Day 24 —  Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?   It only takes a few minutes.  (You can also listen to an audio recording.)

   Day 24 – Genesis 35 – 37

In Chapter 35, after the horrific situation with his daughter in Shechem and Jacob’s fear of retaliation in the last chapter, God now comes to the road-weary man with a new direction.

“Get up to Beth-el and live there. Make an alter there to the God who appeared to you when you fled your brother.”    (Beth-el is where Jacob had the stairway to heaven dream and first heard God’s promises. He’s a different man now. His fathers’ God is now HIS God.)

He commands his household to get rid of all their foreign gods/idols and purify themselves.  Hmmm, besides the ones Rachel stole from her father, where did all these idols come from?  Remember in 34:29 when Jacob’s sons plundered the city of Shechem, they took all the livestock, all the little kids and wives, all their wealth, and ALL THAT WAS IN THEIR HOUSES.

Jacob obeyed God, left the pagen idols behind, and began the 20-mile trek south to Bethel to worship “the God who answers me in my day of distress.”  And, “a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they DID NOT PURSUE the sons of Jacob.” 35:3-4  WOW!

Jacob and fam, arrived at Beth-el, he built the alter and worshiped God. God reaffirms his name change to Israel, and identifies Himself as God Almighty (El Shaddai). He reaffirms the promises given to Abraham and Isaac…

• they would be fruitful and multiply
• nations and kings would come from him
• the land would be given to him and his offspring

Two deaths are mentioned in this chapter. Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife, dies in labor wit her second son, whom Jacob names Benjamin. He buries her near Ephrath (Bethlehem – remember when Herod tries to kill Jesus by killing all the boys under two in Bethlehem? It said “Rachel was weeping for her children, who were not.” This is the place.)

And soon after Jacob meets up with his father, Isaac (and I’m sure, introduces all his children to “Grampa” and tells his story of the last 20+ years), Isaac dies at the age of 180.  Jacob & Esau bury him in that burial cave along with Abraham, Sarah, and Rebekah.

Chapter 36 (don’t skip reading it!) gives the geneology of Esau, his children and leaders, and cities they become.  36;6-8, tells of Esau’s whole family, with livestock and possession leaving the area (much like Lot did when it became too crowded), moving south and east to what will be know as Edom.

Chapter 37 begins the story of Jacob’s “favorite” son, Joseph. (Didn’t he learn a lesson about favortism from his parents??) But, Jacob’s heart remembered his beloved Rachel, and this was her first born son. He lavishes love on him and gives him the special, long and long-sleeved coat of a “ruler” of his brothers, an “amazing technicolor dreamcoat.”  (Just kidding.)

Joseph’s brothers KNEW EXACTLY what it symbolized and hated their “pompous” little brother, who tattled on them every chance he got and taunted them with his “dreams” of superiority.”  (Yes, God sent the dreams as prophecy, but did he have to share them???)

They got their revenge, and when they saw the boy coming to where they were pasturing the sheep (way north, past Shechem), they plotted first to kill him, and then to sell him for profit to a caravan of Ishmaelites going to Egypt.

(It’s interesting that both Reuben & Judah did not want him killed (37:21 & 26). These two brothers will also seek to save Bemjamin’s life in Egypt.)

The chapter ends in double tragedy. Joseph, the exalted son, becomes a slave to Potiphar, a captain of the guard for Pharaoh.  And Jacob (the great deceiver) is deceived again, this time by his sons, who tell him that Joseph must have been killed by wild animals.  The “ruler’s coat” is torn and splattered with blood (by them) to prove his untimely death.

Jacob is inconsolable in his mourning and weeping, and wishes he were dead too.

(But God means it all for good.)