Everyone has a character.  What do you think about a person¡¯s character? 

How does a character develop?

1. It is born within us
2. As we grow, it develops
3. Some things were born within us and some things were developed as we grow
4. I¡¯m not sure.

Which of these do you think is the right answer of how a character is developed?

Jacob literally means ¡°grabbing the ankle¡± or ¡°liar/thief¡±.  His older twin brother was Esau.  The Israelites always blessed the oldest son, but Jacob stole his birthright.  Esau was out catching game while Jacob was eating.  Jacob bought Esau¡¯s birthright by selling Esau a pot of stew.  Jacob had the help of his mother to approach Isaac to get the blessing from Isaac.  Isaac was able to tell that Jacob¡¯s voice and smell was Jacob, but Isaac still blessed Jacob.  Esau got mad and tried to kill Jacob, but Rebekah (Jacob¡¯s mom) sent Jacob to her brother¡¯s house to flee from Esau. 

Jacob also has another character.  Esau loved Isaac and Isaac loved Esau, and Rebekah loved Jacob but not Esau.  The parents showed favoritism. 

Now at his uncle¡¯s house, there were two daughters, Leah and Rachel.  Jacob loved Rachel and his uncle promised him Rachel if he would work for 7 years.  So the night of their marriage, his uncle sent Leah instead of Rachel, but he didn¡¯t love Rachel.  This is because of the law in his tribe.  An older sister must marry first.  SO Jacob had to work another 7 years to receive Rachel.  Rachel bore Jacob Joseph and Benjamin, but Leah bore him 7 sons.  Since Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, he loved Joseph the most out of all of his sons.  He now, like his parents, is showing favoritism. 

The 9 brothers of Joseph were jealous of Joseph so they sold him to some Egyptians. 

God has given us our character when we are born.  If we end up developing characters as we grow up, that also is a gift from God.  Why were we born under our respective parents?  Why were we born in the USA?  But God doesn¡¯t want us to live by our characters.

Because Jacob loved Joseph so much, God took him away.  Jacob lived by his own character, so God took away his loved ones.  Rebekah died before Isaac and Rachel died before Leah, and Joseph was taken away from him.  Finally, Benjamin is taken away from Jacob when Joseph was testing his brothers.  Joseph tested them by bringing Benjamin to them.  Jacob could not let go of Benjamin, and it was then that he realized that all of those he favored were being taken away from him.  Because there was a great famine, Jacob could do nothing but send Benjamin.  He was willing to let go of Benjamin to bring all of his sons back.  This shows that he has lost his character.  He wanted to get rid of his bad character of favoritism.  Once he was able to do this, he was able to receive not only Benjamin, but his long-lost Joseph. 

We may have in-born characters, and we may have developed characters, but the important thing is to let go of our own characters and live according to the Word. 

God loved all of Jacob¡¯s 10 sons, not just Joseph and Benjamin.  God wanted to bless all of them, but because Jacob favored only two of them, God put Jacob through trials to make him shed his character of favoritism. 

If we do not let go of our characters, God will cause His will to be shown through whatever means He desires.  He will do this until we fix our character and our lifestyle. 

Announcements

1. Please don't forget to pay your dues.
2. Memorize March's Bible verse.
3. Bring in your COMPLETED prayer cards.
4. We will be witnessing in Flushing on Sunday instead of Bible study.
5. We will be coloring Easter eggs on Saturday, April 15, at 2pm at Phil's house.  If you were assigned to bring eggs, please boil them and bring them.
6. Following easter egg coloring, we will be attending Eunyoung Hong's graduation recital.  The van will be driving us.
7. If you are interested in attending JAMA, please make your final decisions by Sunday, April 16.