like the burden that Jesus criticized the Pharisees for putting on the Jewish people.  There is a lot of “don’t do this, and don’t do that” and “be sure to do this and be sure to do that” and “those who do this will be condemned”, you get the idea.  Most of what people are hearing in the church comes down to the thought that “God is mad at you, so you must make it up to God by saying this prayer and doing this or that thing.” 

Now, don’t get me wrong here, obedience to what Jesus taught is important, but it is not the source of salvation.  Jesus is the source of salvation…and only Jesus.

Jesus told us that his yoke (that is his teaching) is easy, and it is light for us…in more ways than one.

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Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So what is the teaching of Jesus?  It is very simple, just as he said:

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself
3. Repent and believe in Jesus as savior

John 3:16-17 (NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus’ message was life changing to the Disciples, and it was life changing to the people who listened to the Disciples.  It was a “look the world sees things this way, but God sees the world completely differently” and “look the world sees you this way, but God sees you entirely differently”.

The world is full of judgment and strife and requirements and expectations…it is full of pain and unforgiveness.

God is full of love and forgiveness…God loves you like crazy and his way of seeing things is that you can relax and let God be in charge of your life….you don’t need to work so hard to feel good about yourself.  God already knows what you are going to choose to do, and he already knows what is happening in your life and what will happen in your life.  He is ready to forgive you anytime you turn to him and ask…you don’t have to jump through hoops to get his love and forgiveness, but you do have to follow Jesus’ teaching and allow Jesus to be the Lord of your life.  AND when Jesus is our Lord, that means that we are not Lord.

In a nutshell, if the message you are hearing from the pulpit is not full of God’s love and forgiveness…if it is not life changing…then how is that message “Good News?”  How is it different from the message of the world? 

King David

Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whomever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Read Luke 3:23 This is Mary’s ancestry same as Matt 1 until David, then splits and is in ascending order going from Mary back to Adam, and Matt 1 is in Descending order from Abraham to Joseph as it is Joseph’s line.  They touch in at Zerubbabel and Shealtiel for a generation, then separate again.

Read 2 Samuel 11  thru 2 Samuel 12:25.  This is the story of David and Bathsheba.  David sinned and murdered to cover up his sin. Then he recognized his sin, and God punished him for it, then forgave him, and still included David in Jesus’ family line.  God’s forgiveness is total.  However there are usually worldly repercussions or things that happen as a result of your sins.  For instance, if you rob a bank, you go to jail, even though God forgives you for your sin.  If you kill someone, and ask for forgiveness, although you are forgiven, they are still dead, and you have to live with the knowledge of your sin.

God considered David to be a “man after his own heart,” even after all the sins that David committed.  The reason for this assessment is that David really loved God and sought to be in relationship with God.  As soon as David understood that God knew about his sin, he turned from it and back to God.  That is true repentance. David agreed with God that what he had done was wrong.  His heart was with God. 

Doesn’t it seem weird that a person would try to hide something from God?  I mean one of the attributes of God is that he is outside of time.  This means that everything that is going to happen has already happened for God.  We live in a linear world where time flows from birth to death, but God is outside of all of that.  He has neither birth nor death.  God told Moses that he is “I AM.”  God is and has always been and always will be in existence.

Exodus 3:14 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁴ And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.

Yet David was not alone in trying to hide his sin from God.  Though it is probably more accurate to say that David tried to hide his sin from others, and was suffering from a separation from God because of this sin.  His mind was focused on his sins and not on God at all.

If we look back into the Garden of Eden we find that mankind’s first response to sin is to attempt to hide themselves away from God.  David was not very original in his thinking.

Genesis 3:8-10 ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

If we go and look at the sons of Jacob who sold their brother, Joseph, into slavery we see that they also thought to hide their sin by killing an animal and covering Joseph’s coat with animal blood then presenting it to their father and saying that an animal killed his son, Joseph.

Genesis 37:26-33

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels^[b] of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

²⁹ When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. ³⁰ He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”

³¹ Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.³² They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

³³ He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

In each of these instances the first response to sin was to try and hide it.  We still do this today.  Yet, nothing is hidden from the Lord.  He knows it before it is done.  God simply asks us to recognize and turn away from our sins.  He wishes for us to draw closer to him.  This is the peace and freedom we get from Christ…the freedom to repent and draw close….to unburden ourselves…to come out of our transparent hiding places and experience the love of God which surpasses all others.

