Word of His Mouth Publisher

08/13/2026

Day 11: Read Genesis 32-34

What Is Happening?
In Genesis 32, Jacob left the presence of Laban and headed home. But knowing that Esau would surely hear about a movement of people and flocks that huge, he sent messengers to feel Esau out and see if he was still angry.
Sure enough, he was; twenty years had only made Esau more bitter than ever. The messengers came back to tell Jacob that Esau was on the way with four hundred men.
Jacob panicked, prayed, and prepared a bribe. In the middle of the night, though, God himself came to physically wrestle with Jacob. God could have won that battle easily, but chose not to do so, seeing how Jacob would respond to a long, hard fight. Had the twenty years since his lie and theft built any character into him?
Yes. And at the end of the chapter, God changed his name from Jacob (heel grabber) to Israel (God prevails).
In Genesis 33, Jacob and Esau finally met up. The gifts seem to have softened Esau’s heart; he hugged his brother rather than killing him. Jacob, though, still had some con man in him; he promised to follow Esau south to Edom, but instead went west to Shechem.
In Genesis 34, seven or eight years seem to have passed. Dinah, now a young woman, went to hang out with the other girls in that land, and either willingly slept with or was forcibly assaulted by a young man; there is a lot of debate on that detail. Either way, he fell in love and wanted to marry her. Her brothers, livid at all of it, tricked the men of Shechem into thinking that if they would all be circumcised, the marriage would be allowed. Instead, once they were all sore and defenseless, Simeon and Levi murdered all the men and boys in the city.

Hard Words and Phrases:
Milch = nursing. Drove = flock or heard. Wither = where. Dost = do, does. Foremost = in the front. Hindermost = in the back. Booths = shelter. Commune = talk. Deferred not = did not hesitate. Harlot = pr******te.

Interesting things to know:
The wrestling match between God and Jacob is what is called a Theophany or a Christophany, a pre-Bethlehem appearance of Christ on earth.

Application:
In these three chapters we find Jacob scared to death of his brother, getting his hip busted, having to give up a bunch of his wealth as a bribe, seeing bad things happen with/to his daughter, and having two of his boys become mass murderers.
Things like lying and cheating have a bigger and longer-lasting impact than most people realize; all sin does.

Encouragement:
You don’t have to have that kind of trouble in your life. Live for God!

08/12/2026

Day 10: Read Genesis 30-31

What Is Happening?
In Genesis 30, Rachel and Leah were in a heated contest for the affection and attention of their husband. Each was trying to have enough children to make him love her more than the other. The handmaids of each of them got dragged into all this mess, becoming concubines of Jacob and bearing him children on behalf of Rachel and Leah.
With a bunch of new mouths to feed, Jacob and Laban did some negotiating over Jacob’s salary, which would be paid in cattle, depending on what those cattle looked like when they were born. Jacob ended up becoming very wealthy.
In Genesis 31, Jacob could tell that Laban was souring on him, so he determined to run back to his homeland. Laban, eventually realizing what had happened, chased after him. One reason he chased him was because Rachel, his daughter, had stolen one of his idols. They tended to be made or covered with precious metal like gold or silver, so it was likely worth a lot of money.
God stepped in and kept Laban from hurting Jacob. Laban kissed and blessed his daughters and grandchildren, and then went back home.

Hard Words and Phrases:
Bear upon my knees = have kids that will be regarded as mine. Mandrake = a small, sweet fruit often called a love apple. Hearkened = listened. Dowry = a gift, an endowment. Reproach = shame. Ringstraked = striped. Pilled = peeled. Countenance = facial expression. Grisled - spotted, marked. Mirth = gladness. Tabret = a tambourine. Wroth = furious. C***e = fussed.

Interesting things to know:
Jacob found a way to make the sheep give birth to certain colors or patterns of young, and after all these years, we still have no idea how it worked!

Application:
Both Jacob and Laban were con artists, and that helped to ruin what had been a great family/friend relationship. Honesty really is the best policy!

Encouragement:
Before you even existed, God already loved you!

