Abraham's Story

Jews, Christians and Muslims all agree that Abraham is the Patriarch of their religions and founder of Monotheism. Judaism and Christianity teach that the story of Abraham is more than the story of one man. Abraham becomes the patriarch of the Jewish nation as he passes 10 severe tests of his belief in God and Gods covenant with him.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam teach that Abraham enters into a covenant with God in which both sides make commitments. Abraham is required to leave his homeland, and to follow the direction into the land that God promised Abraham and his descendents. God promises to bless Abraham and his descendents, and to make of them a great nation.

Asking Abraham to leave his fathers house is the first test of the covenant. The most significant demand God makes on Abraham is that he and his descendants totally commit to a belief in one and only one God. This is the foundation of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Spirit of The Story of Abraham

In summary and most importantly, all three religions teach that Abraham was a model of how humans should live their lives displaying courage, faith, sacrifice, obedience, and trust in one supreme God. We believe that the spirit of this story is to see Abraham as a role model and to encourage all of us to live our lives with the same courage, faith, and determination to be the best person we can be. http://homepage.mac.com/jerrypeterson/CHUMSsite /pages/Story%20Abraham.html

The Story of Jacob

There is a tension that characterizes most of Jacob's life. On the one hand, God made promises to Jacob that he would provide for every important issue in his life. On the other hand, Jacob struggled to attain those same issues through his own means. This is the tension in which Jacob lived most of his life.

Jacob's Life

God promised even before Jacob was born that he would inherit the Promise (read 25:23). Jacob undoubtedly knew about this promise from his mother (he was her favorite). But Jacob relied on his own tricks to "supplant" his older brother Esau.

He took advantage of Esau's hunger to extract his birthright for a bowl of soup (25:29-34) and he resorted to gross deception to trick Isaac into passing the inheritance to him (27:1-40). RESULT: Jacob got what he wanted, but at what a cost! Esau was so enraged that he decided to kill Jacob, so he had to flee for his life to his uncle Laban's (read 27:41-45) . . .

On his way to Laban's, God broke into Jacob's life through a dream. In that dream, he reiterated the Promise and also promised to Jacob that he would protect him while he was gone and bring him back safely (read 28:13-15). Jacob's response (28:16) showed he was essentially a secular man--living his life by his own resources, apart from any real awareness of God's involvement.

When Jacob got to Laban's land, he ran up against someone who was as good a chiseler as he was! Jacob fell in love with Laban's daughter Rachel, so he hung around a month instead of the few days he had planned. Laban noticed this, and took advantage of it to extract seven years of indentured servitude for her hand.

When the seven years are over, Laban took advantage of Jacob's excessive partying at the wedding feast to smuggle his older daughter Leah into bed with Jacob. When Jacob woke up the next morning, "behold, it was Leah! Jacob was furious: "What is this you have done to me? . . . Why then have you deceived me?" (What irony after his dealings with Esau!)

Laban insisted on seven more years labor for Rachel. After those seven years, Jacob and Laban then spent six more years trying to screw each other over who would get the biggest portion of their flocks.

So because of his own scheming, Jacob successfully turned a few weeks into twenty years. He wound up fleeing for his life from his father-inlaw and God had to intervene to prevent Laban from killing him. On his way back home, Jacob realized that he had to travel through Esau's land.

God spoke to Jacob again and promised to be with him (31:3). He followed this promise up by sending some angels to reassure Jacob of his protection (32:1,2). But Jacob was still scheming rather than trusting.

But Jacob was still scheming rather than trusting. He sent some of his servants to bribe Esau with schmoozing and the hope of gifts (32:3-5). But they returned with news that sent chills down Jacob's spine--Esau was coming to see him with 400 men!

For the first recorded time in the text, Jacob prayed to God for protection (32:9-12). But then he hatched an elaborate and selfprotective plan to buy Esau off (32:13-20). Alone that night before he had to face Esau, Jacob had an encounter with God that was the defining moment of his life . . .

The Wrestling Match (Read 32:24-30. )

Some people interpret this event as one more case of Jacob finding a way to get his own way--this time even from God through "prevailing prayer." This is defective because it rips this event out of its context, and because it portrays God as tightfisted and ultimately coercible by us. No, God initiated this wrestling match to portray Jacob's life up to now, and to teach him a crucial lesson.

