My Morning Meal

Though there’s no way he saw it coming, I’m thinking that nothing surprised Jacob anymore. You sense that, in some ways, he’s a shell of the man he was when he was scamming birthrights and stealing blessings. Not just because he’s a lot older now, but because he’s been through the ringer. Uncle Laban, and ending up with 2 wives along with 2 pseudo-wives, started the chaos that would be his life. “Family life” was anything but quiet . . . twelve boys have a way of dusting things up. Then Joseph, the apple of Jacob’s eye, was no more. That seems to have been the final blow which took the last of the wind out of Jacob’s sails. Then the famine . . . and the emptiness in his heart as he saw the boys leave for a return trip to Egypt with Benjamin in hand as a ransom for Simeon. What else could happen? He’d seen it all, now. Not quite.

I’m continuing to read in Genesis this morning. The sons of Jacob have been reunited with Joseph, the brother they sold into slavery, the brother who now rules over Egypt and holds their future in his hand. As instructed by Joseph, they have returned to their father, informed him that Joseph is alive, and that the plan is to move to Egypt in order to wait out the famine. And that’s what I don’t think Jacob ever imagined . . . that he’d be moving to Egypt.

So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here am I.” Then He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”    (Genesis 46:1-4)

And while Jacob doesn’t deserve it . . . while he’s been anything but a model for the steady walk of a believer . . . though he has been, in fact, often faithless . . . His God remains faithful. Jacob embarks on his “Joseph Reunion Tour” . . . he leaves the land of promise and heads down to Egypt. And, as he heads into the unknown, he pauses to acknowledge His God with sacrifices at Beersheba. And there God, as He has done before, reveals Himself to Jacob. In Jacob’s frailty . . . in his failure . . . in his fear of what’s ahead . . . God appears and affirms the promise.

Do not be afraid, God says, for “I will.” I will go down with you to Egypt. I will bring you up again into the land when Joseph buries you. And, while your family is in Egypt, as I have promised to your fathers, I will make you into a great nation.

I will . . . I will . . . I will. Such are the promises of God. Such is the faithfulness of God. Such is the grace of God.

Another reminder that, despite the dysfunction of Jacob’s family, God had determined to birth a nation through him . . . and a Savior out of that nation. That, despite the apparent out-of-control circumstances that had been Jacob’s life, He who had promised to bless Abraham and, through his seed, bless all nations, would finish the work He had begun. That, although there’s no way Jacob saw it coming, God had in His providential care allowed Jacob’s boys to treacherously sell their brother into slavery so that their brother might go before them into Egypt in order to preserve the family line and fulfill the promises of God.

Another reminder that God is faithful . . . even in those things we never saw coming.

True statement? I’m thinkin’ . . .

As our pastor pointed out a couple of weeks ago, Jacob had a way of finding himself “between a rock and a hard place.” Plan A isn’t really all that good, Plan B’s not much better. Can’t stay . . . but going looks fraught with issues, as well. Time to leave the land of his uncle Laban and return to the land of his father, Isaac. He had lost favor with Laban . . . and Laban’s sons are seeing their inheritance go up in smoke as Jacob’s flocks increased. Getting a little tense around there. But going home might not be so good either. There awaited the brother whose birthright Jacob had extorted and whose blessing he had scammed. How would Esau react to his return? A rock and a hard place.

But God said, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you” (Gen. 31:3). And so Jacob packed up and went.

But as you read Genesis 32 . . . as Jacob resides in no man’s land, having left the land of Laban but not yet back in the land of Esau . . . the tension mounts. Jacob sends messengers to Esau to give him a heads up . . . “Hey! Guess who’s back?” And the messengers return, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him” (32:6). Yikes! This can’t be good! Esau and four hundred of his closest friends were coming! Jacob’s not thinking a “welcome home” party . . . he’s thinking more like a raiding party.

So what do you do? Even though you know you can’t stay. Even though you’re pretty sure God said, Go. What’s seems to be in front of you is looking just as uncertain, or worse, than what you left behind you. How do you keep on keepin’ on?

Grace and a promise. You remember God’s grace . . . you cling to God’s promise.

