Story of Jacob
Genesis 27-28
Time passed, and twins sons – Esau and Jacob were born to Isaac and Rebecca. When they were born , God said that they would become the fathers of two warring nations. Esau, the elder brother, would serve Jacob, the younger.
When Esau grew up he was a skilful hunter. He loved to be out on the hills. He hunted and killed wild animals which he brought home to make the tasty, spicy stews his father enjoyed so much. But Jacob was different. He was a quiet man. He spent his time at home. And he was Rebecca’s favourite.
When Isaac was old he began to go blind. In those days, it was the custom for a father, before he died, to ask God’s special blessings on the eldest son. Isaac decided it was time he gave Esau his blessing. But first he sent Esau out to hunt for meat to make a good stew.
Rebecca overheard what Isaac said to Esau, and she made up her mind that Jacob should have the blessing. Isaac was almost blind. Jacob could pretend to be Esau, and Isaac would never know.
So, while Esau was still out hunting , Rebecca made one of her tastiest, spiciest stews from the meat to two young goat. And she spread the goatskins over jacob’s smooth arms and neck to make them feel like Esau’s rough, hairy skin.
Jacob dressed up in his brother’s clothes, and took the meal in to his father. The lovely smell from the food, and the feel of the skins, deceived Isaac. But he thought the voice sounded different.
‘Are you really Esau?’ he asked.
‘I am’,’ Jacob lied.
So Isaac prayed that God would give his richest blessing, the blessing of the first son, to Jacob. When Esau himself arrived, the truth came out. But it was too late. The blessing had been given. Esau was so angry with Jacob that Rebecca was afraid he would kill him. So she persuaded Isaac to let Jacob go to her people in Paddan-aram, to find a wife.
Jacob journeyed north, alone and afraid. At sunset he reached a wild and stony valley. Here he lay down to sleep, using a stone for his pillow. As he slept, he dreamed he saw a great staircase stretching up to heaven, with angels going up and down it. At the top stood God himself, and he was speaking to Jacob.
‘I will give the land on which you lie to you and your descendants,’ God said. ‘I am with you. I will look after you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.’
When Jacob woke up, he was very afraid, despite the comforting words. He was certain that it was God’s voice he had heard. Jacob made God a promise.
‘If you will be with me and protect me,’ he said, ‘and bring me home safely, then you will be my God.’
Jacob reached his mother’s homeland at last. He had stopped beside a well to ask about his uncle Laban. A girl came out to water flocks- and it was his cousin Rachel, Laban’s daughter! Jacob wept for joy as he told her who he was.
Laban welcomed him as one of the family. A month went by, with Jacob working for Laban. Then Laban asked Jacob how much pay he wanted. ‘I will work for you for seven years if you will let me marry your daughter Rachel,’ Jacob said.
Laban agreed; and Jacob loved Rachel so much that the seven years passed like seven days. But when the wedding-day came, Laban cheated and gave Jacob his elder daughter, Leah. He made the excuse that in his country the elder daughter must marry before the younger one. Laban was quite happy to let Jacob marry Rachel as well. But Jacob had to work for his uncle without par for another seven years.
So Jacob had two wives- and an unhappy home. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, which made although she longed for children, had none. As the years went by, Leah had six sons and a daughter. Then, at last, Rachel had her first son. She called him Joseph.
By this time Jacob was longing to go back home. But he had helped his uncle to become rich, and Laban did not want to let him go. ‘Stay with me, and I will pay you whatever you like,’ he said. This was Jacob’s chance.
Jacob agreed. ‘And for wages I will take the black sheep and goats, and the ones that are speckled or spotted,’ he said. Laban tried to cheat him, but God helped Jacob, and his flocks increased. Jacob became rich, but Laban’s sons began to hate him.
He knew that Laban would never let him go, so he waited until his uncle was busy shearing the sheep. Then he fled across the River Euphrates with his wives and children, his servants, and his flocks. Laban followed, but he could not persuade Jacob to return. Jacob continued on his way home to Cannan. As they got nearer, he felt more and more afraid. Was Esau still angry with him? He sent messengers ahead to make his peace with Esau. But they returned, saying that Esau was on his way with 400 men. Jacob turned to God for help.
