We just returned from a 4-day trip to Las Vegas, courtesy of our son Mark who went there to “Scale the Strat”. Mark is a stair racer, and the annual race up the Strat’s 108 floors is the Towerrunning USA Championship. As volunteers to assist the official timekeeper, June and I were at the top, watching all 600+ runners finish.

The Strat Tower from the outside (it’s the second tallest tower in the western hemisphere); June and I at the top of the stairwell, two steps before the finish (we look fresh because we didn’t run it!).

Mark finished second to his stair racing friend and World #1 stair climber Soh Wai Ching of Malaysia, whom we had met before.

I’ll never forget when Mark stopped by my timekeeper’s table several hours into the race. (People enter the stairwell individually 15 – 30 seconds apart, so the whole race takes well over four hours.) I congratulated him for finishing second. He corrected me: “I prefer ‘US National Champion.’” Recall he finished second to a guy from Malaysia, making Mark the first US finisher – hence, US Champion. Pretty cool.

Here’s part of a news report:

Soh Wai Ching, 28, of Malaysia, took 6 minutes and 45.6 seconds to win Scale the Strat on Sunday. He also won in 2022 with a time of 6:57...

The female winner, Maria Elisa Lopez from Mexico, beat longtime U.S. number one and former world number one Cindy Harris, by a second.

This race was also the Towerrunning USA Championship race, so the top male and female U.S. runners are recognized as national champions, Harris and Mark Ewell. – Marvin Clemons, Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 26, 2023

Mark turns 50 next week. As another of his stair-racing friends told me, “Mark gets older, and he keeps getting faster.”

But it’s not by accident. He trains daily. At least once a week he runs the Manitou Incline, a “hike” on railroad ties, 2,744 steps, with a 2,000-foot elevation gain in less than one mile. Another day he trains for an hour in a stairwell in downtown Colorado Springs. We’re proud of him!

Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. (1 Corinthians 9.24, 25, NLT)

Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas… Instead, train yourself to be godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. (1 Timothy 4.7, 8, NLT)

For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. (1 Corinthians 4.20, ESV)

We left Joseph yesterday having been rushed into the presence of Pharaoh. Rushed? Joseph wanted out of prison after he interpreted the dream for the chief butler. Then…

After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. And Pharaoh awoke. (Genesis 41.1 – 4, ESV)

But then things move quickly. Joseph told Pharaoh about the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine and suggested that Pharaoh appoint a man to oversee crop collection and distribution.

This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 41.37 – 41, ESV)

It took Joseph 13 years to be an overnight success!

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. (Genesis 37.2, ESV)

Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Genesis 41.46, ESV)

Thirteen years. Two of those years were after Joseph had helped the chief butler. What are the lessons from that?

• How would you forget a guy like Joseph? God’s sovereignty?
• Things don’t always go well for God’s man. (Compare John 16.33)
• God’s timetable is different from ours.
• If he had spoken to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh released Joseph, Joseph might have gone home and would not have been in a position to protect his family.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55.8, 9, ESV)

This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (Isaiah 14.26, 27, ESV)

Thanks to a cross-reference note in the Bible I’m reading, I saw something new in Genesis 41. Joseph is still in prison. The chief butler forgot about Joseph, and it’s two years after the dreams of Genesis 40. Pharaoh has a dream, and his staff of magicians can’t interpret it. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and he expects his magicians to tell him what the dream was and then interpret it!

Watch what happens in both cases:

Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, “I would bring to remembrance today my own offenses. Pharaoh was furious with his servants, and he put me in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, both me and the chief baker. And we had a dream on the same night, he and I; each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now there was with us a Hebrew youth, a slave of the captain of the bodyguard, and we recounted them to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us. To each one he interpreted according to his own dream…Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they rushed him out of the pit; and he shaved himself and changed his clothes, and he came to Pharaoh. (Genesis 41.9 – 14, LSB)

Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Bring me before the king, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.” Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him: “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!” (Daniel 2.24, 25, LSB)

The commonality that the cross-reference highlighted was:

• “…they rushed him out of the pit”
• “…Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel before the king”

Both have urgency in them. When the King needs something, it’s urgent! In addition:

