READING FOR MAY 21, 2024: GENESIS 35, MARK 4, PSALM 44:9-16 GENESIS 35 God directly told Jacob to move out of danger and go back to Bethel (meaning House of God), where he first encountered God after fleeing from Esau. This time Jacob took immediate, decisive, and righteous action. He ordered everyone to hand over her/his foreign idols. We should all take this kind of action regularly. Has anybody, anything, or anyplace displaced God as our first love? If so, it needs to be identified and removed from that position. Once rid of these hindrances, they went to Bethel. This devoted obedience correlated with God’s providing safe passage to them by bringing fear upon their potential adversaries. There is a cliche that rings true: The safest place in the world is in the center of God’s will.
At this point Jacob’s change of name to Israel is reaffirmed in the text and a personalized version of God’s covenant to Abraham pronounced by God over Jacob. There are some differences that might or might not be significant. God’s commitment to Abraham was to “make him into a great nation” (likely referring to Israel) and that “in you all families of the earth will be blessed” (likely referring to Jesus). God promises Jacob that “a nation and a multitude of nations shall come from you.” Perhaps these two mean the same, or perhaps the multitude of nations refers to heaven in Rev. 7:9: “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” In any case, it is certainly God’s grace, not Jacob’s or our goodness, that triumphs.
Notice that Rachael died in childbirth on the way to Ephrath, also called Bethlehem. A related prophecy occurs later in the Bible: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jer. 31:15). This is fulfilled in Matthew 2:16-18 when Herod killed all the male children ages two and under in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill Jesus. Rachel apparently represents a mother of the nation just as Abraham and Jacob represent fathers of the nation.
Unhappily, a story about Jacob’s family would not be complete without some indiscretion. We see Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, sleeping with Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine and mother of Rueben’s half-brothers Dan and Naphtali. All this did not change God’s covenant, though. They all became fathers of one of the tribes of Israel. Finally, Jacob makes his promised return to Hebron to see Isaac in time for him and Esau to bury their father.
READING FOR MAY 21 CONTINUED: MARK 4, PSALM 44:9-16 MARK 4 We studied the parable of the sower when we read Mathew 13 on February 21, 2024. There we saw that when the word of God was presented only one out of four categories of listeners responded in saving faith. Might we once have been good soil but now because of the obstacles listed such as Satan, afflictions, worries, persecution, and wealth, become un-- productive soil? We read in Revelation 2-3, for example, of the churches that lost their first love and needed to recapture it. Time for a soil inspection.
Mark’s account also repeats Jesus’s counterintuitive statement found in Matthew that His use of parables is meant to disguise the truth from those who choose to remain on the outside of total commitment. Jesus again uses the metaphor we saw first in Mathew 5 of a light not being hid under a basket but being placed on a lampstand. This is so that our lives as obedient Jesus followers will in turn lead others to become fellow followers. We are not faithful to Jesus just for His sake or just our sake, but also for those who need to know the Lord. Consider our responsibility and opportunity.
The next two parables also relate to planting seeds, not inappropriate for mid-May, although it is getting a bit late in the planting season. Some of us are also running out of time to plant spiritual seeds, but it’s certainly not too late. A reassuring aspect from parable of seed (vs. 26-29) is that we don’t need to understand the entire process to plant seeds. In verses 30-32, we learn that even planting the smallest seed of God’s word can have a super large result. In these two parables, Jesus anticipates our feelings of inadequacy about spreading the word.BUT HE WE CAN DO IT. In reading the account of Jesus asleep in the boat, the disciples exchanged a paralyzing fear of the storm (vs. 40), which is irrational for the faithful according to Jesus, with a fear of the One who can calm the storm (vs. 41), which is the beginning of wisdom according to Proverbs 1:7. FEAR GOD, NOT THE STORMS, AND BE WISE.
PSALM 44:9-16 The previous eight verses give us an overview of God’s heroic dealings with Israel in the past. Although secondary in importance to studying God’s word, knowing something about church history liberates us from the myth that our current culture represents the highest development of God’s people. Here the Psalmist laments Israel’s current state but is aware that it was not necessity normative. It was, by any honest evaluation, terrible. How was Israel viewed? “A laughingstock among the peoples” (vs. 14), as Christians often are today. Theologian Walter Brueggemann suggests we not minimize our discomfort: “Praise has power to transform the pain. But conversely the present pain also keeps the act of praise honest…As praise recontextualizes pain, so pain refocuses praise.” Don’t sugarcoat our prayers to God. He knows our hearts, values the truth, and desires our best interests.
