Bible Trek in 80 Days

By Deborah Novak

"Winds of hurricane force swept down, catching the boat so that steering was impossible and they were driven in a crazy zig-zag by the storm. Paul, the only one not panicking, told them to keep up their courage: they wouldn't drown – they would be rescued: God had told them they would run aground on some island…."

Just one of the many hair-raisers from Bible Trek in 80 Days – a book designed to make easier reading of the dramatic history that enlivens the Holy Bible.
From Abraham, chosen by God to found the nation of the Jews, through to Moses, David and all the succeeding kings, to the eternal king, Jesus Christ, who came to earth to rescue us, and on to Paul, a pillar in the newly-sprouting church, the excitement will keep you reading. Continual Bible references will prove the verity of this amazing saga.
You will laugh, you will cry, you will stand in awe at the greatness of God. There are only 78 chapters, not 80; you will need 2 days' rest at the end, to recover.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781922788375

Book preview

THE GRAND ESCAPE

Tracing the birth of the nation of Israel and its development into a kingdom

– THE GRAND ESCAPE –

1. A Nation in Embryo

How old is the universe? How big is it? Scientists will tell us that there are a trillion stars in a billion galaxies, a million light years away, all accelerating at enormous speeds, courtesy of dark energy, whatever that may be! I can’t help wondering, through my amazement, how relevant is size in space that is endless? What does age count for in a universe billions of years old?

I feel more connected to the statistics of the earth we inhabit. If this planet, the third from the sun and the densest in the Solar System, were to move in its orbit too far from its mean distance of 150 million kilometres from the sun, it would be uninhabitable. But it is in exactly the right spot for it to bear plant life sufficient to maintain its animal life, with the required balance of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and sunlight. Its lands and oceans are endowed with everything needed by mankind and it is decorated with enough grandeur and delicate beauty to lift the spirit and the soul.

But let me turn from science to apologetics and say that what signifies more to me is the who of the universe. My Bible tells me that it was made by God, and I bow in humble worship before the magnificence of this Creator. By scientific exploration man reaches up to God, yet he can never quite make the distance. He may climb the mountain because it is there, but he can never work out why God put it there. In God’s order of things it is His prerogative to reach down to us, to provide us with all we need to lead a good and full life on this earth, and to reach Him simply through faith, obedience and our innate desire to worship.

It heartens us to know that God does have a plan for the universe and a plan for our own small planet: He alone is the guide who can teach us how to live. Because He is love itself He created mankind to be the recipient of that love and placed him in a world with everything he could desire to live a satisfying life. Mankind wasted no time in messing things up but God wiped the slate clean with the Flood and began again with the God-fearing Noah and his family. The story is in Genesis chapters 6-9.

How can we reconcile our concept of God, the mighty Creator of the Universe, with the God Who condescends to coping with the frailties of mankind? Why do you think God gave mankind the gift of freewill, knowing what would be the result?

In thanks for deliverance from the Flood Noah built an altar and worshipped God. His patriarchal declaration concerning his sons apportioned to his eldest son Shem the greatest blessing and dominance over his brothers. In time Shem had five sons and lived to the good old age of 600, to see the birth of his great–(to the power of 7) grandson, a man upon whom God had set His hand for a unique role in history, a man whose family would grow into a nation and spread its influence throughout the world. His name was Abram.

Abram lived in the city of Ur, whose civilization and culture had already reached high levels. Over four millennia the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates built up a vast plain of silt but in Abram’s day Ur was a port where the Euphrates ran into the Persian Gulf. Traders sailed their dhows as far as the Indus Valley and possibly as far as Ceylon. Here they could have met the junks of China and established far eastern trade. To Ur’s west, caravans would follow the Fertile Crescent – northwest along the Euphrates, then west and southward to Damascus and other river-valley civilizations such as Egypt, which looked across the Mediterranean to the cultures of prehistoric Europe. The city of Ur, the centre of manufacturing, farming, shipping and extensive trade, also had a huge library; it would have been a stimulating place for a man of intellect. Modern excavation has revealed the famous royal cemeteries, dating c. 2500 B.C., yielding jewellery and art treasures of unbelievable beauty, head attire, personal jewels and a golden tumbler and cup of Queen Shubad.

But Ur was also a centre for the worship of the moon-god Nannor and his consort Ningal and according to Joshua 24:2, Abram’s father Terah was among the worshippers. Yet we see in Genesis 12:1 (and repeated by Stephen the martyr in Acts 7:2,3) that God came to Abram in that city with a very definite call to leave it all behind and begin another civilisation to the west.

We wonder how God spoke, and how Abram knew that it was God. It seems that Noah had died two years before Abram was born, making Shem the oldest father alive at that time and therefore a priest and a king to his own family. We can imagine that as such, he took it upon himself to visit the city of Ur. Amid all the gods of the surrounding nations of which Abram would have been aware, did Shem talk to his great-great-etc-grandson of the one true God and the need to worship Him alone? Could it have been Shem’s influence that made Abram, and his father, willing to leave the comforts of Ur for a hard trek to an unknown destination? Perhaps Abram, aware of a world lost in degrading views of God, longed for something purer, better, holier, a desire to begin again in a new place with a new vision and worship of God. In any case, by Genesis 12:1 we know that Abram did indeed know God enough to recognize His voice.

