Thursday, May 19, 2011

These are the generations of Jacob


Gen 37: 1, 2: “And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.”
This section brings Jacob’s document to an end. The document belonged to both Jacob and Esau but much more time was given to Esau’s heritage and qualifications to be taken seriously because he didn’t play any more substantive part in the story of Redemption. However, Herod the Great was an Idumean, one of Esau’s descendants and he tried to stop the story of Redemption when he tried to have the Lord Jesus Christ murdered at Bethlehem (see Matt 2: 16 “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.”). Jacob wrote about Isaac’s history after Isaac died and then this history is completed by Joseph. He entered the story as soon as Jacob’s document finished and was responsible for the rest of the history that is described in the book of Genesis. Joseph was the only person who could have completed the document accurately as he later had the authority to question his brothers and discover their part in that history.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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