FBC Daily Devotional – February 2, 2021

Well, a good Tuesday to you, February 2nd. Hope your day went well yesterday and you're getting off this week to a good start.

Trusting that the Lord is blessing you. You're finding his mercies new each day.

Well, have you ever noticed how often it takes a tragedy in a family to bring estranged parties in that family together?

For some reason or another in the course of life, siblings or maybe parent and child have a falling out, some kind of a disagreement, some kind of conflict, and then they don't speak to one another.

And they go their separate ways. They don't have anything to do with each other. And then a tragedy strikes the family.

A terrible accident, maybe one of the loved ones, one of the family members taken in death, and then finally those estranged parties get back together again.

Well, we actually see that in our reading today in Genesis 35 and 36.

At the end of Genesis 35, Isaac dies.

And we read at the end of that chapter, in chapter 35, verse 29, remember, listen to what it says.

It says, now the days of Isaac were 180 years old. How would you like to be, how would you like to live to be 180 years old?

I'm not so sure about that in this day and age. But anyway, he lived to be 180 years old, and Isaac breathed his last, and he died.

But then it says this, he was gathered to his people, referring to being buried, old and full of days, now listen, and his sons

Esau and Jacob buried him. You say, well, what's so unusual about that?

I mean, isn't that pretty typical that sons are going to bury their father? Well, it is typical, but the thing of it is, the last time we saw

Esau was back in chapter 33, in verses 16 and 17.

Listen to what that says. So it says, Esau returned that day.

Remember, this is right after Jacob and Esau had reconnected. Jacob had gone off to Paddan Aram, and he found a wife, a couple of them, had some kids, several of them, a dozen of them, and served under Laban, worked for Laban for many, many years, and now he's wanting to go back home.

And on the way home, he learns that Esau is coming out to meet him. Well, the previous experience that we read about between Jacob and Esau was not a pretty one.

Esau was determined to kill his brother. So understandably,

Jacob is afraid to go back home, and he hears that Esau is coming after him. He's like, oh no, now what's in store for me?

But he finds out that it's all good. They get back together, Esau's not holding a grudge, and Jacob pacifies him or thinks he's pacifying him with all these gifts and so on and so forth.

And it seems that Esau is wanting to patch things up with Jacob. It doesn't seem that Jacob is so eager to patch things up.

You have to read between the lines here, because Jacob says to Esau, you go on, you go on, and I'll meet up with you later.

And so we come to chapter 33, verse 17, and it says, Now that is an area in the east side of the

Jordan River, south, in what eventually came to be known as Edom, the land of Edom, named after Esau.

So Esau goes south on the east side of the Jordan River. But you continue reading, and it says,

And then we read,

So Esau goes on south into what became the land of Edom, on the east side of the

Jordan River, and Jacob continues westward, crosses the

Jordan River, and lands in the city of Shechem. And that's the last you hear of these two brothers.

They are separated by not only a river, but by a significant difference. They're separated until Dad dies.

And then when Dad dies, Esau comes back home, and these two brothers are brought back together again to bury their dad.

Well, again, we don't know all that took place in the dynamics in that sibling relationship, but it does illustrate what often happens in families, and how sad it is that it takes a tragedy to bring estranged siblings, or parents and children, or relatives, loved ones, back together again.

If there's that kind of a situation in your family, I hope that you at least will do all you can on your part to try to mend those relationships, and not allow the conflict to fester and the strife to continue until it takes a tragedy to bring you back together again.

I trust that won't happen in your family. Well, I don't want to take a lot of time to develop this, but what's an interesting note at the end of chapter 35 is the summary of Jacob's family, his sons.

It takes four verses to tell us that Jacob had 12 sons. Now remember, in the history here,

Jacob is the one through whom the Abrahamic covenant is coming, is being passed. Through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed.

And the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, the descendants of Jacob, are going to be as vast as the stars in the heaven, was the promise to Abraham.

Now you get to end of chapter 35, and Jacob has 12 sons. End of the story.

That's all that's said about it. And then you read in chapter 36, chapter 36 begins, these are the generations of Esau, that is of Edom.

And it goes into the family of Esau, all of his sons and all of the territory that they occupied.

And many of those sons were chiefs of their tribes and so on. Esau's descendants are huge.

The list of his descendants and their territory and their positions of power and responsibility is really impressive.

And you get to the end of 36, and you have to ask yourself the question, who really is going to be the greater brother?

Jacob or Esau? And you just read that and look at the sheer size of Esau's family compared to Jacob's, and the territory that Esau occupies.

And you consider the fact that at the end of chapter 35,

Jacob doesn't really own any land to speak of. The only land occupied by Jacob is the burial ground that his dad bought for his mom.

Is God's promise really going to be fulfilled? Hang on to your hats and see how it happens.

Well, let's pray together. Our Father and our God, we thank you for these instructive thoughts from your word today.

And I do pray, I do pray for our families, for our loved ones, and for any strife or conflict that might be found there.

Father, I pray that by your grace, you would bring healing to those relationships before it takes a tragedy to break down those barriers.

And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right.

Well, you have a good Tuesday, and I trust God will bless you in the rest of this day.