See, He's right there...........

Do you know what a theophany is? A theophany is an appearance of God. Have you ever had one? No? Me neither. I sometimes wish I would have one though, don't you? There are times, usually during times of uncertainty, when a theophany would come in real' handy-like. Just to boost the ol' faith barometer, and show me that I am at least in the ballpark of being on the right track.

But alas, theophanies are by definition extremely rare. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the amount of theophanies recorded in the Bible, which spans about 3,000 years of history. So if the going rate for a manifestation of God is about 5 every 3,000 years, odds are I will probably not witness one in my lifetime.


Genesis 35:1-20
"Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone." 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. 5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. 6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. 8 Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.  9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel. 11 And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. 12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you." 13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him. 14 Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. 15 Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.  16 Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. 17 And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son." 18 As she breathed her last — for she was dying — she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.  19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel's tomb." 

What's really fascinating here is that it seems that God was willing to work with these people even though they were still fairly pagan in their religious practices, i.e. having them throw away all their foreign gods they had been carrying about. Apparently, Rachel was still pretty much a pagan when she married Jacob -- remember when she stole her family's household gods? And now Jacob/Israel commands the whole family to get rid of them.......he didn't want anything messing up his encounter with God. His second encounter with God.

Why was Jacob the recipient of at least two theophanies, when I, who could really use one right about now, don't even get one? I guess God had to really get in there and get involved, since He was building up a new people to be a beacon of His light for the world of the gentiles. Maybe God needed to make sure there was an insistent witness to His saving actions in the world.

On the other hand, I do believe I have barely missed several theophanies of God.......out of the corner of my eye. In people's lives, in their faces, in the laughter of my God-given children, in the smiles of my church family, I glimpse the barely glowing remnant of a place God was just standing. He shows Himself to me all the time through these and other people in my path, but I can be too busy looking for a theophany instead.

A baseball bat would do very nicely, I think.....

Recently, while I was working in Roseburg, my wife was volunteering at a charity auction. The event was very classy, with a lot of pretty wealthy people there to donate money to the cause. Everything went well until the end of the auction, when my wife, who is about 5 feet 1 inch tall, was propositioned by a drunken man and his wife. He proceeded to explain to her and the entire table they were sitting at what he wanted to do with my wife, while the entire table was so drunk they laughed right along. My wife, who had only stopped by to say hello, was humiliated and very upset. She had a great deal of trouble sleeping that night, and hesitantly told me about it the next day. To make matters worse, we knew this man and his wife fairly well, in fact his parents were neighbors of ours.

Genesis 34:1-29
"Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl as my wife." 5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home. 6 Then Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Now Jacob's sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter — a thing that should not be done. 8 But Hamor said to them, "My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it." 11 Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. 12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife." 13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. 14 They said to them, "We can't do such a thing; we can't give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you and become one people with you. 17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we'll take our sister and go." 18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. 19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father's household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen. 21 "These men are friendly toward us," they said. "Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 22 But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23 Won't their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us." 24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised. 25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses."

Jacob's family had been dishonored, in a culture that puts honor above everything else. Dinah was probably no older than a teenager, given there is no indication she had been married prior to this. This spoiled, wealthy, son of a pagan king thought he could take what he wanted from this family with no consequences. But he had greatly miscalculated the fury and cunning of their revenge.

But what does revenge really give you? It is true that for a while I thought pretty hard about doing something to this guy, who lived in our town and whom I saw fairly regularly. This drunken slob of a man, who thought propositioning a pastor's wife at a children's charity auction sounded like a lot of fun, deserves to have retribution enacted upon him by me for dishonoring her. It would be the manly thing to get in his face.

But I am a disciple of Jesus. The Crucified One. The One who was betrayed, spat upon, beaten, and murdered by His own people. His resurrection has saved me from the the death penalty of my great sinfulness. He did not enact retribution. He forgave them, saying, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." 

I can do no less, mindful of the countless betrayals I am guilty of when it comes to my relationship with Jesus. I, who deserves infinitely worse than this man who dishonored my wife will ever deserve, have been rescued and redeemed from a fate worse than death. Its not about me or my honor or my wife's honor. Its about acknowledging that I am forgiven, and so now must forgive. 

It's not so hip.........

Of all the people in the Bible, the person I identify with the most is Jacob. Jacob reminds me of myself is so many ways, but most powerfully because of the following passage.

Genesis 32:1-32
Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.  3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.'" 6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him." 7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape." 9 Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,' 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'" 13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds." 17 He instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?' 18 then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.'" 19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: "You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And be sure to say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'" For he thought, "I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me." 21 So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. 22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27 The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. 28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." 29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon. 

There are some people, like my wife for instance, that seem to have an easy faith. I am not one of these people. For me, faith is a constant struggle between my earthly desire to run my life myself and my clear need to let God run my life. For long periods of time, I am willing to let God run the show. But then will come a period of time when my old self will reassert its dominance on me and I will insist on taking over again. I will wrestle with God over control of how my day goes, how I am with my family, how I connect with others, what work I do, and how productive I will be. I will wrestle with God over how I will spend my free time, what my expectations are, and where my focus will be.

