Parents playing favorites.

27    When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents.
28    Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Genesis 25:27-28

There are very real dangers to parenting, and Isaac and Rebekah demonstrate one of the worst of them: playing favorites. Their twin sons were literally answers to prayer for them. I am sure they loved them, but over time, as each boy developed a unique personality, each parent gravitated toward a favorite son. And the results would mark their lives and affect generations.

Isaac loved the rugged outdoor hunter Esau. There was something especially appealing to him about a boy who became such a skilled hunter and provider. I have to confess that the man in me would find myself attracted to that as well. Quieter boys are harder to get to know. The rugged outdoorsman was most appealing to Isaac.

Rebekah on the other hand loved her quiet and reflective boy Jacob. He stayed around the tents. He was more of a manager, and as we will see, a shrewd deal-maker. And from the text, we also see that he was a skilled chef who could cook up a mean pot of lentil stew. So he had his own personality that his mother found attractive. But as the parents drew toward the sons, they found themselves unwittingly pitting themselves and their sons against each other.

I have two children. They are unique in their personalities and I need to be careful that I don’t only feel drawn to one over the other. One is quiet and withdrawn… a deep thinker… a poet… and an emotional processor. The other is happy-go-lucky, a social butterfly with many friends, a constantly busy joker, less emotional unless it is telling a joke, and a wildly gifted musician. Fortunately, I find myself drawn to both of them in unique ways, but I need to be careful not to exalt one over the other. They sense if I am spending more attention on one over the other and they let me know! So Isaac and Rebekah serve as warning posts for careful parenting.

Technorati Tags: Genesis,Isaac,Rebekah,Esau,Jacob,Parenting

a different kind of love story.

Then I bowed my head and worshiped the LORD and blessed the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son.
Genesis 24:48

This is indeed a love story, but one with a much different focus than we normally tend to think about this time of the year. Abraham is incredibly old, he has lost his wife, and is concerned that his son Isaac marry the right woman. He binds his household manager to a solemn oath to find a wife for Isaac among Abraham's own kinsman. The servant knows this is a daunting and dangerous task, but does so.

When he arrives in the territory of Abraham's family, he realizes that the task must be divinely directed. You have to hand it to Abraham. He had instilled a vivid faith in the members of his household as evidenced in the servant's prayers to God. And God heard and answered them with the events that clearly made it apparent that Rebekah was an outstanding, caring, and hard-working young lady. Again, not at all like how we might think of a love story today, but she is the right woman because of her character.

The result was that God was worshiped in such a human matter as procuring a wife and arranging a marriage. Abraham's servant acknowledges God's direction in the provision of Rebekah. Her family recognizes the hand of God in the matter by letter her go to be the wife of Isaac. Rebekah follows God's clear direction by agreeing without hesitation to leave home and family and marry a man she has never even seen!

In the end two things usually at odds are perfectly harmonized. God is glorified by clearly leading in the matter and perfect obedience to Him yields a wonderful result. Secondly, Abraham got exactly what he desired for his son, showing that his desires and wants were in keeping with God's will. And Isaac and Rebekah seem to truly have found a remarkable love, as evidenced in her response to him and his willingness to take her as wife. All in all, quite the happy ending... at least for chapter twenty-four.

Technorati Tags: Genesis,Abraham,Isaac,Rebekah,Love,Marriage

In sorrow, a promise.

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. The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites.
Genesis 23:19-20

I make just a really brief observation from this text. Sarah has lived a long life and has died. Abraham now must find a burial plot in the land of his sojourn, Canaan. With her death comes the first physical purchase of land that Abraham has made: The burial plot near Hebron. There his beloved wife's body is laid to rest. There, he too will be buried. The first bit of the promised land to come to Abraham was a cemetery and cave. But it is a tangible bit of the promise of God.

And so it is that even in sorrows, God can visit us with His promise. I doubt that Abraham was greatly comforted with the knowledge that he now possessed a deed to land in the place God promised to give him. At least not while he was mourning Sarah. But it was true. God moved, even in great loss, to secure His covenant and keep His Word.

God will provide.

7    Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
8    Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

Genesis 22:7-8

This first recorded conversation between Abraham and his son Isaac is poignant and a testament to faith. God had instructed Abraham to offer his only son of the promise as a burnt offering. And Abraham believed that obeying God in this was what he should do. When Isaac asks this question, Abraham is not lying. I believe Abraham saw this for what it was: as test of faith.

In the New Testament, the book of Hebrews comments on this episode and offers insight into Abraham’s faith: he believed God would raise Isaac back. After all, God had already promised that Isaac was the son of the promise. So if God took him in sacrifice, God would have to raise him up because God does not lie. And so an old man and his young son walk on up the mountain to build an altar.

