"God's Odd Choices"
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Gen. 25:21-28; 27:1-40; Romans 9:6-18
August 8, 2010

         This morning we continue our series in the book of Genesis.  Many of us learned these stories as children, but I sometimes wonder why we teach them to our children, because in many ways they are not children’s stories at all!  For example, in the story of Noah, God decided to destroy virtually all the men, women, children, and animals in the world with a flood.  And then God commanded Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering to the Lord, to name just two.  These stories do not make for sweet dreams!  Today’s story about Jacob and Esau is no exception to this pattern.  In fact, this may be the most difficult story of all.  And when you have thought about the implications of it, I suspect some of you may even be angry with it, and maybe with me, although I remind you that I didn’t write this story!
          The story of Jacob could easily be made into an HBO mini-series!  It contains drama, treachery, love, numerous deceptions, family conflict, and great special effects possibilities with that ladder to heaven.  We’ll deal with part of the story today and continue it next Sunday.  Today’s story raises two issues with far-reaching implications for those who take biblical faith seriously.  Listen as I read the first part of the story from Genesis 25:21-28.  It begins with Isaac, Abraham’s son.
         21  Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
         22  The children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is to be this way, why do I live?" So she went to inquire of the Lord.
         23  And the Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger."
         24  When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb.
         25  The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau.
         26  Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
         27  When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
         28  Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
          Remember the background.  God entered into a covenant with Isaac’s father, Abraham, promising him land, prosperity and many descendants, some of whom would become kings.  He also promised that the whole world would be blessed through him.  That covenant promise was passed along to his son Isaac and now will be passed along to one of Isaac’s sons.  But which one?
          The custom throughout the ancient near East was that the oldest son was the one to receive the major inheritance from his father.  His birthright gave him a double share of all property to be inherited and the role of head of his clan.  This system, called primogeniture, served society well.  It authoritatively resolved questions of property and succession, producing stability in families and larger communities.
          So, God’s covenant promise should have passed to Esau, since he was born first.  But God had other plans which he revealed to their mother, Rebekah, “Two nations are in your womb, and two people born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.”  (Gen. 25:23) The book of Romans, reflecting on this passage puts it even more starkly.  “Even before they had been born, or had done anything good or bad...”  Jacob was chosen and Esau was rejected.  There are several consequences to God’s choosing Jacob.
          First, it created conflict within the family, which was exacerbated by the fact that Isaac loved Esau while Rebekah loved Jacob.  Had God chosen Esau, there would have been no problem in the family, since this was the natural order of things.  But God’s choice of Jacob fueled a dysfunctional family rivalry that drove this family into conflict for the rest of their lives.
          Secondly, we are left to grapple with this whole notion of God choosing one person and rejecting another.  That is very hard for us to understand, especially as Americans.  We want to believe that everyone has an equal chance to be whatever they want to be in life, that we are free to pursue our hopes and dreams and secure them- that people rise or fall based on their own merit and hard work.  And we don’t like the idea of Anyone messing around with our freedom and our options (including God!).
          But are we really free to be whatever we like, or instead does God arrange it all in advance, as seems to be the case with Jacob?  These are the questions that are raised here.  And there are no easy answers to these questions.
          Let’s look at the notion that we are really free to be or do whatever we like.  A couple years ago, I led a mission trip to the tiny Mexican village of Cumpiche.  The family we were staying with had a bright fourteen year-old daughter named Marta.  Marta was interested in a career with computers.  Will she be able to fulfill that dream?  She seemed to possess the requisite intelligence to do so, which is based partly on genetics and partly on her early upbringing.  But she only had occasional access to a computer, because she only knew one person in the village who owned one.  And if she wanted to continue her education, she needed to move away from Cumpiche to a place that offered computer courses.  Her family was unlikely to have enough money to send her.  In theory, Marta has the opportunity to be whatever she wants to be, but in reality that is not really the case.  Many factors beyond her control also determine her future.
          And that was the case in ancient times, too.  The rights of the first-born son superceded other factors, such as who was the most gifted leader among the siblings.  And the possibility that a woman would make a better family leader was not even considered!  So it’s not really a simple matter of free human choice versus God’s choosing.  Many factors are at work so that free human choice often doesn’t exist, except in theory.
          On the other hand, God is free to choose in a way that transcends economic advantage and social custom.  And God does that here.  In this ancient family, it was Esau who had all the advantages and power.  Jacob was relatively powerless.  But God transcended those social conventions to choose Jacob. 