• Both men were foreigners: Hebrews in a foreign court.
  • Joseph was a slave, in prison.
  • Daniel wasn’t a slave, technically, but he was a captive.
• Both knew how to interpret dreams.
  • Joseph had done it before, his own, and the butler and baker in the prison
  • Daniel had not, but he knew God.
• Both men gave God the credit

Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “ It is not in me; God will answer concerning the welfare of Pharaoh.” (Genesis 41.16, LSB)

The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel answered before the king and said, “As for the mystery about which the king is asking, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the last days. This was your dream and the visions of your head while on your bed. (Daniel 2.26 – 28, LSB)

• Both men were elevated after the interpretations. I’ll write more about Joseph’s promotion tomorrow.

“They rushed him out of the pit.” Joseph had been in captivity 13 years! Some serving as a slave to Potiphar and the rest in prison serving the captain of the guard. 13 years, but when it’s time for a change, “They rushed…”

The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the LORD; in its time I will do this swiftly. (Isaiah 60.22, NIV, emphasis mine)

As I was meditating on the Asbury Awakening that I reported on last Sunday, I remembered this evidence that God is not always in the spectacular. Sometimes he is, but I think most of the time he’s not. Elijah had just seen God at his most spectacular when God sent down fire from heaven as recorded in 1 Kings 18. But in chapter 19, he’s having a pity party. How does God handle that?

And [the LORD] said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and 

• a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD,
  • but the LORD was not in the wind.
• And after the wind an earthquake,
  • but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 
• And after the earthquake a fire,
  • but the LORD was not in the fire.
• And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. (1 Kings 19.11, 12, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

The LORD was in the wind and the fire in Acts 2, and he surely was in the spectacular at Asbury, but God is not always in the spectacular. Elijah needed to hear the low whisper. And what was in the low whisper?

And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. 

• And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 
• And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel,
• and Elisha…you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 
  • And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death.  
• Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19.15 – 18, ESV), bulleted for clarity

There is always a “go.” We can’t stay on the mountain of the spectacular. There is work to be done, and I’m not the only one to do it! (Elijah had 7,000 supporters he didn’t know about.)

Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. (Joshua 1.2, ESV, emphasis mine)

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.18 – 20, ESV, emphasis mine)

We saw yesterday that Joseph took his work seriously, even as a slave and then a prisoner, and that God honored that. Work is valuable in and of itself – an extension of God’s work in the world.

Work also puts us in the position to serve our co-workers and our clients. We serve by our work by just doing the job, and we serve people at our work. No one exemplifies this better than Joseph in the well-known story of the dreams of the butler and baker in prison:

As time went on, it happened that the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt crossed their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the head cupbearer and the head baker, and put them in custody under the captain of the guard; it was the same jail where Joseph was held. The captain of the guard assigned Joseph to see to their needs. After they had been in custody for a while, the king’s cupbearer and baker, while being held in the jail, both had a dream on the same night, each dream having its own meaning. When Joseph arrived in the morning, he noticed that they were feeling low. So he asked them, the two officials of Pharaoh who had been thrown into jail with him, “What’s wrong? Why the long faces?” (Genesis 40.1 – 7, MSG)

Did you see it? I don’t know that I would notice that two guys in prison were feeling worse on a particular day than they normally did. I expect they always had long faces! But on this day, they were longer than usual, and Joseph noticed. He went on to interpret their dreams, of course, and that set him up for the important action in chapter 41.

I hope our antennas are up to serve those around us. Sometimes the service is easy – provided we notice the need.

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. (John 9.1, NKJV)

We move into the story of Joseph, which continues for the rest of Genesis. So many good lessons!

We left him the victim of Judah and his brothers who sold him into slavery.

Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt…Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. (Genesis 37.36 – 38, 39.1, ESV)

Then we read a curious thing. In contrast to the phenomenon of quiet quitting, where it’s estimated that up to 50% of today’s workforce is doing only the bare minimum, Joseph apparently works hard with God’s blessing:

The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. (Genesis 39.2 – 5, ESV)

I can’t imagine anything less significant to God than whether or not Potiphar’s business affairs go well, but “God blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake.” Work of all kinds is important and worth doing well, even when you’re a slave in a foreign country. Even when you’re imprisoned for something you didn’t do:

As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed. (Genesis 39.19 – 23, ESV)

It sounds like the jailer got to “quiet quit” because Joseph was doing all of his work!

