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THEME: The element that these two very different chapters have in common is the fact that Your people do live in proximity to those who live very differently. David says that he too has to go through the valley of the shadow of death and that he dines in the presence of his enemies. The descendants of Esau will be present as a stumbling block and a model for not trusting You, but Your people have the option of doing differently.

PRAISES: Thank You that the way to a lasting legacy is in You, evidenced by Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob as compared to the indistinguishable names of the descendants of Esau. Thank You that compared to a succession of earthly rulers, You are our Eternal King. Thank You that You in Your sovereignty do not remove evil entirely but use it to shape our character in Your likeness for our eternal good.

APPLICATIONS: Life apart from You is a burdened life. (Verses 1-14) Esau tried to satisfy and provide for two wives when You have only called us to take and to cleave to one as a picture of Christ and the Church. Just as the land could not support the possessions of both him and his brother, none of the people or the stuff he accumulated could fulfill his greatest desire.

With what heart do we look at those in the worldly chase today? Do we look at the ways in which You are disciplining us and wonder if the world might have it easier? Perish the thought! They are divided, following the emotion of what they think will satisfy them in the moment. We have the opportunity to be completely consumed by love for Christ, our only eternal Bridegroom. They squeeze every material opportunity looking for protection and self-worth. We don't have to look to stuff or those we interact with in pursuit of it to find our deepest meaning. Give us, then, a light touch and a gracious aspect. Open our eyes to the burden of the worldly really carry, and give us opportunities to lighten their load.

Those who lead in Your way are distinguished not by title but by the fruits You produce through us. (Verses 15-30) It is simply stated matter-of-factly that these men were chiefs. We see nothing of the quality of their lives. We see nothing of the legacy they left behind. They simply were, assumed a title, and were not.

Will influence come to us because we crave a title or because we are willing to be used by You and recognized after-the-fact? Develop in us, develop in me, the heart of a servant leader not concerned with the titles the world can bestow but looking for ways in which to put ourselves last in order to lighten the load of others. If we seek recognition, let it be the holy recognition of eternity that will never be snatched away like fleeting fame. Let us also, like Paul, recognize that on our own what we were chief of was sinning and that the fact that we accomplished anything of lasting value is to Your credit alone.

We have no true King but You and are to be constantly aware of pretenders to the throne of our hearts. (Verses 31-43) Moses foresaw that the children of Israel would have a king, not only here but in Deuteronomy where You had him write down the requirements for that office. Of the fact that it was foreseen does not exonerate the motives of the Israelites. They said clearly in 1 Samuel that they wanted a king like the nations around them, and here we have that temptation present right next to them.

Whom are we installing and exalting as our King? If we go the way of Esau's family even for a day or a season, Your Word makes clear that other people are watching. Those at first inclined to place their trust in You as their King can be dissuaded from that decision simply by the momentum of the neighborhood consensus. Help us, Father, in ways sincere rather than showy to make it plain today to whom we pay the ultimate allegiance. May we, by Your grace, find ways to lift You up even in the middle of our daily routine.

THEME: In both chapters, we see the central character despair but nevertheless turn to You, resolved to testify to You in whatever opportunity You make available. From there, we see their focus expanded, as they are able to look toward an opportunity to testify before the nations.

PRAISES: Thank You that we and Your plans for us are not defined by the criticisms of the moment or circumstances that seem to be closing in. Thank You that we do not have to be on the defensive but can testify in the here and now to our families and to our very critics that You are good. Thank You that You have a future for us FAR beyond the survival that we would sometimes settle for, influence on the nations that can inspire us in the limitations of the moment.

APPLICATIONS: When we return to a pattern of fear and doubt, it is You Who transform our outlook by reminding us of Your past faithfulness and Your future plans for us. (Verses 1-15) You willingly, lovingly, take Jacob back to square one in the school of discipleship. He does not need to tell you that he is faltering in fear of those around him. You see it. You hear it in his words, and You call him back to first things. You bring him back to the place where he came alone, seeing no promise in his future. You remind him that You were enough then when all he asked for was food and clothing enough to get by. Thus prompted, he who lack boldness in leading his family then leads them to revival and renewed trust in You. After showing him Your provision in his past, You remind Jacob that Your plans for his future are still in place. All of his halfhearted faith cannot cancel them.

Are You calling us back to Bethel? What would be remarkable is if we did not need to go back there. We so easily forget our initial trust in You when we had nothing to offer, becoming so embroiled in trying to use what You bless us with in a responsible fashion. We forget that we don't graduate from that initial dependence but have the ongoing opportunity to trust and lean on You more with each step in our journey. As You call us back to pure one-on-One intimacy, our response in Your glorious light will be to see areas in our life and our sphere of influence that do not reflect Your standards. As we see these, give us a holy zeal to change them because we are looking forward to being more like You. With this motivating us, we will be able to move lightly, so much more so than any sense of burdened guilt at having to come up with a résumé that impresses You or our temporary neighbors. Where we have begun to define ourselves by their opinion of us, remind us that we are destined for bigger things, destined to be a testimony of Your faithfulness to the nations.

We can mark places of sorrow in our journey without bequeathing sorrow as the default state of a walk with You. (Verses 16-22) Jacob, now Israel, loved Rachel and grieved for her. He evened to this time to mark the passing of her nurse. He knew how to experience times of true sadness. But what he refused to do was to make permanent concessions to his grief as though that was the usual state of experience with You. He would not have his son carry a name for his entire life associated with the bitter time of his mother's passing.

How can acknowledge today's troubles without allowing them to define us? One way is to keep moving, to recognize that the sphere You have given us is much larger than one place and one moment. No doubt Israel, even as he grieved, went back to Your recent words that You had given him the entire land. Even as we struggle, Father, remind us of the scope of Your promises in Your Word so that we don't get bogged down in today's heaviness. Another way Jacob kept from assuming a permanent state of grief was to be careful what he assigned permanence to. His son's name would follow him for the rest of his life and might dictate his perspective. As such, Jacob, no doubt still in pain, made the decision not to pass that on to his son as though it would last forever. Give us that diligence, Father, in what we reflect to those who come behind us and those we influence even in a fleeting moment today.

You have bigger plans for us than we can see in moments of despair and depression. (Verses 23-29) The size of Jacob's household as You bless it is a direct rebuke to the doubt and despair of two different people. Isaac thought he was ready to die, ready to close off all sense of possibility before he even saw Jacob have any children, and yet You allowed him to live long enough to see the throng of grandchildren that his son brought with him. This same household that must have amazed Isaac is the group that Jacob was ready to dismiss as insufficient at the end of the last chapter.

Are we guilty of Isaac's unwillingness to wait for the future to see what You would do? Of Jacob's inability to see his blessings in proper perspective in the moment? Both? Help us, Father, to take a step back from our times of weariness and fear to give You what the speaker yesterday called a proper platform of which to work. You know bless us tremendously with the opportunities we see as routine on an ordinary Monday. Help us to make the most of them. Furthermore, You STILL have plans for us that we can barely imagine in our myopic perspective. Help us not to, as one of my client said, give up five minutes before our miracle. Keep us resilient and hopeful, not because we have the ingredients of renewal within us but because we serve the One Who does.

THEME: There is a place for righteous anger in You and Yours according to today's chapters. In fact, something is wrong if we respond as Jacob did and worry more about getting along with those who disregard justice than representing You.

PRAISES: Thank You that You are just. Thank You that You are patient, giving these Canaanite people yet more time to repent before you brought Abraham's descendents back in to occupy the land. Thank You that You as our Parent do not do as Jacob did and send us out unaware of the dangers of this world.

APPLICATIONS: The world seeks to blend believers into it, either by force or by persuasion. (Verses 1-11) Dinah is not prepared for a hostile world that she inhabits but is not truly a part of. Your clear instructions to Abraham that his descendents were not to possess this land until after they had gone down to Egypt were not being passed down to succeeding generations. Apparently, Dinah went out believing that the world had no hostility toward her, and she paid for it. Shechem, both by force and by kind words, sought to make her one with him. Even knowing this, Jacob held his peace. Sensitive to what he believed were necessary alliances to get along in this world, he had lost all sense of righteous indignation. As such, he lost the opportunity to lead his family at a critical and painful juncture. Seeing no reaction on his part, his sons in grief and anger decided how to react. Any proportional response to punish Shechem is lost. Passion governs, one of the Founding Fathers said, and she always governs badly. We are to soon see the results.

As we go out, how aware are we that the world's agenda is completely different than and opposed to the one we serve? Where have we lost sight of the fact that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy so that the stakes could not be higher? Even if we are prepared for on outright assault as Dinah apparently was not, are we equally vigilant against persuasion -- whether sweet words or the practical sense of this world that so many mix unsuccessfully with faith in You? Make us more alert, Father, to You at work so that we will readily see the difference between that and the enemy seeking to frustrate that work. As we influence others, whether the chronologically young or babes in Christ, help us to raise them up with discernment as to the reality of the spiritual battle for all that they are and all that they have. Where we see injustice, help us not to be desensitized by the fact that it is the way of the world. Move us with Your compassion and with a willingness to risk whatever position or possessions we currently have. As with Jacob, they will not permanently define us, and the failure to deploy them to answer injustice will be to our shame. If we do not as those positioned with influence who walk in the Spirit, others will rise up in wrath that You have said will never accomplish Your righteousness.