08/11/2026

Day 9: Read Genesis 27-29

What Is Happening?
In Genesis 27, Jacob cons Esau out of his blessing. He had previously bought his birthright, which was a spiritual position. Esau did not care about that, but he did care about the blessing. The blessing would be a promise and a prophecy of the prosperity of the one to whom it was given.
But those two things always went together for God’s people; God would not allow one without the other. But He did not need Jacob’s lying help in this matter, and what Jacob did resulted in him having to run for his life so Esau would not kill him.
In Genesis 28, Jacob left home for his mother’s homeland, Padanaram. On the way there, he stopped in at a place called Luz. In a dream that night, he saw a ladder going up into heaven, and angels going and coming on it. When he woke up, he changed the name of the place to Bethel, which means “The House of God.”
In Genesis 29, Jacob met a girl named Rachel, and determined to marry her. He worked seven years for her father to be allowed to do so. Instead, the con-artist got conned; he got tricked into marrying her older sister, Leah. By the time Genesis 29 ends, he did not have just the one wife he wanted, he had two wives, two handmaids that would eventually be concubines, and four boys, with all of those boys coming from Leah, the wife he hated.

Hard Words and Phrases:
Peradventure = may, what if. Raiment = clothing. Badest = asked. Subtilty = trickery, slyness. Supplanted = taken my spot, grabbed. Thence = there. Lighted = reached, landed on. Dreadful = amazing, astonishing. Abode = stayed. Nought = nothing. Beguiled = deceived. Barren = unable to have kids.

Interesting things to know:
Angels do not actually go and come from heaven on a ladder. This was God communicating with Jacob in a way Jacob could understand.

Application:
Trying to “help God out” by doing wrong doesn’t actually ever help God out; in fact, it always ultimately sets us back a long way.

Encouragement:
You are reading through the entire Bible, something only twenty percent of Americans ever do!

08/10/2026

Day 8: Read Genesis 25-26

What Is Happening?
In Genesis 25, after the death of Sarah, Abraham remarried. His new wife’s name was Keturah, and she bore him several more sons. But nothing could change the fact that Isaac was the promised and chosen seed, the one through whom Jesus would come.
Abraham died. Isaac and Ishmael together buried him; this was a rare moment of unity between them and the nations they bore.
After telling of Ishmael’s line, the focus shifts to Isaac and the continuation of the line of Christ. He married Rebekah, and she bore him twin boys, Esau (the firstborn) and Jacob. God promised that, contrary to cultural expectations, the older would serve the younger.
Those boys hated each other from the start, and spent most of their lives at odds. Jacob got Esau to sell him his birthright, partly because he was a great con artist, and partly because Esau was wicked and had no use for spiritual things.
In chapter 26, the story turns back to Isaac, who, like Abraham before him, went to live in Egypt for a while. And where Abraham had told a half-truth, calling his wife/half sister his sister, Isaac told a complete lie, saying Rebekah was his sister, when she was not that at all.
Isaac ended up becoming a wealthy and powerful man, and dug a lot of wells; water in that land and in those days was like liquid gold.
The chapter ends with profane Esau marrying a woman he had no business marrying, and breaking his parents’ hearts.

Hard Words and Phrases:
Concubine = a secondary wife who was not afforded the status and privilege of an actual wife. Sod - boiled. Sojourn = stay for a while. Waxed = grew. Strive = quarrel, fight. Betwixt = between.

Interesting things to know:
Concubines were not part of God’s design for man; from the garden of Eden onward, He made it clear that His plan was for one man to marry one woman for life. God’s people often did a lot of things that were not in God’s original plan.

Application:
What one generation did slightly wrong (Abraham telling a half-truth), the next generation took even further into wrong, telling a whole lie. Whichever way you go, good or bad, those that follow you will likely go farther in that way.

Encouragement:
Isaac encountered lots of opposition, but he just kept digging. That is a good plan for all of us; keep trying, keep digging!

08/09/2026

Day 7: Read Genesis 22-24

What Is Happening?
In Genesis 22, Abraham shows his willingness to sacrifice even Isaac to God. This was designed as a picture of God the Father sacrificing His Son, Jesus, for us. And it was on the same mountain range!
In Genesis 23, Sarah dies, and Abraham buries her.
In Genesis 24, Abraham sent a servant back to his homeland to find a wife for his son, Isaac, who was then forty years old.

Hard Words and Phrases:
Sepulchres = tombs. Intreat = request. Betwixt = between. Well stricken in age = had lived many days. Peradventure = what if. Hasted = went quickly. To wit = to know. Provender = animal food. Ungirded = took the stuff off. Tarried = waited around. Eventide = sunset.

