Faithbase

If you'll remember, in the Garden of Eden, before the sin entered the world, God's presence was everywhere in the Garden of Eden. That meant that Adam and Eve could be with God at all times. His presence was freely about in the Garden of Eden. After sin entered the world, a separation occurred. God could no longer exist with mankind, because in our sinful, fallen, natural state, His holiness is so brilliant, just as a human would evaporate before they even came close to the surface of the sun, so it is with God. He is so holy that we would be incinerated before we could even come near Him, as long as we are in our fallen, natural state. So what did God do? He could no longer dwell with His people. So He spoke to Abraham and told him, I am going to choose you, because you believe in Me, because you're listening to Me. I can speak with you, I can reveal Myself to you, in order that you can teach your children, and their children will teach their children, and so on and so forth, until you will become a nation for Me. I will not be able to be among all people freely, however, I will teach you how one person, a priest, can do all of this stuff in order to be near Me, and I can communicate with that priest, who then disseminates My messages to the rest of the nation. This will inform the nation, their culture, how they live, so that they will be representatives of Me in the world. Other nations of polytheistic cultures will look at the nation of Israel, they will see the one true God, they will see His miracles, they will learn of His ways, all through this one nation of people. God revealed Himself to Abraham, Abraham's son was Isaac, Isaac then has twin boys, Esau and Jacob, as we saw yesterday. As Isaac is going to give his blessing to his son, his heir, the older son Esau, who was supposed to inherit, was out hunting. The younger brother Jacob, who you'll, if you'll remember from yesterday, his name means heel grabber or manipulator. Jacob and his mother conspire to trick Isaac into blessing Jacob, giving him the title, the money, everything needed to rule, so that it would be Jacob's line that would become the nation in which God would bless. Why is this important? Because it shows that God can choose and work even through our biggest mistakes. God had a plan to use Jacob, though he was the younger brother from the very beginning. However, Jacob took matters into his own hands, not unlike his grandmother, Sarah, who also took matters into her hands when she could not conceive. Jacob then has to run. His mother, Rebecca, says, you need to run. Your brother Esau is going to try to kill you. Go and stay with my brother Laban in Haran until it is safe, and I will let you know. On the way, Jacob falls asleep, and God reveals himself in a dream to Jacob. He reminds Jacob, or possibly informs him for the first time, of the promises that he made with Abraham, saying that your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth. You shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the west. In you and your offspring shall all families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I will be with you and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. God promises Jacob at some point he will be able to bless him. However, the situation that Jacob finds himself in by making mistakes and taking matters into his own hands are going to make his journey to where God needs him to be a little bit longer than I anticipate God intended. That's where we will pick up tomorrow. 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57