{"id":16361,"date":"2021-06-23T22:00:19","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T05:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_31_33-44-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-06-20T00:07:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T07:07:15","slug":"genesis_31_45-55","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_31_45-55\/","title":{"rendered":"Refined By Hardship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 31:45-55 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 31:45-55.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 31:45-48 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n45\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
\n46\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap.
\n47\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.<\/em>
\n48\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 45-48:\u00a0\u00a0Getting ready to make a covenant with Laban, Jacob and his relatives pile stones in a heap.\u00a0\u00a0(I find it funny that later Laban says that he did it in verse 51.)\u00a0\u00a0Laban calls the heap \u201cJegar Sahadutha\u201d, which means \u201cwitness heap\u201d in Aramaic.\u00a0\u00a0Jacob calls the heap \u201cGaleed\u201d, which means the same thing – \u201cwitness heap\u201d – in Hebrew, Jacob\u2019s mother tongue.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a reminder that Jacob and Laban came from two different cultures and spoke two different languages, which likely contributed to the misunderstandings between them.<\/p>\n

Genesis 31:45-55 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n49\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the\u00a0LORD\u00a0keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.
\n50\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
\n51\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me.
\n52\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me.
\n53\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac.
\n54\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.
\n55\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 49-55:\u00a0\u00a0Genesis 31 ends with Jacob and Laban parting ways for good and swearin that they will not cross the line to harm one another in any way.<\/p>\n

The sentimental part of me would like to be able to tell you that this was Laban\u2019s turning point when Laban went from being a worshiper of idols to a believer in the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0I would like to tell you that whereas Laban came to Mizpah searching for lifeless idols, he leaves Mizpah trusting in the living God.\u00a0\u00a0I would love to say that though he sadly had to kiss his daughters and grandchildren goodbye, on that same day he gladly embraced the Lord and welcomed Him into his life.\u00a0\u00a0To support this argument I would want to point to verse 49, where Laban says to Jacob, \u201cMay the\u00a0LORD\u00a0keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other\u201d and the first part of verse 53 where Laban says to Jacob, \u201cMay the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0But an argument can also be made that in these verses Laban was just threatening Jacob with Jacob\u2019s own God or that if Laban believed in the Lord, he also still believed in his other gods, depending on how you interpret the original language of verse 53 (i.e. was Laban talking about just one God or more than one god?)\u00a0\u00a0So it is not entirely clear that Laban truly trusted in the Lord.<\/p>\n

What is clear, however, is that over the course of 20 years of hardship, Jacob\u2019s faith in the Lord blossomed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From hardly knowing the Lord personally when he first arrived in Paddam Aram (see Genesis 28:20-22), Jacob now knew the Lord as \u201cthe God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac\u201d (Genesis 31:42), as the God who prospered him (v9), spoke to him (v10-13) and protected him (v42).\u00a0\u00a0Thus when it was time to make the oath to his father-in-law Laban, Jacob intentionally and specifically took the oath \u201cin the name of the Fear of his father Isaac\u201d (v53).\u00a0\u00a0To use an analogy from pottery, you could say that at the beginning of his time with Laban, Jacob\u2019s faith and his personal knowledge of the Lord were like an undefined slab of clay.\u00a0\u00a0But over time and through many hardships, that slab of clay became more and more defined.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Hardship can have a refining effect on our faith.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0None of us likes hardship or wishes for it, but the fact is that God uses hardship to allow our faith to become stronger, more defined, and more genuine.\u00a0\u00a0As 1 Peter 1:7-9 says about trials and hardships:<\/p>\n

7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.<\/em><\/p>\n

So if you are going through hardship right now, remember that God allows hardship not to be cruel to you, but because He is writing a greater story.\u00a0\u00a0At the end of God\u2019s story will be you with a faith that is stronger, more defined and refined than what you had before the hardship came.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, I pray for all those reading this GAME sharing, including myself. I pray that those going through difficult hardship right now would not give up.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, may their knowledge and understanding of who You are would grow deeper and more refined over time.\u00a0\u00a0I pray that in the midst of trials we go through, we would see Your hand at work and know Your heart more and more.\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 31:45-55.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 31:45-48 (NIV)
\n45\u00a0\u00a0So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
\n46\u00a0\u00a0He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap.
\n47\u00a0\u00a0Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.
\n48\u00a0\u00a0Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed.<\/p>\n

On verses 45-48:\u00a0\u00a0Getting ready to make a covenant with Laban, Jacob and his relatives pile stones in a heap.\u00a0\u00a0(I find it funny that later Laban says that he did it in verse 51.)\u00a0\u00a0Laban calls the heap \u201cJegar Sahadutha\u201d, which means \u201cwitness heap\u201d in Aramaic.\u00a0\u00a0Jacob calls the heap \u201cGaleed\u201d, which means the same thing – \u201cwitness heap\u201d – in Hebrew, Jacob\u2019s mother tongue.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a reminder that Jacob and Laban came from two different cultures and spoke two different languages, which likely contributed to the misunderstandings between them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16361","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\/16361","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=16361"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16362,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16361\/revisions\/16362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}