I'm back on the grid. I enjoyed reading the last five chapters all in a row and all the comments. A few thoughts. I find it interesting that there is very little judgment anywhere for people's actions which leaves me wondering whether things are good, bad, neutral or just not the point of this story/book. Tony you have mentioned the favoritism that seems to have both positive and negative natural consequences but is never really mentioned as a moral issue. Jacob engages in flagrant dishonesty and trickery but we don't really get a sense of morality there either. We see other actions which we immediately pick up as morally white such as his forgiveness but the morally black or gray decisions are of interest to me in such that I want to understand the nature of God and the way he interactions with the world and how our choices affect His world/plan. There are odd times where I get the sense God has a much different role in these guys lives than the relationship we experience today. Is this an intentional part of the Bible story? For example when Jacob refers to God as the God of his fathers I get the sense even after a hundred years he doesn't feel connected to God in the same way that they did. At it's heart this seems to be a story about a dysfunctional family that God takes a liking to for reasons beyond my comprehension. This culture we've been reading about seems so morally inferior to our own that I'm left wondering why humanity got worse before the flood and seem to have headed more and more morally upright throughout the centuries. While I often hear complaints about "what's happening in the world today" and predictions of an upcoming rapture... compared to what we have been reading in Genesis and if I remember any of the rest of the Old Testament I find myself drawing one of two conclusions... Either I/our culture (church included) have no idea what from a morality standpoint is important or somewhere, maybe the current times, the pendulum must swing back and we start reversing the direction, which I guess would make the first half of the 20th century the golden years? Though, I have a hard time calling any era in which the most morally upright group of people dropped nuclear bombs on cities a golden age. I guess my main point here is that I feel very righteous in comparison to the Bible heroes of old. While I understand that in God's sight I'm fully righteous because of Jesus, I still feel responsible for my actions and feel as though I have a choice whether to right or wrong and I hope it pleases God when I do... all right, I'm going off on major tangents. On a side note I have prayer request and that's my 4 year old Moby who developed a rare condition called Kawasaki's Disease while we were camping. I've been told he'll be fine but he's at the children's hospital up in Portland probably for the better part of the week. Anyway, he's miserable and looks like death and its always a little scary to see your kids like that and all these father-son focused chapters we've been reading have me a little weepy.

It's interesting how God uses us. In this chapter it's not really any power that Jacob has. Or is it? Certainly the power originates from God but if Jacob hadn't blessed then would their lives be blessed in that way? In that case Jacob does have the power. Hire much power do we have over our own children or our own lives? Are they missing out on something I've left unsaid? Lastly if this all just old testament stuff that isn't applicable in that way.