We are not to use religious language or rules to burden others and gain our own advantage. (Verses 12-19) Jacob's sons rightly understood that Shechem's sin was serious and needed to be dealt with. So they answered him with part of Your redemption story. Rather than explain about their great-grandfather Abraham whose faith was credited to him as righteousness and that repentance was necessary in order for Shechem not to stand before You condemned, they skipped to the outward sign of allegiance to God through Abraham. They made a mockery of it, using the form of religion in order to we can and gain advantage over their foes. They lost any sense of proportional justice that represents You and went from righteous anger that may have been directed toward Shechem to mass slaughter that had little to do with justice.

Likewise, what injuries and burdens will be inflicted in Your Name without the real aim of bringing anyone to repentance and a right relationship with You? Will we be satisfied with the outward forms of meeting religious obligations without a change of the heart? Will "coming forward" on this Sunday morning be more about enhancing the control of one human or a group of humans, or about true submission to You? Help us, Father, to keep the goal in mind of winning back brothers caught in sin within the Church and of , by Your grace and power, being used to open the eyes of the lost to the necessity of repentance from ways that are not pleasing to You. If we don't seek that restoration, close our mouths from using Your language and Your authority in order to subjugate other people. Forgive us, Father, for the military, political, and business empires built in Your Name that have nothing to do with a right relationship with You.

We need Your help to separate moves toward a relationship with You from material motives. (Verses 20-31) Both parties were playing at a religious game with divided motives. The people of the land were willing to go through the religious motions, even religious sacrifice, in order to gain the possessions that Jacob's family had. We could not be surprised that people with no knowledge of You would act in such a way. But Jacob's family is no better. They are using the language and the forms of religious obligation in order to conquer, kill, and materially plunder. The yeast of self-promotion has entirely taken over the loaf.

Do we recognize what a battle is still is this Sunday and every day? People may be lead to a decision for You this morning because they are told that all their dreams will come true and that they will never have any problems. Who wouldn't want that deal, especially absent an obligation to truly repent? Give spiritual leaders eyes, Father, for those who are truly submitted to You as distinct from those joining as fellow travelers for what they can get out of the deal. But if we have something of an obligation to discern the hearts of the lost, we have they GREAT obligation to look carefully at our own motives as the Church. Whether our means are persuasion, burden, or outright force, if we are after a form of submission so that we can get people's stuff, we are GRAVELY in the wrong as Your representatives. Even materially gaining from that as a part of the process should give us serious questions. Examine our hearts, Father, as only You can objectively. Make us more interested, as my pastor has said, in growing big Christians rather than big churches.

THEME: Both chapters unite on the note that You answer the petitions of Jacob. As we come before You in sincerity as he did in the last chapter, You fight battles we don’t have to and bring peace where we could not.

PRAISES: Thank You that You even hear our prayers when we have no merit from which to offer them. Thank You that You can touch hearts that have every reason to be hostile and make our enemies to be at peace with us. Thank You that Your ability to bless outpaces our ability to believe in it, as we so often pray for whole victories and then live lives halfway to the victory You have provided.

APPLICATIONS: You have positioned leaders to protect and intercede for those they influence. (Verses 1-7) I previously faulted Jacob for putting those he was responsible for between him and danger. But what You show me this time is that he crossed in front, meeting Esau and any danger he presented first on behalf of his family. This is headship. This is leadership. This is subordinating the leader’s own desires for the protection and benefit of others.

Wherever You have granted us influence, are we ready and willing to risk its privileges on behalf of others? At home, are we as husbands using our position for control of the remote, or to lovingly serve our families by putting our own needs last and facing that of which we admit we are afraid?
We want to answer the former where it involves grand gestures but not in the small sacrifices of everyday life. Brothers Karamosov paints the contrast between grand gestures and love of the steady variety we are called to this way, “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams. For love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude.”
Between petition and provision, Father, help us to trust You by risking service as though we have what we ask already. Let us, where You so direct, exhibit this boldness by meekness, power under restraint, that would have us act in humility when we feel like striking out.

We bless others because YOU have blessed us. (Verses 8-12) Even though he now knows that he does not need to give of his goods to Esau to save his own skin, he does anyway and argues for the chance to do it. Why? He testifies that he does this because YOU have blessed him into a position to do so.

Are our motives in a giving decision centered on You or on a human response? Surely we present with some mixture of the two, as Jacob admitted in the last chapter that he presented gifts in order to appease his brother. But, when asked the reason for our hope and any generosity we are positioned to exhibit, can we honestly give You the glory? Remove from us, Father, that part which would calculate the favor we can gain or how worthy someone is of our gift. Jesus called us to go out of our way to be generous to those who CANNOT be generous to us, and we pass up opportunities for what was translated from Dostoyevsky as “active love” every day. Open our eyes, Father, to the openings to advance Your eternal Kingdom in the most mundane dealings of earth. Stiffen our spines, Father, for the fortitude and risk-taking that real love requires and restore the buoyancy of our hearts as we undertake another week of laboring compassion at least as taxing in some ways as any physical toil. Remind us Sunday and every day of just how generous You have been to us, that we can give out of abundance rather than out of scarcity.

We can trust You completely rather than using our responsibilities as an excuse not to. (Verses 13-20) Jacob has seen that You can show him favor even through the likes of Esau, but he still wants a safe buffer just in case that changes. If he has any spiritual reasons for keeping what You have given him separate from the destiny of Esau, he certainly whiffs at the chance to testify to that. Instead, he shows himself to be a responsible, respectable kind of believer different from the world around him only by degrees. Yes, he is trusting in Your promises, but he is still wise in the ways of the world. It seems he uses his household as an excuse not step out in full faith.

Are the people and goods You bless us with an excuse to play it safe or an impetus to step out in still more audacious faith? As we look at them, help us to see evidence of Your provision in the way that Jacob did in his amazingly sincere prayer the night before. In the place of prayer, it is easier to commit to things spiritual, but help us to that in our actions and our words in the light of day. Make us just as candid about Your call on our lives before the practical Esaus in our lives as we are before You alone. “Something is wrong,” Francis Chen wrote in Crazy Love, “when our lives make sense to unbelievers,” so tire us quickly of the choices that nod in that direction. Remind us that, like Jacob before his descendants went through slavery in Egypt, we are just passing through and are not to build as though the best of our inheritance is in the here and the now.

THEME: Both chapters show You making use of the night to deal with man. In Genesis, You deal with Jacob's restlessness by drawing near to him and even wrestling with him. In the Psalm, the author says that You reveal knowledge by the night hours.

PRAISES: Thank You that You watch over us while we sleep. Thank You that Your sovereignty is so pervasive that You even use these hours in order to reveal more of Yourself to us. Thank You that there is so much of You to meditate on that we can be about that day and night without running out of attributes, never making room for worry or our own schemes.

APPLICATIONS: Rather than doubting Your promises, we can claim them specifically in contrast to the fear that we feel. (Verses 1-12) It is easy to give Jacob a hard time. So often, he wants to "help" You by bargaining on his own behalf. But, at least for a few minutes, we get to see a sincere, dependent faith that can instruct us all. Like the old Jacob, he hedges his bets by sending foreword half of what he has in case You are not able to protect the lot. But, faced with the possibility of being stripped of his stuff, he cries out to You without pretense. He claims Your Word to protect him as You have told to him. He recognizes that it is by You and You alone that he has any stuff to worry about. He is candid about his fear, and then he claims Your promises yet again.

In our moments or our seasons of anxiety, are we willing to at once be that bold and that open before You? When specific worries compete for centerstage in our thoughts at 3 a.m., as they did for me this morning, is a specific, and sometimes counterintuitive, choice to keep Your specific Word in our mouths. We claim Your promises to us not because You need reminding but because we do. We know that that vacuum of our thoughts will be filled by self-centered musings unless we specifically fill it otherwise with You and Your Word. As the psalmist says in Psalm 19, may the words of our mouths and meditations of our hearts be pleasing unto You. Even as we pray they are increasingly more so, we also recognize that admitting our weaknesses to You has its place in the prayer of a sincere heart that draws us closer to You. Jacob admits that without Your intervention he is nothing. He admits that even with all he has seen You do on his behalf that he still fears. We are right there with him, and by admitting this state of our hearts we can take in more of You that we so desperately need. However much time we spend in Your Word, make us even more disciplined in learning to wield it against the onslaught of our feelings in moments of crisis.

The actions we take on the heels of our prayers sometimes show just how uneven our trust really is. Knowing this, we turn back to You perpetually. (Verses 13-21) Immediately after confessing that You had promised to protect him, Jacob hedges his bets to protect himself. At least partly believing that You alone will not protect him from Esau, he open admits that he seeks to appease his brother. How sad, and yet, how us. Jacob uses the stuff he has just agreed is Yours in origin to actively demonstrate a lack of trust in You and a clear before men that Your Word will later say is a snare.

Does our use of "our" resources line up with what we confess in our prayer closet or our songs? This was the question in last night's teaching, and it is one night continually need to ask. Am I using the money You give me to shield the against having to completely trust You? How would our Quicken downloads or our checkbook look if we REALLY trusted You completely? And, if we are to trust You completely with the resources You in trust to us, why not in the processes and means You used to bring us those resources? Convict me, Father, where my faith in this hour before the sun comes up is different than that from which I choose in the light of day. Help me and any I influence to replace fear of men whom Jesus says can only destroy the body with a healthy and a holy fear of Him Who can destroy both body and soul in Hell.

