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(Lots of kids enjoying lunch, and still missing two babies in the house!)Even though we serve a big God and we do our best to dig deep into our theological understanding of how he works, at times it doesn't all make sense. Granted, God has the right to be angry and "hate" whoever or whatever he wants to. On Sunday we'll take a look at this word "hate" and how it applies to God.
When we talk about God's hatred toward Esau it does not involve disgust, disdain or a desire for revenge. That better describes human hatred for another human. In the story of Jacob and Esau, Esau is really just the one loved less. Hopefully that will get you interested in coming on Sunday and hearing the rest of my thoughts on this topic.
Last Saturday we had the Wards over with their four kids. Needless to say we had a housefull of kids counting our 5. It was good fun, we all swam (except for the Mom's who are waiting for the pool to reach 90), but also needed to tend after new baby girls in each of our families. Roch and Laurie have a great story with their kids. After the doctor telling them they "could not" have babies on their own, they had the triplets via surrogacy. Then God blessed them with their own biological baby. And that my friends, is a prime example of how even when we dig deep into our theology, God can still astound us! I love that part about my Christian life. Please God, astound me all the time.
7 comments:
What a great story. Often times we don't give credit to God and explain miracles with scientific reasoning.
It's something that we've been accustomed to in modern times and we don't recognize miracles when we see them.
Here's my two cents on Jacob, Esau and the
birthright...
I was always taught about how bad Jacob was because he
deceived Isaac to get the birthright. Recently, I saw
another perspective: Isaac knew that God intended that
the younger sibling (Jacob) should get the birthright
even before the boys were born (Genesis 25:22-23) yet
he proceeded as though God's will did not matter
(Genesis 27:1-4). This does not justify deceit on
Jacob's part, but it points to the fact that Jacob
(and Rebekah, who was behind Jacob's behavior) had
faith in the fact that the birthright was intended for
him despite cultural norms and his father's actions.
Obviously, God dealt with Jacob's deception in the
following years of his life as Jacob had to deal with
a deceptive father-in-law. I guess this also is a
lesson about playing favorites as a parent.
Anyway, I had never noticed Isaac's part in the
birthright ordeal before and I had never looked upon
Jacob's deception as evidence of his faith.
That's probably not your focus for this Sunday,
though. You're going to talk about God's sovereignty
to choose whom He will choose, right?
~Kelly :)
Thanks for your post Neil. It is a great story. It's stories like that which keep my faith fresh and by belief in God strong.
The story of Jacob and Esau is interesting... God looks for faith in people, lot moral perfection - Thank goodness!
God weaves miracles through the mundane and coincidence and circumstances keep him invisible. Only via Faith are we able to see miracles and and those without, just see life evolving. With God's light we are able to see.
Light makes Light. By itself, light is invisible; and yet everything is invisible until light strikes it... So it is with God: we can't see him: but "in His light" we can see and understand his love in all that surrounds us. (REF: Psalm 36)
Some Christians and non-Christians may find the rest of this offensive. Blasphamy maybe.. Please don't take it the wrong way. It is just meant to spark a debate.
So... Abraham was an OLD man and Sarah was an OLD woman befre they had Issac. Sometimes there are issues with older couples having children. They children are at a higher risk of having birth defects. Issac can be translated to "he laughs". Children with downsyndrome often are having very pleasant personaliteis are notorius for smiling and laughing a lot. Later in the chapter, Sarah gets mad at another child that is making fun of Issac... hmmm???
Next chapter Issac is older, and so his Abraham. This is the part where God test Abraham... Sacrafice his only son. The bible tells us that God interviened and changed his mind about sacraficing Issac.. god was just testing Abraham. testing his faith. What might have happened is that Sarah and Abraham were getting OLDER and has less energy to take care of Issac, who, for arguments sake, was mentally defecient. So Abraham, brought him up to "take him out of his misery". Sarah is SO mad at Abraham about this she leaves him and they never talk again! (Read it... the next time she is mentioned is when she dies and Abraham had to go visit that place - because she wasn't wth him anymore!)
Next point - Issac can't find his own wife... When has a rich kid not been able to find a wife? Abraham sends his servant to distant city to BUY a wife for Issac, and told the servant NOT to bring Issac with him GEN 24:6 (maybe because people could tell he was handicapped) AND he didn't get married untill he was forty.
Issac gets fooled by by goatskin? The hairest man ever doesn't feel like a goat... Issac suspected that it wasn't esau, but still was fooled.
there are chapteds on Abraham and Jacob and Joseph, but VERY little on Issac.
Could it be perhaps that God chose to bless Abraham through a son that seemed to be less than capable? Even though is life may have seemed less than significant - Issac had a major roll in God's plan... To me it is comforting to know that even though I may feel small at times... To God, it is not how big you are, but how big your faith is.
People can choose to see the mundane in this story, or they can choose to see the Light.
- Aaron
Regarding the post from Aaron on Isaac: You are right, Isaac means laughter, but that is because Sarah laughed at God when he told her she was going to have a baby at her old age. (Gen. 18:10-15) Sarah also says that God has brought her laughter through Isaac (Gen. 21:6) referring to the miracle of birth at her age.
I don't read anywhere about Abraham potentially "taking Isaac out of his misery" as they head up the mountain to sacrifice him. And I've never heard before the idea that Jacob was "less than significant." So, I can't go there with you on that one.
There is a good reason Abraham sent for a wife for Isaac. He wanted Isaac to have a wife from his own people not wanting him to marry a Canaanite woman. (Gen. 24:3-4)
I will further elaborate on why God allowed Isaac's blessing to go to Jacob instead of Esau in my sermon on Sunday. So stay tuned, or come to church on Sunday or catch it in the sermon notes next week. Thanks again!
Good response... It is crazy. Bible interpretation can get stretch! That theory, that Issac may have been mentally disabled started when I was a kid... and I couldn't believe that somebody could be fooled by goat skin... It was not meant to be offensive. I that neither you, nor any other blog reader took offense to it.
I like the the part of your response that says, "It doesn't say that Abe took Issac up there to put him out of his misery" that part is just ADDING to the bible... Only Mormoms are allowed to do that! ;)
I do have a question about the this story though... Moses wrote the book of Genesis. How did he know about all this stuf since he wasn't around?
-Aaron
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