Between Promise & Blessing

Reading Intro:

Last week we heard about Abraham and Isaac.

When Isaac grew up, he married Rebekah, and they became the parents of twins Esau and Jacob. Even in the womb, they wrestled and made Rebekah's life miserable. When she prayed about it, God told her that she was giving birth to two nations, and that the younger would take precedence over the older.

Throughout their lives, Jacob and Esau struggled with each other -- Esau was their father's favourite, and Jacob was their mother's favourite. Once Esau came in from hunting to find Jacob cooking lentil stew, and he was so hungry that he traded his birthright for a bowl of the red soup.

We pick up the story today near the end of their father Isaac's life, when he is thinking of his legacy and how his sons will carry on when he is gone. We’ll hear parts of Genesis chapters 27 and 28.

Kevin, would you come and read for us?

[reading]

Sermon Intro:

“God comes to you disguised as your life.” Paula D’Arcy

Have you ever been told that something will happen only to have it not happen?

Of course you have. You live in the real world and you live in a world where advertisers, among others, promise all kinds of things to you all day every day.

Unending youth, increased vitality, better hair, nails, body, self-image.

Or maybe it was something more devastating that a product that didn’t live up to its ads or reviews. Maybe you’ve had people who have promised something and then been unable - or unwilling - to actually live those promises out. You’ve been promised a blessing of some kind - and you’ve lived in the tension of waiting for that promise’s fulfillment, only to realize at some point along the way that it wasn’t ever going to happen. Or, at least not how you had originally thought.

A spouse, a parent, a child, a friend. Someone who promised in some way something that they just couldn’t deliver on in the end.

Or maybe you feel like God has promised - or God’s people have promised - and you’re living in the tension between promise and fulfillment. Between promise and blessing.

However you have lived this tension, there’s every chance that you, like me, don’t look for God to be hiding in plain sight there. I mean, maybe over here in this one neat and tidy corner of your life, or your family or your “spiritual practice”… But not there, not in the tension between promise and blessing. Not in the waiting. Not in the wondering. Not in the actions taken. Or the losses suffered.

Well, in today’s text, we see exactly that tension.

What happens when we know that God has promised blessing, but the blessing hasn’t come yet?

What are our options when we’re living in the in-between places?

four main characters

In our text today, we have four main characters:

Isaac - now an old man with eyesight has failed, but whose origin story includes a miraculous birth, an estranged older half-brother (Ishmael) and the famous survival of an attempted child sacrifice, as we looked at last week. In the intervening years, Isaac has married Rebekah and they have, after a long time of infertility, become parents to twin boys: Esau & Jacob. And they are night and day different. As brothers sometimes are.

Esau is all outdoors. And Jacob is all indoors.

Esau is hairy. Jacob is smooth.

Esau is driven by his appetites. And Jacob is that guy who can work every situation to his benefit.

He’s sometimes called the trickster. And this isn’t only based on this one episode. Jacob will wrestle… with his brother, with his place in the world, and later, with an angel of the Lord. But eventually, Jacob will become Israel. God will, from Jacob, bring about the covenant promises made to Abraham. We know it - as do the original readers of this text. They are the people of Israel - the descendants of Jacob.

context - and four scenes

Now, Rebekah is living with the knowledge of the promise God has made - she knows that God intends to bless the younger one, Jacob. And she is likely waiting to see how this will play out. So when she hears Isaac invite Esau to go out and hunt some game and cook a meal and come back for a blessing, she sees an opportunity and she seizes it.

In the first scene, we hear Isaac with his favourite son, Esau.

In the second scene, we hear Rebekah with her favourite.

She and Jacob work out a plan. And Jacob is uncertain at first. But he is convinced and goes along with the plan to impersonate his big brother.

In the third scene, Jacob comes to his father Isaac. But not as himself, he’s pretending to be Esau.

Of course, Isaac’s failing eyesight is important here. Part of pulling this off depends on Isaac not being able to see that it’s his younger son.

But also, there is a moment that wasn’t in the reading where Isaac, seemingly sensing that something isn’t right, actually asks “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacob boldly lies, “I am.” When this is confirmed by the clothes that smell like Esau - nice touch, Mom - he gives to his son his best blessing. He bestows upon Jacob his favour and his legacy.