In how many ways does God speak? In as many ways as there are individuals willing to listen to Him! Consider how God speaks to you, and how you know it is God’s voice. God can use whatever method He knows is most effective for you – through friends, advisors, circumstances, inner convictions, strong urges. One reliable way to check the veracity of a call is to ask, does it concur with the principles laid down in Scripture? Does it have the potential to bring glory to God, and not just fulfil our own desires? Does it, in the light of God’s plan for us, make sense? (The Holy Spirit has common sense far beyond our own!) Satan will trick us into wrong decisions if he can: we need to ask God selflessly and trustfully, what is His will for us – and be ready to accept His answer!

We see in this Genesis passage that God’s message to Abram came with a mind-boggling promise. First, there was a cost. Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. This was no mean task. Abram was already wealthy, with a retinue of servants and livestock. Food for the whole company would magnify the baggage. Without the convenience of on-line reservations and credit cards, travelling arrangements would have been horrendous, apart from the grief of leaving behind all his nearest and dearest, and life as he knew it.

But with the cost came a sevenfold promise in Genesis 12:2,3 – I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Notice that this blessing was not only for Abram himself, but that through him, blessing might flow to the rest of the world. Abram believed God’s promise, enough to act upon it, and with this uncomplicated trust he set into action the amazing plan of God.

We don’t know why Terah went too, for it was to Abram that God gave His call, but the company also included Sarai, Abram’s wife and Terah’s grandson Lot, whose father had died in Ur. They left with the intention of going to Canaan, but for this they had to travel the route of the Fertile Crescent and once having made it to Haran, Terah put his patriarchal foot down and decided to stay. City life would have been strong in the tribe and Haran, a flourishing caravan city enriched by local resources such as iron, copper, ivory and timber, and whose inhabitants also worshipped the moon god, would have supplied the temptation of safety and satisfaction to the ageing Terah. So there the whole family settled and it was not until Terah died that Abram felt himself free to go on and follow his dream. (See Acts 7:4, Stephen’s speech).

Was Abram wrong to let family ties, vitally important in that culture, delay his pilgrimage to the land God had set apart for him? Was it a compromise with the imperfect faith of Terah? How many young people aspiring to godliness have been put off by parents who failed in their own walk with God? But the important lesson here is that, whether Abram was right or wrong, God waited! He didn’t discount his reluctant follower in favour of a better one. In His infinite grace He waited until Abram was ready to obey, the covenant He had made with him still intact. Such mercy from God still rescues us today.

Genesis 12:4-9 tells the story. It was around 2,000 B.C., at the age of 75, that Abram set out once more, southward towards Canaan, with his wife Sarai and nephew Lot, for whom Abram now felt responsible, and whom Abram may have envisaged as an heir in light of his own childless state. Verse 5 notes all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran.

They travelled as far as Shechem, a Canaanite settlement to the west of the Jordan River, roughly halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. It is interesting to speculate whether Shem, if he did preach to Abram, told him of Noah’s prophecy to Ham, his youngest son and father of Canaan, in Genesis 9:25 – Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. In years to come, the Semite nation coming from Abram would indeed conquer Canaan, in fulfillment of the promise that God gave to Abram at Shechem, To your offspring I will give this land. Responding in faith, and with his new-found freedom, Abram built an altar of worship there and then proceeded onto Bethel, built another altar and worshipped God. Both Shechem and Bethel were to figure prominently in the history of the nation of Israel.

A challenge came in the form of a famine and here Abram’s faith wavered to the extent that he left this promised land for the tempting fleshpots of Egypt. To protect himself he lied to Pharaoh that Sarai, still beautiful at 65, was his sister rather than his wife. Pharaoh gladly responded to the overture but this incurred God’s punishment in the form of disease within Pharaoh’s own household and his rebuke that Abram should have deceived him so. Here is your wife. Take her and go! he ordered, and Abram left Egypt like a whipped dog (with a very relieved wife, I imagine) and went right back to where he should have stayed, at Bethel; here in repentance he once more worshipped God.

The temptation to manage our own affairs is as old as history, with the usual unsatisfactory results. What does it take to make us realise that God knows best?

In chapter 13 we learn that Abram had become very wealthy in livestock, in silver and gold, and Lot had also acquired flocks and herds to the extent that there was not enough grazing for the two of them to stay together. It would be best to part company as there was plenty of land to share. Abram gave Lot first choice and self-centredly Lot chose the fertile, well-watered plain of the Jordan. It was a choice that would bring much regret in future years.

But God had not forgotten His promise and gave Abram magnificent encouragement in verses 14-17 – Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you. And Abram, once more with childlike trust, built another altar at Hebron and continued his worship of God.

It did not take long for farmer Lot to move into the comforts of the city of Sodom, infamous for its wickedness. In chapter 14 a battle between two groups of local kings resulted in the sacking of Sodom and the capture of Lot and his family. When this was reported to Abram he quickly mustered 318 trained men born in his household – a measure of his wealth! – and using some brilliant guerrilla tactics he was able to rescue Lot, family, possessions and all.

Returning from the battle in triumph, he was met by the mysterious Melchizedek, king of Salem, and priest of God Most High (verse 18), who gave Abram a blessing while Abram gave him a tribute of one-tenth of his plunder. In gratitude for deliverance the king of Sodom offered Abram the rest of the plunder but Abram refused to become obligated to this head of an evil regime. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 7 portrays Melchizedek as a type of Christ; in essence Abram’s homage was to God alone.

