January 12: Genesis 32:1 – Genesis 35:27

Jacob Fears Esau – Genesis 32

• As Jacob starts on his way again, angels of God appear to him.
• Jacob sends messengers ahead to his brother Esau, hoping that Esau will be friendly to him. The messengers return with word that Esau is coming to meet Jacob—with an army of four hundred men.
• Jacob splits his household and flocks in two, hoping Esau will only be able to attack one. He then prays, since God told him to return to his land. He asks that the Lord rescue him from Esau. Then he selects gifts for his brother from his flocks and other livestock. He has his servants take the animals and go ahead to meet Esau.

Jacob Wrestles with God

• During the night, Jacob sends his wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons across the Jabbok River. Then he sends over all his possessions. He is now alone in the camp.
• A man comes and wrestles with Jacob until dawn. When the man sees that he would not win the match, he touches Jacob's hip and wrenches it from its socket. Then the man asks Jacob to let him go. Jacob says he won't let go until the man blesses him.
• The man asks his name, and Jacob tells him. The man then tells him his name is no longer Jacob, but is now Israel, because he has fought with God and men and has won.
• Jacob asks his name, and the man asks him why he wants to  know his name and then blesses him. 
• Jacob names the place where this happened Peniel, meaning "face of God" (Jacob says he has seen God face to face but his life has been spared). 
• Jacob leaves Peniel when the sun rises, limping due to his injury. (Even today the people of Israel don't eat the tendon near the hip socket because of what happened to Jacob.)

Jacob Meets Esau – Genesis 33

• Jacob looks up and sees Esau coming with his four hundred men. He divides the children among his wives: the servants wives and their children first, then Leah and her children, and then Rachel and her children.
• Jacob goes ahead of them and bows before Esau. Esau runs to him, embraces him, and kisses him. They both weep. 
• Esau asks who the women and children are, and Jacob tells him they are his wives and children. He has the women and children come forward and bow before Esau. Esau then asks about the flocks and animals sent before them, and Jacob tells him they were a gift for him.
• Esau tells Jacob that he has plenty, and that Jacob should keep what he has. Jacob insists he take the gift, and Esau eventually agrees and tells Jacob to follow him home.
• Jacob tells Esau to go ahead, as he doesn't want to harm any of his children or animals by driving them too long. Esau agrees, but leaves some of his men to guard them.
• Esau returns to Seir, and Jacob travels to Succoth, where he builds himself a house and shelters for his livestock. Later, Jacob travels to Shechem and sets up camp outside town. He buys land there and builds and altar to the Lord.

The Defiling of Dinah – Genesis 34

• Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, goes to visit some young women who live in the area. The local prince, Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, seizes her and rapes her. Then he falls in love with her and tries to win her affection with tender words. Shechem tells his father that he wants to marry Dinah.
• Jacob learns what has happened to Dinah, and since his sons are all out in the fields, he says nothing until they return. Hamor comes to discuss the matter with Jacob, and while they are speaking, Jacob's sons return. They are furious about what has happened.
• Hamor claims that Shechem loves Dinah and wants to marry her, and proposes that Jacob's sons and daughters marry with his sons and daughters. Shechem then asks Jacob if he can marry Dinah.
• Jacob's sons respond deceitfully since Shechem has defiled their sister. They tell Hamor and Shechem that they could not allow the marriage because the men are not circumcised, and agree that if all their men will be circumcised, they will agree to marriage.
• Hamor and Shechem agree, believing that marriage will allow them to becomes owners of Jacob's families livestock and possessions. All the men in the town agree to their circumcision, believing it will give them a way to get to Jacob's possessions, and it is carried out.
• Three days later, Jacob's sons Simeon and Levi (Dinah's full brothers) take their swords and enter the town without opposition (the men are all healing). They kill every male there, including Hamor and Shechem, then take Dinah from Shechem's house and return to their camp.
• The rest of Jacob's sons arrive in town, and finding all the men dead, they plunder the town and take all the possessions and livestock they can find. They also take the women and children of the town as captives.
• When they return to Jacob, he tells Simeon and Levi that they have ruined him, and that the Canaanites and Perizzites will destroy them.
• The brothers ask why they should let their sister be treated like a prostitute.

