Departures With Peaceful Boundaries

I am reading Genesis chapter 31, again and again, this morning.

"So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, 'Gather stones.' And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. Laban said, 'This heap is a witness between you and me today.' Therefore he named it Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, 'The LORD watch between you and me, when we are out of one another's sight. If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.' Then Laban said to Jacob, 'See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.' So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac..." - Genesis 31:45-53 ESV

We are told that the location of this heap of stones has prophetic significance in the end times. It is a boundary set up and judgement befalls those who cross it to do harm.

Reading it made me think of departures. Jacob wanted to make a life with his family away from the influence, and displeasure, of his father-in-law. The heap of stones was a way for that to happen without animosity.

Isn't it beautiful when people can part ways and not think or speak ill of one another? I think so. I would wish that parting didn't have to happen but it does sometimes. People have different visions and where ever there is growth there is also division but it doesn't have to go badly.

"...and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country.  Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home." - Genesis 31:54-55 ESV

Yes. If God is between us we can love one another. It never says anywhere that Laban was a godly man. Jacob is the one who put down the first stone. Jacob said, 'Gather stones'. Those stones could have been used as weapons but Jacob made them into a monument and a 'no stone throwing' policy was initiated.

Yes. Let's live that way. Even if there were injustices involved in the parting. Let's pile those accusations in a heap and respect that heap as a boundary to never cross with the intention of doing harm. Jesus shed His blood on a cross to pay for all sin. Let us never take up those stone again to harm one another.

--

Us And Them

'There are two types of people. Those who break everything into two types and those who don't.' -Unknown

I firmly believe there is only one type of person. Us. But there are polarizing forces and roads fork to go into different directions. The Bible gives us twelves tribes to examine in the Hebrew scriptures and they show us twelve personalities each derived from one of the twelve sons of Jacob. All the sons had one father but there were two different wives:

- Leah (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah and later Issachar and Zebulun)
- Rachel (Joseph and she died after giving birth to Benjamin)

But the competition between the women to have children caused the wive's servants to get into the mix (and you think your family is strange).

- Bilhah, Rachel's servant, (Dan and Naphtali)
- Zilpah, Leah's servant (Gad and Asher)

The house was a two party system... team Leah and team Rachel. This verse gives a foundation for their relationship to Jacob.

"Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured." - Genesis 29:17 KJV

Kind and matronly versus va va va voom.

Human beings seem to gravitate towards party systems. Us and them. These and those. God gave a blanket promise that applied to all of Jacob's children.

"That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;" - Genesis 22:17 KJV

"And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake." - Genesis 26:24 KJV

Don't get me wrong. If I must label myself I would say that I am an evangelical. I believe in two eternal destinations. Heaven and Hell. You are either on the ark or in the flood. Up or down. I just don't believe that the people in the ark are different then the people outside of it. The thing that separates them is a choice.

When I am tempted to say, 'them' I check myself. We might have different mothers but every personality has the same father. I have an ark to run to and I want to be a person who runs out and brings people to the the only person who saves. There are no polarizing forces inside that boat everyone in there is riding out the storm with hope that they are all going to make it to the other side.

If I want to to understand and relate to a person then I must understand who their mother is. Knowing the forces that formed a person is part of caring for them but it doesn't stop there. Everyone who chooses Christ has a birth that completes them as a person.

Ultimately the seed of Abraham that was blessed is Jesus. Jesus brought blessing to that whole house retroactively. Jesus does the same for us... and them.

--

Two Types Of Division

Let's look at two forms of division that deal with the outside and inside concept.

Reproduction is division. Cells split and stay bonded together in order for there to be growth or healing. A sperm and an egg meet and suddenly there is a flurry of division and very complex structures form as healthy individual cells that compose a individual life that has qualities of both the mother and the father.

"Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for 'All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.' And this word is the good news that was preached to you." - 1 Peter 1:23-25 ESV

Grass grows and reproduces quickly but it is just grass making more grass that dies. When we believed there was a conception. Now the qualities of the word of God have been incorporated into our being. Our reborn self splits and multiplies but can not die. We have an eternal soul structure.

