I must apologize to you right now because I have not done the reading yet. I would typically do the reading the night before so that, at 3 am my time, the post is ready to go. Unfortunately I have quickly learned this week that I should plan a little bit more ahead for my Tuesday nights.
I WILL get the post up tonight, but it will be more like 6 my time. I don’t want that to stop the conversations, though. Please, do the reading, leave a comment, discuss amongst yourselves!
(Yeah! I got it up now!)
About the Reading:
Since I am late in posting this, I will only be writing my thoughts and notes tonight.
My Thoughts and Notes:
I find it interesting that Rebekah, as was Sarah, was barren. It’s an interesting note to me. I’m not sure that it means much, but it’s interesting.
I learned that Esau literally means red hairy and Jacob means heel.
There is a definite pattern to Isaac’s life from Abraham, isn’t there? Abraham’s wife is barren; Isaac’s wife is barren. Abraham’s tells everyone his wife is his sister; Isaac tells everyone his wife is his sister. Eventually, in both cases, the truth is discovered and orders are made to leave the men alone.
I read lessons that will say that Jacob took advantage of Esau in a time of weakness to get his birthright. I don’t know that I read it like that (Genesis 25:34):
Then Jacob gave him some bread and lentil stew; he ate, drank, got up and went away. That was all Esau cared about his birthright."
That verse, to me, shows that Esau was willing to give up his birthright. Maybe he even was a bit relieved? I don’t know. What do you think?
Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him a blessing meant for his brother. Rebekah not only encouraged it, but came up with the scheme herself! I am, somewhat, surprised at these actions. Not surprised because I knew what was coming from previous readings; surprised because I can’t imagine coming up with a scheme like this. I can’t imagine favoring one child over another.
Closer to one child? Yes. But to sabotage one child over another? No.
There were consequences from their actions. Jacob had to run for a good remainder of his life.
I know that my writing in this is a bit choppy. I apologize for that today. However, it does show my dedication to reading this year and to enjoying it with all of you. Things have been a bit busy and I have still made time to complete this task.
I’m not going to promise tomorrow’s will be better; but I will promise that tomorrow’s will be up bright and early in the morning!
I think I am going to comment on Jenni's notes tonight.
ReplyDelete*I actually had to go back and reread some because I didn't pick up on Rebekah's being barren. Thank you for pointing that out. *Jacob actually means 'he grasps the heel' (figuratively, he deceives). *Like father like son.... *I think that his birthright didn't mean a lot to Esau. Jacob probably knew his brother quite well, and knew he could trick him out of it easily. Was Esau glad to get rid of it? I don't think he even cared. He had probably never considered what his birthright meant. *It is an incredible story, isn't it. However, one needs to remember that this was also part of God's master plan. He does truly work in mysterious ways. *I wouldn't exactly call how Jacob lived the next several years 'running', but the 'deceiver' was certainly deceived!