Again, my mind goes crazy from reading these stories in the Old Testament. I kinda laugh out loud a lot. Jacob in Genesis is just a riot to read about. His mother loved him more than his older twin, Esau, and devised a plan with Jacob at his father’s death bed to dress up and pretend that Jacob was Esau in order to steal the older brother’s blessings and inheritance. Well it worked and Jacob was the one blessed by Isaac. God confirms Jacob’s blessings to become a great nation later on. I have to wonder whether Esau would have had the blessings of God if Isaac had blessed him as he was suppose to?
Later, after Jacob was married to both Leah and Rachel (see previous post for that sort of crazy sex life), Jacob negotiated with his father-in-law to keep all the spotted and non-perfect sheep. Laban agreed to the deal and then Jacob devised this plan to have the strong sheep mate in front of this peeled branch of poplar, which caused the sheep to develop spots and streaks on them. Jacob kept all the strong sheep and Laban had all the weak ones!
Stories like this are all in Genesis. Like Abraham lying about Sarah being his sister instead of his wife (and not on only one occasion) to the kings because he was afraid they would kill him. In return, God warns these kings in dreams and the kings get scared and give Abraham lots of loot for the misunderstanding?!
I understand that we can’t just sit back and let God baby us and the saying goes that “God blesses those who help themselves,” meaning that God blesses hard work, but this sounds a little odd that God would bless these guys who deliberately lie, cheat and trick to get ahead. I wonder if God just saw these occasions as having to come in and clean up the mess of his dumbfounded family? If so, I wonder how many times God has done that for me.
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The Jews or the Christians claim that Abraham LIED to save his life. But a lie is a lie and a prophet who is supposed to be the role model for his future generations LIED for his life!
http://www.islamicera.com/ishmaelorisaac.htm
Thank you for the comment Sarah. I'll admit that I know more of the bible than the Quran. I read your link and have to admit that from my stance of looking at the bible and if you continue reading other posts here on my blog that it is evident that God utilizes people of sin, who repent and put their faith in Him. I think we both can agree that there is plenty of sin in the world and how God chooses to love and desire to have a connection with mankind is truly amazing. Sin requires a punishment, because God is Holy. And that's really the amazing part about who God is. We don't get to have this relationship with God because we're perfect and do good deeds everyday all day. Abraham and the many Old Testament examples, before and after Abraham, attest to this same idea. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's how God demonstrated His love for us. His love is as equal has His judgment, if we are willing to accept by faith this truth and not reject this offer. If we reject it, than we are destined down the path of punishment that our sin is already taking us.
A prophet proclaims the truth of God. This is the truth that I believe is both proclaimed and even evident in the life of Abraham.
Sarah, are you a Muslim who believes in the Hadiths? or do you stick solely to the Qur'an? According to these two Muslim authors (http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/L/lying.html and http://muslim-responses.com/Islam_on_Lying/), it's okay according to the Hadiths to twist the truth to save your life (which appears to be why and what Abraham did). In Genesis 20:6-7, God speaks and says to Abimelech that Abraham is a prophet and knows that he was deceived by Abraham; but does not condemn Abraham for it, nor take his title of prophet away. A quality of being a prophet is not sinlessness (as you could agree) so I find this link unplausible and illogical. And for this reason, this is why Jesus was not merely a prophet; he was sinless. God's provisions and blessings are not based upon our works; He says he causes it to rain on the just and unjust alike – that's why the prosperity gospel is wrong – and why Muslims even claim there is no guarantee for entrance into heaven even if they do ALL that is required of them … so, it's not by works that we are saved from eternal fire.