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!

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.

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.

****************

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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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).

Isaac – God Renews His Covenant

Genesis 26:4-5 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed. (This is another reference to the coming Messiah).

Read Genesis 26:1-6  This is where God appears to Isaac, son of Abraham,  to renew the covenant that he made with Abraham.

Genesis 26:1-6 New International Version (NIV)

Isaac and Abimelek

26 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. ²The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. ³ Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴ I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[1] all nations on earth will be blessed,[2] ⁵ because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” ⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 26:4 Or seed
2. Genesis 26:4 Or and all nations on earth will use the name of your offspring in blessings (see 48:20)

Read Genesis 26:7-11 Isaac lies about Rebekah being his wife, and says she is his sister instead because he is afraid of being killed because men will want her due to her beauty.

Genesis 26:7-11 New International Version (NIV)

⁷ When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”

⁸ When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. ⁹ So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”

¹⁰ Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

¹¹ So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

 

Read Genesis 26:12-35  This is where God blesses Isaac for keeping his covenant, he blessed Isaac with generally a long and peaceful life, with the exception of Esau’s marriage to the Hittite women.

Genesis 26:12-35 New International Version (NIV)

¹² Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. ¹³ The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. ¹⁴ He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.

¹⁶ Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”

¹⁷ So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled.¹⁸ Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.

¹⁹ Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. ²⁰ But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek,^[a] because they disputed with him. ²¹ Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.^[b] 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth,^[c] saying, “Now the Lordhas given us room and we will flourish in the land.”

²³ From there he went up to Beersheba. ²⁴ That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”

²⁵ Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.

²⁶ Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. ²⁷ Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”

²⁸ They answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.”

³⁰ Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. ³¹ Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.

³² That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!” ³³ He called it Shibah,^[d] and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.^[e]

Jacob Takes Esau’s Blessing

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵ They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 26:20 Esek means dispute.
2. Genesis 26:21 Sitnah means opposition.
3. Genesis 26:22 Rehoboth means room.
4. Genesis 26:33 Shibah can mean oath or seven.
5. Genesis 26:33 Beersheba can mean well of the oath and well of seven.

Read Genesis 35:27-29.  Issac lived 180 years.

Genesis 35:27-29 New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron),where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. ²⁸ Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years. ²⁹ Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

God not only renewed his covenant with Isaac, but he also uplifted and blessed him throughout his life, and included him in the ancestry of Jesus.  God made a promise with Abraham, and he renewed the promise with Abraham’s son to show the world that even if the person with whom the promise is made passes away from the earth; God doesn’t forget or forsake his promises.  Sometimes, human beings do forsake a promise if no one is there to remember it, or demand it be kept.  This is not the case with God.  God always remembers his promises, and he always keeps them.  A new covenant, or new promise does not do away with the old promise.  God is not like us who sometimes say, “well, that old agreement didn’t work out, so let’s make a new agreement!”  This type of thing happens frequently in the world today, and has happened frequently through out history.  We need look no further than some of the leaders we have in our countries, and some of the historical wars we have seen.  Unlike us, God keeps his promises, from generation to generation when it is a multi-generational promise.  We can take comfort in that; especially, when we read the Bible and see the promises laid out for us.  Especially in our prayer lives…we pray for those around us to come to know God and draw closer to Him.  Sometimes, we pray for that for the entire course of our lives, and we don’t live long enough to see it come to pass.  Though we may have had it be made known to us that God has it in hand, and it will come to pass…we may not see it…however, we can count on God to keep his promise to us!  Even if we are not here to see that promise be fulfilled!

Isn’t that a marvelous thing!  To be able to have God be that reliable and trustworthy?!!  We can always count on God to have  our best interests at heart…even when we are going through a really hard time where every day seems like a major chore….God really is watching out for you, and being with you.  It is just that sometimes we feel overwhelmed by life and fail to notice that God is still there.

Last night I had a dream.  I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.  Across the sky flashed scenes from my life.  For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonged to me, the other to the Lord.

    After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand.  I noticed that at many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints.

   This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.  “Lord, you said  once I decided to follow you, You’d walk with me all the way.  But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints.  I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”

   The Lord replied, “My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you.  During your times of suffering, when you could see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

Jesus’ Family Tree

John 5:24 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Read Matthew Chapter 1: 

Matthew 1 New International Version (NIV) (via Biblegateway.com)

The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah

1 This is the genealogy^[a] of Jesus the Messiah^[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:

² Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

³ Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,

Perez the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

⁴ Ram the father of Amminadab,

Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

⁵ Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,

Obed the father of Jesse,

⁶ and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

⁷ Solomon the father of Rehoboam,

Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Abijah the father of Asa,

⁸ Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,

Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

⁹ Uzziah the father of Jotham,

Jotham the father of Ahaz,

Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

¹⁰ Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,

Manasseh the father of Amon,

Amon the father of Josiah,

¹¹ and Josiah the father of Jeconiah^[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

¹² After the exile to Babylon:

Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

¹³ Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,

Abihud the father of Eliakim,

Eliakim the father of Azor,

¹⁴ Azor the father of Zadok,

Zadok the father of Akim,

Akim the father of Elihud,

¹⁵ Elihud the father of Eleazar,

Eleazar the father of Matthan,

Matthan the father of Jacob,

¹⁶ and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

¹⁷ Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about^[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet^[e]did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,^[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”^[g] (which means “God with us”).

