Gen. 27:17-20
REBEKAH, the lovely young lady who left her home and family to go to Isaac because of strong faith in all she had heard from the serpent’s lips, appears in the present story as the originator of a deceitful scheme against her own husband and elder son. This was not in keeping with the character of loveliness that had marked her union with Isaac, or as the wife of one to whom God had promised rich blessings.
What had brought about so sad a change in her? It will be remembered she had been brought up in her youth, with her brother Laban, a man of the world. His scheming ways had no doubt had an effect on her before she departed from his influence. It seems that she allowed that old nature to have its way again. She, like Isaac, failed in so important a time to turn to God for wisdom and guidance and took it upon herself to see that her favorite, Jacob, got what God had promised!
If Rebekah were still in the company of her brother, her scheming could be more easily understood. But as the wife of Isaac for many years, that old nature should have been entirely done away with, for it was not in keeping with her changed position. The child of God today has also been brought into a new household: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” Eph. 2:19. Having been brought into this wonderful relationship, the believer is to reckon the old man as done away with and himself “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:11.
Had Rebekah been in this state soul, she would have left the who question with the Lord, knowing that He would not allow Isaac, Esau to interfere with His purposes. Alas, like so many believers of the present day, she had neglected the path of faithfulness and thus the old nature asserted itself, leading him into actions that resulted in much sorrow.
Jacob readily allowed himself to be influenced by his mother and, being himself a schemer by nature, not appear to consider it strange deceive his aged father in order gain his blessing. Nor did his conscience seem to be touched by blind father’s pathetic question: “Who art thou, my son?” Resort to falsehood, he claimed to be Esau and when asked how he so quickly secured the “venison,” he replied “The LORD thy God brought it me.” vv. 18-20.
Oh how low and to what wretchedness a saint can sink when not it communion with the Lord. Jacob behaved badly under his mother’s crooked advice, doing evil in hops that good might come. He really valued what God had pledged to him in words that could not lie; and yet to distrust Him only made his and his mother’s sin so much the greater. The flesh had its dark way around, and God was forgotten. Deceit prevailed, yet the word of our God abides forever. God would answer Jacob’s faith, but He m chasten his evil and unbelief.
Memory Verse: “MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE, AND I KNOW THEM, AND THEY FOLLOW ME: AND I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE.” John 10:27,28.
ML-07/24/1966