JACOB IN THE HOUSE OF LABAN

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible…. 

JACOB IN THE HOUSE OF LABAN                       

Genesis 31:41 NKJV

⁴¹ Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 

Jacob is a son of his mother.  Her cunning and easy use of the truth is evident in his character and personality.  He also is one of, if not the most, intriguing characters in the Old Testament.  We know a great deal about him and his family.  At times it seems true that we know God loves him and no one but God and his mother could love him. 

As he states he spent 20 years in the house of Laban and came away very wealthy in family and livestock.  But this was no accident.  We have his word of God’s blessing and enriching him.  There is no reason to doubt this.  The most interesting thing about his time with Laban and his shepherd experience is the advanced animal husbandry Jacob demonstrated. 

Jacob was a very intelligent man.  Often that intelligence is demonstrated in a self-serving shrewdness.  Nonetheless he demonstrated an outstanding ability to observe and learn.  His observation of the breeding habits of sheep and goats demonstrated what we know to be dominant characteristics.  His inability of explaining this in modern terminology does not prevent the fact of what he did. 

He also came to understand that the breeding cycle of his animals could be influenced by a certain vegetable substance.  The peeled rod secreted some vegetable chemical that affected both goats and sheep to encourage estrus.  Jacob saw this as a form of magic or he at least explained it in this way.  This does not change his brilliant observation and application.  And it also demonstrates his cunning self-serving character. 

If we forget that Jacob was the elect of God who had his safety and material well-being as a direct result of this relationship then Jacob truly is the scoundrel he often appears to be.  But there is much more to Jacob.  He was a spiritual man.  He was the covenant head of God’s house and the successor through Isaac to Abraham. 

Jacob has the two features that will always mark God’s people.  He had an unfailing faith in the spiritual God who called him.  He unfailingly in all his extremities relies on that faith.  Any who have the same faith know it is not just handy in the time of need.  We can rely on it in need because it is a constant in our life.

Secondly, Jacob, when called, was without exception obedient.  He was sometimes fearful, sometimes he was hesitant but never disobedient.  I know of no instant of God’s instructing Jacob when he did no obey. 

Application:

1.  The Scriptures are always true and timely.
2.  The Scripture truth that every man stands or falls to his own master is a strict prohibition to unnecessary criticism of God’s servants.

REBEKAH: OUT OF DARKNESS

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible…. 

REBEKAH: OUT OF DARKNESS                      

Genesis 24:57-59 NKJV

⁵⁷ So they said, “We will call the young woman and ask her personally.”

⁵⁸ Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”
And she said, “I will go.”
⁵⁹ So they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant and his men. 

I confess my admiration for Rebekah.  She is by far the most interesting woman in the Old Testament.  She is strong, bold, and has a faith that is fully committed to God.  Her failures are failures of zeal for God’s purpose.  Whenever she chooses, she does so to fulfill what she understands to be God’s word. 

Rebekah is never an interested bystander.  From the moment Eliezar meets her until she is no longer a part of the divine narrative her role is one of active participant.  She always is doing what she thinks is God’s will. 

The text for today is an illustration of what we get with Rebekah.  There is no reason to think that those who were absolute custodians over the families in their household would have sought her will in the matter of marriage if she had not been an unusual young woman.  The Scriptures never give the age of Rebekah but she was very likely no more than 16 at this time. 

Her boldness in leaving her family, trusting herself with a stranger on a dangerous journey, and marrying a man about whom she knew very little is again an indication of her unusual character. 

This boldness is seen again in the plan she makes to deceive Isaac.  There is no excuse for her deception of her husband and gaining Jacob’s preferment by deceit.  But the boldness of it is quite compelling. 

Rebekah stands alone in her faith with the exception of Samuel’s mother Hannah.  Whenever Rebekah came to faith we are not told, but her prayer in the time of her confusion (Genesis 25:22-23), her belief in God’s answer (Genesis 25:28) and her refusal to accept a woman of the land as Jacob’s wife (Genesis 27:46) are illustrations of her faith.  Her fear for Jacob’s life and her desire for him to flee from Esau are strong influences on her decisions but how few are our decisions that pure from any exterior motives.

