Bibledoorajar Examines Proper Foundations

     Jacob and his large family left Laban's home. The story gives us one more possibility as to why God wanted them to leave. Laban kept idols. These household items as they were called were used by Laban and his family to discern things. Maybe Rachel took the idol because she did not want her Dad to be able to discern information about their whereabouts. Or, sadly, Rachel may have been an idolator. The story is not clear as to why she took it, but it is clear that she wanted to keep it, for she hid it under the saddle of her camel. God sees to it that Laban searches and finds the idol. So the party got underway with Laban having the ability to seek help from his idol.  Rachel was pregnant with her second child. Pregnancy and riding a camel, Ouch! I rode one of those animals while in Israel and it is not the most comfortable ride around even when you are not pregnant. 
     Once, when frustrated, Rachel had told Jacob to give her children lest she die. Now, she rode a camel carrying her second child. Along the way she gave birth to her second son and when weak and dying she named him Benjamin and commented: he is the son of my sorrow. But her husband took his twelfth son and held him toward God and proclaimed: this is the son of my right hand. With the birth of the 12th, the foundation of the nation Israel was accomplished. God Himself was involved with this earthly endeavor to ensure that there would be twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve was the proper number from God's point of view for this plan to move forward.
    Many years later, the Messiah that Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah all wondered about would come to earth as the Son of God's Hand. Before He returned to Glory, he would establish His church with pillars of twelve apostles. How wonderful is God's intent that spiritual foundations be established properly. We can believe the lessons we learn as we follow the twelve tribes each having their distinct role in the Israeli experience. Likewise, we can believe the lessons and instructions left for us by the twelve apostles as we live out the vision God has for the Church of Christ. The apostle Peter declared that we are living stones being added all the time to the structure. Israel was a masterful and colorful nation as they marched out by their tribes each with their distinct images. So, as God looks down surely He has an image of a church built on a proper foundation seeking to do His will. Each stone shines with a gift or gifts to help move the kingdom of God forward, achieving great things for Him. Today, remember your gifting(s). Walk in them. Please God because you are built on the proper foundation and give Him praise that He has graced your life with gifts to help others see and find the life giving words of Christ and His twelve apostles.

Bibledoorajar says "When God Remembers..."

     Jacob now had 10 sons. Leah and her maid servant had been the most productive. Rachel, although her maid had given sons, had remained unproductive no matter how often Jacob "put his shoes under her bed".  But now, now something other worldly would happen. God would remember and a baby was coming because of His remembrance of her. Jacob's eleventh son would be very special with a God ordained destiny and he would at last be born to Rachel. Although all of Jacob's wives presented him with sons, each to be a part of the 12 tribes, this son, the eleventh son, was destined to show forth an example of what God intended to do in the fullness of time with  his own Son. When he was born, Rachel named him Joseph which means God will add or increaser. Rachel  said, "God will add to her another son". The Bible does not record a comment from Jacob at this son's birth, but later in the story we will see just how beloved he was by his father. But for now Jacob had a lot on his mind.
     For a long time, he had watched his father-in-law treat him unfairly in their business arrangements. Even amidst this unfairness, Laban had had to admit that he was only being blessed because of Jacob. This was true because every time Laban changed the plan in order to get the upper hand, God remembered his servant Jacob and gave him increase opposite of Laban's plans. Although Jacob had asked Laban once to let him leave, God had not told him to do so. Laban plotted again. Jacob had been patient during all Laban's maneuverings to get and keep the upper hand, but now Laban's sons were also adding to Jacob's misery.  Now, God told Jacob to leave Laban's home and to return to the promised land and to live out his destiny there.  Now, there was a future savior of God's people to think about in the mix. It was God's time for Jacob to take his wives and his children and leave.  Jacob called his wives out to the field where he was at work and shared the reasoning for leaving. No doubt as they listened, each woman wondered if one of the children before them would be the promised Messiah. Yes, Laban was their Dad, but a future king must be protected at all costs.
     Laban had been blessed because of another. You too, have been blessed because of another.  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only son (John 3:16)". One day He will come and take us to the Promised Land because God will remember. You can count on it. Hallelujah!

Bibledoorajar Thinks of Memorial Day

I awoke this morning thinking of all who had gone before me and what they had given to secure my future. I read a story about a 90 year old woman who traveled to the WWII museum in New Orleans.
She hoped to see a picture of the boy she dated in High School and to whom she had given a diary just before he joined the Marines. The diary never made it back to her but years later she was surprised to find it in the museum, a memorial to the young soldier's life. He had said in the diary that it would be a memorial to his days in the Marines. One of the first things he wrote before he was shot between the eyes by an enemy sniper, was that he hoped whoever found the diary would return it to that girl who filled his heart in high school and to whose memory he  had clinged. That girl, now 90, had hoped to see a picture, maybe of him working with some of his fellow Marines, but instead she found his memorial to his life and her enduring influence on it.

We often disregard our connection to others and how the doings of our lives affect them and us. We discount many things that under the Divine become "dots" that connect much more than we realize. The Bible tells that human connections, if bad, can lead to Divine retribution, if good, to Divine blessings. Laban took advantage of Jacob in many ways thinking he would prosper. And he did prosper because God was prospering Jacob, not because his wily ways garnered the blessings. Laban's ways perplexed Jacob, but he waited patiently for God to make plain His way for him. Jacob was in a strange land and pressing questions about whether he should leave began to be a part of Jacob's thought processes.

Today, we think of all those whose thought processes led them to agree to put their lives on the line for our freedoms. We honor God for all the ways He blessed during these horrible encounters and for all the thoughts that turned to Him in times of trouble. I hope many of them are written in God's book of remembrance--the Lamb's Book of Life. Have you considered whether yours is recorded there as an everlasting memorial to His goodness?