Dove Creek Bible Church's Podcast

So we see these pre-Gnostic sects believed in a supreme being, the need for salvation, and spirit beings, but they also believed that the brand of Christianity preached by Paul was a crude and primitive interpretation of spiritual reality. To counteract and neutralize such teaching Paul mentions seven unique characteristics of Christ, which fittingly qualify Him to have the preeminence. Paul says Jesus is: (1) the image of God (the most supreme being), (2) the Firstborn over Creation (he was preeminent over all created things rather than a part of the created order), (3) Creator of the universe, (4) Head of the church, (5) Firstborn from the dead, (6) the fullness of God, and (7) the Reconciler of all things…making this one of the most theologically rich passages concerning the deity of Christ found in the Bible.

We live at a time when much pressure is brought to bear upon churches to modify and modernize their traditional Christian beliefs and practices. Some churches bend to the pressure by way of cultural accommodation and appeasement so that their beliefs and practices blend rather than offend the dominant culture. They do this to stay relevant. This is known as syncretism (i.e. syncretism is the union or attempted blending of different systems of thought or belief). The major issue in the letter is the false teaching in the church, owing to a tangled mixture of religious errors coming from both Jewish and Greek religious influences.

The Rest of the Story was a Monday-through-Friday radio program originally hosted by Paul Harvey. Beginning as a part of his newscasts during the Second World War. The Rest of the Story consisted of stories presented as little-known or forgotten facts with some key elements of the story held back until the very end. The broadcasts always concluded with the tag line, "And now you know...the rest of the story." Today we get the rest of the story on Jacob’s family. This is sort of like what you often see at the end of some movies when they have these postscripts telling you what became of the characters. Well, that’s sort of what we’re going to do today as we take a jet tour through chapters 48-50.

Audio Issue***

Jacob and Esau are on a collision course as we have already observed. The question is…who is having a more difficult journey at this point as they approach one another? Esau, who must forgive the scheming conniving brother of his, or Jacob, the scheming conniver, who must be forgiven? Which is more difficult…to forgive or to be forgiven?

In today’s text, Jacob is suddenly met by a man he only later realizes is God who both cripples and blesses him. This event would be an important turning point in Jacob's life. The emphasis of the narrative is certainly on the wrestling, but its purpose was the changing of Jacob into Israel.

Everyone experiencing pain and heartache must eventually answer the same questions. Will I trust God with my pain and heartache…my doubts…my fears or will I turn away in bitter confusion? Today we find fear gripping Jacob’s heart…how will his faith respond? Will his faith finally unite with hope and become trust? Let’s see…

In the 1970’s it was popular for a while for Christian guys to give their Christian girlfriend’s Mizpah Coin necklaces. The Mizpah Coin was split in two with the idea being your girlfriend would wear one-half of the coin on her necklace and then you wore the other half of the coin on your necklace to remind you both that you were one half of a whole whenever you spent any time away from one another. The Mizpah Coin concept was based upon the passage we cover today. In the 1970’s the idea was “the Lord watch over you and me while we are away from one another” in a romantic sense. However, as originally designed the Mizpah was a way that Jacob and Laban came up with to say the Lord watch between us, not because they care about one another (as in Lord please watch out for my good friend Laban while we are away from each other) but because they don’t trust one another (as in Lord keep an eye on that thieving liar Laban while he is away from me).

In the movie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Lawrence Jamieson, played by Michael Caine, is a cultivated, suave master con artist who operates in the deluxe hotels along the French Riviera. Steve Martin plays small-time American hustler, Freddy Benson, who invades Jamieson’s territory and the two con men begin sort of a “con-test” for dominance as the master con artist of the area all the while ruthlessly sabotaging each other. This is the kind of relationship that Jacob and Laban have with one another. The events of which we’re about to read depict two cons, each trying to out-con the other. In the grace and providence of God it will be Jacob who comes out the winner, but for reasons completely different from those which he expected.

Is sibling rivalry more pronounced among brothers or sisters? Studies show that sibling rivalry is caused by a great many different things, but having said that, gender does seem to play a role in the severity and nature of sibling rivalry. Still, these studies are not conclusive, and they recognize that there are a great many other causes of sibling rivalry. Family conflict is not a recent phenomenon. It has been with the human race since the fall of man. If you have ever seriously studied the Bible for any length of time you may have noticed in your studies that many of the men and women of the Bible grew up in a setting of unhealthy family traditions. Jacob’s family is one such family for he has married two sisters and their sibling rivalry greatly affects Jacob's circumstances.

We tend to like poetic justice: We like to see liars lied to, we like to see con men get conned, we like to see bullies bullied, and so on and so forth. We like to think that the scales of cosmic justice somehow hang in balance…that there is a reaction to every action…or as the Bible puts it…we reap what we sow. This is why when we get to Genesis 29…no one really feels sorry for Jacob when the deceiver, finally gets a taste of his own medicine.

Jacob is a manipulative schemer who has had to flee his family home because of the mistrust, secrecy, and manipulative deception going on. His understandably angry brother, Esau, wants to kill him and yet in His grace, God has a plan to work in Jacob’s life. However just like when God works in our lives there is not always an immediately visible change…it seems we find transformation is a process and in today’s text we find Jacob on the cusp of this process of transformation for with any transformation, there is always that first step of change and that is what we see today…God for the first time makes Himself known in a very personal way to Jacob.

In this story we discover four extremely self-willed people…each is determined to do things their own way and each learns a lesson that there is a price to pay when we do things our way. The story begins with the conspiracy between Isaac and Esau to avert God’s revealed will. This story illustrates the fact that we cannot frustrate the purposes of God. What do you have when you stand back and take this story as a whole? What you have is a dysfunctional family that is barely holding together. In the end, the family collapses under the weight of deception and dishonesty.

Jacob is devious and deceptive; he is crafty and conniving. He lies and he manipulates. He becomes a man who has the audacity to wrestle with God. Jacob lacked many fine qualities, but lack of ambition was not one of them. Jacob continually claws his way to the top by hook or crook…not appearing to care about whomever he has to step over to get there. The hero of our story is a heel…in fact, a heel grabber…and that makes him fascinating.

Lyn Fasulo discusses the spiritual origins of the Christmas Song "White Christmas" and its applications to us.

Paul's final remarks to Timothy and to the world. It has been said that when a person is about to die their life flashes before their eyes. What do you think will flash before your eyes? I think you will find when you get to the end of your life there are only three things which will matter: your faith, your family and your friends. The Apostle Paul is at the end of his life…he reflects on the present, the past, and the future of his faith journey as well as the friends who have encouraged him and the ones who have disappointed him.

The Bible has come under renewed attack. The critic presently receiving the most media attention is Dr. Bart Ehrman who has taken his questioning of the Scripture straight to the New York Times bestseller list. It seems both advocate and adversary are biased and have hidden agendas so how can the truth ever be known? In today’s text, Paul basically presents what he considers to be the best evidence that the Bible is credible.

"Mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days" (2nd Timothy 3:1). What is the reason for these terrible times? It all comes down to distorted affections beginning first and foremost with people being "lovers of themselves">