Having Your promises, we can rest in them rather than wrestling for them to come true. (Verses 22-32) Jacob's fears and his employing of "his" resources have kept him up all night. He has admitted that fear is further depleting his energy. Even so, rather than resting as Your promises give him the opportunity, he wrestles with You for another blessing, as though Your disposition was not already to bless him.

Where do we need to surrender to You and rest in Your promises? There are particular areas in life in which I don't know what the next few months will brain, but You have promised to meet my needs and to give me the desires on which You settle my heart. You are in control, and no amount of worrying on my part will augment the end result. Where I wrestle with You, give me the wisdom to surrender quickly. The night of security of Your purposes will pass quickly, and we will see what You have for tomorrow.

THEME: Both take up and David celebrate that You are their active defender from injustice.

PRAISES: Thank You that You do get involved in the disputes of this world and vindicate us in this-world ways. Thank You that, whomever our boss is, You are the ultimate Authority and will reward us in Your time. Thank You that You use submission, even that which is sometimes painful, to teach us to rely on You.

APPLICATIONS: When we perceive that we are being treated unjustly, we cry out to You and LISTEN for what You tell us. (Verses 1-21) Jacob, with all his scheming, waited for Your time for the separation from the authority he was under. Presumably, he asked You, and You told him when it was time to go. Likewise, as he was, for once, submitted to Your authority, those under his authority were willing to follow. As he was learning imperfectly to submit to Your authority, You were prospering him in ways that he saw only You could be responsible for.

In what area do we need to submit to and cry out to You alone in order to see Your justice and mercy? Like Jacob, I am learning this in my career. All of our bosses have Laban moments, but You see the whole picture. You are prospering my "flock" while others diminish, and this has to speak volumes when other inconsistencies are perceived. Protect me, Father, in those seasons when I am not looked on with favor by the authorities You place me under. As I cry out, and I often do, give me Your specific affirmation as to how to proceed, not in the way that is easiest for me but in the way that honors You and gives You the greatest glory. For any, Father, who labor under real Labans who are specifically unjust because they think they can get away with it, vindicate them. Raise up, as Gary Haugen calls for in Just Courage, Christians who will put their faith in action and stand up to those who are abusing the weak and the powerless. Where I have the opportunity to do that in my current position, and occasionally irritate the authorities I am under in the process, help me to make the most of it.

We can count both on Your ability to speak to ANYONE and the certainty that we will take up idols along the way and need to repent. (Verses 22-42) The presence of household gods cuts both ways. They show that Laban had them in his life but that his ignorance or outright offenses against You did not make him deaf when You spoke. There is accountability in this, as ALL can hear when You speak and make them able to perceive. You are far bigger than what we think of as the believing community. But, in humility, this realization can change how we see ourselves as believers as well. Rachel trusted that You had provided for her against the injustices of her father, but she also took his household gods, consciously selecting his heritage of idolatry.

Do we recognize the pervasiveness of rivals to You, both inside and outside the faith community? However pervasive these man-made idols are, You are greater. You are so much greater that You can still be perceived over the powers that pull Hollywood, the Ivy League, or Wall Street away from You. If Laban can hear You, if pharaoh can hear You, if Abimelech can hear You, no power that seems to be in control is outside of Your influence today. Help us, Father, to trust in that. But help us also to be conscious of the concessions to idolatry in our own houses and our own lives. Where we have picked it up from our parents unconsciously almost like a genetic disease, bring us to repentance and cleanse us. Where even our religious practices have picked up a man-centered idolatry, cleanse us from that as well. As we go forward from one chapter of life to the next and acknowledge that You are in control, make us aware of what we carry with us.

As much as it lies with us, we should live, and depart, at peace with all men. (Verses 43-55) In spite of the fact that he has been treated unjustly, Jacob is not willing to leave the relationship with Laban breached. Saying God as his continuing supply, he is willing to let go of any other claims against Laban and depart the relationship in peace. He is willing to emphasize his common bond of family with Laban in spite of the fact that he could hold a grudge.

How are You calling us to exhibit this grace in our relationships? Where are we counting on a person to make things right when it would show the most trust in You to exhibit forgiveness? Give us, Father, the ability to do this, even when the other party does not chase us down. Where we seem to be wired to look to the past, help us to look forward to the future and to trust You in it to the extent that we know that You can make up for any shortfalls. Give us a sense, Father, of what we have in common with other people as family equally in need of Your grace rather than the differences we might emphasize.

THEME: Both chapters agree that we can trust You with our material provision, especially when we are treated unfairly by others in our dealings. But David urges us to look to our real vindication in awakening in Your likeness rather than any material advantage.

PRAISES: Thank You that when we work with a zeal for You that You look after the results. Thank You that because we can trust You with this, material position in this world never has to completely consume us. Thank You that, whatever happens today, we can look for to awakening in Your likeness.

APPLICATIONS: You look to motivations, not just outward results. (Verses 1-12) Your Word says that You commissioned people to be fruitful and multiply. Your Word says that children are a blessing from You. But here, they seem to be the results of a competition rather than a desire to fulfill Your purposes and enjoy Your blessings. Family dynamics have been perverted such that children arrive to fulfill a self-centered result rather than because two united parents have sought this as an opportunity to express Your Nature as their Father.

With what motive do we seek to be fruitful, physically or spiritually? Do we seek to show Your favor so that we can gloat over someone else, or because we want to encourage someone else in reflecting Your glory? Do we, like Jacob, take advantage of the human competition for favor in order to gratify ourselves? Father, ANY good thing comes from You and cannot be accomplished without You. Whether parents or potential parents seek children, or whether workers seek productivity and influence, help us to acknowledge You first and to carry out the processes in ways that honor You. Where we have been fruitful, help us to see this increased responsibility as yet more opportunity to rely on You rather than to be burdened or to burden others. Where, like Rachel in the beginning of the chapter, we come across people who are burdened by their lack of fruitfulness, help us to be encouraging in lifting them up to You rather than condemning as he was.

However scattered our motives, You are still listening and are ready to intervene. (Verses 13-24) The competition to be more fruitful in order to be better than someone else continues. As unseemly as this is, You have not turned away Your attention to more spiritual beings. As these ladies petition, You are still listening. You are still attentive, and You are still intimately involved in the results that come about.

Have we become too spiritual to actually ask for physical manifestations of Your power in our lives? Have we lost sight of the fact that any manifestation of Your power we see in our lives is by pure grace? We do need to be aware of our motives as we ask. Your Word says that we do not have what we ask for because we ask in order to gratify ourselves. Even so, if we wait until our motives are 100% pure and our perspective is perfectly aligned with Yours even to ask, we never will. As much as David's heart is after Yours, he knows in Psalm 17 that he will not awake in Your likeness until he is free of this body. Give us the heart, Father, to come boldly before Your throne of grace and ASK for good things, even in this world. We ask for children and to raise them in Your way. We ask for jobs, to do them well to Your glory, and to prosper materially in them so that we can honor You and bless others with those possessions. There is nothing less holy about this. Forgive us, Father, for partitioning You off in a "spiritual" realm that is hard to define so that we either struggle or exalt ourselves alone in our daily dealings.

You are a more generous Paymaster than we could ever dream of being for ourselves. (Verses 25-43) Jacob flatly declares that he needs to take care of himself and his family. David didn't worry about this and served under Saul until YOU brought about a separation, but Jacob and his latter-day heirs find it difficult to trust You that much. Jacob believes that he will be rewarded for his hard work, and in this there is something of Your character. Even so, he seeks to influence genetics and conception by laughable means. These are Your purview and have blessed him with so many children but Jacob cannot quite trust You to be fair. Gregor Mendel, a monk who did groundbreaking studies of genetics, actually had to fight against Church tradition in order to reassert that it was Your sovereignty rather than Jacob's manipulation that brought about the results.

Can we at once strive for works worthy of a righteous reward and trust You to supply all of our needs and beyond them? This is a difficult balance today, possible only on the point of the sword of Your Word. Indeed there will come a day when our works are counted and when our harvest is gathered. Help us to labor earnestly for that day and not to be distracted by a slave-like mentality that we will always serve people. Simultaneously, help us to acknowledge You and even the smallest manifestation of favor in our lives. As, like Jacob, provision for our families can take over our thoughts, help us to remember that, like him, we started out with nothing and had seen Your provision for us. Remind us that the same God Who provided for us will provide for those He places under our care.

THEME: Both David and Jacob see that You provide for their needs and give them much that is pleasant.

PRAISES: Thank You for family that can give us a sense of connection when we are feeling isolated. Thank You for the work that You give us to do today in which we can glorify You and make life easier for others. Thank You for the inheritance that You give us which David refers to, an inheritance even more glorious because it is incorruptible in You.

APPLICATIONS: When we look in each encounter to lighten the load of others, we exhibit a trust in You as our Reward. (Verses 1-12) I would like to point out Jacob's act of moving the rock from the well as a generous act toward relative strangers. That would fit nicely with the example of his mother toward Eleazar and later of Moses toward the women waiting at the well. But Jacob already knew that he had an audience of Laban's beautiful daughter for his actions. Even so, he did overflow from his encounter with You so that his attitude was not one of guarded mistrust because he had been wounded before but it was one of inquiry of what You would do next through the people in front of him. At least partly because he trusted You, he was willing to get involved.

