Genesis 28:10-19a • John 1:12
The Rev. Dr. Israel Ahimbisibwe
God said to Jacob, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac … I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28:13,15)
This promise was given to a man (Jacob) who was haunted and had no piece of mind. Remember, this story comes about after two unpleasant episodes in the life of Jacob:
- The first was when he tricked his hungry brother Esau with red stew and took away his firstborn birthright. Esau got upset after Jacob started taking away the rights that hitherto had been his.
- As if that were not enough, Jacob learned that their very aging father Isaac wanted to pass on the family blessing to Esau, because he loved the meat that Esau constantly brought home after hunting. While that is true, what also is true is that Isaac was a righteous man who may not have ascribed the cheating to Jacob. In other words, Isaac may not have recognized that Jacob had stolen the birthright from his brother Esau. The Scriptures tell us that Jacob did everything possible to pretend to be Esau – for example, by covering his arms and shoulders with soft, hairy goatskins that would make them feel like those of the more-hairy Esau. The Scriptures also say that he came to Isaac smelling like Esau, which means that he imitated Esau’s smell – he either put on his brother’s unwashed clothes in order to have his scent, or, if Esau were a man who wore perfume, Jacob put on the same perfume just to smell like Esau. The only reason he was able to successfully trick Isaac in this way was because Isaac’s eyesight was too poor to see the deception.
We read later on in the Scriptures that when the real Esau showed up with the food and brought it to his father for the blessing as requested, “Isaac violently trembled and said, ‘Who was it that hunted the meat and brought it to me?'”
These were the circumstances that haunted Jacob and made him flee from his brother, who wanted to kill him.
So God’s promise that he would not leave Jacob until all He promised had been achieved was the best he could get at this time.
But this is what we must understand. God did not bless Jacob because of cheating or deception. This is also true for all of us today.
God reminded Jacob that He was the God of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. These two were very good and faithful people and God always referred to them not only for Jacob, but later on for the whole nation of the people Israel.
God did not mean that the goodness and faithfulness of Abraham and Isaac could be transferred to Jacob. Jacob could have the blessing of his grandfather and father only by becoming faithful and righteous like them. That was the only responsible thing he had to do.
God had finished dealing personally with Abraham and Isaac and now He wanted to personally and individually deal with Jacob.
This sounds outrageous, but I would like us to know that God does not have grandchildren. Those who say that they are comfortable because God had blessed their grandparents or parents have got it all wrong. Instead, God wants children who will call him, “Our Father.”
Children have a direct and personal relationship with their father.
Listen to this wonderful testimony of John, the beloved disciple of Jesus: he said, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12)
Because of this, no one can say that they are blessed because of what their community got from God without a personal and individual contribution and responsibility. And it takes God to break through bad habits of all sorts to bless people.
Just as I believe that what lay ahead of Jacob was a great blessing if only he could trust God beyond human schemes of cheating and deception, we have great blessings ahead of us.
What a blessing of grace and kindness that God could still want to deal with Jacob after all those mistakes!
But also what a blessing we have in Jesus Christ, who loved us while we were still sinners and wants us to responsibly deal with all the bad habits by trusting His word and forgiveness!
God will not leave us until all he promised in Jesus Christ has become true, if we obey to trust him at every stage of life.
Amen.