Joshua 2 left the Israelites standing on the Jordan banks.
 
CROSSING THE JORDAN
JOSHUA 3
1 Joshua started early the next morning and left the Acacia Grove with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan and stayed there before crossing. 2 After three days the officers went through the camp 3 and commanded the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God carried by the Levitical priests, you are to break camp and follow it. 4 But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between yourselves and the ark. Don’t go near it, so that you can see the way to go, for you haven’t traveled this way before.”

• "The ark serves as a kind of 'divine crossing guard,' stopping the Jordan's flow until all Israel, including the priests, have safely crossed into Canaan."
• The writer of Joshua mentioned the ark 17 times in chapters 3 and 4.
• It was the visible symbol that God Himself was leading His people into the land and against their enemies.
• The people were to keep their distance from the ark, however: about 2,000 cubits, or more than half a mile.

5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, because the Lord will do wonders among you tomorrow.”

• It would be easier to understand if he had said, “Sharpen your swords and check your shields!”
• But spiritual not military preparation was needed at this time because God was about to reveal Himself by performing a great miracle in Israel’s midst.[1]
• Rid yourselves of any wrong doing.
• The people of Israel were to expect God to work a miracle.
• They were to be eager, gripped by a sense of wonder.
• Israel was not to lose sight of their God who can do the incredible and the humanly impossible.[2]

6 Then he said to the priests, “Carry the ark of the covenant and go on ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of them.
7 The Lord spoke to Joshua: “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they will know that I will be with you just as I was with Moses. 8 Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant: When you reach the edge of the water, stand in the Jordan.”
9 Then Joshua told the Israelites, “Come closer and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” 10 He said, “You will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hethites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites 11 when the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth goes ahead of you into the Jordan.

• Evidently the pushing back of the waters of the Jordan was to be a sign to the Israelites that God would push back the Canaanites

12 Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. 13 When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of the whole earth, come to rest in the Jordan’s water, its water will be cut off. The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass.”
14 When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people. 15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge 16 and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan. The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah—the Dead Sea—was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho. 17 The priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

• The Israelites crossed the Jordan when the river was at its widest, deepest, and swiftest—in late April or early May.
• As the snow on Mt. Hermon melts and the rainy season ends, the Jordan rises to a depth of 10 to 12 feet, and floods to a width of 300 to 360 feet at this location today.
• Normally it is only 150 to 180 feet wide here.
• However, in Joshua's day, the river may have been full only up to its banks, as the Hebrew text suggests.
• Pictures of the Jordan River (baptisms)
• The people considered swimming across the river at this time of year to be a heroic feat in ancient times (cf. 1 Chron. 12:15).
• This may be how the spies crossed.
• Interestingly, several earthquakes have sent much soil into the Jordan River at this very location in modern times, damming up the river for many hours (in A.D. 1267, 1837, and 1927).
• Perhaps an earthquake is what God used in Joshua's day, too.
• God may have supernaturally used, by divine timing, a natural phenomenon, like an earthquake or a landslide
• The possibility is that the phenomenon was entirely supernatural.
• Two million Israelites could have crossed the river in half a day if their crossing procession was a mile or more wide.
• Since the Jordan River dried up from Adam, 18 miles upstream from where the priests crossed, there would have been plenty of dry riverbeds for two million Israelites to cross.
• To slip away into the wilderness of Sinai by crossing the Red Sea required some faith.
• However, to invade the land of Canaan by crossing the Jordan River took a great deal more faith because, having once crossed the river, there would be no possibility of escape.
• Once in the land, they would have to face the enemy with their armies, chariots, and walled cities. The entire nation took this step together in complete commitment to God."

THE MEMORIAL STONES
4 After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua: 2 “Choose twelve men from the people, one man for each tribe, 3 and command them: Take twelve stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night.”
4 So Joshua summoned the twelve men he had selected from the Israelites, one man for each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go across to the ark of the Lord your God in the middle of the Jordan. Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the Israelite tribes, 6 so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 you should tell them, ‘The water of the Jordan was cut off in front of the ark of the Lord’s covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan’s water was cut off.’ Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites.”
8 The Israelites did just as Joshua had commanded them. The twelve men took stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each of the Israelite tribes, just as the Lord had told Joshua. They carried them to the camp and set them down there. 9 Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing. The stones are still there today.
10 The priests carrying the ark continued standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people, in keeping with all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people hurried across, 11 and after everyone had finished crossing, the priests with the ark of the Lord crossed in the sight of the people. 12 The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh went in battle formation in front of the Israelites, as Moses had instructed them. 13 About forty thousand equipped for war crossed to the plains of Jericho in the Lord’s presence.
14 On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him throughout his life, as they had revered Moses. 15 The Lord told Joshua, 16 “Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan.”
17 So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up from the Jordan.” 18 When the priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant came up from the middle of the Jordan, and their feet stepped out on solid ground, the water of the Jordan resumed its course, flowing over all the banks as before.
19 The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and camped at Gilgal on the eastern limits of Jericho.

