Skip to main content

Trusting God Could Work Too

So I'm reading through the Bible in chronological order this year (with 150 of my best friends) and I came across Genesis 27 this morning. It's the story of Jacob and Esau. If you're familiar with the story at all, you might recall that Jacob is a lying cheat and Esau is a bit slow on the uptake. At least, that's my perspective.

For anyone less familiar, you got Jacob dressing up like his brother in order to deceive their blind and aging father to give him the good blessing. I guess it's a good thing Jacob didn't have a sister whose blessing he was trying to steal. But I digress.

Jacob is successful in deceiving his father and getting the blessing. Esau comes later and cries a lot, but it doesn't do any good. As Isaac says, "I blessed [Jacob]-and indeed he will be blessed" (Genesis 27:33). Here's my question. Do we really think that God couldn't have changed this? After all, tell this story to children and they might get the idea that lying is ok as long as it works. Couldn't God have blessed whomever He wished to, no matter what the brothers did and no matter whom Isaac blessed?

It's my understanding from reading the whole of Jacob's story that God wanted him to get the blessing. But certainly God does not endorse lying in order to achieve His goals. Do we really believe that God is not able to work around things like birth order?

I think a lot of us are like Jacob. We know that God promises good stuff to us, but then we mistakenly assume it's up to us and our own devices in order to see the good stuff happens. It's not. We should stop living like it depends on us. It doesn't. We should depend on God to do in us what He wants to. It's always worked better that way. It always will.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl
Post a Comment
Read more

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a
Post a Comment
Read more

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d
Post a Comment
Read more