‘O God,’ he prayed,’ you told me to return. I don’t deserve any of your goodness to me. Save me now from Esau’s anger.’ He choose a great number of sheep and goats, camels and cattle and asses, to give as a present to Esau. And he sent his servants on head with them. Then he and his wives and children crossed the River Jabbok at the ford.
That night, when Jacob was alone with his fears, a strange thing happened. A man came and wrestled with him all night till daybreak. Jacob did not know him, but he knew he came from God. And he would not let him go until he had God’s blessing.
After that night Jacob always walked with a limp, but he was a changed man with a new name- no longer Jacob, the man who had cheated his brother, but Israel, the man who had come face to face with God. As the sun rose, Jacob saw Esau and his men coming towards him. He had expected trouble, but instead Esau ran to meet him, and hugged him. Old quarrels were forgotten in the joy of meeting again.
‘Who are these?’ said Esau, as the family gathered round. ‘And what were the flocks I met?’ ‘The flocks are a present,’ said Jacob. ‘Please take them. For when I saw the look of loving welcome on your face, it was like looking into the face of God himself.’
A wife for Isaac
GENESIS 24
Sarah was dead; Abraham was now very old. It was time Isaac got married. But not to one of the local Canaanite women. Isaac must marry one of his own people.
Abraham's family lived far away, and he was too old to travel. So he called his trusted servant to him.
'I want you to go to Paddan-aram,' he said , 'where my brother Nahor lives, to choose a wife for Isaac.'
'But what if the girl refuses to come?' the man replied. 'Shall i take Isaac to her?'
'No, you must never do that,' said Abraham. 'For God has promised this land to my descendants.' The servant took men and camels with him, and special presents for the girl and her family. The journey was long and weary but he arrived at last. He made his camels kneel down by the well, outside the town. It was late in the afternoon, and the women would soon be coming to fetch water. Which one was the right wife for Isaac?
The servant spoke to God, as he had heard his master do so often. 'Lord God.' he said, 'Keep your promise to my master, Abraham. I need your help to find a wife for Isaac. I shall say to one of the girls. "Let me have a drink from your water-jar." If she says, "I will bring water for your camels, too " let that be the right girl for Isaac.'
He had hardly finished praying when he saw a beautiful girl coming, with her water-jar on her shoulder. She filled her jar at the well and he asked for a drink. At once she gave him the water-jar, and when he had drunk as much as he wanted she brought water for all his camels.
This was the sign he had asked for, so the servant took a gold ring and two gold bracelets and gave them to the girl. Then he asked who she was, and whether he and his men could spend the night at her father's house. 'My name is Rebecca,' she said. 'I am Bethuel's daughter. My grandfather's name is Nahor.'
'Why, God has led me straight to my master's relatives,' the servant said, and thanked God for his help.
Rebecca left the man there and ran home to show off the presents and tell her family what had happened. when her brother Laban heard, he quickly went to greet the stranger and make him welcome.
Soon the camels were fed and the men had washed and were sitting down to a good hot meal. But Abraham's servant would not eat until he had told them why he had come. He spoke of Abraham and Isaac and how God had blessed them. He told them how he had prayed to God at the well, and how God had answered. And he asked if they would allow Rebecca to go and be Isaac's wife.
How could Bethuel and Laban refuse? It was clearly God's plan. So the engagement presents were given, and they enjoyed a celebration meal together. Next morning, Abraham's servant was eager to go home. And Rebecca agreed to set out at once, although she was going with strangers, to a new home in a far-off land.
And so, one evening, as he watched for their return, Isaac saw camels coming. The men were eager to tell their story. But Isaac was only half listening. He was looking for the very first time at the beautiful girl who had travelled so far to be his bride. The waiting was over. Isaac took Rebecca to be his wife- and he loved her.
Isaac: the test
GENESIS 21-22
When God had called Abraham to leave Ur, he promised to make him the father of a great nation. He promised Abraham a son and so many descendants they would be as hard to count as the stars in the sky.
