day no. 14,222: Rebekah, interrupted

Genesis 27:45

Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”

 

Rebekah's plans also fall flat. She sends Jacob off so that she will not have to see him die, but in sending him off, she will never see him ever again. By the time Jacob returns, she will have passed away. Thus the plans of Isaac and Rebekah are both interrupted. Esau did not receive the blessing and Jacob was never again seen by this mother. By their interference, Isaac was prevented from giving what he wanted and Rebekah was prevented from keeping what she wanted.

day no. 14,221: blessings are received, not taken

Genesis 27:29

Let peoples serve you,

and nations bow down to you.

Be lord over your brothers,

and may your mother's sons bow down to you.

Cursed be everyone who curses you,

and blessed be everyone who blesses you!

Isaac attempted to usurp God's plan by blessing Esau instead of Jacob. Jacob attempted to usurp his father's plan by appearing before his father under the guise of his brother Esau. And in the midst of all this deception and rebellion was the sought after blessing. But blessings are received, not taken and God had communicated clearly from the beginning which son was to receive the baton. So Jacob cheats and tricks his way into a birthright and blessing that was already his and Isaac plots and plans to pass the privilege exclusively to Esau. But Jacob had already been chosen by God to receive the blessing. So all the maneuvers on either side counted for nothing toward the blessing.

day no. 14,220: flying in the face of God

Genesis 27:1-4

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, 4 and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”

 

Why is Isaac trying to bless Esau? Because it is who he would choose if given the choice. But to whom did God say the blessing would go? Jacob. So while one may empathize with Isaac's zeal to bless the child he loves, it should be noted that his attempts to do so fly in the face of the clear will of God.

day no. 14,219: whomever they with one become

Genesis 26:34-35

When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, 35 and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah

 

Next to who you will worship, who you will marry is the most important decision you will ever make (and not just for you). While it's true that a marriage couple begins a brand new family, they don't do so in a vacuum. Their existing families are blessed or cursed by whomever they with one become.

day no. 14,218: they came in conflict and walked away with peace

Genesis 26:30-32

So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. 32 That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.”

 

During the course of reading Genesis 26 we find most people coming to Isaac in conflict and all walking away in peace. Isaac was a peacemaker. Whatever you were looking for when you went looking for Isaac, it appears you always walked away from him with peace. Even here, we find him preparing a feast and making promises of peace to people who have done nothing but harass him previously. Isaac was often ready to forgive and quick to act if asked to give it.

day no. 14,217: made to make much of someone else

Genesis 26:23-25

From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.” 25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.

As much as we might want to have blessings multiplied for our own sake, it is never as satisfying as when they are multiplied for another's sake. Our lives were designed to bring glory to another and those who embrace this part of their DNA find fuller expression of who they are and deeper satisfaction in being who they are than those who continually run their accomplishments up the flagpole.

day no. 14,216: water wherever he walked

Genesis 26:22

And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land."

 

Isaac accommodated others' inclinations. He did not box out or throw elbows. He simply moved on and sought a peaceful existence in the land where God was blessing his productivity. As vital as water was, Isaac valued peace more and trusted God to provide water wherever he walked.

day no. 14,215: their giggles gave it away

Genesis 26:8-9

When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. 9 So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

 

I love that Isaac and Rebekah's marital bliss overflowed in such common, everyday ways that anyone observing them knew that they were married. They laughed and played in such a way in public that it implied also a private relationship. Oh that more Christian marriages were more publically identified by this kind of stereotype instead of the blank stares over bland food that so often serves as the prototype for Christian, married life.

day no. 14,214: hot wives and cold feet

Genesis 26:4-5, 7

"I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my law." …7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance.

Isaac did not fall far from the tree. He inherited the blessing of his father Abraham and his bad habits to boot. Abraham and Isaac both had hot wives, cold feet and covenant from God.

day no. 14,213: where it really gets personal

https://utmost.org/the-secret-of-the-lord/

 

"What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you." – Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, June 3, 2017

 

This is an incredible insight I have tried, tested and affirmed both in my own heart and in my experience in life, friendship, marriage, parenting and ministry.