Whoever else is watching, do we draw our motivation for our actions from the Beautiful One Who looks on along with a great cloud of believing witnesses? Our sleep may not have been as comfortable as we would like, although we probably didn't have a rock for a pillow or drop exhausted in an open field. We may have shown a lack of trust in You and even a pattern of such unbelief in our previous encounters. But You give us today to do differently. You give us today to open our mouths and see what relationships You will unfold. You give us today to labor with enthusiasm rather than stand back and watch. Whatever we have come from, Father, remind us where we are headed and that there is nothing random about our journey.

We are the Bride of Christ for whom He labored and still intercedes. (Verses 13-30) Jacob's labors go quickly because he is focused on the one with whom he is to be united. Enraged that he has been given less than he worked for, he nevertheless toils more for the bride he really wants.

How does it change our view of ourselves that we were on Christ's mind as He worked and suffered? How revolutionary is it that He never complained about the bargain? Christ labored for the JOY that was said before Him. What's more, however shortsighted His bride is radiant. He will not trade her in but instead is able to, Jude says, present her faultless. Help us, whatever circumstances You bring us through, to bask in the fact that we are beloved of Christ.

As we live in Christ's love, we will be fruitful. (Verses 31-35) Leah keeps hoping that with each conception, with each labor, that her husband will love her. She keeps hoping that every piece of tangible evidence of her productivity will capture his heart for her. Eventually, though, with heart last son, her fruitfulness becomes an expression of her love for You rather than an effort to gain human approval.

What are our labors motivated by? We don't produce spiritual heirs like Leah's physical ones in hopes that Christ our Bridegroom will love us but as a byproduct of the FACT that He does. He says that He is the Vine and we are the branches, that apart from Him we can do nothing but by abiding in Him we will bear much fruit. Help us, Father, to rejoice in our position in Christ and to labor undistracted by any effort to gain fickle human approval. Let us resolve with Leah before the day's labors even begin that now we will praise the Lord.

THEME: These two passages taken together show the extent of Your stubborn love. Yes, You honor the honorable as David says in his Psalm. But You also draw near to Jacob as he flees with nothing because of his conniving.

PRAISES: Thank You that You do indeed see the fruits of righteousness when the world seems to ignore them. Thank You that You are the Source of those fruits and can see those results from our lives even before they happen. Thank You that even when we feel alone and disconnected, You see us blessing others with a wide influence.

APPLICATIONS: You correct whom You love, and as humans we are expected to do the same. (Verses 1-5) Isaac has a teachable moment here, even with the grown Jacob. He has an opportunity to address Jacob's deceit. Most importantly, he has the opportunity to address Jacob's picture of You as small enough to be fooled and weak enough that he must bargain on his own to get what he needs. He has this window of opportunity, and like his descendent David he doesn't use it. He blesses indiscriminately without shaping the character of the one he blesses.

How can we develop gratitude for the correction we receive? Although even Your Word says that no one likes correction, we can develop the long-term perspective that sees Your glory in the process as well as the end result. Even as adults, we are Your children and are still in the early stages of our development in the perspective of eternity. As such, You lovingly shape and confront us with the sincerity and Truth of 1 Corinthians 5 that my pastor spoke about yesterday. As we look into the mirror of Your Word and are convicted by Your Spirit, even in secular dealings, help us to come away different. As we have Isaac's opportunity to confront others and reflect Your Truth and illustrate Your character, help us to be both humble and bold in doing that.

If we look to complete ourselves and find approval apart from You, we will always be looking. (Verses 6-9) Esau sees that he has failed to gain his parents' approval in the wives he has married. Instead of recognizing his sinful state and repenting to You, he compounds it. He joins more of himself to more of the corrupt world around him and expects to find satisfaction.

What are we ready to give our hearts away to today? As we make that decision, help us to look soberly at whether this pattern has satisfied us in the past. My pattern is to give too much of my heart away to my career, and that won't satisfy me anymore than Esau adding more wives. On the contrary, being wedded by Your grace to one woman who does reflect Your character is a daily blessing when facing frustration on other fronts. But surely there are those, Father, like I was at one point, facing daily frustrations and expecting a romantic connection to change them entirely. They may go from one person to another looking for that "magic" and become more deeply disillusioned each time. Help them, Father, to find the Lover of their souls that Jacob will shortly. Finding that first, they will enter into human relationships better equipped to give.

You encounter and make promises to us by grace, and our natural inclination is to respond with bargaining. (Verses 10-22) There is nothing in Jacob's life heretofore that makes him worth blessing. He has been dishonest. He has taken advantage of the needs of his own family. In order to avoid reaping what he has sown, he is fleeing alone. And yet, exactly in this state, You encounter him and promise to bless him. You see beyond his limited perspective of the moment to the broad expanse of what he will become. You see him in the perspective of what YOU can make through him rather than what his past performance is likely to predict. You give him a vision of this future that he cannot earn, and he responds in worship, mostly. The old nature still battles for control as he says that IF You will do what You have said that You will be his God. He will bless You with a tenth, almost as though he is agreeing to pay you a commission if You fulfill Your part of the contract.

Do we recognize the same battle taking place within us? Which side is winning? As our eyes see and our hearts experience just how good You are to us simply because that is Your Nature, our spirits yearn to respond in worship, unbridled, eternal, and dependent gratitude. But our flesh offers to strike a different deal. This part of us wants to walk by sight and not by faith. This part of us wants to see You come through on our terms and then grudgingly get our worship. This part of us counts on our wits rather than Your worth to determine our future provision, concerned with such basics as daily food and clothing rather than catching the larger vision of what You will do through us for generations to come. That battle RAGES within me right now, and I know that in the difficult economic times I am not alone. We bring nothing to the bargain, Father, as You bless us with another breath and another day. As we see Your revelation in them, help us to respond in true worship and to put our calculators and actuarial charts aside. If there is any Truth and the world's wisdom that past performance predicts future performance, it is YOUR past performance we can look to for the confidence that You will provide what we need and beyond it in the future.

THEME: Jacob is the consistent element in both chapters. In spite of the fact that he feels the need to maneuver and cheat to get Your blessing in his own lifetime, You are still blessing his descendents on his behalf in the Psalm.

PRAISES: Thank You that You use flawed humans like Jacob and like me. Thank You that You can not only help us to survive in our own lifetime and get us to Heaven, but can allow us to leave a legacy beyond our many weaknesses and flaws. Thank You that You raise up flawed people through dysfunctional families and use us rather than excuse us.

APPLICATIONS: Whatever our limited ability to see the future in front of us, we can trust You for it instead of assuming the worst and speaking to others from that place. (Verses 1-4) Even in such a long chapter, I could not get past Isaac's mindset in its beginning. His blindness itself is a picture of our own inability to see the future. He admits that he does not know the day of his death, but he is clearly focused on it. He is ready to speak words that are irrevocable from a place of this pessimistic ignorance rather than wait and see what You will do. He actually lives on for quite some time, but his death and self-focus in this moment cause problems for years.

Where do we do the same thing, lamenting our blindness to what You have around the corner and yet acting in that blindness as if You cannot further bless us? This speaks to me in some uncertainties that would currently seem monumental, whether or not it speaks to anyone else. We do not know when Your earthly plans for us are at an end, but with a focus of morbid pessimism (guilty, guilty, guilty), we can sap the joy out of what You are about to do and make our words and attitudes a burden to those around us. As Shakespeare's Julius Caesar said that cowards die many times before their death and brave men only taste of death but once, make us truly brave -- however serious what we face is. After all, George Whitfield reminds us that we are immortal until our work on earth is done. Give us, like Moses, a vigor for battle until the very day You finally call us home.

Our failure to lead and be led by faith sows a crop of dissension in years to come. (Verses 5-29) Isaac and Rebekah had a beautiful love story with You in control. Now, Rebekah is standing off to the side as her husband thinks he is dying and using his blindness to plot against him. What happened? The only Scriptural hint we may be given is that Isaac, like his father, was willing to put his own safety in a foreign land before his wife's security. By Your grace, this does not lead to immediate consequences, as they seem to be getting along well when they are seen showing intimacy to each other. You also snuff out disastrous consequences before anyone takes the unclaimed and uncovered Rebekah for their own. Nevertheless, I wonder if Isaac as the spiritual leader ever repented his lack of faith. Or, did he allow drifting by degrees between himself and his wife because he failed to do so? Seeing divisions began to develop between each parent and their "favorite" did he deal with these assertively, deliberately valuing what Jacob could do as well as Esau's skill? I think not. Even now, he could have fought that "battle" instead of focusing prematurely on his own end that was in Your control.

Do we think that because we escape immediate consequences for our lack of faith that those we influence will not be impacted? Drive us to our knees, Father, in repentance for acting and speaking out of fear rather than out of faith. Help us to discern where weeds are growing up because of that scattered seed of doubt and to deal with them immediately. Where we encounter people You have clearly placed in our sphere who are more difficult to love, grow us in how to reflect You to them and convict us where we have been passive. Remind us of the crucial battles that take place every day on the homefront while we may be focused on digging wells in the workplace.

