What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops. Matthew 10:27

Genesis 31-32

Genesis 31

Jacob and his Family Run from Laban

¹ Jacob heard the words of Labon’s sons, “Jacob has taken everything that was our father’s. He has obtained all this wealth from that which was our father’s.” ² Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and indeed, it was not with favor toward him as before.

³ The Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

⁴ Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to the field of his flock ⁵ and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not with favor toward me as before, but the God of my father has been with me.

⁶ You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. ⁷ Your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. ⁸ If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the sheep bore speckles. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then the all the sheep bore streaks. ⁹ Thus it is God who has taken your father’s livestock and given them to me.

¹⁰ During mating season, I looked up, and saw in a dream that the male goats which leapt on the flock were streaked, spotted and speckled. ¹¹ The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹² He said, ‘Now look up and see. All the male goats that mate with the flock are streaked, spotted and speckled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. ¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to me. Now get up, go out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’ ”

¹⁴ Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? ¹⁵ Aren’t we considered foreigners to him? For he has sold us and has also used up our money. ¹⁶ For all the riches which God has taken away from our father are ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

¹⁷ Then Jacob rose up and set his sons and his wives on the camels, ¹⁸ and he took all his livestock and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock that he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the idols that were her father’s.

²⁰ Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he was running away. ²¹ So he fled with all that he had. He got up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

²² Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. ²³ He took his relatives with him and pursued him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. ²⁴ God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream in the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

²⁵ Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

²⁶ Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me and taken my daughters like captives of the sword? ²⁷ Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with celebration, with songs, tambourine and harp; ²⁸ but you didn’t even allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you acted foolishly. ²⁹ It is in my power to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.’ ³⁰ Alright, you wanted to go because you yearned for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”

³¹ Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’ ³² Whomever you find your gods with shall not live. In the presence of our relatives. Decide what is yours and take it.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Looking for Laban’s Idols

³³ Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. He went out of Leah’s tent and entered into Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt around all the tent, but did not find them. ³⁵ She said to her father, “Don’t be angry, sir, that I can’t rise up before you, for I’m having my period.” He searched but did not find the idols.

³⁶ Jacob was angry and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? ³⁷ Now that you have felt around in all my things, what have you found among all your household things? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between the two of us.

³⁸ These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. ³⁹ That which was torn of animals, I did not bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

⁴⁰ This was my situation: by day the drought consumed me, and by night, the frost, and my eyes were without sleep. ⁴¹ These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. ⁴² Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”

Jacob and Laban Promise Peace

⁴³ Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine! What can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? ⁴⁴ Now come, let’s make a covenant, you and I. Let it be a witness between you and me.”

⁴⁵ Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶ Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a pile of stones. They ate there by the pile of stones. ⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

⁴⁸ Laban said, “This pile of stones is witness between you and me today.” Therefore it was named Galeed ⁴⁹ and Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. ⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, though no man is with us; God is witness between me and you.”

⁵¹ Laban said to Jacob, “See this pile of stones, and see the pillar, which I have set between you and me. ⁵² May this pile of stones be a witness and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass beyond this pile and that you will not pass beyond this pile and this pillar to me, to do harm. ⁵³ The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.”

Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac. ⁵⁴ Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. ⁵⁵ Early in the morning, Laban got up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

Genesis 32

Jacob’s Fear of Esau

¹ Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ² When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” He called place Mahanaim.

³ Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. ⁴ He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my master, Esau: ‘This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now. ⁵ I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell this to my master, that I may find favor in your sight.’ ”

⁶ The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and 400 men are with him.” ⁷ Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two camps, ⁸ and he said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp which is left will escape.”

⁹ Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, God, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will do you good,’ ¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant, for with just my staff I crossed over this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and strike me and the mothers and the children. ¹² You said, ‘I will surely do good to you and make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because there are so many.’ ”

¹³ He stayed there that night and took from that which he had with him a present for Esau, his brother, ¹⁴ 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, ¹⁵ 30 milk camels and their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 foals. ¹⁶ He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go over ahead of me and put a space between each herd.”

¹⁷ He commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau, my brother, meets you and asks you, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?’ ¹⁸ Then you shall say, ‘They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a gift sent to my master, Esau. He also is behind us.’ ” ¹⁹ He commanded also the second and the third and all that followed the herds, saying, “This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. ²⁰ You shall say, ‘Not only that, but your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’ ” For, he said, “I will appease him with the gift that goes ahead of me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹ So the gift passed over ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

²² He rose up that night and took his two wives and his two servants and his eleven sons and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ He took them and sent them over the stream, along with everything that belonged to him.

²⁴ Jacob was left alone and wrestled with a man there until daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he was not prevailing against him, the man touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, and the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled. ²⁶ The man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷ He said to him, “What is your name?”

He said, “Jacob”.

²⁸ He said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

²⁹ Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”

He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?” He blessed him there.

³⁰ Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved.” ³¹ The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his hip. ³² Therefore the Israelites, to this day, do not eat the tendon that is by the hip socket, because he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip.

Matthew 10:26-11:6

Fearing God Alone

²⁶ Therefore do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. ²⁷ What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light, and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops. ²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

²⁹ “Are two sparrows not sold for a penny? Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father’s will, ³⁰ but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ Therefore do not be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.

Confessing Christ

³² Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. ³³ But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.

The Sword of the Gospel

³⁴ “Do not think that I came to send peace on the earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I came to set a man at odds against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶ A man’s adversaries will be those from his own household.

Take up Your Cross

³⁷ He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ He who seeks his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

The Reward of Service

⁴⁰ He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. ⁴¹ He who receives a prophet because he speaks for God, will receive a prophet’s reward. He who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴² Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink because he is a disciple, most certainly I tell you he will in no way lose his reward.”

Matthew 11

John’s Inquiry

¹ When Jesus had finished directing his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.

² Now when John heard in the prison, the works of Christ, he sent a message through two of his disciples ³ asking Him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

⁴ Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: ⁵ the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. ⁶ Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.”

Psalm 13

How Long, O Lord?

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

¹ How long, Lord?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
having sorrow in my heart every day?
How long shall my enemy triumph over me?

³ Answer me, Lord, my God.
Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,
⁴ lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him;”
lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your loving kindness.
My heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing to the Lord
because he has been good to me.

Proverbs 3:16-18

Wisdom

¹⁶ Length of days is in her right hand.
In her left hand are riches and honor.
¹⁷ Her ways are ways of pleasantness.
All her paths are peace.
¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her.
Happy is everyone who retains her.

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