“The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”
~ Genesis 35:12
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you always tell your dad and/or ma what happened at school? If you like to always tell your dad and/or ma what happened at school, do you always get exactly right what you are telling your dad and/or ma? Your grandpaa is not very good at telling another guy or gal about something that happened to him. Your grandmaa though is really good at telling another guy or gal about something that happened to her. Do you like to listen to a guy, gal or kid telling about something that happened to him or her? Do you know what a storyline is? The storyline of a story is the story’s main topic or plot. Do you like to have your dad and/or ma read the Bible to you? What do you think is the Old Testament’s storyline? The Old Testament’s storyline is about the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids. The Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids are God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids. What do you think is the New Testament’s storyline? The New Testament’s storyline is about Jesus. The Old and New Testament are made up of smaller books. The Old Testament has 39 smaller books. The New Testament has 27 smaller books. The smaller books that are in the Old and New Testaments were written over a period of more than 1500 years by a lot of different guys. The guys who scribed the different smaller books that make up the Old and New Testaments had God – as God the Spirit, breathe on them the words that are in the books that ended up as canonized books in the Old and New Testaments. Because God – as God the Spirit, breathed His words on the different guys who originally scribed the Old and New Testament books, the books are infallible with absolutely no errors or mistakes in them.
Even though there are 66 different smaller books that make up the entire Bible, one book that was scribed by one guy will sometimes quote what is said in another book that was scribed by another guy. The five books that begin the Bible were scribed by Moses. The Bible’s first five books are called the Pentateuch. Moses’ Genesis Book is the first smaller book in the Bible. Moses scribed in his Genesis Book a special promise that God made to guys named Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Genesis 35 mentions this promise when God had Moses scribe in verse 12, “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” Jacob was the guy in this verse who God was giving this promise. The land area that God was referring to then is today known as Israel. Jacob lived on planet Earth 3900 years ago. Jacob had God change his name to Israel. Jacob ended up marrying two gals – Leah and Rachel. Leah and Rachel each had a maidservant. The maidservants’ names were Zilpah and Bilhah. Zilpah and Bilhah also became Jacob’s concubines. Jacob and Leah had six boys born to them. Jacob and Rachel had two boys born to them. Jacob and Zilpah had two boys born to them. Jacob and Bilhah had two boys born to them. Jacob in all had twelve sons. Each one of Jacob’s twelve sons began an Israelite people group tribal clan. Over 2000 years after God promised Abraham that his extended family would still be living in the same land area where he was living. God came to planet Earth as God the Son – Jesus, as a baby in a small town called Ephrath or Bethlehem. About 1300 years after Rachel died near Bethlehem while Benjamin was being born, Micah scribed that Bethlehem would be the place where Jesus would be born. One hundred years or so after Micah scribed his small book, Obadiah had a vision. Obadiah’s vision was about guys and gals who had an innate hatred of God’s specially chosen guys and gals. These guys and gals lived in a land area called Edom. Jacob had an older twin bro. Jacob’s older twin bro – Esau, had Edom named after his skin coloring. When Esau became really mad at Jacob for taking the birthright blessing away from him – even though it was his own fault for telling his kid bro that he could have the birthright blessing for a bowl of the stew that Jacob had made, Esau left his home and went to a land area that became known as Edom. Because Jacob really believed that his older bro would find a way to kill him if he stayed home, Jacob also left the home where his dad and ma – Isaac and Rebecca, were living. Jacob getting the birthright blessing from his dad and the details of Rachel’s death are found in this chapter of the first book that Moses scribed. Your grandpaa thinks that Moses was an excellent historian.
The Old and New Testaments have one ongoing storyline. The storyline begins in the Bible’s first book. The storyline ends in the Bible’s last book. The storyline that your grandpaa sees throughout the Bible is God keeping the promises that He has made to His specially chosen and specially elected guys, gals and kids from the beginning of the Old Testament’s era to a time which is yet to happen but which is talked about in the New Testament’s final small book. Jacob believed what God told him. Jacob did what God asked Him to do. Jacob made a commitment to only worship God when he had his household get rid of the inanimate gods that they had that were made of wood or stone or metal. Even though Jacob had connived to get the birthright blessing from his dad, God still blessed Jacob. At the same time that God was blessing Jacob, Jacob’s favorite wife – Rachel, died. Rueben – the oldest boy born to Jacob and Leah, would do something that he absolutely had no right doing. It would really be nice if life stories would only be filled with blessings but . . . from the very beginning, the life stories of guys and gals who lived during the Old and New Testament periods were often marred with tragedies and pain. When your planet Earth tenure comes to an end, what would you like your life storylines to be? Your grandmaa and grandpaa are very, very grateful for the incredible storylines that God – as God the Father, ordained for their lives to live out on planet Earth.
Genesis 35 (264)