Scripture Focus: Genesis 34.20-23
20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city. 21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 22 But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.”

Reflection: Neither Aggression nor Assimilation
By John Tillman

To their faces, Shechem and his son, Hamor, talk to Jacob’s family about unity and “love.” They want to be one people. However, Shechem and Hamor reveal to the leaders of their city a deceitful plan that is less unity than uniformity. It is less cooperation and more assimilation.

It is their intention to absorb Jacob and his family into their own land, their own traditions, their own people. What they want is for Israel’s family to lose their identity and uniqueness. They expect them to give up their God, their customs, their beliefs, and their property. All of this brought about by “rape.”

There is no Hebrew word for “rape.” The euphemism, lie down, is used for sexual contact of any kind, including consensual or marital sex. However, the word, took, carries the hint of violence. It is sometimes translated married but literally means carry away or take and carry. It is often used for inanimate objects or prisoners of war. This same word describes the “sons of God” taking the daughters of men. (Genesis 6.1-2) This same word describes Lamech, the first sinful polygamist of the Bible, taking two wives, Adah and Zillah. (Genesis 4.19-24)

The anger Jacob’s sons feel about what has happened to Dinah comes from their identity. They consider it something that is “outrageous in Israel” and “should not be done.” (Genesis 34.7) Even though they are, in reality, only a large family at this time, they already think of themselves as a distinct people—a nation set apart.

It is a mistake when viewing conflicts such as this one to assume that either Jacob is acting righteously or Levi and Simeon are. In truth, none are righteous. Both aggression and assimilation are a capitulation to culture.

We can’t be “one people” (Genesis 34.16) with everyone but we can live at peace with them. We don’t have to capitulate to culture like Jacob but we mustn’t resort to deception or violence like the brothers. Instead, we can live peacefully according to God’s standards, whether or not the surrounding rulers agree with us. We do not need to conquer the culture, slaying our enemies, but to save our enemies from the culture.

By peaceful loving actions, we can call others to join us as people who are distinct on the face of the earth. We can maintain our holiness and identity, holding up an example, allowing them to be drawn to us and to the gospel. 

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
I will bear witness that the Lord is righteous; I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High. — Psalm 7.18

Today’s Readings
Genesis 34 (Listen -4:18)
Mark5 (Listen – 5:21)

Read more about Commenting in Community
Many people don’t mind attaching their identities to noxious ideas, lies, exaggerations, hurtful and mean-spirited memes, name-calling, and desperate pandering to the powerful.

Read more about Resisting Culture’s Mold
Leah and Rachel are set against one another…They allow this cultural pressure to press them into a combative mold.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 33.3-4
3 He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. 
4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.

Reflection: Running to Forgive
By John Tillman

A prodigal son, who betrayed his family’s trust approaches home. He is limping. He is fearful of rejection. His hopes are focused on survival. 

But the wronged party abandons dignity and pride and runs to the prodigal. He embraces him  and kisses him, welcoming him rather than harming him. Esau running to meet Jacob and the prodigal’s father running to meet his son, are extraordinarily similar scenes. (Genesis 33.4; Luke 15.20) Esau and Jacob must at least have been in the back of Jesus’ mind when he told of the prodigal.

Of course, the actual forgiveness and reconciliation between Esau and Jacob is limited. They are each still only human. Their trust is limited. Their faith in one another is justifiably small. In the future, violence will dominate the relationship. But in this moment, in a limited way, Esau demonstrates the welcome of the gospel. The wronged party shows undeserved mercy. 

Not only is Jacob and Esau’s situation different from Jesus’ parable, it is different from our own situation.

Our spiritual sins are worse than Jacob’s familial ones. We are scheming, rebellious thieves and liars, but worse than a dispute over inheritance, we have joined an insurrection against God our Father and King. We have chosen war instead of peace. We have chosen lies instead of the truth. We have chosen hate instead of love.

Our ability to bargain and appease God is non-existent. Jacob is no penniless prodigal repenting from the pig pen. He is wealthy and prosperous and he sends valuable resources ahead of himself to appease the justifiable anger of Esau. We have no such offerings to send that can appease or compensate for our rebellion and sin. When we come to Jesus we have nothing to offer him of value. We have only the filthy rags of our sins clinging to our backs.

Jesus is truly righteous and makes a sincere offer. Esau was wronged by Joseph but Esau was also sinful, violent, and had despised the birthright Jacob stole. Esau’s offer of protection and forgiveness is suspicious and he is untrustworthy. Jesus, however, is fully righteous. He makes us a fully genuine offer that we can have full faith and trust in. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive them.

May we also be willing to rush that forgiveness to those around us. Let us be faithful. Let us be just. Let us run to forgive.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “If your brother does something wrong, rebuke him and, if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I am sorry,’ you must forgive him.” — Luke 17.3-4

Today’s Readings
Genesis 33 (Listen – 2:59)
Mark 4 (Listen – 5:01)

Read more about Faith After the Storm
How many times do we go to Jesus in prayer, without faith but with bucket-fulls of complaints…”Don’t you care, Jesus?”

Read more about Meals Together, Forgiveness to Go
What if all our meals were markers—altars of forgiveness and belonging? Come to the table. Lay down your burdens. Offer forgiveness.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 30-19-20
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. 

