DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR FRIDAY JANUARY 12:
WORD OF WISDOM
If swimming is good for your shape then why do the whales look the way
they do?
DAILY DEVOTION
Putting Truth into Practice
"If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can
withhold himself from speaking? Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou
hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was
falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. But now it is come
upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled."
Job 4:2-5
When God allowed Satan to take away everything Job had, three friends came
to commiserate with Job. They proved to be poor comforters because they did
not understand the real reason for what was going on. Instead, they accused
Job of harboring secret sins and somehow bringing his misfortune upon
himself. Interestingly, however, Job's friend Eliphaz began his condemnation
with words of praise. The description he provided of Job's life is one that
any of us would be pleased to have said of our lives. He described how Job
had been a help and source of comfort to many who had suffered greatly.
Yet, Eliphaz followed these words by insisting that in the moment of crisis,
Job was failing the test he had encouraged others to pass. Now we know from
the Bible account what was actually happening, and that Job's faith in God
did not waver. He said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I
will maintain mine own ways before him" (Job 13:15). All of us face moments
when the things we have believed and taught and shared with others are
tested. It is in those moments that the reality of our belief is revealed.
Given a choice, we would not select great tragedy for our lives or for those
we love. However, God is at work in every situation, whether we can see His
hand or not. Our responsibility is to maintain our faith and put into
practice in our lives the truths we have believed and shared with others.
It is in the moments when our faith is tested most that we can truly assess
its worth.
___
DAILY BIBLE READING
Genesis 34-36The Message (MSG)
34 1-4 One day Dinah, the daughter Leah had given Jacob, went to visit some
of the women in that country. Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was
chieftain there, saw her and raped her. Then he felt a strong attraction to
Dinah, Jacob's daughter, fell in love with her, and wooed her. Shechem went
to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl for my wife."
5-7 Jacob heard that Shechem had raped his daughter Dinah, but his sons were
out in the fields with the livestock so he didn't say anything until they
got home. Hamor, Shechem's father, went to Jacob to work out marriage
arrangements. Meanwhile Jacob's sons on their way back from the fields heard
what had happened. They were outraged, explosive with anger. Shechem's rape
of Jacob's daughter was intolerable in Israel and not to be put up with.
8-10 Hamor spoke with Jacob and his sons, "My son Shechem is head over heels
in love with your daughter-give her to him as his wife. Intermarry with us.
Give your daughters to us and we'll give our daughters to you. Live together
with us as one family. Settle down among us and make yourselves at home.
Prosper among us."
11-12 Shechem then spoke for himself, addressing Dinah's father and
brothers: "Please, say yes. I'll pay anything. Set the bridal price as high
as you will-the sky's the limit! Only give me this girl for my wife."
13-17 Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father with cunning. Their
sister, after all, had been raped. They said, "This is impossible. We could
never give our sister to a man who was uncircumcised. Why, we'd be
disgraced. The only condition on which we can talk business is if all your
men become circumcised like us. Then we will freely exchange daughters in
marriage and make ourselves at home among you and become one big, happy
family. But if this is not an acceptable condition, we will take our sister
and leave."
18 That seemed fair enough to Hamor and his son Shechem.
19 The young man was so smitten with Jacob's daughter that he proceeded to
do what had been asked. He was also the most admired son in his father's
family.
20-23 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the public square and spoke to
the town council: "These men like us; they are our friends. Let them settle
down here and make themselves at home; there's plenty of room in the country
for them. And, just think, we can even exchange our daughters in marriage.
But these men will only accept our invitation to live with us and become one
big family on one condition, that all our males become circumcised just as
they themselves are. This is a very good deal for us-these people are very
wealthy with great herds of livestock and we're going to get our hands on
it. So let's do what they ask and have them settle down with us."
24 Everyone who was anyone in the city agreed with Hamor and his son,
Shechem; every male was circumcised.
25-29 Three days after the circumcision, while all the men were still very
sore, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each with his
sword in hand, walked into the city as if they owned the place and murdered
every man there. They also killed Hamor and his son Shechem, rescued Dinah
from Shechem's house, and left. When the rest of Jacob's sons came on the
scene of slaughter, they looted the entire city in retaliation for Dinah's
rape. Flocks, herds, donkeys, belongings-everything, whether in the city or
the fields-they took. And then they took all the wives and children captive
and ransacked their homes for anything valuable.
30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You've made my name stink to high heaven
among the people here, these Canaanites and Perizzites. If they decided to
gang up on us and attack, as few as we are we wouldn't stand a chance;
they'd wipe me and my people right off the map."
31 They said, "Nobody is going to treat our sister like a whore and get by
with it."
35 God spoke to Jacob: "Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to
the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from
your brother Esau."
2-3 Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, "Throw out all
the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes,
we're going to Bethel. I'm going to build an altar there to the God who
answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I've gone
since."
4-5 They turned over to Jacob all the alien gods they'd been holding on to,
along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree
in Shechem. Then they set out. A paralyzing fear descended on all the
surrounding villages so that they were unable to pursue the sons of Jacob.