In chapter 15 God responds to Abram’s faithfulness with a vision and a message, Do not be afraid, Abram (i.e. of reprisals from the vanquished kings after his victory), I am your shield, your very great reward, – (greater than the land he had sacrificed to Lot). Yet Abram could not understand how he, still childless, could father a nation, and the Lord reassured him that a son coming from his own body would indeed be his heir. God took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.

Abram did look up at the stars: there are more than 8,000 stars that are clearly visible in an Eastern sky – and his response in verse 6 has come down to us through the ages as a benchmark of faith – Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. Paul quoted this to prove a point in Romans 4:3 and Galatians 3:6, and James’s quote is in 2:23, where he went on to describe the resulting relationship between God and Abram – he was called God’s friend. In verses 18,19 of Genesis 15 God outlined in detail the land He had already promised to Abram: this was fulfilled exactly in the reign of King Solomon.

Look up Romans 4:1-3 to see Paul’s comment on Abram’s righteousness. Did that apply only to that time or that patriarch? For answer, look up verses 16, 17. We do not have to turn only to the New Testament to see the workings of God’s grace: it is demonstrated over and over again throughout the Old Testament, as here to Abram. God’s grace is forever!

We come to chapter 16, and another blot on the copybook – a blot spreading its ugly mark across the world even today. With Abram and his wife still childless, Sarai had the brilliant idea – not uncommon then and not considered immoral – of giving her Egyptian maid Hagar to Abram so that she might be a surrogate mother for their child. Abram meekly agreed, but when Hagar very quickly conceived she naturally despised her barren mistress and Sarai in bitterness had the hide to blame Abram with the self-righteous words, May the Lord judge between you and me. Abram again meekly gave the unfortunate Hagar into Sarai’s hands to do with her as she liked and the pregnant Hagar was banished, ending the hope of Abram having a son in his household.

Hagar fled from Sarai’s mistreatment but an angel of the Lord appeared to her with a message to return to her mistress and a promise that her descendants would be too numerous to count. He had a strange prophecy for the unborn son – You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers. So Hagar obediently returned to the household and bore Abram a son, significantly named as the angel had instructed, Ishmael.

Did Sarai acquire Hagar during that ill-fated trip to Egypt? The prophecy regarding her son began its fulfilment in Genesis 25:12-18, where the 12 sons of Ishmael developed into tribes and moved away in the direction of Egypt, (under any matriarchal influence?) settling in the north-western part of the Arabian Peninsula. Verse 18 comments that they lived in hostility toward all their brothers – hostility which even today is having terrible repercussions in the Middle East. While Arab nations, with the tradition that Ishmael is their ancestor, can never consolidate, they are one in their hatred of their common enemy, the people of Israel. It is frightening to consider how far-reaching can be one wrong action. So we give this study a cliff-hanger ending: was that the nation God had promised to Abram?

– THE GRAND ESCAPE –

2. One Tiny Bud

Thirteen years passed. Abraham was now 99 and still without the heir that God had promised him. But a lot was going to happen in the coming year.

In Genesis chapter 17 God elaborates on His original promise, and it is mind-boggling. You will be the father of many nations, He told Abram. "No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham. Kings will come from you. I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants … to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."

God continued that Sarai’s name should also be changed to Sarah, that He would bless her and give Abraham a son by her. She would be the mother of nations and kings of peoples would come from her.

As a sign of this covenant God initiated the rite of circumcision for all males who came under the umbrella of Israel, whether born there or bought as servants. It is significant to note that God ordered this to be done on the eighth day of the son’s life; medical science tells us that on the eighth day of a baby’s life the blood-clotting agent rises to 110%, falling back to normal on the ninth day!

Abraham, though sceptical with impatience at the delay in God’s promise of a son, and secretly laughing at the absurdity of it, was strictly obedient to God’s command, undergoing the trial of circumcision himself before he carried it out on the rest of his household that very day.

Note verse 4 – You will be the father of many nations. God’s plan for Israel did not exclude the rest of us, and this is only one of many Old Testament references to the inclusion of the Gentiles in that plan. Paul in Romans 4:17 quotes this verse to his Gentile readers to drive home the point that, through our faith in Abraham’s God, Abraham is the father of us all.

Note too the repetition of the word everlasting in God’s promise. How else do we account for the fact that tiny Israel exists to this day, right in the midst of the huge, ferocious, antagonistic nations surrounding her? And thanks to Israel’s Eternal King we can share in the promised land where live the sons and daughters of God.

In the midst of this there came another test for Abraham. In Chapter 18:3 messengers of God came to him in the form of travellers and foretold the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah in punishment for their extreme wickedness. Abraham, still feeling responsible for his wayward nephew Lot, bargained with God against the sentence. If just 50 people in Sodom were found to be righteous, would God still destroy the city? No, God would withhold His hand for sake of 50. What about 45 or 40, or perhaps 30? Abraham in bold desperation brought the stakes down to 20 and then 10, and still God listened to his pleas. Confident in the justice of God, Abraham dared to make the challenge, Far be it from you to kill the righteous with the wicked. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?

But not even Lot and his household could produce ten people who could be called righteous. From his vantage point in the hills Abraham watched with horror next morning as burning sulphur rained down on the two cities. With the urgent help of the same messengers who had come to Abraham, Lot managed to escape with his wife and two daughters. But even then his wife, in disobedience, stopped to look back nostalgically at Sodom, and was immobilised as the teeming salt engulfed her. As for the daughters, they may have left Sodom but Sodom had not left them. Horrified that there were no men to give them heirs in this desolate country, they schemed to make their father drunk so that they could commit incest with him. They got their wish; both bore sons, Moab and Ben-Ammi, whose progeny, the Moabites and the Ammonites, were to become bitter enemies of the nation of Abraham’s children. Ezekiel 25 contains God’s words of judgement against both nations.

