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Its God’s plan not ours
5 Comments | Posted by Jeff Mercadel in Genesis, Matthew, New Testament, Old Testament
Today’s old testament reading shows us sibling rivalry, jealousy, deception, but most importantly it shows the unveiling of the words God had given to Rebekah in Gen. 25:23. We now have Isaac who is old, going blind, and thinks he’s about to die ready to bless his oldest son. The problem with that is that God had already said:”The older shall serve the younger.” So now we have the tradition of Isaac (passing the blessing to the oldest son) versus the words of God. History says and God says the word of God always prevail. Rebekah hears Isaac talking to Esau and hurries to make a plan of her own, so that Jacob could deceive his father and receive the blessing. My question is: Why did she do this? Did she remember the words that God had spoken to her during her pregnancy? or Were her actions out of the love she had for her son Jacob? Either way God in his sovereignty knew and planned for the older to serve the younger. Back to the story. Isaac ask Esau to go hunting and prepare his favorite meal. Rebekah hears of this and goes out and gets two goats out of the backyard, prepares them just like Isaac likes them, takes the clothes of Esau(for the smell) and the skins of the now cooked goats (for the touch) and put them on Jacob,and sends him out the receive the blessing from his father. Because Isaac cannot see he blesses Jacob and not Esau. My question about Isaac is this: Why was he so intent on blessing Esau? God had already spoken to Rebekah, Esau sold his birthright, and he had displeased Isaac and Rebekah by marrying a Hittite. Does tradition hold us so strong? Let me know what you think.
In the new testament reading we see Jesus restoring people’s lives. He is asked to restore the life of the synagogue official’s daughter, on the way to the officials house He restores the health of the woman who hemorrhaged for twelve years, but also restored her life because during her hemorrhaging she would have been deemed unclean and shunned by the people, so now after her healing she can enter society once again.
Jesus comes into contact with two blind guys, restores their sight and then says to them “See that know one knows about this.” But they could not contain that news and the word spread throughout the land. He also cast demons out of man who was mute, and gave him speech again.
What I loved most about this passage is that even after doing all of the physical healing of disease and sickness; verse 36 says: Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus knew that more important than healing the flesh is the healing of the spirit, restoring people back to the Father. When He saw so many people without that connection He was moved with compassion. We too my friends should be moved when we look out into the world and see so many dispirited and distressed people. We should fall on our knees and pray without ceasing to the God of heaven, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who is able to restore lives and give grace and mercy.
5 Comments for Its God’s plan not ours
Author comment by Lionel Woods | January 11, 2010 at 10:25 am
Javetta | January 11, 2010 at 1:34 pm
About that balance that Lionel speaks of…
I often wonder how we are to serve like Jesus (and others of His day)in this very complex culture. Let’s face it, people were more free to live that kind of life. Long gone are the days when people don’t have to work a 9 to 5 and had much more time for serving, fellowship, community, etc. Sure, there are some people today who have more control over their time(stay-at-home moms and dads, entrprenuers, college students (maybe…lol), professors) but the vast majority of us spend a great deal of time committed to working, taking care of our own families, and resting.
How are we supposed to navigate through the difference of the culture?
Hutch | January 11, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Amen Jeff.
I really liked this: “We too my friends should be moved when we look out into the world and see so many dispirited and distressed people. We should fall on our knees and pray without ceasing to the God of heaven, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who is able to restore lives and give grace and mercy.”
Joy | January 11, 2010 at 2:27 pm
I have read commentaries that say that Isaac meant to bless Esau with the material blessing and Jacob with the spiritual blessing. Isaac’s intention was that Esau would help Jacob materially in acheiving the spiritual reward. Jacob ended up with both and Esau’s “blessing” was not much of a blessing since the name of God wasn’t a part of it at all.
God knew that Esau would not help Jacob? Was God so displeased with Esau because of his focus on the material things and disrespect for the spiritual that He made it come about that Jacob received both, even against Isaac’s will? Is that the lesson here?
