Welcome to Genesis – Week 3
This week we will add a new verse to the Endurance section. As you memorize the new verse, don’t forget to keep reviewing the first verse.
This week’s verse is from 1 Peter 3:5-6 This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They trusted God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do.
Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Genesis 4:7 “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
Each week there will be Daily Reading from the Bible to help you with your Flexibility. With that there will be a Daily Thinking point to help you with your Strength. Each day will end with a prayer to help you in your Cardio training. Enjoy your time with God.
Day 15 – The Death of Sarah
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 23
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
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.
It is interesting to note that Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose age at death is recorded. There are a number of extraordinary women in the Bible – Eve, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah, Miriam, Deborah, Ruth, Bathsheba, Esther, Mary. But only Sarah is given the honor of telling how long she lived. Why do you think this is so?
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, I want people to remember me as someone who loved You above all and worked to be a blessing as Abraham was to the world. Help me to pursue righteousness. Help me to live a life of obedience today, committing each day I live to You…
Day 16 – Isaac – The Next Patriarch
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 24
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
By this time, Isaac was 40. In our society, 40-year-old virgins are mocked as oddities. People ask what is keeping them from “gittin’ some”. They say, “Don’t you know what to do?” “What’s wrong with you?” Our society would likely ask Isaac why he didn’t go out and find a bride for himself? “Why did your Daddy have to go get one for you?” And no doubt, the Canaanites asked him those very same questions. Remember, these are the people related those wiped out in Sodom, the friends of those in Gomorrah. They were sexually active at early ages just like Americans.
But God’s people are held to a different standard. Sexual purity and honoring parents are two traits that greatly please God. Isaac knew this and lived by this. After all, he was the one who willingly submitted to being sacrificed on that mountain in Moriah. So when Abraham said to his servant, “Go get a wife for Isaac from my own people,” Isaac did not protest but prepared his mother’s tent for the bride who would come.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, in the decisions I face today, both big and small, help me seek to honor You first. I pray that You would establish my steps, that You would make my path straight, as it says in Proverbs 3:5-6. For those life-changing decisions, give me wisdom and courage to trust You wherever You lead me.
Day 17 – The Twins
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 25:19-34
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
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 life when God asked for it, as well as him honoring his father’s choice of bride for himself. Of Rebekah we learned she was a woman of faith, ready to go marry a man that God has apparently chosen for her. We also saw she was an industrious, helpful young woman. And in this chapter, we’ll find Isaac praying with dedication for his barren wife, for twenty years!
But then, once the twins arrive, we find out that Isaac was a passive father who favored his outdoor son. Meanwhile Rebekah was a conniving, deceitful woman who trained her favorite son to follow her example. The Bible does not try to paint the Patriarchs (basically the first four generations of Abraham’s family) as being anything other than the people they were – sinful men who struggled to live lives of faithful obedience to God. Sometimes they were successful, sometimes not.
By the end of chapter 25 we also have a pretty good idea of the character of the twins as well. Esau lived only in the moment and gave no thought of family responsibility or duty. Jacob learned his mother’s lessons well and took advantage of every opportunity to establish that one day he would be the one in control of the family, not his older brother.
Wondering about the birthright? In this time, the birthright was not as clearly spelled out as it was in Moses’ time. But from what it became, we can get an idea what it was and why Jacob wanted it. The birthright of the oldest son would grant him 1) the authority of the head of the clan, 2) a double portion of the property inheritance, and 3) the position of spiritual head of the family. That is definitely worth bargaining for. One wonders with that much at stake why Esau would be so willing to part with it, and after eating, not give it a second thought.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, there are so many times I act out of selfish desires just like Jacob did in requiring his brother to give up something precious for a simple bowl of stew. There are other times I act carelessly in regard to my responsibilities, as Esau did. Forgive me for these failures to live up to Your standards. Show me where I need to change…
Day 18 – The Blessing Stolen
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 27:1-28:9
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
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 to her husband and insure her favorite son had every advantage.
3. Esau lived with no thought of his religious responsibility to God or to his family. He married Canaanite women, as well as a daughter of Ishmael. He gave away his birthright, then accused Jacob of stealing it.
4. Jacob had honestly, if cunningly, gotten the birthright from his brother. But he was willing to be lead by his mother into lying to his father, this time truly stealing what belonged to his brother.
