Genesis-96-Crisis (Part 4) – God Helped

God's Word: Genesis 27:18-19

Jacob went to his father and said, “My father.” And he answered, “I am here, my son. Who are you?” And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” Amen.

 

The Meaning of the Name Jacob and His Life

We are continuing our study of Genesis chapter 27. Of the four characters in this chapter, today we will look at the last one, Jacob. Jacob is the central figure after chapter 27. His story will continue, but today we want to share the beginning of his life.

 

As you all know, the name Jacob means 'he grasps the heel.' However, it also means 'deceiver,' as Esau later said. The original intent of the name was likely not 'deceiver.' But when Esau said that Jacob had deceived him twice, the meaning of 'deceiver' was added. And indeed, Jacob’s life closely followed the meaning of his name.

 

However, if we look deeper into the origin of his name, we can find a surprising fact: it also means 'God protects.' Jacob’s life is very closely related to his name. He lived a life of constant deception, yet at the same time, God continually protected and guided him. In this way, Jacob’s life shows a constant interplay between his deceptive nature and God's protection. It would not be an exaggeration to say that his name explains his entire life.

 

Jacob, Chasing the Birthright

Whenever Jacob was involved in a major event in his life, he had one firm belief: that he was a man fulfilling God’s will. He had heard from his mother, Rebekah, that the birthright belonged to him, and Esau had also sold his birthright to Jacob. So, he clearly believed that he was living according to God’s word and the birthright. This means that, unlike Esau, he did not treat the birthright lightly. He knew the importance of what the birthright brought. However, it seems Jacob knew about the right of the firstborn, but he did not look to the God who grants that right. He only chased the birthright itself.

 

Deceit for a Blessing, Jacob's Fear

The first event involving Jacob mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 27:11-12.

 

“Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, 'Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him, and bring upon myself a curse instead of a blessing.'"

 

This is a conversation between Jacob and his mother, Rebekah. The situation begins when Rebekah overhears Isaac's promise to bless Esau. Overhearing this, Rebekah calls Jacob and tells him that since Esau is about to take all the blessings, he must act as she instructs. She prepared clothes of Esau’s for Jacob to wear, and everything that followed was essentially Rebekah’s plot.

 

But Jacob's first words, which prompted Rebekah to devise such an elaborate plan, are in Genesis 27:11. Jacob tells his mother that he is smooth-skinned compared to his hairy brother, and if he goes in like this, his father will quickly find out he is a deceiver, and he fears he will receive a curse instead of a blessing. If Jacob had been a man of proper faith, he would have said, “Mother, deceiving my father is wrong.” Even ordinary wicked people might hesitate and be conflicted, but the Bible records no such conflict for Jacob. Instead, he says that he is afraid of appearing as a deceiver in his father's eyes. In other words, he believed that the act itself, which he and his mother were plotting, was not a problem.

 

Jacob admitted that deceiving his father was wrong. However, what bothered him was not the wrongness of the act itself. It was the possibility of not receiving the blessing he believed was his and instead receiving his father's curse.

 

He did not fear sin; he feared the curse. He had no interest in what he was doing in God's eyes. He knew that deceiving was wrong, but in his own eyes, it did not look like a sin. This is the horror of sin. Jacob was not concerned with how wrong his actions were to God, or with God’s pain over his sin. What he worried about was whether God might change His mind and withhold the blessing, giving him a curse instead because of his actions. This was the center of all his concerns.

 

Jacob and Our Reflection

Do you remember a time as a child when your mother came home with a stern face after being called to school by a teacher? She would say, “Come into the room!” and we would go in. She would then ask, “Why did you do that?” She hadn't said a word, yet we would start confessing everything, from taking our sister’s candy to drawing on a friend’s desk to running away after cutting a girl's jump rope. Why did we do that? Was it a heart of repentance? No. It was because we were afraid of being punished and hoped that if we confessed before being found out, we might be punished less.

 

Jacob’s attitude is no different. He is earnestly begging, but the reason is not to repent of his sin. Jacob was not afraid of the God who hates sin, but of the punishment or curse he might receive because of it. He couldn't see the selfishness and greed in his heart, and he was only worried that he might not be able to deceive Isaac. Perhaps he was rationalizing to himself that it was right to get his rights, even if it meant deceiving his father.

 

Punishment can be avoided. You just have to not get caught. That's why we don't fear sin. This might be the most frightening and dangerous thing that exists in the hearts of believers today. We forget the fact that God is a God of patience who is pleased to show us grace despite our wickedness. We shrink back or show a so-called 'zeal' just because we don't want to get in trouble, or because we fear our business might fail, something might happen to our children, or we might lose the blessing we are supposed to receive.

