Daily Devotions
Genesis
"Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, Yet Your commandments are my delights." Psalm 119:143
Text: Genesis 35:1-29
THE GRACIOUS BLESSINGS OF GOD
The Lord had blessed Jacob as He had promised. Let us take time to review what He had promised him on the way to Padan Aram (Cf. Genesis 28:13-15)
1. Presence
To allay Jacob’s fears, the Lord promised that He would be with him everywhere he went.
2. Provision
The Lord would provide all his needs. There would be no cause for Jacob to worry at all.
3. Protection
God also promised that He would protect him from all harm and danger! Jacob may proceed to Padan Aram without any fear at all.
4. Progeny
The Lord promised that Jacob would have many descendants. Jacob would be fruitful and multiply!
5. Promised Land
The land of Canaan was promised to Abraham. The Lord confirmed this promise to Isaac. Jacob also heard a definite word of promise from the Lord that he would inherit the land!
Jacob should have been one of the happiest people in the world, except for the fact that some of his sons turned out rather poorly. Simeon and Levi led the massacre of the men of Shechem. Now Reuben dishonoured his father by having an affair with Bilhah, his father’s concubine! The review of the sons of Jacob (Genesis 35:22-26) was recorded with a tinge of sadness!
THE DEATH OF ISAAC
Was Isaac alive while Jacob was moving from one place to another? The Scriptures indicate that Isaac had survived all these years! However, he played a very marginal role (if at all) in his old age. He lived long enough to know that his two sons were reconciled. He lived to see Jacob’s children too! The Lord had blessed him well!
“Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba
(that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt. Now
the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. So Isaac
breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being
old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”
GENESIS 35:27-29