Genesis 27:20
20 Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?"
"The LORD your God gave me success," he replied.
It is verses like this made me start this whole read through the Bible thing.
Because here we are nearing the end of the life of Isaac, one of the hot shots of the Bible. And to the very end we have conniving and scheming and deceiving and, to me this is the worst, giving God the credit for part of the deceit.
See int his verse, we have Esau (and Rebekah) trying to manipulate the promises of God for their own own good. Sounds like a thousand prosperity gospel preachers of today...
As you may or may not remember (I always have to go back and see "now which was the good brother...?") we have Jacob and Esau. Esau was the good brother, Jacob the bad brother. (Back in chapter 25 Jacob ripped off the birthright form his father.)
And now in chapter 27 we have Jacob (and his conniving stage mother Rebekah) trying to scam the blessing too. As Esau heads out to hunt some game for daddy's death bed, Rebekah overhears the conversation and tells Jacob to get ready for the scam of century. Or moreover the show of the century.
Curtain up!
Rebekah gathers some props (the fake food )puts on the makeup (hairy fur) and a costume (some borrowed clothes) and says its Show Time.
Esau heads in to give the performance of his life.
"Hey daddy, I'm back. And I've got your favorite..."
"Great son, but how did you get back so fast?"
Gulp.
Squirm.
Fidget.
Light bulb goes off!!!!
"Well dad....God did it. Ain't He great? Couldn't have done it without Him. Boy that God of yours does some amazing things. It was like I was just sitting there and a rabbit up and jumped in front of my arrow. Next thing you know...I am back with your favorite food. Yea God!"
So Jacob thinks that if he can whitewash his mess with the name fo God, everything will be OK.
Like when I make a mess and say "God if it's your will (and I really hope it is cause I have put this thing in the ditch and I have no idea how to get out but if you really love me like you say you do you'll fix it" blah, blah, blah...."
I just think that God get sick and tired of his sticking his name and words in places He really doesn't want them to be.
The Bible often reports events without commentary, but there is no doubt that God was displeased with Jacob's lie. However, I do not equate Jacob's desire to obtain Isaac's blessing with the modern, God wants you rich mentality. In the earlier story about Jacob and Esau, it was Esau who put his temporal, material need (hunger) before the blessing of God. We are talking about the blessing of God here. In addition, many Bible commentators have remarked on how Jacob later got his comeuppance from another deceiver - Laban.
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