When it seems like things are falling apart perhaps they're actually falling into place. Trust that God knows something that you don't yet know.

Joseph's brothers sold him to slavery but God had a plan. The boss's wife tried to seduce Joseph but God had a plan. Perhaps this whole section is all about God and his plan.

When the world seems against us, we need to remember that God is in our corner paving the road for the future he knows is for our best.

What we do that's wrong and what the world intends for evil, God has the ability to redeem and use for good. Here's a prime example.

Jacob isn't going to get the upstanding citizen award in any society. He's weak and manipulative. And some of the things in these chapters many of us don't even know! But what happens when a person who has nothing to offer actually starts to understand who God is? These chapters set up the answer to that very question.

So if the past two little episodes into the life of Jacob and his brother weren't bad enough, we find yet another incident of mistrust, manipulation, lying, betrayal and all of it is used by God to accomplish his plan. God doesn't plan the bad stuff but shows here how he can certainly use the bad to accomplish what he desires.

The lies continue in this section. But the cool part of this whole scenario is that God can use us in spite our ridiculous self-centeredness. Thank goodness because we often put ourselves before God and those around us. But God can work great things even when we're rebellious.

The story of Isaac's twins is fascinating to say the least. The selling of a birthright for a bowl of soup is one thing but then the flat out series of lies and betrayal that will come later are just crazy! In this podcast we look at what can be learned from these two through their sibling rivalry.

So there's an odd thing that happens in this text and we'll touch on it a little. A weird way to make a promise! But the power of this passage is that God provides whether we're looking for it or not! So we may as well look for it so we can find the joy of answers prayers when they happen.

The premise of foreshadowing is that we get a little glimpse into something that's going on in an effort to get a better understanding of something that will happen later. This chapter is a foreshadowing of the entire rest of the Bible.