The Book of Genesis
Part 53
The Chosen Chastened
Chapter 27:41-46
In our previous study we considered the details of the stealing of the blessing, and saw something of the stealth with which Rebekah and Jacob accomplished their own plans. This particular study will help us to differentiate between divine grace and divine government. In grace God willingly forgives, but, in government He has to discipline.
The Epistle to the Hebrews distinguishes between two brothers, Jacob and Esau. Jacob is pictured as a man of faith (Heb. 11:21); whereas Esau is called a profane person (Heb. 12:16).
The Apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians makes mention of natural, carnal, and spiritual men (1 Cor. 2:14-3:3). Jacob could not be classified as a natural man, but he certainly was not spiritual. God acknowledges His relationship to Jacob and repeatedly manifests Himself as “the God of Jacob.” This divine title reminds us that God is longsuffering and gracious in the training of His children.
From the life of Jacob we are to learn that “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Heb. 12:6). The love of God toward His child not only expresses itself in pity, but also in training.
The Problem
How frequently our own conduct results in a conflict for which we do not possess sufficient courage, a conflict from which we would readily flee! Such was the case with Jacob at this time. He sowed falsehood and reaped fear; he sowed deception and reaped distress. Jacob’s dread arose from two factors.
Revenge: Rebekah said to Jacob, “My son obey my voice; and arise, flee thou … until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him” (vv. 43-45). Rebekah and Jacob both were afraid of reprisals by Esau.
Jealousy: There was another matter which caused Esau to hate Jacob. “Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him” (v. 41). Isaac’s blessing upon Jacob gave him a place of supremacy which Esau must have resented, and of which it would seem, he was, jealous. The blessing was pronounced, “God give thee … Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee.” How inferior Esau, Isaac’s firstborn, must have felt! The great injustice of which Jacob had been guilty resulted in great indignation in Esau. That God intended to give the blessing to Jacob is obvious. How He would have done so, we do not know; but the manner in which Jacob possessed it was wrong, and for that wrong he suffered. Mr. Darby remarks that God responded to his faith, but chastened his evil, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7). The exalted position afforded Jacob by the patriarchal blessing produced envy in Esau’s mind, and “jealousy is cruel as the grave” (S. of S. 8:6).
The Proposal
Rebekah, more than Isaac, appreciated the mind of God about the two boys. She understood what God intended when He said, “The elder shall serve the younger.” Her mistake was the attempt to execute God’s mind in the energy of the flesh. Since in carnality she had resorted to human expediency, in order to save Jacob she again had to engage in further contrivance.
She instructed Jacob, “Arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away; … then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?” (vv. 43-45). The astute mind of Rebekah was ready with a proposal.
The Plan
The plan was made to appear very plausible; in fact, made to appear as complying with divine principles.
Rebekah in all probability recalled Abraham’s decision in regard to her own marriage to Isaac: “Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, … I will make thee swear by the Lord, . . thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell: …go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac” (Gen. 24:3-4).
In conveying her plan to Isaac, Rebekah used a means that would gain his sympathetic support. Actually she evaded the main issue. There was pretence in her scheme to this extent, under the pressure of circumstances the primary objective was the escape of Jacob from Esau’s, anger, other considerations were of less importance.
Occasionally, this same method is used in the work of the Lord. In Paul’s day there were certain who preached the gospel, and nothing could be more important, yet, we read,
“Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; … not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds” (Phil. 1:15-16).
The wrong of pretending to carry out the ways of the Lord when really one is indulging in his own ways is subterfuge that will be fully exposed at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
The Protest
God’s displeasure over our misconduct may not show itself immediately. Peter states that He is “longsuffering to usward” (I Pet. 3:9). Although infinite in patience, we know “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Heb. 12:6).
Through the circumstances of life God disciplined Jacob, and that for his profit, that he might partake of holiness. Jacob deceived his father; years later he admitted that he had been “beguiled” on his wedding day (Gen. 29:25), and he complained that his father-in-law had deceived him and changed his wages ten times (Gen. 31:7). That he expected to be away from home for only a very temporary period seems clear from our passage (v. 44), but he was gone for over twenty years (Gen. 31:38 and 41). He had shrewdly bartered with Esau and had thus taken from him his birthright (Gen. 25:29-34). In Laban he found a man more shrewd than he, to that man he had to say, “Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty” (Gen. 31:42).
Jacob was to await word from his mother as to his return home, but he and his mother apparently never did meet again.
God used the circumstances of life to both correct and train Jacob whom He loved. In this way, as well as through His holy Word, He speaks to His children. “Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him” (Heb. 12:5).