Vowing

11/30/2006

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Vowing

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 27:11-17

            Message of the verses:  “11 Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, ‘Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. 12 ‘Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.’  13 But his mother said to him, ‘Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.’  14 So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such as his father loved.  15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.  16 And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.  17 She also gave the savory food and the bread, which she had made, to her son Jacob.”

            Dr. Wiersbe said about the verses in yesterdays lesson that Rebekah had probably had all of this planned out in her mind as to what she would do if this situation would arise, and it seems like that might be the case, because as I read these verses I wonder how she would have come up with all of these solutions in such a short time as she did.  With that being said it seems to me that there was a great problem with communication between the members of this family, especially between Isaac and Rebekah, for they both knew that the Lord had chosen Jacob to be the one to have the covenant blessings passed on through him and not Esau.  I’m sure that all of this was difficult for Isaac and Rebekah to understand, but what happened to Isaac when he was a young boy should have given him the courage to do the right thing, for his father Abraham surely did not understand why it was that God had wanted him to sacrifice Isaac as a burn offering, yet Isaac did not put up a struggle but trusted in the Lord and also in his father.  There had been many years since that had happened to him, yet what had happened those many years ago should have given Isaac the desire to do the correct thing here and then all of these things would not need to have happened.

            The things that happened were deceit, deceit between Rebekah and Isaac and then between Jacob and Isaac and the Word of God says this about deceit, “How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This lesson has a good message for me to help to understand something that has been difficult to understand for a long time, and yet I also must say that it does not clear all of it up for me, but maybe I will never understand all the concerns that I have about this problem.  I think that the best way to begin this is to quote Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”  Here in lies the problem to me, and that is the problem of sin, and if I read this verse correctly God works all things together for my good, including my sin, but I know that I should not go out and sin just so God can work them out together for good for there are consequences to my sin, as seen in the story above, for Rebekah never did see Jacob, her favorite son again before she died, however God did use these circumstances for the advancement of His plan, and that plan was to bring His Messiah into the world, and His line would run through Jacob, this same Jacob whom God still had a lot of work to do on him to bring him to the point where he knew God and would trust God to bring about his own salvation, and that salvation would be made possible through one of his distance Heirs, the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Another thing that I have learned from this passage is to have better communication with my wife and family so that there will be no need for these types of things to go on in my family.

The Word of God has been convicting, challenging, and refreshing to me as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  To give thanks to my Lord for being so great that nothing can stand in the way of what He wants to accomplish in my life, even my sin, which I regret every time I commit it.  God works out all things together for my good and for His glory and that makes Him a God who deserves my worship in all that I do.  I continue to trust the Lord to teach me contentment and to direct my paths.