By Norman H. Young | 24 May 2022 | In Fern Seeds and Elephants (p. 78–79) C.S. Lewis gently described one of Adventism’s most revered forefathers as “poor William Miller,” whom he took “to have been an honest fanatic.” Lewis deemed efforts to calculate the date of Christ’s return as vainly attempting to do what […] Source: https://atoday.org/the-rise-and-fall-of-1844-part-1/
Wednesday: The Blessing of the Family
For Jacob the last seven years of exile were a burden, and yet, these were also the most fruitful years. In them, Jacob will father 11 of the 12 children who will become the ancestors of God’s people.
This section constitutes the center of Jacob’s story (Genesis 25:19-35:26), and it begins and ends with the key phrase God “opened her womb,” referring to Leah (Genesis 29:31) and to Rachel (Genesis 30:22). Each time this statement is followed by births, the evidence is that these births are the result of God’s miraculous action.
Read Genesis 29:31-30:22. How are we, today, to understand the meaning of what takes place here?
Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com
God opened Leah’s womb, and she had a son Reuben, whose name contains the verb ra’ah, which means to “see.” Because God “saw” that she was unloved by Jacob (Genesis 29:31), this child was compensation for her in her pain and suffering.
In addition, she gives the name of Simeon, which contains the verb shama‘, “heard,” to her second son, because God had “heard” (shama‘) the depth and the humiliation of her pain and, thus, had pity on her just as He had heard Hagar’s affliction (Genesis 29:33).
Leah’s son “Simeon” will also resonate with the name of Hagar’s son “Ishmael,” which means “God will hear” (see Genesis 16:11). When Leah gives birth to her last son, she calls him Judah, which means “praise.” Leah does not refer to her pain or even her blessing anymore. She just focuses on God and praises Him for His grace.
Strangely, it is only when Leah cannot give birth again that God “remembers” Rachel and opens Rachel’s womb (Genesis 30:22). Rachel, the loved wife, had to wait seven years after her marriage, and 14 years after her betrothal with Jacob, to have her first son (Genesis 29:18, Genesis 29:27; compare with Genesis 30:25). She gave him the name of “Joseph” to signify that God had “taken away [’asaf] my reproach” and “shall add [yasaf] to me another son” (Genesis 30:23-24, , NKJV). However wrong some of these actions were, God was still able to use these actions, even if He didn’t condone them, in order to create a nation from the seed of Abraham.
| In what ways does this story reveal that God’s purposes will be fulfilled in heaven and on earth, despite human foibles and errors? |
Amen!
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Stanborough Primary School Toddler Group
There is a new weekly event at Stanborough Primary School every Wednesday morning in our EYFS building. Toddler Group has been running for over a month now, and we have a regular group of families that meet and enjoy our fantastic setting.
It has allowed us to reach out to the community, provide a glimpse of our unique school and what we offer as Adventist Education, and sum up our core values simply as ‘be kind to all’, which happens to be our Golden Rule!
Staff can talk with families about…Source: https://adventist.uk/news/article/go/2022-05-24/1189/
“¿Qué demonios…?” Un líder adventista jamaicano se pronuncia contra el crimen organizado
Glen Samuels, presidente de la Asociación Jamaiquina Occidental de la Iglesia Adventista, se pronunció contra la violencia en Hanover Parish, Jamaica, poco después de un triple asesinato en el barrio de Santoy. La denominación adventista está colaborando con la policía local para desalentar los delitos violentos en la zona. Los adventistas tienen una historia de […] Source: https://atoday.org/que-demonios-un-lider-adventista-jamaicano-se-pronuncia-contra-el-crimen-organizado/
ATSS PRESENTS: Esther Loewen, the Beatitudes, and Transgenderism
23 May 2022 | Because the process of changing gender-expression and outward identity is so far-reaching and consequential (especially when it takes place at middle-age and within Christian culture), I have found myself grasping a deeper reality: identity shapes hermeneutic. Who we are in context deeply affects the ways in which we read and understand […] Source: https://atoday.org/79115-2/
