The key word for me today in this passage is deception. How did they get to the point where deception became a viable option? It was God's divine plan to have the younger brother receive the blessing and be served by the older brother. God told that to Rebekah before the boys were born. If Rebekah and Isaac would have, as a team, remembered what God said they could have prepared themselves and prepared the boys as they grew. For whatever reason, it is ignored all the days of their lives. So this huge deception occurs which results in everybody getting hurt or doing evil.
So two things from this account.
1. If God has a plan for your life, stick with it and pursue it with all your heart.
2. Deception or lies only hurt people. Don't even think about going down that road.
“Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
Whenever someone would get caught in a lie, I remember my Mom used to share this quote that she got from my Grandmother that apparently originally came from a play called “Marmion” by Sir Walter Scott. It points out how complicated life becomes when people start lying.
Lying is nothing new. It’s been happening way before Jussie Smollett came along. I was reminded of my Grandma’s quote today along with how we are supposed to put on the belt of truth to wear as part of our armor as we read in Ephesians 6:14. Jacob fooled his father Isaac along with some help from Rebekah, but there were consequences that they would both have to pay. The biggest deceiver of all of course is Satan and he wants to trick as many people as he can with his lies. Don’t fall for them! Trust God and put on His armor!
Here’s the link for Phony Ol’ Lie.
https://youtu.be/RMC7p4mbuYo
Amen, Jim. We’ve read about the lesson of someone taking matters into their own hands several times already in Genesis. I think this is a lesson that God wants us to get! He is faithful to His promises. And, no matter how good we think our goals are, we shouldn’t attempt to achieve them by doing what is wrong. I need to always question how I’m trying to accomplish my goals … would God approve … am I trying to take the reins or trusting in Him.
Here’s an interesting thought about the blessing situation with Esau and Jacob. When you read this story with our Sunday School hearts, we think these are young boys acting out but think again, Esau was already 40 when he got married. Some scholars think the twins were in their 70’s here. Really, Boys?!
So much deception and it’s sad that Rebekah helped and encouraged Jacob in deceiving his father. Like pastor Blair said, she was told at their birth that the older would serve the younger, so was this her way of trying to bring that about? Sometimes we try to “help” God along with His plans and end up doing more harm than good. It also mentioned earlier on how Isaac lived Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob and I wonder how much this influenced everyone’s relationships with each other. It seems that instead of working together as a family unit, the favoritism set brother against brother and husband against wife.
Rebekah wanted things on her terms…if she had waited for God there wouldn’t be so much anger and deception in the family.
So after she lies to her husband AND she has her son lie to his dad
she says this
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”
Are you kidding me????
I found this and thought I would share.
“People lie because they can get away with it, because it works for them,” “It’s a way to get along with other people. It’s a way to control your world, and it’s a way that you can use to make other people do what you want them to do.”
This is a very heavy chapter! It reveals the sins of those God trusts and loves just like he trusts and loves us.
Just a few chapters ago we saw Rebekah watering Abraham’s servants AND his camels. She agrees to go and marry Isaac and blesses him. Now we see her lying and convincing her son, Jacob to lie as well.
We know her relationship with Esau is not the best, especially after he married a woman that causes her great grief. It is just like in our own lives where we can start so strong in our faith journey and the choices we make, then it’s a slow fade to falling into sin and making the wrong choices.