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There’s something about admitting you’re wrong. It’s hard to do, but what beautiful change can come about. When the brothers return with Benjamin and the silver cup ends up in Benjamin’s sack, Judah – acknowledges his guilt (44:16). Of course they are not actually guilty of stealing the cup, but Judah seems to be recognising…

The way they treated him was wrong. It looked like they weren’t too bothered by it, but deep down they knew it was wrong. For about 20 years they had been living with a troubled conscience about what they had done. To others, it looked like they were doing well, but their past troubled them.…

How can God bring blessing through this crowd? Genesis 38 is fairly bleak reading, Judah behaves awfully. As we read through Genesis, and the Bible as a whole, we discover that everyone (except Jesus) falls short. Having said that, Joseph is a wonderful example of integrity. Someone gave a helpful definition of integrity as “what…

As we read through Genesis (and in fact the rest of the Bible), its helpful to ask where are we in relation to the promise God made to Abraham. In Genesis 12 we saw God promising to make Abraham into a great nation (people), give him a land to live in (place), and bless him…

Does your life feel like a constant striving? Our family sometimes find that living with disability can often feel like this; you have to fight for accessibility, fight for equipment, strive with medical professionals who don’t understand your son’s rare condition, strive for treatment. But for Jacob, taking on a disability became the end of…

I have to confess, I don’t understand the Sadducees! We meet them in Mark 12:18 and we are told that they don’t believe in the resurrection. What is the point of religion without resurrection? Did they believe only because they thought God would help them in this lifetime? It is certainly true that it is…

In Mark 11 we have a very strange incident of Jesus cursing a fig tree because it didn’t bear fruit. Was Jesus ‘hangry’? That’s unlikely given he went 40 days without food and he was never sinfully angry. Why did he curse the fig tree? It seems that Jesus is using the fig tree as…

Rebekah thought you had to grab God’s blessing or you might miss out. Jacob thought you need to trick and deceive to get it. Isaac thought he could give the blessing to whoever he wanted (Genesis 27). The disciples thought God’s blessing was just for the important people. The rich young man thought he could…

It would be easy to think that Isaac’s prayer was answered immediately. Rebekah was barren, Isaac prayed, and along came the twins! (Genesis 25:21). However, notice that Isaac is 40 when he gets married (Genesis 25:20) and the twins don’t arrive until he’s near retirement (25:26). The Lord is once again not in a hurry.…

What joy for a couple who had been waiting so long! We don’t know how long they had been trying for, but we do know it was 25 years since God had made the promise! What joy, what laughter. And then God asks Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son (Genesis 22). How can God ask…