She disappears from the narrative without a notice of her death but she is not forgotten.  Paul writing in Romans 9:10-12 links the answer she received to her inquiry of God to the eternal favor of God for Jacob.  Paul tells us God’s reply to Rebekah was just a statement of His eternal election.  And Rebekah believed God. 

Application:

1.  We cannot know who or when God may set apart someone to serve Him in some special way.
2.  Children are limited by their environment.  God’s grace can raise anyone above their background.

ABRAHAM'S SUCCESSFUL INTERVENTION

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Understanding important truths from the Bible…. 

ABRAHAM’S SUCCESSFUL INTERCESSION 

Genesis 19:29 NKJV

²⁹ And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt. 

Reading Genesis 18-19 I have always taken for granted that Abraham’s intercession was for Sodom and that he failed.  The translation I use for devotional reading heads the section of Genesis 18:22-33 with the following, Abraham Intercedes for Sodom.  And though there is a secondary way this is true it is not the primary intent of Abraham.

Abraham recognized one of the three who visited him as Yahwey after He identified Himself in Genesis 18:14.  In verses 25 and 27 and forward, Abraham addresses the Lord in this manner.  He begins his intercession based on the justice of God, Genesis 18:25. 

His intercession is directed toward a specific purpose.  He seeks God’s sparing the righteous and to assure this he asks for the city to be spared destruction.  In every instance he seeks relief for the righteous with the relief of the city being secondary. 

But not even ten righteous are found in the city and it is destroyed.  Lot, his wife, and their two daughters are led outside the city.  Lot’s wife who is lost in the transit and the conduct of the two daughters convince us that there was only one righteous person in Sodom. 

Always at this point I,  and I suppose many others, have considered Abraham’s intercession to have failed.  Some have even suggested that he stopped his intercession too quickly.  This needs no comment as it is an idle and unnecessary speculation. 

I must admit that today for the first time I am struck by the statement in Genesis 19:29.  This statement leaves the reader with but a single understanding. 

Abraham’s intercession was as James describes believing prayer, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”  We are told in verse 29

, that God removed Lot when all around was destroyed not for Lot’s sake but, “God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out.”

I know that I must rethink my understanding of Abraham’s intercession.  It appears as if it (this intercession) was a complete success.  Abraham’s request for the righteous to be spared was fulfilled in Lot’s safety. 

Application:

1.  Your failure to see the answer to your prayer can be because you do not look in the right place.
2. Intercession for friends and loved ones to be delivered from destructive behavior and places is necessary and beneficial.

ABRAHAM'S DREAM

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…
Understanding important truths
from the Bible….

ABRAHAM’S DREAM

Genesis 15:13-16 NKJV

13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them
four hundred years.
14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out
with great possessions.
15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age
16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Dreams were one way God gave His inspired word to chosen spokesmen. In Abraham’s dream God revealed to Abraham and to us certain important prophetic and moral truths. Abraham holds a number of offices, being a prophet was one of them.

First God revealed that Israel would spend 400 years in the land of another
nation. Providentially this happened with Jacob and his family migrating to Egypt.

What plans were made by Jacob and his son? They had no plans to move from their home. Necessity drove them to leave their home and land to find food. All the providence of
God in bringing this to pass is summed up by Joseph in Genesis 45:8; 50:20

8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father
to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of
Egypt.
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order
to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

They went to find relief from a famine and stayed 400 years. Just as it was not their intent
when they left Canaan, it was God’s purpose which he revealed to Abraham.

Secondly Abraham is told they will be servants in this foreign land. The degree of servitude intended is not explained. But we see them at the time of their exodus in extreme bondage.
The extremity of this bondage is expressed in Israel’s “groaning”. In the scope of 400 years this bondage might have been fairly recent when they are described in Exodus as being slaves. Whatever else might be said their bondage was a prophetic certainty.

