Week 4: Trusting God Through the Tests of Life | Day 4

Tasks for this week:

  1. Watch all three parts of Trusting God Through the Tests of Life
  2. Complete daily Bible reading
  3. Memorize 2 Corinthians 10:12 and 1 John 3:18

Week 4: Day 4

Today’s F260 Bible reading: Genesis 33; 35

33:1 Jacob looked up and saw that Esau was coming along with 400 men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants. 2He put the servants and their children in front, with Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph behind them. 3But Jacob himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed toward the ground seven times as he approached his brother. 4But Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both wept. 5When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Jacob replied, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6The female servants came forward with their children and bowed down. 7Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down. 8Esau then asked, “What did you intend by sending all these herds to meet me?” Jacob replied, “To find favor in your sight, my lord.” 9But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother. Keep what belongs to you.” 10“No, please take them,” Jacob said. “If I have found favor in your sight, accept my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, it is as if I have seen the face of God. 11Please take my present that was brought to you, for God has been generous to me and I have all I need.” When Jacob urged him, he took it. 12Then Esau said, “Let’s be on our way! I will go in front of you.” 13But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die. 14Let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will travel more slowly, at the pace of the herds and the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.” 15So Esau said, “Let me leave some of my men with you.” “Why do that?” Jacob replied. “My lord has already been kind enough to me.” 16So that same day Esau made his way back to Seir. 17But Jacob traveled to Sukkoth where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called Sukkoth. 18After he left Paddan Aram, Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped near the city. 19Then he purchased the portion of the field where he had pitched his tent; he bought it from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 pieces of money. 20There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.” (NET Bible)
35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3Let us go up at once to Bethel. Then I will make an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress and has been with me wherever I went.” 4So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem 5and they started on their journey. The surrounding cities were afraid of God, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6Jacob and all those who were with him arrived at Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel because there God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. 8(Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named Oak of Weeping.) 9God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him. 10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but your name will no longer be called Jacob; Israel will be your name.” So God named him Israel. 11Then God said to him, “I am the Sovereign God. Be fruitful and multiply! A nation—even a company of nations—will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants! 12The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. To your descendants I will also give this land.” 13Then God went up from the place where he spoke with him. 14So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him. He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it. 15Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Bethel. 16They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, Rachel went into labor—and her labor was hard. 17When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.” 18With her dying breath, she named him Ben Oni. But his father called him Benjamin instead. 19So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20Jacob set up a marker over her grave; it is the Marker of Rachel’s Grave to this day. 21Then Israel traveled on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder. 22While Israel was living in that land, Reuben went to bed with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it.Jacob had twelve sons: 23The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, as well as Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. 25The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, were Dan and Naphtali. 26The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant, were Gad and Asher.These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram. 27So Jacob came back to his father Isaac in Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. 28Isaac lived to be 180 years old. 29Then Isaac breathed his last and joined his ancestors. He died an old man who had lived a full life. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him. (NET Bible)

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),
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1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission. www.Lockman.org