One Year Pray for America Bible - Flipbook - Page 58
January 13
uncle Laban, his mother’s brother, the
son of Bethuel the Aramean.
6 Esau knew that his father,
Isaac,
had blessed Jacob and sent him to
Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that
he had warned Jacob, “You must not
marry a Canaanite woman.” 7 He also
knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 It
was now very clear to Esau that his
father did not like the local Canaan
ite women. 9 So Esau visited his uncle
Ishmael’s family and married one of
Ishmael’s daughters, in addition to the
wives he already had. His new wife’s
name was Mahalath. She was the sister of N
ebaioth and the daughter of Ish
mael, Abraham’s son.
10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba
and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set
up camp and stopped there for the
night. Jacob found a stone to rest his
head against and lay down to sleep.
12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to
heaven. And he saw the angels of God
going up and down the stairway.
13 At the top of the stairway stood
the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord,
the God of your grandfather Abraham,
and the God of your father, Isaac. The
ground you are lying on belongs to
you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be
as numerous as the dust of the earth!
They will spread out in all directions—
to the west and the east, to the north
and the south. And all the families of
the earth will be blessed through you
and your descendants. 15 What’s more,
I am with you, and I will protect you
wherever you go. One day I will bring
you back to this land. I will not leave
you until I have finished giving you
everything I have promised you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep
and said, “Surely the Lord is in this
place, and I w
asn’t even aware of it!”
17 But he was also afraid and said,
“What an awesome place this is! It is
none other than the house of God, the
very gateway to heaven!”
18 The next morning Jacob got up
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very early. He took the stone he had
rested his head against, and he set it
upright as a memorial pillar. Then he
poured olive oil over it. 19 He named
that place Beth
el (which means
“house of God”), although it was previously called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made this vow: “If God
will indeed be with me and protect me
on this journey, and if he will provide
me with food and clothing, 21 and if I
return safely to my father’s home, then
the Lord will certainly be my God.
22 And this memorial pillar I have set
up will become a place for worshiping
God, and I will present to God a tenth
of everything he gives me.”
29:1 Then
Jacob hurried on, finally arriving in the land of the east. 2 He saw
a well in the distance. Three flocks of
sheep and goats lay in an open field
beside it, waiting to be watered. But
a heavy stone covered the mouth of
the well.
3 It was the custom there to wait for
all the flocks to arrive before removing
the stone and watering the animals.
Afterward the stone would be placed
back over the mouth of the well. 4 Jacob
went over to the shepherds and asked,
“Where are you from, my friends?”
“We are from Haran,” they answered.
5 “Do you know a man there named
Laban, the grandson of Nahor?” he
asked.
“Yes, we do,” they replied.
6 “Is he doing well?” Jacob asked.
“Yes, he’s well,” they answered.
“Look, here comes his daughter Ra
chel with the flock now.”
7 Jacob said, “Look, it’s still broad
daylight—too early to round up the
animals. Why don’t you water the
sheep and goats so they can get back
out to pasture?”
8 “We can’t water the animals until
all the flocks have arrived,” they replied. “Then the shepherds move the
stone from the mouth of the well, and
we water all the sheep and goats.”
9 Jacob was still talking with them
when Rachel arrived with her father’s
flock, for she was a shepherd. 10 And
