Looking for Genesis

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25) Genesis 23-24

Sarah lived for 127 years. And Abraham buys a field to bury his wife. Then he asked his oldest servant who is in charge of his household to find a wife for Isaac from his country and his relatives. So the servant goes to the city of Nahor. Before entering the city, he stops at a well of water where women come to draw water. He prays to Abraham's God and asks him to find a wife for Isaac, the one who will answer him “take a drink, and I will also water your camels”. Then Rebekah arrives, she is very beautiful and a virgin and she answers Abraham’s servant. When he hears that she belongs to Abraham’s family, he asks her if they can spend the night at her family’s house and she says yes. Then she accepts to get married with Isaac.


- Abraham wants a wife for his son Isaac!


- But she must belong to his family and worship God!


- So he asks his servants to go back to his country and find a wife for Isaac!


- And God keeps blessing Abraham so Isaac can get the right woman!

 

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26) Genesis 25


Abraham takes another woman and gets children. Abraham dies when he is 175. Ishmael dies when he is 137. When Isaac gets married with Rebekah, he is 40. Rebekah is barren so Isaac keeps pleading with God regarding his wife. Thus she becomes pregnant and in her womb two sons struggle with each other. So she asks God and he tells her that her two sons will become two nations and one nation will be stronger than the other one and the older will serve the younger. So Rebekah has twins. The first to get out is Esau and the second one is Jacob. And Jacob is holding the heel of Esau. At this time, Isaac is 60. Esau becomes a skilled hunter and a man of the field and Jacob is a blameless man dwelling in tents. Isaac prefers Esau because he brings game whereas Rebekah loves Jacob. On one occasion, Jacob buys Esau’s right as firstborn for a meal of bread and lentil stew. Thus Esau despises the birthright.


- It is really an interesting story!


- We get two twins!


- And before they get out of their mother’s womb God chooses Jacob!


- He knows how they will behave in the future!


- He knows Jacob will behave better than Esau!

- And it has nothing to do with education!


- So many things to think about!

 

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27) Genesis 25


- WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THE TWINS?


- When we think about Job, we see an old man -even if they used to live longer – who keeps being faithful!


- Faithfulness looks like a magnet which moves you in a positive direction and relationship to God!


- And for Job there is no other way!


- When we think about Daniel, he is young, it is the same magnet and each time the relationship to God appears stronger and stronger!


- When we think about Samuel, it starts in his mother’s womb and her mother sending him as a child to serve God in God’s house!


- And once again there is only one magnet and one positive direction!


- With the kings, it is the same but in the other direction, power pushes them in a negative direction and their relationship appears weaker and weaker!


- With the Israelites, it’s the same negative influence and direction but they follow the other nations’ behavior!


- Here with the two twins, the older appears stronger and the younger more resolute and at the end the older and stronger will serve his brother!


- One is connected to his father, the other to his mother!


- And God knows how they will behave!


- Does God know the influence they will receive or follow?


- Because each one will keep going his way, a straight way to his future as God says it before they are born!


- Because if we take the example of Paul, he was sincere, acting according to what he thought was right, but in fact, he was fighting against God and Jesus!


- So he was chosen because he was sincere!


- And he was put back on the right track!


- And he did much more work than the others!


- And he didn’t need any training!


- When he started his new life, he was directly operational!

 

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28) Genesis 26


- The story repeats itself!


- Abraham used to speak about his wife as his sister because he was afraid of being killed!


- His son Isaac now does the same with his wife Rebekah because she is beautiful!

- And Isaac keeps living among the Philistines according to God’s will!


- Being blessed by God, he reaps 10 times what he sowed!


- he becomes wealthy and very wealthy!


- And he gets many animals!


- And the Philistines begin to envy him!


- So they take soil and stop all the wells dug by his father’s servants!


- And Abimelech tells him to go away because he has grown far stronger than they are!

- So he changes places!


- One night God appears to him and says: “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your offspring on account of Abraham my servant.”


- Later Abimelech comes to him and offers him to make a covenant between them because God is with Isaac!


- When he is 40, Esau takes as wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and also Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite!


- They are a source of great grief to Isaac and Rebekah!


- Gradually Esau goes away from God!


- He goes to the negative pole as if attracted by a magnet!


- And it culminates with getting married with two Hittite women having other gods!


- So it can only be worse and worse!


- Two poles positive and negative, two magnets, two powers!