 

The Heart of Love for God and Fear

Are you truly facing a lazy self in loving God? Or are you worshiping with an anxious heart, thinking, "I'm going to get in trouble someday"? When faced with the Lord's command, 'Love God and love your neighbor,' are you more worried about, 'I'm going to get a big punishment someday,' than reflecting on how you are treating your neighbors and fellow believers?

 

We must examine ourselves to see if we are completely unaware of how much our actions—wasting time that should be spent loving, and making excuses instead of serving the people we are meant to love—grieve the Lord's heart. What are you grieved about? Are we aware of God's heart, who is looking at us with grief? Or are we only thinking about the disadvantage we might face—the possibility of not receiving the promised blessing? We must always reflect on ourselves.

 

The Lord promised us, “I will listen to your prayers!” Because of that promise, the Lord is always ready to listen to our prayers. The Lord is waiting to meet you and keeps His promises, but we forget this fact so easily. What about you? God risked His life to meet you and listen to your prayers. Jesus Christ’s crucifixion was so that you and God could be reconciled and come before the throne of grace. The Lord risked His life and is still keeping His promise, “I will be with you forever.”

 

How are you accepting this fact? Is this a truly important matter in your life? We must examine ourselves to see how much importance we place on the Lord’s promise, “I long to wait for you and listen to your prayers and talk with you every day.”

 

Jacob’s Lie, Using God for Himself

Today’s Jacob in the main text failed to examine himself and ended up doing wrong. Let's look at Genesis 27:20.

 

“Isaac said to his son, 'How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?' He answered, 'Because the LORD your God granted me success.'”

 

Jacob's answer to Isaac’s question is truly exquisite. The word 'quickly' used here seems to mean that he found the animal easily, but a closer translation to the original text would be 'God made me meet the animal easily.' In other words, he is saying that God provided 'the most suitable and appropriate way' for this to happen.

 

Jacob is now lying. He never went hunting. He brought his father food that his mother had prepared for him. But when Isaac was surprised that he had brought the food so quickly, Jacob had no words to say, and he lied, “The LORD your God granted me the right way, the good way, and I met this animal and caught it.” This was not only far beyond the proper bounds, but it was a truly terrible sin. This is because he did not repent and face his sin; in fact, he never even thought about confessing it or about the sin itself. At that moment, his mind and heart were only filled with the thought of getting the birthright. As a result, his path to truly knowing God was blocked, and he could lie about God to Isaac so easily.

 

Isaac’s problem was his lack of discernment, and Esau’s was that his heart was set on earthly things rather than heavenly things. By comparison, the core of Jacob’s problem was that he did not truly know God. Of course, this problem could also apply to Isaac and Esau, but it was especially true for Jacob. He thought all he had to do was to avoid the curse. He had no interest in or knowledge of how God felt about sin. What was important to him was not who God was, but that the plan he was making would work out. He believed that his life running smoothly was God’s will being fulfilled, and he had no doubt that God was leading him on the most suitable and right path in all the things happening around him, which is why he could deceive his father, Isaac.

 

We Are God's Purpose, Not the Events

We also often think that when things fall into place like cogs in a machine, it is God's will. Of course, this is not an entirely wrong thought. No, it is a fact beyond doubt. But the cog-like life God plans for us is different from things simply proceeding one by one as we wish. Instead, it means a life where, in our daily routines, we question if this is the right way, a life of a series of things that are difficult to understand, where everything is slowly, piece by piece, brought to pass according to God's plan, so that it ultimately fulfills God’s holy and eternal will.

 

However, we still easily think it is God's will when something we want happens. Sometimes God's will perfectly aligns with what we desire. And that, of course, is also God's providence and grace. But the fulfillment of God's will is not just about remarkable events happening in perfect sequence as we think. We must know that the fulfillment of God's will is not confined to the events and things that happen around us; its purpose is in ourselves. God’s entire focus and the purpose of His providence are in us. The purpose for which God has us live through such a difficult life is not so that we may achieve great things or do many good deeds and thereby increase our value and get praise from others.

 

If all the hard work and dedication, charity and missions, love and patience that you and I have done for the church only leave behind the memory of those events and our actions, then only our names will be left. But in all those things, we should not just leave behind our many actions and achievements, but only Jesus who causes those things to be done through us, His children. God wants us to become more like Christ, to be citizens of the kingdom of God, to live as His children, and to live as people who have received His amazing grace. That's why He causes all these things to come to pass in our lives without fail and with wonderful providence.

