Lessons Learned

In the previous post we discussed how Jacob assumed the identity of his brother Esau to receive the blessing from his father. While this gives us an example of how we approach our Father by assuming the identity of Christ, there are other important lessons we can learn from this passage about how we should conduct ourselves, or rather how not to conduct ourselves when trusting in the Lord.

A lot of things were done wrong in this story and all participants were at fault: first we will start a few chapters earlier in Genesis 25:29-34 when Esau sold Jacob his birthright for a bowl of beans.

Esau is portrayed in these verses as being emotional: he was fainting and gasping, and then despising. To live on this base level, to satisfy one’s appetites, inevitably leads to a despising of spiritual things.

On this same note, Isaac was attempting to thwart God’s plan by blessing Esau instead of Jacob in chapter 27. Natural senses play a conspicuous part in this part of the story as well. Notice the emphasis placed on Isaac’s love for the taste of wild game and also his sense of touch and smell to try and identify Esau. Our natural senses and the things we desire are always at odds with what God desires for us and more often than not these senses and appetites deceive us just as they did Isaac. We must trust in God and his plan for our well being. We must be careful about what our human senses desire as they almost always led us away from the Lord. Giving in to the physical senses and fleshly appetite is also how Eve was deceived in the garden.

Genesis 3:6
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

Next, Rebekah and Jacob tried to achieve God’s blessing by deception. Their “victory” would ultimately reap hatred and separation in the family; Rebekah never saw Jacob again and vice versa. In a sense Rebekah and Jacob did win, though they gained nothing that God would not have given them anyway; and they ultimately lost much more. Their family life was destroyed, and each had to bear lonely hours of separation, disillusionment, and regret. Rebekah would never see her favorite son again, and Jacob would have to face life without a father, mother, or brother. Their activities accomplished only what God had already ordained. Yet God would work through their conniving. God’s program will triumph, often in spite of human activities. However if we remove these human interventions, God’s plan will work without all the heartache and difficulty that occurs when we are impatient and try to assist Him or hurry Him along. We must realize that God does not need our help, and whenever we try to intervene, we always cause problems that would not have arisen had we simply been patient and trusted in Him to act. The saying that “God helps those who help themselves” IS NOT in the Bible. What the Bible does continually instruct us to do however is to “be still” and “wait”. Psalms 145:15 “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.” Other verses that tell us to wait on the Lord include Pslams 25:21, 27:14, 37:7, 37:9, 37:34, 39:7, 52:9, 59:9, 62:5, 104:27, 123:2, 130:5, Isa 8:17, 30:18, 40:31, 49:23, Jer 14:22, Lam 3:25-26, Hosea 12:6, Micah 7:7, Zeph 3:8, Luke 12:36, Acts 1:4, Gal 5:5, 1ST Thes. 1:10 This can be seen in the story of Jacob as well as various other passages including when Abraham fathered a child by Sarah’s maidservant. Sarah and Abraham were not waiting on the Lord to accomplish what He said He would do, they tried to help God bring a son into the world. The problems that arose from this incident have been with us for 6,000 years.

It is also interesting to note that Jacob deceived his father, and throughout Jacob’s life we find that Jacob was deceived by others. He was first deceived by Laban when he was fooled into marrying Leah instead of Rachel. Laban’s excuse for this deception was that “It must not be done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.” Genesis 29:26 This must have cut Jacob deeply since in his case the younger had come before the firstborn. Jacob was also deceived by his children when they told him that his beloved son Joseph had been killed by wild beast. Interestingly enough Jacob’s sons used Joseph’s coat to deceive their father, much like Jacob had used to deceive Isaac. Remember Galatians 6:7 says “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Master of Disguise

27:11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man:

27:12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.

27:15 And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son:

27:16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:

27:18 And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?

27:19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.

27:21 And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.

27:22 And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands [are] the hands of Esau.

27:23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him.

We all know this story from Genesis 27 in which Jacob pretends to be his brother Esau so that his father Isaac will bless him as the firstborn instead of Esau. So what exactly is going on here, and what does it have to do with us. Well let’s look at what Jacob desires and how he goes about obtaining it. Jacob desires his father’s blessing, and even more specifically the blessing of the first born son. Jacob obtains this blessing by pretending to be Isaac’s first born son Esau, using both his name and his raiment. So Jacob comes before his father and assumes the identity of the first born son, in order to receive blessings from his father. This is exactly what we do. We use the name and assume the identity of Christ the Son, in order to receive blessings from our Father. This same concept can be found in 1st Samuel 18:4 where Jonathan places his garments on David. The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed. It is ONE book and it’s all about HIM!!!