Jacob's Children: 5 Dan

Seeking Judgment and Hasting Righteousness

[Isaiah 16:5b KJV]

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”
And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.” Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. 
And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.
[Genesis 30: 1-6 NKJV]

Sheep in snow-covered field near Kilberry, Argyll

God judged Rachel, but He also heard her voice. He heard the cry of her heart and exercised His perfect judgement and mercy.

In mercy the throne will be established; and One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness. [Isaiah 16:5 NKJV]

Isaiah makes it clear that God is still creating. He is hastening righteousness. God's plan and purpose is to bring us back to the garden; to that state that He created us to be. We can look on Judgement as God's way of keeping us on the right path.

Rachel (whose name comes from a Hebrew root word meaning to journey) was barren and envied Leah's bearing children for Jacob. She also blames Jacob for not giving her children, and He in turn blames her, effectively saying, "it is God's fault, not mine". Not a good situation, but easy for any of us to take that sort of attitude when we do not get our own way.

As we shall see as this story unfolds, God gives Rachel the desire of her heart in a very real way, firstly by giving her Dan, by means of what we would now call a surrogate mother in Bilhah (whose name is troubled), then Naphtali, but later God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb, giving her Joseph, a foreshadowing of Christ. Such a marvellous blessing, and this because Rachel cried out to God and found that He has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice. Dan, of course, means a judge, from a root to plead a case.

His judgement reveals that our relationship with Him is heart to heart. His heart knowing our hearts, and our hearts seeking to know His heart. Rachel's turning to God, seeking His help and accepting His judgement, ultimately led to God giving her the desire of her heart - allow ing God to grow her in righteousness, and makes her a type of His true church.

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"We bow down and confess, you are Lord in this place" - Robin Mark

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OSWALD CHAMBERS - RUN TODAY'S RACE
Wednesday 13th May 2020
There are saints who are being rattled out of holiness by fussy work for God,
whereas one five minute brooding on God's truth
would do more good than all their work and fuss.

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