Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light

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Peter Adams, Sunrise over Cat Mountain

 The most joyful and comforting and inspiring project of this young year has been Blogging Through the Bible.

For one, given that I am also a mum, and a writer, and a pet-owner, and an owner of a publishing company which solely supports our family, and a middle-aged woman who needs to exercise to preserve what strength I have, I have accepted it will not be as good as if I had Thomas Merton’s life, let’s say, and lived in a shed in the wilds of Kentucky, with endless hours of silence and leisure stretching in front of me.
And I don’t want to trade. I have won fellowships to artists’ colonies in America, where my breakfasts and lunch were brought to my studio and my dinner cooked, and all I had to do was read and write and think, and by the end of two weeks, I could not wait to return to my old tumble-drier of a life.
(And is liberating for me to release work that is not my very best. Because if every thing we did was our very best work, we would do very little. It is a daily exercise in humility!!)
But I do have enough of silence and solitude for my head to become an echo-chamber for the phrases and ideas I pick up in my reading.
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Mt. 4.
Imagine that.  Walking in darkness, then seeing a great light. 
And that is Christ.
When I first became a Christian, I had difficult years when I had to accept by faith that I was a new creation, because I was still struggling so much with sin. I had a dreadful temper, for instance. And so did Roy. For years, we found each other impossible to live with. Fortunately, we also found each other impossible to live without, and so, we are together 21 years later, much milder, much sweeter, and–who would have imagined it? almost miraculously–happy. 
During those years, I would not support evangelistic missionaries financially. We happily tithed right for the first 15 or so years of our marriage (a practice we are no longer as good at) but to World Vision, Compassion and Samaritan’s Purse and the Heifer Project. I felt I needed to see faith transform me and the way I lived my daily life before I would financially support preachers rather than those involved in social action. 
Re-reading Matthew this month, I realized that yes, faith has changed me and my life. 
Jesus is a great light to me. 
How?
I jotted down a list in any old order.
1. Guidance. Specific direction on what to do.
2. An assurance of spiritual protection when I am following directions. 
3 Comfort in depression
4 Comfort from his word. 
5 The waterfall of intense grace and joy which he can pour into my anxious fragmented spirit. His offer, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”
6 The quite literal lifting of fear when I turn to him. 
7 The sense that he loves me. That he is sometimes amused by me. That he accepts me as I am. That I make him smile.
8 I know my life is in his hands, and he can work out all things for good.
9 When sad, unjust, unfair things happen, in times of reverses or financial loss, I know my affairs are in his hands, and he can bring good out of these things.
10 I can trust my children and husband into his hands. And their futures. And my future. And old age.
11 I can trust my health, and my safety and my house when I travel into his hands.
12 He gives me ideas when I have none.
13  Oh, there is so much wisdom in his words. He teaches me how to do life. 
14 I can talk to him during sleepless nights.  And he talks right back. In fact, that’s when he’s most loquacious.
15 Talking to him calms me down when I am agitated. 
16 I love him, and that brings much light into my life. 
He tells me to stop blogging and go to sleep when it is nearly midnight, and I am rambling, and waxing over-lyrical. 

Jacob, the Deceiver is Blessed. Genesis 29-30, Day 27, Jan 27

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Genesis 30

 1 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!”
 2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
Jacob recognized there are limits to his powers to manipulate.
He was always trying to wrest blessing by his own efforts. Here he acknowledges that blessing can only come from God.
 3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
Ancient familial ways of coping  become our default reaction. Rachel takes matters into her own hands as Sarah did.
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.
 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.
 9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
 14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
 15 But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”
   “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
 16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
 17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
 19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.
 21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
 22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Flocks Increase

 25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”  27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” 28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
 29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
God’s inalienable blessing because of his great mercy–unlinked to Jacob’s deserving.
 31 “What shall I give you?” he asked.
   “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
Most commonly the sheep were all white, and the goats all black. So on the face of it, this was a very modest request.
 34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
A shocking deception. Though Jacob is under God’s protection and blessing, he is still reaping what he has sown. 
 37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Like Laban, Jacob uses deception of his own. And the scheme worked, but only because of God’s intervention, not because of Jacob’s attempts at genetics!!


Genesis 31

 1 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” 2 And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been. 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.”
Every signal–from God, Laban, Laban’s son, and his own wives warned Jacob that it was now time to return to Canaan.

