Day 32 – Jacob & the Blessing

Today’s readings are long, but hey, it’s a Saturday. Technically the second reading today is only verses 21-25 of Genesis 29, and we will indeed be reading Genesis 29 “properly” in a few days’ time, but you’ll find it helpful to read it all now to get context. The story doesn’t make as much sense if you just read the end.

• Today’s passages read like a crime thriller! They’re great fun. I hope you enjoyed reading them!
• Cast your mind back to day 30 and the story we begun to hear about with Isaac’s two sons, Jacob and Esau. Today, as you’ll have seen already if you’ve read the passages first (which you should!), we hear about about an intriguing little tale of deception that Jacob plays. You might like to watch the video I posted on day 30 again too, to help your understanding.
• On those readings on day 30, what had Jacob coerced his brother into doing, when he was particularly hungry? This showed that Jacob had a shrewd, cunning side, and today this is “taken up a notch” – seemingly to be outright deceitful! Today we read that he takes not only the birthright, but his father’s blessing.
• Whose idea was it to trick Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing instead of Esau? What did she tell Jacob to do?
• Why did Rebekah want Jacob to get the blessing? Think about when the two children were first born, if you can.
• How did Jacob convince Isaac that he was Esau? It was a pretty elaborate set of plans, wasn’t it!
• After the deed had been done, and Jacob had received his father’s blessing, Esau was outraged. Do you have sympathy with him? Where did Jacob go to escape his brother’s anger? Have you ever had to stay out of someone’s way because you knew they were extremely angry with you?
• The passage in Genesis 29 shows Jacob, later in life, being on the receiving end of a trick. He was tricked by his uncle Laban into marrying the wrong person! This is a fascinating story to unpick, and we’ll do so on Tuesday (day 36) when we read it again. For now, however, enjoy reading the story and seeing how it cost Jacob a lot of time and effort to marry the right person.
• Does it surprise you that one of the fathers of the whole Israelite people had character flaws like Jacob did? Think about all the different people we have met so far in the book of Genesis. Were any of them perfect in their actions? Why do you think God uses imperfect people for His work?

   

Jacob tricked his father and brother, and was later tricked himself. Some people call this “reaping what you sow” or “what goes around comes around”. Galatians 6:7-8 picks up on this theme, as you’ll have noticed. What kinds of things do you “sow” in your life? Are you kind, forgiving, generous, impatient, angry or a tell-tale? Do you find yourself “reaping” similar attributes or different? We thought about this on Wednesday at Cells last week, didn’t we, as we considered Christian wisdom being practically lived out.

God works through imperfect people, and even sinful actions, doesn’t He? When you read a sentence like that you might think:

“God works through (or despite) sinful people so sin doesn’t really matter. If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can have sinful traits, so can I!”

But that would not be a helpful way of thinking. God does work through sin, but that’s because His perfect plans are going to come true, regardless of whether we trust and obey His Word. In a couple of days’ time, we’re going to be looking at the evil act of Joseph’s brothers selling Joseph into slavery to get him out of the way – but of course God uses this to bring about a future salvation for His people as Joseph is led to a position to rescue his family from famine.

In the lower story – the human story – we see sinful actions caused by putting oneself first, just like Jacob did today. But in the upper story, God is overseeing everything according to His purpose. It’s one of the reasons that in the midst of struggles and suffering, we can look to God for ultimate love and stability.