Till Shiloh Comes Read Online Free

special privilege given to the firstborn son and included a double portion of the family inheritance, along with the honor of one day being the family leader. Although it was a birthright to which the firstborn son was entitled, it was not actually his until the blessing was pronounced. Before such time, the father could take away the birthright from the oldest son and give it to someone more deserving.
    Reuben trudged away with a heavy heart. He had no idea which way to look for Joseph and Benjamin, but he determined to stay up all night if necessary.
    Jacob watched him go, then limped back into the tent. “He didn’t find him,” he grunted to Leah.
    â€œYes, I heard, but you can’t blame Reuben for Joseph’s wrongdoing.”
    â€œI’m sure the boy didn’t mean any wrong.”
    â€œHe never means any wrong because you always let him off the hook,” Leah said. Her eyes narrowed, showing their red, irritated lids as she stared at her husband. She had deeply loved him once, but she no longer had any illusions about his feelings for her, even though she had borne him six children. Her blind jealousy still reared angrily when she saw Jacob spoiling Rachel’s son.
    Jacob barely tasted the food Leah put before him, mostly just pushing it around in the dish, with shoulders slumped. When Leah left him alone, his mind drifted back to the difficult time when he had left his father-in-law’s house, worried sick about having cheated his brother out of his birthright. His strength had been drained that night as he waited for morning with the certainty that he would suffer his brother’s vengeance. Then he had wrestled all night with a man whose noble visage was indescribable, demanding that the stranger tell him his name. But the man had refused to do so.
    He remembered that when dawn came, he had struggled with his last bit of strength to overthrow his visitor, whom he knew was more than human, and his thigh had been thrown out of joint. The pain had never completely gone away. The stranger had asked him, “What is your name?” Jacob had finally admitted who he was and also confessed that he had cheated his brother. Before the stranger left, he said to Jacob, “Your name will now be Israel.”
    He thought then of Rachel, and he felt his grief as fresh as the day he had buried her at the place where she had died giving birth to Benjamin. Tears came to his eyes and he began to pray: “Oh, El Shaddai, let no harm come to my boys! You have been faithful to provide for me as you promised when I left my father and mother’s house. You met me on the way and gave me a dream of a great ladder reaching up to heaven, and you promised to bless me, and you have.”
    Jacob concentrated fully on God. He had heard his father and grandfather speak of their encounters with the Strong One, the almighty and everlasting Lord. Both of them had been men of great faith, especially his grandfather, and now as Jacob prayed, he sought to summon up the faith of Abraham.
    Jacob had been praying a long while when he heard voices coming, and his heart leaped with joy to hear Joseph! He got to his feet and hobbled out the tent door, ignoring his discomfort. He could see by the light of the torch Dan carried that Benjamin was sound asleep on Naphtali’s shoulder.
    â€œWell, we found them,” Naphtali said. “You ought to thrash them until they can’t stand up, Father.”
    Jacob was angry enough to do so and demanded of his favorite son, “Joseph, where have you been?”
    â€œWe went to the village where the Midianite traders were passing through. We wanted to buy you a present.”
    â€œYou went alone through the wilderness with your brother? Shame on you, son!”
    Dan and Naphtali gave each other a look. Dan shrugged, leaned over, and whispered, “He’ll bluster and shout at Joseph, but in the end he’ll wind up giving him honey