Welcome to Bible Challenge Week Two.
We have the end of the book of Genesis this week - it's basically the stories of Jacob (aka Israel) and Joseph.
This is the beginning of the nation of Israel - Jacob gets his name changed to Israel - which means one strives with God. In Hebrew the word "el" means god, so any name that ends in "el" is something of or with God. Jacob (or Israel) has 12 sons and these sons are the founders of the 12 tribes - that is the nation - of Israel.
Our God gives the name of his people - and thus his own name because he becomes known as the God of Israel - "one who strives or wrestles with God"
And the rest of the story of the people of Israel really is the story of people and a people who wrestle with God - they draw near, struggle, pull away and come back. It's kind of our story too, we all wrestle with God at some points in our lives.
The other point of the story of Jacob is that God can use anyone. Jacob is not a nice man, he isn't a role model. He's a trickster and a liar and a coward - and even so God uses him to found the nation of his people. God doesn't need for us to be good in order to be used for his will.
Then we have the story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph is, not to put to fine a point on it, a spoiled brat, and his brothers are really pretty nasty too - and yet God manages to turn a real family tragedy into a vehicle to save his nation. God certainly didn't intend the behavior of either Joseph or his brothers or Potipher's wife, come to that, but God manages to work his will in spite of all of them. And maybe that is another part of the message - that God can work his will through us in spite of us.
What do you think?
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Interestingly, as Genesis progressed, I saw God removing Himself more and more from humankind. He was very involved in the creation and in Eden, but as time went by, he slipped further and further into the backstory... not gone and uninvolved, but infallible and completely intrinsic to the action.
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