          It seems to me that both factors- human choice and God’s choosing- are always at work in our lives.  We have real choices that we get to make, but those choices are bounded by God’s will.  That will is sometimes worked out by the particular situation into which we are born and raised, and other times by the gifts, abilities, temperament, and intelligence which are given to us by God himself.  And God is always in the background working out his will in our lives, through and in spite of the choices we make.  God’s purposes for his creation will not be thwarted.  And God will use any means, including judgment and mercy, predestination and human choice, to assure that his purposes for his creation are fulfilled.
          The next part of the story (found in Genesis 27) raises even more troubling questions about how God’s purpose is worked out in the case of Jacob.  It’s 40 verses long, so let me tell you about it instead of reading the whole chapter.  Isaac was getting old and he was convinced that the time had come to give his blessing to his oldest son, Esau.  He either didn’t know about God’s word to Rebekah concerning Jacob, or he chose to ignore it.  The blessing of the father was a decisive act in ancient times.  Ancient people understood that words, particularly words of blessing or curse, took on a life of their own when spoken.  Usually the blessing of the oldest son by his father was a public act, complete with a celebration feast.  But in this case, Isaac chooses to do it privately, perhaps to avoid a confrontation with his wife, Rebekah, who favored Jacob!
          But Rebekah overhears Isaac as he asks his son, Esau, to hunt some game and prepare his favorite dish, after which he will bestow his blessing on him.  As Esau departs, Rebekah goes into action, plotting with Jacob how to steal the blessing from Esau.  Rebekah proposes to prepare Isaac’s favorite dish herself using goat meat, and have Jacob take it to Isaac, pretending to be Esau.  Since elderly Isaac is feeble and blind, they hope to deceive him.  Jacob points out that it won’t be that easy, because Esau is hairy and he is not and Isaac will be able to feel the difference.  So Rebekah has him cover his arms with goat skins and wear the clothes of his brother, so he will feel and even smell like Esau.
          The deception works, even though Isaac asks Jacob, “How has the game has been hunted and prepared so quickly?”  “Because the Lord your God granted me success,” Jacob blasphemously responds. (Gen. 27:20)  An outright lie, misusing the name of the Lord.  But since Jacob has the feel and smell of Esau, Isaac is fooled and pronounces his final blessing on Jacob, which grants him future prosperity, and the right to rule over his brothers.  Isaac concludes, “Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you,” as the blessing passes to Jacob.
          I don’t much like this development in the story.  I don’t like the fact that God chose someone with such a morally deficient character.  I think I would have chosen Esau!  I remember reading a journal for pastors a few years ago that contained a challenge for preachers.  “Are you taming the Scripture or letting it tame you and your people?”  It is tempting to “explain away” or “tame” this story by excusing Jacob’s deception or lifting up Esau’s flaws, and several commentators I read do just that.  But there is really no excuse for Jacob’s action.  It is a betrayal of his brother and his father, and in the scene which follows, when Esau and Isaac realize they have been duped, their pain is heart-rending.
          The fact remains that God chose conniving Jacob!  His very name means “supplanter” and that’s what he was, a cheating supplanter of his brother’s rightful blessing.  Are we to understand that God condones this kind of behavior in order to fulfil God’s purposes?  No.  The text never approves of what Jacob does.  It just reports it.  Now it’s possible that Rebekah and Jacob had a good motive.  Perhaps they were just trying to fulfill the word of God that came to Rebekah earlier concerning the supremacy of Jacob over Esau. But the deception was still wrong and it led to awful consequences for Rebekah, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau for the rest of their lives.  We’ll talk about some of those consequences next week.
          But for now, let’s be clear: This text does not teach that the ends  justify the means, which is a temptation for all of us at one time or another.   Sometimes churches manipulate people into giving money to good causes.  And Christians become involved in power plays in their churches for good ends.  Business people use questionable ethical practices to ensure they get the work needed to stay in business.  People cheat on their income taxes in order to provide for their families.  Even if the goal is a good one, the ends do not justify sinful means.
          I am convinced that God would have worked out another way for Jacob to receive the promise and blessing from Isaac, if Rebekah and Jacob had only had enough trust in God to wait.  And they wouldn’t have had to reap the awful consequences that this betrayal brought.
          Through these stories of Jacob, we see that God is sovereign, making his choices to work out his plans for his creation.  And God is not bound by human convention in his choices, as we see in the case of Jacob, who not only was chosen ahead of his older brother, but was far from ideal in his character.  God’s ways are not our ways and God doesn’t need to explain himself to us, either.  It’s as though God says to us in this story, “This is what I am choosing to do for my own purposes.  Deal with it!” 

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