<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
It’s a love story that had a tragic ending, but there is Good News in
it that will be a blessing to us today. It’s Genesis 29:17 to 35:19.
Rachel was a lovely girl. The Bible waxes eloquent in describing her
charm, her beauty. Jacob fell in love with her; she was his one true
love, the “sweet mystery” that made his life happy in spite of all the
troubles that befell him. But as a husband, it seems that Jacob
unwittingly became the occasion of her early death. When it came time
for the family to separate from her father’s household, Rachel “stole”
her father’s TERAPHIM, that is, his “gods” or images, or talismans
that were supposed to possess magic powers (Laban wasn’t totally clear
of idolatry, and neither was poor Rachel).
Next we find Laban angrily demanding a search warrant to find out who
“stole” his precious “gods.” Jacob doesn’t know what Rachel has done;
angrily, in a fit of recklessness, he tries to prove his innocence by
sentencing to death anyone in his family who has done this thing:
“with whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live” (31:32).
Rachel has them hidden under her person and asks her father, please
excuse me for not getting up, “for the custom of women is upon me.” So
she got to keep the “gods.” But now she has to keep something else:
the knowledge of her husband’s sentence to death. He was an authority
figure to her. A little later she is having a hard time in childbirth;
something has weighed upon her soul, and as she was dying she wanted
to name her child, “Be-noni, Son of my sorrow” (35:18). She had
treasured in her soul a sentence of death from her husband! She had
needed to hear the Good News of confessing her sin, her idolatry, her
unbelief in the goodness of her heavenly Father and of her true
Husband, Christ, and finding in Him release from the curse imposed by
her husband.
The Good News in this tragic story is that you and I need no longer
live under the shadow of anyone’s curse. Christ “was made a curse for
us” (Gal. 3:13).
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<x-tad-bigger>Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread"
again tomorrow.
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