Gen 27-28
More confusion! What Rebekah and Jacob did was deceitful, but it clearly played into God’s plan. God had told Rebekah that her younger son would rule her older son. Was it because of this revelation that Rebekah favored Jacob? Did it prompt her to ‘steal’ Esau’s blessing for Jacob? Was she being deceitful to Isaac in what she did or was she being obedient to God? It never says that God told her to do what she did – would Jacob have somehow received the blessing from Isaac even without the deceit? Clearly it was meant for him, as this was partly the promise that God had made to both Abraham and to Isaac.
I do not know the answers. I do know that, in a culture that favored the oldest, God most often worked His Plan through the youngest. He was always turning the ways and expectations of the current culture upside-down, setting the precedent for the “least shall be greatest” culture of Heaven.
I learned a couple of interesting things in a previous study on Genesis that are found in chapter 28. First is that the dream Jacob has of the ladder between heaven and earth is an image of Jesus. Jesus says in John 1:51, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” This is precisely what Jacob saw. The second thing is that Jacob was not fully committed to God at this point. Note his vow that the LORD would be his God if he returned safely to that place. It seems God used and blessed Jacob without much cooperation from Jacob!
Matt 13:21-35
Hard truth – God has forgiven me of far more wrong than anybody could possibly do to me. Hard to comprehend, but no less true. Because I have been forgiven so much, I must be willing to forgive those who do wrong to me, no matter how big that wrong might seem.