- No luck!


- It depends on each one and on your decision and if you keep it or not!


- But remember there is no standstill!


- If you don’t move ahead you go backwards!

 

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29) Genesis 27


Isaac sees death coming so he wants to bless his son Esau. But first he asks him to hunt some wild game so he can have a tasty fish before blessing him. Rebekah hears Isaac so she tells Jacob to get two young goats so she can prepare a tasty dish for Isaac in order that he may bless him instead of Esau. Then she dresses Jacob with Esau’s finest garments and she puts the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the hairless part of his neck to be like Esau. And Isaac blesses Jacob. Then Esau goes to Isaac but Isaac tells him he has already blessed Jacob without knowing it. Esau wants to take revenge on Jacob so Rebekah tells Jacob to run away to her brother Laban at Haran.


- God favors Jacob because he acts as it pleases God!


- Esau does the reverse!


- Both will have according to their actions!


- Rebekah knows it so she helps Jacob!


- Isaac only sees Esau as a hunter and someone who can bring wild game at home!


- Personal choices?


- God’s eyes and man’s eyes!


- Two very different ways!


- It is easier to get man’s eyes!


- it requires no effort!


- It is much more difficult to get God’s eyes!


- It requires a lot of effort!

 

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30) Genesis 27

Isaac tells Jacob to go to their family and get a wife from them. So Jacob goes to Laban the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. God appears to Jacob and tells him he will become a great nation and get the promised land. And Jacob makes a vow to God that if he comes back to the house of his father safely then God will certainly has proven to be his God.


- And God keeps blessing Jacob as he did with Isaac!


- And Jacob will get a wife from his family!


- And he will come back safely!


- ONCE AGAIN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND AN INDIVIDUAL NOT A PEOPLE!


- And both God and Jacob will keep their promise toward each other!

 

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31) Genesis 28


Isaac tells Jacob to go to Paddanaram to the house of Bethuel, his mother’s father and get a wife from the daughters of Laban, his mother’s brother. So Jacob does according to his father’s will. There, He has a dream in which God tells him he will get the land of Canaan. And Jacob makes a vow that God will become his God if he can go back safely to his father’s house.


- As usual in the Bible, it is a relationship between God and one of his faithful servants!


- But in no way it can be a part-time faithful servant!


- It can only be a 24-hour faithful servant!


- Someone who is really looking for God’s word!


- And not an imitation of God’s word!


- And definitely not man’s word or tradition!

 

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32) Genesis 29


Jacob meets Rachel the daughter of Laban, she comes with the sheep. Jacob waters her father’s sheep. Then he kisses Her and tells her that he is the relative of her father. And Rachel runs off and tells her father. So Jacob stays with Laban a full month. Jacob has fallen in love with Rachel so he works for Laban for seven years to get her. But Laban finally gives Leah to him because she is older. And Jacob must serve seven more years to get Rachel. Because Leah was unloved, God made her pregnant but Rachel was barren. And Leah Got four sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah).


- We see Laban who accepts to give Rachel to Jacob!


- But he first gives him Leah because she is older!


- Then he gives Rachel as a second wife but Jacob must work seven more years!


- They belong to the same family!


- But Laban tricked Jacob so he works 14 years in total!


- But Because Jacob is in love with Rachel he accepts to work seven more years!


- So at the time it was normal to give various daughters to the same man!


- It was quite different from God’s law!


- Thus from the beginning man used to turn God’s law into man’s law!


- In fact, men just followed Adam’s path!


- The easiest way!

 

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33) Genesis 30


- Rachel is jealous of her sister Leah because she has children!


- She asks Jacob for children!


- So she tells Jacob to have relations with her slave girl Bilhah so she can have children too!


- And she gives birth to Dan!


- And then a second child Naphtali!


- And Leah gives Jacob her servant Zilpah who gives birth to Gad!


- And another son Asher!


- Reuben brings mandrakes to his mother Leah!


- Rachel asks for some mandrakes!


- So Rachel buys some mandrakes in exchange of a night for Leah with Jacob!


- And she gives birth to Issachar!


- And then another son Zebulun and a daughter Dinah!


- Then Rachel can get a son Joseph!


- Then Jacob wants to go back to his land!


- Jacob asks as a wage every sheep speckled and with color-patched and speckled one among she-goats!


- So Jacob does in a way to get strong animals!


- And he becomes very prosperous!


