One Year Pray for America Bible - Flipbook - Page 61
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January 14
and don’t be upset when he
corrects you.
For the Lord corrects those he
loves,
just as a father corrects a child
in whom he delights.*
3:12 Greek version reads loves, / and he punishes
those he accepts as his children. Compare Heb 12:6.
Lord, today I pray for our leaders to stand firm for
what’s right. To be all-in, to not give in to temptation
or let corruption seep into their thoughts or actions.
Guard their hearts, Lord. Give them integrity. Amen.
GENESIS 30:1–31:16
When Rachel saw that she w
asn’t having any children for Jacob, she became
jealous of her sister. She pleaded with
Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
2 Then Jacob became furious with
Rachel. “Am I God?” he asked. “He’s
the one who has kept you from having
children!”
3 Then Ra
chel told him, “Take my
maid, Bilhah, and sleep with her.
She will bear children for me,* and
through her I can have a family, too.”
4 So Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah,
to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with
her. 5 Bilhah became pregnant and
presented him with a son. 6 Rachel
named him Dan,* for she said, “God
has vindicated me! He has heard my
request and given me a son.” 7 Then
Bilhah became pregnant again and
gave Jacob a second son. 8 Rachel
named him Naphtali,* for she said,
“I have struggled hard with my sister,
and I’m winning!”
9 Meanwhile, Leah realized that
she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore,
so she took her servant, Zilpah, and
gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Soon Zil
pah presented him with a son. 11 Leah
named him Gad,* for she said, “How
fortunate I am!” 12 Then Zilpah gave
Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah named
him Asher,* for she said, “What joy is
mine! Now the other women will celebrate with me.”
14 One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes
growing in a field and brought them
to his mother, Leah. Rachel begged
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Leah, “Please give me some of your
son’s mandrakes.”
15 But Leah angrily replied, “Wasn’t
it enough that you stole my husband?
Now will you steal my son’s mandrakes, too?”
Rachel answered, “I will let Jacob
sleep with you tonight if you give me
some of the mandrakes.”
16 So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out
to meet him. “You must come and sleep
with me tonight!” she said. “I have paid
for you with some mandrakes that my
son found.” So that night he slept with
Leah. 17 And God answered Leah’s
prayers. She became pregnant again
and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob.
18 She named him Is
sachar,* for she
said, “God has rewarded me for giving
my servant to my husband as a wife.”
19 Then Leah became pregnant again
and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob.
20 She named him Z
ebulun,* for she
said, “God has given me a good reward.
Now my husband will treat me with respect, for I have given him six sons.”
21 Later she gave birth to a daughter and
named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Ra
chel’s
plight and answered her prayers by
enabling her to have children. 23 She
became pregnant and gave birth to a
son. “God has removed my disgrace,”
she said. 24 And she named him Jo
seph,* for she said, “May the Lord
add yet another son to my family.”
25 Soon after Ra
chel had given
birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban,
“Please release me so I can go home
