Day 3 #B90Days Challenge
Day 2 Reading: Genesis 28:20 – Genesis 40:11
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Reading went really well today. I got up and got it all done early before the kids woke up. I went ahead and read through the end of Genesis 40, just because I don’t like quitting in the middle of a chapter 
Here are some things that I wanted to look up or that the Lord pointed out to me
Gen 31:19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.
Gen 31:30 And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?
Gen 31:34 Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.
Gen 31:35 And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images
In these verses you see that “images” and/or “gods” are mentioned. Rachel stole her father’s “images” and/or “gods”. I’ve always wondered about this. Did Laban not worship the one true God? So were Rachel and Leah raised in a home where multiple gods were worshipped? I decided to look up the words “Images” and “gods” in my Strongs.
In verses 19, 24 & 25 the word “images” is translated from #8655 (ter-aw-feme) which means a family idol or idols, images, teraphim
And because I didn’t know what teraphim was, I looked it up as well in the Webster’s 1828 dictionary
Webster’s defines it as: Household deities or images.
Now it was time to look up “gods” in my Strongs
In verse 30, the word “gods” is used instead of “images”. The word “gods” in this instance is translated from #430 (‘ĕlôhı̂ym) which means gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:
So, I’m left to believe that Laban worshiped gods other than the one true God and that was how Leah and Rachel were raised to believe as well. These “gods” were important enough to Rachel that she stole them.
Gen 32:15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
I wasn’t sure what a “kine” was so I looked it up in the Webster’s and discovered it means cows
Gen 32:28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Wanted to know what the Hebrew word for “Israel” meant and discovered it meant: he will rule as God
Gen 35:2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
So to answer my earlier question, yes, Leah and Rachel and the folks from Laban’s land worshiped foreign gods. At this point, Jacob tells his household to stop worshipping these “strange gods” and to become clean to worship the one true God.
Gen 37:7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Obeisance means to bow or courtesy; an act of reverence made by an inclination of the body or the knee.
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