Good day dear friends. We're thankful for the rain that has come to renew and refresh the earth! We pray that as we make our way through God's word, we would be renewed and refreshed.
Today we're to study three chapters that come after Jacob and Esau' reunion, beginning with a terrible incident that leads to fatal consequences for those involved. Please read the assigned chapters.
Here is the study guide:
Wednesday: Read chapers 34, 35, and 36 and see if there is any significance between Jacob’s being called at this point in this life, to build an altar at Bethel?
In chapter 34, one of Jacob's daughters is sexually assaulted by one of the natives in the land in which they were living. Dinah is visiting some women in the country and when Shechem sees her, he desires her and takes her. (A good point to remind our women of all ages, to sign up for the Self-Defense Class we're offering in cooperation with the SMPD-remember sadly, that even 101 year old women get assaulted!). After the rape the man responsible falls in love with Dinah and wants to marry her. Jacob is angered by this act on his daughter but because his sons were away working, he couldn't do anything. Once they return and find out they go to see what they can do against this man and his family. They listen to the pleas from Shechem and Hamor, and they reply that the only way Dinah could marry Shechem and for that matter the only way Jacob's daughters would marry any Hivite, was if they would all get circumcised. Rather than trying to get these men to physically wear the sign of the covenant they had with God, their intention was to make them weak. On the third day after their circumcision, they're still recovering and two of Jacob's sons comes into the village and kill all the men. The other brothers come in later and loot he village taking even the women and children they found.
Is there any significance to Jacob building an altar? Certainly. God calls Jacob to repentence and Jacob instructs his family to bathe, change clothes and to throw away all of the foreign gods they had acquired while looting the village of Hamor. God moves them away from where they were and takes them Bethel to build an altar and to have worship there. Once worship is concluded, they continue their journey where God reveals that Jacob's name is now Israel and that the land promised to Abraham and Isaac will become his as well. Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, dies in childbirth as she gives birth to Benjamin; and we discover that Isaac also dies.
The actions of murder and retaliation were not Jacob's doing. This was a decision by his sons. The end of chapter 34 shows Jacob saying that this deed has made his name "stink to high heaven." The cleansing and worship that followed was very significant and very needed.
How do you see weekly worship? Is it a time for personal cleansing and renewal? Or is it force of habit to just come and do your Sunday thing week after week? Jacob saw the need for he and his family to be made right with God and so the building of an altar and the worship that followed was very much a needed thing for his wellbeing and spiritual life. In the same way we should approach our time of worship as a needed thing for our wellbeing and spiritual life. We can come to be cleansed, forgiven, renewed and strengthened for the new week. And during the week we should live our lives in a way that reflects our having been in "Bethel (God's house)."
PRAYER: Loving God, change my perspective toward Your worship. Let it be a life-giving experience as I seek to bless and worship You. Keep me from seeing it only as a routine and ritual with little or no meaning. May every part of worship be a living experience for me. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
Today we're to study three chapters that come after Jacob and Esau' reunion, beginning with a terrible incident that leads to fatal consequences for those involved. Please read the assigned chapters.
Here is the study guide:
Wednesday: Read chapers 34, 35, and 36 and see if there is any significance between Jacob’s being called at this point in this life, to build an altar at Bethel?
In chapter 34, one of Jacob's daughters is sexually assaulted by one of the natives in the land in which they were living. Dinah is visiting some women in the country and when Shechem sees her, he desires her and takes her. (A good point to remind our women of all ages, to sign up for the Self-Defense Class we're offering in cooperation with the SMPD-remember sadly, that even 101 year old women get assaulted!). After the rape the man responsible falls in love with Dinah and wants to marry her. Jacob is angered by this act on his daughter but because his sons were away working, he couldn't do anything. Once they return and find out they go to see what they can do against this man and his family. They listen to the pleas from Shechem and Hamor, and they reply that the only way Dinah could marry Shechem and for that matter the only way Jacob's daughters would marry any Hivite, was if they would all get circumcised. Rather than trying to get these men to physically wear the sign of the covenant they had with God, their intention was to make them weak. On the third day after their circumcision, they're still recovering and two of Jacob's sons comes into the village and kill all the men. The other brothers come in later and loot he village taking even the women and children they found.
Is there any significance to Jacob building an altar? Certainly. God calls Jacob to repentence and Jacob instructs his family to bathe, change clothes and to throw away all of the foreign gods they had acquired while looting the village of Hamor. God moves them away from where they were and takes them Bethel to build an altar and to have worship there. Once worship is concluded, they continue their journey where God reveals that Jacob's name is now Israel and that the land promised to Abraham and Isaac will become his as well. Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, dies in childbirth as she gives birth to Benjamin; and we discover that Isaac also dies.
The actions of murder and retaliation were not Jacob's doing. This was a decision by his sons. The end of chapter 34 shows Jacob saying that this deed has made his name "stink to high heaven." The cleansing and worship that followed was very significant and very needed.
How do you see weekly worship? Is it a time for personal cleansing and renewal? Or is it force of habit to just come and do your Sunday thing week after week? Jacob saw the need for he and his family to be made right with God and so the building of an altar and the worship that followed was very much a needed thing for his wellbeing and spiritual life. In the same way we should approach our time of worship as a needed thing for our wellbeing and spiritual life. We can come to be cleansed, forgiven, renewed and strengthened for the new week. And during the week we should live our lives in a way that reflects our having been in "Bethel (God's house)."
PRAYER: Loving God, change my perspective toward Your worship. Let it be a life-giving experience as I seek to bless and worship You. Keep me from seeing it only as a routine and ritual with little or no meaning. May every part of worship be a living experience for me. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
