My prayer is that you read and study these devotional passages with me in an earnest desire to seek the Lord (Phil)
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THE THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
What is a true man? Part 1 of 6
A true man, like Jesus, is obedient to the Father’s will and is about His Father’s business
“Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”
Hebrews 10:9 (KJV)
Genesis 30
Jacob’s second wife, Rachel, could not conceive children, so she gave Jacob her Bilhah her maid and she con bore him Dan and Nlahtali
Genesis 30:4-8 (KJV), “4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. 5 And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. 6 And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. 7 And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. 8 And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.”
Jacob’s first wife, Leah, stopped conceiving and gave Jacob Zilpah her maid and she bore him Gad and Asher
Genesis 30:9-13 (KJV), “9 When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. 10 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad. 12 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.”
For the sake of Rachel’s mandrakes, Leah laid with Jacob and bore him Issachar, Zebulan, and Dinah
Genesis 30:17-21 (KJV), “17 And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son. 18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar. 19 And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son. 20 And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun. 21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.”
Then God gave Rachel one of her two promised sons and bore Joseph (Do you remember who the next one was?)
Genesis 30:22-24 (KJV), “22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. 23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: 24 And she called his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add to me another son.”
Finally
(from David Guzik)
Genesis 30:43 (KJV), “And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.”
[1] In the same way, blessing comes from the Lord to His people not because they are great or good, but because of the covenant God has made with them through Jesus, and the many promises He has given to His people in His word.
We may note Jacob’s principles for prosperity:
· Don’t make wealth your goal; Jacob’s real goal was to return home
Genesis 30:25-26 (KJV), “25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.”
· Don’t be afraid to work for others and try to increase their wealth before or as you work to increase your own wealth
Genesis 30:27 (KJV), “And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.”
· Work hard, dedicating yourself to your employer’s success
Genesis 30:26 (KJV), “Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.”
Genesis 31:38-42 (KJV), “38 This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. 39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. 40 Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. 41 Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times. 42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.”
· Trust God
Genesis 30:31-33 (KJV), “31 And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock. 32 I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire. 33 So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.”
Isaiah 21
The wilderness of the sea
Isaiah 21:1 (KJV), “The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.”
Lexical Summary (4057) – midbar: Wilderness, desert.
Midbar appears roughly 271 times across the Old Testament and serves as a theological stage where the Lord reveals His character, forms His covenant people, disciplines the wayward, and foreshadows redemptive hope. While commonly rendered “wilderness” or “desert,” the term covers a spectrum from arid waste to pasture-land, united by its absence of settled agriculture and its need for divine provision.
Scripture locates multiple midbar regions: the great Syro-Arabian desert stretching toward Mesopotamia is just one of them. These varied settings provide the backdrop for divine encounters, military campaigns, pilgrimage routes, prophetic sign-acts, and flights for refuge.
Elam, later day Persia, is being summoned to go up against Babylon with forces of Media
Isaiah 21:2-3 (KJV), “2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. 3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.”
Notice is given to the people of God, who were then captives in Babylon, that this prophecy of the downfall of Babylon was particularly intended for their comfort and encouragement, and they might depend upon it that it should be accomplished in due season
Isaiah 21:10 (KJV), “O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.”
Psalms 17
A prayer of David upon the knowing of his fate. Revealing through his life that his heart was always the way of God
Psalm 17:2-3 (KJV), “2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. 3 Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.”
David has followed in the paths that God has set before him and is now asking of God to hear his plea of salvation
Psalm 17:5-7 (KJV), “5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. 6 I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. 7 Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.”
Proverbs 26
If you want to make a foolish person feel proud
Proverbs 26:4-5 (KJV), “4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”
The productive person gets out of bed, leaves their home and goes to work. A lazy person gets out of bed, looks around, shuts the door and goes back to bed
Proverbs 26:14 (KJV), “As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.”
Do not meddle in other people’s business unless you are invited to
Proverbs 26:17 (KJV), “He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.”
Be careful in what you say to others for, once it is said, you cannot take it back
Proverbs 26:18-19 (KJV), “18 As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, 19 So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?”
The word(s) ‘mad/man’ is not gender specific
Lexicon (3856) – lahah: To languish, to faint, to be weary.
Unless you are looking for trouble, do not start a discussion angry
Proverbs 26:21 (KJV), “As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.”
You will always reap what you sow, believe me
Proverbs 26:27 (KJV), “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.”
[1] David Guzik
Grow in the Word of the Lord 