August 3rd, 2013
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

A Matter of Choice

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Opening Prayer

Father God, I’m grateful for Your holy Word. Help me to understand it without distortion, and obey it without timidity.

Read GENESIS 27:41-28:9

[41] Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” [42] When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. [43] Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. [44] Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides. [45] When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?” [46] Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.” [1] So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. [2] Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. [3] May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. [4] May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” [5] Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau. [6] Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” [7] and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. [8] Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; [9] so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“Sow a thought, reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny” (unknown).

Think Further

Being the recipient of the birthright and the blessing did not result in a trouble-free life for Jacob. He probably experienced more conflict as the chosen one than if he had simply remained the little-known head of a pastoral family. Being chosen by God can divide rather than unite. Sometimes this is because of the antagonism of others towards those who consider themselves chosen but, just as frequently, because of improper actions by the chosen individuals themselves. 

Tension between Jacob and Esau will have long-term consequences. The relationship between the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob, and the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, would always be strained and mostly violent (e.g. 1 Kings 11:14-16). Centuries later the Edomites would be overrun by the Arabs and disappear like northern Israel, merging into the mix of peoples which would eventually become the Muslim world. Some Edomites ended up in Judea and were incorporated, by choice or force, into the Jewish people. 

Jacob’s descendants, the children of Israel, fared no better in the end despite being God’s chosen people. The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that the successive destruction of the northern and southern kingdoms was because of the choices that the chosen people made: their desertion of the giver of the promise (Isa. 42:23-25). God’s blessing is not automatic. Sometimes Scripture makes clear the conditions for blessing (Deut. 30:15,16) and sometimes it does not (Gen. 12:2,3), but–written or unwritten–the “ifs and buts” are always there. People remain free to choose their own path and they or future generations will bear the consequences. God, as we have said, does not micromanage the future. Our choices matter. God’s purposes will finally prevail, but people’s choices can drastically affect what happens along the way.

Apply

Can you think of an occasion(s) when God used you in spite of (rather than because of) choices you made? Thank him for that.

Closing prayer

Merciful God, I am such a complex person full of mixed emotions, a multiplicity of motives and muddled thinking. May Your Word lead me in all my choices and directions.

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