How many believers are not whole-hearted in their work because, after all, it’s just a job, and it’s not “Christian work”? Never forget, our work is an extension of God’s work in the world, and God values work and workers. Tomorrow, we’ll see another aspect of work that Joseph emulates well.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him… Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3.17…23, 24, ESV)

We got Jacob safely back to Canaan, the promised land, in Genesis 33, and we transition to Joseph in Genesis 37. (There are stories in chapters 34 and 35, which we might mention later.) We are shocked again as we read chapters 37 and 38, that the “seed of Abraham,” this people who are blessed to be a blessing, didn’t start off all that well. Here are the highlights (lowlights?), many of them featuring Judah. Judah is the fourth son of the unloved wife, Leah, not the firstborn. But he is the one through whom Jesus comes, the one whose name morphs to “Jews.” Judah wasn’t much of a guy to start with. Here’s what’s recorded:

Genesis 37: these are not nice people!

• Jacob’s sons were sufficiently ill-behaved that Joseph brought back a bad report.
• Jacob practiced favoritism among his sons.
• The brothers hated Joseph and couldn’t even be civil to him.
• Joseph was probably a bit arrogant because of his favored status and then because of his dreams.
• The brothers plotted to kill Joseph.
• Reuben stepped up and talked them into throwing Joseph into a pit.
• Judah instigated selling him into slavery.

Genesis 38: another sordid story just about Judah. Very sordid.

• Judah – in the line of Christ! – marries a Canaanite woman.
• He had three sons. The firstborn married the Canaanite woman Tamar, but he was evil, and God put him to death.
• Then when the second son wouldn’t perform his duty as a brother-in-law, the Lord put him to death, too.
• Then Judah didn’t give Tamar to his third son.
• After his wife’s death, Judah goes into Tamar thinking she’s a prostitute. (This is NOT a good guy!)
• Then Judah wants Tamar burned because she has been sleeping around, so he thinks.
• Finally, Judah at least does the right thing and owns up to what he did.
• Tamar’s older of twin boys is in the line of Christ, and she is mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy.

And Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar… (Matthew 1.3, LSB)

Not a good start. Judah doesn’t do anything worthy until Genesis 44.

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are [or what we have done]. (Romans 3.21 – 22, NLT, last clause added)

P.S. If you are following the Pentateuch Reading Plan with us, let me make a suggestion. This is the first year I’ve used it, and guess what? There are chapters in the Old Testament that it’s hard to get anything applicable from. For example, Genesis 36 is a list of Esau’s descendants. Here’s what I’m doing: when I read such a chapter, I will also read ONE STORY from the Gospel of Mark, starting from the beginning.

We were planning to attend our church’s Ash Wednesday service last night, but it was canceled because of just enough snow in our area to make driving a bit dicey. But our pastor sent a thought-provoking article that’s too good not to share. I’ve posted it as I received it:

Ash Wednesday Forces Us to Confront Death, but It Also Offers Hope by Tish Harrison Warren – Opinion Writer, New York Times, February 27, 2022.

I recommend the 3-page article in its entirety. Here are some highlights:

We as a culture tend to strenuously avoid the fact of human mortality. Of course, we all know that we will die. But those of us who live in places that feel safe and who are relatively healthy, with friends and family who are relatively healthy, can arrange our lives to avoid thinking about death. With the blessings of modern medicine, people are living longer and when death comes it often happens in medical spaces, far from where most of us live and spend our time. Gone are the days when graveyards frequently circled churches, a bygone reminder of the intrinsic connection between our mortality and our practices of faith...

(I think Jimmy Carter’s decision to die at home has gotten a lot of press partly because it’s different.)

An Ash Wednesday service was one of the first liturgical services I ever attended. And it hit me hard. We, the living, gathered to name the fact of death. The priest marked the foreheads of children, even newborn babies. It felt so true and countercultural, and also incredibly sad. I have since presided over several Ash Wednesday services as a priest, and it still hits me hard. In the service, I tell the members of my congregation, one by one, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This black mark of death rests on every forehead — the young and old, rich and poor, strong and weak, sick and well. We carry on our body a recollection and proclamation that we, and everyone we love, will die...