How discouraged do you feel when the prayers of years for your nearest and dearest are not answered as you had hoped? Bringing judgement on sinners is just as heart-breaking for God as it is for us, yet He will not violate the freewill with which He has endowed mankind. There is no trite consolation; our only way to peace is to leave the management of the situation in God’s hands.

Chapter 20 is almost unbelievable. For a second time Abraham moved out of the territory God had promised him, towards the well-watered Philistine country along the coast, and in fear of the king Abimelech, he asked Sarah once again to pose as his sister to save his own skin. No matter that God had promised his son would come from Sarah, and that surely she should then have had her purity strictly guarded! By the grace of God Abimelech detected the deceit before he had committed any violation, and gave Abraham the rebuke he deserved. Yet this pagan showed tremendous grace, bringing a gift of slaves and livestock and 1,000 shekels (about 11.5 kilograms) of silver to Abraham, along with the invitation, My land is before you; live wherever you like. Later the pair were to enact a treaty of goodwill and mutual kindness, prompted by Abimelech’s realisation that God is with you in everything you do. (Chapter 21:22).

Do you know non-believers who put Christians to shame with their kindness, honesty, courage and unselfishness? Even as we admire Abraham we can see only too well that he had his faults. Yet God chose him, as He chose the vacillating, complaining, fickle race that came from him! We can never understand the ways of God: we just have to be grateful that He doesn’t wait for us to be perfect before He chooses us!

How can we measure the abounding grace of God? For Chapter 21 brings us to the peak of our story, the culmination of all the waiting and hoping and longing. It simply tells us that the Lord was gracious to Sarah and did exactly what He had promised; she became pregnant and bore a son. She was 90; Abraham was 100. As instructed by God in chapter 17:19, Abraham named the baby Isaac, which means, he laughs. Sarah had her own special joy. God has brought me laughter, she exulted, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.

But even on this joyful situation a shadow fell. At the weaning of the boy there were special celebrations, but Sarah noticed the fourteen-year-old Ishmael mocking her own son. There was no way she could stand that, and in verse 10 gave a strident command to Abraham – Get rid of that slave woman and her son, …. he will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.

Abraham was distressed: after all, Ishmael was his son too, and to cast him out would be to violate every code of the prevalent law. Yet God spoke to him gently; it had to be this way, for it was to be through Isaac, the child of promise, that Abraham’s blessing would find fulfilment, while God Himself would look after Ishmael and his future.

How do you feel as you read verses 14-20, the culmination of all the unfairness Hagar had suffered? Yet God did not forsake her, and verse 20 shows He kept His promise – God was with the boy as he grew up. We live in a God-forsaking world with all its heartache, yet we can cling to one steadfast hope - our God will never forsake us.

In Chapter 22 Abraham faced the greatest challenge to his faith in God. How could he accept God’s incomprehensible command to him in verse 2, Take your son, your only (or precious) son, Isaac, whom you love, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering? Yet verse 3 shows Abraham’s courage and unquestioning obedience – Early the next morning he prepared for the journey to where God had stipulated this sacrifice should be carried out – Mount Moriah.

We can only imagine the tension as Abraham left his two servants and the donkey at a distance while he and Isaac went on towards the mountain, the boy with the wood strapped to his back. As any teenager would, Isaac wanted to know where was the only missing ingredient in this act of worship – the sacrificial animal? All he got was Abraham’s enigmatic answer – God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

It is hard to know whose was the greater agony as the father built the altar, arranged the wood on it and then bound the son as the sacrifice. It tells us a lot about the submission of Isaac as he lay there, a stripling who could have overpowered his ageing father if he had wanted to escape. It seems the faith and obedience of Abraham had become ingrained completely in his son.

And then, even as Abraham raised the knife, deliverance came. Abraham! Abraham! God called from heaven. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son. And there, caught by his horns in a thicket, was a ram to be used for the sacrifice.

There and then God repeated the covenant He had made with Abraham – His blessing in the growth of a conquering nation, and a blessing that would be passed on to all nations of the earth. Little could Abraham dream of the extent of that blessing. It is interesting to note the extent of the influence which Jews have wielded over the world down through the centuries. Nobel laureates, historians, scientists, philosophers, doctors, economists, musicians, writers, artists, lawyers – all descended from Abraham!

But of course the ultimate blessing comes from Abraham’s greatest son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice whom God provided. God’s one and only Son, promised before He was born, bearing to the Cross the wood for His sacrifice, submitting willingly to be bound to the Cross, dying yet being raised again to life, that those who believe and are committed to Him, should become not only children of Abraham, but wonderfully, children of God.

Before we leave the story of Abraham there is one more glowing example of his faith that is worth noticing; turn to chapter 23. At the age of 127 Sarah died in Hebron, a Canaanite town controlled by the Hittites. For a burial place in the locality Abraham sought to buy a cave belonging to Ephron, but Ephron took advantage of Abraham’s grief to bargain that the cave could not be bought without the field surrounding it – and for the exorbitant price of 400 shekels of silver. (In Jeremiah 32:9 the prophet bought a similar piece of Palestinian real estate for 17 shekels of silver!) Abraham only needed the cave, but did not lower himself to haggle. He was careful to have the document of sale drawn up with elaborate detail, and with legitimate witnesses, and thus became a landowner in the land of Canaan. We have been told already that Abraham believed God; here he showed his faith by forking out without question a huge sum as his initial stake in the promised land, in the confidence that God would fulfil His promise that eventually the whole land of Canaan would belong to him and his descendants.

