Genesis chapter 27

So here we have Rebekah plotting and scheming with Jacob to deprive Esau of his blessing from Isaac.  Esau is the elder son and yet Jacob is Rebekah's favourite.  So she dresses Jacob up in goat's skin and makes him wear Esau's clothes so he will smell and feel like Esau.  Isaac is fooled, even though he spots the fact that it is Jacob's voice he can hear, he is convinced by the goatskin and the smell of the clothing.

So Isaac blesses Jacob:

Genesis 27:28-29 (NIV)

May God give you heaven’s dew

    and earth’s richness –

    an abundance of grain and new wine.

May nations serve you

    and peoples bow down to you.

Be lord over your brothers,

    and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.

May those who curse you be cursed

    and those who bless you be blessed.’

That is some blessing, isn't it?  It didn't really leave much room for manoeuvre when Isaac found out he had been tricked and had blessed the wrong son.  After all, if Jacob was going ton be blessed with rich harvests, have nations serve him and people bow down to him, his brothers serve him and the people who curse him be cursed whilst those who bless him are blessed, exactly what was there left for Esau? 

Genesis 27:39-40 (NIV)

 His father Isaac answered him,

‘Your dwelling will be

    away from the earth’s richness,

    away from the dew of heaven above.

You will live by the sword

    and you will serve your brother.

But when you grow restless,

    you will throw his yoke

    from off your neck.’

So Esau is told instead that he will not have the riches his brother has, but instead he will live by the sword and serve his brother until such time as he throws off the authority of his brother over him.

But God had already promised great things for Jacob:

Genesis 25:23  The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the elder will serve the younger.’ (NIV)

Maybe she had forgotten this, maybe she saw an opportunity to make the words of God come true, whatever the reason, she and Jacob took matters into their own hands rather than wait for God.  They took the easy route, the shortcut, to try and turn the promises of God into reality.  Yes, God saw to it that the blessing came out on Jacob not Esau, He allowed their scheming to succeed, but in reality, is this really how God was going to do things?

All too often we do the same.  We lose patience, time passes and it seems like God has forgotten us or that He no longer has any use for us. What about the times we pray for others, for healing, for them to get that job, or whatever it may be and yet tome and time again, nothing changes.  The sickness is still there, there is no job on the horizon, no money, no change in a particular situation.  How long, Lord, how long will this go on?  Yet God is right there beside each and every one of us, all the time:

Psalm 139:7-12 (NIV)

Where can I go from your Spirit?

    Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

    if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

    your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me

    and the light become night around me,’

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

    the night will shine like the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.

Matthew 28:20b And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age  (NIV)

There is nowhere we can go where God is not.  He is all around us, everywhere we go, everywhere we look, we just need to open our eyes to see.  If He has promised us something, anything, then we can rest assured that we will get that. No matter how long ago the promise was made.  His patience his endless, unlike ours, and He always, but always, keeps His word. 

He promised that Jacob would be the stronger of the twins, that his elder brother would serve Him and yet Rebekah was not prepared to wait any longer.  Maybe she thought this was a heaven sent opportunity, that God had fixed things so she could get Jacob the blessing of his father.  Who knows what she thought?  She probably thought she was acting for the best, but how many times do we do things that we think are for the best and things just end up getting messy?  It’s a case of learning to trust in God, to allow Him to provide for us as He has promised He will and not be in a rush to take things into our own hands. 

All too often I do this.  There is a problem and I sit there thinking of how to resolve it instead of seeking God's will, His guidance.  After all, God has given me the brains to be able to sort all sorts of things out, so why not just work out a solution to the problem myself instead of bothering God again?  But God is interested in every single aspect of our lives.  He never leaves us on our own, He is always there with us, right beside us. Oh, the times I try and sort things out myself yet all I need to do is turn and seek God.  I may not get the answer I want, but I know I will get an answer so I need to have faith, to trust in God and to be patient. 

I think what the book of Genesis is teaching me 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.