Isaiah 29:15 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ Woe to those who go to great depths
    to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
    “Who sees us? Who will know?”

God is For You!

God’s forgiveness is total…God loves you.  He is not up there in heaven with a book of “today she did this bad thing…today she did this good thing…”  He is portrayed that way, but that is not correct.  The Bible tells us that those who are in Jesus are blameless in the sight of God.

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Colossians 1:21-23 (NIV)

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of  your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

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There is nothing that we can do other than to accept the sacrifice of Jesus which will save us from our sin.  It is Jesus plus nothing for our salvation.  Faith in Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection from the dead are what saves us….

Another way to put this is: if you are in a restaurant and you go to pay the bill and you are told.  The bill has already been taken care of in full.  What are you going to do?  Are you going to reject that someone has already paid your bill and insist on paying it again yourself?!! Of course not!!  The thing is we do this all the time when it comes to Jesus.  He paid the bill for our sin, yet we are still running around in life trying to “be good enough” and “do enough good things” to make up for our bad things, our sins.

Why are we doing this?  Isn’t it rather insulting to both Jesus’ sacrifice, and to God, himself?  We are being awfully full of ourselves to be thinking that we are capable of paying our own bill, don’t you think?!  We don’t even fully understand what all is even on the bill, yet.  Much less have the capacity to take care of it.

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Romans 11:33

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

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There are so many things that we have done which, if we understood them, we would be so upset that we had done them.  We don’t even understand all of the harm we have caused to others in our lives…there are so many day to day things that God covers us from seeing about ourselves in order to protect us from the burden.  Basically, if we were to smell all of our sins…we would not be able to stand the smell of ourselves.  We could not handle knowing all that we have done wrong all at once.  God asks us to seek him and know him, and then, in love, reveals the things that we have done wrong as needed for our correction in drawing closer to him.

The worst of our sin is when we say to ourselves, “Well, at least I am not like that person over there…I am better than they are…at least I am not that bad!”  I tell you that is called judging and condemning.  We are not qualified to ring out judgement on other people or be condemning of them.

We do not have such a pure and clean nature that God does have…we cannot handle judging someone correctly and justly because we are not pure of heart…Mankind was not designed to judge. The job that Adam was given in the garden was “caretaker” not “judge”.  Yes, we are designed in the image of God, but we are not perfect….we are not God….we cannot read the person’s heart in front of us.  We are all looking at the person in front of us from our own perspective…not from God’s perspective.  God’s perspective will always be from the position of knowing the person’s heart and everything about them.  We can never know everything about a person.  Even if they tell us, we still don’t know everything.

I mean, come on, we even surprise ourselves at times, don’t we?!!  If we are capable of surprising ourselves, then that means we don’t even fully know ourselves…how can we not understand that this means we don’t fully know another person, either.

God knows each and every one of us, totally and completely.  He knows the pains and heartaches of each of us.  He knows what motivates us.  He knows when we are doing things in rebellion to him.  He knows when we are doing things that are self-centered.  He knows when we are doing the right things and the wrong things…he knows when we are doing things in innocence and in ignorance.  God knows us totally, and the great thing is that God also LOVES US TOTALLY!  Isn’t that amazing?!!

God always has the goal of having us be back in reconciliation with him and for us to after being reconciled be doing the work of bringing others to be reconciled to God through the work of Jesus the Christ.  God is FOR US!  God is NOT AGAINST US!

We need to stop acting like God is against us and that we have to do it all on our own.  He sent Jesus to die to atone for our sins and reconcile us to him because he is FOR US!  He sent Jesus to tell us how to be reconciled and to show us the way home to God.  Jesus did not simply come to make sure that you get into heaven….that is only part of it.  Jesus came “to show the way.”

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John 14:6 New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

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The way that Jesus has shown us is the way of “love” and “understanding”.

Read Ephesians chapter 4

Ephesians 4 New International Version (NIV)

Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ

4 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

⁷ But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸ This is why it^[a] says:

“When he ascended on high,
    he took many captives
    and gave gifts to his people.”^[b]

⁹ (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions^[c]? ¹⁰ He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Instructions for Christian Living

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

²⁰ That, however, is not the way of life you learned ²¹ when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶ “In your anger do not sin”^[d]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷ and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸ Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work,doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Footnotes:

1. Ephesians 4:8 Or God
2. Ephesians 4:8 Psalm 68:18
3. Ephesians 4:9 Or the depths of the earth
4. Ephesians 4:26 Psalm 4:4 (see Septuagint)

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Being unloving and judgmental, and condemning to others grieves the Holy Spirit.

