Horizons 1 (selections from Genesis 25, 27 and 28)
“God’s Promise: I Am With You”
You would think God would have better taste than to promise to be with Jacob. In Genesis 25:24-34 and Genesis 27, the portrait of Jacob is less than impressive.
Jacob: second-born by seconds,
schemer, cheat, betting he can beat Esau,
his dense, hairy, impulsive twin.
Sly Jacob, stirring lentil stew, simmering,
swapping a steaming bowl for ravenous Esau’s birthright:
the first-born’s double portion of their father’s goods.
Crafty trickster, disguised Jacob
taking from their blind father
his brother’s blessing:
“May God give you
dew of heaven,
fatness of the earth,
grain and wine aplenty.
To you I give people
serving you as their master.”
Agonized, bitter Esau cries,
“Bless me also, my father!”
A thin, ragged, skeleton of a blessing comes:
“You shall serve your brother
but you will break loose,
breaking his yoke from your neck.”
Esau hating and raging
against his nasty brother
whom he plans to kill.
Running, fleeing, frightened Jacob
sleeping with a stone under his head,
a rocky beginning for the one God is blessing.
A dream, a vision
angels climbing up and down
a ladder between earth and heaven.
The Lord picking this scoundrel
to protect and bless!
Awed, doubting Jacob
setting the stone as the spot,
as the portal of encounter,
with the living God.
Jacob hedging his bets:
If God will be with me,
If God will go with me,
If God will feed me,
If God will clothe me,
If God will bring me peace
If God will bring me back to my land,
Then the Lord will be my God,
this stone the pillar of sanctuary,
and I will yield to God
a tenth of all I have.
You would think that God would have better judgment than to pick Jacob who is full of “ifs.” Jacob’s trust in God is conditional. It’s like the disciple, Thomas, who doubts that Jesus has been raised from death. Thomas proclaims, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails … I will not believe” (John 20: 25b). It’s like our saying, “If I can see evidence of the Lord working in my life, then I will trust God.” Jacob is like we are when we desire some sign of God being with us. At times, our fervent prayers carry with them some of the doubt that both Jacob and Thomas had:
If you are able and willing, heal my loved one. (see Mark 9:22)
Have you forsaken me? I cry out but you do not answer! (see Psalm 22)
Show yourself! How long must I suffer? (see Psalm 13)
It is natural to want a tangible sign from God. A friend has kept a prayer journal for years. She writes down her prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for help. She periodically looks back through the journals and she sees that God has answered her prayers in unexpected ways. She also realizes that God has been at work in her life in ways that she had not really noticed. In retrospect, she knows that God has been with her.
Often it is only in reflection that we begin to see God with us. In reviewing my life, there are moments of God’s reassurance that stand out. One was a bumper sticker for sale in a conference center store that read, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1). It was a terrible time in my life. I had loads of fear and struggle, and heaps of prayers for help. The bumper sticker was a sign from God and thereafter I often read Psalm 27 with its pleas for aid and trust in God’s goodness.
God’s odd choice of Jacob is comforting. We can be like Jacob in scheming for what we want. We make bargains with God and crave indications that God is alive and with us. Like Jacob, we fail at honesty and humility. If God would work with a crook like Jacob, then God will be with us too.
You would think God would have better taste than to pick Jacob to protect and bless, with nothing in his character to commend him, except perhaps his wily intellect. God’s choice of Jacob demonstrates the extravagance of God’s grace. Frederick Buechner wrote: “God doesn’t love people because of who they are but because of who he is … it’s by grace that it was Jacob of all people who became not only the father of the twelve tribes of Israel but the many times great grandfather of Jesus of Nazareth, and just as it was by grace that Jesus was born into this world at all.”
ROSALIND BANBURY is the interim pastor of Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church in Fischersville, Virginia.
