Reading the Map: Lessons in Genesis (Volume III)

God has a way to teaching us in life that is tailored to our need. The experiences of our days are not happenstance, but part of a vast plan of a purposed God. In these lessons we follow the continuing story of the generations of the family of Abraham and Sarah that follows the lives of Isaac, Jacob and Esau - along with their wives and extended families. It is clear in the opening lessons that the pattern of deception and struggle of faith that was exhibited in the life of Abraham was passed to his son. Isaac found it hard to consistently follow God.

Yet, it seems fair to suggest that no one in Genesis seems as indelibly associated with deception as the man who was named "trickster" at his birth - Jacob (Ya'acov). In many ways, in his early life he demonstrated well that he believed that trickery in the service of self was no vice. If he was more clever than his dumb and dirty outdoorsy brother, that was Esau's problem. Then it progressed as he grew older....If he was slicker than his sick dad could catch - no matter. It wasn't until his father died and his brother threatened, that Jacob left home and met God. He fell asleep on the journey, and saw the connection of Heaven and earth in a vision of a stairway that came down from above. He recognized that life was bigger than he ever saw before, and rose a different man. God led him, prospered him... and even called him to return to his estranged and wounded brother. Their parting was bitter, but Jacob didn't return the same man he was when he departed - and that made all the difference.