Jacob the Deceiver

Genesis 27:19 “Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.””

Jacob is a very puzzling character in the Bible who gains his birthright and his blessings by deception but still does not face the wrath of God.

The life of Jacob starts at Gen 25:21 where Rebekah was barren and God answers Isaac’s pleading with the two sons. It was not God’s intention to give Isaac the two sons who quarreled and contradicted each other. God’s intention should have been something different. For Abraham’s God’s intention was only Isaac but there were Ishmael and many other sons. None of these sons were part of God’s plan in Abraham. Similarly, God intended something for Isaac. Isaac had known that he was the God intended son who was born in Abraham’s ripe old age but still he was pleading God just when he was sixty. So, God gave the two sons as an answer to Isaac’s pleading. Asking God is not a bad idea. But Isaac was the son of promise and he should be sure of God’s execution than complaining.

The next problem with Isaac was to love Esau for food (25:28). God had clearly mentioned that Jacob is the promised son in verse 23. But yet Isaac was not that wise in dispensing his favor. Isaac had clearly intended in blessing Esau based on the results of his own eyes and mouth. Strength and material productivity does not make anybody deserve God’s favor. The problem with Esau was that he did not value his inheritance properly. He thought food was important just because his father taught him so. Our children take our priorities as theirs and grow. Only a very few learn from their father’s mistakes. When food or our preferences take importance in our lives, we slowly lose God’s plan in our generations and God chooses another generation completely. The reason for Jacob to get the birthright as soon as the opportunity came was because his knew what he had lost. If we understand that we have lost holiness and God’s presence and long for it, we will gain. This is explained in Mathew 5:7 where we need to have hunger and thirst after righteousness. If we do not have this thirst, we will lose all our opportunities. God hated Esau (Malachi 1:3) because of his only sin recorded which is he despised God’s plan.

In Romans 9:10-14 we read how God is not unjust in choosing Jacob over Esau. It is His divine will that one seed will be chosen to bring in salvation and revival. We are luckily that seed that is designated to progress in Christ. We need to remember that it has cost a lot for our father God to gain us. There were many disappointed and rejected generations so that we could become the chosen generation. The grace of God is so high now that the God who had rejected Esau because of just lack of interest is now very patient to all extremes through our deliberate disobediences.

Esau and Jacob should be compared with the Jews and the Christians. The Jews are the firstborn. But it is God’s plan that we who are meek and without strength to become mighty and be chosen because the Jews despised God’s discipline and did not value His divine presence because all they wanted was protection from their emperors.

In 27^th Chapter, we read the second incident. In verse 13, Rebekah tells Jacob that “Let this curse be on me”. This character should be compared with Christ who loved us enough to take all our curses upon Himself. Christ is the one who made us to look and even smell like Jews, the firstborn. Isaac should be compared with the law which was partial and had the intent of Jews to become the chosen people. But we are in disguise like the Jews and without any effort just had used resources from the Father to satisfy Him. When the Law checks us, we are just like Jacob in Esau’s unfitting clothing and goat’s skin cover. But God has promised all blessings to us so that we will be mighty, powerful and able to build and rule a kingdom. Christ knows what the Law needs and we do not. So, we allow Him to prepare us so that the Law would be satisfied with the offering given which we did not earn or prepare.

In verse 20, Jacob says that “Your LORD GOD bought it to me”. This answer is not a lie because it was God who intended Jacob to rule. Even if we are rejected by the law or our own parents, the divine purpose we have from the Almighty Father will ensure that we receive every blessing at the right time. Also this qualification to inherit is very quick. Just because we had obeyed the voice of Jesus once, we become worthy to be blessed. This is God’s plan.

Let us honor the salvation that we have received and prioritize that above all the earth.

Amen.

Isaac and Ishmael

Genesis 17:19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 

Abraham was hesitant in Sarah’s pregnancy and was giving recommendations to God to make Ishmael live before God. But God had a clear plan in mind making Abraham understand that Isaac is the purpose of Abraham’s separation. God says “indeed” she will bear a son and the covenant will be “everlasting”. God has everlasting plans for us but our thoughts are very limited and seek to escape the small trouble we may go to. Abraham wanted to escape fatherhood and Sarah’s pregnancy and was willing to lose the son of covenant. We also seek temporary solutions only from God and do not allow Him to execute his everlasting covenant with us.