We may urge people to put their money where their mouth is to show they are genuine. We may declare our faith in God, but do we baulk when faced with the cost of following that faith?

– THE GRAND ESCAPE –

3. The Bud Blossoms

Three years had passed since Sarah’s death. Genesis chapter 24 begins, Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. There was just one small hitch – Isaac, on whose shoulders rested the sole responsibility of carrying on the family of God’s promise, was 40 years old, and still single. Something had to be done.

As we read the story of Isaac he appears to be a rather insipid character, his virtues all passive ones. Perhaps he had lived for too long in the shadow of his colossus of a father, with Abraham being over-protective and shielding him from the pagan society around them. It was quite usual for a father to find a bride for his son, but 40 years seems a long time to keep Isaac at home.

At any rate, at last Abraham set some wheels in motion. His chief servant, Eliezer of Damascus, had proved his loyalty and faithfulness over the years, and from the text we see that he had a meaningful faith in God, no doubt caught from his Godly master. To him Abraham entrusted the huge responsibility of finding a wife for Isaac. But not from the godless nations around them: Eliezer must go back to the land of Abraham’s family, bound with an oath to bring a girl from there. Only if she was unwilling to come, would the servant be freed from his commission. The depth of Abraham’s trust in Eliezer can be gauged from the gifts he gave him to bear as incentives – gold and silver jewellery and clothing amongst other things, with ten camels to carry it all.

Eliezer set out northwards and came to the town of Nahor, perhaps named after Abraham’s brother, in the vicinity of Haran, Abraham’s first stopping place out of Ur so many years ago. Eliezer set his camels to rest by the well and then, in verses 12-14, he prayed a humble, unselfish and sensible prayer to God for guidance.

God was quick to answer his uncomplicated faith. He hadn’t even finished praying before who should come out to fill her jar from the well, but Rebekah, the grandniece of Abraham! Now for the test. Eliezer asked her for a drink and she not only obliged graciously, but went on to draw enough water for all his camels. As camels can drink up to 200 litres in three minutes, this was no mean task! Wonderingly, Eliezer asked her name, and when Rebekah recounted her family’s connection to Abraham and an invitation of hospitality, the servant bowed down and worshipped the Lord in praise and thankfulness.

Have you ever asked God for a definite sign to point you to His will? Notice that Eliezer was sensible in his request: any girl willing to water ten camels would be strong, kind and generous, an asset in an agrarian household! If our desire to know God’s will is genuine He will give us the answer, but He does expect us to use our common sense: supernatural signs should be measured against other relevant factors.

Rebekah ran home to warn her mother of the coming guests. She had a brother, Laban, whom we shall learn later, was of a grossly acquisitive nature: when he saw the gifts Eliezer had given her – the expensive bracelets and nose ring which she was already wearing, he raced out to the benefactor with the fatuous words, Come, you who are blessed by the Lord! Eliezer was welcomed as an honoured guest, and his men and camels were all fed sumptuously.

Eliezer, however, would not eat until he had delivered his message from Abraham – whom, he stressed, was by now abounding in riches. Very simply he testified to his prayer and God’s gracious answer, praising Him Who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. It would have been hard to argue against that! We might wonder how much these relatives of Abraham knew about God, but it appears they had enough respect for Him to be prepared to abide by His choice. Eliezer then brought out more gold and silver jewellery and clothing for Rebekah, her mother and brother, who in turn wined and dined him well.

Next morning Eliezer was anxious to complete his mission, and while her mother and brother suggested a farewell period of ten days, Rebekah herself was willing to go to her future husband at once – another sign that Eliezer had prayed for – and with her nurse and maids they set off straight away for home.

Verses 62-67 are idyllic. Isaac in the cool of the evening went for a walk, and saw the caravan of camels advancing. Rebekah naturally wanted to know who that was, and Eliezer was quick to tell her, whereupon she veiled her face, a sign that she was unmarried. Eliezer related the story of his journey to Isaac, who lost no time in taking the girl – half his age! – into his dead mother Sarah’s tent (indicating that she was now the matriarch of the family) to become his wife. Verse 67, says She became his wife, and he loved her. This appears to be the very first Bible reference to love; it is rather special in that it portrays the love of husband for wife!

Back in chapter 17:19 God had told Abraham even before the son was born, Isaac … I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. Isaac, though just a shadow of his father, still enjoyed God’s blessing in his domestic life: we are told Rebekah was a comfort to him in the loss of Sarah, a mother who would have been totally devoted to him! God’s plan is for happy, fulfilled and productive families: if that is our situation, we owe Him a great debt of gratitude!

Now in chapter 25, verses 19ff, we come to a déjà vu, in that for 20 years Isaac and Rebekah were childless. We wonder how Abraham felt – he had waited 25 years from God’s first promise to its fulfilment in Isaac! Isaac prayed to the Lord and once again God’s answer had special significance. Rebekah became pregnant with twin boys, but even in the womb they were struggling with each other. In answer to Rebekah’s search for the reason, God gave her the prophecy in verse 23, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. As God had chosen Isaac alone of Abraham’s children, so Jacob was His chosen one of Isaac’s two sons. Such a choice before the boy had even had a chance to earn it, highlights the grace and the foreknowledge of God, Who acts toward mankind according to His sovereign will – a will always motivated by His love. Paul drives this home in Romans chapter 9.

