Malcom: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 92
soon after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to
Labin, please release me so I can go home to my own country.
Let me take my wives and children for I have earned them by serving
you and let me be on my way.
You certainly know how hard I have worked for you.
Please listen to me LA and replied, I have become wealthy for the Lord
has blessed me because of you.
Tell me how much I owe you.
Whatever it is, I'll pay it.
Jacob replied, you know how hard I've worked for you and how your flocks
and herds have grown under my care.
You had little indeed before I came, but your wealth has increased enormously.
The Lord has blessed you through everything I've
done, but now what about me?
When can I start providing for my own family?
What wages do you want Le been asked again.
Jacob replied, don't give me anything.
Just do this one thing and I'll continue to tend and watch over your flocks.
Let me inspect your flocks today and remove all the sheep and
goats that are speckled or spotted along with all the black sheep.
Give these to me as my wages in the future.
When you check on the animals you have given me as my wages, you'll
see that I have been honest.
If you find in my flock any goats without speckles or spots or any sheep
that are not black, you will know that I have stolen them from you.
All right.
Laben replied, it will be, as you say, but that very day, Laben went out
and removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted all the female goats
that were speckled and spotted or had white patches and all the black sheep.
He placed them the care of his own sons who took them a three
days journey from where Jacob was.
Meanwhile, Jacob stayed and cared for the rest of layman's flock.
Then Jacob took some fresh branches from poplar almond and plain trees
and peeled off strips of bark, making white streaks on them.
Then he placed these peeled branches and the watering troughs where
the flocks came to drink for.
That was where they M it, and when they made it in front of the white streaked
branches, they gave birth to young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
Jacob separated those lambs from Laban's flock, and at mating time,
he turned the flock to face laban's animals that were streaked or black.
This is how he built his own flock.
Instead of increasing laban's, whenever the stronger females were ready to mate,
Jacob would place the peeled branches and the watering troughs in front of them.
Then they would mate in front of the branches, but he didn't
do this with the weaker ones.
So the weaker lambs belonged to labin, and the stronger ones were Jacobs.
As a result, Jacob became very wealthy with large flocks of sheep
and goats, female and male servants, and many camels and donkeys.
But Jacob soon learned that Laban's sons were grumbling about him.
Jacob has robbed our father of everything they said.
He has gained all his wealth at our father's expense, and
Jacob began to notice a change in layman's attitude toward him.
Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your father and
grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.
So Jacob called Rachel and Leah out to the field where he was watching his flock.
He said to them, I have noticed that your father's attitude toward me has changed,
but the God of my father has been with me.
You know how hard I have worked for your father, but he has cheated me,
changing my wages 10 times, but God has not allowed him to do me any harm.
For if he said the speckled animals will be your wages.
The whole flock began to produce speckled young, and when he changed
his mind and said, the striped animals will be your wages, then the
whole flock produced striped young.
In this way, God has taken your father's animals and given them to me.
One time during the mating season, I had a dream and saw that the male
goats mating with the females were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
Then in my dream, the angel of God said to me, Jacob, and I replied, yes, here I am.
The angel said, look up and you will see that only the streaked,
speckled and spotted males are mating with the females of your flock.
For I have seen how Laben has treated you.
I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, the place where you anointed the
pillar of stone and made your vow to me.
Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth.
Rachel and Leah responded, that's fine with us.
We won't inherit any of our father's wealth anyway.
He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women, and after he sold us, he
wasted the money you paid him for us.
All the wealth God has given you from our father legally
belongs to us and our children.
So go ahead and do whatever God has told you.
So Jacob put his wives and children on camels, and he drove all
his livestock in front of him.
He packed all the belongings he had acquired and Patton Arum and set
out for the land of Canaan where his father Isaac lived at the time.
They left Leman was some distance away, shearing his sheep.
Rachel stole her father's household idols and took them with her Jacob Outwitted
Laben, the Aian, for they set out secretly and never told Laben they were leaving.
So Jacob took all his possessions with him and crossed the Euphrates River
heading for the hill country of Gilead.
Three days later, Leman was told that Jacob had fled, so he gathered a group of
his relatives and sat out in hot pursuit.
He caught up with Jacob seven days later in the hill country of Gilead.
But the previous night, God had appeared to laben the Aramean in a
dream and told him, I'm warning you.
Leave Jacob alone.
Leban caught up with Jacob as he was camped in the hill country of Gilead, and
he set up his camp not far from Jacob's.
What do you mean by deceiving me like this?
Leban demanded, how dare you drag my daughters away like prisoners of war.
Why did you slip away secretly?
Why did you deceive me?
And why didn't you say you wanted to leave?
I would've given you a farewell feast with singing and music
accompanied by tambourines and harps.
Why didn't you let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren and tell them goodbye?
You have acted very foolishly.
I could destroy you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night
and warned me, leave Jacob alone.
I can understand your feeling that you must go and your intense
longing for your father's home, but why have you stolen my gods?
I rushed away because I was afraid Jacob answered.
I thought you would take your daughters from me by force, but as for your
gods, see if you can find them and let the person who has taken them die.
And if you find anything else that belongs to you, identify it before all these
relatives of ours and I will give it back.
But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the household idols.
