Genesis 36:6-8

Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob. Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock. So Esau (that is, Edom) settled in the hill country of Seir.

One of my pupils didn’t hand his homework in the other day. When I questioned him about where it was he responded that he had been busy the previous night. He made me a promise that he would hand it in to me personally first thing the next morning. Guess what? He didn’t hand his book in and broke his promise. We all break promises from time to time though without thinking. We promise to do something but forget. We promise to phone someone but get caught up doing something else. We promise to visit our elderly aunt at the weekend but would rather spend the time with our friends.

God has made us lots of promises in the Bible. Unlike us, though, God can be relied upon to keep his promises. That’s what we see in today’s reading; God keeping the promises he made to Esau’s ancestors. God made a promise to Rachel, Esau’s mother, saying, “two nations are in your womb, and two people’s within you will be separated” (Genesis 25:23). We’ve seen over the past week or so how Esau’s brother, Jacob, became the leader of a new nation, the nation of Israel. Now we see here that Esau is also the founder of a nation, the nation of Edom. Esau’s is a prosperous and successful nation, with a great deal of livestock, which brought about the separation with Israel. Esau moved away from Canaan because the land could not support his livestock and that of Israel’s. Of course, this was also the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham, to whom God said, “‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be called Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations’” (Genesis 17:4-5).

We see today that God keeps his promises. This is great news for those of us who place our trust in him and seek to follow him, since we can be confident that all of God’s promises – of which there are many in the Bible (3573 according to several websites I’ve just consulted!) – will be ultimately fulfilled!

Genesis 35:3

"Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone."

Have you ever felt the presence of God in your life? I don’t just mean knowing intellectually that he is always there with you, I mean some kind of sensation that you cannot explain, but which you just know is the presence of God? I’ve experienced this a couple of times: once when I was a child and I was visiting Southwark cathedral with friends from my church; on another occasion when I was on the North Downs in the midst of a storm.

Jacob, we see in our verse today, had complete confidence in the presence of God in his life at all times. Throughout his twenty years or so of roaming, he knows that God has been with him wherever he went. Whether it was fleeing from his family after tricking his father into giving him a blessing that should have been his brother Esau’s, roaming around the desert, living with his uncle, returning to his fatherland and making up with Esau, dealing with the fall out of the rape of his daughter, or any number of the other situations he faced, he just knew and trusted that God had been with him. He also knew that God had answered him on his “day of distress,” giving him the support and guidance that he needed in every circumstance. Jacob believed that because of God’s constant love, support and guidance, it was only right that he built an altar on which to make sacrifices to acknowledge his love – and debt – to God.

Just like he was with Jacob, I believe that God is with us wherever we go, offering love, guidance, support and encouragement to us. I believe that when we come to our “days of distress” God answers us too. Since the death and resurrection of Jesus we no longer make animal sacrifices to God, instead we offer him our lives as living sacrifices. Let’s give thanks for God’s love today, and renew our response to him by seeking to honour and serve him in all areas of our lives.

Genesis 34:9

Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.

It can be very difficult to live as a Christian in the western world. Christians are called to follow Jesus’ example, and that means setting a very high bar for morality, fairness, and attitude towards others. It can be very hard to be loving and positive when those around us are negative and full of hatred. It can be very hard not to succumb to brazen materialism when society around us is all about the acquisition of more and more. It can be very hard to live pure lives when there is so much impurity around us. Yet we are called to be salt and light in our world, so that others may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:13-16).

This is one of the struggles that Jacob and his family have to contend with in the rather dark times we read about in Genesis 34. Upon returning to his homeland, Jacob bought a piece of land “from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem” (Genesis 33:19) on which to settle. Soon after, Shechem took and raped Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah. In order to smooth the relationship over between his own family and Jacob’s, Hamor, Shechem’s father, proposes a tightening of the bond between them. Why don’t Jacob’s family intermarry with his own, Hamor suggests. He surely has more than Dinah on his mind, however; after all, Jacob’s family have been richly blessed and are very wealthy! Jacob faces a real dilemma with this suggestion, however. His family have received a promise from God and have become his chosen people. How would God’s promise stand if his family intermarried with a people who did not love and respect God, who did not follow his rules and guidelines, and who were clearly morally dubious?