Again, in a section we skipped over, then Esau arrives. And Isaac realizes what has happened. He blesses Esau, but it is a secondary blessing. Something has happened beyond Isaac just saying something nice to Jacob. He can’t duplicate it for Esau. He can’t undo what he’s given to Jacob.

Now, not shockingly, Esau isn’t super happy about this - in fact, he’s murderously angry. And so Rebekah & Isaac wisely counsel Jacob to go away. And they send Jacob to Rebekah’s brother Laban… where a whole drama will unfold as Jacob seeks a wife. But that’s a story for another time.

So, in the final scene of our reading, Jacob has fled and on his way to his Uncle’s he camps out with a Stone for Pillow and has a pretty crazy dream.

An escalator-type something or other with angels ascending & descending - and then God. Yahweh shows up. And speaks.

Yahweh BLESSES this negotiator. Speaks favour and flourishing.

Promises that through Jacob’s descendants “every family on earth will be blessed”

And then, if all that weren’t enough, God promises divine presence and protection.

Whew.

It’s quite a story, really.

Questions

And we’re left, I think, scratching our heads a bit.

Is Jacob the hero?

Is Rebekah devious and conniving or brilliant and faithful?

Is Esau rightly pushed aside? After all, he angrily and bitterly defies his parents, marrying a Canaanite once he realizes how much it will disappoint and frustrate them.

Is there anyone in the story who is blameless?

Is there anything in this story that speaks to our own situations?

Rebekah has acted to make something happen that she heard God promise. Is her action faithfulness or forcing something?

Jacob has shown himself to be able to take advantage of situations as they arise. Both things that “fall in his lap” like Esau being willing to give up his birthright and situations where a little more effort is involved, like impersonating Esau in order to receive Isaac’s blessing.

But what about God? Where is God in all this?

Let’s look at what God does in this story:

In the context, God has told Rebekah while she’s still pregnant that the younger will be the recipient of divine blessing, continuing on the fulfillment of the covenant made with Abraham.

In the story itself, God appears in Jacob’s dream and speaks blessing.

So God promises and God makes good on the promise.

The only thing left is us.

What happens when we know that God has promised blessing, but the blessing hasn’t come yet?

What are our options when we’re living in the in-between places?

How do we find the places that require action? How do avoid forced blessings?

How do we discover that God is in places we didn’t realize?

Did you see that in the end of our text? When Jacob wakes from this epic dream, it says

“…he thought to himself, “The Lord is definitely in this place, but I didn’t know it.”

Jacob, the blessed one, is on the run. His life has unravelled - and he’s about to enter a challenging season. He’ll work 7 years for a woman he loves, but then he’ll be duped by Laban and have to work another 7 to get the right woman. And he’ll have that unthinkable challenge of being married to sisters.

But, much like Beth-el, Jacob will discover that God is present. Even in places Jacob won’t expect.

What if Paula D’arcy is right when she writes: “God comes to you disguised as your life”?

So if your life looks like Rebekah’s? Waiting for the fulfilment of a long-ago promise? God comes to you there.

If your life looks like Isaac’s? Facing your own end, grappling with the realities of aging, diminishing abilities and strengths? God comes to you there.

If your life looks like Esau’s? Volatile. Filled with regrets. Broken relationships. Ill-conceived decisions. God comes to you there.

If your life looks like Jacob’s? Struggling. Striving. Negotiating. Running. God comes to you there.

No matter what your life looks like today… what if God is coming to you - TODAY - disguised as your life?

What if God is definitely in this place you’re in… even if you didn’t realize it?

What do we do when live in that tension between promise and blessing?

How do inhabit this inbetween place?

Where we know God is making all things new…but we also know that is only taking place in part, and ever so slowly…

I invite you to take a moment now to listen for God’s voice inviting you to see, to notice that God is indeed coming to you, right where you are.

[silence]

Closing Prayer

God, we confess that sometimes our blessings and dreams confound and confuse us, like Jacob. At times we are uncertain what it is You want us to do next. Help us on the journey. When our steps falter, be with us. When the future is uncertain, comfort us. When the world is overwhelming, help us to rest. When we realize we are imperfect, equip us. Remind us that You are our God no matter what. That you come to us, sometimes even in the disguise of our everyday lives. Help us along the way we pray. Amen.

Benediction:

“The Lord bless you and keep you,

the Lord make His face shine upon you,

and be gracious to you,

the Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

and give you peace.”