Churches multiply. Believers multiply. Life is reproduced but there is a duplication and division that still has connection and sameness.

Then there is division where there is separation. Parts are carved off by force or things that were one become separate. Reproduction can be painful because growth can cause strain but this separation is more like amputation.

Bringing the natural man into spiritual things causes this kind of division.

"A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends." - Proverbs 16:28 ESV

The whisper infects the emotions and connects with the wounded natural man and suddenly two people who were one have been separated. The air has made it's way into a space that had no air before. It is a tragic division.

" 'Be angry, and do not sin': do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil." - Ephesians 4:26-27 NKJV

If the accuser has a place he will use it like a wedge to divide. A lie is like a thorn that causes pain and creates conditions where infection can occur.

"But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves." - Malachi 4:2 NKJV

"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV

Growth is beautiful isn't it!

Divisions that add to complexity in a structure that is unified is amazing. The same flowers grow on many shores separated by bodies of water but they are there.

"And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." - Mark 16:15-16 ESV

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household." - Matthew 10:34-36 ESV

Divine reproduction does bring a certain kind of separating division. A great gulf is fixed that only faith in God's gracious character can bridge.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28 ESV

God wants to divide us from our burdens. He wants to multiply grace so it surrounds us in our experience. He will at times prune off many things all at once so that in time we can grow and be focused on fruitful reproduction.

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." - Hebrews 4:12 ESV

Oh God! Divide what must be divided and preserve that which never should be divided. Make us ministers of reconciliation and give us reproductive lives that spread your words like seed.

"Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free." - Isaiah 32:20 ESV

--

Seeing From Inside And Out

The theme of my studies today is being outside and being inside. This concept applies in the physical world, relationships and concepts. Something often looks very different from the outside than it does from the inside.

Looking at Bible passages in different perspectives is very helpful to me.

"Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation." - 2 Peter 1:20 ESV

We do not impose meaning on the scripture. The scripture will speak to us if we look at it with eyes that see and a heart that desires God and has a connection to God.

So we ask questions like, 'What was inside and what was outside in the prodigal son story?' or 'What was inside and what was outside in the Adam and Eve account in the garden?'

That lens allows us to see a certain isolated spectrum of light. We put the glasses on and look and then we take them off again we begin to notice different things. It is not critical thinking... it is observational.

An artist observes then uses the qualities of a substance or medium to craft something. Then that thing, whatever it is, a sculpture or a photo or a meal coveys an complex set of ideas, concepts or contrasts that affects the audience in some way.

From the outside the Bible convicts us but on the inside the Bible converts us. It changes us on the inside. The change is not cosmetic it is a metamorphosis... like a caterpillar is turned into a butterfly. Observation alone does not have this power. Only the Bible has it because of who sent it to us.

Division is when an outside force makes a single object into multiple objects. Like using a knife to cut an orange into sections. We can look in the Bible and see this dynamic and how it works in relationships from the serpent in Genesis all the way to the White Throne in Revelations.

Conspiracy is when something from the outside is brought in to the whole and used to divide. Inclusiveness is when something is brought inside to include it or make a place for it inside the whole. Do we see this in the world? Can't we even see it in our own heart at times? The Bible exposes the dynamic.

"So Jesus again said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." - John 10:7-10 ESV

Jesus is the way (see John 14:6) and He is also the door into a way of perceiving the world beyond what we ever could have done before. We can see something from inside and then from outside because He has placed us to be forever inside Himself at the moment we believed.

Grace proves to us over and over again that we are included in God's kingdom and can never be excluded. Evil is forever excluded but people are invited to be included.

Well, This is a good mental exercise but how does it work in my life in a practical way?

We can go into the day looking at situations as they are and putting lenses on and off to see things. We can ask what is on the inside and what is on the outside at work and because God is both places at once He can teach us things. The Bible can provide us with many lenses to look through to see the world.

If we will wear them by faith what will we see? We are bound to be surprised.

--