Through the long years of waiting , night after night, Abraham looked up at the stars and remembered both old and had almost given up hope, Isaac was born. When Sarah looked at her baby son she was so happy that she laughed for joy.
The years passed and Isaac grew tall and strong. Then God decided to test Abraham. 'Abraham,' he said , 'I want you to take Isaac, your only son, whom you love so much, to the land of Moriah and offer him to me as a sacrifice.'
Abraham could hardly believe these cruel words. Could God really want him to kill his son, after all God's promises? But Abraham had learnt always to trust God and obey him, so early next morning they set off. Isaac carried the wood, and Abraham had a knife.
They travelled for three days. Abraham could not bear to think of what he had to do when the journey was over. But he said nothing about it to Isaac. They were nearly at the place when Isaac said,
'Father, we have the wood and fire to offer God a sacrifice, but where is the lamb?'
Abraham swallowed hard. Then he said,'God will provide the lamb.' But when they reached the place and altar was built, and the wood piled on top, Abraham tied Isaac's hands and laid him on top. He raised the knife to kill his son..
But just at that moment God called out to him: 'Abraham! Stop! Don't touch the boy. I know now how much you trust me. I know you will obey, whatever I ask. Look in the bushes. You will find a ram caught by its horns. Sacrifice that.'
So Abraham freed his trembling son. Thankfully, joyfully, they killed the ram and roasted it on the altar. And God repeated all his wonderful promises of blessing, because when Abraham was put to the test he obeyed God.
Abraham and Lot
GENESIS 11-13,18-19
In the city of Ur, in the country of Chaldea, there lived a man called Abraham. His wife's name was Sarah. One day God said to Abraham:
'I want you to leave Ur and go far away to the country of Cannan. If you do as I say, I will make you the father of a great nation.'
Now Abraham and Sarah had no children. But they believed God and did as he said. They took lot, Abraham's nephew, and their servants, their flocks and their herds, and they left Ur. They left their family and home and friends- all the people and places they knew so well- and set out for an unknown land.
Travel was slow, and the journey to Canaan a long one, but at last they arrived. They set up their tents at Mamre, near Hebron, and for a long time they all lived happily together. But as the herds of cattle and flocks of sheep increased there was quarrels between the men who looked after Abraham's cattle and the men who looked after Lot's.
So Abraham and Lot decided it was time to part. Abraham let Lot choose where he wanted to go. Lot decided to move down from the hills into the green valley of the River Jordan close to the town of Sodom. There he would have plenty of water and good grass for his flocks. Lot moved off. This meant that Abraham had to stay up on the hills, where there wasn't much water and the grass was thin and brown.
But although the valley looked good, Lot had made the wrong choice. The people who lived in Sodom were proud and greedy and lazy; they were hard, cruel and violent. Terrible things were done in Sodom and no more was sorry or ashamed.
But God is just. He will not turn a blind eye to those who deliberately do wrong. The city of Sodom deserved to be punished.
One hot midday, when Abraham was resting in the shade of his tent, he saw three strangers coming towards him. He went to greet them and invited them to rest and eat with him in his tent. There was a great hurry and scurry as Sarah and the servants set to work. They baked fresh bread and roasted a calf, and offered this to the visitors, with bowls of milk and cheese.
When the meal was finished , the men explained why they had come. Abraham and Sarah had grown old by this time, God had good news for them. Very soon the son they longed for would be born. How surprised and pleased they were!
But what the men said next made them sad. God said that Sodom, the town where Lot now lived, was going to be destroyed.
The only good people in Sodom were Lot and his family. So God sent his messengers to warn Lot to escape before it was too late.
But Lot's family did not want to leave Sodom. Only just in time, God's messengers hurried them all to safety outside the town. They had not gone far before there was a great rumbling.
The ground trembled and shook. Fire and ash rained down on Sodom and the nearby towns and villages. The air was full of dust. But still Lot's wife would not hurry. She stopped to look, and was killed. Only Lot and his two daughters escaped. God had saved their lives.
