The Park Forum

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 37 Listen: (4:56)), Read: Mark 14 Listen: (8:37)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 37.1-8

1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
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.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

​​23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

Reflection: Truth in the Cistern

By John Tillman

Joseph and Jeremiah could tell you that, even without water, the bottom of a cistern is caked in thick, mirey mud.

During the siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was thrown into an empty cistern and sunk chest-deep. The depth of mud in Joseph’s cistern is unknown, but there is little doubt that he would have been mired in mud. Death would have been slow—immobilized by the muck, struggling to breathe, succumbing to cold and starvation.

A sympathetic official sent thirty men to rescue Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 38.4-13) Joseph’s one sympathetic brother planned a rescue for Joseph but arrived too late. By the time Rueben got there, Joseph was sold into slavery.

Joseph and Jeremiah share something else in common other than being held prisoner in a cistern—telling the truth put them there.

The brothers’ hatred began when Joseph gave Jacob a bad report about them. It grew when Jacob honored Joseph with preferential treatment. It peaked when they realized what Joseph’s dreams meant. They didn’t need Joseph to interpret; they could interpret dreams, too. (Genesis 37.5-8)

Joseph probably wasn’t a blameless hero. There is biblical evidence that Joseph told the truth in ways that offended his brothers and even his doting father. (Genesis 37.10-11) But the brothers consistently followed a villainous path and one doesn’t have to be innocent to be a victim. Joseph could have been the world’s biggest braggart and the brothers’ actions would still be unjustified.

Do you feel like tossing someone in a cistern? Have you blamed someone’s “tone” for rejecting the true things they said? Have you been angered by or tempted to deny the truth?

Or do you feel like you have been tossed in? Have you been targeted for telling the truth? Have you told the truth, but in a way that brought offense rather than edification?

We must tell the truth despite consequences, but not without consideration. If we are attacked for telling the truth, let us have a clear conscience, knowing we communicated with sensitivity, mercy, and grace.

If we find truth offensive, let us examine our hearts to ensure that we are not, like the brothers, following our biases and hurt feelings. As surely as Joseph was stuck in the cistern, the brothers were stuck in their guilt for decades.

Whatever muck we end up in, God can pull us out. The only way to come clean is the truth.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Happy are those who act with justice and always do right! — Psalm 106.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Vengeance, Arrogance, and Partiality

Were the brothers vengeful and jealous? Was Joseph insensitive to the effect of his privileges? Was Israel blind to his partiality? Yes, and so are we.

Vengeance, Arrogance, and Partiality

Read more: Jeremiah, the Unpatriotic Prophet

Bonhoeffer foresaw the church would have difficulty speaking truth to power if patriotism became more highly valued than Christ.

Jeremiah, the Unpatriotic Prophet

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 35-36 Listen: (9:33), Read: Mark 13 Listen: (4:32)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 35.9-10

9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

Reflection: From Pejorative to Promise

By John Tillman

The number of people with name changes in the Bible is long and many of the changes are significant.

Abram and Sarai are renamed Abraham and Sarah.
Ben-Oni is renamed Benjamin.
Naomi renames herself Mara.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are renamed Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
James and John are called Boanerges, the Sons of Thunder.
Simon is called Cephas or Peter, the rock.
Joseph is renamed Barnabas.

And, of course, Jacob’s name is changed by God to Israel.

All of the examples above, a changed name meant a changed identity. They said something about how they thought about themselves, how the world saw them, and about their God.

The name, Israel, doesn’t seem to stick the first time, so God comes to Jacob again, repeating the name change and the promise that goes with it. Jacob was a pejorative, meaning “heel grasper.” Israel is a blessing, meaning “contends with God” or perhaps a promise, “overcomes with God.”

Names still have power. We name ourselves and others. Twitter and Instagram handles, gamertags, and many other names function as self-description. The names we give ourselves can be encoded with inside jokes or vague pop culture references.

We also engage in damaging name-calling. Instead of validating a part of one’s humanity, name-calling strips it. Name-calling has been used heavily in politics of late, but its roots go much further back. Name-calling is an attack on the image of God in others and Jesus compared it to murder. (Matthew 5:21-22)

Dealing with a few famous name-callers would be bad enough. Some of us, however, are our own name-calling bullies. We bully ourselves with names like, Stupid, Fat, Worthless. These hurt us more than any other person’s name for us could.

