Prayer: Father, guide my thoughts and words today. In the name of Yeshua, amen.
Reading: Genesis 36 key: vs. 1
Now these are the genealogies of Esau (that is, Edom).
Attention: I find it fascinating that two children can be raised by the same parents, have the same environment, and move away from home so opposite in character and disposition.
I have sisters who are twins. They are identical. Their lives have mirrored each other throughout their lives. Jacob and Esau did not mirror each other. Nations came from each brother, Jacob became Israel (in name and nation), and Esau became Edom (a nation). I established in an earlier journal, Esau overheard the counsel of his parents to Jacob, not to take a wife from among the Canaanites. Esau purposely went to the Canaanites to find a wife. One of the wives was from the family line of Ishmael.
In this chapter we also find out that Edom had “kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel.”
God’s governing way with the nation of Israel was to establish a Theocracy, God guiding and speaking through one man. Examples of the men God used, were Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and Samuel. It was during the days of Samuel that the people of Israel looked around at the surrounding nations and told Samuel, we want a king like everyone else. They wanted a leader they could see, rather than the highest authority they could have led and provided for them. Samuel, grieved by the people’s request, relented when God told him that they were rejecting Him and not Samuel.
The nation of Israel was distinctly God’s chosen nation and people. They were to choose Him above all other gods. Their rejection of God led to the downfall of the nation and the discipline of God. The nation of Israel is a microcosm of our personal life. Are we obedient or rebellious? Rebellion secures God’s discipline, in hopes that we will repent and reconcile with Him.
Jacob was not perfect in his obedience. In the former chapter, God told him to “Get up and go” to a certain location, “make an altar” and “get rid” of anything which captured his heart away from God. God gives us choices all throughout life. Are we obedient or disobedient? Are we compliant or rebellious? The choice is yours. Will you build a nation which is obedient to God? Or will you build a nation which is known for its worship of other gods?
Action: I will choose to identify myself with and obey the King of Kings, Adonai.
Yield: I give myself over the King of Kings, Adonai.
Engage: I engage daily with the Holy Spirit in sanctifying myself according to the Word of God, my instruction manual.
Relationship: I am intentionally Adonai’s bondslave.
Prayer: Father, I am Yours! Everything I am and everything I’m not, I am completely Yours. Amen.
Memory Verse: Matthew 22: 36-40
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?”
37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Music Video: Casting Crowns—I Am Yours https://youtu.be/9ujSGPxnIKc
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”