Joel M Bradshaw

5Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, 7‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the LORD before I die.’ 8Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. 9Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. 10And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” 13His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”–Genesis 27, with emphasis

God once spoke words to Rebekah that directly apply to our chapter today and the two sons.

And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:21-23, with emphasis)

Jacob was known in his early years as a deceiver, but he was led to deceive his father by his mother. We were already told that the parents played favorites with their twins. Isaac preferred Esau and Rachel preferred Jacob (25:28). It’s possible that Rebekah was entirely selfish and sought to simply fool her husband to get her preference. The text seemed to indicate that. Yet, God did speak to her and make promises. Maybe she never forgot that Jacob as decreed by God to one day rise above Esau and sought to make that happen by her own efforts.

Rebekah’s story illustrates how we view God’s sovereignty. We read promises in Scripture and trust God to accomplish them. But can we by our efforts make them happen in a way that God had not ordained? Or does God simply use our efforts in life to accomplish the plan he has already decreed?

Paul would later write about Rebekah’s situation.

Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Romans 9:10-13)

God didn’t emotionally hate Esau. We now see love and hate linked to God’s sovereign choices. He chose to covenant with Jacob and not with Esau. And Rebekah’s story was now linked to God’s purposes of election. God chose Jacob before Jacob did any good to deserve it. And as we see, Jacob surely didn’t deserve it. He illustrates well that nobody ever deserves God’s grace. So God’s purposes were the driver of history and not Rebekah’s choices. We trust the God who accomplishes his purposes and we obey him at every opportunity.–JMB