Tag: Jacob

January 17, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Mankind has a strong survival instinct. This leads to trying to manipulate people to gain an advantage or at least survive, and because Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11:45-57 the ruling Jews were worried that Jesus would become ruler and then the Romans would destroy their nation. This lead to Caiaphas’ inadvertent prophecy “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

The sons of Laban were displeased with Jacob getting rich at their expense, so in Genesis 31 Jacob fled from Laban. However, as Jacob, wives and children all were set to depart, Rachel stole Laban’s idols. Laban found out the idols were missing, pursued Jacob and caught up with him. Laban looked for the idols, at no avail, Rachel had hid them under the saddle of her camel and sat on it claiming she had her period. Finally Laban gave in, said farewell to all and he and Joseph established the Mizpah.

In Genesis 32 Jacob, schemer as he was, prepared to meet Esau. He figured Esau wanted to kill him, so he split up his company in two, and gave instructions to his messengers on what to say to make Esau less vindictive. Then the Jacob family crossed the Ford of Jabbok. On the other side they camped for the night, and Jacob wrestled with an angel of God and prevailed, but got a limp in his hip. God then gave Jacob a new, spiritual name, Israel.

And in Genesis 33 Jacob finally met up with Esau, but it turned out that Esau rejoiced to see Jacob and all his children.

January 15, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

In John 10:22-42 Jesus claimed to be one with his Father. This is of course blasphemy unless it is true, so for that the Jews wanted to stone him.

In Genesis 27 Jacob deceived Isaac to get the blessing of the firstborn instead of Esau. Esau got one too, but just the regular blessing, and to avoid more trouble Jacob fled to Laban.

In Genesis 28, Jacob went to Paddan Aram to get a wife. On the way he had a dream, commonly known as “Jacob’s Ladder”. Meanwhile, Esau took yet another wife, the daughter of Ishmael. The promise of Jacob’s dream was that God was to give the land to Jacob’s descendants. Jacob made a vow to God and named the place Bethel.

Psalm 5 is a prayer extolling the joy of praising God and praying towards Jerusalem, but is also an urgent prayer to do away with and destroy all wickedness and wicked people.

January 13, read through the Bible in a year.

Today there are three chapters.

January 13: John 12, Genesis 26, Genesis 27 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

John 12 begins the last week before the Crucifixion. It is important when this happened, so I have inserted a piece on the correct date it must have happened. Jesus is anointed at Bethany, then comes the triumphal entry and Jesus prophecises  about his being “lifted up, and draw all men to himself”.

Genesis 26 tells of Isaac and Rebekah, how Isaac too said Rebekah was his sister. In spite of that God protected them, and the rest of the chapter deals with the eternal Mideast dispute: Water rights.

In Genesis 27 Jacob gets Isaac’s blessing instead pf Esau. Esau gets one too, but inferior, so to avoid more trouble Jacob flees to Laban.

Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter.

This chapter has a special meaning to me since I am an immigrant. Yet I realize I am a pilgrim and heaven is my real home.

We can prove from the laws of physics (the preservation of energy and matter but with a constantly increasing entropy) that we cannot possibly exist apart from creation. Yet creation from God’s command must be accepted by faith.Abel sacrificed the firstfruit of his flock, which pointed forward to Jesus being the lamb of God, giving his life for us.

In the upper hand corner is a piece of the book of Enoch, found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 

Abraham’s journey was a two step journey. He went to Haran and dwelt there until his father died.

But Abraham also went to Egypt when famine struck the promised land.

This is what it means to be a pilgrim. The Jews had been scattered all over the earth ever since the fall of Israel. They were looking for a homeland to return to.

In the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the United Kingdom became the first world power to endorse the establishment in Palestine of a “national home for the Jewish people.” The British government confirmed this commitment by accepting the British Mandate for Palestine in 1922 (along with their colonial control of the Pirate Coast, Southern Coast of Persia, Iraq and from 1922 a separate area called Transjordan, all of the Middle-Eastern territory except the French territory). The European powers mandated the creation of a Jewish homeland at the San Remo conference of 19–26 April 1920. In 1948, the State of Israel was established.

And so began the prophetic clock to tick again for the Jewish People.

 

 

She is called Rahab the prostitute. An alternate translation would be Rahab the innkeeper, for she was an independent woman that kept an inn.

Yes, thanks to Jesus death on the cross for our sins, his burial and resurrection we have the privilege to be allowed to enter His rest.

Genesis 47, Jacob and Pharaoh, Israel settles in Goshen, Joseph enslaves the Egyptians.

Jacob is at this time 130 years old. “My years have been few” is an understatement” but Jacob compares it to the pilgrimage of his grandfather Abraham.

Joseph had been granted absolute power to rule over Egypt. Pharaoh continued to reign over Egypt, so Joseph started to do Pharaoh’s bidding.

But, as we see, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Through taxes on grain produced during the good years, Joseph had amassed all the grain supply for the government. He is now selling it back at a far higher price than he bought the excess harvests over and above the taxed harvests during the good years.

These are the steps to gain total control over the people.

  1.  Establish government monopoly over the food supply.

2. Collect all the money and other valuables in exchange for some of the food.

3. Take control over the livestock and other ways of sustenance.

4. Take over the land in exchange for some of the food.

5. Reduce people to servitude and slavery in exchange for some of the food.

6. Once the famine is over, keep the people as sharecroppers to keep the system stable.

 

Genesis 46, Jacob goes to Egypt, total sixty-six, not counting wives, daughter and grand daughters.

The discrepancy between sixty-six and three score and fifteen is that 9 wives were not counted, nor any of Jacob’s grand daughters, Two of his son’s wives had obviously already passed away.