Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Jan 10th, 2024 Rebekah

Today’s Passage – Genesis 27 – 28 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Matthew 19 – 20; Proverbs 10; Psalms 46 – 50)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Psalm 48:1 & 2

Read the “0110 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read a previous post from this passage – “A Disfunctional Family,” “I am with Thee,” “The House of God” and “Savory Meat“

“5 And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 6 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, 7 Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death. 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. 9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth: 10 And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. 11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. 14 And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved. 15 And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: 16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: 17 And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.” (Genesis 27:5-17)

I have considered these two chapters from our reading today for many years and have previously written on many different aspects of this story involving Jacob and Esau. We have in the past covered the carnality of Isaac and the deception of Jacob but my thought this morning is on Rebekah. 

In chapter twenty-seven, we have the story of Jacob tricking his father into giving him the blessing that was intended for his brother Esau. He did this by disguising himself and pretending to be his brother, even going as far as wearing goatskin on his hands to deceive his father who was old and could not see very well. But Jacob did not come up with this idea on his own; the plot was actually hatched by Rebekah, Jacob and Esau’s mother, and Isaac’s wife. It seems a little bizarre to me that this scheme could really work. What I mean is that surely Isaac would eventually discover the truth, which in my mind should nullify any blessing that was pronounced upon Jacob. It seems to me that Isaac could have just renounced the blessing once he found out that he was tricked, but apparently that is not the way it worked in Bible times. I am reminded of the covenant that Joshua made with the Gibeonites after being tricked by them. God expected Israel to honor that covenant even though they were deceived into making it (see Joshua 9:3 – 15). In both of these cases, however, the deception could have been prevented had both Joshua and Isaac consulted the Lord before opening their mouths. And in our story here, I am very sure that God would have stopped Rebekah also had she prayed about it before deceiving her husband. God may also have stopped her husband from what he was about to do had she prayed.

Personally, I cannot agree with some who have said that what Rebekah did was right in the eyes of God. Their reasoning is that because God had pronounced at the time of the birth of the twins (Genesis 25:23) that the elder (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob). The theory is that Rebekah was attempting to assist the ultimate will of God by plotting and implementing a plan to deceive her husband. In other words, Rebekah did something wrong in order to accomplish something that was good. But isn’t that situational ethics? Is it ever right to do something wrong in order to accomplish something that is right? That is a hard question. The biblical example of the Rahab the harlot lying to the leaders of Jericho regarding the Israelite spies that she had hidden on her roof comes to mind (see Joshua 2). God commended her for what she did and she is even included in the lineage of Christ (see Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25; Matthew 1:5). There is also the example of the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah who refused to kill the male babies at their births as the Egyptian government instructed and then lied to Pharaoh about how they survived (Exodus 1:15 – 22). Peter and John also disobeyed the command of the religious authority about preaching the gospel because the commandment of God was higher than the commandment of men (Acts 5:29).

However, I do not think that Rebekah’s case is the same as Rahab’s or the case of the midwives. First, Rebekah was not a harlot from a heathen city; she was the wife of a man who knew the Lord and surely came to know the Lord herself. The Lord had spoken directly to her when her twins were born (Genesis 25:23). She knew that lying was wrong and she also knew that she should have been in submission to her husband instead of deceiving him and plotting against what he was trying to do. Now, I do believe that she could have spoken up to her husband and strongly reminded him of what God had told her about their sons. And, she should have prayed fervently about the situation to the Lord. The Lord was not dependent upon the sinful actions of Rebekah to accomplish His will. Esau was going to serve Jacob regardless of what Rebekah decided to do, and the descendants of Jacob (Israel) were going to be God’s chosen people. 

Another sad part about this story is that as a result of what happened, Esau becomes angry and plots to kill his brother, which causes Rebekah and Isaac to send Jacob away, back to the Rebekah’s family’s homeland. Jacob would be deceived himself there by Rebekah’s brother, Laban, and will not be free to return home for many years. Rebekah would never again see the son that she loved so dearly because she would die while he was away. 

What do you think? Was Rebekah right to act in the way that she did? Was she right to deceive her husband, even if it was for what she may have thought to be a good reason?