Genesis 28:3 (KJV)
And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
I can think of at least three obstacles in the path of God’s will that Jacob, not Esau, should receive the birthright blessing.
Isaac’s Worldliness
In his old age, Isaac had grown to love the worldly manliness of Esau. His stature, his skill as a hunter, and his outdoor demeanor all appealed to Isaac. It’s not like any of those are necessarily wrong, but there was no question that Esau was not suited to carry on the will of God for the family. His carelessness in the incident with the pottage and his marriage to the daughters of the land testified to that. Isaac had lost sight of the long game in favor of the temporary pleasures Esau provided his flesh.
Rebekah’s Faithlessness
While she understood, perhaps, that Jacob was supposed to receive the birthright blessing, she did not trust God to direct circumstances in such a way that God’s will would be done. We are surrounded in our age with so-called Christians who are convinced God can’t and won’t work His will without us. Obedience to God is for our benefit, not the benefit of the will of God.
Jacob’s Deception
Jacob demonstrated a bent toward deception that eventually led to him lying in the most egregious manner to his father.
What this passage shows us is that none of these obstacles either prevented or accomplished God’s will. Jacob received the birthright blessing not at the moment of his deception to his father but after his mother’s and father’s repentance.
Jacob was about to leave the Promised Land. Though she did not know it, Rebekah was kissing her son goodbye for the last time. And it was directly a result of the unholy actions and attitudes of them all. Before he left, in a manner more sincere than in either of the previous blessings he had given, Isaac blessed Jacob and pleaded for God to do the same. This is, I believe, the moment he received the promised blessing of God.
We can trust God to work His plan. Our place is not to scheme and connive to bring about the plan of God. Our place is to humbly seek the will of God, obey His will as best we understand it, pray for the blessing of God upon that obedience, and believe Him.
He has it all figured out.
#TrustGodsPlan #DivineProvidence #FaithOverWorldliness #ObedienceMatters #GodsWillPrevails
Obstacles and Obedience: Faith, Deception, and the Fulfillment of God’s Will
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