God initiated the wrestling match, and Jacob responded by fighting back all night long (32:24). This was a picture of Jacob's relationship with God all this time. It wasn't primarily Esau or Laban that Jacob was resisting and trying to get around--it was God himself. God had a will for Jacob's life and made promises to him pertaining to that will, but Jacob had been stubbornly resisting God's leadership at every step.

After wrestling all night, God dislocated Jacob's thigh with a touch (32:25). This showed Jacob who he was fighting with (someone with immense power who could easily beat him), and that this was a picture. God had been taking progressively more drastic steps (Esau; Laban; Esau) to teach Jacob to abandon his self-sufficiency and trust him.

Now crippled, Jacob can only hang on to God--a picture of his proper relationship with God. Now that Jacob's tenacity is expressed in a dependent posture, God blesses him (probably reiterates the Promise) and renames him to cleanse him from his old ways ("supplanter;" "deceiver") and give him a new identity to live up to ("one who strives effectively with God"). God has always been willing to bless Jacob. He has only been waiting for Jacob to ask with a trusting, dependent heart.

Jacob learned the lesson. The next morning, he dropped his elaborate and self-protective plan with Esau and instead passed ahead of everyone to meet him directly (33:3), trusting God's promise to protect him. He discovered that Esau had forgiven him, and he went on to supply godly leadership for his family.

Spiritual Lessons
Jacob is not a special case--he is a picture of all of us. All of us struggle with God. We are deeply committed to making our lives work apart from personal dependence on God's direction and power. The Bible says this is the heart of human depravity.

It's not just that we are ignorant about God, have misconceptions about him through poor authority figures, defective churches, etc. We also have a deeply ingrained suspicion that God is neither wise nor good--that he can't be trusted. In fact, we tend to project on to God what we are really like (selfish, controlling, etc.).

It's not so much that we doubt that a personal God exists or that he has a will for our lives. Deep down, we know both of these things. That's what we're afraid of, because we don't want to surrender the control of our lives to anyone, including (most of all) God.

Some of us express this pretty overtly--we say we want nothing to do with God, scream at him, etc. The rest of us are more subtle and passive, but the suspicion and struggle are still there. The latter are often in greater danger than the former because they deceive themselves into thinking they don't struggle with God.

God works through suffering and adversity to teach us our need to depend on him. Because the problem isn't merely misinformation about God, the solution requires more than simply learning that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Since the problem is deeply-rooted self-sufficiency, God works to "break" this through adversity.

Often (like Jacob), he just lets us reap the consequences of our poor choices

(ALIENATION WITH ESAU >> BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS DUE TO YOUR SIN; LOST JOBS DUE TO YOUR IRRESPONSIBILITY). (LABAN; WRESTLING >> PEOPLE IN THE WAY OF YOUR AGENDA; SICKNESS?, RELATIONAL & CAREER DISAPPOINTMENTS; CONFRONTATION & DISCIPLINE BY OTHERS).

Sometimes, he intervenes with specific discipline

He loves you enough to "take you to the mat."

Even then, you have a choice. God won't make you submit to him, but he will polarize you. Either you harden in your commitment to control your own life, and deepen your suspicion about God's goodness--or you admit your inadequacy and submit yourself to God, and experience his goodness and wisdom.

The Story of Joseph

This is the story about a young man named Joseph. His father's name is Jacob, and they lived in Canaan from where his grandfather was from. Joseph was seventeen (old enough to drive a car these days), and he had eleven brothers; and only had one brother younger than him.

Can you imagine having eleven brothers to play with, or fight with? Because Joseph was one of the youngest sons, his father spent more time with him, and he became very special to him. So Jacob had a special robe made for Joseph. (They didn't have jackets back then, so this was a very special jacket). It was very beautiful and had every color you could imagine in it.

All of Joseph's older brothers saw this and they got very jealous. The word jealous means that Joseph's brothers disliked him because they thought his father liked him more, and because he got the special coat. They got so jealous they couldn't even say a kind word to him.