The third item of notice is God’s moral concern. In verse 16 the Amorites are mentioned in a
way that can only be understood as judicial. They had come before the bar of justice, a sentence was meted out, and it was to be executed at the proper moment.

The Amorites were famous for their cruelty, idolatry, and general rapacious conduct. God has set a period for the end of their peculiar society. He revealed this to Abraham and set His judgment to be fulfilled by Israel’s overthrow of the Amorite nation. The prophecies given to Abraham were fulfilled. History in Scripture is replete with fulfilled prophecies. The prophecies of
Christ and the Church are a part of our Christian knowledge and faith. These are to be an aid in our confidence in God’s providential provision for His people.

Application:
1. The Christian’s future is as certain as it is a mystery.
2. Our final deliverance is as certain as Christ’s resurrection.
3. We can’t consider either prosperity or bondage as final.

LOT: AN EVER PRESENT LESSON

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…
Understanding important truths
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LOT: AN EVER PRESENT LESSON

Genesis 13:10-13 NKJV

10 And Lot
lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well
watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the
garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.
11 Then
Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they
separated from each other.
12 Abram
dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and
pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.
13 But the
men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.

Backsliding, or what the Puritans called Spiritual
Declension, is an ever present reality to Christians. We see it around us and who can say they have
not – to some extent – experienced this dreaded fact.

In the Scriptures there is no better example of backsliding
than Lot. He, who began so well,
experienced such traumatic events and ended his life in shame. Genesis 13:10-13 gives a look at Lot’s
departure from God.

First Lot should never be considered separate from II Peter 2:7-8.
7 and
delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the
wicked
8 (for
that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul
from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—
Peter speaks of Lot as a righteous man. A man who never lived comfortably in a sinful
society. Whatever else we learn about
Lot this must be our consideration.
Lot’s conduct was the conduct of a believer. It is well if what Paul says, “Let him that
thinks he stands take heed lest he falls” is taken as a serious warning.

Secondly, Lot was a wealthy man, Genesis 13:5-6. With wealth comes responsibility, problems,
and temptations. When Christians wonder why
God does not give them wealth they
should consider what comes with it. Not
having wealth can be a greater blessing than having it. The writer of Proverbs gives us the formula
for earthly possessions, Proverbs 30:7-9
7 Two things
I request of You
(Deprive me not before I die):
8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
9 Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the LORD?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.

Lot’s wealth was always a source of fuel for his
covetousness. He never used it to serve
God. He was controlled by his desire to
have things and to gain more. His
failure to understand, or at the best to heed the danger of love for material
possessions, was a plague in his life that separated from God’s covenant
faithfulness would have slew him.

Thirdly, we are warned by Lot’s choice, Genesis 13:11. Lot made two mistakes that are always present
to the backslider. He chose what he
wanted and what he thought was best for him by a faulty standard, Genesis 13:10. The beauty of Egypt was a seductive standard
and a bad choice.

His choice, for whatever reason, was a bad one because it
led him away from the church. When Lot
separated from Abraham his declension was such a force in his life he could not
stop short of Sodom. He went from going
in that direction to living in Sodom.
There is really no stopping place between Sodom and the church. For believers who fall away from God’s church
Sodom is their next residence. Though
their discomfort there may be as Lot’s was in Sodom, their residence is not in
question.

Application:
Prosperity never comes without danger.
True prosperity is to be
satisfied with God’s provision.

NOAH OUR HERO

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…
Understanding important truths
from the Bible….

NOAH OUR HERO

Genesis 6:8 NKJV

8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
In this coming year it is my plan to read through the
Bible. My daily Bible reading schedule
is to take the total of pages in the Bible I use, divide that total by 360 and
then to read that many pages each day. I
hope you will join me in reading through the Scriptures this year. Your schedule may differ for there are many
yearly plans that you can use to be successful in completing this purpose.