- Maybe you remember the case of Samuel’s father who had two wives and there was fights between the two because his father preferred one and the other had children!


- Here it is the same story: Rachel doesn’t get children and she is the beloved one while Leah gets children!


- And both women are fighting!


- When men do according to their will, it means more trouble!


- But they always like it that way!


- That’s why we are where we are and why we are going where we are going!


- It is pure logic!

- Man will never understand except when God takes control of the world’s affairs!

 

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34) Genesis 31


- Laban becomes jealous of Jacob because he is more prosperous than him!


- Then God tells him to go back to his land!


- Laban has tried to cheat him by changing his wages ten times but God has always favored Jacob!


- Then Jacob goes away without saying anything to Laban!

- And Rachel steals the teraphim statues belonging to her father!


- Three days later, Laban is told that Jacob has gone away!


- So Laban and his brothers pursue Jacob!


- At night, in a dream, God tells Laban to be careful with Jacob!


- Then Laban asks Jacob why he got away in such a way!


- He can harm Jacob but God appears to him to be careful!


- And Jacob explains he was afraid that Laban would take away his wives by force!


- Jacob didn’t know Rachel had stolen the statues!


- But Laban can’t find the statues!


- And Jacob says that he has been a good worker for Laban but Laban hasn’t been acting properly with him!


- So they both make a covenant between each other!


- Finally Laban returns to his home!


- We can see that in terms of personal interests, problems always occur between men and it is the same among members of the same family!


- It is another example which shows why God must take the lead among men because they are unable to live in peace!


- They always get into trouble!


- It has always been so and it will always be so if God is not our leader!

 

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35) Genesis 32


- Jacob meets with God’s angels!


- Then he sends messengers to his brother Esau in Edom!


- In fact, he is afraid of Esau!

- Thus he divides his people in two groups so one group will be able to escape if Esau attacks them!

- And Jacob prays to God to protect him against Esau!


- And he sends gifts to his brother that are many animals!


- Then a man begins to wrestle with him until the dawn breaks!


- But he doesn’t let the man go before being blessed!


- And the man tells that from now he will be called Israel because he has contended with God and at last he has prevailed!


- Thus Jacob takes precautions and he also asks help from God!

 

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36) Genesis 33

-Esau comes to Jacob with 400 men!


- Jacob puts his female servants and their children first, then his two wives and their children!


- Then he goes ahead of them and bows down to the earth seven times as he comes near to his brother!


- But Esau runs to meet him and he embraces him and kisses him!


- Esau doesn’t want anything from his brother because he has a great many possessions!


- But Jacob wants his brother to keep his gifts!


- Finally, Jacob arrives in the city of Shechem in Canaan!


- And Jacob is back to his land of his father and God has blessed him all the time!

 

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37) Genesis 34


- Shechem rapes Dinah and finally falls in love with her!


- He tells his father he wants to marry her!


- Then Shechem’s father goes to see Jacob and proposes marriage alliances and to share the land!


- But Jacob’s sons are angry so they ask for all the men to be circumcised!


- So the men are circumcised but when they are still in pain Jacob’s sons go to the city and kill all the men and take the animals and women and children and possessions!


- But Jacob condemns his sons because he fears that the inhabitants of the land will attack them and annihilate them because they are few!


- Here we can find the roots of Israel’s bad behavior!


- How is it possible to trust such people who were offered an alliance and instead killed many people while they are foreigners?

 

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38) Genesis 35


- God tells Jacob to go to Bethel!


- Then Jacob tells his household and all who are with him to get rid of the foreign gods they have and to cleanse and change of garments before going to Bethel!


- When they travel on, the terror of God strikes the cities around them, so they don’t chase after the sons of Jacob!


- God appears to Jacob and changes his name in Israel!


- His people will receive the land of Canaan!


- Rachel gives birth to Benjamin before dying!


- Reuben lays down with Bilhal, his father’s concubine!


- So Jacob has 12 sons!


- Isaac lives 180 years before he dies and his sons Esau and Jacob bury him!

 

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39) Genesis 36


- History of Esau or Edom!


- We are told about the descendants of Esau and about the kings of Edom!


Genesis 37

- Jacob loves Joseph more than his other children!


- he has a special robe made for him!


- And his brothers are jealous of him!


- Joseph tells his brothers about a dream indicating he will be above his brothers!


- So they become even more jealous of him!


- Then Joseph gets another dream indicating the same!


