OYB Jan 24th

OYB for today

Genesis 48:1-49:33

I guess I really don't have a lot to say about this, except that, for the most part, Jacob's "blessings" sound more like curses to me! Judah, Joseph, and Gad make out pretty well. Zebulun and Naphtali get mentioned almost in passing, and the rest come off pretty bad. Well, I'm not sure about Benjamin. So is Jacob causing these things to be through his "blessings," or is he being prophetic in describing what will be, whether he blesses or not? Or somewhere in the middle? This whole passage confused me.

I did find it somewhat interesting, though, that Jacob wanted to bless the younger of Joseph's sons over the older. Something which Joseph wasn't too keen on. Given that Joseph is the one that's been the most prophetic throughout these chapters, I think the fact that Jacob's vision for the future overrules his. Even Joseph, who has seemed almost superhuman is in patience and faithfulness, still doesn't have all the answers.

Matthew 15:29-16:12

Jesus is critical of the Pharasees for not being able to read the signs of the times all around them. It's seems significant to me that Jesus chose as his example two weather signs that you need to look up to read. The Pharasees, with their focus on rules and the law, are always focused down.

Once Jesus and the disciples have gone off by themselves, they realize that nobody brought any bread. I can just imagine them. "I thought you had it ... No, it was your turn to get the bread ... No way. I got it last time ... " ;) Then Jesus warns them to beware the yeast of the Pharasees, and they're sure they've been "caught."

I find it interesting that Jesus talks about the dangers of the yeast of the pharasees when, just a few verses earlier, he had described the kingdom of heaven as being like yeast!

To extend the comparison I was making the other day: yeast makes up a relatively small percentage of bread, but it's impact is significant. I'm not a baker, so I don't know what "bad" yeast would do. I know that good yeast give the bread structure. I imagine that bad yeast would just leave the bread flat and lifeless. So I interpret that to mean that we're to watch for teaching that gives life, and not teaching that binds with a legal code.