The Accidental Pastor's Wife

I was studying in Genesis this morning (I actually got up early and did what I should do for once before everyone else gets up!) and was astounded that such a familiar story would resonate with new truths for me.

The story of Jacob stealing his brother's birthright seems like another example of one of God's people totally blowing it. Rebekah appears the ultimate deceiver, Jacob is weak-willed, Esau threatens violence, Isaac helpless and clueless. But there's more to it than that, as my homeschool Bible curriculum, Suffer Little Children from Covenant Home Curriculum, pointed out.

Isaac knew all along that God was going to bless Jacob, the youngest, and not Esau. Yet, he couldn't imagine that his youngest child could be worth anything. Esau, red and strapping, brave and fierce-he should win the birthright. Of course, Esau had married two pagan women who brought great bitterness to his parents. Rebekah's motives, in a sense, were good but her methods deplorable, as my Reformation Study Bible reminded me.

Yet, it was God's will that the promises and blessings of Abraham would continue on through Isaac and Jacob, not Esau. So God used sin, namely deception, to accomplish his greater purposes.

To me, it's a perfect example of how God uses base and terrible things to give himself ultimate glory. It makes me wonder what else he might be using in this life to display his love and goodness in the next. It reminds me that ALL THINGS means ALL THINGS in Romans 8:28. It reminds me that I should be reminding myself daily of this truth.