• The notation that the crossing took place on the tenth day of the first month is significant.
• It was exactly 40 years earlier, to the day, that God had instructed Israel to prepare to depart from Egypt by setting apart the paschal lambs.

20 Then Joshua set up in Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan, 21 and he said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’ 22 you should tell your children, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we had crossed over. 24 This is so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord’s hand is strong, and so that you may always fear the Lord your God.”
 
CIRCUMCISION OF THE ISRAELITES
5 When all the Amorite kings across the Jordan to the west and all the Canaanite kings near the sea heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, they lost heart and their courage failed because of the Israelites.
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelite men again.”

• God specified knives of flint, even though this was the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 B.C.), and bronze implements were common.

3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelite men at Gibeath-haaraloth. 4 This is the reason Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males—all the men of war—had died in the wilderness along the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out were circumcised, none of the people born in the wilderness along the way were circumcised after they had come out of Egypt. 6 For the Israelites wandered in the wilderness forty years until all the nation’s men of war who came out of Egypt had died off because they did not obey the Lord. So the Lord vowed never to let them see the land he had sworn to their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 He raised up their sons in their place; it was these Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised, since they had not been circumcised along the way. 8 After the entire nation had been circumcised, they stayed where they were in the camp until they recovered.
 
9 The Lord then said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” Therefore, that place is still called Gilgal today.
 
FOOD FROM THE LAND
10 While the Israelites camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month. 11 The day after Passover they ate unleavened bread and roasted grain from the produce of the land. 12 And the day after they ate from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. Since there was no more manna for the Israelites, they ate from the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

• Lord’s Supper

 
COMMANDER OF THE LORD’S ARMY
13 When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 “Neither,” he replied. “I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army.”
Then Joshua bowed with his face to the ground in homage and asked him, “What does my lord want to say to his servant?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did that.[3]

• The command to remove his sandals would have convinced Joshua that this was the same Person—the LORD God Himself—who had appeared to Moses at the burning bush (Exod. 3:5).
• Where God was, there was holiness, and where holiness was, there was a need for cleanness.

 
MATTHEW 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”
15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.
16 When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”
 
 
THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS
MATTHEW 4
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.[4]

• Some of you are facing the enemy today.
• Some of you need a miracle today.
• Some of you need to experience the wonder and awe of God.
• There is a good, loving God that resides within you.
• He will battle for you.

 
HEBREWS 4:8-11
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. 10 For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.[5]

[1] Donald K. Campbell, “Joshua,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 333–334.
[2] Donald K. Campbell, “Joshua,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 333–334.
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Jos 3:1–5:15.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Mt 3:13–4:1.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Heb 4:8–11.

Review:

• Abraham and Sarah
• Isaac (& Ishmael) and Rebekah (Laban’s sister)
• Jacob (& Esau)
  
  

GENESIS 33:18-20
18 After Jacob came from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at Shechem in the land of Canaan and camped in front of the city. 19 He purchased a section of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver., 20 And he set up an altar there and called it God, the God of Israel.[1]
 
GENESIS 34

• Dinah was the daughter of Jacob & Leah
• She went out to visit her girlfriends.
• Shechem, son of Hamor (Chiefton of the region), raped Leah.
• Then he wanted her as his wife.
• He loved her and spoke tenderly to her.
• Jacob (father) heard about Dinah being raped but his sons (her brothers) were in the fields with the flocks.
• Jacob remained quiet.
• Hamor came to talk to Jacob.
• The sons returned home and found out Dinah was raped.
• Shecham (a Canaanite) had violated Jacob and Israel.
• Hamor pleaded with Jacob and his sons to let Shecham take Dinah as his wife and offered him to blend his family with the Canaanites.
• Intermarry and let our families grow together.
• Shecham is there and pleads also and offers whatever the brothers want for Dinah.
• The sons plotted, “We cannot give our sister to an uncircumcised man. This is a disgrace.”
• If all y’all get circumcised, then we can live with you and intermarry.
• Hamor and Shechem immediately agreed and went to the city gate to share the good news with the men.
• What were the men going to get out of it?
• They were going to intermarry and inherit Jacob’s flocks and possessions.
• So they all got circumcised.
• On the 3rd day after the mass circumcision, Jacob’s sons (rather Dinah’s brothers) came in and slaughtered Hamor, Shechem, and all the males and then plundered all their possessions.
• They went from house to house.
• Jacob did not know the plan and told them they had brought oncoming harm to their family.

