VA’YEI’SHEIV YAAKOV BE’ERETZ ME’GU’REI A’VIV BE’ERETZ CE’NA’AN
Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojourn, in the land of Canaan.
It was a sobering but scintillating experience I had in 2022, walking down a path in the hills of Jerusalem which is known to be a place where the Patriarchs strode nearly four thousand years ago. An actual spot where they placed their feet as they ambled through the Land of Promise. My feet where their feet roamed.
This is metaphorical. We walk the pathways of our forebears.
1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child…” We are reared by parents who impart to us their ways and knowledge. While we are children we speak and think as they do. Our understanding is conditioned by their understanding, their view of the world. Our actions and habits mimic theirs.
But when we become adults, we move from the track they traveled and explore the world on our own. Do we improve on their journey?
Jacob found himself returning to the path of Isaac. At the end, he lay down next to his father and mother in the Double Cave of Machpelah. (Genesis 23)
What led him there?
It was not mere repetition that brought Jacob to the destination marked out by Abraham and Isaac, Sarah and Rebecca. It was the revelation of God to him as it had been the revelation of God to them that led him there. God appeared to Jacob, just as God had appeared to his fathers. (Genesis 28, 31)
May the LORD grant to each of us that personal Divine Encounter that leads us into the “strait gate” and guides us along the “narrow way” that leads to Eternal Life. (Matthew 7:13-14)
It is not merely the lifestyle of our fathers that we need. We need the godly revelation they received. It is our own encounter with Jesus that will be for us “The Way, The Truth and The Life” that will lead us to the Eternal Father. (John 14:6)
Do not settle for second-hand faith. Do not be satisfied with anything less than your own living walk with Yeshua. (Luke 24:13-32)
