I believe that Nitewrit was right with his comment on my last post. Abraham may have been a good Springer episode, but Jacob may have been even worse.
As I read Jacob's life it seems more like a "twisting type" movie. He tricks Isaac and steals the blessing (I will get back to this in a minute). He runs away to Laban and Laban tricks him into marrying Leah, instead of Rachel. Jacob "tricks" Laban into giving him the spotted sheep and then breeds all spotted sheep. Laban changes the wages. Jacob takes his family and leaves at night. Rachel steals her father's idols. Jacob comes back home to Esau and makes amends.
I mean it's got Hollywood written all over it. Even the sad "ending" with his true love Rachel dying during childbirth.
Jacob's life is really summed up in Genesis 32:28. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
I find it fitting/ironic that Jacob's name (which means deceiver/trickster) is changed to Israel (which means struggles with God). And if you anything at all about Biblical, Israeli history... well we will get there in a couple days, and will stay there for about a month and a half.
Back to the stealing the blessing... this is one of the most interesting stories in the Bible. We know from prophecy that Jacob is the one that will be blessed (Genesis 25:23). We also know that the blessing was meant for Esau (Gen. 27:27).
So, how was this prophecy going to be fulfilled without Jacob using some trickery? Or was the trickery a part of the prophecy? Did Jacob, in fact, save God's prophecy by tricking Isaac?
So many questions and I would love to know the answers. Here is what I know from the Bible:
1. God does not lie
2. God prophesied that Jacob would be blessed and Esau would not
3. Jacob used lies and deceit to receive the blessing
4. Last time I checked, God was not in the business of lies and deceit
So... could it possibly be that Jacob was not trusting God? Jacob was taking matters into his own hands to get what God had already promised him?
We don't know what God's plan was for Jacob to be blessed, but I can guarantee that Jacob's lies and deceit were not in God's will.
I think this is something we do a lot. We know God is promising us something and we work our butts off to get what He is already providing. (And I'm not talking about salvation, but is a very good example)
I'm talking about our daily needs. I'm talking about defeating Satan. I'm talking about all those promises that God makes us, but we don't trust Him to provide so we try and try and try on our own.
Did Jesus not say in Matthew 6 not to worry about food or drink or clothes? Didn't He say that God will provide?
Did God not promise us in Joshua 1 that He will always be with us? Do we really need a self-help book when we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us?
Every time we try to do things our way, instead of God's way, we are only saying that we don't trust God. We are no different than Jacob. We are liars and deceivers and tricksters.
Jesus said But seek first the His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things (that we waste our life worrying about) will be given to you as well.
At what point in Brent's life, is he going to obey God? Why do I worry about what's happening tomorrow? Why don't I trust God with my money, with my family, with my ministry? Do I honestly think I know better than the God who created me and sustains my life?
This blog writer is not only the man who caused the fall, but I am the man who thinks he can fix the fall... so far, it doesn't seem to have worked.
God break me in humility. I want to quit my faithless life. Help to cling to you and rely on you and depend completely on you. You are my only hope.
Tomorrows reading: Genesis 37-50... just so anyone who is doing this challenge with me know, I am just winging it on the passages. I go about 15 pages until there is a break in the story. According to my Bible, I will be about 5 pages ahead after tomorrow.
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Brent,
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how Jacob, the great trickster, kept having tricks played on him. I guess it is that sowing what you reap, eh? He covered his skin with goat hair and fooled his Father and then Jacob's sons play the "trick" of putting goat's blood on Joseph coat to make him think a wild animal killed his favorite son. And then Joseph "tricks" them all in the end. Even Joseph kind gets this treatment in a way. He seems somewhat puffed up on himself as a youth, but ends up humbled greatly before his dreams come true.
We need keep all this in mind. What we do comes back on us.
Larry E.
Great observation Larry. Jesus did say what a man sows, that he will reap.
ReplyDeleteAnother point that I thought of but didn't mention is that Jacob's trickery lost his family the promised land in the next generation.
hey Brent, i love your blog so far... i think you are really going to love it too, more than you know... wait a few years down the road 'cause for the rest of your life whenever you have to write a sermon, no matter where in the Bible it is from, you will have easy access to an overview/summary of the passage to help you out... written by you! =)
ReplyDeleteoh, and i'm still with you! can't believe i've read 36 chapters of genesis in 3 days. it's kind of fun tho... i mean i've read it b4 but in bits and pieces. reading so much at a time, i get kind of wrapped up in the story, like i was actually there. feeling the emotions, like esau weeping when jacob stole his birthright, then when jacob was reunited with his mom's family, even when rebekah's nurse died. even the lists of names are not so tedious... i start to realize, it's an actual history, these were actually real people. genesis is actually quite detailed, but it makes sense that it should be, it was the beginning of the world!
on Jacob, he is such an interesting person... hard to figure out how he was so deceitful in so many areas of his life, and so hard-working and full of faith in God at the same time!
i don't think Jacob saved God's prophecy per se. i think God already knew that Jacob was going to steal Esau's blessing, so that's why He prophesied it in the first place. funny how we can screw things up royally and God can still make it work into part of His perfect plan. (He perfects His plan again and again no matter how many times we mess it up!)
i am curious whether Jacob himself knew that God had prophesied him to be greater than his brother though. or even if Isaac did... maybe i missed that part, but as far as I can tell, only Rebekah knew, and it was because she prayed about it when she was pregnant. maybe it was Rebekah who thought she needed to help God along! or maybe God told her because He knew that she would help it along, even if that wasn't necessarily the best way to go about it. another mind-boggling instance in which someone with so much faith (she left her family and country to go marry Isaac, a man she'd never met) does something so dumb.
i think Genesis blows apart my ideas that people are either good, or bad. even God's people did stupid things... and the bad guys?? check out Shechem. He raped Dinah, and yet it says he was more honourable than anyone else in his whole father's house! i keep seeing the recurring theme that even though God's kids aren't perfect, it was their faith that set them apart. that's why he blesses them despite themselves (abraham and isaac deceiving abimelech, jacob's deceit of isaac and laban, etc etc).
another thing that struck me was all the generations... God over and over makes promises to "you and to your seed." we get so caught up in 'it's all about me' and forget that God's plan involves our great-great grandparents as well as our future children and their children and their children. so important to teach kids the right way, because when they are old they won't depart from it, ie they will teach their kids, who will teach their kids, who will teach their kids. if we don't teach our own kids (and i know we don't have kids yet but i am thinking more long-term in light of all this... isaac got married at 40 and God had the perfect spouse for him, so i can wait for a while right? we are so in a rush for things... God knows the person we will marry, the kids we will have, the kids they will have, and so on).
sorry this is so long and so many random thoughts... maybe i should start my own blog if i keep doing this, rather than commenting on yours every day :) but really, thanks a lot... this 90-days thing is really good for me and i never would have thought to try such a thing if not for you doing it first!