One day Joseph had a dream, and he went to go tell his brothers. He said, "Guess what? Last night I had a strange dream. We were tying up bunches of grain out in the field when suddenly my bunch stood up, while all of yours gathered around and bowed to me." The brothers looked at each other in disgust, but Joseph continued.

"Then I had another dream that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to me. "Who do you think you are?" The brothers said. "Do you think that you are better than all of us? Do you think that we would ever bow down to you?"

This made the brothers dislike Joseph even more.

When he told his father about his dreams he said, "Those are strange dreams." But he thought carefully about what Joseph had told him. A few days later Joseph's father asked him to check on his brothers. They were in the fields quite a distance away. So Joseph went to find them.

When the brothers saw Joseph in the distance, they made a plan to kill him. But when Reuben, Joseph's oldest brother heard this he said, "Let's not kill him, just throw him in a well out here in the field." He said this because he was secretly planning to come back and rescue Joseph when the other brothers had left.

So when Joseph came to them, they took off his beautiful robe and they threw him in an empty well. A little while later a group of people came by that were wanting to sell some things in Egypt. One of the brothers spoke up, "Why don't we sell him to these people, this way we never have to see him again, and we don't have to kill him."

The other brothers liked this idea, so they sold him to the people who were going to Egypt. Unfortunately Reuben had been working and hadn't seen what happened. When he returned to the well he noticed that Joseph was gone. He had been sold to an important man named Potiphar, an assistant to the Pharaoh of Egypt.

The rest of the brothers took Joseph's beautiful robe and dipped it in animal blood and took it back to their father. When the father saw this he cried, "Some animal has killed my son." And he cried for many days, so much that nobody could comfort him.

Now Joseph had started out as a slave, but the Lord was with Joseph and He helped him do everything right. So Potiphar made him his helper, and put him in charge of everything that he owned. The problem came when Potiphar's wife lied about Joseph to her husband, so Potiphar had Joseph put into jail.

The Lord was still with Joseph in jail, and the warden put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. He never worried because the Lord was with Joseph and helped him do everything right. After Joseph had been in jail for some time a cupbearer and baker to Pharaoh had been sent there.

One night each of them had a dream. They told their dreams to Joseph and he told the cupbearer that he would soon be let out of jail. "Please tell Pharaoh about me, and ask him to get me out of here." Joseph said.

When the cupbearer was freed he forgot about what Joseph did. So Joseph stayed in jail for two more years. Until one day the Pharaoh had a dream, and nobody could explain it to him. The cupbearer then remembered what Joseph had done for him, and Joseph was brought to Pharaoh.

"Can you understand dreams?" Pharaoh asked. "I can't, but God helps me." Joseph replied. After Pharaoh had told him his dream Joseph explained,

"God is warning you. There will be seven years when nothing will grow and there won't be any food for anyone."

"What can I do?" Pharaoh asked. "God has shown you what to do. There will be seven years before the bad years that will be very good. So good that there will be extra food for everyone. So you should save a little bit of each years harvest, that way you will have enough to get you through the bad years." Joseph said.

Pharaoh believed all that Joseph told him, and put him in charge of all the land of Egypt. People came from all countries to buy grain from Joseph, because the whole world was in need of food. Some of those people were Joseph's brothers. When his brothers came, Joseph recognized them, but they did not know who he was. (It had been over 10 years since they had seen him).

The brothers all bowed to him because he was an important person. Just as he dreamed they would at the beginning. After a few meetings with his brothers he could not keep it in any longer and Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father alive?"

But his brothers couldn't answer him because they were afraid. Then Joseph said, "Come here. I am your brother, the one you sold! Do not worry, and do not be angry at yourselves for selling me, because God has put me here to save people from starving." So his father, his brothers, and their families came to live in Egypt with Joseph, and they had all the food they needed.

Lessons Learnt from Life of Joseph

Gods plans and purpose are greater and better than ours! Gods providence and favor to the righteous Suffering to Gods people is not always bad! Self control in youth

Patience and perseverance in the time of troubles Honesty, strong work ethics Fear of God and Faithfulness to God

Key-verse for Life of Joseph

The Lord was with Joseph. (Gen 39:2, 39:21) You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Gen 50:20)
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