The Story, chapter 1. Genesis chapter four. Adam through Noah.

 

Genesis 4

The offering of Cain and Abel

The bottom line, Cain, in a jealous rage, kills his brother Abel.

God has not turned his back on the man in a rage as we all expect, and so once again, God shows up. We do not know what that looked like. I understand as we make assumptions, and one we do not make very often is that even here, it is Jesus talking with Cain. If God’s character remains the same, then his actions should be consistent as well.

As I understand it, the Jewish basis of prophecy lies in repeated patterns. For something to dominate their mind as prophetic, it must have been repeated in scripture.

So do we find Jesus throughout the Old Testament?

At virtually every turn, He (Jesus) is there and is referred to on many occasions as the angel of the Lord, but why is that important? God made it very plain to Moses that man (in his broken state, could not look upon God), so if God could be looked upon in the future, why is it He can be seen by these fallen men?

We are looking for consistency.

Before the fall, humanity was the direct image of God, practically His shadow. A shadow can demonstrate the form but not the precise detail of the person, and I see no reason why Adam and Eve could not have continued to walk in a personal relationship with God.

At this point, some will tell you that they are hopelessly embroiled in sin, but you are ignoring that God himself slaughtered enough animals to make an instructed sacrifice, including the reasons why. The logic behind this is about to be covered, so keep reading. There is no reason to believe that this was not Jesus with them at this point, either. In other words, since Jesus was God, He may well have been here in the garden as well.

There are always repercussions for taking liberties

If I jump several thousand years ahead, to the point where Jesus has given his life for us, we come to the realization that the payment of death, demanded for the sin that we all inherited, is done away with.

My belief in Jesus Christ’s full payment on my behalf and acceptance of his sacrifice makes me free from the bondage of that death.

However, there are always repercussions for taking liberties, and that is what we see with Cain.

How does God handle this murder?

He shows Cain an amazing amount of mercy. Even before Cain murders his brother, God seeing his internal struggle with jealousy, has a talk with him.

Genesis 4:3-7 TLV  “So it happened after some time that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to Adonai,  (4)  while Abel—he also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. Now Adonai looked favorably upon Abel and his offering,  (5)  but upon Cain and his offering He did not look favorably. Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.  (6)  Then Adonai said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?  (7)  If you do well, it will lift. But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the doorway. Its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

There is much that happens in the background of these first four chapters, and they are not spelled out in scripture. Contrast this with God’s background activity in the life of Esther and Mordechai, and you will see what I mean. You could not ask these questions of your own sons if you had not made it clear what was expected of them. Since Adam had been deemed to have dominance over the earth, he was still the relaying body of information to his sons. Come on now, use some logic. God showed Adam how to make a sacrifice for sins, and Adam showed his sons.

Cain murders his brother Abel

^{Genesis 4:8-10 TLV  “Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.  (9)  Then Adonai said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” “I don’t know,” he said. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  (10)  Then He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.”}

Still, we anticipate God striking the man dead, but he does not. Abel is dead, and God approaches Cain once again, and like Adam, God asks, “Where is your brother Abel?” It is not a question of God not knowing. He knows exactly where Abel is. Perhaps he wants us to come clean, and that is more than likely what we are seeing come from the Apostle John when he writes:

If we say openly that we have done wrong, he is upright and true to his word, giving us forgiveness of sins and making us clean from all evil. (1 John 1:9 BBE)

However, Cain would not do that.

As I said before, there are repercussions for your actions.

The curse of Cain

^{Genesis 4:11-13 TLV  “So now, cursed are you from the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  (12)  As often as you work the ground, it will not yield its crops to you again. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”  (13)  Cain said to Adonai, “My iniquity is too great to bear!”}

This is where it gets a little weird, but again, there are no straightforward answers as to why Cain has an understanding that people would kill him unless he is aware that this level of activity is all ready going on out there. A filter that almost all of us apply is that we are looking at a tight chronological timeline that starts after sin in the garden. The problem with that thinking is that time began outside the garden and sin.

Once again, God shows mercy and love for those made in his image, and so He marks Cain in an effort to divert (these unexplainable, according to tradition) people from killing him.

While you might think that Cain’s lineage is over, however, through a couple of them, like Jubal, we have metal work, instruments of music, and Jabal, the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. While that may seem innocent enough, it is also the foundation for an evil, violent world that has no relationship with God.

The closest thing God has to his original creation is Adam and Eve, not that it matters now, for everything is broken, but there is a distinct difference, for it seems they are the only ones left that understand what it means to commune with God.

