Welcome back for another episode!  Today we’re in Genesis 35, which goes by fairly quickly, but it is still pretty interesting to me.  What I can relate to in this chapter is the way that God shows that He doesn’t call people based on how good they are, but based on faith.  Jacob screwed stuff up, but God knew that would happen and deals with him anyway.  Jacob follows God by faith, just as Abraham did, and God counts that as righteousness.

Another thing that is relatable in this chapter is that sometimes God asks us as well to get rid of the things in our lives that are hurting our relationship with Him.  Jacob and his family had to get rid of the gods and talismans that they had collected while they lived with pagan peoples, and they were better for it.

This chapter also reminds me that the Bible doesn’t whitewash the faults of the people in it.  Rueben did a bad thing by sleeping with his father’s concubine, and Jacob shouldn’t have been keeping concubines at all!  But the Bible doesn’t try to hide these facts.  These people were sinners saved by grace, just like we are today.