And God did put Abraham’s resolve to the test. Dramatic tension increases as Isaac helps prepare the altar and the wood, and then the old man binds his son and lays him on the altar, ready with knife to kill him like a lamb and burn him in sacrifice. It is then that God stops the action, pronounces satisfaction on the ancient faith of Abraham, and does exactly what Abraham prophesied: a ram is caught in a thicket to be sacrificed in Isaac’s stead.

Of course this is not a passage to be literally applied. The resulting trauma to any child (outside of the call of God) would be abusive. But I can see times in which God has called me to obey, to wait through the seemingly unthinkable until He has provided. And it is always worth the wait because God will provide.

God’s Schedule.

2    So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.
3    Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
4    Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
5    Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Genesis 21:2-5

God’s time is not measured in human expectation. Abraham had faithfully trusted that God would provide a son for him and by the time that son is born, Isaac is clearly a son of God’s provision. He is 100 years old when Isaac brings laughter to the tents of Abraham and Sarah. It is clearly a work of God.

One of the reasons that God’s time is not measured well on a human scale is that God brings glory to Himself in all that He does, including the timing of everything. And when we want things to occur at our most convenient time, it is often to make ourselves feel good, or look good, or be what we want. But God’s schedule is the way in which He makes Himself known as powerful and in control.

What I observe then is that I need to back out of my calendar and agenda from time to time and make sure I am not getting in the way of God’s overall timing. Abraham tried to move the schedule along with Hagar as his concubine. And God told him that was not the right plan. Abraham struggled to trust God when confronted with political powers like Pharaoh and Abimelech, and God let him know that He would not allow Abraham’s impatient lies to stand in the way of God’s faithful promises.

So even today I will be working on the administrivia of ministry: something I personally see as a necessary evil. But I would fail miserably if I thought that simply having a procedure, a plan, or a calendar date would ensure God’s blessing. I need to be sure to see where God is promising to work in my heart, in my home, and in my church. And then I need to faithfully look for His timing and schedule. God may use my planning for His glory, but only when my planning is clearly under His schedule and direction. So I will trust.

Faithlessness in the Faithful

Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done."  And Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you see, that you did this thing?"
Genesis 20:9-10

Sometimes God will use the least likely people and circumstances to rebuke us. Abraham has fallen into a sinful pattern. His wife was indeed his half-sister, and was considered very beautiful by the culture (even in her nineties!). Abraham had pulled the stunt of passing her off only as his sister to Pharaoh in Egypt. Now he does the same when they live under Abimelech's rule. And when Abimelech takes Sarah into his harem, Abraham does not stop it.

Personally, I find the whole episode a strange weakness in Abraham. He could trust God to lead his homegrown commandos in battle, but he could not trust God with the sanctity of his own marriage! But our sins usually defy expectation. Abraham gives some explanation for his actions: He acted out of fear to turn a half-truth into a convenient cover. But the reality was that Abraham sinned by so doing.

God uses the pagan king that Abraham feared to point out the patriarch's great sin. And I am sure that at this confrontation, Abraham trembled. He feared confrontation with this king, but now his own deceptions had created it. And the king is very upset. Fortunately, God had supernaturally intervened on the part of Abraham and Abimelech was ready to humbly mend things with Abraham.

There have been a few times in my life where God has done the same with me. I remember being humbled on issues of integrity by a boss at a bank who would not let even $20 go unreconciled on an account that moved tens of thousands of dollars a day. I remember having a factory supervisor be used by God to rebuke me when in a fit of temper I used language unbefitting a Christian. Those were not easy messages to hear, but God used them, and I vividly remember them still. I have a feeling Abraham learned the same way from this episode.

Awesome in Grace & Judgment

So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Genesis 19:29

God was not obligated to do what the text simply summarizes here. But He graciously rescued Lot, who never learned what it meant to live in the world but not live for the world. God's grace has been prominent throughout His covenant with Abraham, and it spills over into the life of Abraham's nephew. The whole episode with the destruction of the cities of the plain was to show that God will ultimately judge sin. The city of Sodom was so wicked that not even Lot's influence made any visible impact. When Lot and his family are rescued, it is because the first real "sin city" was being obliterated. And there are not even ruins left to speak of.

The focus of the story is tragic from a human point of view. Lot gave in to the lust of the eyes by living within view of Sodom, then he moved into the city and should have learned his lesson when his uncle rescued him. But by the time God checks out the wickedness of the city, Lot has become an elder in the city gates. It is at that point that he could have had great influence. But he was more influenced by the city than he was an influence in the city -- the details of the story point this out: he offered his own daughters to the deviant cries outside his door... he later allows himself to be made drunk by his own daughters and unknowingly impregnates them.

But the story is powerfully full of grace from God's perspective. God remembered His covenant with Abraham. He honored the gist of His conversation with the old man on the road to Sodom. He spared the slim sliver of righteousness that was there: Lot, his wife, and his two daughters. This was God being gracious, even in the midst of His wrath and righteous judgment. It is awesome in the truest sense, most reverential sense, of the word.