“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 22, Day 4: Isaiah 43:19 & Others
9a) Suffering makes you realize that you are not in control of your life, so you turn to the One who is for help to get through your troubles and get at least a sense of normalcy.
b) There have been many difficulties in my life, from bankruptcy to moves and more. Every time, I grow closer to Him and His ways and path for my life.
c) I am inspired by all those throughout history that have suffered for a cause or for the kingdom, from the apostles who were martyred to Christians today who refuse to compromise on the Words of the Bible. It inspires me to be a better person.
10)
Numbers 32:23: He draws us to Him when we fail to do things His way or follow His Word.
Psalm 40:17: He uses financial difficulties (or poor in spirit), so we depend on Him.
Psalm 118:13-14: He uses our setbacks to grow us towards Him.
Jeremiah 9:7: He tests us to refine us and draw us closer to Him.
Zechariah 13:9: He refines us by fire in our lives so we call upon Him.
11a) Pride. Self-aggrandizement. The need to be right and be in control. The shame we feel admitting we failed.
b) God shows others through me that you don’t have to be perfect; you are great even in your weaknesses.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 22, Day 4: Isaiah 43:19 & Others
Great study on suffering. We only need to turn to God to come through on the other side.
End Notes BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 22, Day 4: Isaiah 43:19 & Others
God will make our way. We just have to trust Him.
Our job is to remain faithful through suffering and grow from it. To trust Him through the pain and hard times.
His will and work are accomplished through our pain.
He will complete His work in us.
In hard times, we recognize the truth — that God upholds us every day.
Jesus tells the Parable of the Tenants. A landowner rented out his vineyard. When it was time to collect the rent, he sent his servants to do so. The tenants beat one servant, killed another, and stoned a third. The landowner sent other servants who were treated the same way. Finally, he sent his son who was killed, too. Jesus asks what will the landowner do when he goes to his tenants. The response is he will kill them and rent out the land to others.
Jesus said that the stone that was rejected will be the capstone, quoting Psalm 18:22-23. He says the kingdom of God will be taken from them (the priests and teachers of the law) and given to a people who will produce fruit (Gentiles). The chief priests wanted to arrest Jesus but couldn’t because everyone saw him as a prophet.
BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 22, Day 4: Matthew 21:33-46
10) The landowner is God. The tenants is Israel. The servants are the Old Testament prophets. The heir is Jesus. The vineyard is the land of Israel.
11a) Jesus is the cornerstone of Christianity. Faith in Jesus is the key to the kingdom of heaven. 1 Corinthians 1:23 says Jesus is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. Jesus is the stumbling stone to many to God. Those who reject Jesus will never gain the kingdom of heaven, which is Jesus’s message to the religious leaders. Those who accept Jesus (the Gentiles in Jesus’s parable) will bear fruit and gain heaven.
b) Every way. People reject Jesus’s message in every aspect of their lives, picking and choosing what to believe and what not to believe.
12) It makes life harder, that’s for sure. When people don’t do the right thing.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 22, Day 4: Matthew 21:33-46
The message is one of how without Jesus, you are lost and do harm to others indiscriminately like how the religious leaders are persecuting and will kill Jesus. There are severe consequences for doing so.
More ways to help strengthen your prayer life!
End Notes BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 22, Day 4: Matthew 21:33-46
The belief of the tenants was if they killed the heir, then they would be able to take over the vineyard for themselves. Instead, the owner would judge and destroy them.
God told Jacob to settle in Bethel and build Him an altar there. So Jacob and his household prepared to move, ridding themselves of their idols, purifying themselves, and changing their clothes. Jacob buried the foreign gods and their rings under an oak at Shechem. God protected them as they went so they would not suffer repercussions from the slaughter of Shechem.
No one pursued Jacob and his family when they left Shechem for God sent a terror upon them. Jacob built an altar at Bethel as instructed by God. Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died. God appeared to Jacob again and re-named him Israel.
God repeats his covenant to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, saying to be fruitful and multiply for a nation will come from your body and He will give this land to his descendants. God left and Jacob set up a stone pillar.
Rachel died after they left Bethel giving birth to Benjamin. She was buried along the route. Israel moved on and stayed for a bit near Migdal Eder. Here, Reuben slept with Bilhah.
Jacob’s 12 sons are: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
Jacob finally arrived home in Hebron to see Isaac who was still alive. Isaac died at age 180 and was buried by Jacob and Esau.
BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 22, Day 4: Genesis 35
9) God told Jacob to settle in Bethel and build Him an altar there. Bethel is the place where God appeared to Jacob in a dream, renewing His covenant with Jacob, promises to watch over him wherever he goes and bless the world through him.
10) He purged his household of idols and had everyone purify themselves. Then they set out to God’s command.
35:3: Answers in distress and is with you wherever you go.
35:9-10: God blesses and molds people
35:11-12: God keeps his promises and repeats them
b) God is with me. He leads. He helps in my distress. He blesses. He keeps His promises. He protects. He cares. He is my everything.
