Jacob's Beginning

“A beginning is a very delicate time.” —Dune 1984 opening monologue

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.” — Frank Herbert in Dune

We instinctively know that beginnings are important and need to be done well. We have a sense that beginning poorly yields poor results…and there are many who would observe that is true.

This is Isaac’s beginning

Genesis 27:1-28:9

Not what most of us would consider a good beginning. Commentators agree:

Believer’s Bible Commentary 1. Jacob Cheats Esau (Chap. 27)

Although Rebekah planned the deception, Jacob was equally guilty for carrying it out. And he reaped what he sowed. C. H. Mackintosh observed that:

… whoever observes Jacob’s life, after he had surreptitiously obtained his father’s blessing, will perceive that he enjoyed very little worldly felicity. His brother sought to murder him, to avoid which he was forced to flee from his father’s house; his uncle Laban deceived him.… He was obliged to leave him in a clandestine manner.… He experienced the baseness of his son Reuben … the treachery and cruelty of Simeon and Levi towards the Shechemites; then he had to feel the loss of his beloved wife … the supposed untimely end of Joseph; and to complete all, he was forced by famine to go into Egypt, and there died in a strange land.…

What does this mean for us? It serves as a cautionary tale about how we begin. Or how we begin again. Since conventional wisdom also contains statements like “today is the first day of the rest of your life.” The reality is that we can declare a new beginning in our lives.

Before we declare that beginning, we should spend some time preparing for that beginning and then make sure it is a god beginning so that we can head toward a good ending. We will see that Isaac was always reactionary and never really began again…though there were several transition points in his life that would have made good opportunities for new beginnings.

Lamentations 3:22–23 NKJV

22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.