Day 15

Genesis 31:1-55

Jacob is getting wealthier and wealthier thanks to God, but this means that Laban’s wealth is slowly becoming less.  One day Jacob hears some of Laban’s sons talking and they say, “Jacob is taking everything that our father owns and all this wealth that Jacob has is from our father!  We should be getting what our father owns – not Jacob.  If this goes on like this our father will have nothing to give us when he dies!”  At the same time Jacob began to realise that Laban wasn’t being as friendly as he had first been when they had met.

So it was good timing when god comes to Jacob and says, “Jacob: time to go!  I want you to go back to your father.  I will be with you.”

Immediately Jacob sends messages to Rachel and leah and tells them to come and meet him out in the fields where no one will hear them talking and no one will think that they are planning anything.  He explains the situation and says, “I’m leaving.  Your father doesn’t like me much at the moment even though it has been HIM who has cheated ME.  He has tried to not have to pay me as much by changing what I am paid, but god has not allowed that to harm me.  If your dad was going to pay me in speckled goats then all the goats would have speckled young.  And your dad was going to pay me in the stripy goats then the goats would give birth to stripy babies.  So God has taken away your father’s flocks of sheep and goats and has given them to me.

Then Jacob told them of a dream he’d had: “I dreamt that an angel came to me and he said ‘Jacob’ and I answered him by saying ‘I’m here’.  Then he told me that God could see what Laban was doing and that this was the same God who had given me the dream before (the one I had when I was travelling here twenty years ago, I set up a stone and made a vow that should God return me to my land safely then he would become my God.) then the angel told me that it is God’s command for me to return home.  So that is what I plan to do.”

Rachel and Leah both AGREE for once.  They say “what is there for us here?  We don’t get any inheritance from our dad because we’re girls.  He treats us like we’re from a different country.  He has sold us and what he got for us he has wasted.  The amount God has given you is what is owed to us by our father.  So God has made our father pay the debt he owes us for his bad treatment of us.  So this doesn’t matter to us what you do: do whatever God has told you.”

So Jacob packs up really quickly and he takes all his livestock (cattle and other animals) and all the other goods he had got whilst he’d been living with Laban and he headed off back towards his father Isaac.  Isaac was still living in Canaan. 

Laban is out of the house when they were packing – he is off shearing sheep.  So without anyone knowing Rachel creeps into her father’s room and steals the little idols that Laban has which he thinks were the gods that protected his house from bad things.  Besides that Jacob is tricking Laban by running away without telling him.  Then they run and leave quickly.

Three days later (because the sheep he was shearing were being kept a few days journey away from the house) Laban eventually hears that Jacob is gone.  So he gathers his family together and he chases after Jacob.  And even though Jacob has a three-day head start Laban catches up with him four days later, on the seventh day.  But the night before he catches up with Jacob Laban gets a dream from God and God says to him, “Be very careful what you say to Jacob… do not try and persuade him to stay by good things (offering more money) or bad things (threatening).

When they meet up to talk Laban says: “Why?  You tricked me and you’ve brought MY daughters with you, carrying them off like they were captive women you captured in war that you could just go and rape at any time you wanted.  Why did you run off secretly?  If you’d told me I could have sent you off with a feast and a celebration!  You didn’t EVEN let mesay goodbye to my daughters or my grandchildren.  That was foolish of you, because I have the power to harm you!  But last night the God of your father Isaac came to me and told you not to do anything to you.  So this is what I say: I can understand that you have left to return to your father again.  But why did you steal the gods that protect my house?  That is like swearing at me in the face.

Jacob doesn’t know that Rachel has stolen the God’s so he says, “I was afraid you would not let me take your daughters with me.  But if you find ANYONE who has your gods then I shall kill that person.  I have not taken them.  It must have been someone else, but feel free to look around our camp yourself to make sure.  In fact if I have ANYTHING of yours here you can take it!

So Laban goes and checks the tents.  He finds nothing.  Then he comes to Rachel’s tent.  Thankfully she has put them in the saddle of her camel so he finds nothing in her tents.  She takes the precaution of sitting on her camel and excusing herself from standing up in her father’s presence by saying: “I’m having my period so I can’t stand up.”  So Laban finds nothing.

When it is proved that they don’t have the idols, Jacob becomes angry.  He says: “So what exactly is my crime?  What sin have I committed that you hunt me down?  You have looked through all of MY things.  If you have found ANYTHING that is yours then bring it out in front of everyone and everyone can judge whether it belongs rightfully to me or you!  You know what? I’ve been with you twenty years now.  Your sheeps and goats have not miscarried.  I haven’t eaten any of your rams when I was feeling hungry as I watched the flocks (many shepherds could do this I guess).  If an animal was attacked by wild animals then I didn’t say ‘oops well that’s your loss’, I made sure I paid you back for every time it happened so that it was my loss!”

