12.15.24 ~ Transforming Pain into a Springboard of Strength and Empowerment

Good Morning!

What a wonderful Sabbath! It started with a dynamic question on how to use money for God's glory (Lk. 16), which led into the morning study: The 3 Questions that Esau would Ask the messengers and their three responses. These 3 questions are purposeful and calculated and are given to us so we can know how to respond to the questions from the enemy within.

In this week's Torah portion, Vayishlach/and he sent Rachel dies on the way to Bethlehem. For this amazing couple of Rachel and Jacob, they have enjoyed profound kinship (BFF). Jacob worked laboriously seven years for her father, Laban, to obtain Rachel’s hand in marriage. After being cheated and receiving Leah as his wife, he reluctantly agreed to give Laban another seven years of labor so he could marry Rachel. 14 years. No pay, no out of the ordinary benefits but, a roof over their head and the roots of a nation.

For years Rachel was childless. When she finally mothered a child, she named him Joseph/may God add another to me. Her wish was granted. She conceived another child. But, as she was about to give birth, tragedy struck (Gen. 35:16-20).

And they traveled from Beit-El, and there was a little way left to go before reaching Efrat, and Rachel gave birth, but had difficulty in the birth. When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife (Deborah: Monday's zoom call) said to her, "Have no fear, for it is another boy for you."

But as she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named him Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrath—now Bethlehem.

Did you notice the only time in the written narrative that Rachel and Jacob disagreed on a child's name? Jacob hadn't disagreed on the previous 12. Why now as Rachel's passing? Enquiring minds want to know. Is there any practical application for us? Life lessons? Yes!

Ironically, many words in Hebrew have opposite meanings. "Oni" is one of those words that has a dual meaning: "My grief or sorrow" (Hos. 9:4; Deut. 26:14) and "my vigor" (Gen.49:3; Isa. 40:29). Rachel called the infant, "the son of my grief;" and with a deeper analysis, maybe Jacob chose to give the very same name a different interpretation. Hmmm.

Rachel calls him the 'Son of my mourning'… but his father converted the 'Oni' to mean 'my strength,' as in Jacob's prophecy of Reuben, 'My power and the beginning of my strength/oni (Gen. 49:3)...Therefore he calls him Binyamin, or 'Son of strength,' for the right side (yamin) is the seat of might...He wanted to call him by the name given to him by his mother, for so it was with all his sons: they were called by the names given to them by their mothers. So he converted it into goodness and strength; which opens the door prophetically for another Son who will sit at His Father's right hand (Heb. 8:1; Eph. 1:20).

Jacob was communicating to himself, to his wife, to his newborn baby, and to his children ever since one of the most important messages found in Scripture and the point of our study this morning: The same word in Hebrew used for grief and pain is the word used for strength and vigor. How? All sorrow and pain must bring forth a new birth of awareness, insight, and love.

Jacob ensured that his son would not see himself as a product of sorrow. Yes, he would grieve for the pain and the void of losing his mother, but he would never become a victim of it. Instead, he would transform his pain into a springboard for a new source of strength and empowerment.

Shalom

Commercial: All in one spot...the last couple months of studies, blog, audio studies and videos

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