The Field is the World (Matt. 13:38)

Tuesday SOAP: Inserted into Jacob's prophecies over his sons is his final cry to God, the first mention of the word "salvation," in which he actually calls out the name of Jesus in Hebrew. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Why "SOAP?" See http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ S: I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. (Ge 49:18). O: Commentary notes vary on why this is inserted in Jacob's final word to his sons. One (Geneva) says it was a cry to God for his children, seeing how badly things would go for them. Another (Gill) relates it to Jacob's impending death, making it a personal cry to God. A: I like this latter interpretation best, especially as David Guzik points out in his commentary that in the original Hebrew, the cry is literally "Yeshua" -- "I have waited for thy Yeshua, O LORD." In this way Israe...

Monday SOAP: Matthew carefully ties Christ with the royal line of Judah, since Christ had to be the Son of David (1:1, 22:42-45, Isa. 9:6-7; Jer. 23:5-6). We know the names and stories: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Tamar, Rahab, Boaz, Ruth, Jesse, David, Solomon, Asa, Jehosaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah, Josiah, Zerubbabel... Matthew carefully explains the meaning of the names "Jesus" and "Emmanuel." Then he carefully provides numerous prophecies about important events in Jesus' life. He tied it all together: Old and New Testaments and the yearning for Messiah. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Why "SOAP?" See http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ S: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Mt 1:23/Isaiah 7:14). And thou Bethlehem, ...

My GMO question of the week: "What is the supernatural world like? Are we attacked in our daily life? I mean, do we walk with bodyguards of evil spirits trying to hurt us or harm us, separate us from our loved ones, break down marriages, rob from us, cause accidents, etc.?" There's a spiritual war going on, but a believer wouldn't ordinarily be surrounded, uprotected, from evil spirits. In fact, read the story of Elisha in 2 Kings 6: 8-17 - the bodyguard there was an angel one, not an enemy one. There are ways of being prepared to resist internal (doctrinal, philosophical, as in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6) and external (as in direct opposition to your calling - Ephesians 6:10-18) spiritual struggle. A lot of our trouble just comes from our own nature, I'm afraid! God gave us a new nature when we repented and trusted Jesus, but the old one still exists, and it reacts to the sin of the world and past failures. (See Galatians 5:17) One thing that really helps a great deal ...

Friday SOAP: Joseph's gift for interpretation works on his own life story. In chapter 41, he was content to "forget all my toil, and my father's house." Now he sees God's hand in it all, with his family in the center, and deliverance and posterity as the purpose. God's promise to make Israel a great nation is repeated in 46:3 - and we understand the ultimate purpose was to bring forth Christ, the ultimate Deliverer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Why "SOAP?" See http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ S: And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. (Ge 45:7-8). O: Joseph has reconciled his past, ...

Thursday SOAP: Judah goes from looking like Judas to looking like Christ. Judah was the very one who came up with the idea to sell Joseph into slavery for pieces of silver. Yet, all these years later, his love for his father causes him to offer himself to save his brother. Romans 8:29 reveals that God's work in us is to conform us to the image of Christ, that He might be firstborn among many brethren. It helps us to have this hope in us, to purify ourselves, even as He is pure, to know that even the betrayer can be transformed into the substitute. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Why "SOAP?" See http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ S: Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I se...

Wednesday SOAP: Joseph, humbled under God's mighty hand for a time, and exalted in due time, (1 Peter 5:6), names his sons "making forgetful" and "fruitfulness." He rejoiced in that his blessings helped him forget all his trials. But God wasn't done with his past: God had exalted him and made him fruitful in order to deal with it properly! ------------------- (Why "SOAP?" See http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling ) ------------------- S: And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. (Genesis 41:51) O: This happened to strike me today: Joseph felt grateful to God that he had put his toil (as a slave and a prisoner) and all his father's house behind him. He obviously felt that was a good thing at this point. After all, he had nursed the pain of his brothers' rejection and betrayal for possibly as long as 20 years by the end of the seven years...

