Genesis chapter 27

Rebekah overhears what Isaac says to Esau, and takes matters into her own hands. Even though God has said that Jacob will be the leader of his people, she decides to help matters along, and gets Jacob to pretend to be Esau to get the blessing Isaac is going to bestow on Esau. As for Jacob, he is more concerned about getting caught than in the wrongness of the situation in lying to his father and stealing his brother's blessing.


But the same is true of each one of us at times. How often do we do something that is perhaps not quite right, not ethical, maybe not even legal, yet it is a shortcut to get where we want to be or to have what we want? In my line of work , accountancy, there are times when it would be easy to cut corners, to do something that perhaps isn't right, yet I know that my professional reputation is so important, that if clients knew I would bend the rules, put something through as an allowable expense when it is not, then sooner or later, it would all come crumbling down around me. I'm not saying I'm perfect, because I know all too often I lose my temper, get impatient, cross, am lazy, idle at times, and do many other things I know are not right. I know God is working on me, changing me into a better person, even though it must be an uphill struggle for Him at times!


I think what the book of Genesis is teaching me this time around more than anything is trusting in God and getting my heart right with Him. The people I am reading about - Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah and so on - are held up as men and women of faith and yet so often when they had a choice, they made the wrong one, they relied on their own instincts rather than trusting in God. I know I often do the very same thing, but the great comfort is that through the sacrifice of Jesus, I have been put right with God, despite all the times when I make the wrong choice or decision, when I choose to rely on my own abilities, my own resources, rather than trusting in God and leaving things in His hands.