The grand deception
Sorry to all the Rebecca’s out there, but I really struggle with the Rebekah presented to us in Genesis 27. I’ll tell you the story and I think you’ll see why.
The last chapter ends telling us that Esau chooses to marry two local Hittite women and ‘they were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah’. Not going to open that whole daughter-in-law/mother-in-law can of worms – I guess mothers want what they perceive to be the best for their sons and do not always feel that their sons have chosen wisely and then some go on to make that very clear over the years! I haven’t experienced that firsthand although one of Andy’s sisters did refer to me as an ‘ignorant Southerner’ when he first took me home! Hittite to them I guess!
My son gets married next March and we are in the fortunate position of having known Becca since she was 14. She has grown up alongside us and our boy and knows what she is marrying into – believe me, she has seen it all! She is becoming a wonderful young woman – a domestic goddess(!) with her feet firmly on the ground and a vision to become a social worker and the determination to make it. Like no one else, she knows how to handle the boisterous, annoying but extremely lovable labrador that is our son! Roll on 28th March 2015!
Anyway, back to Genesis 27. When Issac is old and his eyes failing, he sends for Esau telling him to go and hunt some meat and prepare it and bring it to his father in order to receive the blessing he is due (the right to which he sold to his brother several chapters ago – the things we will do for food!) Rebekah hears and has a plan. She has it all worked out. She will prepare Isaac’s favourite meal and cover Jacob in an animal fur ( for Esau was an hairy man and Jacob was a smoooooth man – you have to hear Andy say that in his particular way for it to lodge in your brain as it has in mine!) and Isaac will wear Esau’s clothes and pretend to be Esau and receive his father’s blessing. Amazingly the plan works and when Esau returns from hunting, there is nothing Isaac can now do. The blessing cannot be revoked and there is no blessing left for Esau. You’ve got to feel sorry for the guy. He’s mad at Jacob, so Rebekah persuades Isaac to send Jacob away to find a wife from among their own people (until Esau has calmed down). Esau marries one of their own people, a descendant of Ishmael (too little, too late, mate!). And that’s it.
I really struggle with this story. How could a wife feel it is OK to deceive her husband like that? And how could a mother favour one of her sons in that way to the the detriment of the other? Then how could Isaac be so easily fooled? And how did God let them all get away with it? In fact, it is more than that. It seems it was all part of the plan. If we look back to before the twins were born, God predicts this will happen –
Two nations are in your womb……and the older will serve the younger. Genesis 25:23
It’s just not fair. Why does God not intervene and do something about it? I have all the questions that you have and none of the answers (it’s a bit like when I watch Dr Who and try to make sense of all the time travel).
….so I’ve just been to the gym to clear my head on the treadmill and come up with some answers – and I have none. Sorry. I’m going to do that really annoying thing now and say that’s what faith is…..believing in a God that loves us and really does know best even when all the evidence seems to be saying the contrary. OK so occasionally I have my doubts – everyone does, even the Archbishop of Canterbury! Every life has its ups and downs, its stresses and celebrations, and God is there in every breath that we take to walk with us and strengthen us on our journey, wherever that may take us.
This story of Rebekah’s deception is a weird one and we do not get the whole story. We never do. It’s easy to judge what’s going on in someone else’s life without seeing the whole picture. One thing I do really detest in any shape or form is deceit though. I find it hard to trust anyone who is willing to lie to me. Honesty and integrity matter. So I will be honest and say that I feel I have failed you this morning and not said anything very useful. I have doubts about this journey and what I feel we can offer. But it’s a journey so stick with us please and let’s journey together.