I always lose these wrestling matches. But then I am always reminded of one very important fact: I am not God. When I try to run my life, it doesn't go well. In all my running around on my own, the leg I am dragging behind me should remind me of the futility of me in charge.

Disguised Miracles

Throughout my late childhood and through half of my college years, I wanted to be a genetic engineer. I was (still am) fascinated with science, especially biology and chemistry. I loved to learn about the building blocks of life, and how DNA and our genes can be shaped to effect certain results. There have been incredible advances in genetics over the last 20 years, including the mapping of the entire human genome -- the chemical blueprint for a human being.

Genesis 30:25-43
"After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I've done for you." 27 But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you." 28 He added, "Name your wages, and I will pay them." 29 Jacob said to him, "You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?" 31 "What shall I give you?" he asked. "Don't give me anything," Jacob replied. "But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen." 34 "Agreed," said Laban. "Let it be as you have said." 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban's flocks. 37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban's animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys."

After Laban tricked Jacob into working for him for fourteen years, Jacob gets a little revenge. There is no scientific basis for putting striped branches in the water troughs and causing the resulting offspring to produce streaked and dark colored sheep. This was a miracle. God was giving Jacob a headstart on getting his family out Laban's door. Whether or not Jacob recognized the miracle, that is what it was.

I wonder sometimes what miracles have occurred in my life without my knowledge, simply because I did not have the eyes to see them........................

We are not octopi.

It is a recurring fantasy among some men to sleep with two women at once. Obviously, from the male point of  view, this would be seen as some kind of ego-boost, as it would seem that he has enough virility to satisfy two women instead of one. Some men might also fantasize about having a harem or being married to more than one wife.

Watching the TV series, "Big Love," will cure any man of such delusions. The series, which portrays a modern day Mormon polygamist living in a Salt Lake City suburb with his three wives, will drive home a very important point: it is very challenging to keep your wife happy, and impossible to keep more than one wife happy.

Genesis 29:31-30:18
"When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, "It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now." 33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too." So she named him Simeon.  34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." So he was named Levi.  35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the Lord." So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children. 30 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!" 2 Jacob became angry with her and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?" 3 Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family." 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son." Because of this she named him Dan.  7 Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, "I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won." So she named him Naphtali.  9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, "What good fortune!" So she named him Gad.  12 Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, "How happy I am! The women will call me happy." So she named him Asher.  14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." 15 But she said to her, "Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?" "Very well," Rachel said, "he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes." 16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me," she said. "I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he slept with her that night. 17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, "God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband." So she named him Issachar."

Although Jacob did not initially intend to marry two women, he now had two wives. And soon enough, the rivalry between the two women heated up to a simmer. The fact that Leah was fertile and Rachel was not fueled the fire. Jacob's predicament is evident when the women included him in a bargain involving mandrakes, which were supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities.  

Regardless of ancient custom and modern day male fantasies, a marriage between one man and one woman remains the model that works best. God designed for us to cling to our spouse, and since we are not octopi, one spouse is more than enough. At least for me, it is. ;)

The Moon Is Following Me

As a kid, I remember sitting in the back of my parent's car on a long trip at night, staring out the window at the moon. It appeared to travel right along with me, and journeyed at the same speed we were going. When I remarked to my parents that the moon was following us, they told me it only appeared that way because the moon was so very large and so very close.


Genesis 28:10-22
"Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He 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. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." 18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord  will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth." 

In the ancient pagan mindset, gods were local. Each locality had a particular god, and that god was acknowledged by that particular people. But when the God of Israel began to make himself known to the people of Israel, there was a different nature to His sovereignty. He began to reveal that His intentions were for more than a small group of villages in a tiny corner of the world. This God was to be the Sovereign over all peoples, and His call would be worldwide.

Jacob would soon discover that thought he had traveled far away from his family to a foreign place, God was still with him. Unlike the small, local deities, our God is very large and close, and goes wherever we do. 

We are what we are born into

It is absolutely incredible to experience the dimensions and depth that opens in your life when you become a parent. For me, I see all of my carefully packed baggage come pouring out all over, like a bad day at the airport. I see myself doing things and responding in ways I SWORE up and down I would never do to my kids. I find myself preferring the company of one against another at times, then switching, depending on how incredibly annoying one is being at the time. I try, but I see my father in my parenting a lot.


Genesis 27:41-28:9
"Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob." 42 When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you. 43 Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran. 44 Stay with him for a while until your brother's fury subsides. 45 When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I'll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?" 46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living." 28 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: "Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham." 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, "Do not marry a Canaanite woman," 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had." 

However, seeing my father in my parenting is not all bad. I tell my children I love them, because he always told me. I try to show them how to be strong and brave, like my father was with me. I try to teach them to protect others around them, the way my dad did with people around him. I teach them the value of working hard and being responsible and not acting like a jackass in front of people, because that was what my dad did with me.

Like with Isaac, Esau, and Jacob, certain patterns are indelibly passed on from one generation to another. Isaac was the spoiled favorite child of doting old parents.His half brother was kicked out of the house for teasing him one day. He was given a fortune and a life of luxury. So he favored and spoiled Esau in return, but then turned against him when Jacob proved more hungry and crafty and clever. Esau then became the brother left out in the cold.