The birth of Seth

^{“Adam was intimate with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and she named him Seth, “For God has appointed me another seed in place of Abel—since Cain killed him.” To Seth, also was born a son. He named him Enosh. Then people began to call on Adonai’s Name.” (Genesis 4:25-26 TLV)}

Two things that jump out here, Adam and Eve have had another son, he becomes the lineage that brings about Jesus, and after Seth has his own son Enosh, men begin to call upon the LORD. You would think that at least three people might have been doing that already. This has huge implications because we have so much activity going on in the background, and apparently, none of these people have been acknowledging God.

If you look the name Enosh up, you might not think it unusual:

'ĕnôsh The same as H582; Enosh, a son of Seth: - Enos. However, pursue it further and it defines Enosh with a little more detail: properly a mortal (and thus differing from the more dignified 'âdâm ruddy, that is, a human being)

So Enosh marks a transition from God’s original creation, ADAM, to what is now defined as a mere mortal. This is another huge clue as to what is going on in the background.

A warning against worldliness. James 4:1-13.

We ended James chapter three with an admonition to walk in wisdom instead of letting our tongues destroy us, and those around us. This wisdom, as James states, is from above and looks like this when it shows up: it is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. If this body in Christ could have lived in this manner, there would be no need to address wars and quarreling within the body of Christ, but it is not just within the body of Christ, it is our everyday lives.

Writing to a mixed body of believers, primarily Jewish, James has a need to address the quarreling and bickering he has learned about. Eugene Peterson's Message says it best.

Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from?
Do you think they just happen? Think again.
They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves.
James 4:1 MSG 

Doesn't that seem odd that James would have to address their bickering as wars and quarrels?

He then says, in case you had not figured it out yet, these boisterous battles are happening because you want your own way, and you, from your gut, are willing to fight for what you want.

I want to show you the shameful version and then one that is less harsh.

You lust and do not have; so you commit murder.
You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have because you do not ask.
James 4:2 NASB

Almost all of us lust for what we do not have, but few of us commit murder to get it. What is going on here? Perhaps they have not come to murder as yet. Since the context of the verse has to do with envy and the inability to fulfill lusts, would God have us clamoring with Him, in an effort to get Him to satisfy our lusts? Surely, most of us, have at some point asked God to fulfill our desires. In my case, I got what I wanted. I later came to understand that my lust was not what I needed.

You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. James 4:2 GNB 

So if we have considered it, we have done it, right? Well, that is the picture Jesus painted when He said,

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:28 NIV 

I don't see these people asking for anything, I do though, see them bickering and demanding. Wars do not just happen on battlefields.

I might like to think that James just shifted the focus.

James 4:3 NASB You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Ah, there is the answer, they are asking God to satisfy their stupid cravings.

“You ask” is the Greek word aiteo and means to ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require.

“and do not receive,” Greek lambanō meaning to take in whatever manner.

James 4:2,3 from the Message Bible, tells us: “You lust for what you don't have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn't yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it. You wouldn't think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you'd be asking for what you have no right to. You're spoiled children, each wanting your own way.”

“because you ask with wrong motives,” Gk, kakos, kakos - sick, sore, amiss, diseased, evil, badly (physically or morally), wrongly.

“so” Gk, hina - in order

“that you may spend” Gk, dapanao - 1) to incur an expense, expend, spend; 2) in a bad sense: to waste, squander, consume

“it on your pleasures.” Gk, hedone - (to please); sensual delight; by implication desire: - lust, pleasure. This is the same word from which we derive hedonism; which is, the pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-indulgence. Synonyms: self-indulgence, pleasure-seeking, self-gratification. More it is the ethical theory that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life.

James 4:4 NASB You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

That seems harsh. Let's look at the Greek dictionary and see what they say.

moichalís; gen. moichalídos, fem. noun. An adulteress (Rom_7:3; 2Pe_2:14, "eyes full of adultery," meaning gazing with desire after such persons. See Sept.: Eze_16:38; Eze_23:45). Used figuratively to indicate one who is unfaithful toward God as an adulteress is unfaithful toward her husband (This can apply to wives as well.) In the Greek OT it is spoken mainly of those who forsook God for idols (Isa_57:3, Isa_57:7; Ezek. 16, 23; Hos_3:1). In the NT, the word is generally used of those who neglect God and their duty toward Him and yield themselves to their own lusts and passions (Mat_12:39; Mat_16:4; Mar_8:38.
In James_4:4 the word moichalís stands as a characteristic of infidelity, faithless, or idolatrous).

