Beersheba in the land of Canaan where Jacob’s father Isaac had settled. It is the same place God had appeared to Abraham after leaving Haran. Is this a coincidence?
It is a clear indication revealing to us that humanity has always been on the ‘move’. To those on the move this autumn, from college to their first job, Universities, or apprenticeship careers, changing jobs or employers, transferring, or seeking re-appointment, and those waiting for their visa renewal from the home office, you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Tracing the story of Jacob from Genesis Chapter 27:43: we find his mother Rebekah had leaked information to him that there was a conspiracy to have him eliminated by his elder brother Esau. Jacob was aided by his mother to lie and fraudulently rob his elder brother of his birthright. It may be that Esau was not planning anything evil, as what we read is all that either Rebekah heard or fabricated to taint badly the image of her elder son.
Rebekah shows no sign of remorse just like patriarchal Sarai. Instead, she schemed on how to provide an ‘asylum’ to his son in Paddan Aram. Safeguarding one son but endangering the life of the other son. What kind of mother does such a thing? dividing the spoil of her own house?

The Bible is a great reference helping shed light on double-standard attitudes and rots that we encounter daily in the society that we live in. I wonder. how one can justify such a messy work of darkness? Whatever the reasons for Jacob’s flight from Haran to Beersheba, were all pre-meditated and carefully planned. Why are you on the move in your life? What areas of your life require a move, change, refreshing, divine encounter?
I pray our Lord to open your eyes of understanding to find your right footing in whatever you have put your two hands into. Peace of God be with you.

In Matthews reading – I want to look at this passage from an African traditional religious perspective. In the context of the Church,
God calls and places his shepherds and prophet to be always on guard. To watch and to pray, to walk in the spirit, and to see with spiritual eyes. If God’s people fall asleep, they will wake up one day and discover the church is no longer a church. Like the Swahili saying, ukilala utapa mwana siyio wako tena– (if you fall asleep, you might find the baby has been stolen’)

In this context Jesus put before his disciples another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So, when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.  It is hard to tell what the weeds and true plants are if you are not a farmer or a gardener.

In Matthew 13:27-29; The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up? ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.
At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’
The moral of this parable of the weeds and the wheat is the church and believers are called upon to wake up from their slumber and guard God’s church from the spiritual attacks of Satan. And some battles can only be fought by prayers and fasting, reading God’s word, living in obedience to God’s will and living in consecration. God is never involved in dirty battles.