As Jacob’s mind races as to how to best mitigate the imagined worst case scenario, he does the only really concrete thing he can do . . . he prays. And as he humbles himself before the Lord, clarity comes as it has never come before. Jacob, the schemer . . . Jacob, the guy who makes things happen . . . Jacob, the “self-made man” acknowledges that all he is and has is by the unmerited favor of His God.

I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that You have shown to Your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.
(Genesis 32:10 ESV)

And Jacob comes to the same realization that Isaac Watts would have millennia later . . . ” ‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” Recognizing the always present favor of God . . . acknowledging His unmerited steadfast love and abiding faithfulness . . . remembering His grace . . . it has a way of compelling one forward.

And then, Jacob remembers the promise.

But You said, “I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.”    (Genesis 32:12 ESV)

And Jacob believes the promise . . . by faith, he clings to what God has said . . . the land before him, by God’s sovereign determination, is to be his land. And so, he keeps going.

Grace and a promise.  And our God.  The God who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us as the source of abundant grace, and the surety of His unfailing promise. I guess that’s how we keep on keepin’ on.

Amen?

He had become a sensual man. Not sensual as in erotic, but sensual as in he relied upon and was driven by his senses. What he could see, what he could feel and taste and smell, what he could hear, that’s what he counted on. Instead of spending his life attuning a spiritual discernment, he settled for dependence on the five associated with his flesh. And as his flesh aged . . . as his body broke down . . . so did that which he had come to rely on. In the end, what would have saved Isaac and his house a lot of trouble, was the sixth sense.

Before the boys were born, Isaac was a praying man (Genesis 25:21). Before their birth, he and his wife knew communion with the Lord and the Lord revealed to them that “the older shall serve the younger” (25:23). But it seems that, over time, Isaac’s “sixth sense,” his interaction with the things of God, had became dull . . . eventually, it seems, flat-lining. Though God had appeared to Isaac (26:2-4) and affirmed the promise that was his through his father, Abraham, perhaps it was his success that drew Isaac’s heart away from that which would be and, instead, fixated on that which was . . . that which he could see, hear, feel, smell, and TASTE . . . major emphasis on taste!

He loved to eat . . . especially wild game . . . any wonder that Esau the hunter, the older son, became his favorite (25:28). Not only could Esau catch ’em . . . the boy could cook ’em! Isaac melted at the thought of eating at Chez Esau’s.  As he listened to the sounds from the kitchen where Esau prepared the meal, he anticipated gazing on the glory of the presentation of the meal on the plate.  He could imagine the aroma of the game prepared with Esau’s secret sauce.  He knew that feeling that first bite in his mouth would send a shiver down his back. And then . . . then the taste buds would explode. Mmmm . . . mmmm . . . good!

Ok . . . maybe not. But you get the idea. Isaac had become a man who was driven by his appetite . . . and, as a result, lost his connection with the Divine.

As a result, he determined to bless the older rather the younger, though God had revealed otherwise. As a result, Rebekah and Jacob schemed to trick the old man into giving the younger son the blessing that was his anyways. And because he had only his five senses to guide him . . . and because he was an old man and those senses were breaking down . . . he was a prime target for the deception (Genesis 27).

He had lost his sight and had to rely on his other four senses. Though he could hear, that too was failing and he didn’t trust his hearing.  And so, even though the voice sounded like Jacob’s, he couldn’t be sure it wasn’t Esau and would have to go to his other senses to determine who had come asking for the blessing. The goat hair on Jacob’s arms sure felt consistent with Esau’s hairiness . . . and when he drew Jacob near to himself, because Jacob was wearing Esau’s clothes, he sure smelled like his brother the hunter. But it was the meal that sealed the deal. It was “that taste” . . . mmmm, mmmm, good! . . . which told the old man to go ahead and give the schemer the blessing.

How sad! That which he had relied upon to lead him through life, the capabilities of the flesh, were failing and, thus, were failing him. Had he instead cultivated his walk with the LORD . . . had he chosen to develop his sixth sense, a spiritual discernment founded on the word of God and fine tuned by the Spirit of God, this son of promise who had started so well would not have finished so poorly.

O’ to be led by the Spirit . . . and not by the flesh . . . that we might know the ways of God . . . and not be deceived by the ways of men.

By His grace . . . for His glory . . .