Psalm 7:1-5, 8 A Plea From Pure Heart and Hands
7:1 "Yahweh, my God, I take refuge/have put my trust in You. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, 2 lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. 3 Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, 4 if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, if I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary), 5 let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah...8 Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge/vindicate me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.“
Observation: Psalm 6 (last post) asked God for help while reaping consequences of one's sin. In Psalm 7 the person is persecuted without cause. Note the four things this guy didn't do (with four consequences).
Application: When difficulties arise, you don't want them to be through your fault. That way you can confidently look to see how God plans to bless you through the tough time. Can you make the appeal of verse 8?
Prayer: O Just Judge of the Universe, help me always be in a place where You can bless me, even if that means suffering for doing what's right. Amen.
Proverbs 2:14-17 Rejoicing in Evil
2:14 “(10 wisdom...knowledge...11 discretion... understanding will keep you, 12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men 13 who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness) 14 who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil; 15 who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths“
Observations: 2:14-17 The fruits of Proverbs, wisdom ...understanding, are designed to deliver the one who develops them from evil and evil men (and evil women in the next verses). The author describes the characteristics of the evil men, who haven't changed in thousands of years. They are those who left the light to slither in the dark. Their joy and delight is not just in acts of evil, but in the fact that it is perverse. Pushing the envelop for the sake of rebelling against civilization-building norms is the essence of perverseness. Their highest good is bad. Their value system embraces that which contributes to their temporal happiness and eternal demise. Perhaps they never walked far enough along the path of uprightness to experience it's benefits, or perhaps their lust for the temporal has blinded them to their condition and fate.
Application: Those who have trained themselves to develop wisdom will not walk with those headed to destruction.
Prayer: Lord, help me embrace Your values and paths, and deliver me from those who rejoice in evil and value perversity. Thanks. Amen.
Genesis 32–34 Friend or Foe?
Genesis 32 Praying and Wrestling with God
13 He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother: 20...For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."
24 Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. 25 When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled. 26 The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me." 27 He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." 28 He said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed." 29 Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him there. 30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel for, he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." 31...he limped because of his thigh. 32 Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip."
Question: Jacob is a guy who's been incredibly blessed by God; he knows it, and everyone knows it. God guides him directly; angels appear to him; and he and God roll around in the dirt together. Yet he can't trust God to protect him from his big hairy brother.
What is Jacob's problem? (It's a problem faced by a lot of self-sufficient, hard-working types. Think about it, then check out the Application below.)
Observations: 32:9-11 In his first recorded prayer, Jacob does well to remind himself (and God) that he is in this situation because of obeying God in returning. A little humility and reminding God of His promises probably don't hurt either.
32:24 Whatever is going on here, Jacob was persistent, and got: blessed, a new name, and a limp. He says his opponent was God.
32:28 Jacob (supplanter-who takes the place of another by force or treachery) gets a new name Israel (struggles with God).
Application: Failure to depend daily upon God results in panic when facing problems beyond our strength.
Prayer: God, help me walk with You every day, so the stormy times will be a walk in the park. Amen.
Genesis 33 Peace with God...then Man
Observations: 33:10 It's better to have God pleased with us, than be pleasing to man.
Proverbs 16:7 "When a man's ways please Yahweh, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."
33:20 El Elohe Israel = The Mighty God of Israel. Altars were for making sacrifices, in this case, of thanksgiving.
Application: It's good to regularly remind ourselves of God's mighty help and protection. A heap of stones or a journal or diary is preferable to a limp.
Prayer: Mighty God of Israel, may I be pleasing in Your sight every day. Amen.
Genesis 34 Violations
34:1 "Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. 3 His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. 4 Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, "Get me this young lady as a wife."
7 The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; a which thing ought not to be done. 8 Hamor talked with them, saying, "The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 9 Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it."
14..."We can't do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. 15 Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised. 25 It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away. 27 Jacob's sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.
30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house." 31 They said, "Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?"
34:2 Lesson to parents: If you don't take pains to parent properly, your children will cause you pain. Choose wisely. Shechem was another guy whose parents didn't train him to control his passions, and who consequently brought permanent pain to the entire family. Jacob had the same problem (in 34:30), and will be reaping the sorrowful consequences of failing to father properly for the rest of his life.
34:7-9 Hamor makes a tempting case for doing what “ought not to be done.” Separation from sinners is a condition of blessing.
34:24-31 Unfortunately revenge, not separation and purity was the motive for Simeon and Levi. They defiled themselves (losing out on blessing and getting cursed Genesis 49:5-7) by indulging their passion for revenge and honor, adding breaking covenant with Hamor to their sin.
Application: Master your emotions or they will master you.
Prayer: God save me from the folly of following my feelings unguided by Your Word. Amen.
Digging Deeper:
God in a nutshell: God blesses His people (surprise, surprise); lets us reap painful consequences of independence; orchestrates and initiates circumstances beyond our resources because He desires us to live in dependence upon Him.
Us in a nutshell: We think everything depends on us (obedience and wise choices do); tend to follow our feelings, pleasing ourselves and others rather than God. Reap consequences, but are slow to learn.
Where to Go for More:
Truthbase.net
Parenting outlines
Can God Meet Emotional Needs? (best-seller!)
Genesis 32-34 complete text
Genesis 32
32:1 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When he saw them, Jacob said, "This is God's army." He called the name of that place Mahanaim. 3 Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. 4 He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now. 5 I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'" 6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him." 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies; 8 and he said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape." 9 Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,' 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children. 12 You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can't be numbered because there are so many.'" 13 He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. 16 He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd." 17 He commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?' 18 Then you shall say, 'They are your servant, Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.'" 19 He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. 20 You shall say, 'Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.'" For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me." 21 So the present passed over before him, and he himself lodged that night in the camp. 22 He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. 24 Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. 25 When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled. 26 The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me." 27 He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." 28 He said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed." 29 Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him there. 30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." 31 The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh. 32 Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.
Genesis 33
Genesis 34
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