My comments are reflections of my belief in the Scriptures
as the Word of God and my understanding of this book. I claim no special authority, originality, or
insight. What I write will be my
understanding of the Scriptures in the standing Reformed tradition and the
application of them to my life. I thank
you for any attention you choose to give this daily walk.

Noah is an extremely important person in the
Scriptures. We are first introduced to
him in Genesis 5:28. From that reference
through the remainder of the Bible he is continually given as a model of grace,
piety, and obedience. Both Isaiah and Ezekiel
write of Noah as a historic person and Ezekiel writes of him as a paragon of
virtue.

In the Genesis account there are three statements that
warrant special attention.
Genesis 6:8 – God’s electing grace is
extended to him and all that follows is an outworking of that grace. This grace is discriminating and
life-giving. Noah becomes an active
servant of God. In Hebrews, I
Peter, and II Peter, Noah is commended to us by his service. But this service must be understood in
the light of Genesis 6:8 and Hebrews 11:7; Grace which was followed by
faith in God.
Genesis 7:5 – The
activity, obedience, and commitment of Noah is summarized in this
statement. Though he was not
perfect he was thorough-going in his obedience. This was demonstrated by his building of
an ark. In the face of constant
opposition, in spite of no apparent need, and over a long period of time
he built an ark. He deserves any and
all the attention given him.
Genesis 7:6 – The
occupants of the ark were put there by God and enclosed at His
determination. All entered who God
intended. None entered whom God
shut out. Noah and his immediate
family were the only human occupants.
The seriousness of this is pressed upon us by looking at
Genesis 5:30-31. There is no choice left
but that Noah had brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, and a vast number of
other near relatives who were outside.
While Noah and his family experienced deliverance the rest were shut
out.

We have no reason to assume all of these were outside of
God’s pardoning mercy. But we have no
assurance that any were believers in the true God. We do know it is the covenant God who shuts
the door, “the Lord shut the door”.

Hebrews 11:7 very plainly tells us what Noah’s successful
obedience was directed toward, “for the saving of his household.”

The example of Noah is there for all of us who have
families. A first object of faith,
should be directed to this primary concern, the salvation of our families.

A Faith That Works

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

A Faith That Works

James 2:14-26 EVS

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,

¹⁶ and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

¹⁷So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

²⁰Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

²²You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;

²³and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"—and he was called a friend of God.

²⁴You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

²⁵And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

²⁶For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

II Corinthians 5:17

⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Westminster Confession of Faith Shorter Catechism Question 33

Q. 33. What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

The value and the truth of the Biblical doctrine of justification needs no apology or defense. The fact that must be recognized is that it is not the only truth about our salvation, and it does not stand alone. But having said the above I would certainly agree with George Sayles Bishop, “Better bad works on these grounds (true faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ) than good works on any other.”

A fair look at James 2:14-26 tells us the one who is justified has faith. This faith is a result of regeneration. The new creature who has faith has the bondage of sin broken and has a new character that loves God and His Law. This new character is always there in the believer and it is always active, objective, and visible.

There is no Biblical salvation in which forgiveness of sin exists in isolation. Justification is always and only by faith without the work of the Law. This faith is a result of the new creation, II Cor. 5:17. And in the same instant he believes and is justified he has a new disposition which is the law-keeper of James, I Peter and I John.

Justification must always be defined as without the works of the Law, and it is only the “new creation” who believes. The “new creation” of II Cor. 5:17 is James’ subject in 2:14-26. Just as justification is in this life invisible, the “new creation” is in this life without contradiction visible.

Abraham’s faith was in God’s promise. His sacrifice of Isaac was the certain consequence of his faith. It was a visible demonstration of supreme love for God. Rahab’s faith in God led her to rescue the Hebrew spies. Her act of sacrifice was the visible demonstration of her love for her neighbor.

In both instances their faith became visible by their obedience to the law of God. Abraham’s faith was no more or no different when he sacrificed the ram God provided. But to all history following it was more certain because of the trial he faced. Cf James 1:3, 12.