Rebekah wanted Jacob to receive the birthright (blessing) that rightfully belonged to her eldest son Esau. And she did indeed help him get the blessing for her favorite son in Genesis 27.When Esau realized what had happened he was very angry at his brother and decided to kill him. When their mother heard this, she told Jacob to flee to the home of her brother Laban in the city of Harran. And then she gave Isaac a reason for sending Jacob there which was so that he should get a wife there instead of him marrying a local woman. And so Isaac sent for Jacob, blessed him and told him to go to this city. Jacob obeys his mother and father and off he goes.
What can be said of this woman Rebekah? She had wanted her favorite son Jacob to have the blessing that really did belong rightfully to the oldest son Esau. Why then did she lie and connive to help him get it?
No doubt she was remembering what the Lord had told her when she asked him why they seemed to be struggling so much within her in Genesis 25:23.
"Two nations are in thy womb and two manners of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger then the other people and the elder shall serve the younger."
Jacob was the younger but he became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel while Esau became the father of the Edomites who terrorized Israel and was later judged by God. Surely, it did not look to Rebekah that God was going to keep his promise to her that the elder would serve the younger. Not if the elder was the one to inherit the blessings of their father.
She needed to help God out. And thus she made it happen.
It goes to show us that even when we decide God isn't taking us seriously, even when it doesn't look like he is doing what he has promised us, even when we try to do things our own way-it doesn't stop his plans for doing his will.
Oh, maybe he has to take us in a roundabout way to accomplish his will for us. Maybe we have to pay the consequences for our sin. Maybe, maybe, maybe. But the fact is, one way or another, his will is final. His word is the final word. Whether we are his children. And for those that aren't. His word is final for all because he is just.
March 18, 2019 Promise: I will not break my covenant or take back one word of what I said. Psalms 89:34
Up tomorrow, Another Special Person that God loves. Hope you will come to find out who it will be! Thanks for coming and may God bless your new week!
One final note in this story is that while Esau had wanted to kill his brother for the stolen birthright, he later did forgive him. A lesson for all of us as well in our own stories of life, for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment