Women in the Bible: Dinah Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and Leah, is the central character of Genesis 34. Though we know what happened to her and because of her, we know nothing about what she said, did, or thought. Her story begins tragically...
Women in the Bible: Rachel Rachel is an interesting character. She’s the wife of Jacob and also his first cousin. Talk about ick! We read about her in Genesis 29-31 & 35. For some reason, I’m drawn to her, but I don’t know why. We know she’s...
When God Tells Us to Do Something, Does He Mean Forever? God instructs Jacob to go to Egypt, but he doesn’t intend for him to stay Just like Cain and Abel, along with Ishmael and Isaac, Joseph and his brothers have problems, too. There are two...
How Many Tribes Were There in Israel? Just as we know that Jesus had twelve disciples, we know that Israel had twelve tribes, right? Jacob (also known as Israel) had twelve sons and each son became a tribe, right? Well sort of. Even though Joseph...
Three People Given a New Name by God In the book of Genesis, God gives new names to three people. In doing so, God is effectively saying, I’m giving you a new identity. You may see yourself according to your old name, but I see you differently...
Is Watering Animals a Prelude to Marriage? In the Bible there’s the story of Jacob, who rolls away the stone from the well to water Rachel’s sheep. They get married. Then there’s Moses. He rescues some shepherd girls when they are being harassed...
A Love Story: Life-Sustaining Water In a love story, culturally distant and a bit strange to us, Jacob is enamored by the fetching Rachel. In an act of service, to garner her attention, he rolls away a stone from the mouth of a well to provide...
Joseph: Dreamer and Interpreter of Dreams In the story of Jacob’s son Joseph, we read that Joseph had a couple of dreams. The implicit meaning of his dreams was that his older brothers would become subservient to him, as would his father and...
What’s the Deal with Levi? Levi was one of Jacob’s sons (the third of twelve). The Bible doesn’t tell us much about him; what it does say, doesn’t bode well. The short version is that Levi’s sister, Dinah is raped. Levi and brother...
An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth—Not Moses gave a curious command: “Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” This seems to be an excessive response when one is wronged, but given the culture...
