RTW January 8
For Future Generations
Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. Genesis 25:7
My Takeaways
Something Old
Abraham’s boys came together for the funeral. How tender that Isaac and Ishmael remembered to bury Abraham beside his beloved Sarah.
Something New
We see the prosperity of Ishmael…as prophesied by God to Hagar (Genesis 16:10), but also to Abraham (Genesis 17:20 and 21:13).
“Many that are strangers to the covenants of promise are yet blessed with outward prosperity for the sake of their godly ancestors.”
~ Matthew Henry
I need to live the life that I want for my future family.
We are part of God’s covenant with Abraham. We are the stars in sky. One day we will get to meet Abraham. Isn’t that so cool?
Something to Do
Claim who I am in Christ and live like it. Nothing is better for my future descendants than this.
My Takeaways:
I wonder why so many brothers had trouble getting along? First Cain and Abel, next Ishmael and Isaac, and now we have Esau and Jacob? What’s the significance? So interesting to me about Isaac and Ishmael. I wonder if Abraham’s sin, way back when, has anything to do with the conflict in the Middle East? Interesting how Issac had become just like his father and lied about his wife. I wonder if his father or mother ever told him about what they had done, which prompt him to do the same. I guess that old saying like father, like son has some truths behind it. I too, found it touching that Ishmael and Isaac both were at their father’s burial, but weren’t they just like us today? We may not speak to family members for decades, but then a family member dies and there we are, all together again. Things really haven’t changed, just like King Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. So many unanswered questions for me though. I wish God had revealed more, but he didn’t. He did reveal everything I need to know to trust and believe in him though. So I can trust and believe what he has revealed and live a life for him. But that still doesn’t stop me from pondering so many unknowns. What happened between the lines?
Something Old:
Jacob stole Esau’s birthright. Jacob was such a deceiver.
Something New: Genesis 26:12-17. The Philistines became jealous of all of Isaac’s wealth. They even went as far as to fill up his wells that he dug and asking him to leave. Instead of fighting back he kept the peace. This would be hard to do.
Something To Do:
When I follow God’s way and not my own I get the respect and attention of others like Isaac did. I pray that God will give me wisdom to know when to ignore the small stuff and stand up and fight for the important stuff.
OK we have completed a week of our study girls and I’m still hanging in. But I’m going to need some prayers now. Tomorrow I go back to work and the “rat race” begins. I’m a teacher in addtion to tutoring the homeless, and heading up a Good News Club. This all begins tomorrow. Pray that I will not put Reading Thru the Word on the back burner. Pray that I continue to remember what is important and keep with this study. Thanks in advance for your prayers.
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hey everyone,
Can anyone tell me how to find the facebook group for this ?
In search type in Read thru the word
thank you!
Turning on CC…closed caption…may help you if your speaker doesn’t get loud enough to understand Wendy.
Yes, I have trouble hearing also.
Love Wendy’s comments and thoughts for today. I don’t have any actual heirs, but she points out, like her church friends – I can still have an impact on others’ lives.
Beautiful lesson! I was thinking about the people that influenced me, without them even knowing. It was my grandfather, who always saw the good in each and every one and who was able to love on anyone (including me as a very rebellious teenager without ever giving me the feeling that I was “too much of difficulties”). It was my friend coming at 12 o clock at night because when speaking to me on the phone she heard that I could need some company. It was many “good deeds” I witnessed from people around me, good deeds that showed love on fellow human beings. And I desire to live a life like that too! If I only think about how much impact it had on me… in the time that I was still not seeking God I was never reading the Bible. I sure grew up with all the stories and with prayer and church but I didn’t want to have a lot to do with it. But what really spoke to me were the way other people lived. Their way of loving on people, their way of handling life spoke so much to me that I got curious.. What is it that makes them act like they do? Oh I so want to be like that too!!! It chipped away on the walls I so carefully built up. I know now that it is Gods love shining through these people. They love because they feel loved by a God they can trust. It changes them. And I pray and hope that it will keep changing me. I want to leave a legacy for my kids and for the people living with me and around me. I feel so blessed and I would love to spread some love and be a blessing to other people like these afore – mentioned people have been to me….
Sometimes God’s Word speaks so clearly into my life circumstance that I can feel Jesus’ hand on my shoulder as he leans down and whispers into my ear. Today…the anniversary of my husbands death…was just such a time. My verse…of course…was the one where Abrahams death was described as his having been “gathered to his people” (typical for Judaism) So I did a bit of googling and found this wonderful explanation of a similar passage later in Genesis when Jacob passed. The author was Irwin Keller.
“Jacob finished instructing his children. And he gathered his feet into the bed, breathed out his last, and was gathered to his people. (Genesis 49:33.)
There is something striking about the repetition of the Hebrew verb asaf, “to gather,” within the verse. The first instance of it, Jacob’s gathering of his feet into the bed, is a detail that is intimate and physical. Whereas his being gathered to his people is majestic and metaphysical.
But this is Torah, and the repetition of a word means we are supposed to relate the two iterations to each other, equate them in some way. So the two instances rub off on each other. Jacob’s intimate drawing of his feet into the bed is lent some extra grandeur and dignity. And the stately moment of his death is imbued with coziness and warmth.
This verb asaf, “to gather” was also used earlier in this same passage of Torah, at the beginning of the scene. It says:
ויקרא יעקב אל–בניו ויאמר האספו
Jacob called out to his children and he said “gather yourselves.” (Genesis 49:1) Or slightly more literally, “be gathered.”
What light does this instance of the verb shine on Jacob’s death? There’s something about gathering together. That Jacob’s death is not just a parting, but a kind of coming together.
My mother’s death last year also had a “gathering” quality to it. From the moment of her stroke, loved ones, including many people here and many people far away, came together for her. To witness, to help, to soothe. They gathered in her hospital room until they overflowed into the hallway. They gathered on Facebook, watching for posts like villagers in the square, awaiting the town crier. And when she died, they showed up in Santa Rosa to chant and in Chicago to mourn.
But it’s not the attendee count that is significant in this idea of a death being a kind of gathering. Because whether we are a community of 100 or a family of 50 or a household of a scant handful, death has a way of stripping away our differences. We all look more alike in the presence of death. We see beyond and underneath our squabbling to what we share – our mortality, our physicality, our fear, our love of life, our love – period. When Jacob says, “be gathered” to his children, he doesn’t just mean that everyone should show up in the room, but that they should allow themselves the closeness that our day-to-day differences sometimes impede.”