Trusting in You rather than our circumstances can keep us from making rash decisions in the moment. (Verses 30-46) In his anger, Esau is ready to trade everything he has for revenge against his brother. Rebekah expresses no value in her life unless her children following certain path. Jacob, oddly enough, shows a rather strong faith compared to the rest of his family when he is willing to start over, crying out to You in the next chapter, for blessing that he cannot get from people.

Again, do we save the deepest expressions of our emotions for You Who can handle them, or do we burden others in our fear, anger, and doubt? As to some extent I am dealing with all three, convict me here. Draw me near to You here and at times when what my heart overflows is not for public consumption. Keep me, Father, and any I influence from judging whether our lives are worthwhile in a moment, or a day, or a season of crisis. Where others would so judge, hold us steady in Your unfailing love.

THEME: We can see You as big and generous, able to provide for one more, even when the reactions of other people would suggest otherwise.

PRAISES: Thank You that You encounter us individually and do not desire that we live on the faith of our fathers. Thank You that Your provision is so bountiful that we can know that You will provide even when we, like Isaac, are treated unjustly. Thank You that, like the psalmist, we can make the choice in a few minutes time to refocus on how good You are rather than the gloating of enemies who grade us on what is apparent at the moment.

APPLICATIONS: An ear for Your Word will warn us against a life of self-protection and urge us on toward a life of risk. (Verses 1-14) Isaac heard directly from You. He did not have to rely vicariously on his father's experience. When the famine came, he was warned directly against his father's mistake of going down to Egypt. Even avoiding this sin, there were still parts of his self-protecting heritage that he needed to grow through. Like his father, he put protecting himself over honoring his wife and nearly paid the consequences. Even so You were with him. As he decided to trust You and see enough of a future to plant what he could have eaten, You blessed that faith in You extravagantly.

Where have we been so uneven in our history of faith that we figure You won't bless us for acting in faith this time? You should know such grading scale here. If You did, You would not have said that You blessed Isaac because of the uneven Abraham. As we face decisions today and this week, and I may face some MAJOR ones, help us not to determine our response by our history but by our confidence in Your goodness. May this be reflected in our relationships with other people as we display confidence in You to strangers and especially to those You have placed closest to us in our spheres of influence at home. Make us conscious, dear Father, of the patterns of unbelief that we inherit and act in. By Your grace, head them off ahead of time, as when You told Isaac not to head into Egypt. Where You allow them to come to fruition, help us not to be so stubborn as to continue in unbelief because we have begun or have spent many years that way.

You call us to deal with envy and strife by trusting in You rather than our ability to prevail. (Verses 15-22) Apparently what Isaac inherited it from his father was not all negative, but the same mixture of fear and doubt that we all deal with. Just as Abraham left to find Your provision elsewhere rather than try to prevail in the strife between his house and the house of Lot, Isaac makes the same decision repeatedly. Even with as scarce a commodity as water in that region, he is willing to move on and dig another well rather than getting bogged down in a dispute over seemingly finite resources. This is a tremendous step of faith, and You continue to reward it. It would have been more "logical" for Isaac to assume after a couple of times of digging a well and not getting to enjoy the results that digging was not worth the effort. Instead, he continued to believe You and Your promises that You would provide. He believed there was room for him and his house to be blessed.

Where are we ready to stop digging because of the accompanying strife? Where is it hard to see a future of Your blessing in a desert where every opportunity seems to be spoken for? I may blog more on this publicly later depending upon how You use developing events in the next days and weeks, but suffice it to say that there are areas where I need to keep digging even where I am physically weary and emotionally drained by the strife. I need to recognize what is Your given capacity for men to discern patterns in order to correct them and what is fear -- False Evidence Appearing Real. Help me, Father, and any I influence to walk in peace with others so far as the responsibility lies with us. Give us the resolve to keep digging where there has been frustration and believe YOU that prosperity will come to pass.

Exactly what part of our influence is passed on to others is up to You. (Verses 23-35) Isaac probably looked on any influence he had on Abimelech as a negative. His people asked Isaac to go away, reacting with jealousy to Your hand on him. But, in Your time, Abimelech comes to him and admits that he can see that Your hand is on Isaac. You have, as Your Words as elsewhere, made his enemies to be a peace with him. You have allowed him to publicly testify to Your goodness and bounty by sharing it with a man who wants shunned him. Even so, there are consequences to Isaac's willingness to put himself before his family. Were there seeds of that already evident as Esau was growing up? If his father would treat his mother as expendable in the protection of his own safety, why not have more than one wife? After all, they only exist to serve one's selfish needs. But when Isaac and Rebekah see this me-first attitude expressed in their son, it grieved them.

What part of our grief at the sins of others, itself a good thing, is made more bitter by the recognition of the same evil in ourselves? If we recognize that and it leads us to live a life of repentance, we are blessed. If we don't and we don't, and we become hardhearted and sanctimonious, we miss the point. Give us, Father, hearts that grieved at the cost of sin, starting with our own. As we live a life at close quarters today on a Saturday with bad weather in many places, help us to see accurately what we are passing on to those in our families and we influence most. As we are distracted from that by the rejections of the world during the week, remind us by way of Abimelech that You can erase the impact of rejection in Your time.

THEME: Your Word is pure, and You keep it. You blessed Ishmael as You said You would. You brought two nations from Isaac as You said You would. Your promises and prophecies are just as sure today.

PRAISES: Thank You for Your written Word and its stability as compared to our feelings and circumstances. Thank You for the way in which You give evidence of Your Word in the lives of flawed human beings. Thank You that You bring children in Your time and provide for them.

APPLICATIONS: Our careless fulfillment of our desires can have an impact for many years to come. (Verses 1-11) Abraham had seen Your provision. He had seen You use his marriage to provide a foundation for the nation that You would bless. Even so, he is ready to take concubines and send them away from his son as though mere distance will negate their impact. The same defendants will end up fighting the descendents of Isaac.

Where will we, having been used faithfully, give excuse for our flesh and create problems for those who follow us? Keep us, Father, from such shortsighted thinking. Remind us of the power about our flesh has at any age to rise up and cause problems. Where any of us have sown to that, we ask for Your grace and mercy as well as Your forthrightness to confront our mistakes. Make that evident in my walk today, Father.

Strife and struggle within us is painful, but You use it for Your purposes. (Verses 12-23) The struggle within Rebekah is painful and difficult, causing her to cry out to You. This is the same reaction that her barrenness caused for her husband, and You use that need to remind them of their dependence upon You. You also use seasons of pain and need to remind them that their lives are not just about their own comfort, but that they are used to establish a legacy that goes beyond them.

Where have we lost sight of Your purposes that go beyond our own comfort? Today I have particular trouble seeing them, as there are a lot of questions about my future that I would prefer never having to ask. Obviously, even without questions about my future, I have the same questions Isaac did about having literal children. Draw me closer, Father, in these questions. Where there is agony and pleading, let it be directed toward You even while I reflect in my words to the world the confidence that Abraham did on the way to sacrifice Isaac. For any I influence, especially clients, whose future is turbulent and uncertain, comfort them with a Word directly from You. Use me if You would, but speak into their lives by whatever means You choose.

We can avoid bargaining for Your blessing or trading the picture of You as our long-term provider for immediate satisfaction. (Verses 24-34) You had already decreed that the older son Esau would serve the younger Jacob. There was no need for him to bargain for what You were already going to give him, but this would be his pattern all his life. Likewise, Esau, with no reference to the prophecy, was willing to trade Your hand of blessing for what a human could provide in the moment. He does this, and then he gets up and goes his way as though nothing has happened.

How will we show a lack of faith in You, by obsession over material advantage or thoughtlessness with reference to Your provision? We are almost certain to fall off the horse on one side or the other. Help us, Father, to get back on. Help us to trust that Your provision is bigger than any particular situation in which we can see getting it. Help us to see that Your provision as longer-lasting than any momentary game we could chase. Remind us, Father, that we are here for more than self-gratification and that our actions, even in difficult encounters, will shape those who follow us.

THEME: Both chapters show that You watch and guide Yours intimately through dangers and difficult decisions.

PRAISES: Thank You that You are aware of the dangers we face, more aware than we are, and that You protect us. Thank You that You go before us in our way and arrange circumstances in ways we could not predict. Thank You that because You bless us so abundantly, we can go the extra mile in blessing other people, as Rebekah did.

APPLICATIONS: Even as we work on behalf of people, it is You Who guide our moment-by-moment decisions. (Verses 1-21) Abraham gave the assignment, and it was Abraham that Eleazar sought to honor. Even so, he understood that YOU were the source of his master's position. Likewise, he understood that he needed ongoing, detailed guidance from You to make the right decisions that no human could provide. Rebekah ultimately shows the same attitude, willing to submit herself to meeting the man's needs and to journeying among people she did not know, recognizing that her Source is greater than people.

What do we need to stop and pray over before we undertake it today? What do we not? As every decision I make at work seems to have the kind of huge repercussions that Eleazar saw in his assigned task, I am at least as much in need of Your guidance. So are many who wrestle with jobs far more complicated than mine. Guard also, Father, the spirit with which we undertake the work that humans assign us. Eleazar saw his human master as blessed and wanted to be a part of blessing him and his house more so. Give us that attitude, Father, toward the authorities over us as we seek to be faithful in the things that You, through them, give us to do.

