May 17 - Week 16 - Merv Miller

Editor's comment: Merv always ends up with the most interesting passages!

Genesis 33-34

So you wake up one morning with a sore hip from wrestling with an angel (use your imagination here) and here comes your brother whom you stole his birthright (Inheritance) from... but from the looks of things his done alright for himself.. he’s got four hundred men and you... well you’ve got your two wives, (let’s hope they are good with sling shots). So the odds don’t look good. Your brother just might take away the birthright (He just may kill you) the only thing that cane save you now is... mercy, forgiveness.

Love, fear, revenge, sex, deception, violence, power... (sounds like 90% of the story line coming out of Hollywood these days) isn’t the Old Testament awesome? Why is it that we are drawn to these stories. It used to disappoint me that these stories are in the Bible at all, a part of our spiritual heritage, but really the Bible is telling like it is, what really happened, and how God worked through people with messed up lives.

Jacob seems to be a man of deception and manipulation. Esau forgave Jacob and wanted to renew their relationship by traveling together and even living in the same area. But Jacob, instead, embraced fear and miss-trust. What a sad way to live.

Even his son’s got caught up in deception, (after all it seemed to work for their father) and they use a most powerful tool, romance, to lure the men of Shechem into a deadly trap.


Psalm 17 is a Psalm of David written before he became King. Most likely when he was fleeing King Saul, who was out to kill him. Here we see a true God-follower who is interested in justice and trusts his God to see his need and protect him. What a contrast from Jacob who lived in fear and whose only way out was deception. Are we observing an evolution of spirituality? Do we see spirituality mature when we read the New Testament?


Proverbs 17

The proverbs(if we let them) show us how to live. We benefit from this wisdom when we apply it. Verse 10, take criticism well and learn form it. Verse 17 ask a brother to help you move. Verse 22 use laughter as a fitness strategy . I can especially relate to Verse 6 as I have just spent 3 hours babysitting my granddaughter. What a joy. And what a joy to observe how loving of a mother my daughter has become.


John 17

This is one awesome chapter, Here Jesus is praying for future believers... he’s praying for you and me.

Vs17 “... teach them your word, which is truth” We can embrace truth where we find it.

Vs 21 “And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” I think Jesus is hoping that followers will be an accurate representation of God and Jesus. So that the world will have idea of the character of God. Our western Christian culture, without doubt, sends mixed message to seekers and the lost.

The chapter ends with the idea that the love of God will indwell future believers. An awesome thought... how’s your love?