Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading After 20 years of working with Laban, Jacob was ready to pack up and leave.  God gave him several confirmations that it was time to go.  His brothers-in-law started eyeing him with suspicion.  His wives were fed up with their father and his failure to keep his promises.  … More Leaving Out the Back Gate

Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading Leviticus is a book of the Law of God.  You can find some very detailed laws about how to dress, how to eat, how to treat your neighbor, how to wash.  There is one law that would have been useful for Jacob:  Leviticus 18:18.  “While your wife is … More Crowded

Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading A number of family dynamics play into the next event in the life of Isaac’s family. 1.  Isaac was a passive father.  He did nothing that we know of to respond to Esau giving up the birthright. 2.  Rebekah was an eaves-dropping schemer who was willing to lie … More The Blessing Stolen

Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading We don’t get to spend much time with Isaac and Rebekah, as we did with Abraham and Sarah.  But we do get to know them at least a little.  At first, Isaac is a man of great faith.  We’ve already seen how he was willing to give his … More The Twins

Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading In today’s readings, there are some customs that might need some explanation. 1 – Abraham wanted to secure for his son an appropriate wife.  Toward that end, he commissioned the servant to get a girl from back home.  “Don’t find a wife from among the Canaanites.  Get someone … More Isaac – The Next Patriarch

Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading As we begin the third week of our study, we say goodbye to Sarah as well as Abraham.  In this story, one of the last that focus on him, Abraham buys the burial plot that will be visited several more times in the book of Genesis. ESV – … More The Death of Sarah

Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading There are many short stories written about Abraham sacrificing Isaac.  In at least one of them, Isaac was portrayed as a young man who did not want to be sacrificed, didn’t want to die, so he ran around the camp site trying allude capture by his 100+ year … More The Sacrifice of Isaac

Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading Remember that story a few chapters earlier where Lot made the choice to live in the region of Sodom because he saw the land was good for grazing?  That choice lead into Lot and his family and possessions being taken captive.  Fortunately, 80-something-year-old Abraham rode off like Indiana … More Sodom and Gomorrah

Part 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading Sarah had passed that point long ago.  She was 90 and well into menopause.  Even before menopause set in she had not been able to have a child.  That was hard.  All those years being married to Abraham.  Waiting, hoping, waiting, hoping, waiting, waiting, waiting, hope fading.  Even … More Abandoned Hopes Restored