The Tower of Babel
GENESIS 10-11
After the great flood, Noah and his sons farmed the land and planted vines. They had children, and their children had children. Soon there were so many people that some families had to move away to find fresh grass for their animals to graze.
But still they all spoke the same simple language and everyone could understand one another. It was easy for them to plan and work together.
Some of them settled in the plains of Babylonia. They learnt to make bricks and bake them hard to make them strong. They discovered how to use tar to hold them together. Now they could really build!
One day someone said, 'Let's build ourselves a city. And let's make a great tower, the tallest has ever been built. Then we'll be famous.' Everyone agreed that this was a good idea, and soon they were all hard at work. They began to build the Tower of Babel.
God watched them at work. He saw the walls growing higher and higher. He saw the people getting bigger and bigger ideas. And he knew that this would lead to trouble. They were beginning to think they were gods.
So God did not wait till the tower was finished. If people spoke different languages they would not be able to understand one another. It would be more difficult to work together. So God mixed up their languages and scattered the people to different parts of the world.
North, south, east and west they went. Some settled on the coasts and islands at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. Some made their homes in Egypt and Africa. Others went to Assyria and Arabia.
The families descended from Noah grew into great nations, each in its own country. And every nation spoke a different language. Never again were they able to work and plan together so easily. And whenever people talked of the great Tower of Babel, they remembered how they had come to speak a 'babble' of different languages.
Noah's Boat
GENESIS 6-9
A long time passed. People were born. They had children. They died. And all the time things were going from bad to worse in God's world. People fought one another. They hated and hurt one another. They did not care about God, or the way he wanted them to live. No one listened to him any more - and God began to be sorry he had ever made human beings. There was only one thing to do. He must make a fresh start with new people. Sadly, he decided to destroy every living creature on the earth. He decided to send a great flood.
But there was one good man who lived as God's friend. His name was Noah. God talked to Noah about the flood, and explained his plan. He wanted to save Noah and his family. God told Noah and his wife, their three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth with their wives, and two of every kind of animal and bird. And there had to be room to store food to feed them all for a very long time. Noah listened carefully, and did exactly as God said.
People came to watch him work on the boat- it was a long job. Every day when they asked him what he was doing he told them what God had said about the flood. But they took no notice. They thought Noah was crazy. He must be. Fancy building a boat on dry land, miles from a river or sea! But Noah did not let them stop him. He got on with the work and at last the boat was finished.
Then the rain came.
That day Noah and his family and all the birds and animals went into the boat, as God had said. And God shut the door tight behind them.
The rain came down in torrents. And it kept on raining, day after day. Soon all the rivers overflowed and the water spread over the ground. It reached the boat. It swirled around, growing deeper and deeper. Then it lifted the boat, and Noah and all his family were afloat.
Still the rain came and the water rose and rose until everything was covered. No one, nothing survived . Not even the tops of the mountains could be seen. Noah and his family, and the animals with them in the boat, were the only left alive. It was an empty, lonely world.
At last the rain stopped . Slowly, Slowly the water began to go down,until the boat came to rest among the mountains.Noah wanted to find out if the earth was dry enough for everyone to leave the boat. So he opened a window and let out a raven. When the raven did not came back, Noah let out a dove. But it was not yet dry enough for the dove, so she flew back and Noah let her in again.
The next time the dove flew out she brought back a fresh green leaf from an olive-tree. Then Noah knew that the earth was nearly dry. The third time the dove flew out, she did not return. Soon Noah could see the dry land for himself.
Then God told Noah it was time for them all to leave the boat and make a fresh start in the clean, new world. What an exciting day that was! Animals and people tumbled over one another in the rush to get out of the boat and stand on dry land again. Noah and his family laughed and shouted , and ran about. Then they thanked God for keeping them safe.
They built up a heap of big stones and put wood on top, to make an 'altar' where they could roast meat as a special thank-you present to God. And, as the sun broke through, overhead, across the sky, arched a beautiful rainbow. For God had promised Noah that he would never again send a flood to destroy the earth. And the rainbow was a sign, for everyone to see, that he would keep his promise for ever and ever.
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