January 30 (Shevat 5) ~ Genesis 30

GOD IS FAITHFUL
Even when we are not


"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine, he who shepherds [me] among the roses" (Song of Songs 2:16).

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S - Scripture: Genesis 30:1-43 From Parsha Vayetze "an he went out" speaking of Jacobs life and departure from Beersheva to Haran.

Genesis 30 is the rest of the account of the 12 sons and daughter (Dinah) of Jacob given to him by God through his two wives Leah & Rachel and their maidservants Bilhah and Zilphah and it ends with the account of the speckled and spotted herds.

For further personal study of verses 1-16 on this passage go to http://www.lizcurtishiggs.com/Fiction/roseguides/bguide.htm

O - Observations:

The following was excerpted from a fellow blogger emphasis my own with a change to the last paragraph by me as well: http://segulahtorah.blogspot.com/2005/12/parsha-vayetze.html

For 20 years deception would surround Jacob and Lavan's relationship. His father-in-law would hide his wages from him, even on his wedding day. The consequence of this deception would haunt Jacob for the rest of his life as his wives and sons would be consumed with jealousy and bitterness. Brothers are fleeing from brothers and wives are using children as pawns in a game of favor, is this not the picture of the dysfunctional family?

They were just in need of redemption as we are. But their strength and righteousness as men of God was not found in their wrongs but in their trusting. It is the kind of trust that allows God to do works of righteousness through them DESPITE their short comings and failures. God is the one who is faithful.

At every turn we find the fullness of God's blessings upon their lives even in the face of their wrongs and the consequences there of. That isn’t to say that God blesses disobedience. They and we surely reap the "rewards" of disobedience. Yet even so God's plan is in full motion.

Genesis 30:22-24 “Then God took note of Rachel, heeded her prayer and made her fertile. She conceived, had a son and said, "God has taken away my disgrace." She called him Yosef [may he add], saying, "May the LORD add to me another son.

God remember Rachael not because He had somehow forgotten her but because He had decreed that now was the time for the birth of Joseph, as he would play a strategic role in the survival of all the sons of Israel.

Within the entire tangled web of deceit and jealousy God's plan is still working out. His promise to Abraham is still intact.

Genesis 30:25-26 After Rachel had given birth to Yosef, Ya'akov said to Lavan, "Send me on my way, so that I can return to my own place, to my own country. Let me take my wives, for whom I have served you, and my children; and let me go. You know very well how faithfully I have served you."

With the birth of Joseph it was now time for Jacob to focus on the covenant blessing and begin to head back to his fathers land, the land his descendants would inherit.

Jacob's success was based upon events entirely out of his control. God's plan unfolds not only despite our wrongs but even in perfect harmony with our wrongs. It is His presence and will in our lives working through us that we are truly made righteous. Again I say to you so that none may boast that God chose each of us here this morning not because we somehow deserve to be chosen, but it is God's choosing of us and his plan unfolding within us that we are made righteous in His sight. There is no doubt that Jacob would continue to bare witness of the consequences of his wrongs BUT it was the divine promise of God upon him that assures his name change from Jacob the deceiver to Israel "overcomer". Just as Jacob was given a new name through trusting, a name that would reflect a new spirit within him given by God, so too do we through trusting receive a new spirit within us, a spirit that confirms God with-in us (remembering our study on Emmanuel a couple of days ago).

A - Application for me today:

Even when man is faithless to God, God remains faithful to those whom he loves.

P - Prayer in Response:

God in Heaven, The Faithful One, I come to you not on my own accord but because of your faithfulness to draw me here and to continue to speak to me even when I can not find words in myself to understand what you would have me to see through these passages. I thank you for the wisdom of others and to be able to seek You out through them. I thank you for the understanding you gave to this man named "Jimmy" and how those words still speak today to me. Thank you that you can work in perfect harmony with our dysfunctional lives and perfect your plan. Thank you that you are still working today as you did even in the days of Jacob and his wives and their family. It was through them that you came to save Your people from their sins. Ironically even through their sins and deception you came. God with us, Emmanuel. Your ways are not our ways. I am humbled by this lesson today and am reminded again of Your Greatness and Power!

B'shem Yeshua HaMashiach
In YOUR Mighty Name I pray
Amen & Amen

Inspiration for today: If you want a good read and a good reminder read this story: http://mwfrc.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html To Meet Such a Man

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p.s. Speckled Sheep



The sheep's dominant trait is its docility and obedience. The sheep does not obey for any reason--it is simply obedient by nature, unlike a child that does so out of appreciation for their parents or due to consequences. It is this element of our relationship with God that the sheep represents: an unquestioning subservience which derives not from our understanding of His greatness and our feelings toward Him (in which case it would be defined by the limits of our understanding and feelings), but from the recognition that "I am His sheep."