Obviously, Jesus’ main concern is spiritual even though we are more often more concerend with physical. CNN this morning reported that there are more young people today than ever before suffering from clinical depression. They called it epidemic. This was based on MMPI studies from the 30’s Great Depresion era through today. We know it has nothing to do with lack of material wealth. It’s not for lack of pharmaceutical crutches. Have we finally reached the saturation point of extreme materialism? It’s more likely a famine of spiritual manna. I know Christ still has compassion, but the acceptance of it is lacking. I have been there and my heart breaks for them. We must surely pray for these young people to accept and experience the compassion of Jesus Christ.
chas pike | January 11, 2010 at 4:50 pm
lots going on here. why was isaac going blind? was his love for essau blinding him? essau didnt seem to care to much about spiritual or material things, but rather the conquest. he took the rest for granted.
my questions: did isaac plan on blessing jacob all along, and contrive an excuse to send him on a wild goose chase so that the blessing could be given to jake? and though the birthright of the first son became the law, God seemed to favor second sons. he liked abel better. noah also gave the blessing of the seed to the second son. the genealogy of luke tells us that adam was the son of God. that would make Jesus the second son.
twins. cain and abel could have been twins. there is nothing to note the conception of abel, just the mention that cain is born first. the theme of twins and mirrored images runs through out the bible. so cain is disinherited and another son, seth is raised to take the second sons place, and receive the blessings.
this is something from the mishnah that i would like to share. after adam and eve sin, they do not die on that day, as promised. God sacrificed animals and made garments from their skins to cover them. a kind of, “i made you in my image and gave you all, yet you got knowledge from the tree and dressed yourself in the trees’ image, now you will wear the skins of death as a reminder and i will remove you from my presence”. they leave the garden in skins. the mishnah tells us that the skins become sacred relics and are handed down from generation to generation. from adam to seth on down to noah. ham steals the skins and hands them down to his spawn, nimrod wears the skins and is a mighty warrior. essau the mighty hunter kills nimrod and takes the skins, and these are the special clothes of essau worn by jake when he gets the blessing.
about the goats, essau went out to kill game as an offering to his father. essau has angered his mother by marrying out of the house of terah. she kills two sacrificial animals and brings a burnt offering to isaac. wonder how long it takes to kill, bleed, dress, and cook a goat? essau was gone for quite a while. essau is red, hairy. the tabernacle is covered with red animal hair. amos tells us that God will restore the fallen tent of david and bring edom under it. there is also irony, herod the king of the jews is an edomite, descended from essau. over dinner his birthright is bought from him, and Jesus is coronated king of the jews.
the new testament stuff is interesting. the daughter of the temple ruler is twelve, the woman with the bloody issue has been bleeding for twelve years. both isaac and essau have twelve sons. israel has twelve sons, Christ chooses 12 disciples.
the healing of the woman of her bloody issue may be most important because part of the curse in the garden has brought about menses and pain in childbirth, as well as separation from God. side note here, God did not relate to eve directly, but had his first priest, adam, intercede between them. now here comes Jesus, he tells the woman with the bloody issue, “your faith has healed you” and he tells her what he told those he healed, “go home”. where would this woman’s home be? she has been marginalized from society. home, home is where we dwell with God, it is the symbol of God’s echod and shalom. the twelve year old little girl is revived. that which is dead has been brought back to life, God restores his relationship to woman, and she is innocent. now he will deal with women directly, without priests or intercessors.
thats my rap for today, and thanks for the food.
People often talk about the passion of Christ, but what about the compassion of Christ in His earthly ministry. I have to admit that I struggle with this. Jesus spent all of His time serving others because He was about His Father’s business, often times I am about my business and have little time to serve others, I am trying to find the balance.
It is funny how much Rebekah and Sarah have in common, both attempt to assist God after God has come to them, both times God still moves forward in His plans to bring the promise through a specific seed, even the birth of twins won’t stop this plan and neither will Rebekah and Jacob’s lie.