Our primary role, rather than looking after our own comfort, is as witnesses and as faithful carriers of the Message we have been given. (Verses 22-49) Eleazar spends his moment in the spotlight deflecting the focus from himself. He tells the story of how he has been commissioned by his master and how You have provided him with success in that mission. So vital to him is obedience in this that he refuses to eat until he has fulfilled what You have given him to do.

What is our primary focus as we are sent out today? As enemies or accusations circle, and as we face road weariness and need just as real as Eleazar's, will our focus be on leading our own needs first? Or will we be positively BURDENED to share Your Message with whatever audience You put before us? Even where we fear that a lack of novelty in what we say, as with Eleazar, may put less attention on us, but us nevertheless be faithful in conveying the marvel of Your Message that never changes. Where we would be distracted by our feelings or our very real needs, remind us that You will provide fulfillment for both, at least enough in the here and so much more than enough in the hereafter. The banquet being prepared for us there is so much more sumptuous than anything we could be distracted by here today. Remind us, like Eleazar, where we come from and where we are headed back to so that we keep this in mind in the moment-by-moment decisions we face.

Having been given great gifts as expressions of Your love, we are called to abandon all else and follow You. (Verses 50-67) Rebekah's family has already said that this encounter is from the Lord. They have accepted gifts that show their desire for the things that Abraham's house. Even so, they are reluctant to allow Rebekah to give herself completely to this new allegiance. Rebekah, the true bride, has no such reservations. She goes immediately and joins herself to her bridegroom.

As the bride of Christ, are we that clear in our allegiance? I think that all too often we want to say the religious thing, that our encounters are from You, and not actually abandon what is comfortable to follow through on what You say. I think that all too often we won to accept Your gifts, whether material provision or the gifts of the Spirit, and use them to do just what we like, just what we were doing before we encountered Christ's marriage proposal. We are blessed that He will not give us a choice as He snatches away those for whom He is truly Husband. Even so, do our daily decisions show that we are ready to go as He calls? Our relations, some even within the structure of the "church", will call us divide or delay our complete allegiance, but this is not worthy of our Bridegroom. He is Isaac, meditating on the will of the Father and the reunion with His beloved, confident that that day will come. Give us here the mind of Christ to focus on that ultimate union with the One Who has given us so much.

THEME: Abraham, described as a mighty prince, is certainly not poor. But I do see a connection between him being cited what Chuck Smith says is an exorbitant price for the cave in his grief and the exploitation that the psalmist decries. We are, likewise, warned not to take advantage of those who are in a weakened position. YOU are their Advocate.

PRAISES: Thank You that You do advocate for the poor and the vulnerable. Thank You that we do not have to keep death before our face but can continue to focus on what You are doing with us now. Thank You that You give us the resources, financial and emotional, to deal with seasons where we are grieving and are perhaps being taken advantage of.

APPLICATIONS: We can give evidence that our current surroundings are not our home and still reflect You positively to the lost world around us as we pass through. (Verses 1-6) Abraham immediately identifies himself as a pilgrim and a stranger in the land in which he currently resides. As he hurts from the death of his wife, there is no attempt to posture before men, and in fact he minimizes his own stature. But despite his own healthy self-deprecation, Your hand of blessing on him is obvious even to the worldly powers around him.

How can we walk more in that balance, not putting our stock in our standing before men but not shying away from opportunities to reflect You in attractive ways? I particularly wrestle with this as I am once again under scrutiny at work. In one sense, I do see myself as a pilgrim and a stranger not defined by my standing in a human organization. Nevertheless, I would hope that anywhere I have poured out more than five years of effort would be impacted by Your good qualities that people crave enough to overshadow my own admitted limitations. Move people to speak up where You would, or make me an Abrahamic nomad to do all I can in the next destination. Where others are already experiencing the praises of men, as it seems most people do by default, help them to recognize You at work in them rather than anything they intrinsically offer.

You are our Source and goods are not our lasting value, so we don't need to waste time haggling with men. (Verses 7-16) Abraham is not looking to drive a hard bargain. He is not looking to take advantage of someone's generosity because of the ways in which You have blessed him. On the contrary, Chuck Smith in his message on this says that Abraham was willing to pay well above the actual value of the land in order to close out this chapter of his life and move on.

Where do we need to recognize that there is more to be gained in submission to You than angling for advantages with people? Will such a prospective change the way we do our jobs or do our personal business? I think it will. I think the more solidly we KNOW that we are favored by You Who own the cattle of 1000 hills, the less time and energy we will spend worrying about whether we can get a good bargain or approval from people. Keep us from using this, though, as an excuse where we would already prefer to be passive. Help us to submit to Your plan and focus on Your ultimate destination for us, but to do so in such a way that we do reflect Your hand of blessing, Your Truth, and Your righteousness for however long You have us in a given place. When we deal with injustice, show us when You would have us stand against it in Your power and when You would have us overpay for the cave or, like Isaac later, dig another well rather than battle as though Your resources were finite.

We should leave lasting evidence that we were here. (Verses 17-20) All the leaders of the place he resided now have recorded that Abraham owns the field and the cave. There is lasting evidence for the ages that he was there and sacrificed to have an impact.

Is our legacy, like Abraham's literal one here, a deed of the stuff we owned or something deeper? In these verses, Abraham owns the land, but he leaves it behind associated with Sarah's death and eventually his own. If what we are after is only property, in likewise will not go with us after our demise. But if what we are after is to sell everything we have and everything we are to buy a field to get the Treasure in that field, the transaction will be well worth it. Help us, Father, to invest our finances and indeed our very lives in more than what can be accounted for in a deed or a will. Open our eyes to the opportunities to touch eternity today, even today.

PRAISES: Thank You that You don't send us into the world without awareness that there are those who oppose Your purposes and us because of them. Thank You that You teach us through conflict and through prevailing over it in Your power. Thank You that You actually increase Your influence, and ours, through prevailing over adversity.

APPLICATIONS: We can think and speak with confidence in You even when we do not know how You are going to resolve a situation. (Verses 1-8) If Abraham was in agony, we don't see it. In fact, Eugene Peterson suggests in The Jesus Way from the matter-of-fact language that the nomadic journey You have taken Abraham on has gotten him so used to sacrificing what he treasures that he no longer questions what You ask him to give up. Whatever his inner state, and whatever his unwritten prayers to You, he is choosing to build up the faith of those around him. He tells his servants that he and his son will come back. He tells his son that You will provide a sacrifice.

Do we deliberately choose to display confidence in You even when we don't know exactly how You are going to be glorified in a situation? My blog is fairly candid about the fears and doubts I deal with, and others have been blessed by that. Countless Psalms are willing to admit in writing for the ages that, as Screwtape said, the closest humans come to consistency is undulation. Because of this, I don't think You are calling us to lie to ourselves about the difficulties we experience or entirely forfeit having others share our burdens. But I do think that, like Abraham has learned, that it is a conscious decision what we share and that the bottom line is not what comforts us but what glorifies You. Give us discipline in our words, Father, and help us to see the impact of our faith or lack of it on those we influence.

It is in times of willing, and painful, sacrifice that we can put down markers that You will provide. (Verses 9-14) Abraham is willing to sacrifice what is most precious to him, what he has waited long years for You to fulfill Your promise and provide. The text leaves inescapable the idea that You have discovered something about Abraham's willingness to put You first in this, but he has also learn something about You in a way that he will not soon forget. He puts down a marker that he will remember, calling the place "God Will Provide". If he had simply offered out of what he could comfortably give up, this place would not have been so precious to him, such a reminder of his reliance on You.

Where are You taking us through a chapter that will end in a monument to remind us that You will provide? Where we would rather not be tested in this way, keep us persevering. Remind us of the last markers on our journey with You that testify to Your faithfulness. Strengthened by these, help us to keep climbing even when the destination is dreaded from afar off. Ultimately, our lives are not about us. The markers and monuments we leave point to You and remind others to look toward You. Even in our times of weakness and pain, Father, help us to focus on the markers we are leaving that You are faithful.

Your words and Your actions remind us that there is a future beyond the testing of the moment. (Verses 15-24) There is more than an individual spiritual impact to Abraham's willingness to sacrifice all to You. The Angel reminds him that out of the gradient of faithfulness that You are developing in him his descendents will be blessed. His faith in action will be echoed in the conquering victories they win. Because his sacrifice has been complete, the victories of those who come after him will be complete also. The very future he was willing to sacrifice in slaying Isaac is exponentially blessed by Your grace. Likewise, Abraham can look toward a future of his son uniting with, not the locals of Canaan in an effort to blend into the culture around him, but with his different destiny. Does he already have an inkling that the name of Rebekah that You will bring this bride to his son? I don't know, but You place before him a reminder that You have been acting on more stages than the one he can perceive that the moment.

What glory are You bringing to pass right now while we struggle that will bless us in years to come? Help us, Father, to visualize by faith the glorious future that You have for us beyond today's distraction, drudgery, or pain. Where we don't understand today's choices or how they could possibly impact a lasting legacy, help us to obey anyway. Keep us, like Abraham, hearing Your Word and envisioning a future beyond one individual climbing one mountain.