 

For Jacob, the smooth and right path was to deceive his father. So getting the firstborn’s blessing was the most rational way he thought God’s will would be fulfilled. But for God, the smoothest path was not for him to get the firstborn’s blessing. The path God planned was for Jacob, who was to fulfill God's promise, to grow into Jacob, or Israel, in his life. That was God's will and plan. Not Jacob’s birthright, but Jacob himself was God’s purpose. The reason God was so disappointed, distressed, and sighing was because of Jacob himself. As we will have a chance to see later, the same thing happened to Joseph. It was not that Joseph becoming prime minister was God’s glory, but that Joseph becoming Joseph was God’s glory.

 

Jacob Knew God’s Promise, but Didn’t Know God

Jacob was a man who yearned for the birthright. This was not wrong. It was because he valued the birthright that God was giving. It is just like how we yearn for our salvation. However, we must not stop there. We must go one step further and ask a question. 'Why does God give the birthright? Why does God want to save us?' But Jacob could not do that. He did not know God more deeply. He knew the promise, and he believed it. We are the same. We also try to know God's word and study it diligently. And we believe in that promise. So we know how God will bless those who serve Him and faithfully follow Him to the end, and we know what God's gift will be to those who seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and we believe in that word. That's why Jacob also knew and believed in God's promise to give the birthright, and he went to such lengths to deceive his father, Isaac. But he did not know who the God who made the promise was.

 

It is very painful, but we also may know God’s word well and may be able to quote His promises whenever we are at a disadvantage or need them. The words 'Do not fear, do not be dismayed' are probably well known even to non-believers, and they are words they want to remember and hold on to in difficult moments. And the words 'Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great' are used by non-believers like a proverb. But do you know who the God is who gave us those promises? Is it not that you are just happy because the God who promised to be with you is so powerful? Do you really know the heart of God, who loves you so much that He does all these things, and who is with us forever and cannot bear to leave us alone? Do you know His heart—why He grieves for you, why He sighs, why He still prays and raises and protects you with tears? Do you really know God? Or are you just repeating God’s promises alone?

 

The Journey of Realizing 'My God'

Surprisingly, we can see that Jacob did this very thing. In chapter 27, where today’s passage is found, Jacob's confession includes the words 'the God of my father,' but he does not refer to God as his own. But those words first appear in the next chapter, Genesis 28:20.

 

“Then Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.'”

 

The place where Jacob made this vow to God was Bethel. And for the first time, the confession 'my God' came from his mouth. But even at this point, Jacob still shows a tendency to bargain with God. He still does not know who God is. How painful would it be for parents who want to give you all they have, to see you secretly steal only a hundred dollars from their safe and run away? Jacob is still showing that kind of behavior. He still doesn’t know who God is. He is asking to bargain, saying, "If You do this for me, I will give You a tenth." How would God have felt? Of course, He probably thought it was a bit touching that Jacob was talking to Him at all, but on the other hand, His heart must have been very pained because Jacob did not know how much He loved him and how He was preparing everything for him.

 

However, what is noteworthy here is that Jacob finally began to realize where his life was going and for what purpose. It was because he began to make the confession, 'my God.' He began to get to know God, confessing 'my God' for the first time, no longer as just 'the God of my father.'

 

Eventually, all of Jacob’s life after that was a journey of God making him walk the path of 'my God.' He now realized that the God who so amazingly guided his life was his Father, the One who gave His all for his sin. He began to realize that God was not only his Savior but also the God who would pay for all his lies and sins with His death, and that he was now walking together with such a God.

 

God's Love Is Stronger Than Sin

Nevertheless, Jacob will still be deceived often, suffer much pain, and live a life of countless losses. He will keep trying to rely on his shallow cunning and will keep trying to build himself up. But in the end, he will learn about God. He will come to know who God is and how much He loved him. He will come to know exactly how God deals with even a Jacob who betrays and tests Him, and he will finally confess, “My God, my Father!”

 

That God is not only extending His hand to Jacob but also to you today. He says, “Let's walk the path of My God, the path of My Father, together.” God wants you to know that there is someone who is still sighing, crying, praying, and grieving over your soul and your life, and He wants to walk that path with you. There is someone who constantly tells us with a voice of love, who constantly loves us, even though we are so busy that we think only of our own profit when a little benefit appears before us, and we cannot even meet God. We know from hearing that He saves and cares for us, but we get carried away by our profit, become greedy, hate each other, and show off. But you will begin to learn that there is someone who never gives up on us, even us.