 
GENESIS 35
1 God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”
4 Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem. 5 When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons. 6 So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7 Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.
8 Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah,, died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.
9 God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be named Jacob, but your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel. 11 God also said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you, and kings will descend from you., 12 I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. And I will give the land to your future descendants.” 13 Then God withdrew, from him at the place where he had spoken to him.
14 Jacob set up a marker at the place where he had spoken to him—a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. 15 Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
 
RACHEL’S DEATH
16 They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult. 17 During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.” 18 With her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni, but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 Jacob set up a marker on her grave; it is the marker at Rachel’s grave still today. [2]
 
This is an almost undisputed site. Jews, Moslems and Christians all agree that here Rachel was entombed. The pillar Jacob set up has long since disappeared, but some mark has marked the spot for thirty-six hundred years. The pillar was still there when Moses wrote the narrative in the Book of Genesis. It has long since been swept away; but thirty centuries of sorrow and suffering have not been able to sweep away the memory of it from the hearts of Rachel's posterity. The "Sepulchre of Rachel" is a modern building, a small dome surmounting a square chamber at one end, and nothing particular in form or material in any part of it. It measures twenty-three feet on each side. The height of the wall is twenty feet and the dome is ten feet high. The eastern chamber is twenty-three feet long by thirteen feet broad. The inner chambers are used by the Jews, who meet here every Friday to pray.
 
-Video of present Rachel’s Tomb
 
21 Israel set out again and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder. 22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.
Jacob had twelve sons:
23 Leah’s sons were Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn),
Simeon, Levi, Judah,
Issachar, and Zebulun.
24 Rachel’s sons were
Joseph and Benjamin.
25 The sons of Rachel’s slave Bilhah
were Dan and Naphtali.
26 The sons of Leah’s slave Zilpah
were Gad and Asher.
These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
 
ISAAC’S DEATH
27 Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. 28 Isaac lived 180 years. 29 He took his last breath and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.[3]
 
GENESIS 36
1 These are the family records of Esau (that is, Edom). 2 Esau took his wives from the Canaanite women:[4]
 
6 Esau took his wives, sons, daughters, and all the people of his household, as well as his herds, all his livestock, and all the property he had acquired in Canaan; he went to a land away from his brother Jacob. 7 For their possessions were too many for them to live together, and because of their herds, the land where they stayed could not support them. 8 So Esau (that is, Edom) lived in the mountains of Seir.
9 These are the family records of Esau, father of the Edomites in the mountains of Seir.[5]
 
43 Esau was father of the Edomites. [6]
 
JOSEPH’S DREAMS
GENESIS 37
1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 These are the family records of Jacob.
At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a long-sleeved robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.
5 Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
8 “Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10 He told his father and brothers, and his father rebuked him. “What kind of dream is this that you have had?” he said. “Am I and your mother and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
JOSEPH SOLD INTO SLAVERY
12 His brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. 13 Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I’m sending you to them.”
“I’m ready,” Joseph replied.
14 Then Israel said to him, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the Hebron Valley, and he went to Shechem.
15 A man found him there, wandering in the field, and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16 “I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph said. “Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”
17 “They’ve moved on from here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18 They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Oh, look, here comes that dream expert! 20 So now, come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from them. He said, “Let’s not take his life.” 22 Reuben also said to them, “Don’t shed blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him”—intending to rescue him from them and return him to his father.
23 When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off Joseph’s robe, the long-sleeved robe that he had on. 24 Then they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty, without water.
25 They sat down to eat a meal, and when they looked up, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying aromatic gum, balsam, and resin, going down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come on, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh,” and his brothers agreed. 28 When Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took Joseph to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?” 31 So they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a male goat, and dipped the robe in its blood. 32 They sent the long-sleeved robe to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it. Is it your son’s robe or not?”
33 His father recognized it. “It is my son’s robe,” he said. “A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces!” 34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards.[7]

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 33:18–20.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 35:1–20.
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 35:21–29.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 36:1–2.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 36:6–9.
[6] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 36:43.
[7] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 37:1–36.

Review:

• Abraham and Sarah
• Isaac (& Ishmael) and Rebekah (Laban’s sister)
• Jacob (& Esau)
• Map

 
GENESIS 28:6-9

• Jacob was instructed not to marry a Canaanite woman.
• Esau went to Jordan area and married Ishamel’s daughter.