 

Have you ever known a person to change their behavior and draw closer to God because someone came at them and started telling them about how bad their behavior is?

I mean, how effective do you think it is to go up to someone and say, “Are you born again? Do you know if you are not born again..you are going to hell!  God is going to send you to hell for the way you are living!”

How many people do you think turn their hearts toward God when someone says something like this to them?  Anyone?  Usually, the person saying this is not someone who actually knows the person they are talking to at all.  They are just bent on their own agenda of sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone!  They probably don’t even understand what is wrong with how they are sharing it….the intimidation that comes across to the person who has to hear this!  Usually, the person who is asked this question just wants to get as far away from the person saying it as possible, as quickly as possible!  I know this because I was put in this position as a high school student by some woman who was having her car washed at our band fund raiser!  It just felt like she was attacking me…there was no love in her tone at all!

We need to on all accounts share the gospel in a loving manner…we should not beat people over the head with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit!  The easiest thing in the world in sharing the gospel is to just share in regular conversation your experience.  You listen to the Holy Spirit and you will start over time to understand when there is an opening to share the “good news” of the gospel with someone who is receptive.  Simply seek to bring God into the room with you in the conversation…if the person cuts you off, then don’t stress out and get upset.  Simply change the subject and be loving and friendly toward them.  God is still working on them…God is outside of time, he does not have time constraints…he knows the plan he has for each one of us…to prosper us and not harm us.

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Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

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We just need to have faith in God’s plans for us and for others. We have no idea how many people will have to bring up the gospel to a person before that person will decide to accept that gospel…each of us may just be a sentence here and a sentence there, then one day the person brings all the sentences in their life together and realizes through the work of the Holy Spirit….”Aha!  So this is God calling me to repent and turn back into relationship with him!  I definitely want to do that!  I wish I had understood this a long time ago!  I wasted so much time that I could have been spending with the Good Lord!”

We will be celebrating with the heavenly beings when each person is saved…that is one of the most awesome things about being a Christian….we can participate in the reconciliation of others with God….through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Not through anything we, ourselves, are doing…no one is ever saved through the work of a person.  We are jars of clay that are fragile and thus because we are fragile…the work of the Holy Spirit can shine through the cracks into the darkness!

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2 Corinthians 4:7-10 English Standard Version (ESV)

Treasure in Jars of Clay

⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

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Boaz and Ruth

Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.  Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.

Read Ruth Chapter 1 thru 4 The important points are that Ruth chose to go with her mother in law, Naomi, to a land where she would not likely be welcome as she was a Moabite.  The Moabites were rather pagan compared to the Jews so they were looked down upon.  The Moabites were actually descendants of Abraham’s nephew, Lot, through his relationship with his daughters after the destruction of Sodom.  (see Genesis 19:30-38).  Ruth loved Naomi enough that she didn’t want her to be alone in the world, so she embraced both Naomi and Naomi’s God for her own.  God rewarded Ruth for this decision by putting her along with Boaz into Jesus’ lineage.  Boaz was rewarded his for his good character, integrity and his love of Ruth for who she was, and not where she came from.  Ruth and Boaz became the parents of Obed, who was the father of Jesse who became the father of David the King.

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Ruth 1 New International Version (NIV)

Naomi Loses Her Husband and Sons

1 In the days when the judges ruled,^[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. ² The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

³ Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem

⁶ When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. ⁷ With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

⁸ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. ⁹ May the Lord grant that each of you will find restin the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud ¹⁰ and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

¹¹ But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? ¹² Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— ¹³ would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

¹⁴ At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye,but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

¹⁹ So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi,^[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,^[c] because the Almighty^[d]has made my life very bitter. ²¹ I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted^[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

²² So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 1:1 Traditionally judged
2. Ruth 1:20 Naomi means pleasant.
3. Ruth 1:20 Mara means bitter.
4. Ruth 1:20 Hebrew Shaddai; also in verse 21
5. Ruth 1:21 Or has testified against

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Ruth 2 New International Version (NIV)

Ruth Meets Boaz in the Grain Field

2 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.

² And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.

⁴ Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”

“The Lord bless you!” they answered.