This is a very similar situation to the one we find ourselves in today, living as “foreigners and exiles” in the world, much as Jacob and his family did. Do we conform to the expectations of the world, lower our standards, and water down our beliefs to bring us in line with those around us? Or do we endeavour to love God, to follow his teaching, and to strive for a more Godly way of living?

Genesis 33:4

But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.

Have you had to ask someone to forgive you recently? Perhaps you found a piece of chocolate that someone was saving and ate it without thinking. Maybe you arrived late for supper with friends. No matter how hard we try, it is inevitable that there will always be times when we annoy or upset people, or when we let someone down. In these circumstances it is good to know that we have been forgiven because we can move on with our lives. I’m sure there are also people who you feel have let you down, or hurt you in some way. Being able to forgive people, no matter how badly they have acted against us, is very important; without doing so we can cause hatred to take a root in our hearts, and it will end up burning us up inside. Forgiveness can be very, very hard to do, however.

In today’s verse we see forgiveness in action. Jacob has returned home after twenty years away. He left after cheating his brother, Esau, out of his father’s blessing, which he should have received as the eldest son. Esau was clearly very, very upset, and very angry about this. Consequently, when he returns home, Jacob does so extremely cautiously, fearing a possible attack from his brother. He must have been shocked by Esau’s response to his return, therefore; Esau “ran to meet Jacob and embraced him.” Both of the brothers were overcome with emotion and wept. I’m sure a good deal of Jacob’s weeping must have been due to his surprise, delight, and happiness that his brother was not still angry with him. He is absolutely overjoyed at Esau’s forgiveness, which he no doubt felt he did not deserve. He even compares Esau’s forgiveness with that of God when he says in verse ten, “to see your face is like seeing the face of God.”

I wonder if there are people who we need to ask for forgiveness from, people that we know we have wronged but who we’re hiding away from. I have no doubt that we also have people who we need to forgive, even if we think they do not deserve to be forgiven. Perhaps we can pray for forgiveness and reconciliation with our friends and family today. Most of all, maybe we should thank God that we can be forgiven because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who paid the price for all of our wrongdoing, and reconciled us to his father in heaven. Just as Esau ran to greet his forgiven brother, God is desperate for us to return to him, and is waiting to forgive and embrace us.

Genesis 32:9-12

Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

Do you make promises to your friends and family? Are you always able to keep those promises? There are few things worse than a broken promise; they can leave the person who was made the promise feeling upset, let down and angry. A broken promise has the potential to really damage a relationship.

Today’s verses, which are a prayer prayed by Jacob as he approaches his homeland, deal with God’s promises to Jacob. Jacob left his homeland on bad terms with his brother, Esau, not least because he had cheated him out of his father’s dying blessing. He doesn’t know how safe it will be for him to return, and so he turns to God in prayer. His prayer is an interesting one, and we can certainly learn from it. Jacob begins by making a statement of the promise that God made to him when God told him to “‘go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper’.” Next he affirms his faith that God keeps his promises, by praising him for keeping previous promises: God told him that he would prosper, and, despite the fact that when he left, he had practically nothing, now he has great wealth, and has “become two camps.” Thirdly, having stressed that he knows God keeps his promises, he asks for God’s protection: “save me from the hand of my brother Esau.” Fourthly, he stresses that he makes this request of God in order that God’s promise to him to make him prosper and give him many descendants is fulfilled.

I wonder if you’ve ever prayed a prayer like this? I’m not sure I’ve ever done so quite as effectively as Jacob. Perhaps we could try and pray a similar prayer today. Why not jot down some of the promises that God has made to us? Maybe you could read through some favourite Bible passages and underline God’s promises to us? Then perhaps we could try praising God for keeping his promises. Next we could petition God for something that we feel that we need or desire in order for God’s promise to be fulfilled. By no means an easy feat, but surely worth a go!

Genesis 31:3

Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

I’ve just come back from a holiday with Claire, my wife. We were lucky enough to be able to visit both Venice and Rome, two very beautiful cities that neither of us had had the opportunity to visit before. Rather unusually for us, we didn’t get lost. Not once. This is very unusual for us, since we have a tendency to head off in the exact opposite direction to the one we should be heading in. We’ve managed to get ourselves lost in cities all around the world! I blame our poor sense of direction.