 

Without question, I have heard more confessions of secret sorrow and struggle than I have heard of secret pleasures and joys. It takes a degree of vulnerability to let someone else see your hidden wounds, but it takes far greater transparency and trust to willfully guide someone to your secret treasures. What you truly like and love most is more the essence of who you are and would choose to be. So in keeping, it is often the most difficult thing to say out loud, even to someone who knows us well.

day no. 14,212: the price of admission was already paid

https://dougwils.com/s7-engaging-the-culture/no-baptismal-scar.html

 

"When believers suffer, they are doing it as a gift to others, not as the price of admission for themselves." – Doug Wilson

day no. 14,211: a cross country runner can outrun a sprinter if the finish is in the distance

Genesis 25:29-34

Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

It is ironic that the hunter, Esau, spent all day out and about only to arrive at home hungry. Meanwhile, Jacob made stew at home. The difference between stew and soup is that stew takes longer to make – it must stew for a while. And while the stew was stewing, Jacob was stewing as well. He was a contemplative man who took responsibility for his home by doing what needed to be done and contemplating ways to do it better. This sharpened sense of planning certainly granted him an edge when playing legacy chess with Esau. Esau despised his birthright by treating it with contempt. He showed how little he valued it by trading it for something as simple as stew. Esau spent his day unproductively chasing the wind while Jacob spent the day waiting for stew to stew. While neither is inherently a better way to spend your day in general, it is in this case indicative of the more pronounced differences between these two men. Jacob's schemes involved the long game, which require patience, planning, etc… while Esau's impetuous decision was entirely in keeping with his short-sighted approach to life: chase whatever is immediately in front of you. Jacob's life was oriented around whatever he determined was most important, Esau's around whatever he determined was most urgent.

day no. 14,210: a house divided

Genesis 25:28

Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Isaac loved Esau because they had shared interests, in particular, a love of eating meat. But Rebekah loved Jacob, likely because of their shared interest of putting the family and its legacy first. And I'm sure this was clear to any and all involved. Rebekah knew that Isaac liked Esau and Isaac knew that Rebekah preferred Jacob. And I'm sure Jacob and Esau knew too.

As a general rule, nothing good can come from a house divided. But furthermore, this particular house had a direct word from God (Genesis 25:23) with respect to who would carry the baton of God's promise forward. I'm not sure if the attitudes and events that followed were a product of a heightened awareness of what God ultimately wanted to do or a numbed ignorance, but either way, it appears no one felt safe leaving the results to God alone.

day no. 14,209: true manliness

Genesis 25:27
When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.

Do not read this as saying, "Esau had a subscription to Outdoor magazine while Jacob read Cosmo." The thrust of this distinction isn't to highlight degrees of manliness in the machismo sense, but of manliness in the sense of responsibility. And in that sense, Esau was the one who was found lacking, not Jacob. Esau did what he liked, which was being out and about, doing his own thing, away from home base while Jacob observed the operation, took notes, and took responsibility for his family. He stayed close to the home he desired to inherit.

day no. 14,208: playing keep away with God

Genesis 25:22-23

The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you shall be divided;

the one shall be stronger than the other,

the older shall serve the younger.”

Rebekah asked God what was happening to her and God provided her with a specific response: you are having twin boys and the younger of the two is the one that God was choosing to pass the baton of His promise from Genesis 3:15. This will come into play going forward as we will see a good deal of jockeying and strategy sessions aimed at wrangling the blessing from each other.  But God clearly chose and communicated his choice before they were born. All ingenuity then geared toward taking it away or keeping it away from the other was a lesson in futility, because it wasn't ultimately a game of capture the flag from the hands of men, but an attempt to pry a blessing from the hand of God who had said from the onset what He was going to do and through whom He was going to do it.

day no. 14,207: living and praying with your wife

Genesis 25:21

And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

 

When husbands live with their wives (a la 1 Peter 3:7), they know how to pray for them and will find their prayers in concert with (instead of in opposition to) their wife's (also a la 1 Peter 3:7).

day no. 14,206: hello, my name is "I do"

Genesis 24:63-67

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming. 64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel 65 and said to the servant, “Who is that man, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67 Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

 

Isaac went out for a walk in the field and ended up attending his own impromptu wedding. A bride and groom are not typically introduced at the altar, but here we see, "Nice to meet you," followed by, "I do." And Isaac loved her. This may seem extreme, and perhaps it is, but that only implies then that our marriages, followed by months of engagement - preceded by months (if not years) of dating, should be all the more set up for long term success, right?