The beginning of this chapter 25 tells us Abraham had more than the two sons in our story. He had taken Keturah as another wife and she had borne him six sons and in verse 6, he had given gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east. God had chosen Isaac for His purpose and accordingly Abraham had treated him as special, leaving everything he owned to this son of promise and even specifying the background of the woman he should marry. As Abraham had been called to separate himself from Ur, so now Isaac was called to live a life separated to the worship of God. When God calls us to His work, it is a condition that we separate ourselves from anything that would hinder us carrying it out to our best for Him. Ministry for God can be sabotaged by having to compete with conflicting interests: God wants us to enjoy a fully rounded life, but always He must come first.

So, with Isaac at the age of 60, Rebekah bore her sons, the first Esau and the second Jacob, who somehow managed to grasp Esau’s heel as he was born: apparently an expeditious birth! As the boys grew they exhibited opposite natures, Esau being the outdoorsy type, a hunter of the open country, and Jacob being a quiet stay-at-home with a rather facile mind. We may wonder how much Abraham saw of them, how much could he exert his influence. The twins were 15 years old when their grandfather died.

The contrast is heightened in verses 29-34 of chapter 25. One day Esau was hunting and came home famished. The aroma of the stew Jacob was cooking was too much and he begged his brother for some. But Jacob, whatever his faults, had a longing, entirely missing in Esau, for the fulfilment of God’s promise of blessing to his father and his grandfather and at the time applying to Esau. Taking advantage of Esau’s hunger he bargained with him – one pot of stew in exchange for all the advantages of being the eldest son. Uncaring, Esau readily paid such a price for a good feed. Verse 34 concludes So Esau despised his birthright, and in so doing he threw away for ever the chance of God’s unending blessing on him and on his descendants.

We too have a birthright – eternal life through becoming children of God. God forbid that we should ever forfeit that treasure for some trifling pleasure on earth!

There is more déjà vu in chapter 26. A famine in southern Canaan drove Isaac to Gerar in the fertile land of the Philistines and his friendly neighbour Abimelech. But here God met him and warned him against copying Abraham and resorting to Egypt. In verses 2-5 God confirms with Isaac the promises He had made to Abraham – I will be with you and bless you… To you and your descendants I will give all these lands … I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky … and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.

Amazingly, just like his father, Isaac still resorted to trickery to save his own skin, presenting Rebekah as his sister and not his wife. Fortunately all round, Abimelech caught the two of them canoodling one day and was quick to reprimand Isaac for his deceit. Amazingly again, the two remained good friends and Isaac was able to stay long enough in the land to plant crops – which by the blessing of God reaped a hundredfold! Twice the envious Philistine shepherds tried to drive him away by filling up the wells he had dug; Isaac showed himself to be a man of peace as he moved back towards Beersheba to dig a third well which the Philistines left undisturbed.

More blessing came from God at that point, verse 24: I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham. Isaac in response built an altar right there and worshipped God. There Abimelech came to him and the pair settled on a sworn agreement of mutual friendship. Isaac at last attained the status of a landowner and was able to exercise his own personal faith in God.

Meantime, Esau proved his unworthiness of the birthright by marrying two pagan women, much to the grief of Isaac and Rebekah. In chapter 27 Isaac, well over 100 years old and nearly blind, decided to put matters right himself by giving his official blessing to his errant but favoured son. Esau was to hunt down some wild game and cook Isaac’s favourite dish before the declaration of the blessing. Rebekah however overheard Isaac’s plans and, with Jacob as her favourite son, decided to put her own spoke in the proceedings. Under his mother’s cunning domination Jacob put on Esau’s clothes, used goatskins to imitate Esau’s hairy arms and offered his father tasty young goat’s meat cooked by Rebekah just as his father liked it.

Suspicious at first, Isaac ate the meal and, convinced by the smell of Esau’s clothes, gave to Jacob the blessing he had intended to give to his eldest son. Unwittingly Isaac echoed the blessing given to Abraham by God – the dew of heaven, the richness of the earth, nations to serve him, his brothers to be subject to him, and blessing on those who blessed him and curses on those who cursed him.

Jacob got out of the ceremony in the nick of time, for just then Esau appeared with the trophy of his hunt and prepared a tasty meal for his father. Who are you? Isaac wanted to know, and Esau replied, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau. Isaac’s violent trembling was only exceeded by Esau’s bitter cry as they both realised Jacob’s deception. On top of the birthright, Jacob had now stolen by trickery his father’s intended blessing for his firstborn. There was no unscrambling the egg. In response to Esau’s anguished, Bless me too, my father! Isaac uttered a prophecy that was an echo of God’s word to Rebekah before the twins were born – a dwelling away from the abundance of the earth, a life of fighting, and servitude to his younger brother until an eventual throwing off of the yoke of Jacob. History would prove the verity of his words: Esau’s descendants became the nation of Edom, a constant thorn in the side of Israel, defeated by Israel under King Jehoshaphat and breaking free again under his son King Jehoram. 2 Chronicles 20 and 2 Kings 8:20-22 give us the facts.

This is just one of many instances where one self-centred person brought about eventually bitter warfare between nations. There is only One completely selfless Person who can bring about international peace.

