WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: What do you need to confess before God today? Use the words of the prayer: ‘Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ Mixed blessings As Jacob’s sons gather before his deathbed he blesses and prophesies over them. It’s something of a mixed bag: Judah and Joseph are the recipients of wonderful words (vs 8–12,22–26) and are promised prosperous futures. The futures of Zebulun, Dan, Asher, Naphtali and Benjamin aren’t too bad, but the other five? Not exactly the words I’d like to hear from my dying father! The prophecies for Reuben, Simeon and Levi are based on the sins of their past. Reuben slept with one of his father’s wives, Bilhah (35:22), and Simeon and Levi avenged the rape of their sister Dinah in unnecessarily vicious fashion (ch 34). They have to pay for their sins through their futures and the futures of their families. Repentance Their blessings are passed to Judah (v 8), even though his past (with Tamar, ch 38) is far from blameless. The difference between the sons appears to be their repentance when confronted with their sins. Where Simeon and Levi protest the validity of their actions (34:31), Judah is contrite (38:26). Our past affects our future, but we also see that repentance washes away our sins. Elsewhere in the Bible we also see that prophecies can be reversed through repentance – Jonah warned the people of Nineveh of its destruction, but their contrition changed God’s heart (Jonah 3,4). Respond: ‘Father, thank you that through your Son my sins can be washed away. Give me a contrite heart that I may know your gracious one. Amen.’ http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-11-08