Freedom For Today

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 37 before reading the devotional below.

If you find yourself humming Broadway tunes when you read this chapter, you know you’ve gotten to the part in the Bible where Joseph gets his amazing technicolor dreamcoat. (I’m singing “Jacob and Sons” right now…) Broadway isn’t known for getting all the biblical details right, so let’s lean in to what the Bible actually tells us about Jacob, Joseph, and the whole family of Israel.

We see some serious sibling rivalry in this chapter, and Joseph doesn’t make it any better by being presumptuous and arrogant. Sometimes even when you get a word or dream from God you should keep it to yourself. Even his father thought he was being a bit brash to tell everyone that his father and brothers would bow to him someday — although it was true. Joseph is sold into slavery and this story is the perfect example of how earthly circumstances cannot always show us what God is doing.

Here’s your freedom for today:

God has a plan for your life and will see it to completion.

God gave Joseph a dream of power and royalty. That was absolutely where God was taking him. But when his brothers sell him to slave traders he might have felt that God’s plan was getting disrupted. Quite the opposite! God’s plan was just beginning. Joseph would never have been in a position of royalty had he not be sold by his brothers. We can’t assume when things fall apart that God stopped working or his plan is thrown off course. If you’ve given your life to God, you can trust that he is leading you and will bring you exactly where you need to go. He’ll even use your weakness and mistakes to get you there.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 36 before reading the devotional below.

Today’s chapter might seem like one of those boring lists of names again, but right from the start I’m fascinated to connect some dots I never put together before. The descendents of Esau are known as the Edomites, which in all my years of Bible reading I had never noticed. It’s amazing how many details I catch having to write these devotionals instead of my eyes skimming the verses. If you want to read more about the Edomites, here’s a link of other places they show up in the Bible. (Spoiler alert: they become enemies of Israel.)

We can see from today’s chapter where Esau and his descendants started going wrong. He married Canaanite women. Recall from Genesis 28:6-9 that Esau was well aware his father did not approve of marrying Canaanite women because they worshiped false gods. Jacob has just rid his entire household of these idols. Esau had already married descendents of Ishmael, and he adds to his clan by marrying two Canaanites. In Jeremiah 9:25-26, God calls the Edomites a “pagan nation” who may be circumsized outwardly (as they would likely be since they were Abraham’s descendents) but had strayed far from the heart of God.

Here’s your freedom for today:

Freedom is found when your insides match your outsides.

God really hates hypocrites. And if you think that he’s somehow satisfied by a fleshly circumsicion, then you don’t know the God of the Bible very well. He wants your outsides to reflect what’s going on inside your heart. He’s not one for show and all his outward laws and systems were really all about heart. It’s like he’s saying, “Show me that your heart is for me by performing this symbolic act,” rather than, “You’re all set if you just pay the right physical price.” God’s not running a club that you can bribe to get into. It’s free already so bribery doesn’t make any sense. He’s looking for hearts that are seeking him. Everything else follows. Esau strayed from that and his descendents became like all the other pagans — they didn’t know the heart of God at all.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 35 before reading the devotional below.

God is leading Jacob directly, telling him to move to a new place. Jacob wants to rid his family of all false idols and gods because he’s feeling pretty relieved at the way God answered his prayers when he returned to Esau. He settles in Bethel (also called Luz) in the region of Canaan, which is the land God promised to Abraham. This Promised Land will have to be fought for again several generations later after the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt. We’ll get to that part of the story as we keep reading. In this chapter we see that God renames Jacob, “Israel.”

In today’s chapter there are a lot of monuments and altars built. Jacob creates an altar to God, erects a stone pillar to mark the spot where God changed his name, and builds several burial sites. Often in the Bible the Israelites set up markers or stones to memorialize an event. They particularly want to remember what God has done, and many of these stories include the detail, “It can be seen there to this day.” These first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) are known as the Torah, and they contain very important historical information about the Jewish people. These stories, inspired by God to be written as they are, were verifiable with stone memorials around the region demonstrating the tangile realities of what God had done.

Here’s your freedom for today:

God’s blessings are worth memorializing.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to keep my memories written down in journals. I also remember dates and often think of important things that happened on specific dates in my life. I have at times kept a record of prayers I have prayed and a record of fulfillments of those prayers. When God moves in my life, I don’t want to forget it! I know my memory may gradually fade, but I want the stories of God’s work in my life to last. I want my children and grandchildren to hear the stories and even see them written down so that they know God was faithful to me. What ways might you memorialize God’s work in your life?

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 34 before reading the devotional below.

Trigger warning: today’s chapter has sensitive content about sexual assault. I write that knowing that so many women have experienced some kind of sexual assault and Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, is counted among that number. It’s difficult being a woman in a man’s world. It’s vulnerable, and it’s sometimes unsafe.

I’m thankful for Dinah’s brothers in this story, who first and foremost believed her. That’s huge in and of itself. But they also sought revenge. Whether or not this story is an example of what to do, it makes me glad that her brothers tricked her rapist and destroyed the town on their sister’s behalf. It does seem they went too far as they took the women and children of that town as prisoners. Once again, the life of a woman in a man’s world. Jacob isn’t happy about the whole situation, but he’s mainly worried about survival. Aren’t we all.

Here’s your freedom for today:

In God’s kingdom, everyone is safe.

What happened to Dinah is not okay, and if you’ve been sexually assaulted I want you to know I believe you and I am so sorry that happened to you. I don’t know whether anyone has fought for you the way Dinah’s brothers fought for her, but I do know that in God’s kingdom men and women alike are safe. Evil is going to be gone someday in God’s new heaven and new earth. You can read more about it in Revelation 21 and 22. As a counselor, I can’t wait to be out of a job because all the problems are over. Until then, let’s all be safe spaces for each other as we sit in tiny glimpses of heaven.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 33 before reading the devotional below.

Reading today’s chapter, I’m really surprised I have not heard more sermons about Esau. We often hear about Jesus’ story of the prodigal son, whose father welcomed him back with open arms after the son treats him badly. But Esau is perhaps one of the most powerful stories of forgiveness in the Bible. We’ll see another one soon when we read about one of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, who is probably about 3-5 years old in today’s story. Perhaps watching his Uncle Esau forgive his father was one of Joseph’s earliest memories. Imagine the influence that might have had in his life, and in the entire history of Israel!

Esau had every right to be angry with Jacob, and he certainly would have been well within his rights to at least bring up the offenses between the two of them. Jacob’s apprehension is a sign that it would have been reasonable for Esau not to welcome him back. Verse 4 describes a moving scene: “Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.” That’s not the behavior of a man who has hung on to bitterness over being wronged.

Here’s your freedom for today:

Forgiveness always sets you free.

Reconciliation, which we see in this story, is possible when both parties are willing to lay aside old ways and start over. That’s not always the case in situations where harm has occurred. However, forgiveness is always possible and it’s a key to freedom. Even if Jacob had never returned to his homeland, Esau had found freedom in releasing anger and forgiving his brother. If he had not worked through those feelings of anger, it’s unlikely he would have been ready to embrace his brother and weep with him. Esau could have lived a life of bitterness, longing for the day he might get revenge if Jacob ever crossed his path again. He chose freedom. What do you need to release and forgive today?