Third Day

An Expensive Delay Led to a Third day of Death

“And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males” (Genesis 34:25).

Jacob should have continued to Bethel. God instructed him to return to the place where he first met the Lord. But instead Jacob bought a parcel of land, pitched his tent, built a house and dallying in Succoth and buying more time in Shechem.

Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom and lost his daughters (Genesis 19:30ff), and Jacob moved too close to Shechem and lost Dinah. Jacob was not in a hurry to get back to where he first met God.

Jacob’s delay in obedience to the revealed will of God indirectly brought heartache to the family. Jacob’s granddaughter Dinah was raped and his two sons became murderers because Jacob tarried. When we fail to comply fully to God’s will we place ourselves and our loved ones in danger. Delay led to defilement to deception to disgrace.

Don’t settle “twenty miles short of Bethel” in willful, halfway obedience. We can build our altars to God and it will not “alter” your life. Disobedience never makes up for whatever sacrifices you may give. Morally weak, still deceiving, the old nature lingers in us and we must reckon ourselves dead in Christ everyday. Pay the high cost of right actions before God. The welfare of your life and your children matter.

“And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled” (Genesis 31:22).

Jacob’s father-in-law was a full-length mirrored-image of Jacob himself. Laban was a deceiver, a conniver, a cheat and he worshipped at the image of other gods (Genesis 31:10). Jacob was a deceiver, a conniver, a cheat, and he worshipped the true and living God, but he did not see himself as God saw him. So the Lord gave him a reality check for several years. Sometimes it takes a long time for people to get rid of themselves.

Do we realize that God places within our person those to whom we work with, talk to, come into contact with, who come alongside of us to make us miserable. Why? It could be to reveal to us what we are really like. When their glaring faults are detestable and obvious to us we can be sure that we have also have a flawed character trait that we are blind to. Our assessment of them is really God’s assessment of us.

We become our biggest enemies. Even if we did not have the sinister minister of deceit, Satan, in the world, the flesh we have will continue to deceive, corrupt, and judge. So how does God get this out of us? He places a Laban before us to reveal and causes us to feel the burn of what we are like to others.

After the third day Laban came for Jacob. But God revealed to Jacob it was time to leave and go home to the house of God where he first met the Lord. Laban never learned what it meant to bow before the God of Jacob. Laban never changed.

Jacob bowed at the feet of the God and he learned to allow God to surgically remove the blemishes, the faults, and the blindness of his own life. His crookedness, maneuvering, judgmental flaws were washed away over time and God removed much of what was holding him back.

Thank God for the third day. One day God will take away all that holds us back from being what He is like. One day we will awaken into His likeness.

“Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off” (Genesis 22:4).

Abraham’s son, Isaac, was the child of promise. All the hopes and desires of nations rested upon this son. Out of Isaac comes Jacob and out of Jacob the twelve tribes, and out of the tribe of Judah King Jesus. And still God told Abraham to take his son and sacrifice him. Would Abraham hold too tightly or would he loosen his grip on his son? Would he trust God or hold tightly?

Corrie Ten Boom said, “Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.” Do we trust God in all things? Is He all we need? Will God fail us? Has He really promised that if we bow to Him He will honor us?

Abraham traveled three days with his son knowing the time of sacrifice was ahead. Look at Abraham’s fingers for they were not clutching to Isaac. Every step his fingers were opened. On the third day Abraham’s eyes saw the place far off and said to the others to stay behind for he and his son were going to worship and come again to them (Gen. 22.4).

The power of the third day is this: When we walk with our hands open and hold to things and people loosely we can worship God. And what we give back, God takes, and what God takes, He cleanses, and what He cleanses He will use. And what He will use He gives back in a more powerful, pure, and purposeful manner.

“And the evening and the morning were the third day“ (Genesis 1:13).

If you notice God begins in the evening to the morning and calls it “day.” Whether it is the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth day, the Creator God named a “day” beginning in the evening and concluding with the morning. Twenty-four hours in the day that God does His marvelous work.

Would it not be a good and holy thing for us to concentrate on God in the evening hours? So many times we think we must begin in the morning to set the day before us. But God sets the day beginning in the evening hours.

In the evening, many times, we throw off restraints and we fall into the arms of the flesh. Child care, dinner time, tv, pjs, or special events–dinner with friends, movie, ballgame, etc. and we can neglect to rest in God’s evening day to recreate us for the whole day.

Give God your evening. Meditate upon the One who began creation’s story with the evening. It just might be He wants to create His image in you to reflect His glorious creation through you. Life begins in the evening and runs through the morning and afternoon and God calls it the “third day.” May every day be His glorious image in us.

“This is the confidence we have to approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us”

(I John 5:14).

 The film starred by Jimmy Stewart, “It’s a Wonderful Life” teaches the value of a man who gives up his dreams and looks after the affairs of others. The life of “George” was a life that changed history because of his unselfish desires for others. Lives were saved, families were made whole, and individuals were elevated to better personalities and jobs.

 What about praying to God? Praying is asking Him for a certain thing. Praying is allowing God to change your heart to match His. Praying can be done anytime, anywhere. The more we pray according to God’s heart, the more we are changed. The more we are changed, the more we impact the world. Praying changes things, starting with us. When we pray, our prayers can also change history.

 “What can happen when I pray?” That’s a “Wonderful Life!” You’ll never know all that happens when you pray, but the results are often bigger than you think or imagine. Lives are different. Prayers of people, just like us, ordinary people, opened the doors to God’s work. And your prayers can do the same.