Up until todays reading, I have been trying to understand why, it was okay for men to have more than one wife. And even before that when Adam's sons only would have been able to choose their sisters for a wife. Anyway, I am starting to see, I guess I kind of already knew it too, why today we have only one spouse. The fighting that Rachel and Leah began must not have been a very healthy environment, so this had to change. As for the NT reading, I wonder how the disciples felt this early in their following of Jesus, when He told them they too would be teaching and healing and performing miracles . Sounds a bit intimidating.

Have a great and blessed day all.

Heh, Aaron. I agree. Having more than one wife could only possibly work in a culture where the women are seen as property and have to keep quiet. And even then, not too well. But in a culture that recognizes the equal value of men and women, and the unique gifts and skills of individuals, there's no way it could work. Men in those cultures were fooling themselves to think they could handle more than one woman. They only thought they could because their women had to be quiet and obey. But the truth comes out in stories like this!

I'd like a little bit of the Proverbs 3:13-15 action today. I need more Godly wisdom. As I interact with people I don't want to be functioning out of my own "good ideas." Father - thanks for Your offer of wisdom. I'll take you up on it.

Alicia, January 7th is the day where people shared a bit about themselves. In case you want to read up on a few of us briefly. I don't think everyone gave background but as we go through the weeks, it will begin to come up in stories and shares that people post. :)

I am going nuts with the reading in Genesis 30!! These women were highly competitive and determined! SO MUCH CHAOS. I am wondering what Jacob was thinking. He most likely wasn't! (sorry guys)
In the first segment of scripture were words like, jealousy, anger and verse after verse were things like infidelity (over and over) and pride and envy and bribery for 'mandrakes'...whatever those are! They must have been pretty good for someone to barter a night with Jacob for them, since he was the hot ticket of the valley. :)
CRAZY STUFF! And yet, this stuff still goes on somewhere in the world. I think of some of the people that lived in communes in Antelope, wearing red and sharing spouses or some of the polygamists that lived in Southern Utah and were producing LARGE families through various wives. Did this stuff go on in their communities? Humanity hasn't changed much. It has to be happening somewhere. Yet I read this and it seems like something out of the makings of a bizarre movie.
And the thing that really rocks my boat is the fact that God honored some of their wishes. Leah and Rachel had chit chats with God, or so it seems. Because the bible actually used the word "honored her request". Wow...we come from strange origins. And the sheep thing has me totally baffled. He was crazy enough to procreate with numerous women yet somehow brilliant enough to produce these sheep that were unlike any other. Things that make me go hmmmm. My brain is all over the place with the reading today. I know we got the 12 tribes out of this deal but still. It sure seems like a lot of silliness to me.

Lord, help me clear my mind of this clutter. May this day be a day that makes you smile. I pray we would be on alert to seeing you move and speak and lead. May I respond to your whispers without hesitation and hold my tongue when I want to be quick to speak. Help me to be a listener more and love people from a place of sincerity and honesty. Help me not to judge the things I don't understand and also the things I think I understand. Thank you for this place. Thank you for these friends. Bless them with your favor. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If I have any criticism of this bible study so far, it's that it moves way to fast. I think I could spend an entire year on Genesis alone, and still not have it figured out. There is so much more I want to know and wish we could spend time discussing together. I won't say to much today because Jacqui said a lot of what I feel already. I think we may have a little of the same thought process. As a side note... Jacqui, I wondered what a Mandrake was as well, so I looked it up. It's some kind of a fruit bearing plant that grows in Palestine. Another little thing that caught my eye in the OT reading for today was the line about divination.

In the NT, I agree with Aaron's comments. I still can't imagine what it would be like to have those kind of powers. If you had them today with the kind of communication capacity and ability to travel that we have today, you would have a line of people miles long outside your door every single day. It's hard for me to imagine that anyone would reject them or their message. That I do not understand. Hey Marc, one other line that is confusing to me is the end of the last verse when Jesus says "I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." That doesn't seem like it worked out to me. What is your take. Am I missing something here?

Also, FYI, the spellcheck quit working on this site.

...rich

Hey Julie! I was going to ask abouit you. Good to see you here again. Welcome Alicia, Hi Brittani.
I was thinking along the same lines as you Aaron and Jaqui. It is hard toi understand the polygamist way of life. Even here. We have a few patients from the LDS ranch in Eldorado, and I think it's harder for them having 2-3 Moms. That's one tradition I am glad has changed.
It's been a crazy couple of weeks and will get busier so will comments as I can. Have a great day everyone.

One thing that strikes me about this story, similar to some past accounts where Abraham and Isaac ended up hanging out with Abimilech and lying about their wives, is the way that God spoke to Laban and Abimilech in dreams and had such an impact that these men (who were probably not believers in the one creator God) feared their own wellbeing and obeyed. In both accounts with Abimilech, it sounded like he knew there would be some dire consequences if he or someone else had accidentally taken the wife of his guest. This doesn't make alot of sense to me on the surface because in many ways, and it doesn't seem like marriage was held as being all that sacred, especially in pagan cultures. What I get from this, is that when God considers us His children, He can and will do anything to protect us. He even protected these guys from themselves in spite of the fact that they lied or decieved. It's interesting how both Jacob and Laban seemed to behave somewhat badly in all of this, but God followed through on his promises and blessed his chosen people. What a graceful and honorable Father He is!

It's so cool to see so many people participating, I've loved reading the comments, though I admit I can barely keep up. I also can't not read everything because it's just so fascinating. What crazy stuff goes on in the world of humans. God must have a real sense of humor, and a huge amount of mercy and patience (and capacity for grief as well) to have started this whole thing, knowing full well the things we'd get into.

Still here...reading either in am or pm -- but so much reading no time to really comment. Great history! Love to read your comments when I have time.

I know I'm a good 12 hours late here, but thanks for interesting comments everyone. I read yesterday but didn't make the time to comment.

Hey Rich, I agree with the pacing. It's hard to go in deep. Having done this a number of times, I think that the read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan really excels at one important thing - helping build a clear sense of context. Doing this has really helped me see the big picture of the narrative of God's work. That's helped me tremendously as I try to understand the small details when I study them in other contexts.

As for spellcheck, I didn't even know there was spell check on the site. Are you talking about in comments, or did you see bad misspellings in the coaching comments?

Thanks Marc. Ya, when I first began to make comments, my misspelled words would have a blue highlighted line benieth them and a mouse click would give me the correct spelling. Now it's not doing that. Noe beeg deel thowe az I hav purfict speling.

...rich

Hey everyone. Thanks for all your input. I really appreciate it and I'm enjoying this. Thanks for letting me participate. Hey, I think we should have a party somewhere when were all done for the year.

...rich