Genesis 33-36 Footnote

Tonight, I am very tired. It has been a full day, and focusing on devotions tonight was not easy for me. I need to do a better job of making this a focus before my day gets all filled up. I love my life…but it does become very busy very easily!

Anyway…my thought for today is very simple and not too deep. Really it is more of an observation that I had never noticed before.

I read through a lot of big events tonight. I saw Jacob and Esau reunite, I saw the birth of Benjamin, the death of Rachel, the worship and alters of Jacob, and the killing of an entire city. All of this was important and all of it seemed to logically fit into the Bible, but what really caught my attention was one verse that seemed a bit out of place…

“ Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth” Genesis 35:8

This verse seemed very funny to me because it is so “Out of Nowhere” this Deborah isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, but her death is of enough importance to receive a place in the word of God.

We know nothing about her…but she is still mentioned.

Deborah was so much of a background character in the story that she is basically a footnote, but she is still mentioned. This means that she still played a role in the big story. Her life was a support to the lives of the big characters in the Bible.

Deborah is a reminder that our lives are still worth mention even if they are not extreme. She was not a main character, but her life helped the lives of others to be what they were.

She reminds us that service can be important…that helping to make other’s lives better, we can find meaning.

Even though Deborah the handmaid was only a footnote in the word of God, she was still honored in a manner that was reserved for few.