Then he launched into the hard things about his job: “I was boiling hot in the day and freezing cold at night!  I was constantly so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open.  And you made me pay if anyone stole even the smallest sheep or goat! I worked fourteen years to get your daughters and six years for your goats and sheeps and you changed your wages TEN times!  If my God hadn’t been with me and if you weren’t afraid of my father’s anger then you would have sent me away with nothing.  But God HAS seen what you’ve done to me and last night he told you off for doing so!”

Laban says in response: “The women here are my daughters! The children are MY children.  The flocks are MY flocks.  All you see is MINE!  But still, what can I do about my daughters or their children? Nothing.  So lets make an contract which will keep us in peace with one another.”

So they gather stones and put them in a heap to mark a boundary.  Then they agree that neither fot hem shall cross that boundary.  And Laban says “God will watch us both.  If you ill-treat my daughters though, or if you marry another women even if I’m not there to make sure they’re treated well, God is watching you and he’ll punish you.”  Then they made their contract and parted ways in the morning, with Laban kissing goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren.  Then he and his family returned home.

Matthew 12:1-21

It was a Sabbath, which was basically Saturday.  No that day no one could do ANY work.  None at all.   It was so strict that you couldn’t even SPIT ON DIRT! Incase gravity pulled it down and it mixed with the dirt and made mud – that was considered work…  Yea, something had gone wrong somewhere with the law, but Jesus is out to set it right.

So anyway, it was a Sabbath and Jesus walked through a field of corn.  He allows his disciples to pick some of the corn and eat it.  Well this is also considered work and some of the law-priests come and say: “Look! Your disciples are working on the Sabbath by picking that corn.  You’re in charge of them, what are you going to do about it?”

Jesus looked at them and he said: “Let me ask you this – have you ever read the part in the old testament where David goes into the temple and he takes some of the bread that it was lawful for ONLY the priests to eat.  And you know what he does?  He EATS it.. even though it was unlawful.  Or that part where it points out that the priests work on the Sabbath by working in the temple and sacrificing to God, but they remain innocent for doing so.  I say this: speaking to you is one person who is GREATER than the temple (the DWELLING PLACE of our GOD!  The most important place to ALL Jews – I’m more important than it!)  It also says in the old testament that God desires “mercy over sacrifices”.” 

That’s pretty big to the Jews as their entire religious rules are based on sacrificing things to God.  Jesus is telling them that there is something that God likes more than the sacrifices which they give!  Woah!  But Jesus isn’t finished…

“If you knew what those words meant,”

(by the way he’s talking to the guys who studied the law and the old testament as their JOB.  They KNEW the old testament better than anyone, except Jesus obviously, but Jesus is saying ‘if you knew what it meant’!! He’s accusing them of not having understood the old testament when it was their JOB to understand the old testament.  It’s like God going into your science lesson and saying to the teacher: if you only knew how much more there is to science than what you know.  The teacher would be like: I’ve studied at university – I know everything there is to know.  And God would be like: sorry, but you’ve overlooked some stuff, there is stuff you don’t know.  I’m better than you)

So Jesus said “If you knew what those words meant you would not condemn the innocent and tell them that they’re going to hell.  I am the Lord of the Sabbath.”  He moved away from the field and goes into their church to preach.  As he got to this church (which they called a synagogue) he saw a man with an arm which was completely shrivelled up.  He looked at the law-priests who had come with him and he said: “Is it against the law to heal a man on the Sabbath?”  They don’t seem to answer partly because they all know that it IS against the law so Jesus then said, “if your sheep falls in a ditch on a Sabbath you would get it out of the ditch because it is too valuable to leave it there.  It would NOT be against the law to do that.  And a man is MUCH more valuable than a sheep.  Therefore I say to you that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”  Then Jesus said to the man “Stretch out your hand”  So the man stretched out his hand, and it was completely healed!

Then the law-priests started plotting on how to kill Jesus because he was such a nuisance.

Jesus knew this and so he went away from that town.  Loads of people followed him and he healed all of the sick people, though he warned them not to start telling people who he was.  This was to complete a prophecy that one of the old testament prophets had made:

“I’ve given my servant to you.  I have chosen him

I love him and I enjoy watching him.

I will put the holy spirit in him

He will tell everyone that justice is on its way

He won’t argue or cry out

No one will hear him in the streets

He will not break an already bruised reed

He will not put out the wick of a candle that is only smouldering

Not until he brings justice to EVERYONE

In his name nations will put their hope.”

Psalm 9:13-20

God look at how the bullies bully me!

Have mercy and take me away from the gates of the hospital where they might put me.

So then I can sing to you

In your city in heaven

I will rejoice in the way you save us

The nations dug a pit to trap others but they trap themselves

They hid a net to catch something and they catch their own feet

People know God because they hear about how just he is

The wicked are mad einto slaves by what they do

Evil people go back to the grave

As will all the nations and countries that forget God

But those who are in need will not remain forgotten

Those who are beaten up will not lose hope

Get up God!  Don’t let mankind win!

Get the nations into your presence and judge them!

Make them afraid of you

Remind everyone that only you are God and that they are only men!