Interesting things to know:
You have probably noticed a lot of siblings and cousins getting married in the early chapters of the Bible. That was allowed for a while, before the gene pool was corrupted, but God put a stop to it in Leviticus 18 once there were plenty of other options.

Application:
Abraham was pretty serious about finding the one person God had appointed for a wife for his son. When you get old enough, you should be just as serious about that.

Encouragement:
You have made it an entire week; just fifty-one more to go!

08/08/2026

Day 6: Read Genesis 19-21

What Is Happening?
In Genesis 19, S***m and Gomorrah are destroyed by God for their horrible wickedness, specifically homosexuality. For his part, Lot had done nothing to change things; he even called them “brethren.” Angels had to drag him and his family out because of the prayers of Abraham.
In Genesis 20, Abraham lied/told a half-truth (again) about his wife being his sister.
In Genesis 21, when Abraham was 100, and Sarah was 90, Isaac was born to them. The rest of the chapter is about Hagar and Ishmael being sent away, and Abraham digging wells and planting trees.

Hard Words and Phrases:
Sat in the gate = the gate is where officials of the town conducted business; Lot had become an important man in S***m. Unleavened = it had no yeast. Compassed = surrounded. Know = they wanted to sexually assault them. Waxen = grown. Lingered = hung around. Brimstone = sulphur

Interesting things to know:
Genesis 19 is the first specific mention of homosexuality in the Bible. From there all the way to the end, it is always mentioned as a horrible sin, and never a single time as a good, wholesome thing.

Application:
All sins are bad, but not all sins are equal. God deals far more harshly with some things than with others.

Encouragement:
There is a you because God wanted there to be a you. Your life has meaning!

08/08/2026

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08/07/2026

Day 5: Read Genesis 16-18

What Is Happening?
In Genesis 16, Abram and his wife, Sarai (better known as Sarah) got impatient and made a foolish choice. Rather than waiting for God to give them the promised son, they made Hagar, a servant, a second wife to Abram. She bore him a son named Ishmael. When you see Muslims today trying to destroy Jews, you are seeing the descendants of Ishmael trying to destroy the descendants of Isaac, the Son Abram would finally have.
In Genesis 17, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, and promised to give their descendants the entire land of Canaan. He also instituted circumcision as a promise and a covenant between God and the Jews.
In Genesis 18, God and a couple of angels came to talk with Abraham about how wicked S***m was, and how He intended to destroy it. S***m was where Lot lived! Abraham bargained with God over the matter, trying to save Lot and his family.

Hard Words and Phrases:
Fourscore = eighty; a score is twenty. Betwixt = between. It ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women = she was now too old to have kids. Waxed = grown. Peradventure = what if. Communing = talking

Interesting things to know: Names in the Bible meant things. Abram meant “exalted father,” Abraham meant “father of a multitude.”

Application:
All of us should live our lives in such a way that God wants to bless us.

Encouragement:
You are never too old (or too young!) for God to do great things with you!

08/07/2026

One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors.

The biblical tale of Rahab the harlot weaved into a fictional story of heartbreak, forgiveness, and love. Follow the beloved characters as their stories are told.

08/06/2026

Day 4: Read Genesis 12-15

What Is Happening?
In Genesis 12, Abram obeyed God by leaving home and going to live in Canaan, but he brought his nephew, Lot, with him. During a famine, he went down into Egypt for a while, and told a lie that almost caused a lot of trouble.
In Genesis 13, Abram came back into Canaan. He and lot started arguing over land, because they both had a lot of cattle. They parted ways, and Lot went the wrong way, toward a wicked city called S***m.
In Genesis 14, a war between several small nations broke out, and Lot got taken captive. Abram came and rescued him. At the end of chapter fourteen, a priest of Jehovah God, Melchizedek, came and blessed Abram.
In Genesis 15, Abram was getting old, and had no children. God made a covenant with him to give him a son to continue the bloodline of Christ.

Hard Words and Phrases:
Kindred = relatives. Seed = children. Sojourn = visit for a while. Of a surety = for sure.

Interesting things to know:
Melchizedek is mentioned in the New Testament book of Hebrews; the writer of Hebrews used him as a picture of Christ, our Great High Priest.

Application:
Lot made a bad choice and had to be bailed out of trouble. Learn from that, and stay away from anywhere that might cause you needless trouble!

Encouragement:
God gave you a book, the Bible, because He loves you and wants you to know about Him!