Text: Genesis 27:30-45 (see below)
Is your family dysfunctional?
Now, every family has experienced conflict at one time or another. For some families, it takes a lifetime to overcome and heal from the struggles and pain caused by the actions of family members. The Bible presents some of the most vivid and dysfunctional families that have ever lived.
Meet Isaac’s family.
Now Isaac had his own issues with his father, Abraham. They had gone out on a camping trip and young Isaac found himself tied down on top of the fire wood with his father coming at him with a knife. (There is at least a year or two of family therapy, to say the least!!)
Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, was a Mesopotamian beauty. But she, like so many other women in the Genesis narrative was barren which undoubtedly caused her much pain and anxiety. She has “chutzpah” though for when she discovers that she is pregnant and is experiencing much travail in the process, she goes straight to the Lord and demands some answers. The text at that point (Genesis 25:23 ff) is amazing for the Lord actually answers the request of Rebecca directly!
These twins that Rebecca is carrying will wrestle with each other from the moment of conception until they are reconciled many years later. Isaac will show favor to Esau and Rebecca will play favorites to the younger son, Jacob: a perfect dysfunctional family.
Today’s lesson, posted below, is the second portion of Rebecca’s and Jacob’s trickery in obtaining Isaac’s blessing. It is the one time in the whole narrative where I have great compassion for poor old Esau. He tried to do the right thing and ended up in second place with a half-hearted blessing from his father. It is fairly easy to relate to Esau’s emotions and his desire to get even with his younger brother.
The narratives of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs are filled with deception, trickery, lies, and actions that many readers today find offensive. The stories raise serious and fascinating questions about God and about human endeavors. For example:
· Are God’s plans advanced in this life by deception, by stepping outside the apparent boundaries of what is acceptable, so that life may go on?
· Is it okay to be deceitful? Would you lie to protect someone you know?
· How do you reverse the order of nature (Esau being the eldest son)? How do you reverse the order without fratricide? How do you avoid another Cain and Abel moment?
· Is Isaac really fooled by Rebecca’s and Jacob’s actions?
· Is this scene of trickery actually carrying out the work of God’s promise? Does God approve? Must all of our family conflicts be reconciled before God’s purpose can be worked out?
· What price does Rebecca pay for her actions? How would we respond if our faith were truly tested?
· What is a blessing? Why is it so important even today? Is there a burden that comes with the blessing? What does it mean when parents pronounce a blessing upon their children?
These stories are true gems for they continue to fascinate the reader thousands of years after they were written. The dysfunction in this family is finally resolved some twenty years or so later – an important lesson for us all that we must continue the journey of life in faith, with all of its pain and all of its blessing. The resolution is initiated not by the younger son but by the elder son, Esau, who experienced the most hurt. But that story of redemption will have to wait for another day.
Love One Another - Brian
God’s Gift To You
Desmond Tutu
You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
Genesis 27:30-45
As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, ‘Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.’ His father Isaac said to him, ‘Who are you?’ He answered, ‘I am your firstborn son, Esau.’ Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, ‘Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!’ When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, me also, father!’ But he said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.’ Esau said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing.’ Then he said, ‘Have you not reserved a blessing for me?’ Isaac answered Esau, ‘I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?’ Esau said to his father, ‘Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!’ And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
Then his father Isaac answered him: ‘See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck.’
Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’ But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, ‘Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, and stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— until your brother’s anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send, and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?’
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