 4 So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. 5 He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.
God’s inalienable blessing.
 10 “In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’”
While Laban has exploited Jacob for his own advantage, God has consistently worked against Laban’s schemes.
 14 Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? 15 Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. 16 Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
 17 Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels, 18 and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
 19 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. 21 So he fled with all he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.

NIV–As he had to flee from Esau earlier. Jacob’s devious dealings produced only hostility from which he had to flee.
Devious dealings can get your own way in the short run, and the unremitting hostility of those you have deceived in the long run. 

Laban Pursues Jacob

 22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23 Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” 

God intervenes with warnings, speaking even to people who were not yet his covenant people.

25 Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. 27 Why did you run off secretly and deceive me?
Jacob’s character, reflected in his name, the deceiver, is emphasized again and again.
 Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? 28 You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. 29 I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”
 31 Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. 32 But if you find anyone who has your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
Jacob, the deceiver was deceived even by his beloved wife.
A rash vow, which contributed to Rachel’s early death, perhaps.
 33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.
 35 Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods.
 36 Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? 37 Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.
 38 “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. 40 This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”
 43 Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? 44 Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.”
 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.[b]
 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed. 49 It was also called Mizpah,[c] because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
 51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. 53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.”
   So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.
 55 Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.
God intervenes to secure Jacob from Laban’s designs to keep Jacob’s family under his control.




Blessing and Protection, Psalm 11, Genesis 30-31, Day 27, Jan 27

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Relax, The Lord is in his Temple. Psalm 11, Day 26, Jan 26

The light of God surrounds me,
The love of God enfolds me,
The power of God protects me,
The presence of God watches over me.
Wherever I am God is
And all is well.

 

One of the unexpected side-effects of blogging through the Bible is that it calms me down. Especially when I attempt to blog a Psalm.


The message of this Psalm is Relax. God is in charge, and he has got it all under control.

Psalm 11

 1 In the LORD I take refuge. 

Just the very words are calming.

   How then can you say to me: 
   “Flee like a bird to your mountain. 
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; 
   they set their arrows against the strings 
to shoot from the shadows 
   at the upright in heart. 

When he considers the might of the opposition, everything seems hopeless. However, we are always under God’s protection, and no arrows can reach us unless he decides to let them reach us.

Hannah Whitall Smith’s “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.”


Chapter Twelve: “Is God in Everything?”
“All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.”


 I learned this lesson practically and experimentally long years before I knew the scriptural truth concerning it. I was attending a prayer-meeting held in the interests of the life of faith, when a strange lady rose to speak, and I looked at her, wondering who

Jacob, the Deceiver is Blessed. Genesis 29-30, Day 27, Jan 27

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Genesis 30

 1 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!”
 2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
Jacob recognized there are limits to his powers to manipulate.
He was always trying to wrest blessing by his own efforts. Here he acknowledges that blessing can only come from God.
 3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
Ancient familial ways of coping  become our default reaction. Rachel takes matters into her own hands as Sarah did.
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.
 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.
 9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
 14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
 15 But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”
   “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
 16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
 17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
 19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.
 21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
 22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Flocks Increase

 25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”  27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” 28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
 29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
God’s inalienable blessing because of his great mercy–unlinked to Jacob’s deserving.
 31 “What shall I give you?” he asked.
   “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
Most commonly the sheep were all white, and the goats all black. So on the face of it, this was a very modest request.
 34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
A shocking deception. Though Jacob is under God’s protection and blessing, he is still reaping what he has sown. 
 37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Like Laban, Jacob uses deception of his own. And the scheme worked, but only because of God’s intervention, not because of Jacob’s attempts at genetics!!


Genesis 31

 1 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” 2 And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been. 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.”
Every signal–from God, Laban, Laban’s son, and his own wives warned Jacob that it was now time to return to Canaan.

 4 So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. 5 He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.
God’s inalienable blessing.
 10 “In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’”
While Laban has exploited Jacob for his own advantage, God has consistently worked against Laban’s schemes.
 14 Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? 15 Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. 16 Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
 17 Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels, 18 and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
 19 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. 21 So he fled with all he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.

NIV–As he had to flee from Esau earlier. Jacob’s devious dealings produced only hostility from which he had to flee.
Devious dealings can get your own way in the short run, and the unremitting hostility of those you have deceived in the long run. 

Laban Pursues Jacob

 22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23 Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” 

God intervenes with warnings, speaking even to people who were not yet his covenant people.