⁵ Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”

⁶ The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”

⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me.⁹ Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

¹⁰ At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord,the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”

When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. ¹⁵ As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her.¹⁶ Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.^[a] 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

²⁰ “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.^[b]”

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”

²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

²³ So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 2:17 That is, probably about 30 pounds or about 13 kilograms
2. Ruth 2:20 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55).

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Ruth 3 New International Version (NIV)

Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing Floor

3 One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home^[a] for you, where you will be well provided for. ² Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. ³ Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵ “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.

⁷ When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. ⁸ In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!

⁹ “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer^[b] of our family.”

¹⁰ “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. ¹¹ And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character.¹² Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. ¹³ Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.”

¹⁵ He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he^[c] went back to town.

¹⁶ When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”

Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her ¹⁷ and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

¹⁸ Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 3:1 Hebrew find rest (see 1:9)
2. Ruth 3:9 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55); also in verses 12 and 13.
3. Ruth 3:15 Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts, Vulgate and Syriac she

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Ruth 4 New International Version (NIV)

Boaz Marries Ruth

4 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer^[a] he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

² Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so.³ Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. ⁴ I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you^[b] will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the^[c] dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

⁶ At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”

⁷ (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)

⁸ So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.

⁹ Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnessesthat I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰ I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”

¹¹ Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. ¹² Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

Naomi Gains a Son

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! ¹⁵ He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. ¹⁷ The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The Genealogy of David

¹⁸ This, then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

¹⁹ Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

²⁰ Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,^[d]

²¹ Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

²² Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David.

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 4:1 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55); also in verses 3, 6, 8 and 14.
2. Ruth 4:4 Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts he
3. Ruth 4:5 Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew (see also Septuagint) Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, you acquire the
4. Ruth 4:20 A few Hebrew manuscripts, some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate (see also verse 21 and Septuagint of 1 Chron. 2:11); most Hebrew manuscripts Salma

Salmon and Rahab

Matthew 1: 3-5 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the Father of Ram (Aram), Ram (Aram) the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz whose Mother was Rahab.

Here are a few notes on some of the less well known people in the portion of scripture of Jesus’ family tree listed above:  Zerah stuck his arm out during birth and a red string was tied onto it, but somehow Perez was born before Zerah. Perez name means “Breaking out”, and Zerah’s name can mean scarlet or brightness. 

We know that Hezron’s son, Ram was born in Egypt after Jacob had moved there to be with his son, Joseph and be fed during the famine.  Ram is also known as Aram. 

Amminadab is the Father in Law of Aaron (Mose’s Brother)  Nahshon is present for the first census taken of the Israelites in the Wilderness after being freed from Egypt, and he is called the Prince of the tribe of Judah.

Read Joshua Chapter 2 and Chapter 6. This is the story of Rahab the Canaanite Harlot, who in spite of living the sinful life of a harlot and being a Canaanite, chose God, to recognize God’s Sovereignty over her life and her city.She chose to stand on God’s side not because she was particularly Godly, given her life style, but to hopefully save herself and her family.Once she recognized God’s sovereignty over the world, she turned to him and helped to save some his people from her own people.In return for this God honored her by saving her and her family and adding her to the lineage of his son.She came to honor God so God honored her in return.God forgave her for her previous lifestyle and that she was a Canaanite, when she turned to him and away from sin. She married Salmon who was in the line Judah.

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Joshua 2 New International Version (NIV)

Rahab and the Spies

2 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

² The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” ³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea^[a] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.^[b] 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

¹² “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”

¹⁴ “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”

¹⁵ So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. ¹⁶ She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”

¹⁷ Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us¹⁸ unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. ¹⁹ If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. ²⁰ But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

²¹ “Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.”

So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

²² When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuershad searched all along the road and returned without finding them. ²³ Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. ²⁴ They said to Joshua, “The Lordhas surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”

Footnotes:

1. Joshua 2:10 Or the Sea of Reeds
2. Joshua 2:10 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Joshua 6 New International Version (NIV)

6 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

² Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. ³ March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. ⁴ Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.⁵ When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

⁶ So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” ⁷ And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”

⁸ When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. ⁹ The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. ¹⁰ But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” ¹¹ So he had the ark of the Lordcarried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.

¹² Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. ¹³ The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. ¹⁴ So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

¹⁵ On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! ¹⁷ The city and all that is in it are to be devoted^[a] to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. ¹⁸ But keep away from the devoted things,so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. ¹⁹ All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”

²⁰ When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. ²¹ They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

²² Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” ²³ So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

²⁴ Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. ²⁵ But Joshua sparedRahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

²⁶ At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho:

“At the cost of his firstborn son
    he will lay its foundations;
at the cost of his youngest
    he will set up its gates.”