The Bible tells us that Jesus has a name for us. (Revelation 2.17; 3.12) It is not a pejorative but a promise. When Jesus names us, he doesn’t badmouth us, he blesses us. Jesus, rather than call us names like “loser” or “deplorable,” give us new and good names.

He became a loser in our place when he died on the cross. He erased our deplorable sins, paying for them by his sacrificial death. He gives us new names of victory and holiness that only we may know. We can come to know his name for us by coming close, wrestling with him as Jacob did, holding on to him until he lovingly names us as his child.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; hearken, O God of Jacob. — Psalm 84.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Identity Lost, Identity Gained

In Jacob’s preparation to fool his father he put on qualities that his father loved, covering his own unloved qualities.

Identity Lost, Identity Gained

Read more: Suffering for Our True Identity

It is not all right to be a Christian. And if we ask why, the answer is a sad one; Christians have given Christianity a bad name. — Madeleine L’Engle

Suffering for Our True Identity

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 32 Listen: (4:40), Read: Mark 10 Listen: (6:42)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Genesis 33 Listen: (2:59), Read: Mark 11 Listen: (3:59)
Read: Genesis 34 Listen: (4:18), Read: Mark 12 Listen: (6:10)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 32.9-12, 24-28

9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”

24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

“Jacob wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome.” — U2, “Bullet the Blue Sky”

Reflection: Wrestling Prayers

By John Tillman

Canaan was unsafe. So Jacob fled to Paddan Aram. Paddan Aram became unsafe. So Jacob fled to Canaan.

An old preacher joke I remember about Jacob at this point in his life is that he was “stuck between Iraq and a hard place.” However, on a more serious note, many today would identify with Jacob’s situation. He was a man with no country and no safe place to go.

From one perspective, Jacob’s mess was of his own making. He stole an inheritance and lost his home. He produced great wealth but at great cost and harm to others. His schemes enriched his family, yet made enemies that threatened their safety.

From another perspective, Jacob’s gains were part of God’s promises and Jacob’s deceptions part of God’s justice on Esau and Laban.

Esau was an impetuous, foolish man, ruled by his desires and showing no restraint in appetites for food, sex, and violence. Esau’s lusts led him off the path of God’s blessings and away from “the dew of Heaven.” (Genesis 27.38-40) Over centuries, his descendants followed in his footsteps.

Laban, the trickster and manipulator used everyone for financial gain. Everything and everyone was a source of profit or a cause of loss, including his daughters. Laban was victimized by his own venality. Being tricked by Jacob was a taste of Laban’s own medicine.

God helped Jacob outmaneuver Esau to take on Abraham’s blessing and helped him liberate ill-gotten gains from Laban’s wealth. However, God’s use of a deceptive person is not approval of their actions and God has a habit of paying back people who used wicked methods, regardless of whether those methods achieved God’s purposes. Jacob later experienced this. (Genesis 37.32-34)

Jacob alienated everyone, cheated everyone, wrestled with everyone—eventually he wrestled with God. The “man” Jacob wrestled was more than a man—it was God. (Genesis 32.30) The wrestling was more than physical conflict—it was prayer.

The prayer Jacob prayed (v 9-12) and the overnight wrestling match (v 24-31) were two parts of the same desperate, wrestling prayer: “Bless me as you promised! Be true to your promise despite my sin! Have mercy on my messes!”

None of us are innocent and many of our messes are of our own making. Yet, we can still grasp hold of God’s mercy and rely on his promises and character.

Don’t let go. Wrestle in prayer. And when the time comes, wrestle in action.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Come, let us sing to the Lord;…for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. — Psalm 95.1, 3

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: From Esau to Jacob

God loved us when we were like Esau—sinners, rebels, and persecutors..we can become children of Jacob and brothers and sisters of Christ 

From Esau to Jacob—Readers’ Choice

Read more: Running to Forgive

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.

Running to Forgive

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 31 Listen: (7:47), Read: Mark 9 Listen: (6:16)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 31.28-29

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.’

Reflection: Fear and Power, Power and Fear

By John Tillman

The short list of people in scripture God spoke to in a dream gets shorter when we exclude people who worshiped God.

