How do we navigate between GOD’s will and ours? Surrender is key. But what of the ages before salvation by GOD’s grace and receiving the Spirit as we confess Jesus as Lord?
In Rebekah, we see the question of human v Godly motives being played, when we examine the story of Issac’s blessing over his son.
Preparing the Bride for GOD’s Story
How do we prepare as the Bride of Christ? One aspect is to learn GOD’S STORY. He created us in His image…. Piece by piece, and peace by peace, we learn to walk as He has walked. And we learn His perspective.
Genesis 26:34-35
“When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.”
Isaac and Esau were father and son. For some reason which is not expanded upon, when Esau took two wives, Esau and his family were a “grief of mind” to Isaac and Rebekah.
Father and Sons
We are launched into the story of Issac’s blessing to Jacob and his inadvertent side-lining of the first born, Esau. Genesis 27 recounts the well-travelled story of Esau losing his inheritance and his blessing to the more cunning Jacob. You can read this account in Genesis 27.
The Key
I’d like to focus on the fact that Rebekah led the entire situation. She chose Jacob even though Issac wanted to bless the elder son Esau. Rebekah instructed Jacob to disguise himself as Esau to get the blessing,
“Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ‘Bring me game and make savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you. Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death.”
“And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”
“But his mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” And he went….” (Genesis 27:5-14a)
Jacob obeyed.
Eventually, the lie is discovered, ‘all hell breaks loose’, and Rebekah learns — from her trusty servants, one supposes — Esau is ready to kill his brother,
“So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” (Genesis 27:41)
Just as she ensured Jacob would receive the first born blessing, she shows her cunning once again,
“And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (Genesis 27:46)
Rebekah plays on her husband’s experience of Esau’s difficult wives and suggests Jacob may marry into the Hittites as well…. In order to convince Isaac to agree to set Jacob off to go to a distant land — to find a wife — and therefore to escape the more robust and furious older brother.
Rebekah’s motive
We can look at Rebekah as one who knows GOD’s heart, or as one who believes Jacob is the entitled one as the Lord had disclosed to her,
“And the Lord said to her:
“”Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”” (Genesis 25:23)
Or we can simply see her as a mother who favours one son over another.
Whatever the motive we might think she had, this woman was effective and ensured — in human terms — that the Word which GOD had revealed to her was fulfilled.
Flesh v Spirit
We may not always know the course to take, but when we seek to do as GOD leads, we will not fail. For we who have the Spirit of GOD within us, as we allow our flesh to be put below the Spirit of GOD, we can be sure He will lead and guide us.
Rebekah was determined. She may not have had ideal motives, she may not have been a submitted wife, she may not have been righteous. But she knew GOD’s Word and acted upon it. So we, albeit in a more honest and submissive way, must seek to do GOD’s will as expressed through His Word.