²⁷ So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

Footnotes:

1. Joshua 6:17 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them; also in verses 18 and 21.

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

 

Judah

Genesis 38:26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

Genesis 29:35 New International Version (NIV)

³⁵ She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah.^[a] Then she stopped having children.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 29:35Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.

 

Genesis 29:35 This is a recording of the birth of Judah, he was the 4th Son of Jacob by his first wife Leah.

Read Genesis 37:26-28 This is where Judah decides that instead of killing his brother, Joseph, they will sell him off to the Ishmaelites into slavery.  The Ishmaelites are actually Ishmael’s people.  Ishmael, if you recall from a few lessons back,  is their Grandfather, Isaac’s half brother.  Ishmael’s people are always in conflict with Isaac’s side of the family.

Genesis 37:26-28 New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels^[a] of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 37:28 That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams

Read Genesis 38  This is the story of Tamar who was Judah’s daughter in law.  Her first husband died because he was wicked in the Lord’s sight, and in keeping with tradition she is remarried to her first husband’s brother who is instructed by Judah to raise children in his brother’s name.  Onan dishonors God’s rule about this tradition and God kills him because of this.  After her second husband died, then Judah promised that she Shelah was old enough he would give Tamar his last son as her husband.  In the meantime she was to go live in her father’s house again. Judah did not honor his promise to Tamar, so Tamar took matters into her own hands, and dressed up as a prostitute and Judah chose to to lie with her.  Tamar became pregnant, but she had evidence that Judah was the father.  Judah did not recognize Tamar when he lay with her (perhaps her face was covered).  When Judah found out about her pregnancy he was ready to have her killed, but then he was humbled to find that he was the father.  He recognized that Tamar only did this because he didn’t keep his promise to her.   He did not have her killed, but did not take her to wife, he did support her.  She had twin boys named Perez and Zerah. 

Genesis 38 New International Version (NIV)

Judah and Tamar

38 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullamnamed Hirah. ² There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. ⁴ She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

⁶ Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.

⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” ⁹ But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.

¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.

¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

¹³ When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”¹⁴ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.¹⁶ Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”

“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.

¹⁷ “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.

“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.

¹⁸ He said, “What pledge should I give you?”

“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.

²⁰ Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. ²¹ He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”

“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.

²² So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”

²³ Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”

²⁴ About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”

Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”

²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

²⁷ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁸ As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez.^[a] 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.^[b]

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 38:29 Perez means breaking out.
2. Genesis 38:30 Zerah can mean scarlet or brightness.

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Note:  The important thing to notice here is that Judah when faced with his sin, recognized that he had done the wrong thing, and was sorry for it.  God was good to forgive him and Tamar for their sin and include them in the lineage of Jesus.   According to Unger’s Bible Dictionary, women were only listed in genealogy in the Jewish culture if there were property or any rights being transmitted through them, or if there was something remarkable about them.**  Tamar took a remarkable risk of her life to ensure her future.  Women without husbands or son’s were basically at the mercy of society to take care of them.  Most became beggars.  She was counting on Judah’s sense of justice to fix the problem and he didn’t disappoint her.  If Judah had not taken responsibility for his actions, then Tamar would likely have been stoned to death!

One of Jesus’ names is the Lion of Judah.

Revelation 5:5  Then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed.  He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

Read Genesis 49:8-10  This is where Judah is told he is a lion’s cub and that the scepter will not depart from him until it comes to whom it belongs.  This is a reference to Jesus. Judah was the 4th son, but Jacob gave leadership to Judah’s tribe over all of the others.

Genesis 49:8-10 New International Version (NIV)

⁸ “Judah,^[a] your brothers will praise you;
    your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
    you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,^[b]
until he to whom it belongs^[c] shall come
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 49:8 Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.
2. Genesis 49:10 Or from his descendants
3. Genesis 49:10 Or to whom tribute belongs; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

**Ungers Bible Dictionary

Jacob – The Older will serve the Younger

Genesis 25:23 The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

Read Genesis 25:21-34  This is the story of Isaac praying for Rebekah to have children, and the birth of Jacob and Esau, along with Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for some red soup.  This is where Esau got the name Edom (which means red). Jacob’s name means “he grasps the heel” or he deceives figuratively speaking. Note: The birthright was essentially the family’s leadership and priesthood, it was very significant, and Esau treated it lightly, he basically sold his role as head of the family and priestly inheritance for a pot of soup.  Jacob did deceive Isaac, his father, in the end by pretending to be Esau to receive the blessing that was Esau’s birthright. (Genesis 27). 