Having been cheated on by a wife, this passage takes on a depth that most will not understand. After my first wife had her first blatant infidelity I struggled to trust her words and actions. The relationship was never right, as we never truly communicated. Later, she told me that her dad had asked her, as she was walking down the aisle to give her “vows”, “do you really want to do this?” Is this not a picture of how many of us are with the Father?

And in Zechariah 1:14 NASB we can understand that God is “exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.” All this makes me think of Oprah Winfrey. She said, when she learned that God was jealous, she perceived that God was jealous of her, this understanding put them in conflict. She said she would not tolerate such a sick relationship and walked away from God. Consider that she is heavily involved in the plans for globalism and the New World Order, which includes the murder of babies under the guise of health issues.

Look at this verse once again.

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4 NASB

How quickly we turn our backs on God. I can't imagine anybody not having some longing. For me, it was a 24-foot inshore fishing boat. This then evokes some questions: Does God hate me for admiring the fishing boat? Is there anything I can do? Where does one get a camel hair coat so that they can look like John the Baptist?

Enemy, BTW, is echthros and means to hate; hateful (passively odious, or actively hostile); usually as a noun, an adversary.

Never stop until you get the full context, and that brings us to James 4:5.

James 4:5 Williams  Or, do you think that the Scripture means nothing when it says, "He jealously yearns for the Spirit that He causes to dwell in your hearts"?

There it is, He is madly passionate about that Spirit that He has caused to dwell in our hearts.

Why? That Spirit is a part of Him, no less than the Son is a part of Him. Genesis 2:7 tells us that God breathed His own spirit into the man; and in Zechariah 12:1 we learn that the Lord formed the spirit with us. No wonder God is jealous for us, for we too are a part of Him, which He lost through Adam's treason, and regained through Jesus Christ's actions on the cross. The only problem is that He gave us the choice to return to Him. We can voluntarily return to Him by receiving Him once again.

So here I am struggling to understand what God wants from me, knowing full well that I am messed up, although I seem to be getting better at following His voice and staying out of trouble. And He knows all that.

What does James 4:6 have to say about this? While most translations say, He gives more grace, look at how the CEV translation puts it.

James 4:6 CEV  In fact, God treats us with even greater kindness, just as the Scriptures say, "God opposes everyone who is proud, but he is kind to everyone who is humble."

Knowing that we are messed up, God treats us with greater kindness.

Notice how it says, “God opposes everyone who is proud, but he is kind to everyone who is humble.” Have you given much thought to what it means to be humble? My mother thought it meant to dress and rags, not wash much, and be proud of it. There is something horribly twisted in this logic; and, it has the idea of pride mixed, as though that whole John the Baptist look makes you Holy – it does not.

In trying to grasp this humble thing, I have learned that Moses was the most humble man on the earth; really? Yes, the baby in the grass basket maneuver, was surely humbling, but maybe, in his case, it was just too cute and therefore gained Moses access to Pharaoh's palace, where he had the finest education of his day. We fail to remember that Moses was nursed by his real mother until it became ridiculous. During that time she told him who he was. How and why he remembered any of that information is beyond belief. If anything, being raised in Pharaoh's court would have made him prideful; and, if you know the story, Moses, having learned what his true heritage was – hated sheep farmers who seemed to have God's calling upon their lives, rises up and slays an Egyptian man. In his pride, He thought that he would be, at least, one man's redeemer; but that did not work out so well and he had to flee for his life. For the next forty years, in the desert, he tends sheep – one of the most hated things in Egypt. The Pharaoh who wanted him dead is now dead himself, and so God sends Moses back to Egypt, with this message – Let my people go!

What then caused him to gain this humble status?

After becoming the leader of God's people, he was overwhelmed by the daily issues and threatened several times, one of those threats came from his own brother and sister. In the face of ugly situations, we find that Moses turned to God. This turning to God became a pattern for him, and it demonstrated that he knew where the power and answers truly lay.

So what does it mean when God opposes us?

From the Greek Antitassomai to range oneself against, that is, oppose: - oppose themselves, resist.

The first thing I want to look at is this idea of God setting himself in opposition.

The definition of oppose also includes the idea of being a counterbalance. So, while we may sit there scratching our heads, wondering why God is against us when we should be asking, what is God trying to teach me.

James 4:6, in the NASB, tells us that God gives more grace. Consider what we know so far.

• We are messed up, although many of us think we have got this living large stuff down pat.
• In spite of our being messed, and because we have accepted Christ into our lives, God has placed His Holy Spirit inside of us. If you only knew the treasure that lives inside of you. And, God is exceedingly jealous over that Spirit; that means He is jealous over you and will go out of His way to protect and cover you.
• And, as you can see from the NASB, that God, knowing who we are, just pours out more grace.