12) The repercussions of man’s first sin in the Garden: death of his loved ones: Rachel and Isaac. His son sleeping with his concubine.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 22, Day 4: Genesis 35
Woah! Anyone else shocked that Jacob knew about foreign gods in his household and let them stay until God told him to move? Man, he is flawed, isn’t he? Yet, we see Jacob obey this time. He is growing with God.
A lot happens in this chapter that the Bible ploughs through.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 22, Day 4: Genesis 35
Jacob Gets Right With God
Note how God is not mentioned once in Genesis 34. Yet, He reappears here, being mentioned over 10 times. God is with us, orchestrating, no matter what evil is going on in the world.
Jacob is in effect returning to God here. He is finally going to Bethel to be separate from others as he was supposed to do earlier. (Genesis 31:13). His whole family will benefit because of it.
Rachel probably still had the foreign gods she stole from her father, Laban. It appears more had foreign gods. Jacob gets right with God, all follow him.
Changing of the clothes signifies a return to God. Those earrings must have been pagan worship as well. Everything associated with pagans must go in a cleansing.
God ensured no one hurt them as revenge for Shechem Genesis 34:30.
Jacob obeyed God fully, building an altar. Nothing is more important than obedience to God’s call.
Deborah is mentioned for the first time. This is pretty cool. She was buried at Allon Bachuth or “oak of weeping.” I would have liked to have been mentioned. Note how Rebekah’s death was not recorded. Don’t confuse this Deborah for Deborah the judge in the book of Judges.
God appeared to Jacob again for the 4th time (apparently in bodily form i.e. Jesus) and reminded him of his new name, Israel. God wants to remind us of who we are to Him. Revelation 2:4-5 renewing his covenant.
Children are blessings, yet all Rachel saw was sorrow, naming her son, Ben-Oni, “son of my sorrow.” Jacob renamed him Benjamin “son of his right hand.”
Rachel was buried where she died, some distance from Ephrath. Rachel has been remembered in Scripture for her weeping. Jeremiah described the mourning of Assyrian exiles as Rachel weeping for her children (Jeremiah 31:15) and Herod’s murder of Bethlehem’s boys as Rachel as well (Matthew 2:18).
Your right hand is typically your strong one if you are right-handed. Of course, Jesus sits at God’s right hand.(Colossians 3:1). We see the right hand elsewhere in the Bible too: Exodus 15:6: Psalm 16:8 (Psalm 63:8) (Psalm 138:7).
We see Rachel’s death as a fulfillment of Jacob’s curse (Genesis 31:32). and as Rachel herself wanted to die if she didn’t have kids Genesis 30:1,
Life still happens, as does death and sorrow from man’s first sin.
Reuben, Jacob’s first son and the one seemingly to carry forth the blessings, sleeps with Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine, the mother of Reuben’s brothers dan and Naphtali. It’s Judah who will bring forth the Messiah. This was a power act and nothing more.
Jacob’s family is most definitely dysfunctional
Jacob does get to see Isaac again. What a blessing. We need to remember this since we never know when we’ll see someone in our lives for the last time. Isaac dies at 180 and Esau returns for the burial. It’s good to see even in such dysfunctional families, love still remains.
We never see Jacob and Esau together after this in Scripture.
Summary of passages: Genesis 27:42-28:9: Rebekah hears Esau’s plans to kill Jacob so she sends for Jacob and tells him to go and live with her brother Laban in Haran until Esau’s temper cools. She tells Isaac she doesn’t want Jacob to marry a Hittite woman so Isaac blesses him and commands him to go to Paddan Aram to the house of his mother’s father Bethuel and take a wife from the daughters of Laban. He blessed him again with fruitfulness and with the blessing given to Abraham.
Esau learned what had happened and he took a wife from Ishmael’s line in an effort to please his father.
Hebrews 12:6-14: The Lord disciplines those He loves and punishes everyone He accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline for God is treating you as a son. For if you are not disciplines then you are not sons of God. Everyone is disciplined. God disciplines us for our good so we may share in His holiness.
Discipline is never pleasant but it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.
Questions:
10) Jacob got sent away from the only home he has known. He has to endure Laban. He is tricked into marrying Leah. He had to work for 14 years to have Rachel. He slept with her maidservant when she couldn’t have kids (sound familiar?). He has to flee from Laban.
Rebekah spends the rest of her days without Jacob. She dies before he returns-never seeing him again or getting the chance to say good-bye.
11) Just the fact that Isaac is giving Jacob the blessing willingly when he really wants to give it to Esau shows he trusts God when God chose Jacob to be the heir. He trusts God to find a wife for Jacob. He blesses Jacob with the same blessing God has blessed him with: bless him financially and multiply in number and take possession of the Promised Land.
Conclusions: I have nothing positive to say about this lesson so I won’t say anything at all.
Note how God is not mentioned once in Genesis 34. Yet, He reappears here, being mentioned over 10 times. God is with us, orchestrating, no matter what evil is going on in the world.