In addition, the Patriarchal Blessing was a big deal. It was essentially a prophecy of the legacy the son would leave. It was not just about his one life, but the lives of his descendants. Isaac had probably been working on it for years, praying through the blessings he should give his sons.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
What are you facing today? Do you have rebellious children you don’t know how to help? Do you have trials at work because of fellow employees who scheme against you? Ask God to help you face these in His power. Look back through the verses you’ve learned and pray through the verse that stands out the most in your mind today. Ask God to help you be faithful.
Day 19 – The Trickster is Tricked
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 29
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
It shouldn’t surprise us that Jacob’s uncle is even more cunning and calculating than his mother. It may even seem right that Jacob got some back of what he’d been giving. But more important is that God used all of this to make Jacob into a man who sought to honor the God of his fathers, a man who saw God’s provision in the midst of the trials with his uncle/father-in-law.
Even so, the story of Jacob and Rachel is quite a love story even in the midst of all Laban’s schemes. Jacob really loved Rachel and happily worked seven years for her. And perhaps, like his father and grandfather before him, he had only wanted one wife. But as God allowed things to work out for him, he suddenly found himself with two. Not to mention being bound to his scheming uncle/father-in-law for another seven years. But through those seven years, God used the hard times to build him into a man who would train his sons to love the Lord and serve Him only.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, hard times often come into our lives. Sometimes it is difficult because of poor choices we have made. Sometimes the selfish acts of others make life hard. Help us to look to you in all season, whether difficulties are deserved or not. Help us trust that You area always in ultimate control. And even when we are confronted with difficult people day after day, help us to persevere in our faith, just as You helped Jacob to persevere.
Day 20 – Crowded
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 30
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
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 living, do not marry her sister and have sexual relations with her, for they would be rivals.” (NLT) Perhaps that law draws directly from the experience of Jacob. For that is exactly what happened between Leah and Rachel.
We don’t know if they were close before their father married them off to the same man. But once the celebrations were over, the rivalry began. Rachel, seeing that her sister was having all the children and she none, decided her servant, as her surrogate, would have children for her. After a time, Leah, seeing that she wasn’t getting pregnant any more, did the same. Four women. Definitely crowded. What other hints of rivalry between the sisters did you notice?
As if his home life wasn’t enough, extended family gave Jacob trouble as well. In the second half of the chapter, watch for the continuation of lies and dishonesty displayed by Jacob’s uncle/father-in-law; and Jacob wisely gave Laban no room for accusations of dishonesty on his own part.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, I’ve not been the most faithful at fulfilling my responsibilities with a cheerful attitude. I often grumble and complain, slacking off when no one is watching. Help me to remember that You are my true boss. Help me develop the habit of always giving my best, reflecting integrity and seriousness so that anyone who opposes me will have nothing bad to say. With those who are under my authority, help me remember what it is like when the leader is not responsive or fair. Help me reflect Your faithfulness and impartiality in all things, especially with those I lead.
Day 21 – Leaving Out the Back Gate
PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Read Genesis 31
PART 2 – Strength Training – Thinking & Memorizing
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. God even came to Jacob in a dream and said, “pack it up – move it out.”
And who could blame him for sneaking out the back gate while Laban was out on an extended trip? The last time Jacob tried to leave with his family, he was pressured into staying for another six years. Best to just to cut anchor and run.
How about Rachel part in the story? Were you surprised to find her stealing her father’s idols? The Bible gives no indication of why she took them; however, there have been many speculations about her motives. Perhaps she took them so her father could not use them to divine where they had gone. Perhaps she took them so her father could not practice his idolatry any more. Perhaps they were of precious metal, and thus valuable to use in their travels. Perhaps she took them thinking they could help her conceive another child. Whatever the reason, we are not told. Only that her taking them gave rise to to the opportunity to demonstrate before the whole family, who Laban had brought with him as a posse of sorts, that Jacob was honest throughout the last twenty years and Laban was not.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Dear Father, when it seems like it might be time to move on, or to make changes in how I live, please give me good counselors to advise me, and give me confirmation one way or the other. You said in Proverbs 3:5-6 that if I trust in You, it I acknowledge You, or seek Your will, You will make my paths straight. Help me to trust more in You and Your ability to provide for me. Help me want the things that You want. Help me listen to the wise counselors You send my way. Please make it clear which direction I should go.
Faith Gym 