6-7 Jacob and his company arrived at Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of
Canaan. He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel (God-of-Bethel)
because that's where God revealed himself to him when he was running from
his brother.
8 And that's when Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried just below
Bethel under the oak tree. It was named Allon-Bacuth (Weeping-Oak).
9-10 God revealed himself once again to Jacob, after he had come back from
Paddan Aram and blessed him: "Your name is Jacob (Heel); but that's your
name no longer. From now on your name is Israel (God-Wrestler)."
11-12 God continued,
I am The Strong God.
Have children! Flourish!
A nation-a whole company of nations!-
will come from you.
Kings will come from your loins;
the land I gave Abraham and Isaac
I now give to you,
and pass it on to your descendants.
13 And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with
him.
14-15 Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him.
He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. Jacob dedicated
the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God's-House).
16-17 They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when
Rachel went into labor-hard, hard labor. When her labor pains were at their
worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid-you have another boy."
18 With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni
(Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune).
19-20 Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, "Rachel's
Grave Stone."
21-22 Israel kept on his way and set up camp at Migdal Eder. While Israel
was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with his father's
concubine, Bilhah. And Israel heard of what he did.
22-26 There were twelve sons of Jacob.
The sons by Leah:
Reuben, Jacob's firstborn
Simeon
Levi
Judah
Issachar
Zebulun.
The sons by Rachel:
Joseph
Benjamin.
The sons by Bilhah, Rachel's maid:
Dan
Naphtali.
The sons by Zilpah, Leah's maid:
Gad
Asher.
These were Jacob's sons, born to him in Paddan Aram.
27-29 Finally, Jacob made it back home to his father Isaac at Mamre in
Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived. Isaac
was now 180 years old. Isaac breathed his last and died-an old man full of
years. He was buried with his family by his sons Esau and Jacob.
36 This is the family tree of Esau, who is also called Edom.
2-3 Esau married women of Canaan: Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite;
Oholibamah, daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and
Basemath, daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
4 Adah gave Esau Eliphaz;
Basemath had Reuel;
5 Oholibamah had Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
6-8 Esau gathered up his wives, sons and daughters, and everybody in his
household, along with all his livestock-all the animals and possessions he
had gotten in Canaan-and moved a considerable distance away from his brother
Jacob. The brothers had too many possessions to live together in the same
place; the land couldn't support their combined herds of livestock. So Esau
ended up settling in the hill country of Seir (Esau and Edom are the same).
9-10 So this is the family tree of Esau, ancestor of the people of Edom, in
the hill country of Seir. The names of Esau's sons:
Eliphaz, son of Esau's wife Adah;
Reuel, son of Esau's wife Basemath.
11-12 The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. (Eliphaz
also had a concubine Timna, who had Amalek.) These are the grandsons of
Esau's wife Adah.
13 And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and
Mizzah-grandsons of Esau's wife Basemath.
14 These are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah the son of
Zibeon. She gave Esau his sons Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
15-16 These are the chieftains in Esau's family tree. From the sons of
Eliphaz, Esau's firstborn, came the chieftains Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,
Korah, Gatam, and Amalek-the chieftains of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; all
of them sons of Adah.
17 From the sons of Esau's son Reuel came the chieftains Nahath, Zerah,
Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the chieftains of Reuel in the land of Edom;
all these were sons of Esau's wife Basemath.
18 These are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: the chieftains Jeush,
Jalam, and Korah-chieftains born of Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of
Anah.
19 These are the sons of Esau, that is, Edom, and these are their
chieftains.
20-21 This is the family tree of Seir the Horite, who were native to that
land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the
chieftains of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom.
22 The sons of Lotan were Hori and Homam; Lotan's sister was Timna.
23 The sons of Shobal were Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
24 The sons of Zibeon were Aiah and Anah-this is the same Anah who found the
hot springs in the wilderness while herding his father Zibeon's donkeys.
25 The children of Anah were Dishon and his daughter Oholibamah.
26 The sons of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.
27 The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.
28 The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
29-30 And these were the Horite chieftains: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan-the Horite chieftains clan by clan in the land of
Seir.
31-39 And these are the kings who ruled in Edom before there was a king in
Israel: Bela son of Beor was the king of Edom; the name of his city was
Dinhabah. When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah became the next
king. When Jobab died, he was followed by Hushan from the land of the
Temanites. When Hushan died, he was followed by Hadad son of Bedad; he was
the king who defeated the Midianites in Moab; the name of his city was
Avith. When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah became the next king. When Samlah
died, Shaul from Rehoboth-on-the-River became king. When Shaul died, he was
followed by Baal-Hanan son of Acbor. When Baal-Hanan son of Acbor died,
Hadad became king; the name of his city was Pau; his wife's name was
Mehetabel daughter of Matred, daughter of Me-Zahab.
40-43 And these are the chieftains from the line of Esau, clan by clan,
region by region: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz,
Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Iram-the chieftains of Edom as they occupied
their various regions.
This accounts for the family tree of Esau, ancestor of all Edomites.
