²⁴ Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “DON’T QUARREL ON THE WAY!” Genesis 45

DON’T SABOTAGE GOD’S RESCUE PLAN BY OUR WORDS.

Self-sabotage is when people do (or don’t do) things that block their success or prevent them from accomplishing their goals. It can happen consciously or unconsciously. (betterup.com)

Joseph’s last recorded words to his brothers before they left to go and tell Jacob he was still alive and God would use him to provide for all their needs in Egypt. ‘DON’T QUARREL ON THE WAY’, a last warning before they left him. The long journey back to Canaan could end in bitterness and strife if they didn’t guard their mouths. God has recorded those words for ALL OF US TO READ DOWN THE CENTURIES.

Paul gave his spiritual son Timothy, similar warnings in both the letters addressed to him under the New Covenant.

¹¹ Here is a trustworthy saying:

¹⁴ Keep reminding God’s people of these things. WARN THEM BEFORE GOD AGAINST QUARRELLING ABOUT WORDS; IT IS OF NO VALUE AND ONLY RUINS THOSE WHO LISTEN. 2Timothy 2

²³ Don’t have anything to do with FOOLISH AND STUPID ARGUMENTS, because you know THEY PRODUCE QUARRELS.²⁴ And the Lord’s servant MUST NOT QUARREL but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. ²⁵ Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 2 Timothy 2

⁴ they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and QUARRELS about words (there are people who are love to argue, DON’T BITE BACK) that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions … 1 Timothy 6

⁷ And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Exodus 17

Even Moses, the meekest man on earth, suffered because of the people’s quarrelling in the desert.

²⁴ Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “DON’T QUARREL ON THE WAY!” Genesis 45

Whatever path you’re on today, guard your mouth and don’t sabotage God’s good plans for you life.

Immanuel, Stay Strong, God is with us.

³⁶ Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. EVERYTHING IS AGAINST ME!” Genesis 42

42 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?”² He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” (Life or death decision) Genesis 42

Sometimes we are reluctant to step out and do what is necessary but circumstances may force our hand. There comes a time when we can delay no longer and if we do it will be to our own detriment. This may seem like a very scary situation for us, but in the case of Jacob and his family, God was behind their whole dilemma working out His deliverance! Stepping into the unknown is always scary and we should be wise and first commit our steps to the Lord.

³ Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. ⁴ But Jacob DID NOT SEND BENJAMIN, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. ⁵ So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also.

The people of God were not immune to the famine or crisis in the land where they lived, they had to deal with it, just the same as everyone else.

⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29

God later told the exiles in Babylon that He would answer THEIR prayers for the pagan city, SO THAT THEY WOULD BE BLESSED.

Jacob had been lied to by his sons and believed his favourite, Joseph, was dead. He was afraid to release Benjamin, his youngest and only son of Rachel to go down to Egypt. Yet, Benjamin would become a bargaining chip in buying the grain from Egypt because Joseph longed to see his younger brother.

Sometimes God will put His finger on something we hold dear and us to release it to Him. That can be painful but only when our hands have released the things we’re holding can He give us the new things He has for us.

In the biography of Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, he was in a house ministering to a very poor, sick woman. They desperately needed money to help her but he only had one large coin in his pocket, all he had in the world. He was fighting an inner battle, that he’d be willing to give a part of this money and then a larger part, but it wasn’t an option. It had to be all or nothing and finally after an impassioned plea by the husband he gave the ‘half crown’, all he possessed to the needy people. In future years God trusted Hudson Taylor with vast sums of money for the Gospel in China, but he had to pass the test by giving up all he had first.

Eventually Jacob had to trust his sons and surrender Benjamin to go down with them to Egypt. Is God speaking to some today, to step out in faith or to surrender something to Him? You’ll be blessed if you yield to the Spirit’s prompting on your life.

Immanuel, Stay Strong, God is with us.

²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. ‘I am pregnant by the man who owns these,’ she said. And she added, ‘See if you recognise whose seal and cord and staff these are.’

²⁶ Judah recognised them and said, ‘SHE IS MORE RIGHTEOUS THAN I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.’ And he did not sleep with her again. Genesis 38

We saw yesterday that Tamar (means ‘palm tree, date or date palm’) had tricked Judah into sleeping with her and getting her pregnant. Judah had wanted to kill her for becoming pregnant outside marriage, but then he realised that he himself was the father of the children.