GENESIS 28:10-22
10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it. 13 The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. 14 Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it 19 and named the place Bethel, though previously the city was named Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, 21 and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the Lord will be my God. 22 This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.[1]
 
GENESIS 29:1-30

• Jacob goes to Haran and comes to a well in the field.
• Men who know Laban speak to Jacob and point to Rachel who is coming to feed Laban’s sheep.
• Jacob rolls the stone away from the well and waters Laban’s sheep for Rachel and then kisses her.
• Jacob weeps loudly and shares with Rachel that he is Rebekah’s son. (Laban’s nephew).
• Laban runs to greet Jacob.
• Jacob lives and works there for a month.
• Laban has two daughters, Leah and Rebekah.
• “Leah had tender eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.”[2] (Genesis 29:17)
• Jacob offered to work for Laban for 7 years to be able to marry Rachel.
• 7 years seemed like days to Jacob.
• Jacob requested to sleep with Rachel.
• A wedding feast was had… wine served.
• Laban led Leah into the bed of Jacob.
• When he awoke, he realized it was Leah.
• Laban told him if he stayed and worked another 7 years, he would give Rachel to him that week.
• Jacob agreed and also married Rachel.
• Laban gave both Leah and Rachel slaves as their own.

GENESIS 29:31-35
31 When the Lord saw that Leah was neglected, he opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive. 32 Leah conceived, gave birth to a son, and named him Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has seen my affliction; surely my husband will love me now.”
33 She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “The Lord heard that I am neglected and has given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon.
34 She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “At last, my husband will become attached to me because I have borne three sons for him.” Therefore he was named Levi.
35 And she conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.[3]
 
GENESIS 30:1-24

• This similar scene unfolds for years to come.

Here's the count:

• Jacob & Leah – Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah
• Jacob & Bilhah (Rachel’s slave) – Dan, Naphtali
• Jacob & Zipah (Leah’s slave) – Gad, Asher
• Jacob & Leah (after mandrakes) – Issachar, Zebulun & Dinah

22 Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son, and she said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph and said, “May the Lord add another son to me.” [4]
GENESIS 30:25-43

• Jacob negotiated with Laban to split the flock that Jacob had grown and made Laban wealthy.
• After years, Jacob ended up with the healthier flock.

GENESIS 31:1-21

• Jacob’s flocks have multiplied over and over and Laban’s have decreased.
• Laban began to look at Jacob with “attitude”.
• Jacob, Rachel, and Leah flee to Canaan while Laban is out shearing his sheep.
• Rachel even steals his household idols.

GENESIS 31:22-35

• Laban comes after Jacob and the crew.
• He overtakes them in Gilead (west of Jordan River)
• He was told by God the night before not to say anything or harm Jacob.
• He accuses Jacob of stealing his idols.
• He searches all the tents.
• Jacob doesn’t know Rachel stole idols.
• Rachel is sitting on her camel with the idols in the saddlebags.
• She tells her father she can’t get up because she is on her period.

GENESIS 31:36-55

• Laban never discovers idols.
• Jacob and Laban discuss and agree to mark this place where neither man will cross to hurt the other man.
• Laban kisses and blesses his family and returns to his home.

 
GENESIS 32:1-24

• Jacob travels south towards Esau and plans to meet with him.
• He devises this plan that splits his possessions into two camps.
• He sends servants ahead with a portion of his flock to appease Esau before they meet.
• At night, he crossed the river Jabbock with his wives.

 
GENESIS 32:24-32
24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip. 26 Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 “What is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob,” he replied.
28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”
29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”
But he answered, “Why do you ask my name?” And he blessed him there.
30 Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.” 31 The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel,—limping because of his hip. 32 That is why, still today, the Israelites don’t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because he struck Jacob’s hip socket at the thigh muscle.[5]
 
GENESIS 33:1-19
1 Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two slave women. 2 He put the slaves and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. 3 He himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times until he approached his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then they wept. 5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?”
He answered, “The children God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the slaves and their children approached him and bowed down. 7 Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
8 So Esau said, “What do you mean by this whole procession I met?”
“To find favor with you, my lord,” he answered.
9 “I have enough, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what you have.”
10 But Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor with you, take this gift from me. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God’s face, since you have accepted me. 11 Please take my present that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have everything I need.” So Jacob urged him until he accepted.
12 Then Esau said, “Let’s move on, and I’ll go ahead of you.” [6]

• Jacob and his crew slowly made their way to Succoth and built a temporary compound.
• By the end of the chapter, he has relocated to Canaan.
• Throughout Jacob’s story, he communicates with God, and God communicates with him.
• God made a promise to Jacob, and He always keeps His promises.
• Jacob keeps moving ahead with some fear, some doubt, some preparation… but he always trusts that God will keep His promises.

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 28:10–22.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 29:17.
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 29:31–35.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 30:22–24.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 32:24–32.
[6] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 33:1–12.