The Dangers of a Relative Righteousness.

Then Judah identified them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah."
Genesis 38:26

This is not a speech delivered in the context of biblical morality. In fact, in this one short chapter, Judah lives more immorally and with impunity than any other short section of scripture describes. He is in contrast to his youngest brother, Joseph, who was presented with occasion to sin and fled from it. Judah's family is very immoral. From his sons, to himself, sexual sin prevails upon his household.

In this episode, Judah manages to get the widow of his immoral sons, Er and Onan, pregnant. He assumes she is a prostitute (which makes the situation even worse). She must deceive him to fulfill levirate marriage law, which required that the unmarried brother of a husband who died take a widow for his wife. When Judah refuses to give Tamar his youngest son in marriage, she resorts to deception to obtain a child. This is certainly a soap opera, no doubt.

It is in the context of lies, immorality, sexual promiscuity and prostitution that Judah makes this pronouncement that Tamer "is more righteous than I". That is certainly a vague and valueless statement given the circumstances. It does not ring with even a hint of holiness. It is the inevitable consequence of defining righteousness down in a deviant culture.

More and more, my culture looks like Judah's home. I find that immorality and sexual promiscuity have become the norm even in homes within the church. I am witnessing the pornification of American culture to the point that sexual deviancy is the joke in the average sitcom on television. Righteousness will become so relative as to be in non-existence, just as it was in Judah's household.

Pure water from a poisoned well.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
Genesis 37:3-4

Jacob could not seem to rise above the sins of his father. Favoritism had ruined his early years and poisoned his relationship with his brother, Esau. Yet he cannot seem to remember that pain when he magnifies the problem of playing favorites by elevating his youngest son, Joseph over all the others in his household. This favoritism resulted in his home looking more like a gang warfare zone with rivalries, sexual exploits, plots to murder, and deceit.

Joseph was innocently caught in the after affects of his father's sinful choices. Some people like to fault the young man for bringing a bad report to his father of his brother's behavior, but nowhere in scripture are we told that he lied about it or was malicious in intent. His brothers did behave badly, as evidenced by everything else we see them doing in this chapter and beyond. I believe he was speaking the truth in love when he did so. But because of the pre-existing animosity between Joseph and his family, no good would come of it.

Sometimes other people poison the well for us. Jacob poisoned the relationship that Joseph might have had with his brothers by giving him the robe that set him apart. He clearly favored him and the resentment that followed was inevitable. But Joseph had no control over that. In fact, his story in Genesis is remarkable in that despite everyone else around him being less than obedient, often directly defying God, Joseph remains constantly true, full of mature character, and used by God despite his experience.

So there is hope. All of us can be lifted up by God beyond the circumstances of sin around us that we may have no control over. I can control my response to temptation. I cannot control what others may do to me or their behaviors. And so Joseph shows us how God can graciously reward obedience even while we are sinned against repeatedly. There is a lot of hope in his story.

A providential parting of ways.

Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob.
Genesis 36:6

With Esau out of the land of Canaan, he is effectively out of the picture of the line of generations that God is drawing to himself to build the nation Israel. This is a providential parting. Esau is not angry, and it appears that the reconciliation of the brothers was indeed cordial, for Esau simply chose to move on. It was probably easy for him to do, since he had married Canaanite wives and chosen the life of the people of the land.

From here on out in Genesis we focus on Jacob (Israel) and the work that God was going to do to protect this seedling of a nation. But God also promised to make of Esau what He had promised to his grandfather Abraham, and indeed, Esau's departure lands him right where a nation can thrive: Edom. So there is the faithfulness of God even in this providential turn of events. Esau made a real choice to move on, but it was because God had materially blessed his family as well, and it was easiest for him to go where Canaanite leanings took him.

So God is proven faithful in His providence, in His provisions, and in His promises.

Technorati Tags: Genesis,Esau,Jacob,Providence

My Bethel

13    Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him.
14    And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.

Genesis 35:13-14

In heaven You live; earth is my home.

But speaking to me, You step down

and touch the rocky ground

and where You stand is holy

 

Earth is the place You meet me

and Your Word is clear as I see

what You want me to do and be

nothing less than as You are: holy

 

And the rocks where we have met

are set up again to commemorate

the fact that You are pure and great

and I am just not holy

 

So come to me, O Ancient One

and make me like Your Perfect Son

as with You I walk, You save me from

that which stains me. You make me holy

The worst in us might go to them.

