Author: Dwight Clough

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. — Genesis 32:24If ever Jacob needed a word of encouragement, now was the time. His brother Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. That could mean only one thing, Jacob was in great danger. Everything he had worked for in the last twenty years could be gone in a few hours. His wives and his children could be taken from him, and he would be powerless to prevent it.My two boys – then ages 8 and 11 — were fighting one day. There were angry…

"May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." — Genesis 31:53The differences between Jacob and Laban are irreconcilable because they are based on lies. Jacob thinks his family is being falsely accused of stealing Laban’s household gods. Jacob is wrong. Laban discounts Jacob’s twenty years of labor and looks at his wives, children and flocks as his own possession, taken away by Jacob. Laban is wrong.It’s election year here in the USA, and every time there’s a Presidential election, I get angry. I’m angry because lies are told about the…

When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. — Genesis 31:19Sometimes you just wonder. What was Rachel thinking? I guess she thought she needed all the luck she could get. I have a little rhyme I used to say to my son, "Two plus two equals four, seldom less, sometimes more." Here is a situation where addition doesn’t work. You can’t add to God and get more. You only get less.When we add our efforts to God’s, we don’t end up ahead, we end up behind. God quietly steps out of the way until…

"May the LORD add to me another son." — Genesis 30:24Rachel seems to have grown up a little bit. She seems to understand that God is the One who gives us what we want.Now the question is this: Do we really know what we want?Rachel thought she wanted another son. But, if she had known in advance that she would die in childbirth with that second son, what would have happened to her request?It seems very obvious to us what it will take to make us happy. We bring our requests to God and try to get Him to see…

"Give me children, or I’ll die!" — Genesis 30:1Forced to compete with each other for love and status, Rachel and Leah were both in a lose-lose situation. As Leah bore Jacob son after son, Rachel’s exasperation over her own childlessness expressed itself in blame. Read between the lines. "It’s your fault, Jacob," she is saying. "You are the cause of my unhappiness."In one form or another, I think almost every marriage weathers this kind of storm. The spouse that was supposed to bring so much happiness fails, and the finger of blame is pointed. And every spouse will fail. The…

"When morning came, there was Leah!" — Genesis 29:25In the dirty tricks department, this has to rank as one the cruelest deceptions in the Bible. I’ve often thought about Jacob’s dismay, but today I’m thinking about Leah. What pain she must have suffered! Her wedding night should have been one of the happiest moments in her life. Instead, she was trapped in her father’s deception, forced to receive the affections and attention that she knew were intended for someone else.And so began a lifetime of misery, knowing that she was unloved, that she would always live in the shadow of…

[Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD … — Genesis 28:12-13aJacob’s deception was beginning to backfire. He had won his father’s blessing but lost his father. In place of blessing, he was a fugitive, running for his life. Yes, he had a cover story — he was looking for a wife. But the real motivation for the trip was to escape Esau’s revenge. And while Jacob did gain a wife,…

Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn…." — Genesis 27:19God’s plan, man’s way. Several things about this whole story trouble me. Each parent had a favorite. Isaac and Rebekah were miles apart. Isaac didn’t seem to perceive the will of God. Jacob was a cheat. And yet Jacob was God’s choice.I contrast Jacob and David in my mind. What made David such a great man of God? He didn’t force God’s hand. He could have killed Saul, but he didn’t. He suffered persecution he didn’t deserve from a king who didn’t deserve to be a king, and…

… after the fire [came] a still small voice. — 1 Kings 19:12Sometimes we underestimate the power of the "still small voice."After Elijah’s great victory on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), the enemy cut through Elijah’s defenses and found the same lies that plague many of us: "My life is defined by the enemy’s threats." "I’m all alone." "There’s something wrong with me or I wouldn’t be in this mess."God sent fireworks on Mount Carmel. And He could have sent fire down from heaven to consume Jezebel, but He didn’t. Instead, he taught Elijah the lesson of the still small…

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief … — 1 Peter 1:6On the surface, this seems contradictory. Joy and grief? How can they coexist? If joy is the opposite of grief, then wouldn’t you need to get rid of all grief in order to have joy?Not so. When we were mourning the loss of a loved one, I made an amazing discovery. Underneath are the everlasting arms. While others grieved without hope, falling through emptiness in a bottomless pit of sorrow, we were buoyed up by something far bigger…