Not only had Isaac blessed Jacob with the blessing he meant
for Esau, the blessing itself had contained a sort of curse on the brother,
"Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you." Once that blessing landed on Jacob it
certainly meant that there was no real blessing left to give to his brothers or
his mother's sons. This blessing was
meant to be passed on down the line so that his children would inherit that blessing,
they would be lords over the children of the brother and those would bow down
to them. The "blessing" that
remained to be given to Esau was certainly not comparable as blessing compared
to what had been accidentally given to Jacob.
The only comfort was that at some point he would break the brother's
yoke but it seems that this blessing was only for Esau, not his children. Again, Rebekah doesn't trust the Lord to
protect her son and says to him, obey my voice.
She sends him away, as the Lord had sent away Adam and Eve after they
sinned. Her plan is for Jacob to stay
away long enough for Esau's anger to abate but who can know when that will be
and how will they know for certain?
Jesus, too, has a plan for going away but it is not the plan
they believe it to be. They assume that
He is speaking about some sort of exile or even suicide. What can He mean by going somewhere they
can't come also? Jesus is speaking of
going to the Father and they cannot come where He goes because they will not
believe in Him, they will instead die in their sins. It is truly sad commentary that we reject the
blessing of God in Christ because we insist that we know something,
anything. We refuse to accept our own
limitations and trust the One who is limitless, infinite and eternal. We exalt and lift up not Him but ourselves,
our own capabilities and our own intellect.
Until we lift up Jesus, however, we will indeed die in our sins. He offers to share His blessing, that only He
deserves, with us on the basis of faith alone.
Much of what Paul writes here is countercultural today but
even more so in his time. Life was all
about social climbing, you didn't associate with those who were of a lower
social status, you always sought to raise your standard. You certainly didn't repay evil with good,
that was a sign of weakness and the culture prized strength. You wanted to be wise, there was great
prestige in wisdom and none for humility.
Refraining from vengeance showed weakness and having compassion on an
enemy was again a sign of weakness. Paul,
however, says these are love and love is the highest virtue and value for a
Christian. What Paul is saying is that
we should be obviously different from the prevailing culture, we should have
higher values than the culture and it should be evident. What would the story of Jacob and Esau have
looked like if Rebekah and Jacob had trusted the Lord and chosen the path of love
rather than greed?
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