Encore Post: God blessed Isaac and Rebekah a lot. He gave them a good land to live in, riches, servants, flocks and twin boys. God promised to make their family to grow to become a nation. The Messiah would come from their descendants.
Yet the family of Abraham was dysfunctional from the very start. Abraham loved Isaac more than Ishmael. Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob and Rebekah loved Jacob more than Esau. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah and Rachel’s children, especially Joseph, more than all his other children. That really did not work well for them.
God told Rebekah that Jacob would be the family’s leader when Isaac died. But normally the older son had this blessing. So Isaac didn’t listen to God and intended to give that blessing to Esau. Rebekah was afraid that God would not keep His promise and helped Jacob to trick Isaac. Esau didn’t think his father’s blessing was very important, so he sold it to Jacob for a good meal. Jacob didn’t want to wait for God to give the blessing to him, so he tried to get it himself by tricking his brother and father out of it. The story did not end well. Esau was very angry and Jacob ran away to his uncle Laban with only the clothes on his back.
Still, God forgave them. He continued to bless Isaac, Rebekah and Esau. He gave Jacob two wives, Leah and Rachel, many flocks of sheep and riches. When he came back home, afraid that Esau would still be angry with him. To remind Jacob that he was still with him, God came to Jacob at night in the person of the Son of God and wrestled with him all night. When the night was over, God renamed Jacob (which means “heel”) Israel (“he struggles with God”)
Soon Israel discovered that his brother loved him still and forgave the mean things Israel did to him years before. So they lived together as family from that time on. Yet it appears that Israel didn’t learn much through experience, as we will discover in later posts.
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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