God Blesses and Renames Jacob – Genesis 35

• God tells Jacob to move to Bethel, settle there, and build an altar to the Lord. Jacob tells everyone in the household to get rid of their idols, purify themselves, and put on clean clothing. Jacob buries their pagan idols and earrings under a tree in Shechem. As they leave, fear spreads over the people, and they allow Jacob's family to leave.
• Jacob and his family eventually reach Bethel, in Canaan. There he builds an altar. Soon after, Rebekah's old nurse, Deborah, dies and she is buried.
• God appears to Jacob and blesses him, telling him he will now be called Israel. God tells him to be fruitful and multiply, and that he will become a great nation and God will give him the lands that once belonged to Abraham and Isaac.
• Jacob sets up a stone to mark where God spoke to him. He pours wine over it as an offering and anoints the pillar with olive oil. He names the place Bethel, which means "house of God."

The Death of Rachel

• Jacobs clan leaves to move to Ephrath (Bethelehem). Rachel goes into labor while they are traveling, and after a hard delivery, the midwife tells her she has another son. With her last words, Rachel names him Ben-Oni (which means "son of my sorrow"). Jacob renames him Benjamin, meaning "son of my right hand." 
• Rachel dies and is buried on the way to Ephrath. Jacob sets up a stone monument over her grave.
• Reuben, Jacob and Leah's son, has intercourse with Bilhah, his father's servant wife, and Jacob hears about it. (He does this to assert himself as principal heir, but this act later causes him to lose the blessing he desired.)
• Jacob returns to his father, Isaac, in Mamre, where Abraham and Isaac had both lived as foreigners.

January 11: Genesis 30:25 – Genesis 31:55

Jacob's Prosperity – Genesis 30:25–43

• After Rachel gives birth to Joseph, Jacob asks Laban to release him so he can go home to his own country. Laban tries to bargain with Jacob, asking how much he owes Jacob (he has become very wealthy because of Jacob and doesn't want him to leave).
• Jacob again asks to be released, but Laban again asks him how much he owes him.
• Jacob tells him he doesn't want money, but asks if he can have all the spotted or speckled sheep and goats from the flocks, as well as the black sheep, as his wages.
• Laban agrees, and places the removed sheep and goats into his sons' care. His sons take the sheep and goats three days' journey away while Jacob stays to care for Laban's flocks.
• Jacob takes branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peels off the bark, making white streaks on them. He places the peeled branches in the water troughs where the flocks come to drink and mate. When they mate in front of the branches, they later give birth to streaked, spotted, or speckled lambs, which then become Jacob's.
• When the stronger females (but not the weaker ones) are ready to mate, Jacob places the peeled branches in front of them. This way the stronger lambs belong to Jacob and the weaker ones to Laban, and Jacob becomes very wealthy.

Jacob Flees from Laban – Genesis 31

• Jacob learns Laban's sons are grumbling about him robbing their father, and Laban begins to treat Jacob differently.
• God tells Jacob to return to his homeland and that He will be with him.
• Jacob calls Leah and Rachel to the fields and tells them that their father has cheated him and that God has told him to leave. They agree, knowing that they will not inherit their father's wealth anyway and that their father has wasted the money Jacob paid him for them.
• Jacob puts his wife and children on camels and drives his livestock ahead of them. He packs all the belongings he had acquired and sets out for Canaan, where his father Isaac lived.
• Before leaving, Rachel steals some of her father's household idols.
• With Laban away, they leave without him knowing about it.

