Dear Friends,
I’ve enjoyed getting back into Genesis over the past couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to a second week of thinking about the story of Jacob this coming Sunday.
We were chatting about Jacob in bible study this week and thinking…. “geez this guy doesn’t come off very well does he?”. As you think about it, while Jacob certainly has his faults, he’s not alone in Genesis. Abraham had some ‘ups’ but some pretty low moments too. In a couple of weeks we’ll get to Joseph and while he does seem like a rare case of someone who is a good example for us, his brothers behaviour is shocking at times.
What should we make of this? I guess it makes the point pretty clearly for us that God is god who is happy to use deeply flawed and sinful people for his good purposes. That one I think is still true!
The other thing it makes me think about is that these are Isarel’s origin stories. Joseph and his poorly behaved brothers end up being the beginning of the 12 tribes of Israel! Some people would have you believe that these stories were all created much later on and purely fictional accounts of how Israel came to be. But I don’t think anyone would ‘make up’ an origin story that would make your ancestors look so bad. Surely the only reasonable solution is that these were true stories… and the Israelites decided to record the truth, even if the truth was at times a bit ugly.
Hope you have a nice weekend and I’ll look forward to seeing you on Sunday!!
—
Matt Winter
Associate Pastor
Trinity Church Brighton
0406 124 006
www.trinity.church/brighton