It is difficult to comprehend at times, but He loves us. The proof we have of that is that He was willing to allow His Son to experience the gore of the cross so that He could open the door for us, to come flooding back to Him.

In our efforts to be real, we can't ignore the negative side of James 4:6.

"GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."

Try searching for this sentence and you will only find it in two places, James 4:6 and 1Peter 5:5. I can assure you that James would not have quoted Peter's words. Everyone that references an Old Testament passage refers you to Proverbs 3:34. Because it makes more sense and holds to the context, I will show you the Good News Bible version. Besides that, none of them precisely match those words.

“He has no use for conceited people, but shows favor to those who are humble.“

One definition of the word conceited explains the word like this: “Entertaining a flattering opinion of one's self; having a vain or too high conception of one's own person or accomplishments.”

Just remember, everything in this world is at odds with God's ways and plans. Pursuing them will make you God's enemy.

Does this sound like a setup for failure?

It is not. God knows what became of us, that is why He sent His Son, and in so doing He poured out His grace upon all who would accept it. How can an assured hope of an eternity with the Father that loved you, be a failure?

In light of that grace, James tells us to,

“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (8) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:7-8 NASB

If you get involved with recovery, you learn quickly that bold, blatant, honesty brings about the most healing. No, don't go blabbing everything in front of strangers, but in time, you will have to spill your guts to a trusted person. This is the direction James goes next.

James 4:9-10 NLT  Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.  (10)  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

In other words, own the damage that you have done, even if it is idolatrous living. You know, that stuff you put before God. When you are done, (in recovery it is usually your sponsor who tells you when you can graduate,) humble yourself before the Lord.

What did we learn from Moses?

To throw everything before God. He has grace waiting there for you.

Lastly, knock off the judging. You are certainly no better than anyone else. This is an important message that the world currently is refusing to hear.

Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters.
If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law.
But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.
God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge.
He alone has the power to save or to destroy.
So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?
(James 4:11-12 NLT)

What about Jacob? Or, can a man find healing in a woman? Part two.

This entire blog was spawned from a sermon entitled, What about Jacob? Or, can a man find healing in a woman? To make this brief, I did not understand, nor was I able to track with what the pastor said, as he tried to prove his point about Jacob. Sorry, I can't really see it but I am enjoying the study, as usual. 

As we finished part one of our look at Jacob, the grand deception was completed. Do you think Rebekah and Jacob gleefully danced around the campfire that night as they celebrated how well they pulled it off? Hardly, for Esau, as you will see, has every intention of killing Jacob once Isaac is dead.

Also, notice how there is little concern on the part of Esau for how this will affect his mother. And, all this evokes another question, is it possible for Esau to regain his birthright? I don't think so, at least not in God's eyes. 

Cheating not only Esau but your father, you would think that Jacob would be gone already, but only minutes from now Issac calls Jacob before him and commands him to not a wife from the same cluster of women that Esau had chosen from. Isaac directs Jacob to Laban, Rebekah's brother. Maybe, Isaac knows full well what kind of man Laban can be considering the backhanded maneuver Rebekah has just pulled on Isaac.

With that said, let's continue on.

I mentioned in the previous post, that Esau did not take this selling of the birthright serious. If he had

• Wouldn't it seem logical to say something to Isaac?
• Wouldn't Isaac have known? 
• Why would Esau bother to respond Isaac as though there was not a problem?

“As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.” Jacob logically only has seconds to get out of Esau's presence, and, his fathers.

Genesis 27:30-37 ESV As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me." His father Isaac said to him, "Who are you?" He answered, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau." Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, "Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed." As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, O my father!" But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing." Esau said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." Then he said, "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?" Isaac answered and said to Esau, "Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?"

The deception is pulled off, and now you would think that Jacob has to flee, an exile. And Esau is the reason.

Genesis 27:38-41 NASB Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father." So Esau lifted his voice and wept. 39) Then, Isaac, his father answered and said to him, "Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven from above. 40) "By your sword, you shall live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall come about when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck." 41) So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

So Rebekah calls Jacob in once again.

Genesis 27:42-45 NASB Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, "Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you. 43) "Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban! 44) "Stay with him a few days, until your brother's fury subsides, 45) until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?"

But Jacob still hasn't left. To make matters worse, we now learn of Esau's wives and what grief they are causing Rebekah.

Genesis 27:45 NASB until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?"

In response to Rebekah, Issac calls Jacob in once more.

