01.20.2010

Today's reading is Genesis 28-30, Psalm and Proverb 15 and 16, and Matthew 19-21.

We begin in Genesis, Jacob has been charged with finding a wife from within the family. It seems that without his brother in the picture, he feels confident dealing in good faith, and not by trickery. His uncle that he's trying to get to give him a daughter as a wife, is quite into trickery to get his way. He makes Jacob work twice as hard as he originally agrees to. He makes him take both his daughters, not just the one he wants, and that leads to a huge mess. The twelve tribes of Israel are born amid quite a dramatic mess. With multiple wives, wives telling a husband to sleep with servants, a feud between sisters. Wow.

Psalms 15 is short and sweet. Who gets into heaven? The Psalmist briefly describes a person with the attributes we've been reading about in Proverbs. Honest people, who honors the Lord and wisdom. The next Psalm recognizes that the Lord is what is good. The Lord is where our focus should be, not things, not power, not any vices, just the Lord.

In Proverbs we find a lot of great advise on life. Notably, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. I am curious, if this answers my question about Cain. After his poorly received sacrifice, we see that Cain was generally a wicked person. It does not say in Genesis whether or not Cain regularly dealt deceitfully or was regularly a wicked person, but I think by looking at his character after the sacrifice, it can be assumed that he was wicked before it as well. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. Another verse that caught my attention was, the scoffer doesn't like to be reproved, he will not go to the wise. This reminded me of circumstances in my life that I have been sought out for advice. A declared Christian co-worker once sought me out (prior to my accepting Christ) for divorce advice. Rather than go to her friend in the department that was a professing Christian, she sought me out for justification to leave her husband for no reason other than she was unhappy. I gave her very un-biblical advice, and then she asked me what God would think about it, and I gave her even worse advice. She came to me, because she couldn't stand to hear wisdom. It is sad to think back to.

To the New Testament. Ironically, after writing about my past experience, I now find us reading about biblical divorce advice. Jesus says not to, for the most part. Also, we learn about entering heaven. We cannot get there ourselves, only through the Lord is it possible. And with the parable of the Vineyard owner, we see the reward of heaven is the same for the Christian who was raised in faith as he who truly converts at the end of his life. Fairness and justice are up to the Lord, and we should serve him and be joyful.