25 Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. 27 Why did you run off secretly and deceive me?
Jacob’s character, reflected in his name, the deceiver, is emphasized again and again.
 Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? 28 You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. 29 I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”
 31 Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. 32 But if you find anyone who has your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
Jacob, the deceiver was deceived even by his beloved wife.
A rash vow, which contributed to Rachel’s early death, perhaps.
 33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.
 35 Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods.
 36 Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? 37 Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.
 38 “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. 40 This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”
 43 Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? 44 Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.”
 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.c]’>[c] because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
 51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. 53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.”
   So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.
 55 Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.
God intervenes to secure Jacob from Laban’s designs to keep Jacob’s family under his control.

Relax, The Lord is in his Temple. Psalm 11, Day 26, Jan 26

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The light of God surrounds me,
The love of God enfolds me,
The power of God protects me,
The presence of God watches over me.
Wherever I am God is
And all is well.

Image credit

One of the unexpected side-effects of blogging through the Bible is that it calms me down. Especially when I attempt to blog a Psalm.

The message of this Psalm is Relax. God is in charge, and he has got it all under control.

Psalm 11

For the director of music. Of David.

 1 In the LORD I take refuge. 
Just the very words are calming.

   How then can you say to me: 
   “Flee like a bird to your mountain. 
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; 
   they set their arrows against the strings 
to shoot from the shadows 
   at the upright in heart. 

When he considers the might of the opposition, everything seems hopeless. However, we are always under God’s protection, and no arrows can reach us unless he decides to let them reach us.

Hannah Whitall Smith’s “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.”


                           Chapter Twelve: “Is God in Everything?”
“All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.”


 I learned this lesson practically and experimentally long years before I knew the scriptural truth concerning it. I was attending a prayer-meeting held in the interests of the life of faith, when a strange lady rose to speak, and I looked at her, wondering who she could be, little thinking she was to bring a message to my soul which would teach me a grand practical lesson. She said she had great difficulty in living the life of faith, on account of the second causes that seemed to her to control nearly everything that concerned her. Her perplexity became so great that at last she began to ask God to teach her the truth about it, whether He really was in everything or not.
 After praying this for a few days, she had what she described as a vision. She thought she was in a perfectly dark place, and that there advanced toward her, from a distance, a body of light which gradually surrounded and enveloped her and everything around her. As it approached, a voice seemed to say, “This is the presence of God! This is the presence of God!” While surrounded with this presence, all the great and awful things in life seemed to pass before her—fighting armies, wicked men, raging beasts, storms and pestilences, sin and suffering of every kind. She shrank back at first in terror; but she soon saw that the presence of God so surrounded and enveloped herself and each one of these things that not a lion could reach out its paw, nor a bullet fly through the air, except as the presence of God moved out of the way to permit it. And she saw that if there were ever so thin a film, as it were, of this glorious Presence between herself and the most terrible violence, not a hair of her head could be ruffled, nor anything touch her, except as the Presence divided to let the evil through. Then all the small and annoying things of life passed before her; and equally she saw that there also she was so enveloped in this presence of God that not a cross look, nor a harsh word, nor petty trial of any kind could affect her, unless God’s encircling presence moved out of the way to let it.
Her difficulty vanished. Her question was answered forever. God was in everything; and to her henceforth there were no second causes. She saw that her life came to her, day by day and hour by hour, directly from the hand of God, let the agencies which should seem to control it be what they might. And never again had she found any difficulty in an abiding consent to His will and an unwavering trust in His care. 
http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2011/01/journey-from-worry-and-anxiety-to-peace.html



3 When the foundations are being destroyed, 
   what can the righteous do?”

Rest. Look at God.


4 The LORD is in his holy temple; 
   the LORD is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
   his eyes examine them.
5 The LORD examines the righteous,
   but the wicked, those who love violence,
   he hates with a passion.
6 On the wicked he will rain
   fiery coals and burning sulfur;
   a scorching wind will be their lot.

The Lord observes everyone one earth. His eyes examine them. I have not seen justice done in every case in which I have been wronged, or slandered or misrepresented. In a couple, surprisingly, I have.  The only thing to do when the wicked apparently prosper is to leave it in God’s hands for him to deal with.

 7 For the LORD is righteous,
   he loves justice;
   the upright will see his face.

Leave your affairs in God’s hands, if you have been unfairly treated. He sees. 
And the upright will see his face, which is one of the greatest experiences there is. 