Laben went first into Jacob's tent to search there, then into Leah's,
and then the tents of the two servant wives, but he found nothing.
Finally, he went into Rachel's tent, but Rachel had taken the household
idols and hidden them in her camel saddle, and now she was sitting on
them when Laben had thoroughly searched her tent without finding them, she
said to her father, please sir, forgive me if I don't get up for you.
I'm having my monthly period.
So Leban continued his search, but he could not find the household idols.
Then Jacob became very angry and he challenged Leban, what's my crime?
He demanded, what have I done wrong to make you chase after
me as though I were a criminal.
You have rummaged through everything I own.
Now show me what you found that belongs to you.
Set it out here in front of us before our relatives for all to see.
Let them judge between us.
For 20 years, I have been with you caring for your flocks, and all that time
your sheep and goats never miscarried.
And all those years I never used a single ram of yours for food, if anywhere,
attacked and killed by wild animals.
I never showed you the carcass and asked you to reduce the count of your flock.
No, I took the loss myself.
You made me pay for every stolen animal, whether it was taken in broad
daylight or in the dark of night.
I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day and
through cold and sleepless nights.
Yes.
For 20 years I slaved in your house.
I worked for 14 years earning your two daughters and then six more years for your
flock, and you changed my wages 10 times.
In fact, if the God of my father had not been on my side, the God of Abraham
and the fearsome God of Isaac, you would've sent me away empty handed.
But God has seen your abuse and my hard work.
That is why he appeared to you last night and rebuked you.
Then Leman replied to Jacob, these women are my daughters.
These children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks.
In fact, everything you see is mine.
But what can I do now about my daughters and their children?
So come, let's make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a
witness to our commitment.
So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument.
Then he told his family members gather some stones, so they gathered
stones and piled them in a heap.
Then Jacob and Leman sat down beside the pile of stones to eat a covenant
meal to commemorate the event.
Leman called the place jigger, say Haddah, which means witness pile in
Aramaic, and Jacob called it Gad, which means witness pile in Hebrew.
Then Leman declared This pile of stones will stand as a witness to remind us
of the covenant we have made today.
This explains why it was called Gad witness pile, but it was also called
mspa, which means watchtower for Leman.
Said may the Lord keep watch between us to make sure that we keep this covenant
when we are out of each other's sight.
If you mistreat my daughters or if you marry other wives, God will
see it even if no one else does.
He is a witness to this covenant between us.
See this pile of stones, Leben, continued and see this monument
I have set between us, they stand us as witnesses of our vows.
I will never pass this pile of stones to harm you, and you must never pass
these stones or this monument to harm me.
I call on the God of our ancestors, the God of your grandfather, Abraham,
and the God of my grandfather hor to serve as a judge between us.
So Jacob took an oath before the fearsome God of his father, Isaac,
to respect the boundary line.
Then Jacob offered a sacrifice to God there on the mountain and invited everyone
to a covenant feast after they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.
Leman got up early the next morning and he kissed his grandchildren
and his daughters and blessed them.
Then he left and returned home.
As Jacob started on his way again, angels of God came to meet him.
When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed.
This is God's camp, so he named the place Mehanna.
Then Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau, who was living in
the region of Seer in the land of Edam.
He told them, give this message to my master, Esau, humble
greetings from your servant Jacob.
Until now, I've been living with Uncle Leban and now I own cattle,
donkeys, flocks of sheep and goats, and many servants, both men and women.
I have sent these messengers to inform my Lord of my coming, hoping
that you will be friendly to me After delivering the message, the messengers
returned to Jacob and reported.
We met your brother Esau, and he is already on his way to meet
you with an army of 400 men.
Jacob was terrified at the news.
He divided his household along with the flocks and herds
and camels into two groups.
He thought if Esau meets one group and attacks it, perhaps
the other group can escape.
Then Jacob prayed, oh God, of my grandfather Abraham,
and God of my father, Isaac.
Oh Lord, you told me return to your own land and to your relatives, and you
promised me I will treat you kindly.
I am not worthy of all the unveiling love and faithfulness
you have shown to me, your servant.
When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned
nothing except a walking stick.
Now my household fills two large camps.
Oh Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother Esau.
I am afraid that he is coming to attack me along with my wives and children,
but you promised me I will surely treat you kindly and I will multiply
your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore.
Too many to count.
Jacob stayed where he was for the night.
Then he selected these gifts from his possessions to
present to his brother Esau.
200 female goats, 20 male goats 200 years, 20 rams, 30 female camels with
their young 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.
He divided these animals into herds and assigned each two different servants.
Then he told his servants, go ahead of me with the animals, but keep
some distance between the herds.
He gave these instructions to the men leading the first group.
When my brother Esau meets you, he will ask, whose servants are you?
Where are you going?
Who owns these animals?
You must reply.
They belong to your servant Jacob, but they are a gift for his master Esau.
Look, he is coming right behind us.
Jacob gave the same instructions to the second and third herdsman and to
all who followed behind the herds.
You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.
And be sure to say, look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.
Jacob thought, I will try to appease him by sending gifts ahead
of me when I see him in person.
Perhaps he will be friendly to me.
So the gifts were sent on ahead while Jacob himself
spent that night in the camp.
This concludes today's Immer reading experience.
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