Like father, like son and also like mother, like son. Remember how Jacob got the birthright? Esau was famished and believed himself ready
to die so he asked for food. Isaac believes
he may soon die and food is the condition for the blessing. We are told right off that he can't see and
this will become the means by which Rebekah and her son Jacob get the blessing
intended for Esau (what a marriage). Rebekah
tells Jacob to obey her voice and do as she commands. (Remember again Gen.3 and the charge laid
against Adam was obedience to the voice of his wife.) jacob's objection, that Esau is hairy and he
is smooth, is met with the same words, obey my voice. He knows his father can't see but he can feel
and discover the deception. He can also
hear and notices that the voice isn't right, it isn't Esau's voice and so
relies on his sense of touch but the goat skins are effective and he blesses
Jacob instead of Esau because he is hungry and the stew smells tasty. The wisdom of the senses is not the only
wisdom we have access to if we will only take the time to ask. There is deception galore in this passage,
just like there was in Genesis 3, but here there is no need for satan to intervene
personally and no one can claim innocence.
"You judge according to the flesh." That is the problem of mankind, we judge
according to what we see, hear, etc, by the evidence of our senses and when we
do we sometime make grievous mistakes in judgment. Paul will say to the Corinthians, "From
now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once
regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer." (2
Corinthians 5.16) CS Lewis wrote, "
You have never talked to a mere mortal.
But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and
exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." Samuel was told that he looked at the flesh
while God looks at the heart. Isaac's
error was judgment by his senses, he used as many as possible to make his judgment
but was still sadly mistaken in the end.
Jesus says that He does not do that, and we are not to rely solely on
our senses to judge either Him or other men and women. That which is created in the image of God is
to be judged only by that standard and He was and is of one being with the
Father. Sadly, the leaders make the same
mistake their forebear made when it came to judging Jesus.
We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, able
then to make proper judgments. We need
to think about the world and everything in it differently than we have been
taught by the world. The renewing of the
mind is an important part of conversion.
We call it a worldview, the way we understand the world around us and
our place in it. That is meant to be
entirely re-shaped in our encounter with Jesus.
That God has come to us in the form of a man, suffered death at the
hands of His own creation and was risen from the dead on the third day and
ascended to the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us is meant to
be life-changing stuff but it isn't only a transaction of the heart, it changes
the way we think about God and life itself.
If grace is the principle then karma is excluded. If grace is the way it works I no longer fear
and I am no longer locked in battle with either God or man for precious
resources. I am to be a man of grace and
peace, just as Jesus was a man of grace and peace. I no longer need deceive and grasp for
whatever I can get, I can trust and love and forgive.
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