The reason for these wrong choices is that we do not value the covenant or the purpose of God but get satisfied with the temporary solutions alone. This attitude has been expensive in the history of mankind starting from Adam, to most kings of Israel and Judah till the couple Ananias and Shappira. As in Joshua 24:14,15, choices are the crucial events in our life which decide where we head towards. Adam’s one choice is the only reason for all our failures and Christ’s one choice is the reason for all our victories. Let us follow Christ by choosing everlasting blessings than temporary materials.

This difference is the one between Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was blessed due to the situation (Gen 16:11,12) but Isaac was blessed because of divine will. Temporary blessings help a person with strength just for survival and control rage. We know that Ishmael took a girl from Egypt (Gen 21:21) because our temporary blessings tend to go and merge with the world. But for Isaac, Abraham had two conditions in 24^th chapter: Isaac would not go back to his forefathers and Isaac would neither get associated with the locals. This is the separation of the covenant where we choose to live among sinners and the world but would not mingle with them. We are people of a larger covenant and purpose than Abraham. (I Peter 2:9) This is the attitude we should have with technology and fashion.

Here Abraham has more priority for Isaac to stay in Canaan than go back to Ur because in Canaan even if he gets associated, there is hope for God to cleanse him and will use them. Abraham was willing to accept failures rather than escape them. Going backwards is a very dangerous and God hated action. Luke 9:62 makes us unworthy of this race we are running if we believe we can go backwards forsaking the will of God. This is the cost of discipleship. In 24:3, Abraham calls God as “God of heaven and God of earth” but in verse 7 Abraham mentions “God of heaven”. This is the priority we need to display. Heaven and progress towards it is very important than surviving here. But in our lives, our survival takes a toll on our spiritual progress. He is the God of earth but sometimes our attitude does not make Him succeed.

The next lesson is when the servant Eliezer of Damascus looks to God while at Nahor’s town. In verse 24:14, he requests for a girl who God has appointed for His servant Isaac. This was an important favor this servant asks God for Isaac. A relationship God has appointed is much higher than our own relationships. This is one kindness which all our young people can ask God for so that we can escape the errors of marriage. This incident is very important because this is the longest chapter in Genesis and is completely recording only this incident. Marriage is not a simple incident that anybody can casually get into and get out whenever we like. We see the seriousness Abraham has in making the servant oath before him to choose a bride properly.

Eliezer mentions “God prospering our way” repeatedly three times in this incident. God prospers particular objects which can be ways, places or even time for His covenant to be executed properly. This did not happen to Ishmael. He was blessed only because Hagar was crying for help in the wilderness. But for Isaac, God had sent His angel before the servant and places the right people at the right time and the right place. For us to fulfill God’s plan our way prospers meaning that people or objects who contribute to our growth will prosper. In you all the nations will be blessed points to this fact. And doing the right actions as and when God is prospering ways is important as well.

In verse 50, Laban says that “This thing has come from the LORD, we cannot speak to you either good or bad.” If God does something, there is no place for anybody to comment or appreciate. To the son of the covenant, all things work together for good. In 1 Samuel 3:11 God explains Samuel that He will do mighty things and People’s ears will tingle. If we are really in the covenant, that will be the experience. But it is important that we obey just like Laban and Bethuel if an opportunity from God comes in. Sometimes we talk and appreciate too much delaying it or still complain. It is important that we understand that we are not allowed to comment.

This separation and a purpose differentiates Isaac from Ishmael who had no destiny at all. Natural instincts always make us long to be Ishmael who is an archer, who had an interesting wife from another country. But when we allow God to make decisions in our life and let Him prosper our way, we will fulfill our actual destiny in life.

Amen.

Faith is Righteousness

Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”

Relating faith to righteousness is an undeniable path towards glory. The fundamental teaching of our faith is that we do not deserve heaven but by grace we enter it. The only righteousness that we could gain is by believing. This has to be understood properly as there was not one person in the whole bible who could claim that he was righteous. Job said that he is clothed with righteousness when talking about his charity earlier (29:14) but in the next chapter he describes that his garment has disfigured (30:18). This does not mean that Job had sinned during his time of trouble, but his righteousness was not there. This is the same tone where we find our righteousness as a filthy garment in Isaiah 64:6.

