LIVING THE HALF-LIFE (39)
Scripture: Genesis 30:1-24
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Living the Half-Life (39)
Series: Genesis
Robert Dawson
Genesis 30:1-24
Growing up, during the summers, I would often find myself at one of my grandmother’s houses or one of them would be at ours watching out for me. It did not matter which granny I stayed with, there was one thing I knew for certain and that was that around noontime I would lose the privilege and ability to control the television. No more cartoons, children’s shows, or westerns. They would disappear from the television, and I would be expected sit quietly and behave.
It was time for what they called their ‘‘stories,’’ better known as Soap Operas, those salacious daytime dramas. ‘‘As sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.’’ Their designation of these shows as ‘‘stories’’ was appropriate because they were filled with intrigue (all kinds of plot twists, people out to get one another, manipulation, murder), iniquity (they were not the most moral characters on television) and idiocy (a character could die this season, come back the next with a different face, die again and come back as the original. These shows recorded more resurrections than the Bible).
My Scooby Doo cartoons had a firmer grasp on reality than my granny’s stories seemed to have. Amazingly, these stories don’t have anything on the stories of the lives of real people written down for us in the Bible. If I didn’t know better, which I do, I would think that Jacob’s story was written by an out of touch, slightly eccentric and creative Hollywood executive rather than Moses, God’s chosen prophet and historian.
For someone who was a patriarch of Israel and presented in Scripture as a man of faith, much of Jacob’s life comes across as a masterclass in violating God’s principles and paying the price. Jacob’s family would have been a therapist’s dream or worst nightmare depending on how you look at it.
(Some of you may have a lot in common with Jacob. Not in the exact details of his life but knowing ...
Series: Genesis
Robert Dawson
Genesis 30:1-24
Growing up, during the summers, I would often find myself at one of my grandmother’s houses or one of them would be at ours watching out for me. It did not matter which granny I stayed with, there was one thing I knew for certain and that was that around noontime I would lose the privilege and ability to control the television. No more cartoons, children’s shows, or westerns. They would disappear from the television, and I would be expected sit quietly and behave.
It was time for what they called their ‘‘stories,’’ better known as Soap Operas, those salacious daytime dramas. ‘‘As sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.’’ Their designation of these shows as ‘‘stories’’ was appropriate because they were filled with intrigue (all kinds of plot twists, people out to get one another, manipulation, murder), iniquity (they were not the most moral characters on television) and idiocy (a character could die this season, come back the next with a different face, die again and come back as the original. These shows recorded more resurrections than the Bible).
My Scooby Doo cartoons had a firmer grasp on reality than my granny’s stories seemed to have. Amazingly, these stories don’t have anything on the stories of the lives of real people written down for us in the Bible. If I didn’t know better, which I do, I would think that Jacob’s story was written by an out of touch, slightly eccentric and creative Hollywood executive rather than Moses, God’s chosen prophet and historian.
For someone who was a patriarch of Israel and presented in Scripture as a man of faith, much of Jacob’s life comes across as a masterclass in violating God’s principles and paying the price. Jacob’s family would have been a therapist’s dream or worst nightmare depending on how you look at it.
(Some of you may have a lot in common with Jacob. Not in the exact details of his life but knowing ...
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