More thoughts sparked in Genesis

  My last post was a result of my reading of Abraham's life. This one is a result of reading the first part of Jacob's life. (In parts, it is similar to Josh's last post, but I didn't plagarize.)

  It is amazing how you can get used to the flow of a story; all of Abraham's life has the same basic   theme: Abraham walked by faith, with some failures, but the theme is faith - faith in the promises of God. So, I arrived at the story of Jacob still thinking of faith as the interpretive key to the story: it isn't, at least not at first. But amazingly, the promises are still central; but this time everyone wants the promises their own way. Jacob wants the promises and the blessings they bring, but he doesn't have faith in the God who gave the promises and blessings. Esau wants the promsies, or does he? He doesn't really care about the promises after all, he just wants to be the big man around here. Rebekah wants the promises (for Jacob) and Isaac wants the promises (for Esau). But they have all forgotten about God and what He wants. 

  God has given the promises, and He is still directing the course of events, but how can He bless those who are not acting in faith? I haven't gotten there in my reading yet, but how do you bless Jacob by giving him material wealth? Now he has to divide up his stuff so that maybe some of it will survive. How do you bless him when he is always running in fear? It is not until Jacob learns faith that all that blessing can really be a blessing; and those promises, now those can be believed too. And they don't have to be gotten by deceit. In fact, the next time, before Jacob leaves the Promised Land, God will actually tell him to go; and now Jacob can be mentioned in the Hall of Faith, because he also believed the promises, blessed his seed, and sojourned in the land of Promise.