Psalm 6:5-10 Dead Men Don't Praise
6:1 A Psalm by David “Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in Your anger, neither discipline me in Your wrath. 2 Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul is also in great anguish. But You, Yahweh—how long? 4 Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul, and save me for Your hesed/loyal covenantal love. 5 For in death there is no memory of You. In Sheol, who shall give You thanks? 6 I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears. 7 My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries. 8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 Yahweh has heard my supplication. Yahweh accepts my prayer. 10 May all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed. They shall turn back, they shall be disgraced suddenly."
Observations: 6:1-4 David appeals to God's hesed or loyal covenantal love as the basis for being saved from the consequences of his sin that has angered God. See Genesis 26-28 post for more.
6:5-10 David gives an additional reason why God should save/deliver him from His enemies, he will praise and thank God, for His help, magnifying and glorifying His name. David supports his cause with heartfelt repentance and tears. He expresses a triple confidence in the fact that God has heard and accepted His prayer, and will soon deliver him. Then his enemies, which God has allowed to temporarily triumph, will be disgraced.
Application: When reaping the consequences of sin, it's always a good time to repent, call out to God for help, and plan on praising Him for His salvation of you.
Prayer: Gracious God, I praise You for being a compassionate God who is loyal to His people, and who saves them from the consequences of sin when they repent; I'm sorry to have strayed, please forgive and restore me for Your glory's sake; which I vow to praise. Thanks. Amen.
Proverbs 2:11-13 Plan Your Paths
Observations: 2:11-13 When one fears God and embraces wisdom, discretion and insight will protect and deliver. Proverbs was designed to give discretion or purpose to the naive simpletons (Proverbs 1:4). Discretion comes from a root meaning plan or purpose. Having a godly plan for one's life and day keeps one out of trouble. Insight helps one recognize the good from bad, but also the best course of action to take. The two characteristics of evil men in this section are: perverse speech, and departure for the paths of uprightness to slink in the streets of darkness. Note that they were on the right path, and went bad. Perverse speech is twisted and turned from the truth, and might sound very pious to those not trained by wisdom. The path of uprightness can sometimes get tiring, and we can be tempted to take a detour into darkness, but having the right plan and God's insight, keeps us safely on track.
Application: Plan your paths to get you to what is pleasing in God's sight, or you'll wind up slinking along the streets of sin with evil companions.
Prayer: God, may Your truth guide my plans and steps today, and protect me from the enticements of the evil. Amen.
Genesis 29-31 Family Friction with Fertile Wives & Herds
Genesis 29 The Deceiver Gets Deceived and Four Sons
29:1 "Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east. 13 It happened, when Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister’s son, that he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things. 16 Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and attractive. 18 Jacob loved Rachel. He said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.” 20 Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her. 21 Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.”
22 Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. 23 It happened in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her. 24 Laban gave Zilpah his handmaid to his daughter Leah for a handmaid. 25 It happened in the morning that, behold, it was Leah. He said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Didn’t I serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” 26 Laban said, “It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27 Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me yet seven other years.” 28 Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife. 29 Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her handmaid. 30 He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. 31 Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 Leah conceived, and bore: Reuben...Simeon...Levi....Judah. Then she stopped bearing."
Observations: In the Ancient Near East (as in most parts of the world) religion was centered around fertility for crops, herds, and family. Without it, you die. These chapters make it clear that Yahweh is the author of life.
The parallels between Isaac and Jacob's lives are numerous and intended, and foreshadow a lot of the Exodus generation's experiences.
29:20 When we're passionate about something, work is play.
29:25 Surprise! The deceiver gets deceived. Talionic (retaliation) retributive justice pays back in kind, poetically. The punishment matches the crime.
Application: Don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself.
Prayer: God of Justice, I praise You for being infinitely just. You will set things right. Amen.
Genesis 30 Family Friction with Fertile Wives & Herds
Observations: Playing favorites, and getting worth and value apart from God always causes problems. Jacob gets twelve kids (one more to come) and family problems. Nevertheless, God continues to bless him as promised, so that it is obvious to others. This is the role that Israel (and believers today) should play.
30:41 Selective breeding told to Jacob by God in 31:12 gave prosperity. The rods could have had nutrients in them.
Lexical Light: 30:24 Joseph = Yahweh shall add, the verb is imperfect. Hebrew has two verb tenses: perfect (completed action usually in the past) and imperfect (ongoing action, usually in the future). It also has a bunch of stems to make things more specific (and complicated). So it looks like Rachel is expressing faith in God giving another son...Benjamin in Genesis 35:18.