Matthew 1 gives us the genealogy of Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus, the Messiah (The anointed One). Tamar is the first of five ladies mentioned in the human origin of Messiah.

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts”. Isaiah 55

Tamar is the first woman named in Matthew 1, there’s no cover up. God is a God who desires Truth!

⁶ BEHOLD, YOU DESIRE TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Psalm 51 (David’s heartfelt psalm of repentance after committing adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba)

⁵ Salmon the father of Boaz, WHOSE MOTHER WAS RAHAB, (possibly an innkeeper or prostitute).

Boaz the father of Obed, WHOSE MOTHER WAS RUTH, (Ruth was a woman of noble character, but a Moabitess)

Obed the father of Jesse,

⁶ and Jesse the father of King David.

Rahab is mentioned in the great chapter of Faith Heroes, Hebrews 11 and also by James 2:25 as being a righteous example by her actions.

⁶ and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

King David, was the father of Solomon, but once again no cover up, ‘by Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba’.

The last woman mentioned by name in Matthew 1 is Mary, the virgin mother of the Lord.

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 

An angel appeared to Joseph and told him to go ahead and take Mary for his wife. He became the human father of Jesus on earth.

The bottom line to all this is that God can deal with all the mess people cause in their lives, but He needs us to be truthful and not try to hide it when we’ve sinned. God is much more forgiving and willing to help than we know, but we have to admit and turn from our wrongs before He’ll help us. TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS.

Immanuel, Stay Strong, God is with us. Hallelujah

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” (Sir Walter Scott, 1808)

‘Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive’ means that when you lie or act dishonestly you are initiating problems and a domino structure of complications which eventually run out of control. (nosweatshakespeare.com)

Interestingly this quote is from a historical romance told in verse.

The account of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38 might well bear this inscription, yet God includes it in His word for all to read.

38 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. ² There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and (… had three sons to her). Genesis 38

⁶ Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death. 

Judah was the line of Messiah; we’re told nothing about Er’s sin but I wondered if the Lord was protecting that lineage. In the Temple there was the Holy Place, for Priests and beyond that the Most Holy Place, only for the High Priest.

⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfil your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.’

But Onan disobeyed and the Lord, ‘put him to death also’.

Then followed a ‘tangled web’, where Judah told Tamar to go and live in her father’s house as a widow until his youngest son Shelah had grown up.

¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.’ For he thought, ‘He may die too, just like his brothers.’ So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.

Judah withheld his youngest son from Tamar because he was afraid that he also might die.

¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep,

Judah lost his own wife but then went up to the sheep shearing. Meanwhile Tamar heard about it and disguised herself and went to meet him.

¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

Judah approached Tamar and asked her to sleep with him. She asked for his seal and it’s cord and his staff in pledge. Afterwards Tamar went back and resumed her life as a widow, but she’d  become pregnant by Judah. When it was discovered, Judah wanted to put her to death, but then she produced his seal, cord and staff. Judah was the father of twin boys, Perez and Zerah. Judah himself fathered the next generation in the line of the Messiah.

Tamar is the first of five women mentioned in the genealogy of Mary in Matthew’s Gospel. Far from her deeds being hidden, she is exonerated. Judah’s own words say it best;

²⁶ Judah recognised them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.’ And he did not sleep with her again. Genesis 38

Once we begin to lie and scheme, none of us knows the final outcome. God was merciful in the case of Judah and Tamar.

Immanuel, Stay Strong, God is with us.

Clothing in the natural may determine how others relate to us.  Clothing in the spirit will determine our future and our destiny.

37 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

² This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Genesis 37

Jacob felt a connection with the land where his father had lived in Canaan and settled there. Many times we’re drawn to the familiar and what we know.

Then Joseph appears as a seventeen year old shepherd, working with his half brothers and carrying bad reports to their father about them. Joseph may well have been different in nature to them, rather than vindictive. There’s no criticism of Joseph in the Bible and he’s regarded as a Type of the Messiah, a Saviour.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. ⁴ WHEN HIS BROTHERS SAW that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Genesis 37

Joseph’s robe sparked his brothers’ jealousy because it confirmed he was the favourite of their father. He had been given something that set him apart from the rest of the family.

⁵ In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, CLOTHE YOURSELVES WITH HUMILITY TOWARD ONE ANOTHER, because,

Those who seek the Lord will EVENTUALLY come out on top. (Paraphrase of a quote I read recently)

Genesis 35:23-26 lists Jacob’s wives and the sons born to each one of them, twelve in all. These sons, except for Benjamin, were all born to Jacob in Paddan Aram, not in Canaan.

