Day 116: Helping God

Genesis 27:1-17

It happened, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?”

He said to him, “Here I am.”

He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death. Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison. Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”

Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ‘Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, and bless you before Yahweh before my death.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you. Go now to the flock, and get me from there two good young goats. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves. You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”

His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”

He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved. Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck. She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

I have discovered, both in God’s word and in life, that God doesn’t need our help. God asks us to help and it is a blessing to be employed by God, but He doesn’t need us. God doesn’t need anything. God actually wants us because He loves us. We really cause problems, though, when we try to help God when He didn’t ask for any help.

God had already promised to bless Jacob and Rebekah knew that, but she decided to take matters into her own hand. It’s interesting too that Jacob didn’t fear what God might think about his fraudulent behavior. He only feared being caught and his mother took care of those issues. It’s clear that this family had issues and they were rooted in a failure to believe God. God said He would have Jacob blessed, but now we will never know what it could have been like. God knew that this was to happen, however, and we will see how Jacob will reap what he sowed later in Genesis.

Once again, we see here that the Genesis record makes no comment regarding the morality of the situation. It simply records the events. We learn more about God’s moral law as we move into later books of the Bible, but Genesis continues to provide us an historical record of events surrounding the actions of God and the unfolding of His plan for the universe.