As shrewd as snakes

Key verse
Matthew 10:16 - "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

Genesis
Jacob was probably one of very few Hebrews to be embalmed (chapter 50)!  I wonder if this process was strange to his family (excluding Joseph, of course).
Joseph's brothers had clearly not forgotten what they had done to Joseph so many years earlier.   Is there evidence that they had kept the true story from their father when they found out he was alive?  In any case, Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers is a good picture of the type of forgiveness we should bear toward one another, as it says in 50:21 "And he reassured them [his brothers] and spoke kindly to them."

The 12 tribes of Israel, and Paul and Barnabas

Key verses
Matthew 9:37-38 - Then he [Jesus] said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Genesis
Another curious reading in Genesis - today we find out that Manasseh and Ephraim are adopted by Jacob as his two sons.  This got me thinking about the 12 tribes of Israel, because Jacob already had 12 sons, and I knew that these two sons of Joseph figured in there somewhere.  After some digging, I got to Numbers 34.  Here God tells Moses which people will assign the inheritance of land to the tribes.  Reuben and Joseph are not mentioned, and Joseph's first two sons are.  If you want to read an outside article on this, check out http://www.gotquestions.org/twelve-tribes-Israel.html.

Acts
What a perfect story to demonstrate mob mentality.  In Acts 14, we read about Paul and Barnabas' ministry in Lystra.  They healed a crippled man and the crowd thought they were Hermes and Zeus, which both Paul and Barnabas quickly denied.  Here they are cheering Paul and Barnabas, and then a couple verses later, the Jews from Antioch and Iconium come around and persuade the crowd over to their side (which is against Paul and Barnabas' Messianic message), and the crowd goes from cheering for these two to nearly killing Paul by stoning him!  You've got to have a tough hide to be a missionary.

The staff and salvation

Genesis
I was curious as to what Genesis 47:31 meant - "'Swear to me,' he [Jacob] said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff."  Particularly the part about the staff interested me.  What I found out was that out of 10 or so translations, the NIV was the only one that used 'top of his staff'.  The rest talk about the head of the bed.  However, the staff terminology comes from Hebrews 11:21 and the Greek version of the Old Testament, which makes more sense than the Hebrew version 'head of the bed'.  In fact, as I found out from the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, the bed likely didn't have have a 'head' as it was just a mat, so top of the staff makes more sense.  Clarke's commentary suggests that Jacob, in his old age, simply needed to lean on the staff for support, and he worshiped God because Joseph would be able to bring his bones back to his forefathers' resting place.

Matthew
In Matthew 9:13 Jesus says, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
This verse reminds me that once we're saved, it's not the end.  Jesus was always looking to speak to the sinners, to rescue them and bring them into new life.  Once we've been rescued, we shouldn't sit on our laurels; we should go out and help Jesus extend God's kingdom on earth.

The silver cup and prayer

Genesis
In reading chapter 44, we see that Joseph had his steward put his special silver cup in Benjamin's bag of grain.  It would be interesting to know what the steward was thinking at this point.  The previous trip that Joseph's brothers had made was already out of the norm, since their money had been returned to them.  This time, would the steward recall that incident and simply take this new action in stride, chalking it up to some strange eccentricity of Joseph?  Perhaps he wouldn't give it a second thought anyway, since it wasn't his place to question his master.  Still, he knew where the silver cup was, and yet he made a show of searching through all the bags, from oldest to youngest, before finally pulling it out.  The steward doesn't really play an important role in this story of God's will coming to fruition, but it would have been neat to be there to see this play out.

Acts
As I was reading Acts 12, the story of Peter's miraculous escape from prison, I was reminded of that lesson about the power of prayer.  Acts 12:5 says that the church was praying for Peter's release from prison.  Lo and behold, he does get released one night during an angelic visit.  He goes to the house of Mary, where a number of Christians were gathered and praying, and when Rhoda answered the door, saw Peter, and exclaimed over who it was, no one believed her.  They didn't realize that their prayers were going to make a difference.
A similar story on prayer recounts a tale of a country church who decided to hold a prayer meeting to ask God for rain to end the drought, as they relied on farming for their livelihood.  Well, all of them show up to the prayer meeting, but only one little old lady brings an umbrella.  All the rest of the people are surprised and ask why she had bothered bringing it, since it wasn't raining.  Well, she actually believed it was going to rain!
Why bother praying if you don't even believe that God might make your prayer happen?  Further still, you should believe that God will answer your prayers, because he does listen to the cries of his children.  There is a lot more that could be said on prayer, but I'll leave it at that.

A new take on the Christmas story

You must listen to Greg Koukl's podcast from December 20 (found on str.org or my redirect page).  He discusses the historical account of the Christmas story, and suggests that instead of the traditional village inn, Mary and Joseph stayed at a relative's house.  The Greek word that has been translated as 'inn' is actually the same term used for 'the upper room'.  Bethlehem was a tiny village and likely didn't even have an 'inn'.  Most guests would stay in the upper room of a relative's house, and the animals were kept in the lower area.  However, if Mary and Joseph were late in coming to Bethlehem, and their relative did not have room left in the upper room, they would have had to stay in the lower room of the house, not necessarily a cave.  The idea that they stayed in a stable cave didn't come up until the 3rd century, probably shortly after such caves came into existence.