Jacob has 12 sons. Today we learn the drama that brought about 11 of these 12 sons in Genesis 29:31-35 through Chapter 30.
List the names of the sons, in order, and who their mother is. What was the situation that surrounded their conception?
Genesis 31 takes us into how Jacob leaves his father in laws town. What do you see happening with Laban and Jacob throughout this chapter? What evil was brought about and by whom? What happened between Jacob and Laban?
Genesis 32-33 has Jacob going back to meet his brother for the first time in many years. Describe how Jacob felt. What did he do to protect himself and his family? Do you believe that the brothers truly reconciled or was it all for show?
What can you deduce about God in this text? How does the life of Jacob and his family resonate with you and how you were raised, how you raised your family or how you understand families? What is God speaking to you about your action from this text today? How can you put into obedience the things you learned?
Connect With the Word 
Throughout today’s readings we see God caring for the wives and concubines of Jacob in their lack of love. God keeps showing up for Jacob, even when he keeps doing things out of the will of God. Jacob reminds me a lot of myself. I want to do all that the Lord has called me to do, I want to do it His way – but so often it is easier for me in the moment to just pick up and handle a situation. In the end, the Lord always cleans up my messes, but being patient and waiting on God is not always super easy. I love how we end todays reading with Jacob setting up an altar in the place he lands and calls it “El Elohe Israel” (The Mighty God). He is reminded of all that God has done to bring him back to the place God promised 20 years prior.
We serve that same God. He makes promises to us, and in His time, He brings us to those “promised lands”. I was a mere 12 years old when the Lord told me that my brother (and myself) would be in pastoral roles. When my brother passed I had never seen that come to fruition, and I was angry with God – doubted my my ability to really hear His voice. One week after he passed my dad called me and told me to check my emails. There was a paper from the Universal Church online with my brothers named, ordained a reverand. I laughed. It was not how I thought it was going to take place. But I later heard stories from people that knew my brother in prison, that the last few months of his time there he had begun to preach the word to the inmates, held bible studies and were pointing these men to God and not their addictions. Amazing.
That lesson taught me not to doubt God. His ways are unconventional, and they won’t always look like we think they should or would, but when He says something – He is going to make it happen. And He did that with Jacob’s life here.
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