Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 14 January 2018

Sunday here.  Due to the snow storm that followed hours of falling ice/rain mix, roads are treacherous.  Word went out that several churches, ours included, were cancelling the regular Sunday worship gathering.   Seeing a temperature this morning of -4° confirmed that.

In the middle of the deep freeze, with snow and ice on roads.  We stayed inside again today.  I was outside yesterday just long enough to shovel a path from our door, across the deck, down the steps, to the drive.  And a short bit of shoveling to next-door niece's side door.  Her husband (bless him!) had run a snow blower down their drive and our drive, out to the street.  I did  the shoveling, and then hauled empty buckets and pitchers over there and filled them with water, as our pipes are still unfixed.  Brother-in-law had promised to come over and work on them (I can't even get to some of them, but he can) but after we took a look at the roads with the unsafe driving conditions, I told him we'd reschedule when things are safer.   And I thought that had been rescheduled, but I guess not.
Anyway, I refilled the jugs and buckets, which lets us flush the toilets, wash some of that pile of dirty dishes and pans, refill the vaporizer that helps her breathe, and generally live like people do.  Just another day in Happy Land.  And in the morning, I'll be doing it again.
As alluded earlier, this morning sister-in-law messaged Wife that brother-in-law would be coming over to help with the piping issues.  Great!  No, I don't like work on a Sunday, but I've been guilty on that score, and often.  Not only the many times in my life that I've worked on Sundays, but also the many times, including recently, that I stopped by a grocery or pharmacy or gas station en route from church to home.
But, as Wife, expected, we never saw him nor heard any further word.  So, we're now approaching two full weeks without running water.
One of my private theories, something that I can't prove, is that those things that we take for granted, and thus cease to give thanks for, may be removed to highlight the failure.  So I should be, and try to be, grateful for the ability to eat, drink, breathe, see, process the food and eliminate the residue, to have relatively good blood sugar and liver and kidney function, a place to sleep and relatively warm clothes and ..............       quite a list, really.  Not that I believe that the Lord is sitting there with a mallet in hand, ready to smack me, but that the "attitude of gratitude" should not be boilerplate, but real.  Been guilty on that matter many times.  Yes, He has done great things.  Some of them things that I had considered to be impossible.  Until they happened.
And there is a point to all of this.  All of it.
But, I admit, I would really like to have running water, and hot water, and the ability to take a long hot shower. 

Wife's been miserable for several days.  At this  point, I suspect we'll be making another of those doctor office visits.  A miracle healing about now would be most welcome.






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Our reading today is chapters 27 and 28 in the Genesis.
It seems like things just got started.  Then we saw Abram.  And then Isaac.  Now we  have Jacob and Esau.  Early stages of a rivalry that we see to this day.

Genesis 27

 27:1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.

27:2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:

27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;

27:4 And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.

27:5 And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.

27:6 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying,

27:7 Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death.

27:8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.

27:9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth:

27:10 And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.

27:11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man:

27:12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.

27:13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.

27:14 And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved.

27:15 And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son:

27:16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:

27:17 And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

27:18 And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?

27:19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy first born; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.

27:20 And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy God brought it to me.

27:21 And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.

27:22 And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

27:23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him.

27:24 And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am.

27:25 And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine and he drank.

27:26 And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.

27:27 And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:

27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:

27:29 Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

27:30 And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

27:31 And he also had made savory meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.

27:32 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau.

27:33 And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.

27:34 And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.

27:35 And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.

27:36 And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?

27:37 And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?

27:38 And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

27:39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;

27:40 And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

27:41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

27:42 And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.

27:43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;

27:44 And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away;

27:45 Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?

27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?



Genesis 28 

28:1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

28:2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.

28:3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;

28:4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.

28:5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

28:6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;

28:7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;

28:8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;

28:9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

28:10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

28:11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

28:13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

28:15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

28:16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

28:17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

28:18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

28:19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

28:20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,

28:21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:

28:22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.