Abimelek was the first non-worshiper God spoke to in a dream. (Genesis 20.3-7) Laban is the second. In both cases, the followers of God deceived the powerful men because they feared violence and the men received a warning from God. Perhaps the last non-worshiper warned in a dream was Pilate’s wife. She begged Pilate not to “have anything to do” with the innocent man, Jesus. (Matthew 27.19)

Laban warned Jacob, and Pilate warned Jesus, that they had the power to harm them. (Genesis 31.29; John 19.10) In Laban’s case, he turned from whatever violence may have been in his heart to settle for scolding Jacob and complaining about the theft of his household gods. In Pilate’s case, he tried to settle for having Jesus flogged and released. But in the end, he was more fearful of political forces than of his wife’s dream. (John 19.12-16)

We will face many enemies threatening us with their power, often using language similar to Pilate’s and Laban’s. “I have the power to harm you.” “Be smart. Submit.” “I’m the authority here.” “You’ll regret disobedience.” Some may use God’s name to cause fear and assert power. “This is God’s will.” “He’s God’s man.” “You better get on God’s side.”

Fear and power. Power and fear. They go together. Fear is both a means to gain power and a tool to maintain power. In both cases, fear manipulates others into weapons.

Have you been threatened by the powerful? Have you been told by the powerful who to fear? Have you been weaponized by fear?

We may have reason to fear. We may need escape. We may need shelter. In some cases, like Jacob, we may not be wholly innocent. We can rely on God who proves to be a shelter from the powerful for the fearful—even those who aren’t blameless.

Like Laban, perhaps we have rashly set out to act in fear. We fear loss of power, community, or family. Let us hear the warning of God who protects those pursued by the powerful, and have mercy on the fearful.

Because of Jesus, we need not fear power. Like our Lord, no one can have power over us if not given from above and no power, not even death, can separate us from the love, care, and shelter of Christ.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Bow down your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and in misery.
Keep watch over my life, for I am faithful; save your servant who puts his trust in you. — Psalm 86.1-2

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Urgent Desire for More

Do we trust what we will inherit by giving up our worldly possessions to benefit others?

Urgent Desire for More

Read more: Hot-Button Conundrums

The right answer to difficult issues is not always in “the middle.” But Jesus stands in the center of God’s will.

Hot-Button Conundrums

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 30 Listen: (6:10), Read: Mark 8 Listen: (4:29)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 30:16, 34-36

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. …

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.

Reflection: The Cost of Scheming

By Erin Newton

The story of Jacob’s family and wealth is filled with tricksters. It is Jacob’s trademark personality trait—despite any attempts we make to find good features in the narrative.

Genesis 30 describes the expansion of his family, first through Leah but then through Rachel and two of their servants. Only these two women, Bilhah and Zilpah, bear no signs of scheming in the story. Like many of the stories in Genesis, servant women are used for the benefit of the ruling family—shamefully so.

Rachel and Leah have learned much from their father Laban’s schemes and their husband Jacob’s cunning practices. The chapter ends with Laban attempting to trick Jacob out of what is promised to him. And Jacob performs what can only be described as some sort of magic trick to produce his speckled flock.

The astonishing part is that it works. But is the result of one’s actions the litmus test of its acceptability?

With so many stories of trickery and scheming, is such behavior okay? Can Christians utilize schemes? It seems like God blessed Jacob despite such behavior, but it runs contrary to the biblical call to honesty.

Despite the blessing of progeny for Jacob and his wives, the children are born into a family where mothers are angry with one another, and soon the sons will find themselves repeating the same story of jealousy and deception.

The scheming and deception achieved the result they wanted, but at what cost? Women meant to serve the needs of the family are given as mere sexual favors and convenient wombs. The closeness of the immediate family is now built on how one can trick another for his or her gain. Futures built on deception breed more deception.

John Walton states, “One of the ways in which we suffer the consequences of our behavior is by passing our bad habits on to our children” (NIV Application Commentary: Genesis). Such is true of Jacob’s children.

Even through the deception, scheming, jealousy, and continual return to such behaviors, God is faithful to his promises, not Jacob’s or Rachel’s or Leah’s or Laban’s poor decisions. Walton concludes, “God is capable of overcoming the obstacles of character. . . . Our task is to make sure that we are part of the solution rather than the problem.”

Are we scheming in the supposed name of our God? At what cost?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Protect my life and deliver me; let me not be put to shame, for I have trusted in you.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for my hope has been in you. — Psalm 25.19-20

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Resisting Culture’s Mold

We must never define our marriages, our sexuality, our politics, or anything else by culture’s mold.

Resisting Culture’s Mold

Read more: 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.

It’s In The Bible