Reflections on Rebecca - March 26, 2025
Notes
Transcript
On the promise there in genesis chapter 25 if you want to open your bibles to try to follow along is the historical account of Isaac and his wife Rebecca. Just like Abraham and Sarah, Rebecca and Isaac were not able to conceive and have children. Yet God promised that their descendants are going to be more numerous than the dust on the earth or the stars in the sky.
So Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless and the Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant. One of the themes through the life of Jacob we've already started to see it with the life of Abraham that just like God tried to teach Abraham it's not about you. God said, I made the promise and I'm going to do this thing. It’s not about you making it happen with Hagar and Ishmael and all these other things. It's not about you and your efforts Isaac. I will do this says the Lord in the same way I did with Abraham. So, Rebecca becomes pregnant, and yet something quakes in her abdomen. She’s like Lord what is going on and the Lord said to her:
“Two nations are in your womb, two peoples from within you will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger” Genesis 25:23.
Basically, God saying look yes there are two of them in there, but I have chosen the younger one. He is going to be the one that rules. He’s going to get the blessing and he’s the one I'm going to work through. Culturally speaking it should have been the oldest son who receives the blessing and the inheritance. He’s the one who carries on the family name. Culturally, it is supposed to be the older one. But God is not concerned about human status.
It was the younger child of promise, Isaac. And now it's going to be the same thing with Esau and Jacob. It's not going to be the oldest one who has the status of carrying on the family name. It's going to be the younger one because God is God, and he has chosen.
The next scene is the birth and what we have is two children coming out. The first one is all hairy and red they call him Esau and then the second child came out grasping onto the heel of his brother. They gave him a Hebrew name, which actually means heal-grabber. So, he became Jacob or a grasper which in their culture was an idiom for somebody who is a manipulator and deceiver. In a way, it is sort-of like when we say that so-in-so was pulling his leg. An expression saying that they tricked me. That is what Jacob’s name meant.
Let’s skip down to the Stew scene. Not that he was stewing over something but actually was making a stew to eat. Esau was a guy who loved to hunt and eat wild game. Whereas Jacob was a peaceful man living in tents. The way it's worded is Jacob knew Esau was going to come back hungry after hunting and he was ready. He made a pot of stew and Esau returns and says give me some of that red stuff. Jacob, being what his name indicates, says I'll give it to you if you give me your birthright. Again, the birthright signifies who is the one who's going to get the lion's share of the inheritance. The one who's going to carry on the family name. The one who's going to carry on the family's possessions titles the promises of God. Jacob thinks he can manipulate his way to getting the blessing, but God has already said he was going to get it. And now Jacob is trying to get it with his own efforts by manipulating his brother who's hungry.
Esau on the other hand, was more interested in his stomach. In his mind, the birthright was now big deal to him; the most pressing issue was getting some of that stew. Esau was living in the moment, just living for today, and not interested in tomorrow. He treated the birthright as if it was nothing, something to trade for a bowl of Stew.
What we have here is a guy— Jacob—who isn't content with what God promised. He thinks he must take matters into his own hands to schemes and manipulates to get what he wants. From here the next scene is Genesis 27, where Jacob manipulates his faither to pronounce the blessing over him instead of his brother. Rebecca heard about this, and she doesn’t look good for her either because she knows the promise of God. The problem is Rebecca is not content to see how God's going to work this out, so she gives Jacob some pointers on how to manipulate his father for the blessing. You can read about this in Genesis 27. All this drama should tell us something about the family dynamics.
We don't often think about the times we are like Jacob in the ways we try to manipulate other people. We scheme we try to get things that we want and oftentimes don’t consider the consequences for our actions. Yet, God was faithful despite the actions of Jacob and Rebecca.
It was God who was protecting and providing for Jacob, even when he didn’t recognize God was present. God didn’t even wait for Jacob to acknowledge him. He didn't wait for Jacob to praise him. He didn't wait for Jacob, yet God was there. Through it all we see that God is God. Jacob did what he wanted to try to manipulate things, but the reason he got the blessing is because God promised. The reason things worked out is not because they manipulated and schemed and stole the birthright with Stew or lied to his dad or because he did things with his uncle or this or that, it was because God gave him the blessing.
God has given you the blessing too. When I look at my own like often I think wow, I don’t deserve anything from God. Do you even feel like that? Well, the good news is look at what God did. In the waters of Holy Baptism, He marked you as His very own. He united you with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. You are now the chosen of God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him.
God is God and only he can make this happen for us in our lives. If you ever feel like God has maybe abandoned you, or maybe you just don’t feel his presence. Then look at the life of Jacob. Talk about somebody who didn't deserve it! God was with him his entire life, through the good and the bad. God's blessing is by grace. It’s not of your own choosing. It never has been and it never will be. This is why Jacob's history is a foundation for our faith.
Don't doubt whether I saved you because you have fallen again or you've done something wrong. That’s why this cross is up here to my right. If you have fallen again, or have done something wrong, use this cross as your confessional. Write down what happened, then affix it to the cross, asking God to forgive you again. Jesus died for that too. Your baptism guarantees that you are complete in Christ.
In Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Think about a gardener who lovingly tends to his plants. One day, a tiny flower blooms in the midst of weeds. The gardener doesn’t uproot the flowers for being surrounded by weeds; instead, he continues to nurture them, knowing that with time, they’ll grow stronger. In the same way, Jesus baptizes us not because we are perfect or weed-free, but because He loves us just as we are. It is His work that makes us beautiful, not our actions.
God be praised! He does all things well. Amen.
