More adventures with Jacob

First up: I don’t know why, but I keep getting biblical reinforcements for the blogs I’ve written the previous day! It’s getting spooky! I just happened to be reading some website or another today and came across this reading, that I thought went right to the heart of whether or not Jesus can or will be heard in the “gentle breeze” through all the noise of the world today.

Jer 29:11-15
For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, says the LORD, and I will change your lot; I will gather you together from all the nations and all the places to which I have banished you, says the LORD, and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.

Just to be clear, I’m not trying to “top” Mom’s comments or blogs—I’m just calling ‘em as I see ‘em! Or, rather, passing them on as they are being given to me through prayerful consideration.

And, since I can’t tell a story as well as the Holy Spirit, here’s today’s reading. Again, it is about Jacob. For those of you reading this who aren’t so familiar with the story of this Patriarch, between yesterday’s reading and today’s, Jacob has had to spend 14 years in service to his father-in-law in payment for his wives, who, along with a couple of concubines have conceived 11 children already! Along with the last child, Benjamin—who will be born shortly—they become the fathers of the “twelve tribes” of Israel, which is the name that God gives to Jacob in today’s reading. Whew! I told you I couldn’t tell the story as well as the Holy Spirit!

Gn 32:23-33In the course of the night, Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had taken them across the stream and had brought over all his possessions, Jacob was left there alone.

Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob's hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled. The man then said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me." The man asked, "What is your name?"He answered, "Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel, because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed." Jacob then asked him, "Do tell me your name, please." He answered, "Why should you want to know my name?" With that, he bade him farewell. Jacob named the place Peniel, "Because I have seen God face to face," he said, "yet my life has been spared."

At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip. That is why, to this day, the children of Israel do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, inasmuch as Jacob's hip socket was struck at the sciatic muscle.

I must tell you that I started to write this blog at 7:30 this evening. I started reviewing Genesis to make sure I got my facts straight and ended up reading the whole story of Israel (Jacob) and Joseph all the way through the 2nd chapter of Exodus! I really have to stop getting so involved in this when I have to work the next morning. But then again, maybe it’s His will that I do get so involved, so I will let Him decide when it’s too much for me to handle.