Genesis 28:1-5 NASB So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2) "Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. 3) "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4) "May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham." 5) Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

While Isaac's command is that he get a wife from Laban's daughters, we don't see anything that tells us he knows what he is looking for. Jacob, in a sense, stumbles upon Rachel, and she is a vision of how a girl should look. He wants her and is willing to work for her to get her. There is an irony here in that Rachel, is not an accident by any means, for Laban, her father is Jacob's uncle. (Consider: If Rebekah knew how to be devious it only makes sense that Laban, Rachel's father, would also know how to be underhanded.)

Jacob makes no effort to negotiate for her but tells Laban that he will work seven years for her. (That timeframe may be significant on several levels. Seven is the number of perfection, redemption, and a theme that recurs throughout scripture.)

It may be essential to consider Rachel's age at this time. I doubt he would have pursued her if he did not think she was old enough to marry.

“Joseph married at about age 30 (Gen_41:45). This was old by Egyptian standards, since most males were still only boys when they married. Yet it is clear that a boy had to be not only sexually mature but also able to provide for his wife and thus settled in his occupation before he married. Girls seem to have married between about twelve and fourteen. They did not have to wait until established in a career. Some royal marriages, occurring for dynastic or other political reasons, took place when the individuals were very young. For example, Tutankhamen died at the age of eighteen or nineteen after a nine-year reign and marriage, so he must have been nine or ten when married.”
NELSON'S Bible Manners & Customs, How the People of the Bible Really Lived,
Howard F. Vos, THOMAS NELSON PUBLISHERS

Jacob does not do what many desperate men would do, and rape her, he waits the seven years. He then goes to Laban and demands that she be given to him for he has paid for her.

Laban deceives Jacob just as Jacob had deceived Esau and gave him Leah.

Laban makes a statement here, in response to Jacob's shock and disappointment, that I never noticed before.

And Laban answered It is not done thus in our country, to give the younger before the elder. Genesis 29:26 Brenton)

As that particular pastor exclaimed: "this had to cut Jacob like a knife, as this is precisely what Jacob and his mother had done to Esau.” And, Uncle Laban may well have been told of it. If not, it is amazing how the Holy Spirit puts words in your mouth.

According to the pastor, the premise behind all this is that Jacob, a broken man, (I am not so sure he could understand that for a long time,) pursues Rachel, the vision of perfection, in hopes that she would heal him and make him a better man. I am not sure I see all that, but it makes sense, as most men do just that. While the hope of finding something that calms the inward brokenness he feels may be going on in the back of his mind, it is not directly noted in scripture; many things aren't, and yet the more in-depth answers and subjects are there if we pursue them.

One of the things that I see in scripture is that God is in control, regardless of how lousy the circumstances seem to be.

The pastor said, “that God gives us examples of people who are messed up so that we can know what not to do.” If that theory is correct, then why would God tell Israel, explicitly, not to learn from the surrounding nations, for the surrounding nations were doing everything wrong, worshiping idols, and sacrificing their children to gods. While I might argue that learning from my neighbor how to work with Iron could be a necessity that would allow a civilization to create water pipes. However, there is often a hazard in close associations, especially with those not so grounded, as it can cause us to be drawn away by the deviant and those used by Satan. Along with that, I have had several acquaintances that claimed to be Christians. One, it turns out, was in a men's home (the men's home is somewhat irrelevant except that you can make an obvious assumption - and that is that the person from the home has had some mighty struggles in the past.) While the leadership of the men's home had mandated church services and Bible studies they had to attend, they could not seem to get the world out of this brother. He, in a short period, took a job on the night crew, and I rarely saw him after that. His reattachment to the world seemed to grow and he left the group home he was a part of.

You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. (Exodus 23:32-33 AMP)

And you shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. (Deuteronomy 7:16 AMP)

You didn't merely live by their ways and act according to their disgusting practices, but in a very short time, you acted more corruptly than they in all your ways. (Ezekiel 16:47 CJB)

Is it the person becoming the snare? Perhaps, but what we do know is that Satan will deceive you through any means possible. In some cases, it might be an innocent but attractive looking woman.

Yes, Jacob's life is one huge psychodrama. He is a liar, a cheat, and a general a mess; he does not even seem to slow down all those years later when he meets Esau again. But there is a method to God's madness. God seems to use broken people; he even seeks them out. He seems to find pleasure in lifting them up and healing them. On the plus side, our savior is a descendant of the line from Jacob.

My point: That no matter how messed up the narrative, or, our story is, we can and should glean as much as we can from each one, for it is God's story. Sure, you think it is all yours, but it is never anything less than God's plan, you merely get to be a part of it.

"For I know what plans I have in mind for you,' says Adonai, plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future. " (Jeremiah 29:11 CJB)