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 1:1 Or is an account of the origin
2. Matthew 1:1 Or Jesus Christ. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean Anointed One; also in verse 18.
3. Matthew 1:11 That is, Jehoiachin; also in verse 12
4. Matthew 1:18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
5. Matthew 1:19 Or was a righteous man and
6. Matthew 1:21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
7. Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14

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.

 

This is the genealogy of Jesus, a genealogy is a listing of ancestors, or a family tree. Many many people in the World are very interested in researching their family trees and finding out as much as they can about who their ancestors are…being Christians we are adopted into the family of Jesus Christ, so isn’t it nice that his family tree is laid out for us so neatly in the Bible? Jesus had some very interesting ancestors…funny thing is that until you start digging into them it would be easy to believe that if someone was honored enough to be an ancestor of Jesus’ then they must really be next to perfect, huh?!!  Well, this is so far from the truth…they are, as it turns out like all of us…forgiven sinners. 

 In many of the next lessons we will be studying the people listed in Jesus’ family tree.  My goal is to show you that God’s forgiveness is absolute.  He does not hold your past against you in any way.  All of the people (like all of us) in Jesus’ family tree are sinners who have believed in God, and been forgiven.  Although John 5:24 is something that Jesus said, and all of his ancestors lived before him in John 5:24 Jesus states that those who believe in God (the one who sent Jesus) will have eternal life.  This is how the people before Jesus birth were judged, by their righteousness and faith in God, by their adherence to the law.  We are judged with grace, which means that we are judged by our faith in Jesus, and his ability as a sacrifice to cover our sins. 

Grace as we have studied before is the giving of forgiveness when it is not deserved.  Grace is not something that replaces God’s law.  We are still to do our best to follow God’s law.  However, neither before in the Old Testament, nor now, in the New Testament does the law offer salvation. 

Matthew 5:17-20 ¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

Jesus tells us that he did not come to replace or get rid of the law…he came to fulfill it, but not to remove or replace any part of it.  Fulfilling something does not end it, except in the case of prophecy….once a prophecy is given and is completely and entirely fulfilled it is pretty much done..its value is then in the fact that people who had believed the prophecy know its fulfillment and have stronger faith for having seen that fulfillment.  Laws are fulfilled every day, but we do not do away with them by fulfilling them.

God values faith, and is a forgiving God and this is demonstrated through Jesus’ family tree.

Info about your bible:  There are over 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament ends the era of God’s prophecy of Jesus’ coming. Matthew begins with Jesus is here, and spends much time proving that Jesus is the Messiah. The book of Matthew was written between 50 A.D. and 70 A.D. To be noted is that B.C. means the time period before Jesus’ birth, and A.D. means the time period from his birth onward. People get confused and think that A.D. means After Death, it does not.  It actually is a latin term that stands for the words “Year of our Lord”  or “Anno Domini” are the latin words.  This means that the book of Matthew was written down shortly after Jesus’ death because Jesus’ died about 33 A.D.  This is important so that you know that there were people around who lived during Jesus time and would say if Matthew wrote down things wrong or made any of the book of Matthew up.  The time it is written means we can trust it to be truthful. The newest part of the New Testament was written by John the Apostle and it was written between 85 A.D. and 96 A.D.  so still it was written with witnesses to the actual events still alive to say if any part of it was untrue.  Therefore, you can trust that the New Testament is true also as is the Old Testament.

I hope you enjoy our upcoming exploration of Jesus’ ancestors!

 

Ownership of the field of treasure

Matthew 13:44 The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.  When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all that he had and bought the field. 

The standard Christian teaching on this is that this man found the treasure of Salvation and realized how important it was, so he hid it and then went and bought the field so that he could have it.  There is nothing inherently wrong about this teaching, but it has some moralistic problems to it.  After all, Jesus focus was about sharing the love of God with others.  In this parable we see a man who is not planning to share at all…if he was, then he would go running to town with the treasure in his arms and shout to all about it, wouldn’t he?!!  Instead he hides it again, then goes and we presume deceptively purchases the field.  We see this kind of thing happen in the world over and over again…some person will find out some facts about some land that makes it more valuable…maybe some plans for the surrounding area that is unknown to the landowner and so they go and offer an outrageous sum of money (in the land owner’s eyes), but still far less than it will actually be worth if the plans known only to the buyer happen.  We call that “land speculation”…totally acceptable from a worldly standpoint, but rather an unChristian way of acting, right?!!  Morally, as Christians we would have problems with this action…especially if we are the ones who get taken advantage of in the land selling process.

