Bibledoorajar asks whatever happened to Esau?

     While we have been following the life of Jacob, now Israel, it is good to note Esau's journey because we will see his progeny develop as an enemy of Israel. We know that early on, Esau took two wives from heathen peoples and we know that his parents were very disappointed and did not approve of his actions. Later, we find Jacob meeting Esau and we see that both men had established significant households. But it was not in the plan of God for Esau to be the father of the nation that would birth his son. That honor, solely decided by God, would go to Israel. However, God did bless Esau and his clan grew in power to the point that he successfully joined with other chieftans in war to claim lands. He eventually wound up in Seir, an area that had been held by powerful men. God gave this land to Esau and his children just as he gave land to Israel. There was a great deal of intermarriage in Esau's clan, also some illegitimacy, and thus the clan grew in its' heathen aspects. If you follow Israel's history you will find that these peoples, the Edomites, often joined in war with other clans against Israel. So, while Israel and his brother Esau parted amicably and settled in different areas, it does not mean that there was never any interactions between their progeny. To the Edomites we owe the mule. Anah, an illegitimate, crossbred a mare with a donkey and the result was what we know as the mule, an illegitimate breed. These are the dealings of God with Edom and the primary lesson from them is evil continues to beget evil.

     We are approaching the new year and people often make resolutions. Would now not be a good one to evaluate which land in which you are presently dwell ? Do you need to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light? We have just learned that Jesus came to earth with the power to do just that. How great a grace is that? A grace that ensures He will not only move you into a new "land" but be with you, teaching you and chastising you to the very end. Consider the move. There are many great things available in the Kingdom of Light!

Bibledoorajar looks at Single Most Difficult Moments

     Jacob had returned to Bethel and had received two great promises from God. He was to continue the journey to the land of Promise. Yet, he was soon to face the single most difficult experience of his life's journey. His wife was pregnant and frail. Her nurse, Deborah was old. She died at a time when Rachel needed her the most. So, we see Jacob burying her under an oak and calling it the Oak of Tears. I am sure that Rachel's sorrows increased at this point, but still the group journeyed onward. Finally word came from the rear echelon: Rachel can go no further. She bore her last son, attached to his name that of sorrow, and then she died. But Jacob, having reached her, took the boy and declared that he would be called Benjamin and would be like a staff to Jacob in his old age. It is clear from this story that the purity and holiness that God longs for in His people sometimes is seared in by sorrows.

  This week we celebrate the birth of another son--God's Son. The Bible says that of this Son,  and the future that lay before him, his earthly mother pondered. That is, she weighed in her mind with thoroughness and care his chances of success in life.  This week, we all have a chance to rethink how the baby Jesus turned out. What do you think and how has Truth Himself impacted your life's journey? As the debate rages about what to call the holiday this week, I hope you are secure in your weighing of it. For me, the baby was real and His was the most successful life of all. He came just as the world needed Him the most. Therefore, I say, Merry, Merry Christmas!

Bibledoorajar Looks More Closely at Returning to Bethel

35 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.

              O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
               It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
              Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
             Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
              A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
             For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
             Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
             O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
            O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
            O Holy Night , O night divine!

          Placide Cappeaude Roquemaune in the year 1847.

At this time of year, all of earth is aware of the birth of Christ. Each of us in some way returns to Bethlehem and acknowledges our sin and error and the need for a means of rejoicing. We are compelled by the Christmas lyrics to fall on our needs and hear the angel voices that remind us to return to our first love--that joyful time when we accepted our Savior. He has indeed answered us in the days of our distress just as he did Jacob. Jacob knew his family could not continue in sin or wear the earrings that enslaved them to other gods. Today is a good day for us to join Jacob in burying such things. God is calling with a " thrill of hope", and compels "falling on your knees".

Bibledoorajar Underscores Repentance In This World

"This world is not my home, I'm just a passing thru.
My treasures are laid up some where beyond the blue;
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door.

They're all expecting me and that's one thing I know, My
Savior pardoned me and now I onward go...

O Lord, You know I have no friend like You, If heaven's not
my home then Lord what will I do. The angels beckon me from
heaven's open door, And I can't feel at home in this world anymore."

                                         A traditional Spiritual

     As we have seen, God never intended for Jacob to finish his journey in Shechem.  It was not that God did not have the power to sustain Jacob in Shechem for indeed He did. His power and might saw him through many an episode there. But the place where Jacob was to end had to be a holy place. In verse 5 of the chaper (Gen. 31) we learn that Jacob and his family journeyed. The discipline of God that gently brought Jacob to realize he must move on toward a more holy place happened in Shechem. It was not that Jacob stopped believing that God was the God of Israel in Shechem, for indeed he called it El-Elohe-Israel. God was his in Shechem, but in holy Belthel, He was God of His House. His kingdom embraces all aspects of life: spiritual as well as temporal. God was after a corporate house, not just the obedience of the one man Jacob. From all Jacob's family would Israel spring. Jacob AND his household had to see and participate in the Holy who was building a kingdom. The Holy One's work was not isolated, nor was it hit and miss.
     In a Christmas scene, we see hundreds journeying to Bethlehem, the "house of bread".  Each Jew was to go to the holy place as required by authority. Among them was Mary and Joseph. They journeyed while Mary was experiencing the advanced stages of pregnancy. They had an idea of the glory of God, but they were about to really see the fullness of God's glory.  For there in humble surroundings His Son was made flesh. What a finish to a journey!
     I remember visiting the church in Israel built at the place where Jesus was supposed to have been born. The place was in a cave in the rear of the church. As I approached the place,  I realized that I would not be able to complete the journey, unless I bowed low to enter the opening. Ever God, it was as if he was telling me, the journey calls for humility; the journey calls for you to allow Me to guide you. At this time when we honor the birth of the Son and think of the glory of it all, it is a good time to make sure we are bowed low and trusting God for help in completing our journey both as an individual and as a part of His eternal family.

Bibledoorajar Compares Sparkling Jewelry

     When God told Jacob to arise and to return to Bethel, the house of God, he required the women to shed their elaborate jewelries. As evidence that this particular jewelry his family was wearing was associated with superstitious behavior, we see Jacob burying it under an oak tree in Shechem prior to their moving out. This scene is further evidence of how far the family had moved away from embracing Elohim as their only Source. Historians have unearthed many of these amulets over the years and have been able to trace their use in appealing to various gods or to the warding off of evil spirits. Don't want an evil spirit to go up your nose? Put a nose  ring on and wallah safety has come! In Jesus's time the men wore little boxes(philacteries) on their foreheads with holy scripture in them as an anti-venom of the more evil adornments present in their societies.
     The Bible speaks often about our God adorning His people with layers of beauty. It becomes our task to remember the spiritual adornments that He has given us and to not to be concerned with giving power to the  physical or material substance around us. God told Jacob: go back to Bethel to the place where Jacob had seen Him and build an altar there. There is in this statement similar tones as to that found later in the first of the Ten Commandments: no gods before Me. It was this searing command that prompted Jacob to get to burying.
    I remember one young man who had been raised in God's ways by a church going family. But as he matured and mingled with the world, he trusted more and more the things of the world. He had certain books, and certain music--all designed to help him cope with life. When the Spirit prompted him to return to "Bethel" he built a fire and burned all the books and music that had led him away from the One true God. He's older now and he has never looked back, but has continuously pursued the adornments of God. To be with him is a pleasure because it is a time to share the spiritual gifts with which we have been adorned. It is a reminder of where we are to place our faith and our trust: it is a reminder that His adornments sparkle with greater intensity than any thing we could place upon our bodies.