 

Right?

day no. 14,205: devotion is worth as much as it costs to pay it

Genesis 23:13, 16, 19

And (Abraham) said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

Our devotion is worth as much as it costs us to pay it.

day no. 14,204: the wood laid on his son

Genesis 22:6

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.

 

Isaac carried his own wood up the hill. Jesus carried His own cross up Calvary. Isaac was saved by a substitute. Jesus substituted Himself to save us.

day no. 14,203: when it says, it does

Genesis 21:1

And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken.

 

The Word is living and active. God keeps His Word, because His Word never comes back void. It does what it says because when it says, it does.

day no. 14,202: no fear

Genesis 20:8, 10-11

So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, 'There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.'"

 

Abimelech did the one thing Abraham suspected he would never do: fear the Word of God.

day no. 14,201: but what about that one time?

Genesis 20:6

Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

 

God did not let Abimelech sin. God can and does interfere with our wishes and keeps us from doing things we would have otherwise done. So one might reply, "Then why doesn't He always do this?" to which I would reply, "I don't know." But He clearly can. So it is in His wisdom that He chooses to interfere and change minds sometimes, but not any and every time. I don't know why, but that doesn't rob Him of His sovereignty.

day no. 14,200: less than ideal

Genesis 19:30-32, 36-38

Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

 

So this is… less than ideal. I can see where the daughters are coming from only in the sense that most men they knew were piles of ashes in the valley still smoking below them and there were no sons of Lot to be found. So Lot's name and family was likely to die with them in this cave. So to be fair, it's not an unimportant problem that they're trying to resolve. That said, desperate times never call for desperate measures like this. This goes to show that being good requires more than good intentions. You can find yourself sincerely attempting to help, but sincerity can still be sin.

day no. 14,199: remember Lot's wife

Genesis 19:26

But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.\

 

One of the shortest verses in the Bible is Luke 17:32 where Jesus says, "Remember Lot's wife." Three simple words, one tremendous principle: do not outrage the Spirit of grace by turning back to that from which He has rescued you. Do not show mercy to your sin. Do not scrapbook your former life before Christ. Face forward, striving with every fiber of your being to take hold of Him Who has taken hold of you.

day no. 14,198: creative commons

Genesis 19:23-25, 27-28

The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

 

Sulfur and fire fell from heaven as divine judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. God overthrew those who overthrew the order of things as God designed. Their utter disregard for His creative authority cost them their progressive lives.

day no. 14,197: the right to be rescued

Genesis 19:15

As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

 

Why Lot lingered we do not know. We know from 2 Peter 2 that he had come to both cry out against the city's immorality and to continue to pitch his tent among them. Whatever compelled him to stay before likely motivated his procrastination at the present. But God, in His mercy, did not give Lot what his delay deserved. He brought him out of harm's way by His grace, because He wanted to, not because Lot had earned the right to be rescued.

day no. 14,196: not moved or motivated

Genesis 19:14

So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

 

Lot came with urgent news that was met with resistance in the genre of dismissive. His sons-in-law could not believe the urgency. They couldn't take this seriously. Perhaps it was because Lot had a habit of expressing his discontent for Sodom in superlatives (2 Peter 2:7-8) or maybe it was due to their own moral luke warmness, but either way, these boys were not moved or motivated by Lot's plea.

day no. 14,195: groping for greater darkness

Genesis 19:9-11
Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

Sodom pressed hard against Lot, but the men God sent to destroy the city rescued him by blinding the sexual predators. Notice that their blindness was not, however, a deterrent to their desires. Sodom feverishly continued trying to get to these two men - so consuming was their desire that they wore themselves out groping for the door. Just as a frightened person in a dark room desperately tries over and over to find the door handle to get out, these men greedily groped to find the entrance into Lot's home and into these men. Sodom was outside in the dark, darkened in their understanding, and seeking greater degrees of darkness inside.

day no. 14,194: to the last man

Genesis 19:4-5

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”

 

Every single man in the city showed up to have their way with the two strange men rumored to be staying at Lot's place. There were no men left in the city other than Lot who were not conspiring to molest these two men. The whole town was the bad part of town. Sodom was not interested in "getting to know" these men as friends or enemies, but to "know" them the way Adam knew Eve resulting in the conception of children. Abraham's proposal to find 10 righteous men would fail and Sodom would be destroyed.

day no. 14,193: any and every

A Christian should be willing to do anything, anytime, anywhere for Jesus by faith that God has done, is doing and will continue to do everything, everywhere, every time.