“Well, it’s right there in the Bible, so it must not be a sin. But it sure does seem like an awful dirty trick…” — Rich Mullins

Reflection: Resisting Culture’s Mold
By John Tillman

Laban’s daughters both recognize that they have been badly treated. The women describe their marriages as being “sold” like foreigners. (Genesis 31.14-15) 

Leah, in particular, was dehumanized by her experience. Laban sold her like overstocked inventory that had to be cleared off the shelf to make room for the new. (Genesis 29.25-28) 

Despite this, Leah continued to believe that fulfilling culture’s expectations of womanhood would bring her love and honor. She even resorted to purchasing sexual attention from Jacob, treating him (and her children) as mere tools in her war with her sister. 

The powerful often stay that way by setting groups that are less powerful against one another. Leah and Rachel are set against one another by their culture and family environment. They allow this cultural pressure to press them into a combative mold.

Our culture is not as “modern” in its morality as it thinks it is. Weaponized sexuality is not new. It is only the methods of weaponization that are new. Not only are women set against one another, but women against unborn children, and minorities against other minorities.

The cultural marriage norms followed by the patriarchs and passed down by Moses were condemned by Jesus as being the result not of God’s will but of men’s hard hearts. (Matthew 19:3-12) By contrast, God tenderly saw Leah was not loved and blessed her with children. (God sees all of those struggling amidst injustice.) God’s blessing was more than pity, but a tangible means to power and influence. (Genesis 29.31-32) 

Culture works to force us into its mold. God works to help us resist. The patriarchs were not immune to this pressure and neither are we. Just because our culture isn’t pressing us into the mold of polygamy, doesn’t mean that there is no mold or no pressure to conform.

Culture’s pressure comes with a false promise that, if we just submit to the mold, there will be peace. But, we can see from Leah’s example, that is false. Even though God worked within this sinful cultural practice to accomplish good purposes, Leah never received the love or respect she deserved.

Whatever hard-hearted cultural “solutions” we are pressured toward that are not of God, we must resist. Instead of being combative toward one another, we must be compassionate. God sees our struggle. We must never define our marriages, our sexuality, our politics, or anything else by culture’s mold.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Show me your marvelous loving-kindness, O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand from those who rise up against them.
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings. — Psalm 17.7-8

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Genesis 30 (Listen – 6:10)
Mark 1 (Listen – 5:05)

This Weekend’s Readings
Genesis 31 (Listen – 7:47), Mark 2 (Listen – 3:55)
Genesis 32 (Listen – 4:40), Mark 3 (Listen – 3:41)

Read more about It’s In The Bible
Polygamy was never in the Bible because God approved of it. It was there because the culture approved of it.

Read more about Cringing at Culture or at Christ?
When we don’t understand biblical culture, we tend to assume that our culture is better. This is always the wrong lesson. Always.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 28.16-17

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this 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.”

Reflection: When Liars Meet The Truth
By John Tillman

Rebekah is sometimes overlooked in the story of Jacob and Esau.

Early in her pregnancy, a disturbed Rebekah consulted God, who revealed to her the prophesied destinies of her sons. (Genesis 25.21-26) Perhaps, this is why she subverts the process of inheritance to fulfill what she heard from God. Her dishonest methods are used by God to overturn the cultural traditions. 

After the con, to save Jacob’s life, Rebekah masterfully uses an unrelated family crisis to invent a reason to send Jacob away to Laban. His trip has a cover story, but Jacob is undeniably fleeing for his life.

Perhaps Rebekah learned deception from her brother, Laban, the master con-artist of the Bible. After all, they both pass off one sibling as another. (Genesis 29.21-28)

Jacob’s flight to Laban would save his life, but was also used by God to humble him. Jacob was suffering for his sins through the consequences of his actions. On the run, as an outcast, Jacob is rich on paper, but penniless by practical means. He’s promised the land he is laying on, but possessed only the dust adhered to his clothes and skin. 

With Laban, Jacob would be schooled in what it feels like to be tricked, cheated, and deceived by family. Yet, even on the run, Jacob finds God is with him. The liar meets the truth. As alone as Jacob was, and as outcast and alone as we may feel, “God is in this place” even if we don’t realize it.

Jacob is an example of our position in this world. We are children of the promise now, but we do not hold the promise yet. Jacob’s life shows us that even sinful, insecure, fearful people can be used by God. 

Jacob shows us that God does not always pick the mighty, overly-masculine Esaus of the world. Those considered “less manly” or just “less than” by their culture are still called and used by God. 

Whatever situation we find ourselves in or however the world views us, we can be assured that God’s presence is near. The distance we may feel from God is usually one of our own making. 

When we humble ourselves and come to him, he will show himself to us and enter our lives to make us into a blessing for others. Even those rightly called “Jacob” can be changed to be called “Israel.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Let us make a vow to the Lord our God and keep it; let all around him bring gifts to him who is worthy to be feared. — Psalm 76.11

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Genesis 28 (Listen – 3:17)
Matthew 27 (Listen – 8:45)

Read more about The Predicament of Self-Obsession
We are supposed to find ourselves in Jacob’s story—anxious and myopic, insecure in our blessing—but we are not supposed to be content with this.

https://theparkforum.org/843-acres/the-predicament-of-self-obsession/

Read more about Faith of the Flawed
We do not have the time or space to recount all the shortcomings of these very human and flawed “heroes” of faith.

https://theparkforum.org/843-acres/faith-of-the-flawed/