Monday Morning Cover to Cover

UPDATE: I just left a COMMENT here to each of you who have commented on this post as of this morning. Your comments were just simply AWESOME on our reading of the Word of God this week. OH MY GOODNESS! Today is Day 4 for missing humanitarian aid worker Cyd Mizell, our good friend. Hoping for a safe return.

Twenty three men and women are reading the Bible chronologically together, taking the truths of Scripture and praying for our God to sink the truth deep into our hearts (Psalm 51:6). You are invited to join us at any time. The reading plan is listed in my left sidebar. This week, you read about Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau, Rachel, Joseph and his brothers….what lingers in your heart this morning? How did God stir your heart this week? Leave a comment here, a sentence or as long as you like. Then, link us up to your blog where you are invited to comment on the Scripture readings for the week. Here are a dozen truths that so stirred my heart...

SEARCHING FOR MY GOD…Story of Abraham and Isaac is one of God speaking to Abraham. Signposts provide the ways we can honor our God in our actions along the way. In 22:11, “Here I am” with wood and fire and a knife says Abraham…and on the mountain of God, Abraham called the place ‘The Lord Will Provide’ – what place do you need today for your Lord to provide. The signpost says ASK, SEEK, KNOCK...everyone who asks receives/ who seeks finds/ and to you who knock, the door will be opened.

GOD GIVES WATER IN MY DESERT…Humble Hagar sobbing for her boy in a parched desert land. Beautiful God opening the eyes of her heart to see water and your eyes too. Eph 1:18 that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened that we may know hope. Isaiah 43:20 I provide water in the desert, that you may proclaim my praise. These tender words are not just text but about a Person, the Living Word, the Living Water.

ABRAHAM DIED FULL OF YEARS….25:8 may it be said of us that our years were full of faith and obedience.

TRADED THE TEMPORARY FOR THE ETERNAL…. QUICK! In 25:30-34, Esau trades a bowl of soup, quickly, trades temporary for the line of David/ lineage. What do we temporarily trade so quickly?

SOLD BIRTHRIGHT AND STOLE BLESSING….They kept doing the same disobedient things over and over and over and expected different results. Doesn’t work that way.

CURVED IN ON THEMSELVES….. There has to be repentance—turning away from those sins of jealousy, greed, self-ambition. 27:5 Rebekah was listening with a jealous ear as Isaac spoke to Esau. How sad that it’s the end days of their marriage and they are so missing each other living for themselves, their world. And blaming it on God. 27:8 “Listen carefully Jacob and do what I tell you.” Whoa! Even children need to weigh the words of well-intentioned self-serving mothers and stand in their way.

“ONE WHO SUPPLANTS” REAPS A HARVEST OF SIN…..God did not approve of Jacob’s conduct. Jacob’s scheming brought consequences: 1. Jacob fled from his home 27:42 and never saw his mother again. 2. Jacob was tricked by his Uncle Laban 29:14-30 3. Jacob lived in fear of Esau 27:41 4. Jacob’s dishonesty affected his children who dealt treacherously with the Shechemites (chapter 34) 5. Jacob’s own children deceived their dad about the alleged death of his beloved favorite son, Joseph. Signposts show the harvest of sin that came into Jacob’s life. 6. Jacob repented in 32:9-12 and finished his life as a changed man in spite of he weaknesses. And the best is #7. God chose to confirm the blessing of Abraham to Jacob 28:10-15.

HAVE MERCY ON US O GOD! …..32:10 I am unworthy of your Kindness and Faithfulness. This signpost proved that Jacob could persevere and overcome without cheating. Jacob saw that his own strength was futile and he humbly sought help from his beautiful sovereign God. .32:26 “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

GOD IS GIVING YOU A NEW NAME…God gave him the new name of Israel, which means “he struggles with God.” 32:28 – A new name “because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” God painted a vision for a man who had been messing up royally. What is the new name that your God is giving to you as you wrestle with Him and with man?

NO “BIG PEOPLE” and NO “LITTLE PEOPLE” …..Can’t imagine the fear that captured Jacob’s heart as he witnessed in 33:1 “there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men.” The brother who wanted to kill him. Seemed like Jacob had a vertical hierarchy of who was important in his life. Signpost says: Live horizontal in all your relationships..

LONGING FOR RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS….My childhood was filled with people who were enemies and never talked to each other again and went to their graves that way. Don’t want to spend any of my adulthood in bitterness. I long for the embrace. Don’t demand it for my happiness but long for my Lord to show up and allow all to embrace. Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. Verse 10: If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift. For to see your face, Esau, is like seeing the face of God.

GOD KEEPS SHOWING UP so CEASE STRIVING…So stirred how God keeps showing up in these chapters not dependent on how hard man is trying to find Him or even doing the right things. Cease striving, Psalm 46:10 and be still and know that I Am God! Here are some of the ways God showed up that jumped off the pages into my heart:
21:17 – God showed up in the desert and heard the boy crying and came to open the eyes of Hagar to give the boy water
24:40 – God showed up by sending an angel to make their journey successful
31:42 – God showed up, saw my hardship and the toil of my hands and my God showed up to rebuke Laban for what he did.
35:6 - God showed up and revealed Himself to Jacob when he was fleeing from Esau. Gives me hope in my major and minor troubles that God is the one who shows up not dependent on how hard I work.
37:7 God showed up in verse 7 and painted a vision for Joseph even in his sleep—”your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
37:21 God showed up as the brothers plotted to kill Joseph, but someone stopped them.
37:36 Then God showed up and led Potiphar to buy Joseph.
38: 7, 10 - God showed up and did not relent. God put Er and Onan to death for their wickedness.
39:21 – God showed up in Joseph’s prison and gave him Kindness and Favor. Unjustly thrown into prison and the God who showed up at Joseph’s Egyptian house, just showed up in the prison dungeon.

What would it take for Rebekah or Jacob to stop doing the same things over and over? What will it take for me in my life as I deal with whatever addictions I face---addictions like my inexhaustible need for love and recognition which cannot and must not rule my life. Be quiet, O my soul, acknowledge my powerlessness to change and fight my temptations. I cannot cure myself. Praise God Someone has! And give me faith, o my beautiful God, this day and one day to know how much I have received, and how deeply I am loved as your daughter. I read the Scriptures but the Scriptures read me. And, like you, I so want a better ending, like John 8:32---"You will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free" and you will be free indeed. Loved, loved, loved how our beautiful God so showed up in these chapters even when they were wicked and then when they were obedient, like Jacob after 32:9 and Joseph. Ask. Seek. Knock. Cease striving. Stop being a human doer. Be still.

Our dear friend, Cyd Mizell, has been kidnapped by gunmen in Afghanistan. Hoping for her safe return. See the story on the post below.