 

The Love of God Wins the Fight

We are playing with the bomb of sin, not knowing how terrifying it is. We still do not realize how terrifying it is that God, Jesus Christ, had to die because of it. We just think, 'Oh, I fell into sin again today because I'm just human and weak.' But we must know that there is someone who holds that bomb and uses His body to stop it from exploding for us. You must truly understand that such a God is our Father.

 

Therefore, we must not let our terrible sins block our hearts from God. Our persistent selfishness, greed, jealousy, and hatred cannot stop or change this immense love of God. This is because God loved us, not when we were doing everything right, but when we were still living in sin.

 

What kind of love is this? Both Isaac, the descendant of the promise, and his son Jacob failed and showed many signs of being sinners afterward. But those things did not stop God's love. Sin and Satan could not stop God’s love. My friends, sin cannot shake God's love. So why do we keep making excuses with sin? Why do we have to lose to sin? We are not people who can lose. You and I are people who have received God’s love. That love is what defeats sin. That love is what stops sin. We are people who know that because of that love, we are no longer slaves to sin.

 

That is why we can fight against sin. Even when it feels like we are losing and wavering, we do not despair. Instead, we can say, “My Father is my God. My God is my Savior, and He is the one who came to bear all my sins, even to the point of carrying the cross.” It is because that very person is our Father that we cannot lose to sin. We can fight it again.

 

The Victory of One Who Has Eternal Life

Paul says this in Romans 6:

 

'What fruit did you have from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.'

 

By Christ, we have received holiness and have been given the name of a saint. And its end is eternal life. We are people who have received eternal life as a gift. Time is on our side. That's why you cannot lose. You will definitely win this game. Because you have eternal life. How can someone who has eternal life lose? We would lose if the game ended in the middle. But time is on our side. Let's say Satan defeated you. We can just challenge him to another fight. As long as we have eternal life, we can be resurrected and fight until they are so tired they give up. No matter how terrifying the death that sin brings, no matter how great the curse, they cannot defeat us who have eternal life.

 

So why do you always try to run away from sin that you can fight in life? Why do you try to avoid it? Why do you make excuses? If you truly want to live for the Lord, do not make excuses and run away, but face it head-on. As much as you do it, it becomes yours. As much as you do it, it becomes your blessing. We have eternal life. It’s okay to live diligently according to God's word and then flip everything over once. There is no reason to be afraid of failure. We are still weak, and it is not easy to win against sin. But let's try to win it one step at a time. Let's try again even if we fail. We who have eternal life, we who have eternal life to spend with Jesus Christ, have no reason to stop. What should we fear, and why should we shrink back? No.

 

'My God's Path', the Path to Eternal Life

Because this path of knowing God was the path of 'my God,' Jacob now begins a life that is beyond words. That path will not be easy or comfortable. The path of believing in Jesus is never easy. Jacob's path is not an easy one either. However, the path of 'my God' is a path that truly makes you confess 'my God.' This is a path that you and I can look forward to. The Lord held Jacob’s hand to walk this path together, and He holds your hand.

 

He is asking us to walk the path of earning God, not of earning money every day. He is asking us to walk the path of shedding our sins, not of just wasting our time. He is asking us to walk the path of eating Jesus Christ, not just getting older every day. He is asking us to walk the path of getting closer to Jesus Christ, not just getting closer to death every day.

 

What could be a more wonderful path than this? Every moment you live, it becomes your blessing, and this is a path where blessings accumulate. Who would reject this path? If you suffer some loss, you can be careful and go slowly again. But please do not turn away from this path. The more you walk this path, the more you will find eternal life, not death. The weaker you become, a new daily life will begin, not the weakness of your flesh. God is holding your hand and asking you to walk this life with Him. My beloved, walk the path of 'my God' every day.

 

Let's Pray

My God, my God, teach us the path we should walk with You. We want to walk with You the path of death, the path of resurrection, the path of tears, and the path of laughter. Lord, we want to know You. We want to know who God is. We want to know a little of what Your heart is like, how much You love me, what kind of pain and tears You have shed because of me.

 

We want to know the depth of Your cross. We want to know what kind of life this is that You bestow upon us day by day. How much You love us, O Lord, we want to know. O Lord, teach us, let us know Your compassion and mercy, and let us be moved with joy as we realize who You are, this One who loves us. Amen.