{"id":16233,"date":"2021-06-16T22:00:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_29_15-35-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-06-16T22:18:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T05:18:49","slug":"genesis_30_1-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_30_1-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Be Outdone by Envy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 30:1-13 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 30:1-13.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 30:1-2 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2: Jealous of the fact that her sister Leah had already borne four sons, Rachel idolizes the idea of having children, to the point of saying to her husband Jacob \u201cGive me children or I\u2019ll die!\u201d (v1). Jacob rebukes Rachel for expecting him to be God in her life, since he is not God and can\u2019t control whether they have children or not (v2).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0One clue that we have started to put something or someone else in the place of God is when we say things like \u201cI can\u2019t live without ___\u201d.<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s when we begin to look to something or someone else to satisfy us in ways that only God can.\u00a0Rather than placing your hope in people or circumstances, which can change, put your hope in God, who does not change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Genesis 30:3-13 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family.”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her,
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and she became pregnant and bore him a son.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 3-13: Each of Rachel and Leah gives her personal maidservant to Jacob so that, according to cultural customs of the time, they could have children through their maidservants. Now the race to see who can have more babies escalates.\u00a0 Because of envy, the joy and high calling of being a parent are reduced to a competition between two sisters to see who is superior.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0Envy has this way of stealing the joy, and distracting us from the purpose, of the blessings God gives to us.<\/strong>\u00a0Rather than appreciating what we have, we find ourselves in a rat race where it\u2019s all about keeping up with, or beating, our supposed \u201ccompetitor\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0In so doing we miss the point of our lives and become miserable.\u00a0\u00a0God didn\u2019t make us to live in envy.\u00a0\u00a0He made us to live lives of joy, prayer and thankfulness (1 Thessalonians 5:18).<\/strong><\/p>\n

For practical tips to help you overcome envy,\u00a0check out Episode 1 of our Take Me Hiya message series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lord, I declare today that my hope is not in\u00a0<\/strong>my circumstances, my smarts or my own plans, but my hope is in You.\u00a0\u00a0May I worship You and not something or someone else, for only You can truly satisfy the longings in my heart.\u00a0\u00a0Also, may I not live in envy, but with a grateful heart, knowing that in You I am tremendously blessed and have everything I need.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 30:1-13.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 30:1-2 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”<\/p>\n

On verses 1-2: Jealous of the fact that her sister Leah had already borne four sons, Rachel idolizes the idea of having children, to the point of saying to her husband Jacob \u201cGive me children or I\u2019ll die!\u201d (v1). Jacob rebukes Rachel for expecting him to be God in her life, since he is not God and can\u2019t control whether they have children or not (v2).\u00a0<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0One clue that we have started to put something or someone else in the place of God is when we say things like \u201cI can\u2019t live without ___\u201d.\u00a0That\u2019s when we begin to look to something or someone else to satisfy us in ways that only God can.\u00a0Rather than placing your hope in people or circumstances, which can change, put your hope in God, who does not change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16234,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16233\/revisions\/16234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}