Tuesday SOAP: God saved the world from an upcoming famine by placing His servant Joseph within reach of Pharoah. Does God give insight to leaders of today about what He is about to do? It's there for us and for them, if we'll but seek it. (Amos 3:7) ------------------- (Why "SOAP?" See http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling ) ------------------- S: And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. (Genesis 41:25). O: This reminds me of the dreams given to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel's Babylon. Neither Nebuchadnezzar nor Pharoah were specifically seeking the Lord's guidance. Yet God gave them guidance, albeit guidance requiring an interpreter. A: In both cases God provided wise counsel for these rulers of world empires. Daniel even survived to give witness to the son and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and even the conquering Medes and Persians. It's reported that Cyrus was shown the scroll of Isaiah w...

Monday SOAP: Jesus's lineage had celebrated heroes of the faith, but also the occasional, rather embarrassing character. The story in Genesis 38 opens the closet on one of those skeletons, showing the weakness of all flesh (1 Peter 1:24) and the sovereignty of God, as well as the mercy and care with which the mission of the Incarnation was planned. What a hopeful message it brings! ------------------- (Why "SOAP?" See http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling ) S: And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more. (Ge 38:26). O: This chapter contains one of those stories you skip over when you read to your children. But from this sordid tale comes a the kingly line of Judah, which will eventually produce the virgin Mary (Luke 3:24, 33) and Joseph (Matthew 1:3, 16). How is it that this scandal made it into the Bible? How could God have allowed such messed-up people to ...

S: And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. (Ge 34:30). And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they journeyed: and the ter...

S: And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. (Ge 32:9-12). O: I think this is the first real prayer of Jacob's that is recorded. I would call Gen. 28:20-22 a vow, even though he addresses God in the first person in v. 22. That fits my picture of Jacob to this point, living by his wits and bargaining with God. God's promises have been pure grace - not based on Jacob's deeds....

S: And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I. And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. (Ge 31:11-13). And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. (Ge 31:24). O: How God speaks to Laban is so different from how He speaks to Jacob. Even the way Laban interprets it is far different: "It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad." (Ge 31:29). Really??? Does he still think it's within his power to hurt Jacob if God warn...

S: And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. (Ge 30:14). And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutter...

S: And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. (Ge 28:13-16). O: Jacob's life shows a lot of dependence on his own cleverness, ambition and trickery -- and a little superstition. He has really thought all this time that he could manipulate a real spiritual blessing for himself by trickery. But God was there all along, and he knew ...

S: And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not. (Ge 24:21). O: Abraham's servant goes looking for a wife for Isaac. He asks for a very specific sign and it's fulfilled immediately, even before he's done asking. He still isn't sure whether God has fulfilled his mission for him. A: It's easy to look back and chuckle at this uncertainty, because I have the benefit of knowing the rest of the story, while the servant didn't. But even when she accepts his gift, agrees to host him and lets him know who her family is, he still sounds ready to turn aside to the right hand or the left. (24:49) The truth is, I often experience the same kind of uncertainty. Even when God opens the doors and fulfills every required need for whatever mission I'm on, Doubt can easily seep into my thinking. I need to act with decisive confidence instead. P: Lord, thank you for this story of searching and calling out a bride,...

S: And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. (Ge 22:2). O: Abraham didn't even question God further like he did in Gen. 15:8. This sounds like Genesis 12:1: Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: (Ge 12:1). Hebrews 11:8 points out that Abraham's faith was shown in that he obeyed, going out without knowing where he was going. A: Just like I require unquestioning obedience from my children (and don't often get it), God's direction shows that even the man whose actions would exemplify faith for us all, who would be said to be "father" to all who believe, (Romans 4:11), did not merit an explanation as a concession to his weakness and worry. Job, whose life exemplifies patience, (James 5:1),...

