Over the last
few weeks, we have focused on the patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith. We
met Abraham and Sarah, who committed to a Covenant with God. In their old age,
they had a miracle baby. Last week, we focused on the arranged marriage between
their son Isaac and his cousin Rebekah. We are fast-forwarding in time today and
pausing at the moment Rebekah was pregnant with twins. Listen now to the word
of God as we read Genesis, chapter 25, verses 19 through 34:
Proclamation of the Scripture Genesis 25: 19-34
This is the account of the family line of
Abraham’s son Isaac.
Abraham became the father of Isaac,
and Isaac was forty years old when he married
Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and
sister of Laban the Aramean.
Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was
childless. The Lord answered
his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
The babies jostled each other within her, and she
said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
The Lord said
to her,
“Two
nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you
will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the
younger.”
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin
boys in her womb.
The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like
a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.
After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping
Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when
Rebekah gave birth to them.
The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful
hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at
home among the tents.
Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved
Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came
in from the open country, famished.
He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that
red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is
the birthright to me?”
But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore
an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil
stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the
people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray: Holy and gracious God, may your Holy Spirit give us a
spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that, with the eyes of our hearts enlightened,
we may know the hope to which Christ has called us, the riches of his glorious
inheritance among us, and the greatness of his power for those who believe.
Amen.
Message A
House Divided
The stories of the patriarchs and
matriarchs are stories of people who are loyal and faithful to God, but are
also people who had a lot of problems and who made unfortunate choices.
In today’s reading, Rebekah was
pregnant with twins….ultrasounds and baby heartbeat Doppler monitors would not
be invented for thousands of years, so Rebekah didn’t realize she was carrying
twins. She prayed to God and asked why
her belly was so active—jostling. And, God’s explanation was that two nations
were fighting in her womb – eventually the older nation would serve the younger
nation.
We don’t know how Rebekah understood
God’s metaphoric words. But, we do know that she had twins. And, the scripture
tells us Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Isaac. They each had a favorite. This
practice sounds shocking to us…child psychologists and pop parenting magazines
tell us over and over again not to show favoritism among our children. But, I
guess Isaac and Rebekah did not get the message.
Throughout the stories of Esau and
Jacob’s youth, it seemed like Rebekah was plotting against Esau in favor of
Jacob. Pretty yucky!
When the twins were older, Jacob
manipulated Esau to give away his birthright over a bowl of stew. Later on, when his father Isaac was ill and
blind, Jacob dressed up as his brother and tricked his father into giving him
the blessing that was reserved for the eldest son. Esau was forced to receive
the younger son’s blessing. Both Esau and his father were terribly dismayed.
Rebekah colluded with Jacob to create the plot against Esau.
Afterwards, after Jacob had received
the special blessing, he ran away because he was afraid Esau would kill him.
This is not a story of people who were behaving like the good guys. Instead,
Jacob was conniving and unfair to his brother.
In our scriptures, over and over
again, God uses flawed people to do good things. Today’s story reminds us that we always get the
opportunity to change for the better. Even when we are the ones, like Jacob,
who are guilty of harming others. Even if we are the people, like Jacob, who
are guilty of harming our own family members. Over the next few weeks, we will
read more about Jacob’s saga. He also succumbed to people manipulating him and
taking advantage of him…..he was taken down a few notches. In his good times and in his horrible times,
Jacob remained faithful to God. Eventually, Jacob was renamed Israel, and his
12 sons became the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel.
So things worked out well in the
end, but today’s scripture reads almost like a “what not to do” passage. Don’t
favor one of your children over the other.
Don’t plot against your husband or your child. Don’t sabotage your
children’s inheritance. Don’t manipulate elderly, sick, and blind people to
your benefit. Don’t lie.
Our Bible is full of examples of
people who were incredibly flawed and yet managed to do wonderful things on
behalf of God and on behalf of the people of God. This weekend, our kids have learned about
three of those people.
Gideon was the greatest of all the Judges of the Hebrew people.
He spoke face to face with God. He led the Hebrew people to a great military
victory against the Midianites. Yet, when he started following orders from God,
he was afraid. God told him to tear down altars to false gods. Gideon was
afraid of being attacked for destroying the idols, so he snuck around in the
middle of the night to destroy them. He learned to trust God, but initially he
was unsure if God would protect and help him.
Daniel was the epitome of bravery and
loyalty to both God and his Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.
He made the best of a bad situation since he was one of the Jewish people
carried off to Babylon in captivity. Although he maintained his loyalty to God
and followed God’s laws, I suspect that some of the other Jewish captives
resented that one of their own people rose through the ranks of
Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian government. So, although he was perfect in many
respects, he still could have been viewed by some of his people as working for
their enemy.
Mary Magdalene was
Jesus’ most loyal female follower. Jesus chose Mary to be the first witness of
his resurrection. Yet, Mary had a sordid reputation. We can’t be sure what was real
and what was made up to discredit her, but some traditions paint her as
formerly being a fallen woman – Jesus welcomed outcasts to dine with him and
become his followers. He overlooked their pasts and welcomed them into the
fold. So, Mary’s story is truly a story of redemption and acceptance by Christ.
God uses broken, flawed,
imperfect people to do God’s work in the world – people just like us. God
doesn’t expect us to be perfect or stay perfect, God uses us just as we are.
Jacob was selfish and mean, he made self-serving choices, and he took advantage
of his brother’s weaknesses. Yet, he ended up being faithful to God. The 12
tribes of Israel each descend from him – and from those people the Christian
faith was born.
We always have the
opportunity to make better choices. We always have the opportunity to turn our
lives around. We always are welcome to dig ourselves out of the pits we find
ourselves in and turn towards God and become new people, born again and read to
serve our Lord. Let us do so always. Amen.
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