OT Reading: Genesis 27-28
NT Reading: Matthew 9:18-38
Ever look at your family and think, "Man...we've got some serious issues." Yeah...I'm guessing things do not look quite so bad when you look at Isaac and Rebekah's family.
Let's start with their twin boys. Esau is a man of the field, a real man's man. He's the kind of guy who gets his deer every year, can eat his own body weight in beef jerky and does all his own automotive repairs (on his pickup truck of course). However Jacob, Esau's twin brother, is entirely the opposite. He'd rather spend time in the kitchen than the field. He cooks, he cleans, he sews, can make a mean creme brulee and he knows the lyrics to every song in Les Miserables.
Working from just those details alone, it makes sense how there would be some conflict in the family. But their issues are only the beginning. You'll notice that mommy and daddy are not helping matters a lot.
Isaac and Rebekah each has his/her own favorite child (Genesis 25:28). And each is working to try and ensure that their favorite ends up on top. Add to that Jacob's trickery and Esau's desire to murder his brother, and you could see the makings of a TV drama at your fingertips (someone call TBS or The WB).
And yet despite all that...these are the people that God chose to use. God chose to use this family, at this time, in this place in His redeeming process for the whole world. Which, after reading their story, seems kind of odd to me. But that's what God does. He takes messed up, broken, otherwise unusable people, places, churches and families...and uses them for something great.
So if God chose to use them. Maybe there is hope for you, me, and our families yet.
I thought the same thing when I read this yesterday - that it seemed strange that God used Jacob in his master plan when he used trickery to get what he wanted. But I guess that's encouraging that he can use any of us, who are also not perfect by any means.
ReplyDeleteI have a question about a verse in today's reading, Matthew 10:23. What was Jesus talking about when he told the disciples they wouldn't finish going through all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes (or returns in my NLT version)? Was he talking about the 2nd coming or something else?
Excellent question Melissa.
ReplyDeleteTo the best of my understanding, I do believe that Jesus is speaking about his return (i.e. the Second coming) in Matthew 10:23. In 10:23a Jesus tells his disciples that when they are persecuted in one city, they should simply bounce to another. 10:23b almost seems to be a statement of, "I promise, you will not run out of cities to preach to before I come back."
For the record, Matthew 10:23 is one of those passages that is highly disputed in terms of what exactly Jesus means. There are a LOT of interpretations which you're welcome to look up, and I'll be more than happy to discuss. But in the interest of not responding with a too much information, I'll just leave it at that :-).