Clint's mention of the four 'messages' or clues to Jacob are something I never thought of before. Thanks, Clint! That's interesting.
I don't think Laban loved his daughters terribly much, though. First of all, he pawned Leah off on Jacob, and that was most certainly not a loving act toward Leah or Rachel! And, in 31:14, you find the girls telling Jacob, "Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father's estate? Deos he not regard us as foreigners?" So I tend to think that Laban's 'desire' to say goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren was more an attempt to see if he could not get more out of Jacob than he already had. I guess my opinion of Laban is a lot lower than yours, Clint!
There is something I have long noticed about Rachel's character, too. She was a snot. She was the younger, beautiful sister. She nagged her husband, traded a night with him for a mandrake root, stole her father's idols... and then used a really sneaky means to keep him from knowing. Leah was the less desireable physically, and yet she consistently seems to have praised God for her family and acted in a little more humility than her sister. Angel she was not, but nicer, probably.
Psalm 13 should, please, not be overlooked in the drama of the other stories in today's reading! Look at what is happening in this psalm. David is hurt, confused, and feels abandon by God. His feelings are overwhelming him. He turns to God in a plea, and then we see something remarkable -- his sudden switch to absolute confidence in God's love. And he closes, saying, "my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me."
What a switch! And yet it is one I have experienced many times. When I concentrate on my own troubles, I start sinking -- like Peter trying to walk on the water and seeing the storm rather than Christ. But then, when I turn my attention to prayer and talk to God, He reminds my heart who is in charge, and I know I am safe and my fears and anxieties are nothing.
The Bible refers to us as sheep, and sheep we are. Fussing and fuming inside ourselves, worried here and there until we notice our Shepherd nearby watching us. Then things settle down again. This is the story of Psalm 13 -- wrestling with thoughts, wanting to die, and then God entering the picture. And if David reacted at that point anything like the way I have found myself reacting, there may have been a bit of a chuckle inside at oneself and something along the lines of 'you ninny! Why do you always forget?' said by me to myself. I do feel so ****** when, time after time, Jesus has to remind me that He is right here and taking care of everything. I am very grateful for His patience!
In Matthew, I love the first section on not swearing oaths. Probably because I am a mom and I learned through the years that the more a child 'swore' to me that he or she would do something, the less likely it was to get done! I learned to trust the "OK, Mom" a WHOLE lot more than the "I promise you I'll do that Mom. I'll do the best job you ever saw and I'll get it done really fast and...."
Just like us, as Christians -- if we have to spend a lot of time reassuring someone that we are going to accomplish something, we are taking a lot of time and energy away from that particular task. It also means that we must be doubting ourselves to some extent to feel like we have to act as our own cheerleaders!
I know that this is not usually what we think of when we think of 'taking an oath,' but it is what it reminded me of.
There is something important about the 'eye for an eye' that might be interesting historically, as well. When Moses gave that command from God, it was an act of enormous temperance. At the time a punishment was totally at the discretion of the person in authority and death for a small offense was not uncommon in courts. And 'eye for an eye' was a LIMIT on the amount of punishment that could be inflicted on an offender.
What had happened in the intervening years was that the meaning of that had been lost, and 'an eye for an eye' had become a sort of demand for the proper punishment -- we see the same in the Arab world today. Jesus reversed that, heading back to the original intent of not only limiting response legally, but taking it to the personal level of not resisting evil. That sounds so strange to us, so I looked up 'evil' in my Concordance. The evil which is used when men do evil is NOT the evil which is used when referring to evil spirits. That needs to be noted. So when Jesus says that we should not resist an evil person, that is very different from taking up the armor in Ephesians 6 to resist the evil one -- Satan and his minions. That is spiritual warfare. But the people around us who do evil are, like it or not, our neighbors, and we are to love them as we love ourselves.
Why? Because love drives out fear, and it is fear that rules the lives of most men and women. It is fear that fathers pride, defensiveness, hate, mockery, and the rest. It took me some time to realize that, but that is why love is put in opposition to fear in the epistle of John.
The witness of our lives needs to follow the witness of Jesus life: He allowed it all to happen to Him, for our benefit. Others need to see Him in us. Inasmuch as Jesus Himself fulfilled the law, an 'eye for an eye' is no longer what we live by. As we are no longer judged by the law, we should not use the law to judge others, either, on a personal basis. Instead, our marching orders are to love.
and what does love mean?
It's not an emotion. Emotions come with it in abundance, but love itself is not an emotion. It was not an emotion God felt when He sent His only Son into the world so that we could be saved. It was commitment. Care and commitment. We are to care for all those God has put into our lives -- and many will be enemies.
Some will not remain that way. Their best chance for a better life as early as possible is in response to the love of Christ we offer from our own lives -- the caring and concern.
This section today closes with the often misunderstood words, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
This does NOT mean we are to be sinless from here on out. That is impossible, and Jesus knows it. That will only happen for us later. But what it does mean is that we need to be complete as children of God. We cannot just 'talk the talk', we have to 'walk the walk.' We have to go all the way with this thing, including sharing God's love with everyone, not just the people we like and who like us!
That is the kind of hard that only Jesus can enable us to do!
Regarding Aaron's legend: I doubt it sincerely. It smacks of the kind of magical stuff that is more mythology than fact. In addition, there were so many historians in Rome, that if someone had pulled off that sort of stunt, it would have been mentioned.
Here is a link which, although it is somewhat sensationalistic, is nevertheless well-referenced and is probably basically correct:
http://www.reformation.org/simon_pet...mon_magus.html
giving some credence to the above is this page:
http://www.execulink.com/~wblank/20011114.htm
There are many, many more webpages on Simon Magus, or Simon the Magician, but I think the two above are sufficient. Again, the first one might be easily discounted for its style, but take a look at what it covers and the amount of referencing. I did look at other essays on the home site and some were excellent and some really weird. Still, I think this one has something to say. So I leave it with the reader and pray for discernment!
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