Each week as I explore the portion of scripture we will be studying, I wait on the Lord to highlight something to me. Sometimes it’s something big right there in the text; and sometimes it’s an idea that just jumps off the pages. You know, the Word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than a two edged sword, and it pierces us right down to the core. This week I saw the great controversy that emerged when Jacob fell in love with Rachel, but was forced to marry Leah first. “That’s how we do things around here,” Laban insisted.
This launched Jacob into the midst of a baby war. What jumped off the pages was that Leah birthed the line that became the priesthood and the Messiah, and Rachel birthed the line of Joseph who saved Israel from extinction and seems to be the representation of the Church. History has recorded the great schism as Israel became a divided nation after King Solomon’s death, and later both kingdoms were exiled for disobedience! Benjamin, Rachel’s second son and Jacob’s twelfth, became the only tribe to land in both kingdoms during the exiles! And Paul, the Jewish Apostle to the Gentiles, was from the line of Benjamin. Wow! Jews and Gentiles uniting as “One New Man!” Y’shua taught us that a kingdom divided cannot stand, so today, as we live in a divided nation, never before has unity of the faith been more crucial.
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