Relax, The Lord is in his Temple. Psalm 11, Day 26, Jan 26

By

The light of God surrounds me,
The love of God enfolds me,
The power of God protects me,
The presence of God watches over me.
Wherever I am God is
And all is well.

Image credit

One of the unexpected side-effects of blogging through the Bible is that it calms me down. Especially when I attempt to blog a Psalm.

The message of this Psalm is Relax. God is in charge, and he has got it all under control.

Psalm 11

For the director of music. Of David.

 1 In the LORD I take refuge. 
Just the very words are calming.

   How then can you say to me: 
   “Flee like a bird to your mountain. 
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; 
   they set their arrows against the strings 
to shoot from the shadows 
   at the upright in heart. 

When he considers the might of the opposition, everything seems hopeless. However, we are always under God’s protection, and no arrows can reach us unless he decides to let them reach us.

Hannah Whitall Smith’s “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.”


                           Chapter Twelve: “Is God in Everything?”
“All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.”


 I learned this lesson practically and experimentally long years before I knew the scriptural truth concerning it. I was attending a prayer-meeting held in the interests of the life of faith, when a strange lady rose to speak, and I looked at her, wondering who she could be, little thinking she was to bring a message to my soul which would teach me a grand practical lesson. She said she had great difficulty in living the life of faith, on account of the second causes that seemed to her to control nearly everything that concerned her. Her perplexity became so great that at last she began to ask God to teach her the truth about it, whether He really was in everything or not.
 After praying this for a few days, she had what she described as a vision. She thought she was in a perfectly dark place, and that there advanced toward her, from a distance, a body of light which gradually surrounded and enveloped her and everything around her. As it approached, a voice seemed to say, “This is the presence of God! This is the presence of God!” While surrounded with this presence, all the great and awful things in life seemed to pass before her—fighting armies, wicked men, raging beasts, storms and pestilences, sin and suffering of every kind. She shrank back at first in terror; but she soon saw that the presence of God so surrounded and enveloped herself and each one of these things that not a lion could reach out its paw, nor a bullet fly through the air, except as the presence of God moved out of the way to permit it. And she saw that if there were ever so thin a film, as it were, of this glorious Presence between herself and the most terrible violence, not a hair of her head could be ruffled, nor anything touch her, except as the Presence divided to let the evil through. Then all the small and annoying things of life passed before her; and equally she saw that there also she was so enveloped in this presence of God that not a cross look, nor a harsh word, nor petty trial of any kind could affect her, unless God’s encircling presence moved out of the way to let it.
Her difficulty vanished. Her question was answered forever. God was in everything; and to her henceforth there were no second causes. She saw that her life came to her, day by day and hour by hour, directly from the hand of God, let the agencies which should seem to control it be what they might. And never again had she found any difficulty in an abiding consent to His will and an unwavering trust in His care. 
http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2011/01/journey-from-worry-and-anxiety-to-peace.html



3 When the foundations are being destroyed, 
   what can the righteous do?”

Rest. Look at God.


4 The LORD is in his holy temple; 
   the LORD is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
   his eyes examine them.
5 The LORD examines the righteous,
   but the wicked, those who love violence,
   he hates with a passion.
6 On the wicked he will rain
   fiery coals and burning sulfur;
   a scorching wind will be their lot.

The Lord observes everyone one earth. His eyes examine them. I have not seen justice done in every case in which I have been wronged, or slandered or misrepresented. In a couple, surprisingly, I have.  The only thing to do when the wicked apparently prosper is to leave it in God’s hands for him to deal with.

 7 For the LORD is righteous,
   he loves justice;
   the upright will see his face.

Leave your affairs in God’s hands, if you have been unfairly treated. He sees. 
And the upright will see his face, which is one of the greatest experiences there is. 

Jesus loves through a busy day, Matthew 9, Day 26, Jan 26

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Jesus heals a Blind Man, El Greco.

Matthew 9
18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
 20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
 22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
I have often wondered as to what constitutes the difference between a garden-variety Christian, and a radiant, joyful one.  Here are some: faith in God’s power and ability, and the willingness to obey.
Apparently, a half-hearted “Let’s give it a try,” might not have healed this woman. Her faith, however, did so.
The simple touching faith of these individuals activated God’s power in their lives.





23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.

