Let’s talk about Jacob*. The famous one. The one in Genesis - you know: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? The one who was renamed ISRAEL. At birth, God promised his mother, Rebekah, that even though Jacob was the youngest, he would be the one through whom God’s special blessing would pass - the one through whom God would keep His covenant. So instead of trusting in this promise, Rebekah decides she must take matters into her own hands - much like Sarah had before her (Hagar) - she felt that she needed to strive for the very thing that God had already promised. And it brought her so much grief in the end. She was separated from her favorite child for the rest of her life. Jacob followed in his mother’s footsteps and decided he needed to strive for this blessing God had already promised him as well. He does whatever it takes to make it happen - deceives whomever he thinks stands in his way - including his brother and father. It brings him great grief as well. He lives in fear of his brother (who has vowed to kill him), he is separated from his family, he is deceived by his father-in-law - who he then deceives. He ends up with a house full of discord and still no peace in understanding that the blessing he is constantly seeking comes from God - all he must do is receive it. In the end it takes a wrestling match with God Himself and a wounded hip to get him to finally receive the blessing that God had for him all along. There is so much there that we can look at another time, but I want us now to focus on a couple of questions.
1. What are you striving for? What are you chasing? What has driven the decisions you have made in life? Think of all the worst decisions you've made, what were you chasing? Think of people you may have hurt or deceived, what were you trying to achieve?
2. Have the things you’ve been striving for already been promised by God?
Do you desire love? Has that need driven you to make decisions you later regretted? - To be with people you shouldn’t be with? To break commandments? To lower your standards? You may have felt love for a time, but what was that mixed with? Regret. Heart-break. Shame.
Now, has God already promised you love?
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. Jeremiah 31:3
...neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39
There are so many more. What are the other things your heart longs for - that drive your decisions? Acceptance? Purpose? These things have been promised as well. And God’s blessings are not mixed with suffering -
The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22
May we all stop trying to get the blessings of God with our own scheming and efforts - just receive them from His hand.
*If you are unfamiliar with his story or with the stories of his father and grandfather, you can find them in the book of Genesis starting with chapter 12.