Genesis 31 God Does More Than Watch
Observation: 31:12 God sees the injustice (which He hates) and will rectify it for the righteous.
31:13 Like Jacob, Israel returned from “exile” and unjust treatment with great blessing.
31:19 Apparently not trusting Yahweh for her protection and inheritance, Rachel (whose character is clearly inferior to her beauty) steals her father's idols (which were symbols of both protection and inheritance).
31:49 Mizpah (means watchtower) was a warning between enemies, not a blessing between friends.
31:53 Two gods are in view (“judge” is plural). Nahor (Abe's grandfather) was an idolater.
Application: Respond to unjust treatment by entrusting your welfare to the God Who Judges Righteously and doing what is righteous.
Prayer: God Who Judges Righteously, help me do what's right with all my heart, and leave settling the score to You. Amen.
Digging Deeper:
God in a nutshell: He sees and acts justly to protect and bless His people, even when they are imperfect (that's grace). He is also in charge of fertility and prosperity. He will let the blessing of His people spill over on the unrighteous, for His purposes. He can communicate with and prosper idolaters.
Where to Go for More:
Truthbase.net
Genesis 29-31 complete text
Genesis 29
29:1 "Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east. 2 He looked, and behold, a well in the field, and, behold, three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well’s mouth was large. 3 There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again on the well’s mouth in its place. 4 Jacob said to them, “My relatives, where are you from?”
They said, “We are from Haran.”
5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?”
They said, “We know him.”
6 He said to them, “Is it well with him?”
They said, “It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.”
7 He said, “Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.”
8 They said, “We can’t, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well’s mouth. Then we water the sheep.”
9 While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them. 10 It happened, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. 12 Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father.
13 It happened, when Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister’s son, that he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things. 14 Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” He lived with him for a month. 15 Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?”
16 Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and attractive. 18 Jacob loved Rachel. He said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.”
19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.”
20 Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.
21 Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.”
22 Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. 23 It happened in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her. 24 Laban gave Zilpah his handmaid to his daughter Leah for a handmaid. 25 It happened in the morning that, behold, it was Leah. He said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Didn’t I serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”
26 Laban said, “It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27 Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me yet seven other years.”
28 Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife. 29 Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her handmaid.30 He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
31 Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, “Because Yahweh has looked at my affliction. For now my husband will love me.” 33 She conceived again, and bore a son, and said, “Because Yahweh has heard that I am hated, he has therefore given me this son also.” She named him Simeon.34 She conceived again, and bore a son. Said, “Now this time will my husband be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. 35 She conceived again, and bore a son. She said, “This time will I praise Yahweh.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing."
Genesis 30
30:1 "When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.”
2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3 She said, “Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her.” 4 She gave him Bilhah her handmaid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son. 6 Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son.” Therefore called she his name Dan. 7 Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, bore Jacob a son. 11 Leah said, “How fortunate!” She named him Gad. 12 Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, bore Jacob a second son. 13 Leah said, “Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy.” She named him Asher.
14 Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15 She said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes, also?”
Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”
16 Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.”
He lay with her that night. 17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband.” She named him Issachar. 19 Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob. 20 Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons.” She named him Zebulun. 21 Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.
22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.23 She conceived, bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 She named him Joseph,* saying, “May Yahweh add another son to me.”
25 It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you.”
27 Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake.” 28 He said, “Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.”
29 He said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me. 30 For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?”
31 He said, “What shall I give you?”
Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. 32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire. 33 So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen.”
34 Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.”
35 That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 36 He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37 Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. 38 He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink. 39 The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40 Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock. 41 It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; 42 but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys."
Genesis 31
31:1 "He heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. From that which was our father’s, has he gotten all this wealth.”2 Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. 3 Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
4 Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, 5 and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. 7 Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me. 8 If he said this, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked. 9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me. 10 It happened during mating season that I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”
14 Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? 15 Aren’t we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money. 16 For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”
17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, 18 and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan. 19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim * that were her father’s.
20 Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away. 21 So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
22 Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. 23 He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. 24 God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Take heed to yourself that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.”
25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead. 26 Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp; 28 and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly. 29 It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Take heed to yourself that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.’ 30 Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”
31 Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’ 32 Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he didn’t find them. He went out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but didn’t find them. 35 She said to her father, “Don’t let my lord be angry that I can’t rise up before you; for I’m having my period.” He searched, but didn’t find the teraphim.
36 Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me? 37 Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.
38 “These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 That which was torn of animals, I didn’t bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”
43 Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? 44 Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you.”
45 Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 46 Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha,† but Jacob called it Galeed.‡ 48 Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. 50 If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.” 51 Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.52 May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac. 54 Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain. 55 Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place."
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