What strikes me is that this is not an efficient way of working. Jesus is preaching, and is interrupted by a desperate synagogue leader. He responds, but on the way, heals someone else who comes up to him.
He interrupts preaching to go to raise the dead, interrupts that to heal a sick woman.
And yet he died saying, “I have done the work you have given me to do.”
How could he live like that? 
Brother Lawrence– “The time of work does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess GOD in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.”
Perhaps living in the consciousness that there is a stairway between you and heaven, with grace descending, and angels ascending and descending, and a waterfall pouring into your thirsty soul, and knowing that you can can escape into the presence of God can help you possess your soul in patience through a busy day.

This prefigures Jesus’s ultimate power over death shown in his resurrection

 27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

 28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
   “Yes, Lord,” they replied.
 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.


So would the Son of God not have healed them if they did not believe he was able to? Apparently so.


In which areas of your life do you possess weak faith? Ask God to increase your faith. Pray to see his activity in these areas.


Are you operating on hope rather than faith?


Isaiah 35:5 “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened.”

 32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
 34 But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”
Nothing and no one is immune from criticism–not even making the mute speak.
Jealousy and criticism from your competitors are to be expected no matter what you do. Keep your focus on Christ.
Isaiah 35:5 Then will the mute tongue shout for joy.
 35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 

His teaching and proclamation was accompanied by healings.


36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
One might expect that this is a twentieth century phenomenon with the too-muchness of our day. However, 20 centuries ago, people still felt harassed and helpless and lacking direction.
The leaders had failed in their responsibility to shepherd.
Jesus asks us to pray that the sheep would find a shepherd.  I will do so now.

A Stairway to Heaven, Genesis 28-29, Day 25, Jan 25

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William Blake, Stairway to Heaven

Genesis 28
 1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
The power of these Old Testament blessings–and traditional and contemporary Jewish paternal blessings, perhaps–is that they were addressed to God in prayer. They were prayers spoken aloud, destiny-inducing prayers.

 6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

 10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He 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. 
I love this. Prayer is the stairway to heaven. Heaven opens to us anywhere, and at any time, we sit down and send up the magic staircase.
A ladder between heaven and earth. God now dwells as much on earth as in heaven.
The only pre-conditions I think for setting up and anchoring this staircase are a repentant heart. A pure heart, preferably, and if not, a heart that by repentance is purified. 


13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 
A free gift given to the schemer. 


14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go,
Sweet words of promise repeated by Christ


and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Again, sweet words to strengthen Jacob through many years of travail.

 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 

How many times in my life has the Lord been in a place of disappointment, in a place of injustice, in a place of failure, in a place of glacial slowness, and I was not aware of it. 
I feel sorry now for the time I spent in bitterness and resentment. The Lord was in that place, and I was not aware of it. 

17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Not just Bethel, but the gates which slide open to us when we pray. 
NIV–Jesus himself is the bridge between heaven and earth
Brilliant!! A stairway between heaven and earth, and God himself at the top of the stairway speaking words of reassurance, comfort and prophecy. 
And why does he give Jacob this vision, after Jacob’s lies, deception and hard-balled manipulation?
Because of his great mercy.

 18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

A tenth was a King’s share. Jacob thereby will acknowledges God as his Lord and King.
He is not yet fully committed to the Lord. It is a conditional vow. 


Genesis 29

Jacob Arrives in Paddan Aram

 1 Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 2 There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

 4 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?”
   “We’re from Harran,” they replied.
 5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?”
   “Yes, we know him,” they answered.
 6 Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?”
   “Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”
 7 “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
 8 “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”
 9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. 12 He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.
 13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. 14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”
Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

    After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak[a] eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
 19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” 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.
 21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”
 22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. 24 And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.
 25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
 26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
The deceiver is deceived. He reaps what he sows. And so it works with grinding inevitability.
NIV, Jacob, deceiver in name as well as in behaviour has himself been deceived. The one who tried everything to obtain the benefits of the firstborn has now, against his will, received the first born.
As he manipulated away his brother’s birthright, so he too has been cruelly deceived into working seven years for a wife he does not particularly love.


28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 30 Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

Jacob’s Children


 31 When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 
God in his own way is just.  “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I complain to thee,/ Yet I would plead my case before thee.” Jeremiah 12.
32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

 33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.
 34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.
 35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

Interestingly, the one for whom she praised God, rather than used as a sure basis for gaining the love of Jacob, proved the ancestor of Jesus. 


“The heart has its reasons of which reason never dreams,” Blaise Pascal. If love does not come freely, it is near impossible for it to be “earned,” as Leah sadly discovers.