The Power Of One, Pt. 1

I've been reading "The Red Tent" a fictional novel told from the perspective of Dinah, Jacob's daughter. She tells her family history: of Jacob coming and working to marry Rachel, being deceived into marrying Leah, and many more details from Genesis 29-35 (some factual, some fictional). One of the threads of the story is a fairly good assumption from scripture that, although Jacob would worship God and only God, his wives were happy to call on any god they thought would answer. Since the novel is told from the perspective of the daughter who spends her days with the women, there is much talk of all the different gods. I keep thinking -- this is in Jesus' geneology. How odd that there is this family that probably looked like most families of their time in their region that God used to eventually fulfill His promise. I have also been struck by how powerful Jacob's influence over his own boys must have been that he was able to make his Lord and Father stand out as God above all gods in that atmosphere.

Of course, as we continue the story, not all of the boys lived their lives honoring God. It's so fascinating to see who God will use and how! Not having my geneology of Jesus memorized, I would think that, of the 12 boys, Joseph would be the one to be included in Jesus' lineage. Remember Joseph? Always odd-man-out with his brothers, sold into slavery by them, RAN from evil with Potiphar's wife, instrumental in Egypt becoming a powerful nation in a time of famine. That sounds like good Jesus lineage material to me. Which is why I'm not God. God used Judah, instead. Judah, what a mess. Judah, who had a son who was so evil that God put him to death. You'll just have to read Genesis 38 to be reminded of how Judah's offspring came into being by his daughter-in-law who was pretending to be a prostitute. And we wonder where Jerry Springer comes up with his story lines?

My original thought on this is that it only took one -- one person, one parent to show a "tribe" of 12 who God is. I pray to empty myself and my will to Him that I may be that one to people I encounter.