Chapter 32, Jacob thinks his brother Esau is still going to be furious with him, so he prepares to meet him. I think I would be scared to meet the brother that I tricked out of his birthright and his blessing and the brother that was plotting to kill me just a few chapters before. Yes, Jacob had been gone for over 20 years, but I can understand why Jacob was preparing to meet Esau.
Also in chapter 32, we have the famous "Jacob Wrestles with God" story. I really have always like this story. The fact that Jacob wrestles with Him all night is a pretty cool image, although I know I could never last that long physically wrestling with God. But how many times do we wrestle with God over His will for our lives and what we actually want to do? I know I seem to constantly come under that stress of wrestling with God. That's why I love this story, because it's a metaphor for our own struggles with God that actually don't even need to exist. Also, as I pointed out yesterday, we see a huge name change take place in this chapter as well. Jacob is now given the name of Israel and we start to really see the formation of a nation.
In chapter 33, we read one of the most beautiful passages in the OT, at least in my opinion. I never really thought about how beautiful it was until one of my Bible college professors pointed out what Jacob's 7 bows to Esau as Esau approached actually meant. You see, Jacob really thought that his brother was coming to kill him, as we discussed above. Jacob's bow and the number of bows is very significant here. I don't remember the exact position one would be in with this type of bow, but it basically presented a very easy and accessible kill shot to Esau. Basically Jacob gave his brother 7 opportunities to kill him. The beautiful thing is that Esau didn't kill him, he forgave him, just like God forgives our sin even though we know we don't deserve to be forgiven.
We find in chapter 34 that Jacob's sons were very vicious and very protective of their sister. I would not have wanted to make them angry.
In Chapter 38 we find another man, just like Lot, being deceived and getting a relative pregnant. But in this case, the woman, Tamar, was actually doing the socially correct thing. In this time period, if a husband were to die before giving his wife children, his brother was to take his place and get his brother's wife pregnant. Well Judah, after losing two sons, decided to not allow this to happen again. But Tamar knew what was going on and was able to get herself pregnant by Judah, her father-in-law.
What stuck out to you? Are you keeping up with the reading or are you getting slowed down on it already? Are you learning anything new?
I actually am keeping up with the reading and I am enjoying it. I am very surprised at myself and its getting easier each day. One thing that really stuck out to me in this reading is the fact that Jacob had two wives in chapter 29 and then later god still blessed him. I guess this is just a little confusing to me. Is it because the laws have not been put in place yet?
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It's mainly a culture thing. This time period and culture that we are reading about now, it was very common for a man to have more than one wife. Even after the Law was put in place, you will see that there are still many who have multiple wives. Take king David and king Solomon for example. David had a huge number of wives and Solomon had more than David did. I'm not sure when this idea really changed but that was just the norm back then really. Hope this helps.
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