Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
For many the anticipation of the problem turns out to be much less than anticipated.
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Jacob immediately shrank back from being called Israel, a prince with God, to Jacob, back to the garbage-pit of the self-life.
“Bowing down to the ground” = an honor and a tribute that you would fulfill in the ancient world toward a king or someone you highly respected.
HEB 13:5 Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
HEB 13:6 so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?”
Transient - chadel = frail, fleeting, feeble, or fragile, flimsy.
Handbreadths - tephach = a span or a width of the hand or a hand breadth; it speaks of the waving of the hand and the life is over.
PSA 39:4 Lord, help me to realize how brief my time on earth will be. Help me to know that I am here for but a moment more.
MAL 3:16 “Then those who respected the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard {it,} and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who respect the Lord and who esteem His name.”
PSA 39:5-6 My life is no longer than my hand! My whole lifetime is but a moment to you. Proud man! Frail as breath! A shadow! And all his busy rushing ends in nothing. He heaps up riches for someone else to spend.
ROM 9:12-13 “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Two ways of meeting our personal troubles: 1. Through the means of the flesh. 2. Through the means of the Spirit.
MAT 6:34 Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
HEB 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
To have power with God is to have power over all the evils that threaten us.
LUK 15:20 But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him, and kissed him.
“The children whom God has graciously given your servant,” - Elohim [God] not Jehovah [Lord] - to avoid reminding Esau of the blessing of Jehovah which he had robbed.
GEN 27:7 Isaac said to Esau, “Bring me some game and prepare a tasty dish for me, that I may eat, and bless you in the presence of the Jehovah before my death.”
The anticipation and the problem turns out to be much less than he anticipated.
Robert R. McLaughlin All Rights Reserved 2002