THEME: In times of human weakness and vulnerability, You hear our cries, like Ishmael's, are mindful of us, and see great things ahead beyond surviving the current crisis.

PRAISES: Thank You that You do hear our cries when all we can do, like children, is to cry out. Thank You that You meet our needs, so often opening our eyes provision to that You how already made. Thank You, simply and directly, that You keep Your promises no matter how long it seems to take for our Isaac to come to pass.

APPLICATIONS: You are the Source of true joy in due time, but we can give that away by focusing unduly on the reactions of others. (Verses 1-14) Sarah recognizes You as the One Who has made her laugh. Just as You have given her a child, You have given her joy and contentment in Your provision. Even so, she quickly goes from this joyous knowledge that You keep Your promises to focusing on how other people see her, stung by the fact that Hagar still does not respect her. Instead of overflowing in the knowledge that You are more than enough, she reacts out of pain in how she relates to those she is responsible for.

Which well will be our emotional source today? Both are available. You have given us fulfilled promises that only You could bring to pass, abundant reflections of Your goodness. Rooted in this surpassing knowledge that You are good, You have given us joy and laughter available as a default through most of life, if we would abide there. But we are most easily distracted creatures. One haughty look from a fellow human equally dependent upon You, and we can lose our peace. We are so convinced of our inferior position that, like the boy in Brothers Karamozov did just because the uncritical Alyosha was silent for a time, we can construct entire scenarios of conflict on the flimsiest pretext. From there, we lash out irrationally, losing sight of how good You are because we feel we have been slighted by life in general or another creation in particular. Open our eyes, Father, to the new life in us and that which You have used us to begat. Where we are looked at with disdain today or face more direct opposition, keep our eyes on You and Your unwavering favor.

The lies of despondency can temporarily blind us to Your present provision and obscure Your prevailing promises. (Verses 14-21) Hagar was ready to give up, asking only that she not actually see the child die. Her emotional resources were likely as depleted as the water she was given, and she could see no way to be filled. But that's the thing. The limitation was in her perspective, not in Your provision. With her eyes opened, she could see a well that You provided. Reminded, she could remember Your previous promises not only to help her and her offspring survive today but to fashion him into a great nation.

Where do we need such an epiphany? Where are we running short of our own resources and calculating that all is lost, blinded to the fact that You know our needs and hear our cries? Forgive us, Father, for projecting a future to which we are so myopic. Forgive us, forgive me for negating or forgetting Your clear promises to get us through today and to provide an expansion of influence and provision for tomorrow. In these "too much" moments, help us not to act out of despondent feelings but to wait and see what You will show us. Teach us to draw near again to Your Word ESPECIALLY when we don't feel like it to be reminded of the promises that You have made to us that tower over the feelings of scarcity in the moment. Help us, where we would total up our points of personal piety and find ourselves lacking, to remember that Your heart is so tender that You heard Ishmael's cries rather than any argument that Hagar could make in our wounded pride.

Even as You provide the stuff we need and beyond it, we should make it clear that we are not in competition with the world for who can get the most or the best. (Verses 22-34) Just as with the king he joined in battle but whose rewards he rejected, Abraham makes clear here that he is not interested in maneuvering himself in his dealings to get more. He readily swears that he will honor the property of another ruler and is ready to give rather than take in order to arrive at an agreement.

Do we see You as gracious enough to be giving in all our interactions today? Or, on the contrary, do we see You as the harsh Master reaping where He did not sow from Whom we must protect what is "ours" in our dealings with the world? Lift up our eyes, Father, to see Your agenda amid the dealings of today. Remind us again and again that You have provided everything we have, including the jobs that You allow us to use for a season for our provision, and direct us to use them for Your glory rather than our gain.

THEME: Both passages remind us that You are a just judge, knowing our hearts, those of our enemies, and those we think of as outsiders.

PRAISES: Thank You that You can reach ANYONE. Thank You that You protect us even as our fears hiss that we should protect ourselves. Thank You that we can come out of chapters where You have vindicated us, even where we did not fully trust You, better off than before.

APPLICATIONS: No one, no culture and no individual, is out of Your reach (Verses 1-7) What a wonderful picture that, to me anyway, Abraham's falling into the same repetitive pattern of fear and sin get overshadowed by how You deal with it. We may shake our heads that Abraham could once again fear for his own skin so much that he puts his wife at risk in a strange land. If we are honest, we see repetitive sins and on biblical thought patterns in our own lives that are just as flagrant. But the real star of this section of Scripture, and indeed of the whole Bible is YOU. That a man sins out of fear is hardly noteworthy compared to the fact that You can reach a king in his palace, in his bed, and in his very heart.

Why should that not release us from the grip of fear this very day? As someone has said that fear is False Evidence Appearing Real, so Abraham is reminded here that what he assumes is not true. As we more carefully examine the false assumptions in our numerous what-if scenarios, how many of the fears that take up space in our minds and sap our energies will be pulled down? Furthermore, the enemy's cruel maneuver of prompting us to fear that our fears themselves will thwart Your plans for us is shown for the charade that it is. Because You use a man like Abraham who can be weak and fearful, You reveal Yourself to a whole nation as powerful, and just, and merciful. Help us to see THAT purpose in our moments of weakness and in the habits we struggle with.

Effective leaders repent quickly and openly. (Verses 8-13) Unfortunately for our Gallery of Perfect Bible Heroes, Abraham is not the example here. The king whom Abraham assumed lead a people who did not, could not, fear You is the one who shows real leadership. He does not delay in responding to Your correction. He does not try to minimize the PR damage as King Saul will when he is confronted with his own sin. Instead, he gathers the very people to whom his political stature matters the most and says that he has sinned. If this picture of leadership didn't stand out enough, You position it in relief by contrast. The foil? Abraham, even in his moment of vindication. Unlike Abimelech's candor, Abraham is still trying to justify himself that he partly told the truth.

Why would we not live lives of quick and open repentance, no matter the level of our responsibility? Where I make mistakes, and I probably will for the morning is out, help me to be quick to repent to You and open my mouth before fellow humans and admit the same. Cleanse me of the yeast that my pastor will teach on today that would have me use the very verbal facility You created to put distance between me and true repentance. Allow this openness, even a certain lightness, to pervade into my work week as with any I influence. Allow us to stand out as people who have had an encounter with You, not because we were perfect before, during, or after, but because we want to display the world are complete and total need for You.

Even as You show us our own sins, we must not neglect the role You give us as intercessors for others. (Verses 14-18) As far from perfect as Abraham was, You still position him as Your instrument. In fact, this never changed. Even as the very time he shows his craven cowardice, You say that he IS Your prophet and the vital link to this man's restoration. He does Your work, and he receives blessings because You are good.

What will You show us about our role in meeting the needs around us if we take our eyes off of the self-centered drama within us? Remind us, Father, of the authority in which we really operate to make a difference in the lives of others and that this has not been negated by the fact that we mess up. Forgive us, Father, for using our sins as an excuse not to reach out and to be a part of Your wider redemption. Prepare us, Father, for the encounter You have for us this week where even our flaws will be used to Your glory. Prepare us, Father, to be a conduit for the material goods that, our way because of what You are doing in us.

THEME: The reality of Your judgment as well as Your response to your people's intercession are apparent in both chapters.

PRAISES: Thank You that You are righteous and not bound to adjust to the morals that each age finds acceptable. Thank You that You will not punish the righteous, even those positioned as such only by Your justification, with the wicked. Thank You that the evidence of Who You are comes among us, leaving us an alternative to believing that what we ordinarily see is all there is there is.

APPLICATIONS: You do not need us to defend You before the world. It is we who must depend upon You in order to be a faithful remnant with a different destination. (Verses 1-11) I see Lot trying ineffectively to save the world in his own energy. He comes off as an interloper rather than an intercessor, and the world around him has no interest in what he has to say. He tries to provide direction for Your work, advising the angels, and then trying to protect them at the expense of the domain that You HAVE given him to care for. Instead of needing his help, though, the emissaries of Your purposes have specifically come at a dark time and moved to save Lot instead of the reverse.

Where would we, like Lot and like Peter, attempt to tell You how to do Your work instead of admitting the vulnerability of ourselves and our households? There is a place for what Promise Keepers' founder Bill McCartney, quoted in Just Courage from his book Blind Spots calls a good offense. There is a time to expand beyond personal piety and do justice in the world, but Lot's choices seem to show that he is trying to do this in the power of Lot's maneuvering and compromising rather than reliance on You. Where are weak pouring out energy into social reformation programs, even good ones like the one I am privileged to work for, and having nothing left for the REAL revolutionary work of praying before You for real change and raising up the next generation of revolutionaries for a faith more bold than that we have walked in? Show us the difference, Father, on a moment-by-moment basis between Abram's willingness to stand boldly before kings and declare that You are sufficient and his nephew's steady slide into the company of the secular that even the world mocked. Remind us, Father, and that we need every bit as much as Lot to be snatched from our negotiations with the world and to rely on Your power alone to save us and make a different.

Our pull is to linger in the comforts that the world offers, but You will do whatever is necessary to pull us away from them. (Verses 12-29) Having determined not to destroy the cities until Lot leaves them, Your the angels are urging him to detach himself. Finally, they literally take him and his by the hand and pull them out. Even then, Lot wants to stay with the most familiar option, the closest and most available urban protection.

