Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The next three generations of men after Abraham that are named as men of faith are Isaac, his son Jacob and Jacob's son Joseph.  Hebrews 11:20-22.  Abraham had quite a family.  After Isaac had Jacob and Esau, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of beans.   What a guy.  Hunger before heritage.

The oldest son (Esau) was due to get everything.  Jacob tricked his father Isaac into thinking he was Esau so that he could fool him and get the heir's blessing.  Then he had to flee for his life.  It was years before he could go back to his home.

Jacob had twelve sons and as far as I can find, one daughter--Dinah.  You remember that ten of the sons threw Joseph into a well, then sold him as a slave.  They were jealous of his father's affection for Joseph.  (There is a book of factual-fiction about Dinah called, "The Red Tent."  I found it interesting.)

But God had a plan.  And Joseph trusted God.  He became the top government official in Egypt and many years later was joyfully reunited with his brothers and his father.

That is a very rough sketch.  I share it simply to encourage you that if your family has problems, don't despair.  Just keep trusting God.  He has a plan.  Abraham had no idea how everything was going to turn out.  Neither did Isaac or Jacob.  And I am sure that Joseph had a lot of bad days as an Egyptian slave.

Life is short.  We live by faith. Hebrews 11:13, 16 "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly:  wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared a city for them."  We are strangers on this earth.  Pilgrims.  Our hope lies in the promise of God that we will spend eternity with him.  He has prepared a city for us.  I plan to live there forever.




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