***Take note that at this time the Levitical Priesthood did not yet exist….the role of keeping the family on track with God fell to the head of the family…they made the offerings on behalf of the family as were necessary.  

Genesis 25:21-34 New International Version (NIV)

²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. ²² The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

²³ The Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,
    and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
    and the older will serve the younger.”

²⁴ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁵ The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.^[a] 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.^[b] Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

²⁷ The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. ²⁸ Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. ³⁰ He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.^[c])

³¹ Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

³² “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

³³ But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 25:25 Esau may mean hairy.
2. Genesis 25:26 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he deceives.
3. Genesis 25:30 Edom means red.

 

Genesis 27 New International Version (NIV)

27 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”

“Here I am,” he answered.

² Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. ³ Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. ⁴ Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, ⁷ ‘Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ ⁸ Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: ⁹ Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. ¹⁰ Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”

¹¹ Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. ¹² What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”

¹³ His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”

¹⁴ So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶ She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. ¹⁷ Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

¹⁸ He went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”

¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

²⁰ Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.

²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”

²² Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him. ²⁴ “Are you really my son Esau?” he asked.

“I am,” he replied.

²⁵ Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.”

Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank. ²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.”

²⁷ So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he 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 heaven’s dew
    and earth’s richness—
    an abundance of grain and new wine.
²⁹ May nations serve you
    and peoples bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
    and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed
    and those who bless you be blessed.”

³⁰ After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. ³¹ He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

³² His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”

“I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”

³³ Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!”

³⁴ When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!”

³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

³⁶ Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob^[a]? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

³⁷ Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”

³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

³⁹ His father Isaac answered him,

“Your dwelling will be
    away from the earth’s richness,
    away from the dew of heaven above.
⁴⁰ You will live by the sword
    and you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
    you will throw his yoke
    from off your neck.”

⁴¹ Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴² When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you.⁴³ Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. ⁴⁴ Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides. ⁴⁵ When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 27:36 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives.

Read Genesis Chapter 28,This is where Isaac instructs Jacob not to marry any Canaanite women, but to go to his Mother’s brother’s house and find a wife there from his mother’s people.  Jacob dreams of a stairway to heaven and God renews his covenant with Jacob that he had with Abraham and Isaac.  God reassures Jacob that he will be with him where ever he goes. God again reassures the next generation of Abraham’s progeny that he is with them and renews again his covenant that he made with Abraham two generations before with Jacob, Abraham’s Grandson.  God is stable and faithful to his agreements.  Jacob is also in the Ancestry of Jesus the Christ.

Genesis 28 New International Version (NIV)

28 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. ² Go at once to Paddan Aram,^[a] to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³ May God Almighty^[b] bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. ⁴ May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” ⁵ Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way,and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶ Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” ⁷ and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. ⁸ Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; ⁹ so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. ¹¹ When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. ¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ There above it^[c] stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.^[d] 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶ When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” ¹⁷ He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸ Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹ He called that place Bethel,^[e] though the city used to be called Luz.

²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear ²¹ so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord^[f] will be my God ²² and^[g] this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 28:2 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia; also in verses 5, 6 and 7
2. Genesis 28:3 Hebrew El-Shaddai
3. Genesis 28:13 Or There beside him
4. Genesis 28:14 Or will use your name and the name of your offspring in blessings (see 48:20)
5. Genesis 28:19 Bethel means house of God.
6. Genesis 28:21 Or Since God … father’s household, the Lord
7. Genesis 28:22 Or household, and the Lord will be my God, ²² then

Read Genesis 32:22-32  This is where Jacob’s name was  changed to Israel because he struggled with God and with men and overcame both.

Genesis 32:22-32 New International Version (NIV)

Jacob Wrestles With God

²² That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷ The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,^[a] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

²⁹ Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel,^[b] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,^[c] and he was limping because of his hip.³² Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 32:28 Israel probably means he struggles with God.
2. Genesis 32:30 Peniel means face of God.
3. Genesis 32:31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel

There is a lot more information on Jacob.  He had twelve sons for whom the 12 tribes of Israel were named.  If you look at historical maps of Israel you will see that there are regions named after each tribe except for the Levites who were to be priests (Exodus).