I’m sure many of us struggle with our sense of direction. That can also apply to our lives too, of course. With so many jobs on offer, so many places to live, so many people we could marry, how on earth are we supposed to know the correct route to pursue in our lives?

Today’s Daily Reading is about exactly that. Jacob has been in Paddan Aram, with his mother’s family, for twenty years. He knew from the outset that this wouldn’t be his permanent home; God had made that clear to him in a dream on his way to Paddan Aram (Genesis 28:15). Jacob had himself started to desire to return to his family, saying to Laban, his uncle/father-in-law (twice over!), “send me on my way so I can go back to my homeland” (Genesis 30:25). Then later, he overheard his cousins/brothers-in-law saying, “‘Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father’” (Genesis 31:1). They were clearly getting a little irritated with him. Jacob even noticed that “Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been” (Genesis 31:2). Even his wives seem to be getting a little fed up with their present circumstances, saying, “‘do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children’” (Genesis 31:15-16). All indications are that Jacob’s life will take a change in direction. The final sign comes when God himself spoke to Jacob, telling him to go back to the land of his fathers, as we see in today’s key verse. What we also see in this verse in God’s promise that he will be with Jacob as he takes this new direction.

There’s much for us to note in this verse as we seek to find God’s direction for our own lives. God had clearly been preparing Jacob for the return to his homeland for some time. It looks like God had been at work in Laban, his sons, in Jacob himself, and his wives, all preparing them for their return to Jacob’s home. Finally, Jacob received a clear direction from God that he should return. I have no doubt that God works in us and and in those around us in a similar way today. I also take great comfort from the fact that when Jacob follows God’s direction, God will be with him. This must be a good incentive for us to seek out God’s path for our own lives!

Genesis 30:1-2

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”

Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

Is there something you’d really like in your life right now? Maybe you’d like a new job, one that is better paid and more fulfilling. Perhaps you’d like a partner to share your life with. Maybe you’d really like to have a child. I guess the truth is that whatever our situation, there’s always something that we would like in life. If we want something enough, we’ll do anything in our power to obtain it.

That’s what we see in today’s Daily Reading. You might remember, if you’re following our readings, that yesterday we saw Jacob marry two of his cousins. He was desperately in love with Rachel, but his uncle, Laban, deceived him and he ended up marrying Rachel’s sister, Leah. In return for working for Laban, he was also given Rachel’s hand in marriage. Now we see Jacob beginning his own family. Leah had borne Jacob four sons, but Rachel had had been unable to get pregnant. Not unexpectedly, she “became jealous of her sister.” Jacob could not bear to see Rachel plagued with jealousy, and “became angry with her.” Jacob understood that children, like all that we have, are a gift from God. Only God can determine if and when someone is to have children. Perhaps rather than becoming jealous. Rachel would have been better off praying to God, and asking him to bless her in the same way that he was blessing her sister Leah.

We often find ourselves getting angry because we haven’t got something that we’d like to have. Perhaps we too need to see our situation as Jacob sees Rachel’s here. Maybe rather than getting angry, we too should bring our desires to God in prayer. After all, as James writes in his letter, “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

Genesis 29:20

So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

How’s your week been so far? I’m rather pleased it’s Thursday, or, as Chris Evans always calls it, ‘Friday Eve’. After three weeks of holiday, it’s been a bit of a shock to the system returning to work this week, and I’m very pleased that the weekend is almost upon us. Every week for me seems like a roller coaster of intense action, so the opportunity to rest for a couple of days is always appreciated!

In today’s reading, we pick up the story of Jacob. You may remember, if you’ve followed our readings over the past couple of days, that Jacob deceived his father into giving him Esau’s blessing, before being sent to Paddan Aram to find a member of his mother’s family to marry. Our reading today finds him arriving, and meeting his relatives. He first meets Rachel, his cousin, and quickly falls in love, because she “had a lovely figure and was beautiful.” After a month, he asks Laban, his uncle, if he can marry Rachel. Jacob agrees to work for his uncle for seven years in exchange. As we see from today’s featured verse, those seven years flew by because he loved Rachel so much.