The enmity between the two brothers had now come to a head. Esau would contain his grudge only until his father died, and then he would avenge himself by taking Jacob’s life. There was only one solution as far as Rebekah could see, and that was to send Jacob away until Esau’s anger cooled, on the pretext of seeking a wife from her own family back in Haran. Cunningly she complained to Isaac that Esau’s wives were driving her mad and that Jacob must not be allowed to add any more pagan women to the household. Very clever of her, but she was to suffer for her part in the whole sorry scheme; she never saw her beloved son again.

In chapter 28 Isaac took up the idea and sent Jacob off on his mission, ironically enough with yet another blessing (verses 3 and 4) which would be fulfilled in the years to come. But Jacob could not know that yet. Alone, hated, his copybook well and truly blotted, the fugitive set out across the wild and lonely desert, ashamed to look back and afraid to look forward, his life seemingly in ruins. Let’s end with another cliff-hanger; what would happen to this man on whose shoulders now rested the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham?

– THE GRAND ESCAPE –

4. Stairway to Heaven

It was a dark night. Weary and miserable, Jacob found a sheltered spot on the ground and put a stone in place for a pillow: no inner-spring mattresses in those days. He fell into an exhausted sleep. Genesis 28:10ff tells the story.

But God had not forgotten His promise. He looked down on this wayward, broken man and in love reached down to him. His message came in the form of a dream, a vivid dream that Jacob was never to forget.

Back in the city of Ur there was a great ziggurat, a pyramid with stepped sides and a shrine at the top for the worship of Ur’s chief goddess. Up the side of the ziggurat there was a steep stairway, the remains of which can still be seen today. It is most probable that Abraham had recounted memories of such a place to his grandsons; the image of the stairway would have been lodged subconsciously in Jacob’s mind. And that was what God used to get through to him.

Our loving God treats us as individuals, using ways that are familiar to us in order to give us His message. Like a wise father He knows His children and treats them exactly as they need in their own circumstances. We only need to ask honestly for His guidance and He will give it in a form we can understand.

On the stairway in this dream angels of God were going up and down, while above them stood God Himself, speaking directly to Jacob. But it was not a condemnation, a rebuke for the mess he had made, a stern warning to mend his ways. It was a message of love and hope and a reinforcement of His promise to Abraham. Verses 13-15 of Chapter 28 are rich with blessing – possession of the very land he was traversing, innumerable descendants, and the promise of His unfailing presence until Jacob’s mission was accomplished.

Note especially verse 14 – All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. This is the third time God had added this clause – in chapter 12:3 to Abraham, in 26:4 to Isaac and now to Jacob. It was a Divine emphasis that the Gentiles were firmly included in God’s plan. His purpose in choosing Israel was that through this race the whole world would be blessed by coming to a knowledge of God for themselves. Israel failed miserably in her God-given mission: Christ alone could remedy her failure, as He gave Himself for the whole wide world.

Jacob woke up a different man. In awed reverence he realised that God was right there, with him, that the God Who had announced Himself as the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac was waiting to be the God of Jacob too. He had been in the presence of God, at the very gateway to heaven. As the sun rose on a new day Jacob took the stone he had used for a pillow and stood it on end to make a pillar, consecrating it by pouring oil over it. He called the place Bethel, which means house of God; significantly it was in the same general area as the place where Abraham had built an altar to the Lord on entering Canaan. (Chapter 12:8).

In verse 20 Jacob gave body to his thoughts by making a solemn vow to God. If God will be with me, sounds like he was bargaining with God, but the word if can be translated since, which would give a different spirit to his declaration. Jacob had made his decision; this God of his father and his grandfather would now be his God, too. Granted he saw the blessing of God in material terms, he still spontaneously committed one-tenth of his wealth to God, many years before the tithe appeared in the Mosaic law; it was a proof that he was genuine.

Chapter 29:1 says Jacob continued on his journey but the literal translation reads, Jacob lifted up his feet, a phrase used only once in the Old Testament. In other words, he was walking on air: the God of his fathers was now his God, with whom he could have a personal relationship. He had been forgiven: he was set free.

This is just one instance of the love of God that shines right through the Old Testament and reaches us today with the same sense of delight and relief. How can we measure that ageless, unchanging and undeserved love? We can never repay it; all we can do is accept it with our whole lives and give it back to Him by passing it on to others.

Chapter 29 continues; Jacob reached the land of his forbears and came to a well with three flocks of sheep waiting there to be watered. The shepherds were from Haran and knew his uncle Laban, and even as they were speaking a pretty shepherdess – Laban’s daughter Rachel – approached with her flock of sheep. Without waiting for all the shepherds to arrive and together move the heavy stone that covered the well, the strongman Jacob moved the stone himself and watered Laban’s sheep.

In his greeting to Rachel the reality of the situation hit him; in one sense he had come home. Relief vented itself in tears. Rachel ran home with the news and Laban was quick to come to the well to extend hospitality to his nephew. God had guided Jacob safely.

A month went by, doubtless with Jacob helping out on the land, and Laban realised he had to offer his nephew some pay. But Jacob wanted only one thing: he had fallen deeply in love with Rachel and was willing to work for seven years to win her as his bride. Laban agreed and the time seemed to fly as Jacob filled his part of the bargain. But here the one-time deceiver was to taste the bitterness of being deceived himself. On the wedding night brides wore a veil so that it was not until morning that Jacob saw he had been duped: his bride was not Rachel but the older, less attractive Leah. Laban excused the deception under cover of their custom being for the oldest child in a family to be married first. After a honeymoon of a week for Leah, Jacob could have Rachel too – and then work for another seven years!

