Sometimes to make stories from the Bible suitable for Children’s Church or Veggie Tales videos, the details get a little bit sanitized. There are no coloring pages or VBS skits for Genesis chapter 34. This is certainly not the most shocking or the most violent chapter we will read but you do want to brace yourself, it’s not exactly safe for work either. Maybe read the first few verses before you start the player.
Genesis 34
Continue readingThis is a short chapter and gives me a chance to offer some commentary about slavery in the ancient world and the difficulty of translating Hebrew.
After 20 years, Jacob finally breaks ties with Laban. But to return home he still has to deal with an older brother who possibly still wants to kill him, and was the reason he left in the first place. Then he wrestles with an angel and claims to have seen the face of God. There is never a dull moment with this guy.
Continue readingJacob finally gathers all he has and flees from Laban in order to return to the land of Canaan. There is a verse in this chapter that is often quoted but maybe it does not exactly mean what a lot people think it means.
When people say they don’t read the Bible because it’s boring, I can tell they have in fact not read the Bible. There are portions that are a little dry but the book of Genesis is not among them. If the stuff from chapter 30 happened on a modern daytime soap, the audience might find it hard to suspend their disbelief. But of course this is real. In the words of Jack Palance, the truth is stranger than fiction.
Genesis 30
When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister and said to Jacob “Give me children, or I will die.”
Continue readingAbraham, Isaac and Jacob are great men of the Old Testament, renowned for their faith but sometimes questionable in other aspects. They lived in a different time, in another culture, and remember this is before the Law was given to God’s people. Abraham lied, on two separate occasions, about his wife being his sister; Isaac later did the same thing with one of the same kings. Jacob stole his older brother’s birthright and later his father’s blessing. And now it’s Jacob’s turn to be on the receiving end of some deception. This is just the beginning of the drama for Jacob.
Continue readingAs we have gone through the book of Genesis one chapter at a time, this series has been a work in progress. I started Read the Bible as something of an experiment, not sure how well things would work out. There have been changes in an effort to get better; the goal is to settle down at some point once we have the bugs worked out. I know that some of you would like to read along as I read out loud. What I am reading begins with the KJV text and then I make adjustments to update some of the archaic language. It is not a published translation, I have no desire to create my own paraphrase; but I cannot read any modern translation in its entirety because of copyright laws nor do I want to read a public domain text such as the KJV or ASV. But what if, for the benefit of those who wish to see what I am saying, the text was included with each post?
Continue readingWow, this one has been a struggle. I’m not going to burden you with all the details of my life but surely this post or this series of posts are going to do great things or mean something to someone because the work has been opposed at every turn all day today (Thursday).
Jacob has previously taken his brother’s birthright. Jacob and his mother Rebekah are crafty, and Esau gets mad enough to kill somebody.
We could call this section Like Father, Like Son. Isaac built his wealth and was blessed by God, and promised that his offspring would possess the nations they were living in. He redug wells that Abraham had dug and gave them the same names. But this chapter begins with Isaac lying to Abimelech about his wife being his sister. Abraham not only did that twice, and got caught both times, but one of the kings he did it to was Abimelech.
I’ve been thinking today about the difference between teaching and preaching. A preacher should be able to teach, but a teacher should be able to teach without preaching. Teaching is about explaining things in ways that people can understand. The Read the Bible series isn’t really about teaching the Bible; the stated goal is to read the text and discuss it’s just I’m the only one doing the discussing. Anytime someone wants to jump in just start leaving comments and we can interact. Preaching involves not only reading the text and doing some teaching but giving application. It starts with “what do we learn from this passage” and transitions into “what are we going to do about it.” When you leave church after hearing a good sermon you should have some goals for the upcoming week. There should be one or more action points; you should be able to answer the question What does the pastor/preacher want me to do? Sometimes a well-taught lesson will lead us to do things differently or take action but a good sermon will provide application. Some of the passages as we read through the Old Testament, I’m not sure how I would preach those from the perspective of how should we respond? You can learn a lot about God by reading the Old Testament so I hope you hang in there and find it worthwhile.
The Master's Table 