Laban Pursues Jacob

• Three days later, Laban is told that Jacob has fled. Laban gathers a group of relatives and follows after him. They catch up with Jacob seven days later, in the hill country of Gilead. But the previous night, God had appeared to Laban in a dream and told him to leave Jacob alone.
• Laban questions Jacob why he has deceived him and why they left without telling him. He says he could destroy Jacob, but that God had told him to leave Jacob alone. Finally, he asks why Jacob has stolen his gods.
• Jacob responds that he rushed away because he was afraid Laban would take his daughters by force, but then tells him he hasn't taken his gods (he didn't know Rachel had taken them).
• Laban searches Jacob's and Leah's tents and doesn't find them. He then goes to Rachel's tent, Rachel, who is sitting on her camel saddle that holds the idols, does not get up and tells her father she is having her monthly period. Laban continues his search and doesn't find the idols.
• Jacob becomes angry with Laban. He asks what he has taken from Laban and points out that he has slaved for him for twenty years. Jacob tells him that if God had not been on his side, Laban would have sent him away empty-handed. Jacob points out that God has seen Laban's abuse and Jacob's hard work, and that's why he rebuked Laban in the dream.

January 10: Genesis 28:6 – Genesis 30:24

Esau Marries an Ishmaelite – Genesis 28

• Esau, angry at his father Isaac and his brother Jacob over not receiving his blessing, learns that Isaac sent Jacob away so he would not marry a Canaanite woman.
• To try to make his father happy, Esau visits his uncle Ishmael's family and marries one of his daughters, in addition to the wives he already has.

Jacob's Dream

• Jacob leaves Beersheba and journeys toward Haran. One night, he dreams of a ladder reaching up to heaven with angels traveling up and down it.
• God is standing at the top of the ladder, and he tells Jacob that the land he is standing on belonged to his ancestors, and that God will give it to him and his descendants. God also tells him that He will be with Jacob and will bless his descendants.
• Jacob gets up the next morning, sets the rock he used as a pillow for an upright memorial pillar, and pours olive oil over it, calling the place Bethel.
• Jacob vows that if God will protect him on his journey, He will be his God.

Jacob Arrives in Paddan-Aram – Genesis 29

• Jacob arrives in Paddan-Aram and sees flocks of sheep and goats in an open field near a well. Jacob asks the shepherds where they are from, and when they say they are from Haran, he asks if they know Laban, his mother Rebekah's brother.
• They tell him they do know Laban, and that his daughter Rachel is coming with her flock of sheep (she was a shepherd).
• Jacob encourages them to remove the stone from the well to water the sheep and goats, but the shepherds tell him it is tradition to wait until all animals have reached the well before the well is opened. Since the sheep belong to Jacob's uncle, Jacob opens the well and watered the flock. He then kisses Rachel, weeps aloud, and tells her he is her cousin. She runs home to her father to tell him.
• Laban runs out to meet him and brings him back to the house.

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel – Genesis 29

• After Jacob has stayed with Laban for about a month, Laban tells him he shouldn't be working for him for free just because he's family, and he asks Jacob how much his wages should be.
• Jacob is in love with Rachel, the younger of Laban's daughters, so he tells Laban he will work for him for seven years if he'll allow him to marry Rachel.
• Jacob works hard for seven years, and Laban agrees that he and Rachel can marry, But after it is dark, Laban takes Leah (who is not beautiful like Rachel) in to Jacob instead. In the morning, Jacob realizes what Laban has done and asks why Laban has tricked him.
• Laban explains that it is not their custom to marry off a younger daughter before an older daughter. He then offers Rachel to Jacob if Jacob will work for him for another seven years.
• A week after his marriage to Leah, Jacob is given Rachel as a wife as well, and he stays and works for Laban for seven more years.

Jacob's Children 

• God sees that Jacob does not love Leah like he loves Rachel, so He enables Leah to have many children while Rachel is barren. Within a few years, Leah bears Jacob four sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.
• Rachel becomes jealous and tells Jacob to take her maid, Bilhah, as another wife so Rachel can have children through her. Bilhah bears a son, whom Rachel names Dan. Bilhah has another son with Jacob, whom Rachel names Naphtali.
• Leah realizes she isn't getting pregnant anymore, and she has her maid, Zilpah, become another wife for Jacob so Leah can have more children through her. Zilpah then has two sons: Gad and Asher,
• Rachel allows Leah to sleep with Jacob one night, and over a few years she bears Jacob two sons and a daughter: Issachar, Zebulon, and Dinah.
• God remembers Rachel's plight, and she becomes pregnant. She bears Jacob a son, whom she names Joseph.