(For whatever reason we skip chapter 34 of Genesis, the rape
of Jacob's daughter Dinah and the subsequent deception by her brothers that
allows them to destroy the men of Shechem, whose king's son raped their
sister. In it we learn something of the character
of the men whose lives will make up a good bit of the rest of the book. They are deceptive like their father, cunning
in their thoughts. They are also
fiercely loyal to one another, particularly those born to the same mother.)
After the events of chapter 34 Jacob is told to go up to
Bethel (literally house of God) where the Lord had first appeared to him and
live there, making a shrine as he had vowed.
In doing so, Jacob instructed his wives and the rest of the retinue to
give him their foreign gods and idols and he took them and hid them under the terebinth
tree at Shechem, probably the place where his grandfather Abraham had been in
Genesis 12 when he came into the land. The
Lord renewed the covenant with Jacob, the covenant He had made with his father
Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. Along
the way in the journey Deborah, nurse of his mother Rebekah, died and then, as
she was giving birth, the wife Jacob dearly loved, Rachel, died as well. She left behind only her sons Joseph and this
last one, Benjamin.
Jesus re-interprets death, or, rather, overcomes it. Initially, His response to the summons to
come to Bethany is that this illness does not lead to death but it clearly does
lead to death but death is not final here.
Verses five and six make it appear that John isn't adept at the use of
prepositions don’t they? Jesus loved this
family, so (when they sent notice Lazarus was ill) He stayed two days longer in
the place where he was. "So"
doesn't belong in that logic. If Jesus
loved them, they sent word to Him that his friend was ill and He could do
something about that illness, love would mean He went immediately wouldn't
it? Jesus loved them enough to do
something even more miraculous for them, to include them in His greatest
miracle and sign. Finally, Jesus says,
"Let's go to Lazarus." The
disciples aren't too sure about going back to the place where people recently wanted
to stone Jesus and then enuses the great misunderstanding concerning Lazarus' condition
before finally, Thomas says, let's go and die with Him.
Love extends itself for the sake of the other. Love is more than good wishes or strong
emotion, it is an active verb. If we
have what it takes to fulfill the need or needs of another we cannot say we
love them if we keep back what they need for ourselves. There are two problems there, one that we
don't love them as we love ourselves and two that we lack faith in God to
provide for our own need. John says that
love is the mark of the Christian, the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated for
us at the cross, a self-sacrificial love.
If Jacob ever truly loved anyone other than himself it was Rachel. He was willing to work for her for fourteen
years his love for her was so great. Jesus
loved Lazarus, Mary and Martha enough to risk His life to go to them and Thomas
loved Jesus enough to risk his own. Let us
love one another as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a
sacrifice to God.
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