It was not a happy situation, particularly for Leah! Jacob’s love was for Rachel alone, any attention to Leah being simply a matter of convenience. And God understood her woman’s heart, as we see in verse 31. In quick succession Leah bore four sons, her naming of them reflecting her agony and eventual acceptance of her role before God: Reuben – He has seen my misery ; Simeon – one who hears; Levi – attached; and Judah – I will praise the Lord.

Rachel was still childless and her jealousy prompted her to give her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob to bear surrogate children for her; the result was Dan and then Naphtali. But Leah had stopped bearing and didn’t want Rachel to catch up, so she gave her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob, resulting in two more sons, Gad and Asher. With a bit of connivance Leah manoeuvred Jacob into giving her two more sons, Issachar and Zebulun, and at last a daughter, Dinah.

It seemed like a recipe for disaster! Ten sons with three different mothers, growing up in an atmosphere of bitter rivalry. Was this to be the nation God had promised to Abraham? But God’s plan had not failed. The unloved Leah was given an amazing privilege: she was the mother of Levi, from whose children arose the God-ordained order of priests, and the mother of Judah, from whose descendants came the kings of Israel. In Jeremiah chapter 33 the Lord promises that there would always be kings, and always be priests, to stand before the Lord. In Revelation 5:10 the angels refer to the saints as they sing, You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God. And of course the ultimate fulfilment is in Jesus Christ – in Hebrews 7:21, the Lord has sworn, ‘You are a priest forever,’ and verse 25, He always lives to intercede for them. And Revelation 11:15 speaks of the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever. I think that for Leah in Heaven, her heartache is forgotten.

Chapter 30:22 sets a whole new direction to the story. God remembered Rachel and gave her at last the blessing of a son; she named him Joseph. For Jacob, his life took on new meaning. Here was his beloved Rachel reflected at last in the tiny features of her very own infant. From the outset the other sons took second place: this was his genuine love-child.

Maybe now Jacob was stirred to think seriously of the future. It was time to make his own fortune, not add to one whose fortune he had helped to make. He spoke with Laban, reminding him of the years he had spent in Laban’s service, and asking that now he might take his family and return to his inherited homeland. Laban demurred: Jacob had been an asset he did not want to lose. They bargained on terms, each trying to outsmart the other: there arose an uneasy hostility between the two families.

In Chapter 31:2 Jacob received instructions and a word of encouragement from God, Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you. Jacob was glad to obey, and relieved to find that his wives were just as disillusioned with their father, and willing to leave. The old deceiver in Jacob came to the fore as, in fear, he left secretly without any word of farewell, with his cavalcade of wives, children, and livestock.

When Laban found out he set off in hot pursuit, caught up and aired his grievance to Jacob, who hotly returned his own grievance at the treatment he had received in return for super-conscientious service. Words might have come to blows but for the fact that Laban had received a message from God (verse 29), Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad. But he did accuse Jacob of stealing the family gods and Jacob, unaware that Rachel was the culprit, hotly denied the claim. Grudgingly the two came to an agreement, setting up a heap of stones as a memorial and each vowing not to pass in enmity beyond the heap. May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other, (verse 49) is filled with misgivings about any mutual honesty!

So Laban returned to his home in the north and Jacob was free to continue south to the land promised to Abraham. In Chapter 32:1 he received a divine encouragement – the angels of God met him, and Jacob responded by acknowledging God was right there with him. But the message didn’t really sink in. They were approaching dangerous country, the homeland of Esau, and Jacob sent a conciliatory message via his servants, who came back with the news that Esau was on his way to meet his recalcitrant brother, and 400 men with him.

Jacob panicked, quickly organising his household into two groups in the hope that at least one half of them would be saved. Then he prayed, verses 9-12, reminding God of His promise, humbly admitting he wasn’t worthy of any of the favours God had given him, yet pleading for rescue so that God’s promise could still be fulfilled. Overnight he selected a huge gift of livestock for Esau, 550 head in all, and sent them off in stages to placate his brother. Then he sent his own family and all his possessions across the stream of Jabbok and he remained alone.

Verses 24-32 tell of a further encounter Jacob had with God. But he had to learn that the only way to win a battle with God was to surrender, and Jacob limped through the rest of his life with the realisation that he had seen God face to face, yet graciously his life had been spared. More, God had given him a new name, Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.

What do we do first in an emergency – panic or pray? Jacob could have saved himself a lot of worry and work if he had trusted God to deal with the meeting with Esau!

Chapter 33 is a relief, and here Esau shows himself in a better light than the manipulative Jacob, with a generous forgiveness and desire to remain friends. Jacob however could not bring himself to trust his brother, and even now, deceived Esau in parting company with him again. Instead of returning to Bethel and the land of your fathers as God had instructed, Jacob settled in Shechem. It was a great pity he did, according to the unsavoury story in Chapter 34, where immorality led to ugly deceitful vengeance with Jacob complaining to his sons, You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the people living in this land. The only glimmer of light in this sad story is the fact that Jacob’s family were prevented from intermarriage with the Godless people of the land.

In Chapter 35:1 God called Jacob back from his transgression. 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. Was this God’s subtle reminder that Jacob had pledged to build a house for God at Bethel so many years ago? Humbly repenting, Jacob purged his household of the foreign gods that had been secreted there by his family, and urged them, Come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress.

Saying goodbye forever to the old life, Jacob buried the gods and pagan jewellery at Shechem, and