An interesting thing I have learned from Dave LeBlanc’s recent teaching on this parable is that the idea of ownership of something means that you have to work at it for 3 years before you have ownership.  Ownership isn’t something that comes about by accident, just because you bought it.  In Jewish terms, which means in the terms that Jewish Rabbi Jesus is teaching to his Jewish Disciples…ownership is acquired not just with money, but you have to actually do something with it, and do something with it consistently for 3 years.  So if we take that idea and look at this parable again we can learn a few things:

1.)  The man was walking on land that was not owned by a family..it was deserted land…fallow land.  After all, if he found a treasure hidden in a field, it was probably buried in the first place and he found it from working the field with the intent to get ownership.  (We know that the land of Israel did not have a lot of forests, it’s fields are good for olives and wine, and wheat.)  So he was working the field and accidentally dug up a treasure, so he goes and reburies it and then since it is so valuable he must focus all of his wealth on acquiring it immediately.  He does this.

Yet, under the law of Torah, he doesn’t actually own it until he has worked it for three years, now according to what Dave is telling us about Rabbinical Judaism  it is not good enough to just buy the land with money, but to have to invest your time and energy into using it and bringing in a harvest…repeatedly.  In other words, Land speculation is not allowed.  You don’t just buy the land and say, “Look at me, I am wealthy I have all this land, but do nothing with it!”  In our terms, we would say, “use it or lose it”…this makes a lot of sense for people of Jesus’ time.  Land that lays fallow is not producing food.  Israel was a land that occasionally had years of famine…so it was important to produce all that it could in the good years.  After all, refrigeration, and freezing and canning as storage methods were not really around.  The main methods of food storage were probably dehydration, pickling, or fermentation.  According to the Old Testament there was a requirement of fallowness for land every 7 years….this was probably more about maintaining the nutrients and not exhausting the land by repeated growing of the same crop that would sap the same nutrients from the soil, so that the land was not worn out.  Spiritually, it was about relying on the Lord for your well being in times of scarcity..every 7 years there was a reminder to Israel about this.

Also under the laws in Leviticus the selling of the land was not to be permanent…so you may say it was more of a renting out for the use of the land and its crop.

2.) So we also learn a deeper meaning if we apply this idea of having to work for something to our salvation and what Jesus was saying about the Kingdom of heaven being like this treasure found in a field.  It was such a valuable treasure that the man was willing to immediately devote his entire wealth and life to attaining the rights to that treasure.

If we apply this idea to our salvation, the we can and should be believing that as Christians we are not actually obtaining that salvation simply by “saying a prayer” and going on about our normal lives.  If we do not plow the field of our salvation, or dig into our Bibles and take the word of the Lord into our hearts on a daily basis and apply it to how we are living out our daily lives, then we are as lost as the person who has never asked Jesus to come into our hearts.  That takes us to another parable, the parable of the seeds:

Luke 8:4-15 New International Version (NIV)

⁴ While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ⁵ “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. ⁶ Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

⁹ His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰ He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see;
    though hearing, they may not understand.’^[a]

¹¹ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³ Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴ The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵ But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Footnotes:

1. Luke 8:10 Isaiah 6:9

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.

The seed is the Word of God…there are many things that can happen to people who at first hear it, but do not focus on it and work at understanding it and drawing closer to God.  This links right in with the parable of the man who discovered the treasure in the field, except this man was someone who realized the value of God’s Word and was willing to give up everything else to obtain that value, which was greater than everything he owned already.  He completely gave himself to God heart and soul.  He trusted that God’s treasure was so great that no matter what he must not lose it because of allowing something else in his life to get in the way of it…in this man’s heart it is better to give up on everything else than to give up on God.

This goes along with Commandment #1:

Exodus 20:1-3 And God spoke all these words:

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

Does this mean that we are to have nothing in our lives except God?  No, it means that God is to be the center of our lives…every action we take in our lives should be in order to draw closer to God and glorify God.

God has given us possessions to use in order to glorify him and draw closer to him and serve him with our lives.  God has put people in our lives so that we may both learn more about God with them and from them, and also help them to learn more about God and draw closer to God through us and how we love them the way that God loves them.

The point here, is that God is to be the most important…we do not all run out on mission trips to far away nations, we do not all go into the formal ministry of a church..we are all, however, to be lay ministers to others in how we treat them and work with them on God’s behalf in sharing our knowledge of who God is with them.  That is how we work the field…and take ownership of our Salvation through Jesus Christ.  We each, can and should do this every single day in our every day lives.  Most of the time we do this, in the very same place that we are already in, and in the very same job that we are already doing.  It doesn’t matter in God’s eyes if you are a house cleaner, or an architect, or some really wealthy influential business man or world leader…if you are a person who is in Christ you have your mission field right where your are…unless God calls you to go somewhere else and or do something else.

Don’t be misunderstanding here….God will not love you any more or any less no matter what you do and don’t do in your life.  However, if you are going to follow Jesus, which is what must be done to be saved, then that requires action on your part!  Jesus journeyed all the while that he was doing his three year ministry…he took action to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth…he said his Kingdom is “within you” or “in your midst”.

Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, ‘Lo, it is here!’ or ‘Lo, it is there!’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.”

It is up to each of us to follow Jesus on our journey to Christian maturity…following requires movement!
Here is the link for David LeBlanc’s teaching on the parable of the field of treasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrf8vZgWEDM