18 Jul Taking Matters into Your Own Hands
Genesis 27:15 – Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
Throughout the book of Genesis, we’ve seen several negative family patterns, as sons and daughters repeat the same sins and fall into the same traps as their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers before them. Here in Genesis 27, we see another instance, this time with the women in the family line that ultimately brings forth Jesus as they attempt to take matters into their own hands, ultimately making nothing better and everything worse.
Earlier in Genesis chapter 3, Eve listens to the crafty serpent’s empty promise that God didn’t really mean what He said or know best for her and her husband, Adam, as she ate the fruit of the forbidden tree despite God’s explicit command not to eat it.
As 3:6 says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” This was just a chapter after God told them (2:16-17), “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Several chapters later, God speaks again, this time to Abram (who becomes Abraham) as He says (15:4-5), “‘…your very own son shall be your heir.’ And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”
This seems like an amazing promise with just one minor issue – Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren, meaning she is unable to have a child. Just like Eve years before her, they started to wonder, Does God even know what He’s talking about?
And just like Eve, Sarah falls into the same trap, trying to take things into her own hands. In chapter 16, Sarah tells Abraham to sleep with her pagan Egyptian maidservant Hagar in order for him to have a child. How did she not realize the jealousy this would set up for her and the generational conflict this would set up for Hagar and Abraham’s son Ishmael and the future son of the promise, Isaac?
It seems like people would’ve started to learn their lesson after generations of getting it wrong.
Now here in Genesis 27, we see Isaac all grown up and around 100 years of age, and his wife, Rebekah, plays tricks and plays favorites to steal Isaac’s blessing from their eldest son. She helps their younger son, Jacob, dress up as his older brother, Esau, in order to steal his blessing. Esau is so angry that he wants to kill his brother, so Rebekah protects Jacob and sends him away.
Again and again, we see patterns of these women trying to take control despite what God has commanded or promised them. And every time it ends terribly. I pray that these stories will be an example and a lesson for us to listen to what God tells us and heed His words of wisdom.
How have you seen generational sins and curse sin your own family? Ask God to help you break these patterns and not pass them on to future generations.
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