The Bible Recap - Day 021 (Genesis 27-29) - Year 6

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Yesterday Isaac and Rebekah had twin sons and God made an unusual promise to bless the younger one, Jacob, instead of the older one, Esau. We saw God's plan unfolding when older brother Esau sold Jacob the rights to his inheritance in exchange for lentil stew. And today we'll take a few more steps in that direction when the sins of both Rebekah and Isaac
Starting point is 00:00:36 also play a role in this. Rebekah tricks her husband into giving his blessing to her favorite son, Jacob. And in his heart, Isaac goes against the words of God by intending to bestow his blessing on the child God had not chosen for it. Both parents' sins were warring against each other. Though it's worth noting that we can't be 100% sure
Starting point is 00:00:57 Rebecca had communicated God's words to Isaac. Jacob isn't sinless here either. Not only that, but in the course of receiving his blessing, he refers to Yahweh as Isaac's God, but not his own. By the way, a blessing is different than an inheritance. It carries a lot more of a spiritual significance than just a financial one. It's a very big deal, and once it's given, it's irrevocable. When Isaac was accidentally giving the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau, he uses some of the very same phrases and ideas that God did in 2523.
Starting point is 00:01:33 Isaac said, Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Decades earlier, God had said, The older shall serve the younger. Esau, of course, hates this, and he hates Jacob. But before you feel too sorry for Esau, pay attention to his attitude of entitlement when he denies responsibility for selling his birthright. He never quite understood the weight of it all. On top of that, he threatens to kill Jacob.
Starting point is 00:02:01 So Rebekah sends Jacob away to go live with her brother Laban in Haran, the Canaanite land where we first met her. As she's sending him off, Isaac warns him, don't marry a Canaanite woman. You have to marry one of the people in God's family. On his 500-mile journey to Haran, Jacob stops for the night and has a crazy dream where God has connected himself to earth via a ladder. One interesting thing about this is that in John 1.51, Jesus refers to this scenario and describes himself as the ladder. A ladder where God descended to earth, not one man climbed to heaven.
Starting point is 00:02:38 That's a crucial distinction. In this dream, God reiterates his promise to give this particular plot of land to Jacob's family. Now remember, this is still the land of their enemies at the time. For the most part, they have lived there peaceably amidst the Canaanites, but it's not their place of origin. God also reiterates the prophecy of Jesus here when he says, In you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Jesus is the blessing, and he would be born thousands of years later,
Starting point is 00:03:08 extending his saving love to people from among every nation, not just from this particular family. Through this one family, all families would be blessed. Jacob wasn't even married yet, but God promised him offspring. Again, because at this point, Jacob is the singular
Starting point is 00:03:25 option for carrying out the lineage of God's promise. First of all, that's what God said would happen. But second of all, Esau has already married pagan women outside of God's family, so Jacob is all we've got to work with. He's not perfect by any means. Meanwhile, we see Esau being belligerent and rebellious. He marries his first cousin on his half-uncle Ishmael's side, continuing to marry outside of the lineage of God's promise. After Jacob's dream, he erected a pillar on that spot. This is important later, but for now, I just want to point out that
Starting point is 00:03:57 pillars in those days were typically pagan structures. This is something the Canaanites did, not the people of God. Jacob also makes a big if-then statement at the end of his ceremony, basically saying, if God keeps his promises, then I will yield to him. Moving on, Jacob finally makes it to the edges of Heron. And like any smart man looking for a wife, he goes to the well. Maybe he was also thirsty, but whatever. While he's at the well, Rachel appears. She was a shepherdess. And by the way, some Jewish historians say
Starting point is 00:04:30 this wasn't an uncommon job for a girl. In fact, just a quick sidebar, many of them say that the shepherds that the angels appeared to on the night of Christ's birth could have been females. You won't see that in your standard nativity. Just another way Renaissance paintings have possibly misled us. Anyway, Jacob is really excited to find out that this beautiful woman named Rachel is
Starting point is 00:04:51 related to him, his first cousin actually, because he knows he has to marry within his family. He asks her father Laban if he can marry her, and Laban agrees to let him if Jacob will work for him for seven years. This seems like a good deal to Jacob. Except one tiny thing goes wrong. Jacob gets tricked by a false identity, just like he had tricked someone with a false identity. Because of the ancient marriage practices in place at the time and the fact that the consummation happened at night, in a time that predated electricity, Jacob didn't discover the deception
Starting point is 00:05:25 until after they'd already consummated the marriage so there was no turning back. Kind of like with the blessing he'd received. So in another strange turn of events, Jacob bargains for a second wife and another seven years of labor. He's not keen on being tricked, and in fact, it didn't work out well for Leah either. Chapter 29 tells us he hated her. The Hebrew word here can also just mean unloved, but it's often used in Scripture to describe a mortal enemy, someone you're at war with.
Starting point is 00:05:55 But as we've talked about before, God seems to have a special affinity for those who are overlooked. He's generous and attentive to Leah even when Jacob wasn't. She became pregnant with a series of sons, four to be exact. The names she gives them signal how much striving was in her heart, how very much she just wanted to be loved by Jacob. But by the time we reach the fourth son, it seems like she's beginning to learn that God is enough. His name means praise. Like most of us, Leah will have to relearn this lesson, so this is not exactly the pretty bow on top that it seems like it might be. Where did you see God's character today? What was your
Starting point is 00:06:36 God shot? For me, it was God's sovereignty over the sins of man. We've already noted his sovereignty over the evil of the enemy back when we were in Job, but here we see a new layer of his sovereignty over evil, the evil of our own hearts and actions. Ultimately, Rebekah's manipulation was a tool in God's hands to accomplish his desired outcome. This continues to reveal to us that even sin bends to God's will. It does not thwart His plan. It's not stronger than God. We've seen this since day one in the garden, and Romans 8.28 tells us that even things
Starting point is 00:07:13 that aren't good are still used for our good and for His glory. So if you think you've trainwrecked your life by some sin you've committed that you can't forgive yourself for, let me set your heart at peace. Your father God is outside of time. He knew all the things you'd do wrong as a human, a parent, a spouse, a friend, and he knows all the sins you haven't even committed yet. Take heart.
Starting point is 00:07:39 He's with you, he's working it all out, and he's where the joy is. Okay, Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. He's with you. He's working it all out. And He's where the joy is. Okay Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. How are you doing? What have you learned so far? If you're off schedule, you need to know there's no such thing as being behind. You read your Bible today.
Starting point is 00:07:58 That's amazing. In today's reading, we saw how God is sovereign over all things, including our own sin. Nothing is too big or too bad for Him. He knows all the sins you'll ever commit, and He still chose to offer you grace and mercy. He even promises that He's big enough to use our sin somehow for His glory and our good. He works all things together, the good, the bad, and the ugly, for the good of those who love him.
Starting point is 00:08:25 That means that even if you're off schedule in our reading plan, he is still somehow working that for your good. The more you lean into reading his word, the easier it will be to learn his character and to trust his promises. He meets you there with joy. So we'll see you back here tomorrow. I'm cheering you on. Did you know the word rest is mentioned over 400 times in the Bible? So rest is kind of a big deal
Starting point is 00:08:52 to our Father. If you're struggling to find rest in the craziness of life, click the link in the show notes for Hope Nation's 10 passages from Scripture that will help you learn more about what it means to rest in God.

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