3.28.10 tan maravilloso eres tu mi salvador!

this a.m. the Lord drew my attention to psalm 12.8 - the wicked strut about on overy side when vileness is exalted among men....commentary -'oft empty vessels swim aloft, rotten posts are gilt with adulterate gold, the worst weeds spring up bravest. chaff will get to the top of the fan, when good corn, as it lieth at the bottom of the heap, so it falls low at the feet of the fanner. the reason why wicked men 'walk' on every side, are so brist, so busy..is given to be this, because losels (from the root of 'loose'; wasteful fellow, one who loses by sloth or neglect; a worthless person.) and rioters were exalted. (prov. 28. 12 - a prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself; but the simple pass on and are punished) as sickness falls from the head to the lungs , so it is with the body politic. as a fish putrefies first in the head and then in all the parts, so here. some render the text thus, 'when they (that is, the wicked) are exanlted,' it is a 'shame for the sones of men,' that other men who better deserve preferment, are not only slighted but vilely handled by such worthless ambitionists, who yet the higher they climb, as apes, the more they discover their deformities - john trapp....good thus translates this verse: should the wicked advance on every side; should the dregs of the earth be uppermost? - j. mason good

this morning, in genesis 31, where jacob talks to leah and rachel about how their father has taken advantage of him he says, 'you know that with all my power i have served your father. and your father hath deceived me and changed my wages 10 times; but God suffered him not to hurt me if he said thus, the speckled shall be thy wages, then all the cattle bare speckeled and if he said..the ringstraked shall be thy hire, then bare all the cattle ringstraked. thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father and given theem to me. and it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that i lifted up mine eyes and saw in a dream and behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled and grisled. and the angel of God ( the angel of God in the old testament is, in theological terms, called a Christophany - a pre-incarnate (before He was born, in flesh, as a baby in bethlehem) appearance of Jesus) spake unto me in a dream, saying, 'jacob' and i said, 'here am i'. and He said, 'lift up now thine eyes and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled and grisled; for I have seen all that laban has done to you . it was in these final words that God spoke to me. He sees all and will make all right.

doug's bday party last night saw us trying to get his camera to work so we could get a picture of him blowing out his candles. it took so long that the flames burned into five of the candle holders and turned them to molten wax; dick playing the piano while eileen and i accompanied doug i an accurate rendition of the first three verses of the old rugged cross...with doug then breaking away for a solo easter-bunny-cadbury-egg emendation of the final; the reading of the easter story (matthew 28). believe a good time was experienced by all.

am almost done the cellar. am waiting for word, from one competent to advise, on how to deal with the walls and the draining of water that comes into the house via the dungeon

have been thinking about the words, 'the God of jacob', and decided to see what i could find.

jacob:
-reached out his hand and grabbed esau, the firstborn's heal, before he was born
-got esau to sell his birthright (the fatherly blessing reserved for the first born0
-deceived his blind father, issac, to get that blessing in the place of esau
-made a deal with God when He appeared to him for the first time
-deceived laban, his father in law, in order to get his livestock
he-
-was hated by esau and laban and would have been killed by them had not God protected him
-desired rachel and was tricked by laban, her father, into having to work 7 extra years for her
-the one he desired was unable to bear him children until God helped her; she blamed jacob for her inability; she took her father's household gods (idols) and then deceived him so it was not found out; she died young
-laban did not give a dowry to jacob and changed his wages 10 times in order to try to take from him as much as possible
-was deceived by his sons who had sold joseph into slavery and made it appear he was killed by a wild animal
-would have had to take jacob's other beloved son, benjamin, in order to get food if joseph had insisted on this ...which might have killed him with grief

God-
-appeared to jacob as he was escaping from esau to laban in the dream of the stairway going to heaven; there He repeated the promise He had given to abraham and issac to jacob
-appeared to jacob to tell him He saw what laban had done to him and instruct him to go back to issac
-appeared to jacob at peniel ('the face of God') where jacob wrestled with him all night; where God changed jacob's name to israel; where God prepared him to meet his brother, esau, the next day
-appeared to jacob calling Himself God Almighty at the same stairway, which he names bethel ('the house of God'); here God commands him to be fruitful and multiply
appeared to him encouraging him not to fear to go down to egypt to get food for there God would make a great nation of his family
-while giving his sons a final blessing in egypt jacob calls God 'the mighty One'

names of the patriarchs -

-all three, abraham, isaac and jacob, are named together about 20 times in the penteteuch, in ll kings 13.23 and 6 times in the new testament
-jacob and israel (his God-given name) appear in the same verse: in two chapters of the penteteuch, 4 chapters in the historical books, 8 psalms (14,22,53,78,105,114,135,147) and in 29 different chapters in the prophets (a lot of these chapters have multiple repetitions)
-God's choosen people, israel, are called jacob nearly 70 times throughout the old testament (including occurances in psalm 20,24,44,46-7,59,75-7,79,81,84-5,87,94,99,132,146) and 3 times in the new
-most interestingly the term 'God of jacob' occurs in the recording of david's last words in ll sam. 23.1, in psalm 20.1, 46.7,11, 75.9, 76.6, 81.1,4, 84.8, 94.7, 114.7, 146.5. the only other occurance in the bible is in isa.2.3

we are all far short of God's standard of perfection but in the bible as well as in real life we may appear very different. if the difference is not just apparent but real, it can only be attributed to the grace of God that enables us to do better than would otherwise be possible. we see several sins of abraham's revealed but God chooses to reveal some of the wonders that His grace worked in him. issac is nearly a blank slate as far as 'seeing' him. he appears, like many people appear, to be bland almost to the point of spiritual neutrality. but jacob is a different story altogether. first, his story, covering genesis 25-50, rivals Jesus' as the longest in the bible. in that story we see what appears to be the norm as far as us humans go. if we do not take great pains to hide our sin, we tend to look gross to ourselves and others. and if we are blinded to who we really are we can tend to see ourselves in a much better light than others do and, more importantly, as God does. God reveals jacob, for the most part, as he is apart from grace..a sinner.

from the little word study it appears that there may have been one person, who was inspired of God to write His word, who was very aware of the fact that although jacob was a great sinner, God was a greater savior. the supplanter/deceiver (jacob) renamed striver with God (israel) as it occurred in jacob was seen as a model for God's people...this one man, jacob, was a model for every person. david, another sinner, seems to have seen and rejoiced in that...and so do i. the God of jacob (the God of stephen) has become my favorite term for God.

this morning read this comment on psalm 51.7 - 'i shall be whiter than snow..' but how is this possible? all the dyers upon earth cannot dye a red into a white; and how, then, is it possivle that my sins which are as red as scarlet shoud ever be made as white as snow? indeed such..is no work of human art; it must be only His doing who brought the sun ten degrees back in the dial of ahaz; for God hath a nitre of grace that can bring not only the redness of scarlet sins, but even the blackness of deadly sins, into its native purity and whiteness again. but say it be possible, yet what need is there of so great a whiteness, as to be 'whiter than snow'? seeing snow is not as paries dealbatus, a painted wall, white without and foul within; but it is white, intus et in cute, with and without, throughout and all over; and what eye so curious but such a whiteness may content/ yet such a whiteness will not serve, for i may be as white as snow and yet a leper still; as it is said of gehazi that ' he went from elisha a leper as white as snow':' it must therefore be whiter than snow and such a whiteness it is that God's washing works upon us, makes within us...' sir richard baker thank You Lord...

hope you have a good week. love, dad