This verse reminds me that life can sometimes be rather too full of hard work. If we are Christians, though, we are called to work as if we are doing so for Jesus. Paul says in his letter to the Colossians:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Colossians 3:23-24).

Jacob was content to work hard for seven years on the understanding that he was give Rachel in return. We should also be content to work hard for we too will receive a reward; we will receive an inheritance as heirs with Christ of eternal life. Jacob’s reward might have been rather good, but ours is infinitely better (and Jesus will not trick us, as Laban tricked Jacob…). So let’s remember in the coming weeks to work hard in all that we do!

Genesis 28:12

[Jacob] 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.

For some reason I have rather bizarre – and memorable dreams. Last night I had a particularly strange dream in which Claire, my wife, was made a baroness (eminently believable) and I was made a knight (totally unbelievable!) Certainly a rather strange dream, and perhaps one I shouldn’t be sharing; you may know what it means!

In today’s reading, Jacob, Isaac’s son, is shown leaving Beersheba to head for Paddan Aram to find a wife from his mother’s family. During his first night on the road, he had a dream in which he saw a stairway to heaven on which the “angels of God were ascending and descending.” Above the staircase he saw God, who repeated the promise he had made to Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather. He tells Jacob that he is the God of Abraham and Isaac, that he will give Jacob and his descendants the land on which he is lying, that his descendants will be numerous, and, perhaps most importantly, that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.”

Clearly this is an amazing promise, but what does it have to do with us today? Well, just as Jacob saw a staircase to heaven, Jesus told his followers, “very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). The promise that God makes to Jacob is a specific promise to him and to his family; the “staircase” is temporary. By the time of Jesus’ statement, however, the staircase has been replaced. It is now the Son of Man, that is Jesus himself, who is the means of approaching God and entering heaven. Through Jesus, who is a descendant of Isaac, the promise God made to Isaac in his dream has come true. Through Jesus, “all peoples on earth” have been blessed. As a result of Jesus we don’t have to deceive God for a blessing, or pretend to be someone we’re not, as we saw Jacob do in yesterday’s Daily Reading. Rather, because Christ died for all, anyone who turns to him, repents of their sin, and seeks to follow him can freely receive a blessing from God, a blessing that opens up the way to heaven, through Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray with thanks today that Jesus has opened the way to the father for us all!

Genesis 27:19

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.”

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a ‘needy’ person. I do like it when I’m affirmed in what I’m doing. In my day job I appreciate when someone says to me, “you did really well today, Simon, well done!” I like it when someone tells me how much they’ve enjoyed reading one of my books. I take great delight when I’ve had people round for dinner and on their way out they tell me what a great evening they’ve had. I guess it’s always nice to be affirmed. We live in quite a cynical world, so it’s good when people make the effort to say something positive about you.

Today in our Daily Readings we move from Luke’s Gospel back to Genesis, and we pick up the story at quite a tricky point. Isaac, the son of Abraham, is close to death, and realising this, he wants to bless his eldest son, Esau. Abraham had, of course, received a blessing from God himself, a blessing that would continue down the family line. No doubt Isaac thinks that blessing Esau is particularly important, a continuation of God’s blessing on his own father. Isaac is deceived by Jacob, however, who with the assistance of his mother, Rebekah, dresses up as Esau. Our key verse today comes at the point when Jacob seeks to deceive his father, by telling him that he is Esau, and asks for his blessing. It is clear that Jacob wants his father’s blessing very much. He needs his father’s affirmation.

As we read these verses, it can be very easy to judge Jacob for his deceitfulness, but I wonder how many of us act in exactly this way every day? We might pretend to be someone we’re not, by acting out a role, at work. We might consciously alter our personality in order to charm someone we meet. We might go to church trying to portray ourselves as outstanding Christians, knowing full well that it’s been months since we’ve picked up our Bibles, weeks since we prayed, and we have a particularly unrepentant attitude to our sin. When we live our lives like this, are we really any different to Jacob as he seeks to pull the wool over the eyes of his dying father?

Let’s pray today that we would be authentic in how we live our lives. Let’s ask God for forgiveness for when we’ve not been open and honest about our own failings and have tried to deceive people around us. And let’s ask God to bless us for who we are as we strive to live lives that honour him.