- Once his brothers want to kill him but Reuben tells them to throw him into a water pit in the wilderness!


- And they sell him to a caravan of Ishmaelites going to Egypt!


- And his brothers tell their father that he was killed by an animal!


- In Egypt, the Midianites sell Joseph to Pothphar, a court official of Pharaoh and the chief of the guard!

 

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40) Genesis 38


- Judah takes a Canaanite and has children with her!


- Her first child displeases God so he puts him to death!


- The second one has to take his brother’s wife and raises up offspring for his brother!


- But it is not going to be his so he wastes his semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother!


- So God puts him to death!


- Judah is afraid that his third son will do the same and die!


- So his third son grows but Judah doesn’t give the wife of his first son to him!


- So she removes her widow’s clothing and veils herself and gets to the entrance of the city!


- When Judah sees her, he takes her as a prostitute and asks for relations with her!


- She asks him for his seal ring and his cord and his rod!


- Then she becomes pregnant!


- Three months later, Judah is told that her daughter-in-law is pregnant!


- So he tells to burn her!


- Then she shows Judah’s seal ring and cord and rod!


- He says that she is more righteous than him because he didn’t give her to her third son!


- She gives birth to twins!


- Once again we have a bad story of the sons of Jacob!


- Once again we understand their bad behavior!

 

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41) Genesis 39


- Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and an Egyptian named Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh and chief of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. But God was with Joseph. As a result, he became successful and was put over the house of his master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that God was with him and that God was making everything that he did successful!


- Potiphar is not stupid!

- He can see what happens when Joseph is in charge!

- It is refreshing to hear about faithful servants of God even if they are a minority!

- It would be easy to lose hope in humanity when we read the Bible and when we see how the world is going on!

- Joseph kept finding favor in his eyes, and he became his personal attendant. So he appointed him over his house, and he put him in charge of all that was his!

- A SUCCESS STORY!

- He eventually left everything that was his in Joseph’s care, and he gave no thought to anything except the food he was eating. Moreover, Joseph grew to be well-built and handsome!

- Which meant getting into trouble!

- Potiphar’s wife wanted to have sex with him!

- But he refused!


- Potiphar believed his wife and Joseph went to prison!


- But God kept looking after Joseph!


- So the chief officer of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners in the prison, and everything that they were doing there, he was the one having it done!

 

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42) Genesis 40


- In prison Joseph meets the chief cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt!


- They both have dreams!


- And Joseph tells them the interpretation!


- Joseph tells the cupbearer that he will be reestablished in his job and he asks him to speak about him to the king!


- Joseph tells the baker that he will be beheaded!


- During Pharaoh’s birthday, it happens according to Joseph’s sayings!

 

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43) Genesis 41


- Then Pharaoh dreamed about the seven fat cows and the seven ugly, thin ones!


- And the second ones ate the first ones!


- A second similar dream but this time with seven ears of grain!


- But no one was able to interpret the dreams except Joseph!


- And Joseph told Pharaoh the interpretation of his dreams!


- Seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine!


- “So now let Pharaoh look for a man who is discreet and wise and place him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh take action and appoint overseers in the land, and he should collect one fifth of the produce of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. And let them collect all the food during these coming good years, and let them stockpile grain under Pharaoh’s authority as food to be stored in the cities and safeguarded there. The food should serve as a supply for the land for the seven years of famine that will occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish in the famine.”


- And Pharaoh put Joseph in charge!


- Pharaoh further said to Joseph: “I am Pharaoh, but without your authorization, no man may do a single thing in all the land of Egypt.”After that Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah and gave him Asenath the daughter of Potiphera the priest of On as a wife. And Joseph began to oversee the land of Egypt. Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.


- Thanks to God, Joseph became the second most influential man in Egypt!


- And Joseph got two sons Manasseh and Ephraim!

 

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44) Genesis 42


- Ten of Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt to buy grain!


- Because there is famine in Canaan!


- Joseph is the man in authority in Egypt!


- He recognizes his brothers but he conceals his identity from them!


- He accuses them of being spies!


- And he wants them to bring their youngest brother before all can go back to Canaan!


- Finally he keeps Simeon and the others can go but they must come back with their youngest brother!


- And he tells his men to give them grain and their money back without them knowing!


- When they realize they still have their money they are afraid!


- But Jacob doesn’t want to let Benjamin go to Egypt because he doesn’t want to lose him!