S: Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. (Ge 21:10). O: This story is troubling—and it's meant to be. Ishmael is now 14 years old (Gen. 17:24-25) - but it could be that in this time of great longevity, 14 is not as mature as our experience (see 21:14, 18 - proportionally if Abraham's 175 is like 90 is today, 14 would be like 7!) God wanted to be able to say "your ONLY Son," (22:2, c.f., John 3:16), and for the story to serve as the allegory Paul gives in Galatians 4:21-31. A: The Law came because of transgression: marriage to the bondwoman of Egypt, a type of the world. The children of legalism do not inherit alongside the children of promise. But the children of promise who were born under previous dispensations, from righteous Abel to John the Baptist, had to wait for the promise to be fulfilled and for things like this to be explained. Still in our day, m...

S: And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. (Genesis 19:1-3). O: Like Abraham in chapter 18, Lot immediately recognizes the purity of the strangers (does he know they're angels? See Heb. 13:2) and shows them hospitality. A: In the same chapter, the Lord shows us both Lot's faith and his deep compromise: 1) Faith, in that he welcomed the strangers into his home in spite of the danger to himself 2) Faith, in that he honored them as had Abraham 3)...

S: "Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." Genesis 13:9, KJV. "And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee." Genesis 13:14-17, KJV. O: It struck me today that God was training Abram to have faith in Him - rewarding his attitude of abundance, just as God's parade of animals before Adam was to show Himself as the provider. Many years later...

S: Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Ge 11:7-9). O: God's command was to multiply and replenish the earth (9:1) and man's response was to concentrate on the plain of Shinar in order to not be scattered (11:4). It was their own name they wished to establish, and their own way to heaven they wished to build. They were disregarding God's mandate and warning, just as the pre-flood people had done (Matthew 24:38-39) There is a way that seems right to a man, but it's result is death. Rebellion against God was fomenting again, and rather than allow it to continue as the world that had been destroye...

S: And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. (Ge 9:1-7). O: Again God speaks to Noah, giving him a new covenant. Although the covenant i...

S: And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. (Genesis 8:13). O: Here's something else I never paid careful attention to - the Ark had a covering. It's only mentioned here, but I make note of it because the "pitch" with which Noah coated the Ark is a different word, and it's highly significant: the word translated "pitch" is usually translated "atonement," reconciliation, appease, or ransom. Moreover, the Ark was coated with it, not just on the outside, but on the inside as well. What's interesting about the word here translated "cover" is that all the other places the word "mikceh" <4372> is used are all talking about the covering of the Tabernacle - ram's skins, badger's skins, porpoise skins or manat...

S: And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. (Ge 5:29). O: Noah's name means "rest" or "comfort." Here, about a thousand years after the Fall, the curse of work and toil still brings resentment and division between man and God. Somehow, Noah is expected to reverse these effects(?) Instead, far more severe judgment falls in the 600th year of Noah's life and his name is shown to be prophetic at least in that he is at rest during this judgment, floating through it as if entombed in the ark. As Bible teacher Chuck Missler points out, all the names of the pre-flood line of Noah (perfect in his generations) may have been prophetic: Adam "Man" (is) Seth "Appointed" Enos "Mortal" Cainan "Sorrow;" Mahalaleel "The Blessed God" Jared (shall) "Come down" Enoch "Teaching" Methusela...

S: "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Genesis 3:3, KJV. O: Adding to what God has said is not harmless (Deut. 4:2). In this case, Eve's confidence in something she misunderstood about God's commandment may have been the foothold that Satan needed to cinch the garden temptation. He may have DEMONSTRATED that death did not come from touching the fruit by touching it, destroying Eve's confidence in God's truthfulness. Eating the fruit began the process of death. (Gen. 2:17 may be translated, "in the day that thou eatest thereof, 'dying thou shalt die.'") Eve then touches, eats, and passes sin on to her husband. Their eyes are opened, (3:7), and they're suddenly aware that they're naked. What was the knowledge of good and evil that came to them? It certainly wasn't simply the information that they were unclothed. What were ...

S: "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." Genesis 1:29, 30, KJV. O: It never occurred to me in quite this way before, but this is the first recorded communication between God and a creature. The first communication is recorded 3 verses before, when, apparently, the Father says to the Son and Holy Spirit, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion..." God communicates to Adam, just as He communicates among the Trinity. In this sense, God honors man above the other creatures. God communicates instructions for other creatures to man, and information about them, in this sense, God desi...