Many times we confuse righteousness with obedience. Obedience is just living up to expectations but righteousness is excellence. Without the existence of God excellence becomes impossible as there is none to validate. And since it is God who is validating our deeds, we are expected to present our deeds in the ways which please God. Deuteronomy 6:25 is one verse that says obedience is righteousness. But this verse is given in a context where the whole law to which we have to obey was given with a purpose of preserving us alive and there is no excellence there. In Gen 15:7, God explains Abram that Abram did not come to Canaan by himself by God had brought him. This means that in obedience, God did not see any credits for Abram. The steering wheel was in God’s hands and Abram was just participating in the trip. The initial instructions to Abram were given so that God wanted separation as the first step. At most times this separation alone gives us immense satisfaction and holds us from progressing. Once more example where God does not honor man’s hard work is seen in Deuteronomy 9:4-5. This explains 15:16 where God talks about the iniquity of the Amorites. In our lives, blessings and success do not declare that we are righteous but just that God is executing his plans, but our faith and dependency on God clearly shows.

For Abraham, God accounts his faith as righteousness and this was the first ever good thing God saw in Abram. Earlier Abram had obeyed God sincerely and had been through trouble like famine and exile while in the new land. Abram had also been very wise in rejecting gold from the king of Sodom in the previous chapter’s end. But, here when he had just believed what God had said, God saw that deed as righteousness. We do not see believing as a deed or a task itself. All that we think that pleases God does not please him. If we think that we are doing great by giving charity, it becomes self-righteousness. This is not hated by God but it is neither loved. But there are some instant actions which gain the Lord’s acceptance to us like in Gen 17:1-4 where God wants Abram to walk blameless in front of God for the covenant but once Abram fell on his face down, God was very pleased enough to initiate the covenant. This is our God who longs for our personal relationship with Him rather than just doing good deeds.

Even in Chapter 18 where Abraham intercedes for Sodom, we can see God not appreciating it. The reason is that Abraham did not trust in God’s wisdom and was asking the Almighty to be righteous. We can see God getting furious and Abraham trying to slowdown His anger by begging while interceding. But our first verse where Abraham believed God is almighty and will multiply him without argument and God was very happy with this action. This is the dependency God always appreciates. To build this dependency, we have to build our trust on God. In 19^th chapter, we read Lot not taking the advice of the angels to flee to the mountains and staying in Zoar. If he had been to the mountains, he might not have lost his wife.

The greatest honor Abraham got was in Chapter 22 where he was willing to sacrifice his own son. When Issac was asking about the sacrificial lamb in verse 8, Abraham does not answer bluntly but says “My Son”, you are everything God has promised me. God will provide for Himself a lamb and another generation through which He will do His will. Isaac was not just his son of old age, all other hopes of descendants is gone as everybody is sent away. But still Abraham submitted because he feared Lord (verse 12). He also ensured to remove every possible hindrance to his submission. That’s why from “Lord will provide for Himself”, Abraham changes his testimony to “The Lord will provide.” The decision is God may not bless me but yet I will submit. This kind of submission is complete selflessness and God honors that a lot. We read God swearing on Himself to bless Abraham with actual blessings and multiply with the best of multiplying. God was overwhelmed when Abraham submitted his all hopes to the Lord without any expectation.

Abraham made Isaac carry the wood, which explains how we should keep our hopes ready and submissive for being the sacrifice. We may be ready to send our children as missionaries, but are we raising them as one? We may be ready to sacrifice all our wealth if God demands, but are we making sure that they are now used to glorify God?

Many evidences connect the mountain of sacrifice with Golgotha. The verse does not say Mount Moriah as the location of Solomon’s Temple (2 Chronicles 3:1) but it says a mountain in the land of Moriah and Golgotha is in the same location as the city of Jerusalem and will be a highest place. Also, we specifically read Isaac carrying his wood just like Jesus carrying the cross. The connection is very important as It is God’s requirement the best of our possessions and hope should be submitted to God completely. God did that action first by sending His Son as the sacrificial lamb. We need to trust our future to God (Mat 16:24,25). We should be ready to lose our life. Abraham did not have hope of God’s kingdom but yet he was willing to give. But we know where we are going to. Being ready to lose is not that hard. Carrying our cross helps us always remember that we are living sacrifices. Isaac escaped from being the sacrifice but Jesus didn’t.

Amen.