36 This is the account of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom).

Genesis 36, a long chapter setting out the descendants of Esau. The first statement notes that, ‘Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan’. (The rabbis teach that both Adah and Judith were adulterous and idolatrous) Everything else follows from that short line! He chose wives, ‘who were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebecca’. Genesis 26:35 Sometimes we are tempted as people to think that if we just put more effort into something, or throw more resources at it that WE CAN FIX IT. Unfortunately it’s not always the case, certainly not with large numbers of offspring. The answer doesn’t always lie in trying harder, but in giving it over to God for His solution. Selah, pause and consider.

God told Abraham that He would bless Isaac and Ishmael, both sons would live in the blessings of God, though Isaac alone was the miracle child. We’re told that God had also blessed Esau, as well as Jacob.

⁶ Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob.⁷ Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock. Genesis 36

Esau, like his brother Jacob was fruitful and prospered, but there is no record of God in Esau’s life. Large families and wealth can be a major distraction, NO TIME FOR US TO THINK ABOUT GOD, TOO BUSY BUILDING OUR OWN INHERITANCE.

²² The blessing of the Lord brings wealth,
    and He adds no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10

When God blesses someone, then they really are blessed.

Jacob and Esau, twin brothers, may have appeared very similar to the casual onlooker, but they were really very different. Jacob had the Favour of God on his whole life, but Esau was a ‘type of the carnal man’. There was nothing of God in his life, though God had blessed him greatly. At the end of the time here, what a shame to realise that all our lives and work were for nothing and future generations may only perpetuate this way of life.

Truly we need to keep God front and centre of our time on this earth.

Immanuel, Stay Strong, God is with us.

Fathers Love Ministry welcomes your support today. Please donate at our website;

fathersloveministry.co.uk

We are available to seek personal words of encouragement and to counsel those who wish it online, contact us on our website above.

³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6

THE LORD IS NO ONE’S DEBTOR, HALLELUJAH.

God’s Hand is working out His purposes within the generations of families, even through or despite our humanity.

Jacob had returned to Bethel where God had met with him as he was leaving the land. God gave him a promise and sowed a dream in him that was to sustain him for twenty years.

¹⁵ I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU UNTIL I HAVE DONE WHAT I PROMISED YOU.” Genesis 28

God also showed Joseph (fourth generation) his future in two dreams, which God eventually brought to pass and rescued his father and whole family in Egypt. God tells us, ‘to put Him in Remembrance/REMIND HIM’ of the things His Word says and also Personal words spoken over our lives. It’s good to remind ourselves and declare such words over our future; there’s power in our words.

²⁶ PUT ME IN REMEMBRANCE;
Let us contend together;
State your case, that you may be acquitted/justified. Isaiah 43 NKJV

²⁶ Oh, remind me of this promise of forgiveness, for we must talk about your sins. Plead your case for my forgiving you. Isaiah 43 TLB

Religion preaches a God who is looking for things to condemn us, but the prophet says He’s looking for ways to withhold His judgement from us.

Genesis 35 tells us that God met with Jacob again and repeated His promise to him, (and his descendants) now he was back in the land. But the chapter also lists a number of significant family incidents for our attention. Families are important and take up huge amounts of our time and our lives.

Rachel’s nurse, Deborah, died and was buried under the oak at Bethel. Genesis 35:8 Next incident was the death in childbirth of Rachel herself, at the birth of Benjamin. Jacob later spoke of his sorrow at Rachel’s passing, but his words in Genesis 31:32 to Laban may have been responsible.

²¹ The tongue has the power of life and death,
    and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18

We must be careful to GUARD OUR WORDS, they have such power for good and bad.

We’re also told of Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn to Leah, committing a serious sin with his father’s concubine, Bilhah. Reuben didn’t lose his identity as part of the family, but he did later lose his place as the firstborn. Genesis 49:4

Finally, we’re told that Jacob, ‘came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba/Hebron’. We’re also told it was another place with strong family connections, ‘where Abraham and Isaac had stayed’. Isaac died there at a hundred and eighty years, ‘gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.’ Genesis 35:29

God knows and lists the details of families and generations. They are important to most of us and they’re recorded throughout His word as well, for example the genealogies of Jesus.

Immanuel, Stay Strong, God is with us. Hallelujah