Covid’s specter of mass death challenged any flimsy hope that we can control our lives and be rescued from mortality, loss and pain. For many of us, facing the immovable fact of death quite naturally raises questions about God. With nearly a million lives lost to Covid in the United States alone, more people find themselves longing for religious rituals that acknowledge mystery, meaning, horror and hope in death…

After commenting on Karl Marx’s famous quote about religion being the opiate of the masses, she offers this stunner:

Still, in my own life, any numbing effects of religion don’t hold a candle to binge-watching Netflix with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and a bourbon on the rocks…

There are myriad reasons that wealth might dampen faith. But one is that those of us who are privileged and comparatively comfortable can insulate ourselves from death, suffering and our own mortality in ways others cannot. Whether one is a churchgoer or not, when our bodies are strong, our stomachs are full, and we have high-speed internet and craft beer, questions of eternity seem less pressing...

She ends with this reminder of hope:

But Ash Wednesday doesn’t end with an invitation to distraction or consumer comfort. Nor does it end with the imposition of ashes. After the ashes, in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, the priest asks that “at the last we may come” to God’s eternal joy. Then we take Communion together, a tangible decree that ashes give way to beauty, that death gives way to resurrected life…We need more than diversion, work and pleasure. We need deep, resonant, defiant hope.

The Apostle Paul put it this way:

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15.51 – 57, ESV)

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Ecclesiastes 3.20)

Former President Jimmy Carter at age 98 is the longest-living US President. He has been married to his wife Rosalyn for 75 years, also a record for US Presidents. He’s dying (aren’t we all) and opted to die at home:

After a life well lived, I think he will show us how to die. When diagnosed with cancer in 2015, he said:

I’ve been as blessed as any human being in the world. – Jimmy Carter

His grandson Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator, tweeted on Saturday:

I saw both of my grandparents yesterday. They are at peace and—as always—their home is full of love.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. – The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 4.6, 7, ESV

³  You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
⁴  For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
⁵  You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:
⁶  in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
⁷  For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.
⁸  You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
⁹  For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
¹⁰  The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
¹¹  Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?
¹²  So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. – A Prayer of Moses as recorded in Psalm 90

Let’s wrap up the sordid saga of Jacob and his Uncle Laban, two cheaters, but God has his hand on one of them(!), and that makes the difference.

Jacob has not forgotten his objective, which was to go to Haran, find a wife among Abraham’s extended family, and return. God promised:

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28.15, ESV, emphasis mine)

And Jacob claimed it:

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.” (Genesis 28.20 – 22, ESV, emphasis mine)

So it begins:

As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” (Genesis 30.25 – 26, ESV)

Then the haggling and cheating continue. Jacob says he’ll take the spotted and streaked livestock whereupon Laban promptly sends his sons out to take them all away:

But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. (Genesis 30.35 – 36, ESV)

And so it goes. Jacob responds with some hocus pocus to cause the flocks to bear spotted and streaked offspring, resulting in ill-will (you think?):

Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” (Genesis 31.1, ESV)

Then God leads, and Jacob recognizes that his blessing and protection come from God:

Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. (Genesis 31.3 – 9, ESV, emphasis mine)

So Jacob flees. Laban pursues. There is a final confrontation before which God warned Laban not to mess with Jacob. (Genesis 31.17 – 24) The men make a covenant with memorial stones to serve as markers with this often misunderstood inscription:

The Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another. (Genesis 31.49, NKJV)

This is not a loving blessing to be shared between, say, husband and wife while the one is on an extended absence. This was a warning between enemies! Then they separate peacefully:

And early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place. (Genesis 31.55, NKJV)

And that’s the last time we see Laban in the story.

I’ve talked to enough people to know that God doesn’t always deliver his followers from the immediate effects of unscrupulous business partners, but he protected Jacob in this case. And after a reunion with Esau (Jacob thought it would be a dangerous confrontation!), Jacob returns to Canaan safely, as promised:

Then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram; and he pitched his tent before the city. And he bought the parcel of land, where he had pitched his tent, from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. Then he erected an altar there and called it El Elohe Israel. (Genesis 33.18 – 20, NKJV)