Giving God a hand

This passage is part of one of the more sordid and sad parts of the Old Testament. Rebekah wants her younger son Jacob to get the ‘official’ blessing from her dying husband, Isaac. So an elaborate deceit is arranged whereby the blind father is tricked into giving his blessing to Jacob rather than Esau who was the older son and legally entitled to such a blessing.

What is interesting, though, is the fact that God had already indicated to Rebekah that Jacob would be the one blessed by God. Esau would not be neglected, but God’s great universal purposes would be furthered through the line of Jacob not Esau. It appears as if Rebekah was not content to let God work things out. She seems to want to give him a helping hand. And in doing so, she lied and deceived and caused Jacob’s life to be endangered.

A similar thing had happened earlier in the episode of Abraham and Sarah. Not content to wait for the birth of the promised son, they did a deal whereby the servant Hagar gave birth to a son more or less on Sarah’s behalf. That didn’t turn out well, though God’s overall purposes were not thwarted.

We sometimes want to give God a nudge and do all sorts of things so as to speed up his purposes. True, we do play a part in these purposes. But once we resort to impatience or deceit, we are expressing faithlessness. God can’t be trusted so we have to get involved. And so often we mess up. And so often, God doesn’t let our meddling derail his great and good plans.

Blessings
David Reay