Today Genesis 28 Jacob- Esau Obedience vs Rebellion in action

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Genesis 28:1-22 -
1So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, "Do not marry any of these Canaanite women. 2Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban's daughters. 3May God Almighty bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants become a great assembly of nations! 4May God pass on to you and your descendants the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God gave it to Abraham."
5So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother's brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
6Esau heard that his father had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman. 7He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram. 8It was now very clear to Esau that his father despised the local Canaanite women. 9So he visited his uncle Ishmael's family and married one of Ishmael's daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife's name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son.

Jacob's Dream at Bethel
10Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone for a pillow and lay down to sleep. 12As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down on it.
13At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, "I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I will give it to you and your descendants. 14Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. F84 15What's more, I will be with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. I will someday bring you safely back to this land. I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you everything I have promised."
16Then Jacob woke up and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it." 17He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God—the gateway to heaven!" 18The next morning he got up very early. He took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. 19He named the place Bethel—"house of God"—though the name of the nearby village was Luz.
20Then Jacob made this vow: "If God will be with me and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothing, 21and if he will bring me back safely to my father, then I will make the LORD my God. 22This memorial pillar will become a place for worshiping God, and I will give God a tenth of everything he gives me."
FOOTNOTES:F84: Hebrew seed.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Joy called to the - yet to continue towards changing- Christian man and in seeing the vision of His future –to- be walked out inside of Christ. Walking him towards success in the journey of God’s kingdom. He said don’t marry one’s who do not have and are not seeking the same spirit life you seek. Don’t go into a daily covenantal lifestyle with those who do not know Me and may never come to know Me. When they do not know Me, you have no promise that they will change their minds to come to know Me, though you may stand for it to come to pass through your whole life long, and you may be an example, etc, yet they may decide against Me and you’ll have spent a lifetime of covenant potential, on the hope of possibly winning of only one soul, when nations could have been brought forth, armies of God assembled through you.
Instead go to the field of the Lord, go to the men of God, those who continually dwell in Zion. There join covenant with one who is pure in heart, who’s heart is set towards Me. Marry one who is a daughter (or son) by spiritual birth. From there My nation will rise up through your family and I will have My way in the earth through your seed. My kingdom will multiply, rather than barely make it off of the ground!
So one destined to be changed (Jacob – deceiver, would become prince with God- Israel), obeyed the words of His father and his mother in this and set out to do what was told him.
Esau, (meaning hairy-the root word is fashioned, like destined, like set to become and be something and someone), he set out to oppose all that his father and mother had said. He desired to rebel on purpose, to disgrace on purpose, to contend on purpose! He was in rebellion against the will of God so set out to live for his own proposed pleasure rather than to give God pleasure.
Each of us on any given day can be either an Esau or a Jacob/Israel. The character and heart is the matter. Which are we? Ones who seek after self exaltation or Divine-kingdom exaltation? Self furtherance or kingdom furtherance? What are we interested in, pleasing our own selves temporarily, or entering into a lifelong covenant relationship with our Father God? Where one’s treasure is, is where their heart is found. It shows up in everyday decisions and behaviors.
Don’t tell someone you’d like to come to their Bible Study but you don’t ever show up. Your action has spoken louder than your words. We have to do it to show it. We’re blessed in what we do, not merely what we say. Words are cheap without back up. We are living out what we REALLY believe. REALLY. That should cause us to take a good look at our lives and see what might need re-evaluating where serving and loving God in expression is concerned.
Jacob made a move towards the obedience of covenant, he headed in the proper direction, his attitude was one of obedience, but there would have been no accounting of such had he not turned and went towards Bethuel. He couldn’t stay at home and keep saying I want a wife from my mother’s family. He had to put action to his words and make them more than good motivation and well wishes.
Haran means burning. As he set out to do the father’s will, he found that part of his old nature must be taken away and die off of him in order to make the journey and go all the way towards the obedience. Had he not set out, he’d not see that and he’d end up staying as he was where he was, the same old deceptive Jacob 1, a mere naturally born man.
In going towards the pleasure of his father, he met God.
A man had spoken a promise of God over him before he left, in seeing he’d voiced desire to do God’s will, his natural father pronounced a blessing over his life, now that he went towards the fulfillment of the obedience God spoke up, solidifying and confirming with power, the words of the natural father and more, God placed on his life the words of his spiritual Father and his divine destiny. That is what is awaiting each of us who wish to obey, but we have to more than wish, we have to Go and obey God. Sometimes that starts by obeying men. If we can obey a mere man, we can obey God. Man is our test of obedience to God. He often leads us to the next step. We’ve been led to the Lord by men.
Steps of obedience bring heaven to earth. Divine covenant engaged in brings forth spiritual fruit. Going out, moving out in faith bring us to meet with Divine Destiny. Don’t ask God why your dreams have not come true, as though He’s held them back, He’s been waiting on you! If we stay in one place, we’ll never get there, never. We are deceived if we wonder why God didn’t do it to us or make us into the dream. It was a matter of our wills, how much did we want it? Enough to go get it or go out and become it? Enough to lay down our own pleasure and make sacrifices of our own plans to live out His dreams? Even possibly choosing that over non-covenantal behaviors and relationships?
Ever ask God what His dreams are and how they might be made to come true? By you? He’s been waiting for you to ask, in hopes that is, that you’d ask, that you’ll want to do His dreams, be His dreams. The man or woman of His dreams.

Daily Repetitive Verses:

Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.