Genesis 27:1-45

Dear RTB’ers,

Today, back to Genesis, back to the story of Isaac’s twin boys, Esau and Jacob. First, a bit of review, providing context for today’s reading: When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. (Genesis 25:27-28) Don’t we imagine that parents should love all their children equally? Not in God’s eternal plan…: Isaac loved Esau…, but Rebekah loved Jacob Reminder: God is God, we are not. So here we see a potential problem between these twins. However, Esau creates his own problem by selling his birthright: Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:34) And one more bit of context for today’s passage: When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. (Genesis 26:34-35)

So, today, Rebekah proposes a deceitful plan (Gen 27:6-10, 13); Jacob follows through and lies three times to his father (Gen 27:19, 20, 24) and receives the birthright blessing; Esau learns of the deceit and vows to kill Jacob (Gen 27:30-38, 41); Jacob gets sent away to Rebekah’s brother, Laban (Gen 27:42-43); and Rebekah justifies her actions: Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (Gen 27:46 – actually, tomorrow’s reading)

So, what to make of this story? Does the end justify the means…?? Lying or cheating our way to the top is OK? That’s not how we Westerners typically think. What was God thinking in bringing all this together? (See reminder above.) But wait! This Jacob and Esau story continues! Spoiler alert: Jacob becomes the father of the twelve tribes of Israel and is widely recognized as one of Israel’s patriarchs, “Abraham, Isaac. and Jacob…” What was God thinking…??

Blessings!

---

See also: January 9 (2023) / Genesis 25-27

Luke 19:11-28

Dear RTB’ers,

Jesus tells a realistic parable here. It was not uncommon for noblemen to go to Rome and get their orders – receiving regions for their administration. My Study Bible noted that the Herods did just that when they were appointed rulers over the Jews. So the first two servants being appointed over ten cities and five cities, respectively, was a reasonable reward for their stewardship. But as a parable, Jesus is less interested in the local rulers and more interested in heavenly things. He is telling us about our earthly behavior and rewards accruing to us based on what we do: “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Luke 19:26) I suspect that Jesus could well have been inferring to the Jewish leaders as “servants” who had not done anything with what they were receiving from Him, and that their leadership in heavenly matters would be taken away and given to others. We see this happening in the book of Acts and in later history as the Church grows and the Jewish kingdom falters.

And when He had said these things, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. (Luke 19:28) And that’s how we leave Luke for now, as we go back to the Old Testament for the next three weeks to finish the second half of Genesis.

Blessings!

Luke 18:35-19:10

Dear RTB’ers,

Two stories today, the blind man and Zacchaeus, with parallels between them:

1. They both heard that Jesus was coming their way. Apparently the crowd following Jesus was large and loud.
2. They made the effort to see Jesus – the blind man verbally and Zacchaeus visually.
3. The crowd was displeased – they tried to shut up the blind man and they berated Jesus for being a guest in a sinner’s house.
4. When He became aware of them Jesus called them to Him.
5. They came hastily!
6. They made their requests known to Jesus – the blind man seeking sight and Zacchaeus seeking forgiveness.
7. Jesus granted “salvation” in each case.

Yet with all the similarities there was one big difference between the blind man and Zacchaeus: the blind man was a beggar and Zacchaeus was very rich. Yet they both called to Jesus, and He answered their prayers and made them whole. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we are in life; Jesus is always there to hear our call and heal us at our deepest needs. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Blessings!

Luke 18:18-34

Dear RTB’ers,

Jesus speaking: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that have been written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be ridiculed, and abused, and spit upon, and after they have flogged Him, they will kill Him; and on the third day He will rise.” (Luke 18:31b-33) Jesus had already predicted His death and resurrection earlier in Luke and (from The Chronological Study Bible) in Matthew and Mark, as well (Luke 9:22-27; Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32). The Chronological Study Bible also has this prediction following Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead. I would think that, having heard it so many times and now seeing Lazarus’ resurrection, that the twelve would have had more understanding. Yet verse 34 says that …they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. My guess is that inwardly they were denying His death and accordingly could not fathom His resurrection to any comprehensible degree. Even today many people would accept that Jesus was crucified and died, but are unwilling to accept the compelling evidence that He rose from the dead. Today it’s a matter of faith (or lack thereof); presumably it was the same back in the 1^st century.

Jesus pinpoints details about His death in today’s reading much more than He had in His prior death prediction from Luke 9:22-27. The accuracy of His predictions strengthens the faith of believers, but also provides fodder for His antagonists to suggest that the Gospel writers wrote what they wanted well after the fact, so as to make Jesus’ words and those of the Old Testament prophets coincide with actual outcomes. Same comment I closed with in the first paragraph above – it’s a matter of faith (or lack thereof)!!

Blessings!

Luke 18:1-17

Dear RTB’ers,

And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? (Luke 18:7) War comes to mind. I’m sure that there are thousands of faithful Christians in Ukraine who pray daily and read this parable and ask God, “When will you act against these heathens?” Or Polish believers from 1939 and Belgian and Dutch and French believers from 1940 on, all having to wait (and suffer) more than five years to see the end of Hitler’s war? Will He delay long over them? I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not God. I know that He knows all things and that He is operating on His own timetable. Mostly I think that I’m a patient man, that I can wait it out through difficulties – not without frustration, but still waiting and asking the Lord what He has for me to learn. But when I see the suffering of the Ukrainians over this unjust war, I ask the Lord, “When will You act?” Or when I read of Muslim terrorism in Africa, I ask, “When. Lord…?” And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them?

