Monday, 08 June 2009

• Rebecca and Jacob are Conniving Beasts

  Up until a few days ago, I loathed Rebecca and Jacob for stealing Esau's blessing. Yes, I symphatized with the hairy first born. Rebecca obviously favored Jacob over her first born and I thought that was unfair. I even wondered why Rebecca and Jacob weren't punished for deceiving Isaac and taking Esau's blessing away. I mean, seriously, Esau is her son too. How could she deprive him of that blessing? And Jacob? How could he take that away from his brother? I always thought that the two of them were conniving beasts for doing something like that.

  Well, not anymore.

  As I was reading Genesis, I found out that Rebecca did the right thing.

  Isaac appealed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren; the Lord yielded to his entreaty, and Rebecca conceived. The children pressed hard on each other in her womb, and she said, 'if this is how it is with me, what does it mean?' So she went to seek guidance of the Lord. The Lord said to her:

  'Two nations in your womb,

  two peoples, going their own ways from birth!

  One shall be stronger than the other;

  the older shall be servant to the younger.'

  (Genesis 25:21-23 The New English Bible, Oxford Cambridge)

  That's when it hit me. It's not because Rebecca favored Jacob. It's just that she knew about it all along. In a way, God revealed to her the future of her sons and she simply acted out upon God's will. After all, God wouldn't allow it if it wasn't his plan.

  Now that it's all clear, I don't think they treated Esau unfairly. It's only right and they weren't a couple of conniving beasts.

   

   

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