Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 27:30-46.  Let’s go! 

Genesis 27:30-33 (NIV)
30  After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.
31  He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
32  His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” “I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”
33  Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him–and indeed he will be blessed!”

On verses 30-33:  Esau comes in to present his meal to his father and to receive his father’s blessing, but he is seconds too late, as Jacob has just finished impersonating him and has taken his father’s blessing in his place.  Why couldn’t Isaac just revoke his previous blessing on Jacob and bless Esau instead?  It’s because the kind of blessing at issue was, in Isaac’s culture, not just any blessing, but a special, irrevocable, once in a lifetime blessing from a father to a favoured son that could not be reversed, whether Isaac and Esau liked it or not.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 27:1-14.  Let’s go!

Genesis 27:1-14 (NIV)
1  When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he answered.
2  Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death.
3  Now then, get your weapons–your quiver and bow–and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.
4  Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”……

On verses 1-14:  Isaac, up in years and eager to give his blessing to his firstborn son Esau before he dies, tells Esau to prepare his favourite meal so that he can give Esau his blessing.  Rebekah overhears Isaac’s plan, thinks about the fact that the older twin Esau was always meant to serve the younger twin Jacob.  So Rebekah decides to take matters into her own hands.  Instead of trying to reason with her husband Isaac as to why their firstborn Esau should not get the blessing, Rebekah chooses a dishonest, deceitful shortcut approach to trying to secure the blessing for her younger son Jacob. She thought, “I’ll just go behind Isaac’s back and trick Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing instead of Esau.” While it is true that in the short-term Rebekah would get what she wanted, her plan also led to several painful long-term consequences that Rebecca never intended:

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 26:12-22.  Let’s go!

Genesis 26:12-22 (NIV)
12  Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.
13  The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.
14  He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
15  So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth…….

On verses 12-22:  God blesses Isaac with great wealth (v12-13), so much so that the Philistines begin to envy him (v14) and stop up the wells that Isaac’s father Abraham had dug (v15).  In fact, despite Isaac trying to cooperate with the government of Gerar (v16-17) and doing what was within his rights (v18), over and over the Philistines cause problems for Isaac, disputing with Isaac over one well after another (v19-21).  Despite encountering problem after problem and dispute after dispute, Isaac refuses to give up.  He persists in his well digging until he can find a well that no one will fight with him over.  When he finally finds it, he calls the well Rehoboth, meaning “room” (v22), believing that now God has given him and his family the room to grow.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 25:19-34.  Let’s go!

Genesis 25:19-21 (NIV)
19  This is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,
20  and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
21  Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

On verses 19-21:  Just as Isaac prayed on behalf of his wife Rebekah, so husbands we should pray on behalf of your wives, believing that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (James 5:16).  Praying with and for your wife is one of the best and most important ways you can lead your wife and family spiritually.  More generally, for those of you who are not married and not wishing to get married, may this be a reminder that God hears the prayers of His people, so let’s lift one another up in prayer, believing that God hears and God will answer in our time of need. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 24:52-67.  Let’s go!

Genesis 24:52-61 (NIV)
52  When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.
53  Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.
54  Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, “Send me on my way to my master.”……

On verses 52-61:  Willingly Rebekah leaves her home and goes back with Abraham’s servant to become Isaac’s wife.  To leave her family, friends and homeland and to move to a new land to marry a stranger was no easy task.  Earlier in Genesis 24 we learned that Rebekah had the heart of an excellent and humble servant.  Here in these verses we see that Rebekah was also brave.  It’s no wonder God used Rebekah to help accomplish God’s plan of building a family of nations through Abraham, a family which would ultimately include you and me and everyone else who places their trust in Jesus Christ.  Nothing in Genesis so far seems to suggests that Rebekah had any idea of God’s bigger plan to use her life in this way.  Most likely, Rebekah was just faithfully taking the next step that she believed God was showing her and had no idea how much God would end up using her decision to become Isaac’s wife.