Do we recognize the pull of our flesh enough to deny its fulfillment? In what specific areas are we hindering Your redemption of our lives by hanging on to what is familiar to us? Take our hands, Father, and lead us where we do not want to go because You know what's best. Where You do, somehow, give us the option of choosing between what's available and what's best, allow us to hold out for Your best and to bless those we influence in the process. Again, especially as husbands or those in another position of spiritual authority, help us to recognize the importance of what we focus on and talk about in the choices those under our authority will make. Refocus us, Father, in our faith because the stakes for the likes of Lot's wife and his daughters could not be higher.

We WILL leave a legacy, either of faith or disbelief. (Verses 30-38) Lot's daughters justify the incestuous acts of engineering pregnancy through their father because they want to continue his lineage. How right they were! Like their father, they based their actions on the limited perspective of what they could see, and like Lot's uncle Abram, they acted to fulfill Your plan in their way. By their actions, and by Lot's purposeful obliviousness, enemies were brought about that Your people would have to grapple with for many years to come.

Do we recognize the compounded impact of today's decisions? In whom we choose to join ourselves with, are we looking at the impact for the next generation or just what seems to be a convenient solution for the moment? The Bible does not put us around Lot's dinner table to hear what was discussed as these two daughters grew up, but one would not imagine that they heard much about how big Your plans for Abram were. Instead, they probably heard about their father's latest maneuver to climb in the social standing of Sodom and redeem it his way. Make us aware, Father, of the impact of the meditations of our hearts and of our most casual comments. These begat spiritual "children" just as readily as Lot does in his drunken stupor. Instead of our most unguarded decisions making life more difficult for those who follow us, give us David's heart to set up those who follow us to EXCEED our walk with You.

THEME: The common emphasis is the reverence with which we approach You, recognizing the mercy that is necessary for us to do even that.

PRAISES: Thank You for instilling in us the fear of You, without which we would be destined for the punishment that our rebellion deserves. Thank You for making us aware of Your mercy again and again until we partake of it. Thank You for, like Abraham, considering us Your friend and letting us know what You are doing in the world.

APPLICATIONS: We are to reflect that You are a priority with our time and our resources. (Verses 1-8) Even in his rest from his labors, Abraham was still on the alert for how to honor You. His resources were at the ready in case You called for them, and he was eager to deploy them to Your glory.

Knowing that we do not have to try to detain You as You pass by, are we that eager to spend resources starting with our time making much of You? To start with, I don't think we take the time of rest and reflection that Abraham did. We very often the labor right through the heat of the day figuring that this is how to honor You best. As we do take time away from our tasks, though, and may manage not to fill that time with other stimulations, You will draw near. Can we go from the rest that You designed us to need and spring into action when You offer the opportunity? This one can be twisted by the enemy such that I'm glad it was matched with Abraham's rest, but this section of Scripture also present us with the challenge of whether we use times of blessing to prepare to pour out. Resources were at the ready when You came calling, and this needs to be so for us without so obsessing over saving that we don't recognize that You are the Source of all and need nothing from us. Help us, Father, not to be so caught up in the goings on in our own tent that we miss You passing by.

We either build faith or spread unbelief in those we influence. (Verses 9-16) I never noticed whom You held accountable when Sarai laughed. It wasn't her. You asked ABRAHAM why Sarai laughed. Just as Paul says that sin entered the world through Adam even though it was Eve who disobeyed first, this says something about the accountability of spiritual authority -- especially for men. But the lesson is even more universal than that. Perhaps Abraham thought that he lived a life unto himself, perhaps believing that his doubting You in Egypt or consenting to the Ishmael scheme impacted nobody but him. Once again, John Donne is right that no man, no person, is an island.

Are we building, or are we weakening the faith of those around us? Which he does our told in that tent say, that ALL things are possible with You, or that we barely conceal an attitude of smug doubt? Show us, Father, opportunities to affirm how big You are in conversations that otherwise drifted to complaining that is really complaining against You. Help us, and drive us, to be open about what You are doing in us, about just how BIG the dream that You have given us is. Maybe Abraham, our forefather in so many ways, didn’t share with his wife the full audacity of what You had revealed to him. Do we fear doing this, even with those to whom You cleave us? Make us, then, a people of risk in our emotions as well as our actions?

You have called us Your friend, let us know what You are doing, and put us in a position to intercede for other people. (Verses 17-33) You deliberately decided to confide in Abraham. Why? Surely You were entirely content in the fellowship of the Trinity and had the adoration of the angels besides. Apparently, You shared Your plan with him and developed in him an intercessor's heart because of the plans that You had for him.

Do we focus on that as You show us more than we might want to see in any given moment of man's rebellion? Or do we lose sight of the fact that we will rule and reign with You when rebellion against You is all but forgotten? Help us, then, to take on our role of intercession between You and the fallen, broken world that You made because we know that sorrow may last through the night but that joy comes in the morning, to eat our bread with anxiety like Ezekiel for a season because the suffering of the warrior in prayer and prophecy yield a person of Your character for eternity.

THEME: Trusting in You while sacrificing comfort and self-protection is a central theme of both chapters. The psalmist calls for it after Abraham has put it into action, circumcising himself and his entire household the same day You called for it even at considerable risk if attacks should come.

PRAISES: Thank You that we can obey You instantly with that having to calculate whether You will protect us from the consequences. Thank You that we can look and live beyond the comfort of the moment and trust You to establish our legacy. Thank You that You can speak the impossible and make it possible, whether with Sarah conceiving or with any intimidating reality we face.

APPLICATIONS: What You give, You give by grace, and no man can take it away. (Verses 1-8) Abram did nothing to earn Your appearing to him, let alone Your giving him anything. His last appearance on the biblical stage and the beginning of the last chapter was to take his part in a complete misadventure. As the very antithesis of faith that You can fulfill Your promises, he agreed to his wife's scheme to make it possible for him to have a child. Beyond that, he then abdicated and a responsibility for repentance before You by agreeing to let Sarai send Hagar away. Perhaps this is why, after 13 years, he is so humbled and awed that You would appear to him and confirm that You are still going to use him. You are showing him Your holy stubbornness, not only use him but to give this land to his descendents FOREVER.

Again, are we inwardly totaling up our holiness points to determine whether You will show up and use us today? If so, we can stop. There is nothing in us, even in our attempts to do Your work, that would earn anything but reproach. Our righteousness really is as filthy rags. And yet, You come near. You don't come bring in judgment, either, but plans that so display Your overcoming power and sovereignty that You can still use even us. You remind us of promises that cannot be broken, not because we deserve them but because they are made by You, and You are not a man that You should lie. Take us back, Father, to when our faith was strong and we still had a sense of limitless possibilities in You. Years may have transpired from that point, and we may have accumulated abundant evidence that we cannot build Your Kingdom in our own strength, but You are still faithful and able to redeem. Make us, Father, a living example of that today.

Even as You give us Your promises by grace, living in their truth often does involve radical actions on our part. (Verses 9-16) You call on Abraham to mark himself and his house as distinctly different. This mark of circumcision will not go away in times when Your people fear or falter. From here forward, they will be marked as a reminder that they are Yours. In a way, this is grace, but it is painful and risky grace. You call Abraham to do this to his entire household at the same time, and the Book of Judges shows that grown men who have been circumcised are effectively immobilized from fighting for a time. Abraham has already seen that in this land of faith that You have called him into, battle is necessary. Now, in circumcising his flesh, Abraham is also circumcising his heart and trusting in You to defend and prosper him -- a complete turnabout from his maneuver that produced Ishmael.

Are we ready to render ourselves defenseless before You and Your plan without any option but to trust You in a hostile world? In what way are You calling me, calling us, to mark ourselves as forever different, forever sacrificed -- to take up the cross in the New Testament metaphor? Work is always quick to spring to my mind as I spend time with You just before going there, but Your mark is more all-encompassing than that. It is with us, and the cross is on our backs, as long as we live and travel this road. Show me, Father, and any I influence, where You would have us to be marked as different and destined for sacrifice today. As we give up our defenses, we would ask that You would show Yourself faithfully in defending us, whether You let attacks materialize and defeat them or, as here, allow us to heal while snuffing out attacks before they start.

When You show us that Your promises are bigger than what we settle for, this in possible grace stirs us to immediate action. (Verses 17-27) Abraham is humbled with gratitude that You would use him and his descendents at all. Even within the realm of what he sees as possible, he asks for You to bless Ishmael, to redeem his mess for Your purposes. Even as You can do this, and You promise him that You will, You have even better in mind. When You show him that he has not messed up beyond the point where Your original promises can come true, he is deeply moved. If there were any part of him still calculating whether he could obey partially and still protect himself and his house, it is brought down by Your revelation to him. That very day, he is willing to offer all that he is and all that he has to You.

How will we respond to what You show us of Your stubborn goodness today? Will we continue to argue with You that we have messed up too often for Your original plans for us to come to pass? Or will we move forward in excited obedience because You are still committed to us with Your amazing sense of possibility? Give us, Father, the hearts to do and to feel the latter and an eagerness to leave behind regret and guilt from what we have repented of. Where You have called us even to something that is painful in the moment, help us to do it eagerly, willingly, and immediately out of gratitude for the larger work You are doing in and through us.