The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

Genesis 34:13

Here is a case in which all of Jacob’s oldest sons acted just as he would act. They were deceivers. Jacob may have been given a new name, but his old nature lives in his sons. They felt justified in their actions because of the horrible sin perpetuated against their sister. She is raped by a noble in the land, and then that noble has the gall to ask for her in marriage.

Their plan was simple: weaken Shechem and his tribe through deceit and then murder the entire clan. That is exactly what they did. They insisted that in order for the marriage to take place, all adult men in the clan of Shechem would need to be circumcised. Then, after the operations had occurred, and then men were in no condition to defend themselves, Jacob’s sons brutally slaughtered every last one of them in retaliation.

Jacob’s pattern of deception knew no bounds. He would lie to and deceive the ones he was to love the most: his own family. The second generation of that sin found his sons acting more like a gang of thugs than a godly generation of good sons! This is the price we pay as parents when the worst of us may find its way into our kids.

I am seriously thinking this episode over in the light of having one teenager (really two…Zach turns twelve today, but I think in our culture teen issues start about age ten now) and knowing the struggles that are there. May God give me the grace, humility, and insight to keep them from becoming what is worst in me!

Technorati Tags: Genesis,Jacob,parenting

Anxious Meetings

3    He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
4    But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

Genesis 33:3-4

I have had my share of anxious meetings. Life dishes them out with some regularity. It might be sitting down with a doctor after some medical tests. It could be the boss saying, “Would you step into my office for a minute?” It might be a friend or relative calling with that uncertain question and rising inflection, “Can we talk?” There are so many ways in which a sudden turn can find life changing in a conversation or meeting with somebody.

God is there in those anxious times, as evidenced by His providential workings through what had been a notoriously broken relationship between the brother Jacob and Esau. When they parted ways, Esau had threatened to kill Jacob at the first convenient opportunity over Jacob’s robbing him of his father’s blessing. Now, at this meeting, Jacob presents his wronged brother a magnificent material gift of restitution, and when he does so, he has to talk Esau into accepting it, not because Esau is in a rage, but because Esau has mellowed so much that he is glad to see his brother again. Esau certainly had his spiritual immaturity issues (so did Jacob in big ways), but forgiveness did come quickly to him, and that was something God used graciously to restore Jacob/Israel to the Promised Land.’

God left the actions that Jacob chose to restore his relationship with Esau stand. He honored Jacob’s changing heart. He honored Esau’s changing heart. And the anxious meeting became a time of blessing. I should remember that when my uncertain conversations appear.

Technorati Tags: Genesis,Esau,Jacob,Anxiety

A New Name | A True Name

Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Genesis 32:2

This chapter marks a key turning point in the story of Jacob. His has been a most disappointing spiritual journey to date. He has been the most materialistically consumed of all the patriarchs. And now, with his return to the Promised Land, we see him encountering God in life changing ways.

This episode puzzles me, and I am not real sure if I can answer all the questions I have in this passage. I accept it as a real historical account though. God comes to Jacob when he is alone. He has sent his family behind him. He has divided his home like a military encampment, sending a gift to appease Esau ahead of him, his family in clearly favorited groupings behind him, and himself, alone in the middle. It is during that alone time that God comes to him in a sleepless night and in the form of a wrestling man, God jousts with Jacob until the break of day. A lifetime of outdoor shepherding must have made a strong man of the former mama’s favorite tentboy chef, because Jacob is in a draw match with God until finally God just touches him in the hip. With that touch God wins the bout and renames Jacob.

From this moment on, Jacob the deceiver becomes Israel the wrestler because he has prevailed against the Lord. His reward for the battle is a permanent limp. But the new name gives him a chance to forge a new spiritual identity with a personal relationship with God, which is exactly what was needed at this juncture. It adds spiritual drama to the personal drama already enfolding in the text, and shows us what God is accomplishing in this story.

Like Jacob, there are times when I need to be wrestled to my senses. I need the clean break, the new name, and the fresh start. And just like Jacob, I find such refreshing in the touch of God, even if God makes me wrestle to get it, and a limp is left to remind me of God’s touch. That is the way God works. And the crutch I need in order to move along again becomes a precious thing.

Technorati Tags: Genesis,Jacob,Israel