Schoolchildren taken on a life-changing journey of discovery

Remainers and Leavers

Maureen Trowbridge reviews ‘Choose Life’ by Simon Guillebaud (Lion Hudson IP, 2014).

Torah Portion: Genesis 28:10-32:2

Vayetze (‘And he left…’)

Jacob met God in a special way at Luz. Heaven was opened and Jacob saw what would have otherwise been invisible. God used this moment to confirm His covenant with Jacob and his descendants. Such dramatic encounters with God bring forth a response from the heart. Jacob renamed the place Bethel (the house of God), set up and anointed a memorial stone and vowed to give a tithe to God of all God would give him in the future. For Jacob, tithing was a heart response to his encounter with God.

This is not the first mention of tithing in the Bible. Abraham gave a tenth of all the spoils of battle to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High (Gen 14:18-20). The writer to the Hebrews referred to Abraham tithing as if it were Levi, who was, as it were, in the loins of Abraham (Heb 7:9).

There is a link between the tithing of Abraham and the tithing of the Levitical priests. There is also a link between Jacob's tithing and the tithing through the Levitical priests. Tithing, like all of ‘the Law of Moses’, was intended to be a heart issue. But by the time of the Prophet Malachi, Israel had lost its relationship with God for exactly this reason, that tithing had become legalistic rather than relational. The consequence was that families were broken and husbands were divorcing their wives – a reflection of their divorce from God. In addressing this, God called attention to the poor quality of their tithes and offerings (Mal 1:7-8).

Our Hearts Revealed

Surely tithing – giving back one tenth to God of all that He had given to His people – was never intended as a dry ritual. Just as Israel's forefather Jacob tithed as a response from his heart, so all of God's laws (including tithing) are also matters of the heart.

What Jacob saw in vision, when Heaven opened, is a ‘behind-the-scenes’ reality, whether we see it through our physical eyes or through the eyes of faith. What does this mean to us? When we had our first encounter with the Living God, were we not stirred in our hearts like Jacob? Did we not pledge Him our all? As time goes on, just as it was for Israel, our hearts can become hardened and what was once a wonderful heart response can become legalistic duty, even a blemished offering.

It is not so much the physical offering that God desires. The physical offerings, much as they are needed, are a means of revealing our hearts.

Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar. (Psalm 51:15-19)

Author: Clifford Denton

Torah Portion: Genesis 25:19-28:9

Toldot (‘The generations [of Isaac]’)

This week’s Torah portion contains two important lessons from the lives of Isaac and his sons, Jacob and Esau.

Seek Living Water

The first lesson concerns our need to trust the Lord to provide us with pure, living water. Water is essential in the dry desert of the Negev. Isaac planted his crops faithfully, trusting in the Lord’s promises to bless both his bread and his water (Gen 26:12, Ex 23:25). In the same year, he reaped a hundred times what he had sown.

Isaac’s prosperity brought envy from the Philistines who, in strife and hostility, filled in Abraham’s wells. When they came to make a truce, Isaac asked them, “Why have you come?” They replied, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you” (Gen 26:28).

Can we learn from this to rejoice in the success of others and not be envious or resentful? Can we share with others the wealth that the Lord gives us, so that they see in our giving that the Lord is with us?

Jacob acknowledged God as the ‘Fear of Isaac’, his father (Gen 31:42). Do we reverence the Lord’s Name, as Isaac did? Remember, it is He who gives us the ability to produce wealth (Deut 8:18). Everything we have is the Lord’s gift anyway – and He Himself is our Bread and Living Water.

The Lord’s Purpose Prevails

The second lesson concerns the struggles between twins, even in their mother’s womb - the brothers Esau and Jacob, later to be two divided peoples (Gen 25:23). One became a strong wilful man, ruled by his passions, and the other was slow to anger and self-controlled, yet a devious and scheming twister.

Jacob and his mother Rebekah used Isaac’s blindness in old age to deceive him so that Jacob, whom she favoured, received both the birth-right and the paternal blessing of the elder son. Esau, in anger, sought to kill Jacob for this deception and later became the forefather of the Edomites, a race that hated Israel.

Yet Jacob himself was deceived four times - twice by his uncle Laban and twice by his own sons – although God was working in this to save. Jacob met the Lord, with Whom he wrestled until he was blessed, changed and anointed as Isra-El, Prince of God.

Neither Esau’s resentment nor Jacob’s scheming could stop God’s Word from being fulfilled: man may plan his ways, but God determines the outcome (in this case, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated…”, see Malachi 1:2, Romans 9:13, Proverbs 19:21). Both Isaac and Jacob were children of the promise, children of faith, despite their personal failures. Are we, likewise, children of faith? Do we trust that the Lord’s sovereign Word will not fail – even when things do not turn out the way we expect?

Author: Greg Stevenson