Blessings!

Luke 17:20-37

Dear RTB’ers,

A few days ago I noted that one of Jesus’ messages was, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven [or God] is at hand.” Apparently He has spoken these words enough that now even the Pharisees are asking Him about it: Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them… (Luke 17:20) So are these Pharisees challenging Him or seeking to know more? A good question… Either way, He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:21) In the book, Heaven, the author, Randy Alcorn, argues extensively that we are living in Heaven, that our Earth – in a glorified state – is the future Heaven. So when Jesus says that the kingdom of God is in the midst of you, He could be speaking specifically of “Heaven on Earth”. That is, His words could be taken both literally (a physical Earth) and figuratively (spiritually, within each of us). Also, He may have meant Himself, that He represented or that He was the Kingdom and they missed it, or He may have meant that He had established the Kingdom with His coming and they did not see that either. A lot of ways we can take Jesus’ words…

Jesus’ return… “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But firs He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” (Luke 17:24-25) Clearly the disciples must have been confused with this language because He had not yet departed. Jesus had spoken often of His coming death, but it seems that this talk of His death was never really clear to the disciples. So talk of a second coming was even less clear to them. However, to those of us on “this side of History”, Jesus’ further words are crystal clear! Don’t worry about the future, about Jesus’ second coming, just be ready for it whenever it comes! It’s always an interesting discussion to talk about the rapture, the notion that “…one will be taken, the other left” (Luke 17:35b) – the idea that one of us could be walking with a non-Christian friend and all of a sudden, we’re gone! Or horror of horrors, that we’re walking with a friend and all of a sudden, THEY’RE GONE and we’re left behind!! As I said above, just be ready. “But concerning that day and hour no one knows…” (Matthew 24:36a)

Blessings!

Luke 17:1-19

Dear RTB’ers,

And [Jesus] said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19) Jesus spoke these words to the Samaritan leper who had been cleansed. It had been faith in Jesus’ ability to heal him that had made him well: And as they were going, they were cleansed. (v. 14c) But notice – Jesus did not heal the ten “on the spot”. He only instructed them to Go and show yourselves to the priests. (v. 14b) All ten of them did as Jesus asked and were healed on the way. Presumably the nine continued on their journey to the priests, as instructed, to show themselves cleansed. Only the Samaritan returned. But were the nine wrong in not returning to Jesus? After their cleansing, unlike the Samaritan they continued to follow His instructions.

So, were the nine wrong in not returning to Jesus? They did what Jesus asked them to do. We don’t know if they continued on their journey to the priests, or if later they found Jesus and thanked Him, or they just rejoiced when they were found clean and continued on their merry way. I’d suggest that if they had continued on their way to the priests, then they had done what Jesus asked. But if they had gone that far, then the afterthought in their minds surely had to be thanking God for their healing. But clearly, as in the “Martha and Mary” story, the Samaritan had “chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from him.” (John 10:42b, slightly edited)

Blessings!

Luke 16:14-31

Dear RTB’ers,

Today, the rich man and Lazarus. My Study Bible had an interesting comment on this “rich man and Lazarus” passage. That comment begins, “If this is a parable…”. I had always read or heard this passage as a parable, but there is no indication in Luke that Jesus is speaking a parable. That is, He could be speaking reality. One interesting item that could point to this story being reality is that one of the characters, Lazarus, is given a name. There is no other character in Jesus’ parables who is given a name (again, credit to my Study Bible for that item). As a parable, the story is certainly noteworthy. But what if it is reality? What if Jesus is giving us information about our afterlife: Abraham’s bosom and Hades (vv. 22, 23); the rich man’s being in torment (v. 23) and anguish in this flame (v. 24b); …a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us. (v. 26) We are blessed to live on this side of the Resurrection: He said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (v. 31) We know of Someone Who has risen from the dead, never to die again, living as our forever intercessor before His Father. Take that thought with you today. Let Jesus’ Resurrection change you again, today.

Blessings!

Luke 16:1-13

Dear RTB’ers,

I’ve often said that Luke is my favorite gospel. Part of that is his historical bent and his desire to “get it right” (Luke 1:1-4). But I’m sure it’s also because of his focus on money and his concern for the poor and my own life as an economist. Today’s readings are at the top of the list in Luke’s covering of money and our relationship to God.

Jesus’ parable of the dishonest manager has always been confusing to me. In my 2019 comments on this passage I talked about credit card debt, how credit card companies are willing to negotiate with someone who has a great deal of their debt – often much of it from interest charges. The companies are willing to forgive the interest if they can get back the original debt. That’s how this parable makes sense to me, that the dishonest manager may have overcharged the debtors when the original purchase was made. (Credit to my Study Bible for deeper insight on this item.) But I think that sometimes the details of the parables are less important than “the moral of the story”. However, even Jesus summary statement on this parable (v. 9) is confusing to me.

The second part of today’s passage is more straightforward. “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?” (vv. 10-11) Right away, paying taxes as that “very little” comes to mind for me. I’ve always tried to be as honest as possible in preparing our family taxes – but I’ve also tried to get back as much as possible, subject to that integrity item. But I hear of and know of others who “hide money” or inflate deductions or whatever, with a quick dismissal of (their perception of) the government wasting their hard-earned dollars. I’m sure you all have other perspectives on what might be unrighteous wealth in our world today. Here, Jesus’ summary statement makes complete sense, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (v. 13)

Blessings!