God is not about punishing wickedness now per se. He wanted them gone so that they wouldn't influence His people.  Read less

Emphasizing the humanness of Pharoah, who had physical needs just like everyone else, even though in Egypt he was looked at as being a god.  Read less

Notice that the integrity of the community is more important to God than any physical war could ever be.  Read less

Though Jacob is still fearful here, he is demonstrating through this prayer that he now has a certain amount of humility, faith, & reliance upon God. The rest of this ch. shows him acting upon these perspectives, and that he did believe the things that he's stating here, even through a testing of them. Jacob seems to now realize the importance of God's promises & blessings, and will now hang onto them no matter what happened; never giving up, never quitting no matter how outmatched the odds made him look, comparatively. Instead of fighting for himself, he's now beginning to fight for God's will. This is a right perspective, and one we definitely can & should take. Keep fighting for what blessings God has promised to us. Cf. Rev. 3:12 with v. 28.  Read less

Certainly not those who lived in Canaan, for Joshua exterminated all of them (Josh. 11). Rather, in fact, this was the name given to the far-western reaches of the Assyrian empire, in what in modern times is called Asia Minor (Turkey).  Read less

II Chr. 1:14-17

Likely meaning modern-day Spain, however, see II Chr. 9:21 and notes there - particularly because it would not take 3 years to sail from Israel to Spain and back again.  Read less